The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is one of the six World Marathon Majors alongside the Boston, New York, London, Berlin, and Tokyo marathons. With the IAAF Gold Label, elite runners from across the globe gather in Illinois each year to compete in this distinguished race. On October 10, 2004, Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta achieved one of her lifelong goals to complete this 26.2-mile course. Along with 45,000 other runners, Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta crossed the Chicago finish line and was deemed a marathoner for the first time.

Completing a marathon is not an easy feat, and it takes hard work and dedication. Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta spoke about her time preparing for the race. She stated, “Training for this marathon was one of the most time-consuming tasks I have ever completed. It is really a test of how badly you want to finish. I had to wake up before sunrise every day to run before work. Also, the weekends were dedicated to long runs, so most of my Saturdays or Sundays were spend running across the city. So many times I wanted to quit, but I kept the finish line in mind the entire time.” Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta believes a lot of her success was due to her slow steps towards accomplishing her marathon goal. She focused on completing shorter races and slowly worked her way up to a half marathon before commencing training for Chicago.

Although training was one of the most time consuming parts of preparing for the race, Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta reveals that race day is both a physical and mental challenge. “Competing in the marathon was one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Your entire body is fatigued after a couple hours of running, but you still have multiple miles to go. Although much of it is physical—I believe finishing is mental. I knew that my body was appropriately conditioned to finish the race, but the hardest part was convincing myself that I could do it. When you reach mile 20 you have a feeling of accomplishment; however, you still have 6.2 miles to go!” Tracy Kinnan Pisciotta stated.

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon will be held on October 13th this year. For more information visit their website: www.chicagomarathon.com.