Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Chicago marathon



I had a friendly reminder (thanks Alisha) that I forgot to mention the Chicago marathon in my last White House post so here it is.

This past weekend I competed in the Chicago marathon on an arm bike. It was my 3rd marathon, the other 2 being NYC. This one was especially awesome because fellow veteran Tammy Duckworth and another friend, Alisha Middel did it as well. And it was a flat course which is always nice when you ride a bike with your arms. We did it with a group called Achilles and a number of other wounded vets. We all finished the marathon, completing all 26.2 miles and got the reward of the medal put around our neck.

I had a slight issue at mile 8 when my handle broke off my bike. Luckily one of the crowd was able to wheel me into his garage and fix my bike so I could continue. Then on mile 24 I took a turn a little sharp and fell off my bike hurting my leg (the short one) in the process. Luckily it's feeling better after some relaxing this past week. This was the first I had been on my arm bike in about 2 years and I felt it. My shoulders started to burn pretty bad about halfway through but it was an awesome day with a ton of crowds to cheer us on and I did my best. My time was 2:08 across the line.

It was a great time and I enjoyed myself. Being in that atmosphere makes me realize how much I want get better at running. I would love to cross the finish line on my feet someday...

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Next year you can do it on your feet!

Stephanie said...

Thank you for sharing! I didn't know that you were doing it! Congrats on finishing it! let me know when you want to train and I will train with you! I have been wanting to get back into running as well. i would love to do one with you! You would probably be faster than me!!!

hope all is well!
love, steph