RE: Freescale Marathon

["Adrian Elliott" <adrianelliott@austin.rr.com>]

Great Job Ira!  Congratulations.

Adrian.



-----Original Message-----
From: ttat-members-owner@aoot.com [mailto:ttat-members-owner@aoot.com]On
Behalf Of Ira Schneider
Sent: Sunday, February 19, 2006 11:19 PM

Hi All,

For those of you who don't know, I have been training for the last six
months to run in the
Freescale Marathon.  Today, I actually completed the 26.2 mile marathon.
Attached is
a picture of me at the finish line.

If you haven't seen me in a while, you might not recognize me.  I lost 150
pounds over a period of 5 years and have kept the weight off for the last 3
years.
I started running about 3 years ago.  This was the most ambitious run I have
attempted.

It wasn't easy to complete the marathon.  The weather was cold, but
fortunately dry.  (They were
predicting a chance of light rain or freezing rain, but it didn't rain
during the run.)  The temperature
varied from about 30 degrees to near 40.  I was fighting tired and sore
muscles for the last few miles
and the thought of calling a taxi to skip out was very tempting.  However, I
perservered and walked
the last few miles.  I finished the 26.2 miles in just under 6 hours
(actually, 1/2 second under!)

This wasn't a lifetime dream - it is just something I decided to do last
year.  However, it is an
accomplishment I am proud of.  It is especially amazing to me that I could
do this run considering
my background of being overweight and not physically fit since childhood.

I was so excited about completing the marathon that I wanted to share my
accomplishment
with the immediate world (or at least my friends, family, and
acquaintances).

Thanks for listening.




Ira