Marathon Madness

Here I am, training for another marathon. I'm well into the midst of training, running nearly 35 miles a week, keeping up a yoga practice to reclaim energy, and swimming to keep stress off my joints. I get all this done while being someone's wife, someone's mom, someone's employee, someone's daughter, and someone's friend. Things lapse, like I struggle to stay up past 10:00 pm to watch television with my husband, I often neglect folding towels for a day or two, and I have to decline invitations to go out with friends and party. It's exhausting. My legs are always sore, because in reality I'm probably still recovering from the first time my body hit 12+ miles in this training series --- several weeks ago. Sure, this is marathon 6, and it feels old hat at times, but at other times, I'm reminded of how emotional, stressed, and chaotic I feel.  Because I'm tired - most all of the time.  But the funny part is... I can't imagine my life any other way. I was selected for some odd reason to be a runner and it has brought me the greatest joys in life. Running has also taught me the greatest lessons -- from learning to recover from a major injury to healing from the heartbreak of losing a running friend or two.  Running is my catharsis, my passion, and often my best friend. 

Here's the cool part. I was asked to run on the Operation Jack Marathon Team to raise money for Autism awareness for Talk About Curing Autism (TACA).  We are running the Philadelphia Marathon on 11/19/2017.  I'm excited! This marathon is not about a personal record (PR) for me. This marathon is about the experience.  As you know, I'm a speech pathologist. I help diagnose Autism for a living. It is not an easy diagnosis to make, to understand, or even to talk about --- but we need to change the last part.  We need to talk about Autism in an effort to understand and in an effort to diagnose earlier.  We think we know a lot about Autism -- but we have some much more to learn. We need to be able to share the beauties that come from people with Autism and learn how we can all live together and learn from each other in this world.  On 11/19/17 I hope to start racing toward that goal. We can learn to tap into their gifts, their passions, and make social communication easier.  For people with Autism have a lot to teach us.

I feel extremely blessed to be a runner on the Operation Jack Team. My two loves, running and speech pathology will hit the streets together for  beautiful reason. It can't get much better than that.  Then over Thanksgiving break, I'll sleep.

If you'd like to donate here's a link! Peace, love, and light! 

https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/team/2017-operation-jack-philadelphia-marathon-team