[9/15/12] FINAL POST!! Final race results, thank yous, and my future plans!

Hi everyone :) It took me almost a full week to finally complete my final post! I wasn't truly able to process what happened last weekend due to my M2 block final for the hardest 5 academic 5 weeks I've ever experienced. Now that by the grace of God I was able to process it so... here we go!

Race results: My official time was a 1:41:19 - 981th out of 12105 total runners!! Here's the official race results:

This time has a story all to itself and although I was 1 min 19 seconds off of my time goal I set, I'm still very proud of this result for the following reasons:

1) My Nike+ Running app was COMPLETELY off during the race. Here's a picture of the distance it told me I ran at the finish line...

So... basically the app told me "13 miles" at mile marker 11... what - the - heck! Haha I wasn't really paying too much attention to the mile markers during the race so before I realized it, I thought I was "done" with the race when the app told me mile 13 and I had already begun to unconsciously increase my pace. Big mistake! See that decline in pace at near the end of the race? I think those final two miles at mile marker 11 were the hardest 2 miles I had ever run in my life mentally!! A very special shout out to my friend Emily for hopping onto the course and helping me cross the finish line :). I will be retiring my Nike+ Running App and I will be investing in a Garmin GPS watch to much more accurately track my training runs/races in the future. Post-race I felt great, however, so that ties in to one of my future goals that I will talk about later.

2) The half marathon shuttle service was really, REALLY bad. I got to the pick up site at 5:25am expecting to leave by 5:30am... They didn't have enough buses so we had to wait for the buses to loop back around to pick us up. After leaving at 6:10am for a 7:00am race start, they get us there at 6:45am giving me less than 15 minutes to check my gear, jog to the start line, and do a 5 minute cursory stretch for a half marathon. Another reason why I'm happy with my time since my body didn't break down! Thank God for hard training!

Overall... great first experience for my first long distance race ever :) Learned a lot and I'm aiming for faster times in the future! Some post race pictures!:

 Shortly after crossing the finish line!

 Happy stretching!! :D

 Overcoming boundaries and dreaming big: Finally able to say that I am fully recovered and my ankle surgeries are far behind me!

 BIG shout-out to Emily and Andrea for coming to support! Awesomest poster ever which is basically sitting up on my apartment wall now!!

My lovely family who flew out to support me on that day! (Actually more for vacation... but ya know!)

Thanks: HUGE thank yous to EVERYONE who donated over the course of these past 6 months!! I could NEVER have done it without you all so I'll take some time to post your name here so when I look back or feel discouraged all I have to do is look back at this blog post and remember how much love and support I have :)

Judy Alicante

Sean Alicante

Sharon Gates

Flor Hotchkiss

Nelson Castalone

Gener Dizon

Doris Woodruff

Carla Del Sol

CJ Alicante

Norma Santos

MaryAnn Leong

Jacob Arcelona

Lourdes Baltero

Jessery Lacerna

Jessie Lacerna

Bryan Takei

Fadwa Samara

Denise Veloria

Kristine Lee

Dustin Liebling

Milagrino Cachola

Munira Patel

Susan Irving

Gregory Enriquez

Jennifer Tuason

Grace Dadios

Danilo Dadios

Marianne Dadios

Yolanda Dadios

Concepcion Dizon

Jojo Quiatchon

Bhavnit Bhatia

Emily Thompson

Michael Beamer

Joseph Lee

Anuhya Gampa

Final fundraising results!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart... I really never would have made it without you all :)

Future plans: Now that this chapter of my life has come to a close... I can finally turn my attention to the future and begin to dream new dreams! 

1) My first and foremost priority now is to complete medical school :) It has gotten much more challenging but my experience with this race has given me a renewed passion and fire to press on no matter what situation I find myself in. I've fought hard and sacrificed a lot to get to where I am and I refuse to let it all go to waste! 

2) I will continue to run! After experiencing the thrill of running a half marathon, I will set my sights to running a full marathon! I hope to run it before taking my board exams this April. To do that, however, I will keep up my training since it has basically become a part of my daily routine/schedule and it feels strange for me when I don't do it! My next race is the Chicago Hot Chocolate 15K so find me on Facebook to keep updated with that progress!

