Chicago Marathon Weekend

I’ve been home from Chicago for two days but have been too busy to post an entry until tonight. Truth be told, I’ve also been struggling with how best to communicate what it was like to run the Chicago Marathon with Team in Training. Let me start by describing all the fabulous things about the experience.

Chicago
A gorgeous city full of great architecture, beautiful public art and straight-talking friendly people. I didn’t do as much sightseeing as I hoped but I saw enough to know I want to visit again soon.

My fellow TNT marathoners
A warm, committed, fun and compassionate group of people who made the weekend truly special. From our “getting to know one another” dinner on Friday evening, where the members of our virtual team met the members of the Montreal team for the first time, to our post-race celebration, they were terrific companions.

TNT staff, coaches and mentors
My fellow runners and I were very lucky to have them with us. Encouraging, knowledgeable, positive and incredibly hard-working, they made everything about the weekend easier. Special thanks to Theresa whose commitment to TNT, warmth, generosity and concern for “her” runners were all simply amazing.

My roommate, Sonia
Though hoping to qualify for Boston, she still found time to be a compassionate, caring and entertaining roommate from the moment we met in the hotel lobby until I caught the express bus to the airport. I am more grateful than I can say for all her support and really hope we'll stay in touch.

Lunch with old and new friends
On Saturday, I met my former college roommate, Midori, her partner, Pascal and some new friends, Becky and John, for a wonderful brunch at a tapa restaurant in Lincoln Park. The food was fabulous and the company even better.

Inspiration Dinner
The night before the race, 426 TNTers from Canada and the US gathered for a meal and to be inspired by special guest speakers, including John “The Penguin” Bingham, a personal hero of mine. The evening began with TNT coaches and staff cheering and applauding for each team as they arrived. Pictures of the people for whom we were running were projected on to massive screens at the front of the room.

After a buffet dinner of pasta, pasta and more pasta, John gave a hilarious and encouraging keynote address, then introduced the second speaker, the mother of a young girl who had just completed leukemia treatment. Needless to say, we all found her story incredibly moving and motivating.

Being honoured as “Top Fundraisers”
The 426 TNT participants in the marathon raised nearly $1.5 million dollars, and at the dinner, 10 of us were honoured as “top fundraisers”. Of the ten, 3 were members of the Canadian virtual team, including Joanna who was #1, having raised more than $15,000. I was pleased to have my efforts recognized, but of course the credit should have gone to my sponsors – who together donated nearly $8,000 in Canada and the US.

Shirt decorating
After dinner, our team met to put the final touches on our race day shirts. I can’t describe how emotional it was to watch my teammates as they attached photos of their honourees and added names and personal messages. Their eyes and faces said so much.

Fabulous spectators
There were many memorable moments during the race itself but one of my favourites was when I saw a sign that read “Dear Stranger, I’m so proud of you!” It was held by a young man who, when he saw me reading it, made eye contact and smiled encouragingly. I wish I could tell him just how much I appreciated that message, coming as it did at a moment when I was struggling.

My inspiration band
If you’ve been following this blog, then you know I made an “inspiration band” to wear on race day. It included the names of the people I most wanted to remember and celebrate during the 26.2 miles of the race. Those names got me through some very tough miles. Thinking about Andrea and Mary (who are currently in the midst of cancer treatments), Blake, Kirsi and Gill (all cancer survivors), the many people lost to the disease (Jon, Maeve, Michael, and Jack, amongst others) and all the people who loved them helped put my own discomfort into perspective.

My sponsors
What can I say? They were so generous with their financial and moral support. The many messages and emails I received in the days and weeks leading up to the race made the training and fundraising an awful lot easier than it would otherwise have been.

Finally, the race
It was harder than I expected. I had trained well, people told me that the energy of the crowds would carry me along, and I was looking forward to running through the city's various neighbourhoods. I suppose I expected this marathon to feel easier than the others I’d run.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out. Cold weather, huge crowds, rough roads and intense pain in my right knee challenged me in ways I didn’t expect. Between miles 16 and 18, I wasn’t even sure I could finish because my knee was locking up and it felt as if my leg might collapse under me. However, sometime after mile 18, it loosened up to the point that I could run more or less normally, so I continued on, finishing the race in just over 4:47. It was a personal best but no where near my goal time of 4:30.

At the end of the race, exhausted and cold, I was deeply disappointed but, with a few days of perspective, I am feeling better about it. I gave it everything I had, and in fact ran the last mile faster than any other, so I can’t ask for more. In any case, the real point of all of this was to honour Jon and Kirsi and raise a significant sum for cancer research - goals I was able to attain with the tremendous support of family, friends, colleagues and sponsors.

Would I do this again?
Yes. It may be a couple of years before I’ll be ready to take on another marathon but I’ll certainly consider volunteering with TNT next season as a mentor and event organizer, and would recommend the experience to anyone. TNT is a terrific organization, with amazing and inspiring staff and volunteers. And running a marathon is a life-affirming, life-changing challenge that anyone who is able to should consider taking on.

