This post is a long time coming. I have been anticipating writing about what it was like running the Philadelphia Marathon with students from my school and now I know. We ran on Sunday, November 23rd and everyone finished. It was an incredible day. I wrote a long thank you letter to individuals who supported me and the LV program financially. I recognize not everyone has the ability to do that, but I still wanted to share my experience with you. The following is a bit long but definitely worth reading. I am also posting photos at the bottom of this so scroll down to see those. The LVs also posted information on the website with pictures from the weekend. Feel free to check those out as well. Here is the link
http://www.lasallianvolunteers.org/marathon/
Awesome. Incredible. Inspiring. I could add many more words to describe how I felt after the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday, November 23rd. It was a jam packed weekend that ended successfully with every Lasallian Volunteer and student runner from West Catholic finishing their individual race and seeing the LV program exceed our fundraising goal of $56,000. As of last count, we raised just over $64,000 and donations were still coming in. I am excited we exceeded our goal, but my greatest highlight of the weekend and probably one of my life is seeing each student from my school finish the half marathon and marathon.
Race weekend started on Friday with myself and two other running leaders from our team taking our students to the Marathon Expo. None of the students had ever been to an event like this and needless to say they were excited about all the vendors and of course free stuff. I am sure each student received more than their fair share of free Smart Start cereal samples, 5 minute massages, cookbooks, clif bars and many other things. After the Expo, we headed too West Philadelphia for the Students Run Pasta party. It was a pump up event of the race and of course an opportunity to “carbo-load” for the race on Sunday. We had to build up our reserves.
I headed home to a community already filling up with LVs, Brothers and friends from around the country preparing to also run the races in support of the Lasallian Volunteer program. I connected with old friends and enjoyed a houseful of excited first time and veteran runners.
Saturday was also incredibly busy with trips to drop runners off at the Expo, making final arrangements for the race on Sunday and preparing for our pre-race mass and dinner. The day flew by and before I knew it we were eating dinner with 130 supporters of the LV program and our runners. I did my best to get to bed early to be ready for the race, but failed miserably. I figured 4 hours of sleep was better than none.
I awoke at 4am, quickly put on my running clothes, ate breakfast and was out the door by 4:30am to pick up some of my students. Did I mention it was 25 degrees outside and 18 with wind-chill. It was a chilly day but nothing was going to stop me from seeing these students start and finish the race. We arrived at West Catholic at 5am to meet the Students Run Philly Style bus to take us to the race start. We met the other Students Run Philly Style teams at the Art Museum in Philadelphia and waited for the race to start. There were over 100 student runners that day preparing to run their first, second and for some their third marathon. I will always remember posing on the Art Museum steps that morning with the many students and running leaders anticipating the race start.
Students Run Philly Style has a customary cheer we do before every race. It is a call and response that goes like this:
Leader: Who are we?
Everyone: Students.
Leader: What do we do?
Everyone: Run.
Leader: How do we do it?
Everyone: Philly Style.
It sent chills down my spine that morning as we all screamed the cheer together. I realized how far my students have come from our first practice way back in March and our first race in April when they were introduced to the cheer. Nine months prior to Sunday it was difficult to get them to run just 1 mile and here I was with seven students getting ready to run 13.1 miles or 26.2 miles.
After the cheer and a picture on the Art Museum steps, we headed to the race start as a team. Melissa, another running leader, took our two half marathoners to their race start and myself, Gina and Adam took our four student marathoners to the marathon start. We waited in anticipation for the race start. Before we knew it, we made step number one of many that day. All of us stuck together for about 5 miles but slowly started separating as the race went on and individuals slowed down or settled into their pace. Gina and I ran the entire 26.2 miles with two students, Rafael and Tip. They were troopers and fought through cold, wind, sore muscles and even ice on the ground to push themselves to a 4:51:44 marathon finish.
Tip’s first words after finishing went something like this, “Wow...I have done something less than 1% of the US population has done.” He understood the magnitude of what he just accomplished and I was beaming with pride. Chris finished shortly after us at 5:18:34 and Haftom finished in 5:52:28. Our two girls finished the half marathon as well. Christina finished in 2:21:02 and Jamella finished in 2:25:28. I am pretty sure I teared up each time one of my students crossed the finish line but also when I saw any Students Run runner finish. It was incredible watching these students push through pain and being tired to finish something they set their mind to months ago.
I still don’t have words to fully capture how I felt watching each student, LV, Brother and random individual finish the marathon and half marathon on Sunday, November 23rd. I think running is incredibly inspiring no matter what distance someone is completing. This was my fourth marathon. It wasn’t my fastest but it was by far my favorite. My memories from that day will continue to live in me a long time….hopefully forever. I don’t want to forget the overwhelming pride I felt as I ran with each of my students and saw them accomplish something so incredible. More than that I am proud of the team they have become. They think of each other as a small family and only they really understand each other and what it meant to be a part of this nine month experience. I am already looking forward to March when we start again. Hopefully with all of the same students and new faces looking forward to starting their nine month journey to complete a marathon.
I wrote this story to give you a glimpse of what the marathon weekend was like and an idea of what an amazing cause you chose to support. I am humbled by your generosity and grateful for your support. Thank you for supporting the Lasallian Volunteers which in turn supports me and the 55 other volunteers I serve with throughout this country. Not every volunteer runs with their students, but we are each doing incredible work in our own way. My personal fundraising goal was $1000 and I was able to exceed that amount raising close to $2000. Thank you for helping me meet my goal and helping the Lasallian Volunteers exceed our fundraising goal. If you would like to hear more about Students Run Philly Style, the Lasallian Volunteers, my experience running with my students or anything else, please don’t hesitate to call or email me.
Peace,
Mari
No comments:
Post a Comment