The idea came to Danielle Heineman Monday night, as she struggled with the same blend of emotions — sadness, frustration, anger, despair — as thousands of Memphians.

She would finish Eliza Fletcher’s run. She and her friend Beth Garrison would start in Midtown at 4:20 a.m. Friday morning, Sept. 9, they would run down Central Avenue, and then they would run back.

Everything you need to know about ‘Let’s Finish Liza’s Run’

Heineman told her husband her plan Tuesday morning. He suggested they just run around the University of Memphis campus.

“No,” Heineman said. “Eliza didn’t get to run home. We need to run home.”

Heineman put up a Facebook post about her plans.

“Just in case anyone was interested,” she said.

By noon Tuesday, Sept. 6, the post had been shared nearly 200 times. Women runners across the city were making plans to join in.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Heineman said. “We’re probably going to have more than 100 people.”

Remains identified as Eliza Fletcher

Many more than 100, would be my guess. Maybe closer to 1,000 by the time Friday arrives.

Heineman is calling the event “Let’s Finish Liza’s Run.” 

“It just felt like something I had to do,” Heineman said. “It’s women standing up and saying, ‘We have a right to run.’”

And, no, the run won’t bring Eliza Fletcher back. It won’t change the fact that a kind, talented, 34-year-old mother of two was abducted and killed while running down Central Avenue.

It is heartbreaking for her family. It is another blow to the city Fletcher called home. In the last two months, Memphians have had to make sense of the killing of a minister in her own driveway and the early-morning abduction and killing of a schoolteacher on a run.

There is no making sense of it. The problems are too large. The root causes of crime are so complicated and intractable — as complicated and intractable as poverty itself — that it is easy to give in to the futility of it all.

Fletcher slaying appears to have been random, isolated incident, Mulroy says

But this is something, at least. 

It is an expression of defiance and hope.

“I didn’t know Eliza, but this has really hit home with me,” Heineman said. “I have friends that ran with her. I’ve run the same races as her. I just knew we had to do something in the face of this.”

Heineman, 47, isn’t a native Memphian. She’s been here since 2015.

“It wasn’t until I moved to Memphis that I started doing the longer runs,” she said. “It’s a big running community.”

One of the hard realities of running, for women, is the understanding that it is not always safe.

Men might run alone without a second thought. Women are perpetually aware of the dangers posed by men.

“There have been times when I’ve called my husband and said, ‘This is where I am, this is what is happening,’” Heineman said. “Maybe I’ve seen a truck pass me too many times. Or there is a guy on his bike doing circles on a trail that I’m on, and he keeps circling back to me.”

New unrelated charges filed against Eliza Fletcher’s alleged kidnapper

Given the peril, Heineman tries to run with other women as much as possible.

“But when you’re training for a 50-mile run, there aren’t that many people who are going to run that far with you,” she said. “I’ve run alone. But I won’t do it again.”

It’s tragic, that last sentence. Running is supposed to be liberating. See the joyful expression on the face of a 3-year-old girl when she runs after a butterfly or a balloon. Realize that joy will ultimately be tempered by fear.

Girls should be able to run wherever and whenever they want. Women should be able to, as well. But that is not the world we currently occupy. There is much work yet to be done.

If you feel inclined to join Heineman, look for updated information on her Facebook page. Shortly after noon Tuesday, she told me she also planned to make a formal “event page.” As the throng of participants grows — and it is growing fast — plans could certainly change.

But what will they do if a thousand runners really do show up?

“We’ll run,” Heineman said.