Official Time of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon

Wanted to add some more pics and notes about the whole Marathon experience. It started of with dinner at a restaurant in Vancouver with Mandy. We headed to Nadja's house to stay there as we needed to be at the Vancouver airport way to early in the morning. Her house is a little closer to the airport. She had offered to drive us to there as we had to be there very early for our flight. Thanks Nadja!!

Nadja eating a late dinner Mandy prepared for her.



We got to the airport very early>
There are no problems getting on the plane. Mandy and I are seated togeather for the flight. We land in Chicago and jump on the train that takes us to downtown Chicago. We head to the hotel. Kathy arrives a little later, and we all head out to pic up are bib's and shirts and all the pre marathon stuff.











We wake up way to early in the morning. Mandy and I had gone shopping for some breakfast to have in the morning before the Marathon. I didn't want to change my meal to much from what I had used when I was training. So we eat a quick breakfast, and head out to the start line.



After waiting to long to take a pee we say goodbye to Mandy and try to find our pace group section. We get in the group at about the 4:45-5:00 group. The gun goes off!!! The Marathon begins!!!

The next four hours and fourty nine minutes are a mix of excitement, smells, pee breaks, gel shots, and thousands of people all doing the same things. We manage to keep pace with the 4:45 group, and seemed to fluctuate between the 4:00 hour group, and the 4:15 hour group. At some point I realized that passing people was going to be hard. I thought that I could pick up the pase to try and meet the 4:00 hour time I was planning on. I looked at my sister and I relax. Fuck the time. I am running a fucking marathon with my sister!!!! that really hit home about 20 minutes into the marathon. All my training, all my planning, all my work, had come together. Running through Chicago with my sister is beyond my laboured brains ability to express in words. I had achieved something I never thought I could do.

It amazes me when I think about the last 7 years. I never would have thought I would be running a marathon, in Chicago, with my sister, when I was a drug addict. To anyone who is ever been down and out, you know what I mean when it all hits home. The drugs wear off, you have that moment that it all hits home, how did I get here? What am I doing? Why am I doing this to myself, to those that love me? This is not me. I am better than this. All those nights of thinking so little of myself. Doing things I never thought I would do. I did allot of things I am not proud of, I did allot of things I will never forget, brain injured or not. Who would have thought that the guy with no future, no education, no job would get clean and sob re, get a decent job, meet the love of his life. Have his skull removed to stop his brain from exploding inside his skull. Loose his memory, his home, and his job. Spend a year in recovery. Propose to Mandy in Toronto. Get his sorry ass into college and now here he is. Running a Marathon with his sister in Chicago!!! I need to type that again. Running a Marathon with MY sister in Chicago. Life is so amazingly bizarre sometimes.

Mandy is meeting us along the way to try and take pictures.

We finish the Marathon. We are tired, sore, hungry, excited, enjoying the runners high. We cross the finish line and get in line to have the chip removed from our feet. We collect our medal, we get wrapped in a special blanket to keep us warm, we get some banana's and quickly get out the street. It's over. It happened so fast, one minute I am giving every last bit of physical and mental energy I have. The next I am wearing a metal, wrapped in a blanket, and eating a banana. The Marathon is over. I did it.

We start walking back to the hotel. Already talking about the next marathon!!! Perhaps Hawaii, or Disney land......how about a triathlon. God what have I done to myself!!!

We head out to dinner, we went to a fondue place called "The Melting Pot" that was amazing. You get a big pot of oil and veggies, and fruit. Then for the desert CHOCOLATE FONDUE. It was fondue heaven. We were so hungry, so sore....our dinner was incredible, fantastic restaurant staff; who took some pictures for us. What a day!!

We head back to the apartment tired and full.


The strangest thought just went through my head. What if my injury, my memory being wiped out, has somehow giving me a mulligan or a restart on life? I mean I was clean for several years before the injury, met Mandy, had a job. But since I woke up I have gotten engaged, gone back to college, run a marathon. Maybe some of the brain damage somehow took the fear out of me, or flicked some sort of ambition switch. What caused the drive? I mean I have the same ambition I did before. I want the same things. Why do I get it down now? as aposed to before?

I just did alot of whining before the injury, I could find something wrong with everything, lots of reasons as to why I couldnt do things. How life was not working out for me. Since the accident I have the same consequences to my actions, I have the same challenges. I would say even more challenges. Yet I accomplish more! Strange. I don't know what I am trying to say, but as I was editing this post. I started to think about what I have done post injury? Maybe I should have had my head explode years ago...maybe not!!