3) Finding God and trusting Him throughout my life. I feel that my personal relationship with God has grown tremendously through this entire experience. Days where I felt like I could not go on or make it, I felt a surge of energy that I can only really attribute to Him. Waking up at 5am every day to train/study before pulling a 12 hour day AFTER that with 3-4 hours of sleep was NOT easy for me. Looking back on it, I know I couldn't have done it without all of your support and without God. Team World Vision has taught me to widen my perspectives to remember that at every moment God is there to support me. I think the only word I can use at this point is simply... "awe"! :D

4) Maintain a positive attitude and smile throughout medical school and beyond even when things are tough! This is going to be a challenging goal but we hear every day about doctors and medical students who become jaded and uncaring. I will actively strive to maintain my core values and attitudes during my training and my career. I am definitely not perfect and I know I will feel negative and sad at times... but I plan to use this experience as a way for me to remember that I can get through ridiculously hard times while still staying genuinely happy :)

5) Re-exploring my limits and re-evaluating my goals and priorities. There are aspects of my life that I have sacrificed that I did not necessarily want to give up that I want to re-explore. I won't go into specifics but I will be actively thinking about and praying about those aspects. Personally... I hope that those bridges have not been broken down to the point where I can no longer cross them. Only time will tell! (Forgive me for being vague here... but let's just say that I've accomplished a personal goal by reaching my goals with this race)

This marks the end of one amazing and eye-opening journey of growth and commitment. I somehow managed to make it through 6 1/2 months of training while in medical school which gives me a lot of hope and confidence in the future! I plan to one day visit one of the wells I fund-raised for during this journey in Africa, likely when I finish my medical training (since they'll last for a generation!!). Again, thank you for following me and for all your support on this journey!! My updates will come primarily through facebook from now on (OR... if I decide to go on another crazy journey like a Triathlon... maybe I'll write another blog then? LOL).With that... I happily and humbly end this blog. God bless and take care everyone!

Bye bye! :D

Signing off,

Marc Dadios

Rush Medical College M2

Proud runner for Team World Vision :)

1 Corinthians 6:20 “Glorify God in your body”

[9/8/12]: One day left... :) Final updates, thoughts, and thanks to everyone!

Hi everyone!

Final pre-race update... I never thought I would ever say those words. It's been a long, humbling journey and I sincerely thank you all for your love, prayers, donations, and overwhelming support! I seriously can't express how thankful I am for everyone, especially during this hard time in my life during medical school. Here are some final pre-race pictures that I would like to share before the start of the race:

Reached my donation goal!! [9/6/12]

Half marathon expo at Navy Pier

Bib # and shirt :)

6 1/2 months of work! This mileage does not include the recovery runs I would run. Total of about 300+ miles. :)

Another HUGE blessing is my family is here to support me!!!! They flew in this morning and, although I had to study a lot today for my exam on Monday, I'm SO thankful that they're here. :)

Now my thoughts...

Although I started this journey primarily to raise money for kids and communities in Africa to provide clean water to them, I also started it for personal reasons as well. I went through a very traumatic time in my life at the end of January and, as a result of that event, decided that I needed to search for God and trust in Him completely. Before I decided to start training for this half marathon, I wasn't sure how to do that... I was lost, unfocused, losing confidence, and very vulnerable. I found out about Team World Vision from an announcement made at Park Community Church. I saw the advertisement for it, thought to myself "Hey... I used to run...", and decided to seriously think about it.

After praying about it and doing a lot of soul searching, I joined Team World Vision and began this wonderful, but extremely trying journey. Seriously, without God as my strength giving me courage, I would never have made it to this point. My podiatrist who performed my two ankle reconstruction surgeries gave me a 25-30% chance of making it to race day healthy and ready to run. Not only am I ready to run... I'm ready to race. I'm healthier and more fit than I've ever been in my life. Regardless of what happens tomorrow morning, I feel like my goal of becoming closer to God and having a much more meaningful and powerful relationship with Him will be complete. In terms of my own personal journey, reaching my goal will also mean that I can atone for my actions in January. I will honor the sacrifice that was made in January and honor the gifts that were graciously given to me. No matter the pain, no matter the cost... I'll make this race worth it. I haven't really expressed this at all during these past 6 1/2 months but I still run with some pain in my feet. I view it, however, as my old friend, something that is going to stick with me. The way I see it, though, I will gladly accept it as something that reminds me of how far I've been able to come and the journey ahead.

