Happy Halloween!
Tomorrow is the start of 2011 RSD Awareness Month. Today, however, I want to take the time to brag about my daughter. You can follow her at:
Yesterday, my blind 27 year old daughter ran in her first marathon in the Marine Corps Marathon. She has been training with two wonderful runners, Max and Megan since July and with her husband Bennett before that. As many of you in the Northeast know, this past weekend it snowed. Kim has cold and exercise induced asthma and she had never run this distance in the cold, but that didn't prove to be the biggest obstical. Unfortunately her one runner, Megan, had bronchitis and dropped back early on. Max continued to guide Kim through the race. Their times were ahead of Kim's goal. Max began to have a leg cramp (Max and Megan trained with Kim together just in case one of them got injured they would have a back up). He pushed and pushed through but eventually had to "hand" Kim off to someone that neigher of them knew. There was a minister and deacon from of all places Altoona PA (where I was born) who jumped in, having never run as a guide before (nor had Max or Megan before they volunteered) and helped her through the last 2 miles. The fourth quarter of the marathon time was a bit off due to the injury and hand off but Kim still finished in 4 hours 33 minutes.
The families of these two men took Kim under their wing and stayed with her until Kim's husband Bennett could find her. They were all so kind and sweet to her. It restored my faith in humanity as Kim has received some unfriendly experiences in commuting to work over the years from insensative people. It was heart warming to have total strangers go out of their way to help her finish her marathon.
Kim had such a great attitued about the calemedy of things that occurred during her marathon and it has just spurred her on to run in another marathon in the spring.
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