My Official Time of the Lasalle Bank Chicago Marathon

So my sister and I finished the Chicago Marathon








The Marathon was awesome!! My official time was 4:49:36 and I finished 23857 out of 33,633 participants.

Mandy was with us the whole way taking pictures and offering great support.









Here are some more photos of the race, I am sorry there is not more. I have school tonight, and have homework to do. I will be getting more photo's from Mandy's camera and will do a much better blog entry by the weekend (today is wed, 25Th, of Oct) All these pics were taking with my tiny little camera during the marathon. Holy shit do my legs hurt!



I had the best time in Chicago. I ate so much after the marathon. Nothing felt better than crossing that finish line. OK maybe the desert we had at Bubba Gump shrimp felt better, but that was the best chocolate pie I ever had. It had hot chocolate cake on the bottom of chocolate ice cream!!! hot and cold chocolate combined, worth running a marathon for!! Thanks to everyone for all there support. This was truly one of the greatest weekends of my life. More photos to come

Chicago Marathon 2006 here I come!

So a fast and dirty email. I have spent 18 weeks training. I have gotten up at 6:00 am on Sunday mornings. I have run over 400kl. I have survived IT band injuries, blisters, cuts, bruises. I have gotten lost. I got to know my running group. I purchased, shoe's, jacket's, sock's, hat's, water bottle's, gel shot's, e-load spots drinks, a Garmin 305 GPS heart rate monitor watch, and of course the training course at the running room. I have had hours of physio therapy, done more hours of stretches. I have talked crap, I have gotten arrogant, I have gotten freaked out. I have wondered why I am doing this. I have wondered why I never did this before. I have downloaded runs to google earth. Taken pictures of my run for my blog. Written down my daily runs.
All the while I have gone back to college, started a job, moved to New Westminster, continued planning my marriage to the worlds most incredible women. I have fallen off my bike, had my bike stolen, ran a crack head out my building. Said goodbye to my parents as they travel north America for god knows how long.
The flight is paid for, the room rented, all necessary items packed. I will add some pictures when I get back
My concerns are whether or not I can finish. Will my knee hold out, will I finish in time. Should I have bought the official jacket of the LaSalle 2006 Chicago Marathon, before I did the run.

Chicago hear I come

Well my training with Running Room is over. My Marathon (Chicago) is a little later than the Marathon most people at the Running Room clinics in Vancouver were training for. They were mostly training for the Vancouver Island Marathon. I think that Marathon is this weekend. A few of us were training for Chicago, so our tapering schedule started at different times. So I am now running by myself. I feel kind of crappy about the way it ended, because I had trained with all these people for 13 weeks. You get to know people, you talk, you encourage each other, get mad at others. I was unable to continue running with them during the week as I started school in September. As I was unable to run the Wednesday and Thursday group runs. I started to run by myself. During one of these group runs I was unable to attend, the group decided to change there long runs to Saturdays, instead of Sundays. I was not there while this decision was made, so I showed up for a 32kl run last Sunday with no one to run with. They also are apparently getting together for Dinner tonight (Thursday) I was also was not aware of this until to late, though I also have school. I wouldn't have been able to attend anyway. Now its no ones fault, but it still kind of hurt.

Enough of that though. I am so excited. After my accident (see previous entries) I get confused very easy. I get worried that I will get lost, and wind up not knowing where I am, or how to get home. That is why I loved running with a group.

A couple of weeks ago I showed up late for one of the Sunday runs, a 32kl run. Everyone had left. Now they knew I was going to be late, and they couldn't hold everyone to wait for me. So I was a left a map of where to go. I have a Garmin 305, which is all set for the ten and ones. So I head out from Broadway and Granville, to the New Westminster key. I have no Ipod. I have my water pack, and gel shots. I start running. Its amazing what goes on in your head when you run by yourself. Now keep in mind that I missed some long runs because of an IT band injury. So this was the first long run I had had in a couple of weeks.

I am running by myself, after some time off. I was not only very concerned about getting lost but also just finishing the distance. I was very up-tight that I may not be able to physically run the Marathon. The flight is paid for, the Marathon is paid for, the Hotel is booked. Plus I had talked crap about "being a marathon runner" Needles to say I was a little stressed. I just didn't want to bow out, whatever the reason.

