49 and Fabulous

49 and Fabulous

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Top Five reasons to run the Pittsburgh Marathon

Any seasoned runner will tell you: If you need motivation to start training, you have to pick a marathon and register. All I know is that I need motivation.

I am looking at two, The New York City Half in March and The Pittsburgh Full in May. There are many reasons to run a Marathon in Pittsburgh. But I wanted to narrow it down to the Top Five reasons to run my first full 26.1 Marathon in Pittsburgh.

Reason One: The first reason and what probably started the Pittsburgh dialog is that my Dad was born and raised in Pittsburgh and since I’m a bit of Daddy’s girl, I have always loved the Pittsburgh Steelers. It would feel right that my first full marathon would be in the Steel City – It would be a challenge for me to finish and I would have to dig deep inside my competitive drive and my faith to see this through beginning to finish line. For some reason, I want Charlie Batch to run with me. Maybe because #16 is my favorite number, maybe I love Charlie Batch. But somehow, I am going to convince him this is a good thing to do.

Reason Two: Secondly, my sister Patty has been my inspiration to start running– she wanted to run her first full by her 50th birthday. I now want to do the same thing. This last year, after several Full and Half marathons, she was told by doctors she needed a hip replacement and had to stop running long distances. She was devastated and this required a complete change in her weekly routines. I feel like I owe her for giving me my love of running and would dedicate my run to Patty.

Reason Three: My birthday is May 2nd and the Marathon is May 6th – I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate my birthday than by running my first full Marathon.

Reason Four: I have a calling on my heart to run and raise money. A foundation that I would represent is Troy Palamalu and his wife’s foundations, The Harry Panos Fund for Veterans which raises money for veterans of foreign wars that have current health issues or financial difficulties. I want to set a ridiculous high goal and reach it. My cousin Bill is in the Air Force and I have always liked to support our servicemen and women. (Wow, maybe he will come and run with me.)

Reason Five: I am Second. I am a true believer and nothing, nothing in my life would give me more pleasure to run as a testimony to my love for Jesus Christ.

I feel like I’ve already committed to run. I also feel like I have a bit of work to do to get this all set up. If anyone out there in New York City wants to become my running partner, let me know. I also may need someone to carry me the last few miles – just say’in, just in case.

All my best,
Stephanie

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