Till tomorrow :) I will post the official result after my exam on Monday and my final thoughts and future. I can't believe that this blog is going to be done! I hope to be able to look back on this and tell myself... "wow... I actually did it". Here we go... Thank you all!! God bless :)

Marc :)

1 Corinthians 6:20 “Glorify God in your body”

[9/2/12] One more week of this journey :)


Follow this link to read about what Team World Vision is all about! This was the e-mail I sent out on March 11, 2012... So humbling that it has been this long... :
http://md-twvchicagohalfmarathon.blogspot.com/2012/03/3712-this-is-e-mail-im-sending-to.html


If you are interested in donating to my cause for my last push to my fundraising goal... please follow this link! Words of encouragement are also welcome :)
http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/TeamWorldVision?px=1215447&pg=personal&fr_id=1680


I can't believe it's been almost 6 months since I've started training... I've learned a lot about myself during this time and it's been an amazing ride. This week I will be taking it relatively easy because I've been running/training a lot already. My goal is to not get injured this week and to stay calm and focused. Please continue praying and supporting :)

I have about 2 posts left in me... One on Saturday after my last gym session to prepare for this race where I will state my motivations, my hopes, and my goals for this race which, although I've already been doing this, I haven't fully explained it. Also, I will post my race results, thoughts, and hopes for the future. Almost there :)

Take care everyone! Time to study for my exam the day after the race! M2 year is brutal but staying focused!

God bless!
Marc

[8/25/12] Quick updates due to my first exam as an M2!

Hi everyone! Just a couple of quick updates:

1) I'm in great health!! It's exactly two weeks until my half marathon!!! I can't believe I started training exactly 6 months ago... It's such a great and humbling experience and I sincerely hope I can reach my goal! I'm going to be running the half marathon trail tomorrow morning so stay tuned!

2) My first exam as an M2 is killer... which is why I'm trying to survive haha! 450 pages to learn/memorize in 3 weeks including pathology, pharmacology, microbiology, bacteriology, virology, genetics, etc. On top of that... over 200 drugs that I've never heard of to memorize! Somehow gonna get through this!

See you all on the other side of my exam on Monday! Much more updates post-exam!

God bless!
Marc

[8/12/12] 5K Race update, Half Marathon Corral update, a successful Sunday run, and 2nd year updates:

Hi Everyone!

I'll make this short and sweet since I have about 100 pages of catch up work to do (Oh M2 year... lol)

1) Here are my results from the 5K on 8/2/12:

The conditions for that day was REALLY hot and humid so I felt like I ran a pretty solid race all things considered. It was about 88 degrees outside, no shade, with about 80% humidity lol! It has since cooled down considerably but I learned a lot of valuable lessons during the race. I paced myself well throughout the race and I kept a consistent pace of about 7:18 per mile which isn't that bad all things considered. For my half marathon I definitely have to pace myself with my clock and my running app on the iPhone :)

2) With this result I e-mailed the Chicago Half Marathon corral placement committee (whatever you call them lol!). From my previous post, I had to run a 21:40 or under 5K to qualify for one of the faster corrals. I ran a 21:54 and basically explained what happened that day. They thankfully gave it to me!! I will be able to run at the faster pace that I would like to run at so I am definitely happy about that!!

3) Today's run was my best run in a while :) I felt great, the weather was perfect (62 degrees, overcast, slight  cool breeze coming in over the lake), and I was able to eat breakfast without it giving me too many problems. This run is also 3 days after another 11 mile morning run I ran on Thursday with a day of gym time in between so I was kind of surprised at the result:

I'm seriously hoping I can maintain this pace without getting injured for the next month coming up to race day! Thank you all for your love, support, and your prayers! God is definitely walking (running!) with me along this journey giving me the strength and courage to continue training! If you haven't donated to my cause yet and would like to support families in Africa please follow the link below to help!!

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/General?px=1215447&pg=personal&fr_id=1680

At the end of the day I've realized something... I'm not running for myself. I could never put up this kind of effort and courage on my own. I'm running for those who have much much less than I do. I'm running for those who can't protect/support themselves. Overall... I'm running because God is inspiring me to run - and that's all I need to do the best I can!

God bless! Till next time!

