Yes, I decided to do this marathon thing again (sorry mom!). And yes, of course I'm running for After School Matters!!! 

As many of you know, After School Matters is a wonderful program focused on providing leadership and after school activities for youth in the Chicagoland area. It is near and dear to my heart as I have had family who have benefited from their services and work with many teens who LOVE being part of ASM programming. 

As many of you do not know, I HATED running growing up. I would actually ham up an injury (sorry Coach Patti) to get out of running for team practice. Then, I was told that my dream of becoming a child clinical psychologist was extremely hard. There's a 1% acceptance rate into PhD programs & I was told it was nearly impossible to get in straight from college. It seemed as impossible as running a marathon. So, I made a deal with myself. If I got in to a clinical PhD program, I would run a marathon. Well, I got in....so I ran my first marathon on November 14, 2015 in Richmond, VA, my first semester at VCU. I said to my mom after, NEVER AGAIN!! Nine years later I thought, maybe that wasn't so bad and wouldn't it be amazing to run the Chicago marathon? AND run it for a program I really love like ASM? So I signed up and was terrified. My body and mind were very different than when I was a 1st year grad student. I trained with CARA (shout out to my amazing 11:30s running group!) and I finished the Chicago marathon! I was sick though...so I decided immediately, to my mother's chagrin, that I had to do it again. 

So here I am, again, asking for your support for After School Matters. Please donate whatever you can! I appreciate all the support.