Finishing Marathons With Gratitude
By Nina Rabinovitch Blecker | Categories: Every Mile Every Mother, Maternal Health | Comments Off on Finishing Marathons With Gratitude
With the New York Marathon and Chicago marathon now behind us, it’s time to say thank you to everyone who ran for and supported Team EMC.
We are so grateful for your generosity, commitment and willingness to endure countless training runs and complete 26.2-miles on behalf of all the mothers out there that need our support. A total of 74 women and 27 men, ranging from 19–66 years old, covered 2,600 miles and raised over $330,000, all of which will go directly back into life-saving programs to ensure pregnant and laboring women have access to critical maternity care.
Our top fundraisers, all of whom are mothers, really went above and beyond. They include:
- Anick Guira
- Hilary Reyl
- Stephanie Douglass
- Ashley Bradley
- Michelle Jassem
- Sima Beydoun
- Kathryn Kellinger
- Molly Farley
Our top runners include:
- Nancy Clayton (2:58:49)
- Taryn Unh (3:10:32)
- Rebecca MacKay (3:15:41)
- Nate Orders (3:17:14)
- Jessica Slaughter (3:26:35)
- Mike Yasinski (3:30:26)
- Matt Sonefeldt (3:30:59)
- Roma van der Walt (3:31:51)
- Stephanie Ragg (3:34:46)
- Trevor Licausi (3:37:58)
- Kristen Kirkland (EMC’s Human Resources Director and Running Events Manager) ran two marathons in three weeks, finishing the Chicago marathon in 3:39 and the New York Marathon in 3:51 minutes.
Special shout out to our nursing mamas, Ali Gelles, who ran her 10th marathon yesterday and Jill Bernardes who ran her first, both of whom incorporated pumping into their pre-race warmup.
We also wanted to give a nod to the top three 2014 TCS NYC Marathon elite women runners, all of whom are mothers. Mary Keitany, 32, from Kenya came in first, following a year off from training to have her second child. Jemima Jelagat Sumgong, who is raising a toddler came in second, and Sara Moreira, 29, of Portugal came in third and just celebrated her son’s first birthday. And finally, to Oiselle’s elite runner Kara Goucher, mom to 4 year old Colt, who despite recovering from multiple injuries this past year, ran her heart out to finish among the top 15 in the women’s field. We are so proud that these women represented what mothers can accomplish with the right support, dedication, and of course, training.
If you want to support Every Mother Counts this marathon season, there is still time. You can donate here to support our runners, or join our social media campaign by watching and share our film “The Walk” using #EveryMileEveryMother.