Marc :D

[8/12/12] Final repost of my mission statement and my story :) Please support me if you can!! :D


Dear friends, family, and loved ones,

Hi everyone! My name is Marc Dadios and I just wanted to let you all know that I recently signed up to run my first half marathon with Team World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to raising money to help provide clean water to the poorest communities in Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_World_Vision

http://support.worldvision.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Impact_WhyCleanWater

A little bit about myself: I am a first year medical student studying at Rush Medical College in Chicago. I decided to commit to this race because it has been my dream to run a half marathon/full marathon but, unfortunately, I had to have ankle reconstruction surgery over the past 3 years. My podiatrist and surgeon told me because of my condition, I would most likely not be able to run that distance. Instead of becoming discouraged, however, it has inspired me to go against the odds and religiously train for this event. I have attached a few photos post-procedure, including X-rays showing some bones that they removed. My goal for this half marathon is to run it under 1:40:00 (7:30 mile splits for 13.1 miles) and, with my pre-existing condition, it is going to be a challenging road ahead.

Pre-surgery

Post-surgery (Note the missing bone and the difference in the anatomy after reconstruction)

My inspiration to give this undertaking my all, however, is to dedicate my body and soul to the kids living in very poor communities in Africa who fight to survive on a daily basis. My overall dream is to become a caring, empathetic, and active doctor who makes an impact in someone's life. I strongly feel that one of the ways I can actively make a difference right now is to become an instrument of good in the world. The following link is a testimony from kids who have benefited from the money raised by Team World Vision.

http://support.worldvision.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Impact_Africa

I also plan to actively update a blog that details every aspect of my journey from training, to my comments, to injuries, and to medical school up until the race on September 9th. If all goes well, I plan on trying to run a full marathon the upcoming year! Please send any love, encouragement, and support because I definitely know I cannot undertake this endeavor alone!

My blog link is:

http://md-twvchicagohalfmarathon.blogspot.com/ 

If you would like to support my cause please follow the following link to my personal fundraising site! If you are hesitant to donate to this wonderful cause... think of it like an early Birthday or Christmas gift to me! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding your donation! If you would like to donate by check, please let me know as well so I can properly record your donation and personally thank you for your generosity!

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/General?px=1215447&pg=personal&fr_id=1680

Love you all! God bless! Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your other friends and family to spread the word! Also, forgive me if I send a few e-mails reminding you all about this over the course of the next 6 months!

Sincerely and with great joy,

Sincerely,

Marc Dadios

1 Corinthians 6:20 “Glorify God in your body”

[7/29/12] Health updates, an unexpected 5K race, a new stride, and the results of the new stride and what it means for the half marathon:

Hi everyone!!

There are only 5 weeks left until my first half marathon! I can't believe how time has flown since I started training almost 5 months ago. I've been asked how my health has been and, since my hip injury, I've felt pretty much close to 100%. I've also been asked why I've taken so much time to train and condition and my answer to that is because of my legs/feet. I don't want to risk re-injuring my feet post-surgery (it's been about 2 years since my surgery on my left foot) and, to prevent injury, I'm really leaving nothing to chance.

So, about this unexpected 5K race. I'm doing the Terrapin 5K race in Chicago on Thursday, August 2nd because I want to qualify for the 1:40:00 corral for race day. My reasoning is that I do NOT want to be stuck behind a horde of people who will not be going at the pace I would like to go at. Because I couldn't reach my time goal for the Davis Moo-nlight Race... to seed at the 1:40:00 corral for race day I have to run this 5K in 20:30 (6:50/mile). I'm not 100% sure if I can hit that mile split and that pace, however, so if I don't reach that first goal, my absolute cutoff time for this 5K is 21:40 (7:10-7:15/mile) for the 1:48:00 corral. If I get in the 1:48:00 corral, I don't think that will affect my performance on race day too much. I'll post race results when they come out!

So.... about this new stride. After reading a lot of running magazines and watching the US olympic trials (and, very soon, track and field/cross country at the olympics!) I noticed that the distance runners had a different stride than I had. After asking one of my good friends who is training to be an occupational therapist, I was told that this was one the most efficient and stamina saving stride for distance running. To describe it... it kind of looks like a shuffling stride/shuffling step. After trying it out... I noticed that I could run for longer periods of time AND I could run faster without too much pain! Here is my most recent and exciting result of this new stride:

Note: The red line dips are stoplights :( I don't really like city street running...

At the end of the run, my endurance definitely tapered off but all of this was basically continuous (including stop lights...) so I'm very encouraged by this result. The next two days will be recovery days at the gym with cardio on the machine, a light run on Wednesday with a leg workout, then race day on Thursday!

