That's a lot of Freaking Miles!

By Ann Stoutenburg

On January 9, 2000 I joined 10,000 other runners/walkers for the Disney World Marathon (another 5,000 were doing the 1/2 marathon). As the wife of a marathon runner (my husband, Greg, has done 14) I was used to being a spectator. For the first time, I was the one running.

Exactly one year ago two friends and I had signed up with the Leukemia Society's Team in Training. Prior to that, none of us had ever run more than 5 miles. My friend's 6-year-old son, Tony, was battling leukemia and we decided we would do this for him--he would be our "honored patient". And since we figured we might as well have fun while we were running 26.2 miles, we picked Disney. We called ourselves "Tony's Team", and started our fundraising. We tried to raise most of the money through events rather than asking family and friends for donations, and it was amazing how people were willing to help us. We had many items donated to us for raffles, Wendy's did a fund-raiser for us and gave us coupon books to sell, a local boy scout troop did a bottle & can drive for us (and raised $365). The list went on and on. Many people sent us donations unsolicited. Ginny Ryan from Channel 13 did a story on us in May, and the manager of Rochester Fitness Center in Chili even gave the three of us one-year memberships to train for the marathon. We raised a combined total of $9,659. That took care of half the battle, then came the training.

Our "official training" didn't start until September--18 weeks before the marathon. Our TNT coaches were John Hultz and Jerry Steffen, and we couldn't have asked for two nicer, more dedicated coaches than them. We met at 7:30 every Saturday morning in Mendon Ponds. John and Jerry did everything but run for us--they planned the routes, put water and Gatorade out on the course, and even brought power bars and gels. It was the closest you could come to being pampered while running! By the time of our TNT "Send Off Party" on January 4 we all felt ready and very excited about the marathon. Our longest run had been 20 miles, which surprisingly hadn't seemed too bad. I naively thought "how hard could another 6.2 be?"

Once we got to Orlando on Friday, January 7, the excitement turned to nervousness. I went from feeling "this is great, the marathon is almost here" to "oh my god, the marathon is almost here!" I didn't sleep much on Friday and felt nervous most of Saturday. The TNT Pasta Party was Saturday night at the Contemporary Hotel. Approximately 3000 TNT members from across the country were there--we raised a total of $5.5 million for the Leukemia Society! One of the speakers was Lucy Duffy, who started the TNT program in 1986. She decided to run the New York City Marathon in honor of her husband Alan who was battling leukemia and passed out pledge forms to solicit donations. She raised a total of $30,000 for the Leukemia Society. Sadly, her husband died one month after she ran the marathon. When she finished speaking the crowd gave her a standing ovation and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. It was an incredible feeling to see the packed ballroom and realize that all of these people had come to run the marathon for the same cause.

I think I managed to sleep for 1 1/2 hours that night. The alarm went off at 3 a.m. and I got ready to catch the 4 a.m. bus to the start line. I knew we were in trouble when I went outside at 4 a.m. and it was already warm. Race day temperatures wound up being in the mid-70's, which is about 20 degrees higher than I would have liked. I lined up at the start with Jerry Steffen and another TNT member, Kim Smith (who, incredibly, had never run until June of 1999 when she decided to do the marathon). Jerry and I got to be good friends during the training, and I warned him that I was planning on being "velcro woman" and sticking close to him. I was so nervous that when the fireworks went off to start the race I literally thought I was going to faint. I told Jerry, who did what any good coach would do--he told me "you're too heavy to carry, you have to run!" So I did.

I had painted my name on my singlet, which was probably one of the best things I could have done. About a mile into the race we came upon the first group of spectators, and someone yelled out "come on Ann, you can do it!" That really helped! I thought "wow, I have a fan!" I felt much better after that and we settled into a comfortable pace. I was totally amazed at the number of people who yelled out my name during the marathon. Jerry kept asking me how many people I knew in Orlando. I had a lot of experience as a marathon spectator, and I always cheered for the runners as they went by. Now I know just how much that cheering helps and how one cheer from someone you don't even know can really keep you going. For the first 20 miles every time someone called out my name I would yell "thank you!" From 20-24 miles I was too tired to speak and would just flash a "thumbs up." Around mile 25 someone yelled to me "come on Ann, you're almost there" and I blurted out "Ann's tired!" I don't know what came over me.

It was really touching to see all of the purple TNT singlets on the course and to read what people had written on their shirts--for Dad, for Chris, for Uncle Doug, for Zach, for Tony, and on Jerry's shirt, a picture of his 6-year-old daughter Rebecca, who also has leukemia. My TNT bracelet had Tony's and Rebecca's name on it, and when I needed a boost I would think of them. I saw someone at the race expo wearing a shirt that said "If you think running a marathon is tough, try chemotherapy" and that thought really stayed with me too.

I carried a single-use camera with me and managed to take 26 pictures during the marathon. I would yell "photo op" and Jerry would patiently wait while I took a picture or take the picture for me while I posed with the characters. Running through the parks was great, but many parts of the course were not very spectator-friendly. We spent a lot of time running on private Disney roads where there were no spectators and no music. At one point a group of us started singing just to break up the monotony. (Not a pretty sound, but it was fun.) The course finished up in Epcot, with us running around the countries to the finish line. When I saw the 26 mile marker and didn't see the finish line my heart sank. I almost cried as I said "Jerry, there's no finish line! Why isn't there a finish line??" He reminded me about the .2 part of the marathon, which I think really was the toughest part. Jerry and I crossed the finish line hand-in-hand.

I still can't believe I actually ran a marathon. I can't believe my husband runs them for fun! After I returned to work a co-worker asked me what it was like, and all I could say was "that's a lot of freaking miles!" It was for a good cause, and I met some great people. Maybe someday . . .

The list of all Rochester-area finishers from this race can be seen here.