1.    Tell me about Kesha Mitchell   I am originally from a small town in Eastern, North Carolina called Roper.  I’m an only child.  I have an adult child Jasmine and a grand-pup named Dallas.  I attended NCA&TSU in Greensboro, NC (Aggie Pride!!) and completed my two masters at UMUC, in Largo, MD.  I currently reside in the Maryland.   I enjoy spending time and having fun with my family and friends.   I love to travel -both within the states and abroad.  My simple things in life include a long drive or a ride on Amtrak to visit my friends, which brings me much joy.  I also enjoy meeting people and having great conversation.  I meet no strangers.    

2.     When did you start traveling and running?  When I was 10 years old, I had my first travel experience.  I traveled to Boston to visit family. I was so amazed with the flight and instantly decided that traveling would be in my future. My grandmother fostered my desire to travel by ensuring I traveled every summer. I was never a runner in my younger days. I was inspired to run by my aunts who were running half and full marathons in several states. Their races took them to Alaska, Arizona, California, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. I was so impressed by their efforts that I started running.  I joined them and walked the Chevron Half Marathon in Houston, TX in 2007. What an experience: the crowd support, the thrill of the fitness expo, and the “bling” of the medal! I was hooked! Before leaving Savannah, GA, I began to run and joined a team on Saturday mornings to run in Daffin Park and Forsyth Park. Later after moving to the “DMV” I joined the Montgomery Road Runners to learn proper running technique. My first half marathon was in Savannah and I completed it in 2:18. Yep, that’s my PR!  

3.    Why did you decide to open Runner Destination Events?  Runner Destination Events allows me to combine my passion for traveling and running.   Initially I coordinated girlfriends’ getaways for shopping trips, Broadway shows, beach destinations, and tours of Washington, DC.  In 2004, I coordinated a trip to New Orleans to the Essence Festival.  The feedback from the group was very positive and lead to me coordinating more events. In addition to enjoying the events, I actually enjoyed making the arrangements and coordinating the activities. Fast forward to the present, I started running with different groups and heard conversations about running in different states.  I immediately recognized the need for this type of service to the runners.   As I began to work arrangements for small groups of two or three people, the word spread and the numbers started to grow.    In 2014, I arranged my first big trip to Niagara Falls in Canada for a group of 20 runners.  I had successfully coordinated my first international trip and Runner Destinations Events was birthed.  Since then, I have coordinated group trips to Miami, New Orleans, New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.  My travel groups range in number from 10 to 100 people. My personal international trips include Paris, France; Cancun, Mexico; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; and Barbados.   

4.    What type of experience do you want for your customers? We offer our customers a personalized travel experience at a high quality and a reasonable price. Most importantly, we take the stress out of traveling.   We offer: Personalized Service;     Complete Planning; Pay Arrangements, and Information. We focus on the details allowing customers to focus on having fun. 

5.   Why is this a passion of yours?  Passion is the energy that keeps us going, that keeps us filled with meaning, and happiness, and excitement, and anticipation. Passion is a powerful force in accomplishing anything you set your mind to, and in experiencing work and life to the fullest extent possible.  Ultimately, passion is the driving force behind success and happiness that allows us all to live better lives. My passion for traveling was instilled by my grandmother.  She wanted to ensure exposure to life through travel.  My passion for running comes from the health benefits (physical and emotional) received from running.   The passion to combine them both and to build a successful business comes from my cousin Omar, who is like a brother to me.    Omar, a fitness trainer, passed away in 2014 from complications of kidney failure.  He never got a chance to build his business into the success we all knew he would.   In his last days he told me to pursue my passion with all my heart; to   continue doing what I loved and no one would be able to make my passion go away.  I run not only for myself but for Omar.  IRUN4OMAR is my slogan on my race bibs and the hashtag on my social media pages.  I dedicate all my runs to Omar, support races sponsored by the National Kidney Foundation, and make donations to the National Kidney Foundation in his honor.   

Goes out of the way to offer alternate solutions

My name is Carolyn Gregory and I have been an extremely satisfied "customer" of Runner Destinations for a couple of months now. While I have been so thankful for Runner Destination Events outstanding services.  These days, its extremely rare to find companies who truly care for their customers' best interests and provide prompt services. And your company is definitely one of those rarities. My interaction with your company has been solely through Kesha Mitchell and she is simply the bomb diggity providing outstanding and a true customer advocate. She is extremely prompt, easy to interact with, very patient in dealing with ever changing needs of her customers and always courteous. She goes out of her way to offer alternate solutions.