That's all for now! With 5 weeks left I'm not quite at my charity goal yet so please continue to spread the word!

God Bless!

Marc

[7/23/12] Just under 6 weeks left and back in Chicago from California!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to update everyone about my time training in California!! In total, I completed approximately 70 miles while in California (including the 10K race I participated in). I learned that long distance running on concrete and roads for a long period of time requires a lot of preparation and patience due to the extra strain that is put on your body. Still, my body fully recovered from the rolled ankle/achilles tendonitis while putting in the miles! Coming back to Chicago, I'm feeling really healthy and ready to continue my training over the next 6 weeks.

While in California I also realized that I wasn't eating as well as I was in Chicago. This is probably due to having a car back in California and going to In-N-Out and getting as much California boba as possible before leaving for Chicago. As a result, I will revert back to my previous, more healthy routine for the remainder of my training time in Chicago to ensure that I will have the necessary energy, nutrition, and resilience to be as fit and healthy as possible for race day.

6 weeks left! Going to keep pushing and focusing hard!!

Take care, God bless, and I'll update soon!!

Marc

[7/16/12] Race results, thoughts, and changes that need to be made

Hi everyone!

First I would like to thank Susie and Kristine for their generous donations! I'm sincerely honored that you would support my cause and it definitely motivates me to continue pressing on!

Results are in and to be honest I'm a little disappointed in my performance. I promised everyone since the beginning that I will be honest and candid while writing about my journey and that's exactly what I'm going to do now. I missed my goal by about 5 minutes and, after reflecting on it a little bit, I have a pretty good idea of what happened. Here are the final results of my first race since I've started training and a picture of myself before the race started (I look so happy right?! lol):

To break it down: Officially I ran a 49:57:49 according to the timing chip (8:03/mile pace). That's wayyyyyy over the 45 minute mark that I had initially set for myself. Here are my thoughts about the race:

1) After talking to some of my friends, I was told that competition/races are completely different from practice. I agree with this because I had a lot of adrenaline rushing through me at the start line and I went out WAY too fast (6:30 at the first mile). A little embarassing but considering that this is my first real race that I've trained for since my foot injuries I was understandably excited. Going out too fast hurt me in the end because I couldn't maintain my usual 7:30-7:35 pace throughout the race. Lesson 1 learned.

2) I'm not going to use this as an excuse but since I had rolled my left ankle on Monday and had minor tendinitis I felt reserved and tentative this race. I was a little afraid of aggravating the injury so I probably subconsciously held back (even though I kept telling myself GO GO GO!). Although I had some residual pain in my left ankle/hip, in retrospect it really wasn't enough to hold back. The day after the race I felt great! I wasn't sore and my left leg/ankle/hip felt fine. I've learned how to listen to my body, now I have to learn how to trust my body. Lesson 2 learned.

3) After this race result, however, I will revise my goals for the half marathon. I will once again aim for a sub-1:40:00 for the half marathon with a dream goal of 1:30:00. I'm going to work hard for the dream goal for my own sake but 2 months before the race I'm being very realistic. Due to my foot anatomy I know I'll never be as fast as some other incredibly talented runners are but that doesn't mean that I can't shoot for my own dreams and goals. To put it into perspective, the reason why I wanted to run a sub-45 minute 10K for this race was because it would put me right at the sub-1:40:00 goal. Another lesson that I've learned from this experience is that shaving seconds, let alone minutes, off my times is really challenging and requires a lot of dedicated, hard work... Lesson 3 learned.

4) One important observation I made during this race was my running stride. I feel as if my current stride is making me a lot slower than I used to be. If you remember a few months back (before my hip injury) I was able to run 7:25/mile for 13 miles. Post-hip injury in May, I'm finding it very difficult to break through the 7:30/mile mark over a shorter distance. I'm considering changing my stride back to my pre-hip injury days so I can start putting up faster times. The drawback to this is that I may re-injure my hip by doing that but I have to try adapting to the situation! I'll keep everyone posted!

