Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Rebooted

http://www.windycitysports.com/features/going-the-extra-mile.html

At the stroke of midnight January 1, Adam Miller registered as the first member of Jack’s Marathon Team ‘07. Why the urgency? His friend, Amy Kaphengst, a young wife and mom of two, was near the end of her battle with melanoma. Adam wanted to send her a positive message as she fought for her life.

Amy passed away a few days later. Inspired by her courageous battle, Adam spent months training for the Chicago Marathon and raising funds for the Jack H Marston II Melanoma Fund. To date Adam has run two Chicago Marathon’s in Amy’s honor and has raised over $3000 to fight melanoma. He continues to run in her memory.

In the process of fighting back against a disease that stole a dear friend, Adam found a passion for distance running. Friendships formed as miles were logged and one friendship grew special to Adam. So, during the Chicago Marathon ’08, at mile 13.1, in the midst of all the Jack’s Team supporters, Adam took a knee and proposed!

Many say that Jack’s Team is like a big family. We’re sure Adam would agree: embraced in both grief and joy; sharing a common goal; working together with Strength. Passion. Focus.



I realize my blog has gone unexpectedly dark for the past months, and it is with a slight sense of sadness mixed with satisfaction I must inform you of the end of Reboot.

With my proposal to My Love at the Chicago Marathon and our recent Wedding Day (starting at a sterile court room in the basement of the County Clerk’s office and ending in a slushy but fun Shamrock Shuffle 8K) my life as a “recently divorced father” has come to an end.

I embark upon a new life with My Love and our combined five children and will close this chapter in my life.

Before I go, I wanted to reprint the article from Chicago Windy City Sports March 2009 edition featuring the charity team for whom I run.

I had purchased the engagement ring without My Love’s knowledge and put it in that tiny “key pocket” in my running shorts the morning of the marathon. My Love was not running, but did go down to be a spectator. She promised to meet me at the Jack’s Marathon tent which was in the Charity Village just past the halfway point of the race.

As I dropped to one knee, the announcer at the Charity Village who was highlighting the runners passing by yelled to me, “Adam Miller, what are you doing!?”. It was surreal to have a running commentary and a gathering crowd of eyes upon me while I patiently waited for the shock to wear off on My Love so that she could reply in the affirmative.

The announcer finally jolted her out of her reverie by chanting, “Say yes, say yes, say yes!”

I kissed her, gave her a sweaty hug, and then left her standing there to complete the second 13.1 miles of the race. It felt strange to just leave her standing there, but I promised I’d see her at the end of the race (hopefully less than two hours later).

The first half of the race I stayed with a pace group led by a gentleman I happened to run into after the race. He is known as “The Pickle Juice Guy” and is a race director in Michigan. I promised to write Rick with my story, and finally can do so as I sent him the link to my blog.

The miles sailed by, the weather was mild, the crowd was exuberant and I was happily counting down the miles to my proposal!

The second half of the race was more challenging, although I was running on adrenaline (and Red Bull, as supplied to me by My Love in a squeeze bottle).

The lack of shade coupled with the cloudless sky made for hot conditions, although nothing like the previous year.

At one point my legs started itching very badly and I couldn’t understand what was going on, having never suffered such a condition on any other race. I figured out my sweat was drying and caking salt to my skin! I gave myself a bit of a sponge bath at the next aid station and emerged refreshed.

I amused myself by people watching, both the crowd and the runners.

Among my favorite T-shirts were the following:
- “I before E except after C. Weird.”
- Worn by a young male runner: “If you think I’m good ON my feet…”
- Worn by a young male runner who I just passed: “How does my dust taste?”
- Worn by two young male runners who were walking at mile 19 with their hands on their hips: “Boston or death.” Bummer, dudes.
- A sign held by two young ladies watching the race: “Your shirt is sweaty. Take it off!”
- A sign held by a father wearing thick glasses standing next to a young boy who appeared (sadly) to be his son: “Runner butt check ahead” The father was leering at every woman passing by. Chilling.
- And, finally, a guy with a shirt that said, simply, “More Cowbell” ringing a large cowbell.

Although the fan support was uniformly excellent, there were two aggravations. One was a spectator guy that starting running alongside a young female screaming at the top of his lungs repeatedly at her “This is your day Abbey!!!! This is your day!!!!!” I think she sped up just to get away from this guy.

And, in conclusion, a guy shouting out to the passing runners “You’re almost there!”

At mile 20. When there was still 6.2 miles to go. That is just wrong.

But, I did finish.

A blissful finish, indeed.

0 comments: