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    Chicago Marathon FINISHER!

    6 Hours, 29 neighborhood and numerous gel packs later, Chicago Marathon 2008 is finished! The temp reached 84 degrees that day, and 33,000 runners participated.

    A big thank you to all of my supporters for helping to make it happen. Adrienne and Dave made sure I was fueled at mile 9, Teri met up with me at mile 13 to run by my side through the hottest part of the race, I bumped into Rodrigo and Addy at mile 18 while grabbing more gel packs, and Rodrigo found me on the bridge and sprinted the last 200 meters with me (in his flip flops!). It was awesome!

    And even more amazing is over $700 will be donated to Hope Runs, which will help its children's program in Tanzania and Kenya. Read more about it at www.hoperuns.org. And fittingly so, the male Kenyans dominated the race this year. Read the Tribune's coverage here.

    Along with all the congrats and hugs and handshakes, a question I keep getting is will I do it again next year. If you asked me around mile 23, the answer would have been a exasperated, exhausted and angry " NO WAY!" But a month has passed, the pain wore off, so only more time will tell. Running is addictive so odds are, another marathon is on the horizon. :)

    Saturday, February 21, 2009

    ShamRockin' in the free world

    Now that I've thoroughly exploited my 4 month hiatus from running (or exercise in general, for that matter...), I feel it's time to come out of my winter hibernation and strap on some shoes! I signed up for one of the most fun races in Chicago, the Shamrock Shuffle, which I'll be running with my college partner-in-crime Adrienne. This will be her real first race. She signed up for the Women's 10k and Chicago Marathon in the past but injuries put her on the sidelines. Hopefully she'll survive this 5 mile course!

    So in addition to running I'm also picking up on where I left off in terms of fundraising for Hope Runs. I'd like to tie into the Shuffle, St. Patrick's Day, the South Side Irish Parade... for example, "Give up a Guinness in March and instead donate to charity!" Eh, I don't know if I can really ask people to stop drinking. So maybe, "Raise a glass to the Irish & Hope Runs!" Now that's more like it.

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