5) Finally... I know that without the support, love, and concern I'm getting from my family and friends I would never be able to do what I'm currently doing. This is one of the most challenging journeys that I've ever embarked on. Because I know I'm doing this for kids in Africa and my loved ones are donating to help them due to my cause, however, I am seriously inspired to keep training and keep fighting on. It's an amazing and humbling experience and I plan to see this journey through to the end and beyond :)

Although I'm disappointed in the overall result, I've learned a lot of valuable lessons from the race. I know that I have to work even harder than I'm currently working without injuring myself. I know that my confidence took a hit from this but I will fill that void with hard work. I may not be a talented runner by any means, but I won't let that stop me from reaching my goal on September 9th. Thank you for all of your love and support!!

Still motivated and humbled... Lessons learned!

Take care!! Feel free to e-mail me/facebook me/text me/call me with any questions you have!!

Marc :D

[7/14/12] Post-DR updates + 10K Davis Moonlight run :)

Hi Everyone!

I haven't posted a lot recently because I've been traveling all over NorCal doing a lot of random (but awesome) stuff! I also wanted to make sure that the top post detailed my trip to the Dominican Republic for the medical mission (Read the post below in case you missed it!)

So! Updates from training these past 1 1/2 weeks! I've been doing a lot of groundwork (so far I've run about 50 miles while in NorCal) but there are a lot of challenges that I'm going to be facing for this tune-up 10K race. First, I rolled my ankle this past Monday and have been dealing with a swelling ankle as well as some minor achilles tendonitis. Still, I've been taking some ibuprofen to knock out the swelling and I've been icing regularly so it shouldn't affect this race too much!

My goal for this race is to attain a sub-45 minute 10K (7:20-7:25 mile pace). The race starts at 7pm in Davis and it's a paved road race. Since Davis is freaking hot right now (90+ degrees), I'm expecting race conditions to be close to 80-85 degrees because the sun doesn't set until like 8:30-9:00pm! Since I've been consistently training under those conditions anyway, however, I should be alright. I'm going to aim to go faster but we'll see what happens... Praying for a good and positive result!!

I'll post the official results of the race in my next post when it comes out. Till then... praying for a successful race!

Motivated and focused. Ready!

Marc

[7/3/12] My thoughts and experience from my medical mission to the Dominican Republic to help the Haitian people living in very poor, 3rd world conditions.

Hi Everyone!

Back from the medical mission from the Dominican Republic! The trip was way too short and I definitely feel like I gained more in terms of perspective and inspiration from the mission than I was able to give to the people who really needed it. Certain events during the trip (that I will detail later on in this post) also vividly reminded me why I train as hard as I do to raise money for World Vision. Living in the first world, we take many basic things like clean water, toilet paper, and a roof over our heads for granted. Raising money so that families in Africa can have a clean water well for generations is a cause that I am not only proud and honored to dedicate myself to, it is something that I feel called to do. Thank you for all of your support!

To begin, I want to introduce and list out the activities that we did and how our clinics and our mission was set up. A HUGE shout out to our incredible team: Cameron, Andrew, Yoni, Justin, Aaron, Shravan, Mike, Christina, Vanessa, Jen A., Jen H., Ingrid, Lorelei and Nita!! It was incredibly humbling to work with all of you incredibly talented and inspiring people and it was wonderful to get to know all of you better during the trip! The 15 of us staffed clinics in Haitian bateys, performed street medicine, visited inmates at a prison, had dinner with families, visited the public hospital in the main city, and provided food and milk for kids (lovingly called the “Milk ministry”). Since pictures are worth a thousand words, I’m going to post a few pictures at the end of this post and write a caption for each of them. I should also have more pictures as my other friends who went on this medical mission starts to post them and send them to me!

I don’t think words can truly describe the clinics that our team held for the Hatians. We brought all of our medicine courtesy of Cameron who planned and organized the entire trip. Although it was challenging to accept the fact that we wouldn’t be able to help everybody or we may be short some supplies, I realized that we truly were providing a service that many of the people in that town wouldn’t normally receive. I’m talking about basic medications like those for cough/fever, antibiotics, anti-fungals, anti-parasite medications, among others. We also saw many cases of preventable diseases like scabies and parasites that required the administration of a single pill/dose of a medication to fix but these people had no access and no money to that med. I learned that the definition of extreme poverty was for one to live on less than $1 per day. This $1 has to cover food for the day, usually for the family… How does one survive on these conditions? I was told by an old Haitian man that many don’t (more on that later). The most striking and challenging aspect of my experience at our clinics was the fact that most of the kids were the ones who had extreme cases of scabies, infections, and parasites.

