[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