My sincere thanks to everyone who supported me on this journey – most especially my husband, Luke, who went above and beyond to ensure I had everything I needed to train and fundraise over the past 5 months. I couldn’t have done it without him.

For a slideshow of all my photos from the weekend, you can click here.

Chicago Tomorrow!

I just received word that a couple of my teammates have already arrived in Chicago, and I’ll be on a plane myself in less than 21 hours. It feels surreal at the moment – but that may be just because excitement and nervousness have prevented me from getting much sleep the week. My coaches tell me it doesn’t matter – that the months of training, adrenaline and the energy of 1 to 1.5 million spectators will carry me through. I hope they’re right!

At this point, I’m pretty much packed but I have a few last minute chores to do this evening – the most important of which are printing photos of Jon and Kirsi to pin to my shirt and getting my inspiration band ready to go. Whatever else happens this weekend, I want to make sure I spend the race thinking about the people I’m running for and why the fight against all forms of cancer – and blood cancers, in particular – is so important.

Less than one week until race day!

Despite 20 weeks of training and preparation, it really doesn't seem possible I'll be on my way to Chicago in just 5 days. I'm incredibly nervous and excited -- and expect I'll be even more so by the time I fly out on Friday.

The first thing to report this week is that I have finally reached my initial fundraising goal of $6,000! I remember how nervous I was about whether it would be possible to raise so much when I signed up. Now, at nearly $6,700, I am hoping to raise 8,000 in total.

Another high point of the week was a fundraising fashion show and auction put on by the Ottawa members of the virtual team. It turned out to be a really fun night that raised almost $4,700. Here's a picture of the team (minus one member) taken at the end of the evening.


My favourite part of the festivities was when the members of the team were lead into the room by two bagpipers in full regalia - kilts and all. Leave it to our fearless leader, Jane (the other member of the group from NS), to come up with pipers! They certainly made an impression!

The team also enjoyed appearing on A Channel's morning show on Wednesday to promote the event and the work of Team in Training.

Finally, this week there was a flurry of email traffic amongst the members of VTNT who will be running in Chicago as we sorted out when and how we'll meet up. I also had the pleasure of chatting today with Sonia, the woman I'll be rooming with who is a member of the Montreal TNT team. I can hardly wait to meet everyone in person on the weekend. They all seem like lovely folks!

At this point, my lists are made but I still have quite a few things to pull together before I fly out -- the most important of which is, of course, my "inspiration band". I've been collecting names all summer and want to be sure I've included everyone I want to be thinking about on race day.

Speaking of which, my law school friend, Nancy posted a note on my fundraising page this week reminding me that her daughter Maeve would have been 16 years old if she hadn't died of leukemia 10 years ago. Thinking of that beautiful little girl and all she bore during 2 1/2 years of treatment is a sobering reminder of why LLSC's work is so important. As Nancy put it, "Hopefully with more research no other child will ever miss their 16th birthday because of leukemia." Here, here, Nancy.

Final weeks before Chicago

I'm back home after two weeks down east on vacation and can hardly believe that in less than 11 days I'll be running the Chicago marathon with 45,000 other people. Five months of training and fundraising have passed so quickly.

This week has been hectic as my fellow Ottawa TNTers and I prepared for a major fundraiser tomorrow night. Once that's behind us, I plan to get serious about resting up for the race. I've got some catching up to do!

I received an email from Kirsi this week saying that she is feeling well and still hopes to run 10km "with me" on race day. What an inspiration it will be to think of her -- so many thousands of miles away in Helsinki but with me in spirit!

I'll be thinking of lots of others too -- including all the those whose names I've written on my inspiration band, family, friends and colleagues who've been so supportive, Jon's and Kirsi's family and friends, and all my TNT teammates. I couldn't have done this without them!

Thinking of Jon

Jon was in my thoughts even more than usual this week. Of course, I’ve thought of him often since deciding to train for Chicago and raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, but this week it was his courage in particular that I thought about.

My long slow run last Saturday was only 20km and, because it was so short (relatively speaking), I expected it to feel easy. It didn’t – 3km into it, I realized it was going to be a long tough slog. My legs felt like lead, my head was fuzzy and I couldn’t seem to find a rhythm. I suppose I was still recovering from the 36km run the weekend before, and was tired from a week of activities that included a two-day retreat for work, preparing to go on vacation, and helping to organize an upcoming TNT fundraising event. But, even knowing all that, I couldn’t help feeling discouraged. How could I have been training so hard for more than 4 months, and still be finding it difficult to run a mere 20km?

As I was shuffling across the experimental farm feeling sorry for myself, I started thinking about Jon – and, in particular, how hard he fought the leukemia that eventually killed him. How could I let one tough run discourage me? There must have been many days when he felt he couldn’t face another treatment or didn’t have the energy to go on – but he did go on, enduring months of chemotherapy, persistent infections, a bone marrow transplant, blindness, chicken pox, and eventual lung failure. While I know there were many days of hope and optimism during those months, there must also have been days filled with fear and despair. His courage and determination in the face of it all is hard to fathom – and, of course, incredibly inspiring.

