What a great experience! I finished my first marathon in 4:15, and am looking forward to my next race. The weather was good for running, the crowds were awesome, and it was inspiring to run alongside so many other people. There were many people running for different charities, and there was a designated area called "Charity Village". I had the opportunity to meet other Team Make-A-Wish runners and staff from the Make-A-Wish office.

Thank you again to all have provided words of encouragement and thoughts, and those who have donated to Make-A-Wish. We have all helped bring a little bit of joy and hope to the lives of children fighting life-threatening illnesses and their families.

I'm so excited for my wish child, Matt, who will be going to Disney World in a few weeks for the experience of a lifetime!

Track me during the marathon: http://live.activeresult.com/msg/MSG-signup.tcl?event_id=37

I completed my last long run this morning; only 10 miles. I like that I can describe it as "only" and mean that. Mike is sick, as are some friends... I just have to stay healthy for next week!

My Make-A-Wish child's (Matt) mother wrote a blog post which brought me to tears. I am running the marathon in a week for Matt and all the children who are also faced with life-threatening illnesses. Please take the time to read:

Dream Mom: Standing in the Checkout Lane of Life…

My last long run is tomorrow and it only 10 miles. I've trained up to 22 miles and am feeling confident about the race next week!

Hello, hello! Only about 6 weeks until the marathon! I'm on track with my latest long run at 17.5 miles. On Saturday, I will run 18 miles. Have been keeping relatively injury-free and will take care to remain healthy.

As for fundraising, I'm happy to say I've passed $3000. I've lowered my fundraising goal to this amount because of some big events happening in our lives which will prevent me from working on other fundraising events. The news? We will be moving to Minneapolis! Mike was offered and accepted a position there and he will begin on September 14. The kids and I will stay until October 9. We will close on the house on October 9 and stay in Chicago for 2 days so I can run the marathon on October 11.

I received a generous donation from a woman named Mary Mesich. I am not familiar with anyone by that name... so Mary, if you are reading this, please contact me so I can thank you appropriately!

Thank you all who have helped me raise money for Make-A-Wish and kept me motivated during these past months...

So I really should have taken a picture of the set up of the garage sale because it was really quite impressively huge. Our local paper (The Westmont Progress) did a front page story on our sale, so the turnout was great! We netted close to $600 and many people benefitted from our recycled things. Thanks to all my friends who helped out and donated items!

I'm also back on track with training. This week I logged 28 miles, with a 12 miles long run.

More soon...

Fundraising and minor setbacks in training

I had a series of setbacks over the past couple weeks-- first I pulled a muscle in my back, most likely the result of carrying a 27 lbs. 11-month-old around. I couldn't walk, let alone run. Luckily, it wasn't as bad as it could have been and I was okay after about a week. Almost immediately after that, I pulled a neck muscle from sleeping in a strange position and was sick with a cold for a little over a week. I started back up last week and struggled a bit since summer has finally arrived and it seems that I'm not accustomed to running in the heat. I've decided to continue to run in the early morning, and hope for cooler weather on the day of the marathon. If it turns out to be hot, then it will be only one day of suffering, rather than multiple training days of suffering in hot weather!

I'm holding a large garage sale this coming Saturday to raise money for Team Make-A-Wish. Thanks to all who have donated things to sell! The Westmont Progress newspaper is writing a story and taking our picture today, so hopefully this will result in a large turnout. We will also have a lemonade stand, bake sale, and some live music, so if you are near Westmont, please stop by on July 18 (Saturday), 901 Ashford Lane.

Nicholas, the Wish Child I mentioned in my last post, went on his Disney Cruise and had an amazing time. I spoke to his mom last week and she said he did not want to get off the ship. If you would like to read about my current Wish Child, Matt, you can visit his mother's blog:

http://www.dreammom.blogspot.com

How to make a donation

I sustained a mild foot injury last week that as a result of my running.  The big toe metatarsal was really hurting after my long run, and had been causing me problems for a while.  My biggest worry was that it was a stress fracture, but an Xray at the doctor showed there was no fracture.  I am going to be seeing a sports podiatrist next week to look into it some more, but it seems like there may just be some inflammation in the area.  I have been taking ibuprofen prior to running and it seems to prevent any pain, even hours after my runs.  I'm not quite sure exactly what was the cause, but I'm guessing it has to do with increasing my mileage too quickly for my out-of-shape body and wearing shoe that weren't the best for my overpronating gait.    I've cut back on the training a little and got different shoes with more stability (Air Structure Triax-a stability shoe I've trusted for years)  Lessons learned: doen't always trust the salesperson at the shoe store and listen to my body.

