Marathon on Melrose

Qualifying for the Boston Marathon was a major life event, only to be topped by actually running it.  When the the race was cancelled my training went out the window.  The thought of missing this race hit me harder than I realized, and I started to feel sorry for myself.

But then I realized that while this race is important to me and other runners, it’s just a race, I’ll be able to sign up next year.  Meanwhile, people are dying, and the rest of the world is sacrificing in their own ways to stay home and keep people safe.  I’m lucky enough to be able to work from home, but others are not.  They have had to sacrifice their livelihoods.

So I tried to think of something I can do solo to help people, and guess what I do solo - run.  I also love doing weird things, and so I came up with a fairly weird thing.  On the day that the Boston Marathon was supposed to happen, I am going to do a charity run.  A charity marathon, without leaving my block (social distancing and all).  My block is .125 miles long, so that’s a down and back 105 times, and I will be streaming it live on YouTube at 9am sharp (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O67gSzJTT1I&feature=youtu.be).  My training is not what its supposed to be for a good marathon, so I’m planning on a bad one.  It won’t be fast, but it will complete it, and every dollar pledged will go to the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund.

Thank you for your support for my community.