Making Marathon Magic

  If you had told me earlier that year that I would become a runner I would have laughed out loud. Followed by my usual comment about running, "The only way I'd run is if I were being chased in the woods, at night, by a monster, with a knife."   Oh how a year can change you.

I am the mother of three children, ages 7, 3, and almost 2. I suffer from severe manic depression and somehow two of my good friends got me up and out running with them one morning. One mile, I thought I was going to die.

That one run ignited a little spark. I planned to run a 5k the following month. I started to feel better about myself, running did more for my depression than any medication I had been on for the past 6 years. As a bonus I had lost 30 pounds and I felt lighter, more able to tackle the day, both physically and mentally. I decided to push forward and planned a 10k, then I ran my first half marathon in May 2012. It was that Mother's Day that my husband gave me the greatest gift since our children, his support. He told me to reach for "the marathon". Run the 26.2 miles, train for it, focus on it and pick one that would make it worth it. So I did. I chose the DisneyWorld Marathon in January 2013 and he registered me that evening.

In late July, he decided to join me on the journey and started to run himself. Training extra hard to make up time. Now we have been hit, like most, with this evolving economy. We are registered for the marathon, we have friends and family in Florida to stay with, and had already arranged for family to watch our children while we flew down for the weekend to run......but we are without our airfare. In order to buy two roundtrip tickets we would have to skip a house bill or two and with three children we just can not be that selfish.

A few different friends suggested the same idea, start a fund and have people "sponsor" us. Which brings us here.

If you can, please help us complete this dream.

When you donate, your name will be added to our race jerseys. You can run with us in spirit and we will carry your name the entire 26.2 magical miles.

Thank you for your time and thoughtfulness.

Warmest Regards,

Sara Norman and her husband Ben

*amount edited due to fees that GoFundMe take for using their site.