Witnessing the conditions at a Dominican prison for men was an intense and mortifying experience of just gross human rights violations. It was one of the worst things that I have ever seen in my life in terms of their conditions. In 2 cramped cells less than the size of a small bathroom the government had crammed over 80 people in those cells. Many of the men slept standing up. As a result of the close quarters, all the men who had been there for any more than a few days had severe scabies, rashes, and staph infections. I learned that this particular prison was the county prison where inmates wait to be transferred to the larger main prison. This typically takes months to happen so many of the inmates are left to rot and die in these prisons… Our team handed out scabies medications and food to the men but we were unable to treat many of the infected wounds, lacerations, cysts, and abscesses that we saw due to the government which prohibited us from treating the prisoners. Honestly, I felt quite helpless as one by one each man begged our team to treat all their problems. I’m definitely still struggling with this experience.

Providing and having dinner with a Haitian family was another amazing experience that we had during our mission. Two of my other colleagues and I bought about $50 worth of groceries for a family dinner. Remember, however, that most Haitian families have to survive on less than $1 per day ($30 per month). Essentially, the three of us bought more food for this family for one dinner than they make and live off of in an entire month. The matriarch of the household had 5 kids and 2 grandkids with one more grandchild on the way. She also invited over 5 other kids from another family over to eat with them. As our team hung out and talked with the family as the food was being prepared, we were told something that absolutely shocked us. Antonio, the eldest of the kids who were visiting the household, told us that his mom had passed away 2 days ago. The way he said it, however, was very straightforward without much emotion. We realized that because of the incredibly poor conditions that they experience every day and what they witness as kids for their entire lives, they were desensitized to death. We then asked Antonio how many brothers and sisters he had… 8 other younger brothers and sisters… After asking him what his plans were… he simply shrugged and told us that without IDs and birth certificates he would not be able to get a job or go to school to support the family. IDs and birth certificates are something that many Haitians in the Dominican Republic don’t have due to discrimination from the government and the conditions that the people live in. I realized that Antonio’s story is very common in very poor 3^rd world conditions. Overall, the dinner went incredibly well and the families were VERY thankful and asked us to come back whenever we were in the DR. I’m sure I’ll be back there soon enough.

Last activity, but not least, is the Milk Ministry. This event that we held probably had the greatest impact on me in terms of my passion and commitment to raising money for Team World Vision. Essentially, we brought a canister of milk, boiled eggs, some cookies, and some clothes and handed all of it out to as many kids as we could living in the village. We crammed about 300+ kids into a small church and the only way I could describe the event would be utter and complete chaos! Because we only (barely) had enough for one egg, ½ a cup of milk, and ½ a cookie for most kids (some didn’t get eggs or a cookie) the kids were scrambling to get in line as fast as they could, they were trying to climb through the windows for seconds, parents were trying to push their way in, and mayhem ensued. By the end, our entire team was exhausted because we basically had to try to control and organize the chaos! I was absolutely struck by how little we were giving each child and how incredibly happy and thankful most of the children were. In America if you give someone a single egg, ½ a cup of milk, ½ a cookie, and some random piece of clothing they would most likely say “WTF? Where’s my hamburger?” Basic things that we take for granted in a first world country like America like milk, eggs, protein, etc. are luxuries for the Haitians living in these bateys. Even more basic things like clean water, food, and medicine are also very scarce… I train and run to inspire others to donate to my cause to help kids and families in similar situations living in these conditions in Africa.

The public hospital that we visited, although it looked nice on the outside, was another interesting experience for our team of medical students. Healthcare in the DR (and in many other poorer places in the world) is basically "If you have the money, you'll be treated. If you don't, you won't". If a patient is lucky enough to see a doctor (could be days before a doctor comes by to see you), the medicine that the doctor prescribes has to be paid for by the patient and his/her family. This particular hospital provides beds (based on availability) and saline IVs for free. Everything else from the bedsheets, food, water, medicine, etc. must be provided by the patient. Medicine is not cheap, particularly if a family lives on less than $1 per day like most Haitians who go to the public hospital are living on. In America, if someone goes to the emergency room, they are treated first and asked to pay later. In the DR (and the Philippines - mentioning this because I feel like my calling is going to take me to the Philippines again at some point on a similar mission), the idea is pay first and treat later... Apparently, however, I'm told that the conditions are improving at this hospital so at least that's encouraging to me.

