Okay, so you all will be reading back-posts, as I have had a lot of trouble not having the internet. I got in from Chicago last night. The Chicago Marathon was yesterday morning.
26.2 miles is sort of nuts, I admit.
Why keep doing it? Because all of these people have trained and worked hard to complete the run together, family and friends cheering, often for reasons bigger than themselves.
I nearly cried when I saw an older man with a strapped attached to a younger man's hand. The younger man, about my age- was blind. The older man was helping him to run the marathon.
On another run I saw a petite woman pushing an unusually large stroller. Everyone was cheering as she passed with her yellow stroller. As I passed her I saw that the boy in the stroller (about the size of a fourteen year old) was autistic or had another mental incapacity. He was laughing and clapping uncontrollably seeing the crowd that sidelined the course cheering, for him.
People run for all sorts of charities. You don't choose a charity blindly. You choose one that has touched or helped you in some way. Charities for families of soldiers, children's groups. People running for family members who died of cancer and supporting research to find cures. Here are runners personal stories for why they are doing this. http://www.chicagomarathon.com/CMS400Min/Chicago_Marathon/inspiration/index.aspx?id=5125
There is so much love and determination in one place, how can you not be moved to keep running?
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This is such an inspirational post. I remember being younger and watching the Disney channel and seeing something about a boy with two artificial legs who loved to run. He could run a mile in under 6 minutes. And there I was, with both my legs in tact, not even able to do that. Stories like that are just so inspiration. We so often take for granted what we are able to until we see someone so much less capable doing it.
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