Since its inaugural events in 2009, I've run the following Illinois Marathon races - 2 Half Marathons, 3 Full Marathons (including my First Full Marathon), 1 5Ks, 1 Relay Marathon and now I can add the last race - the 10K. I've participated 8 out of the 11 years. One year (2012), I was recovering from ACL replacement surgery, so no running that year. I recall avoiding the race events one year (then regretting it), and two years ago I was out of town attending to family business. I am so very thankful for what the Illinois Marathon has done for our community - people come together to train, to run, to volunteer, to cheer and encourage; to achieve goals, to push physical and mental limits and to discover more about themselves in the process.
I doubt I would have endeavored to run a full marathon had it not been for this local race.
Through this event, I connected with other local runners and in the process, expanded my circle of friends. I can always find a person to slog through numerous miles, in good conditions and bad, in the wee morning hours, in the rain, snow, cold, heat and humidity. Crazy begets crazy!
I even managed to rub this crazy running habit off on my family. Last year, we teamed up and completed the 4 person marathon relay. This year, my daughter trained for and completed her first half marathon! I am so proud of her! She signed up for the local training program my Run Club executes, managed to get to the Saturday 8am group runs (not easy for a 21 year old college student) and met her goal of finishing her first Half Marathon. In contrast, I didn't run my first half marathon until I was in my 40's!
I ran the 10K with two of my dear Book Club friends, one who is a beginner runner. I helped Nancy train for this, her first 10K race. She trained using a walk-run couch to 10K program but ran the entire race. I had a blast accompanying her the entire 6.2 miles
Our group - pre race. One of my friend's 9 year old, Nancy's husband, me, Heather and Nancy.
During the course of our training, we developed a running mantra - "For the Fellowship" and I was the running group's Coach - you can see those elements in our race bibs, along with Nancy's husband's encouragement for her race.
I spotted a course photographer at mile 5, so posed for this shot:
Our Finish line photos were crappy, but we managed to finish strong, holding our hand together in the air in victory. I hope Nancy and Heather continue to run through the summer. We will meet up in late July at our Lake retreat and I already have plans for us to run together.
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