Nothing felt better than getting to the New Westminster Key, and seeing all my running buddies sitting down and eating a snack. I did it. I was able to run the distance, I did it alone, I did without getting lost. I could go that far without quiting. That walk home was one of the best moments of my life. The Marathon was still on. I phoned my Fiance, my sister, my parents. It was truly an incredible feeling. I was able to run. God that feelingis impossible to describe.

I still have some pain when I hit the 19kl, to 20kl mark. Not enough to end a run, but it is there. I have spent many hours with a physio therapist, I spend a minimum of an hour a day stretching, if not more. I have a heavy duty massager that I pound my leg with every night. I also take an aspirin about 10 minutes before my long runs. I know it will take about an hour for the aspirin to take affect. This is about 10kl give or take into my run, and lasts usually a couple of hours. I find that hills, steps, stairs, heights, and curbs are painful. As long as my run is straight and flat, I can run. I am so glad I am running Chicago. It is flat!!!! New shoes also helped with the distance I could run before the pain started.

So Between starting college, getting used to my new apartment, working, and running. I am very busy, but at the same time excited about the Marathon. I get to see my sister, I get to travel with Mandy. This is truly an exciting time.

School is going well, I had my first test in Psychology yesterday, I have a tutor who is helping me out. I also get to see one of my friends who I haven't seen since the bastard moved to England. He is coming into town tomorrow for a night. Mandy and I will be looking at a possible venue for the wedding!!! Shit, I got a lot going on. Sorry there are no picks, I have been a little busy. The next blog entry should have more pictures in it. I am working on video blogs to.

Vita-Mixer

So I bought a refurbished Vita-Mixer. If you have not ever heard of one go to the website.

It is trully the coolest kitchen device ever. I can make whole food juices, like those at Jugo Juice. I can make my own Peanut butter, how about a Bacon Cheddar Potato Soup. Or a Brie, Roguefort and Toasted Walnut Fondue. It makes pureed foods for babies (think of the money saved on baby formula!!) And for desert how about Strawberry Yogurt Freeze. Go nuts with WHole Wheat Banana Nut Quick Bread.

Each Vita-Mixer comes with two different containers one wet blade and one dry blade. The Dry blade containers makes breads and pizza dough and bagels. What is awsome is you can go and buy flower and yeast and the dry blade does all the kneeding for you. Through it in a tin, toss it all in the oven and there ya go. Hearty Multi-Grain Bread. I highly recoment this. Enough to make it it's own blog entry. So get one go here and click on the website http://www.vitamix.com/ and check it out.

Iliotibialband Injuries, Starting Douglas, Getting in the Grove

So I have not updated my blog for awhile. It has been very busy. Since the last entry I have gotten all my stuff from my pod (see prev entries), injured my IT band during my my marathon training. Bought a Vita-Mix juicer, paid off all my bills, and signed up for College. I am also working at the Running Room.

After moving into my place, and being here for over two weeks before my pod was delivered. So I slept on a blow up bead. I had a TV but know Cable yet.
this is a picture before the pod, and the next one is after my pod, with my TV, computer, and bed in place.




I have continued with marathon training. I had a major concern as on one of long rungs a few weeks ago, my knee started to hurt. Not much, but I noticed it. I went home stretched relaxed, and was fine for the rest day, and our next short run (6kl). On our next hill session I got up the hill three times, and the third time up the pain came back. So I took a day off the next day, and then went for our long run on Sunday (29kl) and wound up needing a cab after 19kl. I then took two weeks off from running, jumped into physio heads on, and relaxed. The next long run, I get to 20kl and the pain is back. New shoes and more physio and an industrial strength hand held massager and a week of reduced runs. I managed to run 29kl on Sunday. It felt fantastic. On top of running the full distance, I also ran it alone, as I had shown up late, with no Ipod. I ran from Broadway and Granville to New Westminster key. All by myself. The knee hurt but not enough to make me leave.

I am very glad for this as I have talked a lot about the Marathon so if I bailed out know, regardless of the reason, I would never live it down. My trip is also paid for, along with the hotel room, not to mention the Marathon itself.

