We did it!!  On October 18th, we ran in the Nationwide Better Health Columbus Half Marathon.  It was our first Half Marathon, and if I may say so myself, WE ROCK!!  We (Pam, Joanne, Scott (a good friend and last minute joiner), and I) ran the 13.1 miles around town (downtown, to Bexley, to German Village, and back to Nationwide Blvd).  It was a very cold start (temps in the 30s for most of the race), but after the first couple miles, it was a beautiful, sunny day.  You could tell people were warming up, by the piles of clothes that they had shed along the roads-- that was pretty funny to see... you could've gone "shopping"!  hahahaa...

Pam and I finished with a time of 2:25:00, Scott finished just ahead of us, and Joanne finished with a time of 2:14:59.  Fantastic!!  Not bad for our first Half!!  I'm thrill that we kept our pace of 11:07 per mile throughout!

There were somewhere around 15,000 participants, which was a really neat site, looking ahead at the streets filled with runner and walkers.  For me, after getting warm, I felt like the mile markers came pretty fast through about mile 8 or 9.  After that, it started to get a little more difficult.  But it was nice running with Pam and Scott.  I think we all kept each other distracted, entertained, and motivated.  And Scott even took pictures along the way (I think secretly he could've finished quite a bit faster than we did, but he hung out with anyway, and we're glad he did)!  You can see the pictures on Facebook, on Rex's, Scott's, or my pages.

 Why I Run…

You may or may not know that this disease has affected my life in tremendous ways.  It has taken my Grandmother (who I never met because she was so young and I was not born before she passed), Aunt, Uncle, and my Mom.  Now my cousin, and my sister, Jennifer, have been diagnosed with it.  This makes it a VERY personal battle for me, and I intend to fight that battle with everything I have! 

Because we know so little about Polycystic Kidney Disease, I plan to get involved in fundraising whenever I can!  So why not sign up for the COLUMBUS HALF-MARATHON!!  That's right!  We mean business!!  I enlisted the company of my very good friend Pam to run it with me!!  The race will take place on October 18th, and we plan to work very hard (boy are we already!) and make the 13.1 miles to fight this disease!!  I hope you'll help us in any way possible.  And please keep Jennifer, and our training in your prayers!  Thanks so much!

What is PKD?

Polycystic kidney disease is one of the most common life-threatening genetic diseases, affecting more people that Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and sickle cell anemia - combined. Currently there is no treatment and no cure… But there is hope.

The PKD Foundation is here to ensure that someday, no one suffers the full effects of PKD. The PKD Foundation aggressively seeks to convert:

· Ignorance into knowledge through high quality patient education materials

· Despair into hope through communications, support groups and research advances

· Isolation into community by involvement in more than 70 PKD Foundation chapters and by lobbying congress

· Ideas into reality through the research the Foundation funds and through clinical drug trials

· Basic science into therapies through ‘translational’ grants and the Foundation’s work with FDA

· Small dollars into large dollars by leveraging grants into expanded PKD National Institute of Health (NIH) research through ‘passionate advocacy’

 

And it is your financial support that makes this all possible. Please help me make a difference by making a donation today!