Whelp, I’ve made it to Milwaukee! So many emotions right now it’s not even funny. One minute I’m going about normal daily activities and the next minute it hits me…I’m running the Chicago Marathon this Sunday! BLAAAAHHHHH! :-P Nervous, excited, prepared, anxious, etc. I just love the spirit of the marathon (a side note, Spirit of the Marathon is actually a movie and I highly recommend it!!!!) and every marathon is different but so similar. I just love it!
Anyway, this marathon is slightly different than the other 3 I’ve run since I’m fundraising. I actually fundraised for my first marathon (Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children for the White Rock Marathon, Dallas, TX 12/2009) but there weren’t any restrictions. With Chicago however I’m fundraising through Fred’s Team for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and there are restrictions. If I don’t reach my fundraising goal of $2000 I will not be able to run the marathon on Sunday. Which is difficult, however I thought it was totally do-able since I raised just over my goal of $1000 for TSRHC last year. Well, I was wrong. As of this moment I’m still (technically) $665 away from reaching my goal. I recently decided that if my goal still eluded me by Friday (today) afternoon then I would sell however many of my stocks I needed to in order to run. So, this afternoon just before I left the office to catch my flight, I hopped online to sell the stocks I needed to and be on my marry way to the airport. I’ll admit it was disappointing that I would have to be digging into my stocks but I’d come so far already with expenses for the trip, my 20+ weeks of training (through the ridiculous Texas summer heat and humidity I might add), most importantly the $1355 my friends, family, and co-workers had already donated to MSKCC for this race…it made selling some of my stocks totally worth it. Well, as I was finalizing the transaction a notice comes up reminding me the cash from selling wouldn’t hit my bank account to 3-5 business days! WHAT?! How did I miss this?! NOOOOOO. No point now in selling, so I cancelled my transaction and lost all hope. I’d exhausted all ideas and people I knew, my dear friend Blaze even implored his co-workers, my boss Jeremy and his partner did the same to their friends and Facebook pages, and again I’d exhausted all my possible options. Not running Chicago all-of-a-sudden became a harsh reality.
So I made my depressed way to the airport, my poor dad trying to console his inconsolable daughter. I boarded the plane and did what I could to stay distracted, praying I would raise the rest of the money by 3pm Saturday (tomorrow). I had a window seat and as we came into Milwaukee airport the sun was beginning to set, the trees were everywhere and in full autumn colors, the houses had character and my heart broke. I miss living up north, don’t get me wrong, the south has its charms and definite pros (like fabulous fall, winter, and spring running weather) but I really miss so much about Northern life. Yeesh! I took the shuttle over to the train station to catch my train into Union Station in Chicago (in case you’re wondering, I saved an incredible amount of money flying into Milwaukee and taking the train down instead of flying into O’Hare or Midway) and tried to enjoy what I was doing…TRAVELLING! Even though this is a serious whirlwind trip, I’m doing what I love and in one of my most favorite places. Still the reality of my situation was continually taking over. I finally made it to my hotel…FABULOUS (btw☺), and received word that the rest of my fundraising was taken care of!!!! YIPPIE! I’m officially running! Sleep-time…if I can ☺
View from my room...that's the John Hancock Building with the two antenna's
No comments:
Post a Comment