I also start Douglas in less than 15 days from now. That is freaking me out. I will be taking a math course, an English course, and a Political Science course, as well as psychology course. So lets see what my brain dose with this. I registered as a Person with Disability, and will hopefully get some aid in the classes. I am filling out all the forms for funding as well.

I also bought a bike to help reduce the need for transit. I can actually get to work and school faster with a bike than if I catch transit. I have a helmet, and can use my running gear.

Live if moving forward very fast for me. I am scared and excited at the same time. I just hope I am up for it. It is going to be a very busy Planning for Monday's and My wedding, training for a marathon, and going back to school. Life is about to get nuts.

Working, Moving, Running, Starting College, and Shooting up.

Well I have moved in to my new place, the colors are spectacular, the floors are awesome. The inside is really cool, new toilet, new oven & stove. Here are some before and after pics of the bathroom. I am still waiting for my pod, which contains all of my belongings from my old place. Since I had to move from my apartment in Burnaby to my parents house when I was out of the hospital for only three days, I really don't remember what I stored in my pod (a mobile mini storage unit) It all happened so fast (see prev blog entries)So for right now I am sleeping on a blow up bed provided by Nadja. I had started a new job at a company called E-Care which is a collection company for online payday loan company's. Its a really strange job. It is basically an online money mart . It is only available in the USA with the collection department in Canada. I phone the people that don't pay. It is very confusing for me, and really hard to remember the American collection laws, Bankruptcy laws, and legalities, not to mention the computer programs they use. So I have decided to leave this company after only a week. I applied to the Running room in Richmond for a job. I have an interview today at 3:00 pm. I figure with school starting in September I need a less stressful job. So the money wont be the same but the stress level will be much lower.

I have also just got back from Douglas College and found out where I stand with with what courses I need for my Pre-Nursing. It will still be about a year, before I can take the Pre-Nursing courses, and I still have to take my English tests to see where I stand with that. So I am still looking at a year or so of upgrading before I can take the pre nursing.

RBC is offering me a departure payment, as while I was in the hospital my job was outsourced. So I had no job to return to when I recovered to the point of being able to return to work. I get a set amount of money if I want a lump some of money, or I can get double the amount of money in biweekly payments as long as I make an effort to look for a job. I also have my 5 years of RRSP in RBC stocks that I can cash in and I am still waiting for my tax refund as well.
 
 
  
The Marathon training is going well. I have some more pics of our runs, the last two Sundays have been 16kl runs, I run them in about two hours, and have kept up with my weekly tempo runs. I missed a couple of days but only when I was moving all day and working. I have an average of about 30-35 kl per week (give or take I haven't been updating my running logs very much)

Here is a picture of some gentlemen cooking something in a camping barbecue outside my bathroom window. They are literally about a foot and a half from my window smoking something, and cooking something that sure aint food in the barbecue. I took a picture from my kitchen window, and you can kind of see the barbecue and the dudes. I walked out pretending to put the garbage out and asked them what they were doing. They told me they were just waiting for there friend to come home. I told them they can't cook there as it is right outside my bathroom window, and they'll have to wait for there friend off the property. I apologize for the crappy picture
  

Part of the Running Crew & Renovation Of My Apartment

Here is my new place. You can see my windows on the bottom floor. Just behind the bushes. The inside needs some work. Mandy and I are painting the sealing, the walls, and we will have new floors installed. The oven needs to be replaced as you can see



I have spent the last three days renovating the interior and keeping up with my jogging, were talking about 10 to 12 hours a day at the apartment and then my regular runs at the running room.

The running room is going well. I have logged over 40 kl last week, and we are forming a group of fellow runners if roughly the same speed group.


  
I apologize for the crappy pictures of the running crew. I will get better. These don't do you all justice.

The Running Room Marathon Clinic

I had my first long run with the Running Room. It was the second run that the group has done. On June 8th we ran 6kl. On June 10th I ran 6.13kl on my own. Then on Sunday the 11th (at 8:30 in the morning) I ran 9kl in about 1:08hr. I am in the "just finish crew" there are other crews that are going for specific times to finish the Marathon. I just want to finish.

There were about 22 people on this run on Sunday.


There are two prime running instructors from the Running Room. One is Daryl The other is Angela (below)
-this picture is better than the one I had on previously posted.


Here is a collection of photos from our run.

