On Saturday, April 30th, 2011. I ran a half-marathon in Nasvhille, Tennessee with Minnie's Aunt Minerva! It was a perfect morning, lots of sunshine and beautiful city to run through. It was so fun to run with a friend and be surrounded by so many other runner's as well. Being around so many other people helped a lot. I ended up shaving about 2 minutes off my usual time (per mile). I was thrilled! I think because I trained on a hilly terrain at home in Texas, it helped that Nashville's course was so flat in comparison. While running in Nashville, you just felt a sense of community and love for the runners. There were a lot of great local bands playing throughout the course, and many families and/or volunteers handing out all the water, energy drinks, gels, and fruit. I had to laugh when I noticed one volunteer handing out glazed yeast donuts to the runners passing by! I felt the love and support of The MAGIC Foundation when I saw other MAGIC supporters cheering us on, holding up signs. You did feel like a rock star when people kept cheering you on throughout the course. Also, there was a lot of genuine concern for others. Minerva and I both kept encouraging other runner's telling them "You can do it!". That sense of sportsmanship was great. It was a great feeling to cross the finish line, and to enjoy all the months of hard work leading up to this day was incredible.
After the race, we met up with family and friends in downtown Nashville at Paradise Park! We celebrated with The MAGIC Foundation there. It felt wonderful to relax, talk to all the other MAGIC runner's and family members. We were blessed to have George Chmiel with us in Nashville. He has been such an incredible inspiration to many, many people. His story is incredible and so inspiring. George has tremendously helped The MAGIC Foundation and raise awareness and donations. You can read about his incredibly journey on
www.LuciAndGeorge.com. I had the honor of meeting George and the Horvath family. I felt honored and blessed to meet many other people from The MAGIC Foundation and to just be apart of this wonderful event. At the celebration dinner, MAGIC announced that over $41, 000 had been raised! Which later, MAGIC discovered that more donations had come in while we were in Nashville, and the total was pushed up to over $45, 000! It was a great success on so many levels, and I am excited to continue running for MAGIC next year! I hope to train to run a full marathon for next year, and raise a lot more awareness and donations for MAGIC.