Yesterday was the first long run in two weeks and I completed 14 miles.  the first 10 didn't feel bad, which is a definite improvement for me.   I've started testing out how much water I should drink and when I need a little snack.  I drank too much water during my 12 mile training run and threw up!   I've been having a Cliff bar after an hour of running, and that seems to work well when I'm running 2 hours. 

My fundraising has been going well and I am almost at $2000. I have $3000 to go in order to reach my goal of $5000.  I am planning to have a big yard sale in July to raise money.  If you live in the Chicagoland area and have things around the house you'd like to donate, I'd welcome it!

My current Wish Child
Nicholas is a bright, friendly and active 11 year old boy who loves hockey.  A cancerous tumor was found in his appendix last year and was surgically removed with success.  Nicholas is an amazing and very compassionate child. After his diagnosis, he held a toy drive all by himself to raise money for Children's Memorial Hospital.  The family is looking for to going on their Disney Cruise next month.  I've been keeping in touch with them to help make sure all details of the trip are prepared in advance- e.g. admission to waterparks, special requests for the late seating at dinner, etc.  We will visit them one more time to review the final itinerary and give them goody bags with activities for their flight.  

Thanks to everyone who has donated or offered to help in some way!  I am already more than 25% to my goal of raising $5000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.  I have some fun ideas planned for raising money this summer, so stay tuned. 

Wish Granting Experience

In case you were wondering, being a Make-A-Wish granter is a very rewarding experience and is flexible enough for anyone's schedule. If you are at all interested in becoming a wish granting volunteer, learn more here.  I decided to become a wish granter when my daughter was born 5 years ago.  I wanted to do some kind of volunteer work, but wasn't able to commit to weekly or even bi-weekly hours.  

Wish Granters, who work in pairs, act as the "face" of the foundation.  We are the first point of contact for the families, and do everything we can to make the experience of planning the wish smooth and enjoyable.   We arrange initial meetings with the families to get to know the Wish Child, answer questions, brainstorm for the perfect wish, and fill out the paperwork.   After this meeting, we continue to keep in touch with the families by email and phone, and may make another visit or two if needed.  I encourage you to consider becoming a wish granter if you are interested in making a difference in the lives of some very special children. 

 

Training

Training is going well.  I've begun running before Mike goes to work, so 3-4 days of the week I wake up around 5am.  It's actually a great way to start my day, plus, I get to see the sunrise.  The hardest part is when my alarm goes off in the AM, and making sure I get to bed at a decent hour each night.  

Longest run logged so far is 8.75 miles (this past Saturday).  This coming weekend I'll hit the double digits :)  Pace is still slow on long runs at 9:30-10min miles, but I just want to be sure that I continue to look forward to my runs and that I don't get injured.  I should complete this training program by August, so it will give me a couple months to work on improving my pace.  

How to make a donation

Hi folks-  I'll be updating this site regularly in case you're interested in checking out my training progress for the 2009 Chicago Marathon or my experiences as a Make-A-Wish Wish Granter.   Knowing that we will be helping out this cause is a such great motivation for me to keep running! 

Make-A-Wish Update

A few people have asked when I will be sponsoring the wish child. Technically, this will happen after the marathon; I want to see that I can raise the entire $5000.  Make-A-Wish doesn't specify an amount limit for wishes, but $5000 is the average amount for a wish.   In the meantime, I'm continuing to grant about 4 wishes a year.   My current wish child will be going on a Disney cruise in June.  Disney World and Disney cruises are the most popular wishes.  Besides travel wishes, some children wish for experiences, such as being a honorary pilot for a day.  Other children might wish for material things, such as a new playground set.  Still others may wish to meet a celebrity.   Over the coming months,  I'd like to feature some of my past wish children on this site, with the approval of the families of course.

  

Training

I started running again in January after a 1.5 year hiatus and I'm finally able to run 5 miles comfortably again.  It's a huge milestone to be actually enjoying my runs.  For this first marathon, I'm not going for speed or time, just to train and finish the marathon while staying injury-free.  Also to enjoy it so that I want to run more races.  I'm actually following the Non-Runners Marathon Training Program, which has a training schedule I can live with:  4-5 total runs a week with one long run on the weekend. I've finished the first official week: 3mi, 4mi, 4mi, 3mi, 5mi.  

How to make a donation