I must say this is a very cool way to prepare for a marathon. We meet twice a week and we have guest speakers, who cover things like food, stretching, mental preparation, clothes and all sorts of stuff. Everyone is really supportive, and all your fellow runners are super supportive. I also received my official LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon confirmation

The LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon 2006

So I am new signed up for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 22nd, 2006. This will be the first Marathon I have run. I have recently run a 10k run in Vancouver (see prev posts) I have signed up with the Running Room in Vancouver to help train for it. Over the last year since I left the hospital I have run an average of about 30-40 kl per week. As well as weight lifting. I have a very small camera that I will use to track my training. I will also see if I am comfortable using the camera while I run the marathon itself. So with 20 weeks to go until the marathon. Join me as I blog my efforts.

During this time I may also be updating my blog with my moving, and starting school. I start Douglas college in September, and will be moving by the end of this month. This is a lot of new information for me to absorb since my injury (see prev posts) There is some concern whether I will overload myself or not. I just now that I am tired of "waiting" to get better. I was originally informed that I would continue to recover over a two year period. The early recovery would be rapid improvements, and then they would slowly taper off.

After nearly dying, I have learned that I don't want to go out being the guy that complains on how the world is not fair to me. I don't want to go out having complained why I didn't accomplish things. I want to go out having accomplished. There will always be reason why I cant do something. If that is what I focus on I will never do anything. Now I got to go run, I got a fucking marathon to train for.

Please help me raise money. I am saving up to go to school, and I also need funds to help pay for my trip to Chicago. So click on my adds. I get paid for every click. Hey its cheaper than a donation!! (adds are on the top of my blog)

How I live with Tramatic Brain Injury

Ever since I woke up in the hospital after my surgery, I have had the biggest problem remembering things. The technical words are Short Term Memory Deficit. When people here the words "I have a memory problem" What follows is usually something like "yeah me to", or "I wish I had brain injury to blame for my forgetfulness “I find this along the same lines as "I wish I was blind so my hearing would get better" being said to someone who lost there vision. It's insulting. I know they mean well, but it still diminishes what I have gone through. I also have problems with people not understanding that this is a disability. I don't think I would have been approved of disability if this was some simple "memory issue" it is so much more. People just don't understand that it is not an excuse to "forgot to get the milk honey" Or "I forgot your birthday".

What people just don't get, is how I can remember some things one day but not the next. How can I remember to go to the grocery store, but forget why I went? I know I am there to shop, but shop for what? What do I need? What do I like? Do I like that toothpaste? Do I need toothpaste? Do I have milk? What kind of milk do I need, skin milk, whole milk, 2% milk? What size a bottle, etc. This happens with everything I need at the grocery store. It is so confusing. By the time I remember I need a 2%, 954kl bottle of milk. I forgot I need eggs. I get embarrassed. What’s worse is when a helpful staff member asks if I found what I am looking for. "I don't know what I am looking for". This often leaves helpful staff very confused. People don't get how I could not know why I am at the grocery store. Not to mention I must freak out security. Why is he walking down the same isle over and over again. Don't get me started about Malls. So many places so many people my brain just doesn’t stop. Its called flooding. Its like when to many programs run on your computer at once, it just slows everything down. I just grab on to Mandy and follow here around. I just hope no sales person talks to me while she is in a change room. In the months since I left the hospital I have come across some very affective strategies to get through what most people take for granted.

1) Post it notes are a god send. I have them every where in my house with a pen attached. By every phone, by the doors, in the bathroom.





2) I also need very specific goals. I have a long term goal, an intermediate goal, and short term or daily goals. They also all link together. My long term goals are say "graduate from college with a nursing degree", intermediate goals are "enrol in school", Short term goals are "contact college and find out how to register" All the goals link together. I also have a long term goal of running a marathon in October of this year. I have intermediate goals of distance, and planning the trip and hotels there. Short term goals are "run 5k today" I have to keep these things up to date or I will lose sight of the different goals. It also helps me keep track of what I accomplish. One pleasant side effect of the memory loss is that I look at what I did in the preceding month and impress myself "I ran that far", "I signed up for school...cool". If you look at the picture of my board above this is where I keep a log of all my goals. As I complete them I cross them off, and add new ones as they arise. Also my “daily to do list” is essential for every day tasks, It says things like "go to Safeway, get milk, do not buy anything else", "Bring book for Biology to Biology teacher, study Biology" "start looking for housing" "put gas in mustang" "go to gym do abs, and chest, light run" This was organized for me by a very patient Mandy. Thank you Mandy. I highly recommend people get a Mandy.