During this medical mission I really gained a lot more than I was able to give to the people… I left inspired and on fire with passion for medicine, my training, and life. Our team did the best we could to provide whatever little medical care we could. Each of us learned a lot about ourselves and about the situation in a 3^rd world country. I sincerely wish I could have spent more time down there. Still, due to the inspiration that I gained from this trip, I feel a very powerful and deep drive to really train and run as hard as I can. I feel empowered to shamelessly ask for donations from as many people as I could because I know the need is great in 3^rd world settings after seeing it firsthand in the DR. If you think about it… $50 can buy you a nice watch, a video game, or a really nice meal at a nice restaurant among other things. $50 can also buy a clean water well for a family/town living in the 3^rd world for an entire generation or two. If asked what is the single most important thing I’ve gained from this trip: I would have to say courage… Courage to step up and be the instrument of hope for people in the world. Courage to not turn a blind eye to the need in the world. Courage to face injury, disappointment, even death to inspire others to donate to support my training and my cause. Courage… to change the world. Thanks for reading!!

Humbled, inspired, courageous, and passionate.

God bless,

Marc Dadios

If you are interested in donating to my cause... please follow this link (Like I said... I have to try to be fearless and shameless when I ask right? Might as well start now!)

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR?type=fr_personal&fr_id=1680&px=1215447&bpg=list&pg=personal 

Here are some pictures from the medical mission trip: I will post more as I get them from my colleagues!

One of the Haitian kids we were able to see, treat, and help during one of our clinics!

The outer facade of the public hospital we visited.

 A day in our bustling clinic at one of the Haitian bateys.

 The calm before the storm: Right before the Milk Ministry began

 Medical students and doctors working together to treat/diagnose patients.

 Outside the prison that we visited.

Touring one of the villages and seeing how people lived day to day.

[7/3/12] Re-posting my mission with Team World Vision. :) 

Dear friends, family, and loved ones,

Hi everyone! My name is Marc Dadios and I just wanted to let you all know that I recently signed up to run my first half marathon with Team World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to raising money to help provide clean water to the poorest communities in Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_World_Vision
http://support.worldvision.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Impact_WhyCleanWater

A little bit about myself: I am a first year medical student studying at Rush Medical College in Chicago. I decided to commit to this race because it has been my dream to run a half marathon/full marathon but, unfortunately, I had to have ankle reconstruction surgery over the past 3 years. My podiatrist and surgeon told me because of my condition, I would most likely not be able to run that distance. Instead of becoming discouraged, however, it has inspired me to go against the odds and religiously train for this event. I have attached a few photos post-procedure, including X-rays showing some bones that they removed. My goal for this half marathon is to run it under 1:40:00 (7:30 mile splits for 13.1 miles) and, with my pre-existing condition, it is going to be a challenging road ahead.

Pre-surgery

Post-surgery (Note the missing bone and the difference in the anatomy after reconstruction)

My inspiration to give this undertaking my all, however, is to dedicate my body and soul to the kids living in very poor communities in Africa who fight to survive on a daily basis. My overall dream is to become a caring, empathetic, and active doctor who makes an impact in someone's life. I strongly feel that one of the ways I can actively make a difference right now is to become an instrument of good in the world. The following link is a testimony from kids who have benefited from the money raised by Team World Vision.

http://support.worldvision.org/site/PageServer?pagename=Impact_Africa

I also plan to actively update a blog that details every aspect of my journey from training, to my comments, to injuries, and to medical school up until the race on September 9th. If all goes well, I plan on trying to run a full marathon the upcoming year! Please send any love, encouragement, and support because I definitely know I cannot undertake this endeavor alone!

My blog link is:

http://md-twvchicagohalfmarathon.blogspot.com/ 

If you would like to support my cause please follow the following link to my personal fundraising site! If you are hesitant to donate to this wonderful cause... think of it like an early Birthday or Christmas gift to me! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding your donation! If you would like to donate by check, please let me know as well so I can properly record your donation and personally thank you for your generosity!

http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR?type=fr_personal&fr_id=1680&px=1215447&bpg=list&pg=personal 

Love you all! God bless! Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your other friends and family to spread the word! Also, forgive me if I send a few e-mails reminding you all about this over the course of the next 6 months!

Sincerely and with great joy,

Sincerely,

Marc Dadios

1 Corinthians 6:20 “Glorify God in your body”