Every runner has their share of milestones: first 5K, half marathon, marathon, blister, black toenail, injury, maybe even an ultra. When I signed up for my first marathon back in 2000, I had only done a few small short distance races and nothing time shattering. I hadn’t even completed a half marathon yet! At the time I was living in San Francisco and working at a small dot com. One of my colleagues at the time was a runner and was training for the San Francisco Marathon that year. I remember coming into work on a Monday morning and her telling me she ran 18 miles in the rain the day before. Wow, I thought. You’re crazy. Little did I know “crazy” would soon enter my world.
Running a marathon was never in the forefront of my mind. Aside from interning with the LA Marathon and watching one while I was at UCLA, I didn’t pay much attention to it. That is, until I was around this colleague. She was the first person I met who was training for one. She was the first person I met who had run one. She was the first person who put the idea in my head.
No, she didn’t come right out and say “I think you should look into running a marathon!” It went more like this:
Me, all excited: “I ran 4 miles yesterday!”
Her, looking puzzled: “You. Run???”
Me, confused: “Um, yeah.”
Her, not convinced: “Ok.”
Granted, I didn’t (and don’t) look like a tiny petite little thing such as herself, I do run, and while I wasn’t logging long distances, she fired me up enough to think seriously about running a marathon.
Is this something I could possibly do? Naaah. Hmmm…Maybe.
The idea baffled me and it started to give me a sort of purpose as a runner where I never had it before. Of course, at this time I wouldn’t consider myself a runner. It was more like, eh, I’d run every now and then. Soon after this conversation, I decided to share with her my idea of running one and to my shock and surprise, she immediately told me this:
“You should run the Chicago Marathon!”
Chicago? Really? Why?
“It was my first marathon and it’s great! Perfect for a first marathon. I loved it!” She replied.
And so I picked it.
On October 22, 2000, I ran my first marathon in Chicago and it would begin my love affair with running, and I was officially bit by the marathon bug. Even though I pretty much did everything wrong during this race. But, since that time, I’ve run a total of 24 marathons, and while I’ve done other marathons multiple times, for a long time I’ve been wanting to return to Chicago. Every year I’d watch it online and would feel a longing to go back, and every year, another race would pop-up in the picture. Yes, I’m looking at you Portland. (I do love the Portland Marathon by the way.)
After running the Paris Marathon as my 24th, thoughts of what marathon would be my 25th began to swirl around in my head.
Would I run LA? Nah.
Would I try for New York? Nope.
Portland again? Twin Cities? Twin Cities was a good possibility.
My heart was telling me, Chicago.
My heart was also telling me to make this marathon different, and make this one extra special. My heart told me to run for a charity and make my 25th marathon even more meaningful. This marathon was not going to be just about me.
Raising money for a charity was something I have never done before, but it was something I never ruled out. Because this would be the first time, it was really important to me to find a charity close to my heart. While there are so many wonderful charities to support, I realized having lost two aunts to cancer and have many friends and family members affected by it, I decided I wanted to run in support of the American Cancer Society.
On that note, I’m pleased to say I’ll be joining Team DetermiNation and returning to where it all started, the Windy City! I couldn’t be happier about reaching another milestone and running the Chicago Marathon again!
If you’d like to help me raise funds for the American Cancer Society, please follow this link here.
Any amount is greatly appreciated and no amount is too small! If you donate $25.00 or more, and would like me to run in honor of a loved one who has battled cancer, please let me know their name.
I’m truly excited for this experience!
Thank you for reading, supporting, and Happy Running!