3) The third important thing is that everyone has to work with you. Not only do I need to make sure they right things down on the post it notes for me. I need to make sure they see me right things down to. It is not enough to tell me that my physiotherapy called and they changed the appointment. I will say "oh ok" and show up for the original appointment. So I have to make sure that I then right that on my note board, my day planner, and my calendar. If I do not, and I don't also take out the original appointment. I will get very confused. I also get grumpy when people tell me to "put it in my planner" I don't know why, I know I need to. I guess I just don't like being told what to do. It reminds me that I have brain injury. I just want to be normal again. But if they don't see me right it down. I probably didn’t.

4) Keep notes of everything you do, every day. I have to write down that I paid Visa yesterday. If I don't I will pay it again. I have paid my cell phone bill twice, in the same month. When your living off of disability that is allot of money. I have to right it down when it happens, which during a busy day, can be time consuming. Again if I don't right it at that minute, I won't remember it later.

5) Google has a new calendar feature. It is just like all other calendars with a day and month schedule, it also has a daily to do list. It has the option to remind you of scheduled events, if you add this reminder feature during your set up. So I get little flashes on my computer that say "Math in two hours prepare to leave" This is just another form of reminder, and I will take all I can get. The coolest part of this easy to use scheduler is you can allow others access to your schedule. You have to invite them for your own security, but when I told my fiancé about this the possibilities seem remarkable. She can make sure I have added important events, plus keep track of events as I enter them, or complete them. It makes tracking several people's schedules a little easier. I highly recommend it for the Memory impaired, or busy family's trying to keep track of everyone’s schedules.

6) Very supportive people in my live. Without my Fiancé, my sister, my parents, and my friends understanding what I am going through, I would be lost. Professional help is also needed, I have had great Speech Pathologists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, and Social Service people. These people have experience with traumatic brain injury. Use them. There is no way I would get through this, without all these sources of information. I would not be training for a marathon, I would not be in school. Without the support of all these people to help lighten the load. I don't know where I would be.

7) Research. The best thing I did was to start researching Traumatic Brain Injury. I found books, I found support group’s. Check out your local government listings. Check out people with a disability information. One book I highly recommend is "Over my Head" by Claudia L. Osborn it is essential reading for traumatic brain injury survivors. I keep my copy on my nightstand. You can order a copy online at her website http://www.claudiaosborn.com/ she has allot of useful links to.

Another part of the research is that you will find very few answers. My Dr., Occupational Therapists, and Social Services all are very confusing to deal with. It is not from an unwilling to help. It is because there is no “How to deal with the brain injured” course they take. Don’t go along with the boat. Question everything. Talk to a Speech Pathologist as they seam to be the most knowledgeable. Also sign up with a support group. People who have been where you are now.

8) A good sense of humour and a belief that it will get better. I am lucky to be alive. I will never again be the person I was before. I have strange moods, I get frustrated, and on my bad days I feel hopeless. I lost so much, my home, my job, my memory, my privacy, my sense of who I am. I forgot everything. On the other hand. I am alive, I can walk and talk (I wasn’t ever supposed to be able to do that again) I am back in school after almost 16 years since leaving. I got engaged, and I am training for a Marathon. I don't know how much of this would have happened had I not had my accident. I don't really care. As long as I worry about what I once was, I will never realize my full potential.

After leaving home at 15, winding up homeless on the downtown east side of Vancouver, after 15 years of doing drugs. Going into recovery, being sober for over 5 years. Getting a job. Overcoming a stroke and having my skull removed for 30 days. Surviving Traumatic Brain Injury. I am alive, I am in love, I am starting college, and training for a Marathon. I am very lucky

Sun Run 2006 Photos

Here is me at the Vancouver Sun Run. It was a great run and a beautiful day. I finished in 1 hour 6 minutes, and that is after getting attacked by a lady jogger who tripped me on a sidewalk!! Just reinforces my theory that Old Woman are the downfall of today's society (joke) There were over 50,000 people at this years Run. Next year I will enter the expert category, not because I am an expert but because there were so many people you couldn't run at your common race speed. At least I could loose in comfort in the expert category. My next Run will be the 2006 Chicago Marathon with my sister in a few months.
 
 
 
 
  This is at the finish. All photo's were talking by my Fiance