As I write this, I’m home in Nova Scotia on vacation, nursing a sore foot, struggling to recover from a nasty cold, and feeling a little overwhelmed by all I have left to do before I leave for Chicago. But thinking about Jon’s courage and optimism is helping me maintain some perspective. What I have to deal with is nothing compared with what he dealt with so gracefully.

I had the honour of meeting Jon’s mom and dad in person a week ago, and was moved and inspired by their courage as well. Though their pain and loss are still so fresh, they welcomed me into their home, shared photographs and memories, talked about the importance of bringing an end to cancer, and thanked me for raising funds in his memory. I am more grateful than I can say to them – as well as to Jon’s wife, Michelle – for all the support and encouragement they’ve given me in the past months.

My summer "vacation" and why I'll be sad to see it end

I was feeling quite weepy as I headed out the door for my long slow run at 6:45 this morning.

First, because I was thinking about the brief email I received from Jon’s mother yesterday – which, in turn, got me thinking about how unimaginably hard it must have been for Jon’s family to lose him to cancer at such a young age. It has been such a privilege to be able to spend my summer celebrating his life by training and raising funds for LLSC. And I hope knowing that I and so many others remember him with such affection and admiration brings his family some small measure of comfort.

The second reason I was feeling a little sad was that my run today was the longest I will run before the marathon itself. Though I have two other reasonably tough weeks ahead before I start “tapering” (i.e. reducing my mileage so that my body can heal in time for the race), today’s run was the peak of more than five months of training. I have never in my life before run 67 kilometres in a single week, and my total weekly distance will decline steadily from now until race day.

Of course, in some ways it will be good to have the marathon behind me. Training and fundraising have taken up large chunks of my life over the past four months, and it's time I got back to other projects. On the other hand, I'll be really sorry to see the training come to an end.

I’ve genuinely appreciated the opportunities it's provided to explore beautiful and unfamiliar paths through the city, and have revelled in spending so many hours alone with my thoughts. I’ve also been happy to run with a purpose other than just keeping myself in shape.

Motivated by the love, support and encouragement I’ve received from family, friends and sponsors, I’ve trained harder and more conscientiously than ever before and, as a result, am physically and mentally stronger than I have been in a long while.

Lastly, and most importantly, I’ve been deeply affected by the many stories my sponsors and others have shared with me -- of battles fought and of loved ones lost to leukemia and lymphoma -- all which have brought home to me just how sweet life is, how fortunate I am, and how really important it is to find ways to give back.

Whatever happens Thanksgiving weekend, my TNT experience has already exceeded my expectations. I’ve met some truly inspiring people, raised a lot of money, and enjoyed many wonderful runs. Needless to say, I’ll have a lot of people to thank when I finally make it home from Chicago, finisher’s medal in hand.

PS I couldn’t resist stopping to snap a few photos with my phone as I ran past some astonishingly beautiful flower beds in a park near Dow’s Lake. Too bad the quality isn't better but I hope they nevertheless give some sense of how lovely the flowers were. The other photo is of me arriving home at the end of my 36km run.

More inspiration: Anjali Chadha

I wrote a few weeks ago about how, on race day, I plan to wear an "inspiration band" containing the names of 26 people I want to think about during each mile of the race.

One of those people is my colleague, Anjali Chadha.


Anjali was diagnosed with leukemia when she just 4 years old and underwent radiation and chemotherapy treatments for a period of about 18 months. She still remembers how much she hated all the needles, and that it was several years before she understood why she’d spent so much time in hospital and what it meant to be a cancer survivor.

Two decades later, Anjali remains healthy and strong, and is all about living life to the full. Recently graduated from university, she’s settling into her first grown-up job, and pursuing her goal of becoming a CMA.

In her spare time, she volunteers with Students Aiding Village Empowerment, an organization that raises funds for the development of an Indian village located near Jaipur, where her dad grew up. She also works out regularly, plays recreational soccer on weekends and performs traditional Indian dances at community functions.

Anjali's bubbly, warm personality and positive attitude make her a joy to know and work with. It will be an honour and pleasure to celebrate her and her recovery from leukemia on race day.

Here's a partial list of the other people I'll be thinking about on October 11th: My TNT colleague, Gillian Grant; Michael (the nephew of dear friends); Dawn Collins (an old family friend, who passed away last year); Maeve (the adored daughter of a law school classmate who passed away at the age of 5), Leah's granddad, Jack Fargey (the father of another colleague), Yvan LeClerc (a close friend of old dear friends of mine), David Williams (the father-in-law of a friend and former colleague); and Diana's friend and colleague, Ted Scanlon.

Please let me know if there are other names you would like to add to my inspiration band. It would be a privilege for me to honour your loved ones in this way.