My training partner, Sarah, leaves this afternoon for Boston. On Monday she’ll be one of 25,000 determined runners participating in the 2008 Boston marathon. She has been working towards this goal for nearly 2 years. She trained all last winter in order to qualify at the Cleveland marathon, and has been training ever since for every marathoner’s pinnacle race…Boston. This winter could have arguably been the worst training weather possible. Nearly every day greeted her with either gale-force winds, snow, ice, rain, or the dreaded and infamous “oobleck.” She was out there no matter what. The night we got pounded with over a foot of snow, I thought about calling to cancel our morning run because nothing was plowed, but I knew she would be running so I trudged through the foot of snow in our driveway to the snow-covered street and turned the corner to find her running towards me…ever-faithful…ever-determined. The morning of this year’s blizzard she had a 17 mile run on her schedule. She found the one street that was semi-plowed and ran up and down it for 2 hours and 45 minutes…now that’s dedication.

You may think to yourself…ok, this girl just loves to run. That’s part of it, but this is much bigger than running alone. She runs for her dad. He passed away from lymphoma almost 3 years ago, and she runs to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and to honor him and his memory with her strength of will and determination. She set her goal, and on Monday she will achieve it with the help of a hell of a lot of hard work and an angel’s wings.

Best of luck, Sarah. You are an inspiration. Your father would be very proud…very proud indeed.

Update - Sarah finished in 4:26:17 after battling a cramped quad at mile 9, a stomach bug halfway through, and receiving i.v. fluids at the finish. She said she felt great once she got the fluids, and she was just happy that it was over. It may not have been her day, but she accomplished a goal that many of us dream about. Way to go, Sarah!