[caption id="attachment_374" align="alignright" width="279" caption="Me with my son, Mac"]<img class="size-medium wp-image-374" title="dsc_35452" src="http://giveyoursole.com/blog/wp-content/uploads//dsc_35452-279x300.jpg" alt="Me with my son, Mac" width="279" height="300" />[/caption]

When I arrived in Chicago, a city that I look forward to visiting every time I come, I knew that the Chicago Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon was going to be an exciting event for Give Your Sole.  Little did I know what a truly amazing experience it would turn out to be.  It all started on Friday at the Health and Fitness Expo just like any other race.  Fridays are known to be a bit slower because people have to work and figure they still have Saturday to pick up their race packets. We still took in 97 pairs which is a good amount of shoes.  Saturday rolled around and the crowd doubled in size and we ended up collecting 147 pairs with the majority of people saying they would donate the shoes they run in on race day.  Everybody was telling us they would donate on Sunday after the race.  That they did, 234 of them!

Sunday is where things got a little crazy.  You see I had my 15 year old son Mac with me, along with my mom, dad and brother, all weekend helping out at the booth.  I have to tell you, Mac did an incredible job, talking with people like he'd been doing this for years. He never hesitated in telling people about what we were doing.  I think I understand what true joy is because I felt it from my the tip of my toes to the top of my head standing in awe as my once little boy now stood before me talking with people, recruiting people to make a difference.  He stood there for hours on end Friday and Saturday until he was exhausted.  Sunday morning rolls around and you all know it was an early morning, especially for a 15 year old.  We all got up and headed to our booth but ended up having to park about a mile and half away which put us a bit late getting to the booth.  Mac decided to take off running to get to the booth and get things ready for the day.  About an hour later Mac became dizzy and a migraine set in.  From that point on he crashed hard and fast.  As the runners began to really finish I decided he needed to get over to the medic tent and so off we went.