Chicago Half: 1 Week Away

Seven days from right now I would have completed my next half marathon. In fact next week, I will be racing in two events. On Saturday, I will run in the Twilight 5K to benefit the Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association. Keri Schindler who works there first reached out to me in 2009 about participating in the 5K race. I agreed to run it and had such a fun time with Keri as my sighted guide. A few months later, she offered me an opportunity to run my first ever marathon as a member of Team GLASA. I had so much fun going the 26.2 mile distance. This will be my fourth time running the Twilight 5K. I have had the privilege of having some wonderful guides. This year will be no exception. Then on Sunday I will take on the challenge of breaking my personal record at the 13.1 mile distance when I race my first ever Chicago Half Marathon. For the last few years, I have wanted to run in this event, but it has never worked out. Then two wonderful events took place within minutes of each other which enabled the door of opportunity to open for me to run in the event so I took the chance to walk through the door and do it. Over the next month, I will race in a few events as part of Team Imerman. I am so grateful to the good folks at Imerman Angels for providing me the privilege of being on the team and doing my small part to spread awareness and raise funds for the organizations mission to ensure no one faces cancer alone. When a dear friend from college passed away last year, when she was in her early thirties, I was motivated to run the Chicago Marathon for her. There are plenty of family members and friends who have stared at death in the face, but luckily survived. She was not as fortunate. Last week I learned that one of my professors in college was faced with her own struggle due to cancer. Again, she was not able to overcome and she passed away at the hands of this disgusting disease. I am ready to fight through my fears and insecurities on the race course in the hope I may be able to perform in such a way which makes that former instructor, my college friend, and others proud of me. As the race nears next weekend, I will make sure to write some of my throughs and goals heading into the race. For now, I hope you will visit my Imerman Angels fundraising page as well as consider passing it along to others. Imerman is filled with some amazing volunteers who do tremendous work. I hope you will join me in supporting Imerman so that indeed no one faces cancer alone. Imerman provides such wonderful support and encouragement to those who need it and I am proud to be a small part of that mission.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/israel/2012