Team Challenge 2009 Season - New Season, New Race, New Donation Pages and New Blog - Check it out!

We are very happy to announce that we have signed up as Team Challenge Mentors for the Napa to Sonoma Wine Country 1/2 Marathon in July. We are looking forward to meeting new members of Team Challenge and helping them through training and fundraising. We learned alot from our participation in the San Antonio Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in November of 2008 (visit our blog from that journey at http://ppechulis.blogspot.com/) and we are looking forward to helping others enjoy the experience at the Napa to Sonoma Wine Country 1/2 Marathon.

We are starting our fundraising letter writing campaign in hopes that we will meet our goal long before the deadline. Glad to have you along for the ride. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Check out our new webpages and our new BLOG!!!

http://www.active.com/donate/napa09wisconsin/napa09PPechul

http://www.active.com/donate/napa09wisconsin/napa09PLitzau

http://teamchallengenapavalley2009.blogspot.com/

Peg & Peggy

Race Day - Sunday November 16, 2008

Our morning started at 5am. We got up, got ready, ate a little breakfast and headed down to the lobby to meet the Wisconsin Team at 6am. We stretched and then Naomi gave a little speech.

We headed to the designated area to get on the bus that would shuttle us to the start line. It was 36 degrees as we were walking down the streets of San Antonio. The line was up and half way back down the street. It was 6:15am and at 7:15 we were still in line. The marathon was scheduled to star at 7:30am. Finally after several calls by coaches to the people in charge of the marathon, more busses started to show up.

We finally arrived at the marathon start area around 7:40am and for all we knew it had already started. We walked to the Gear Check area, loaded our bag into the designated UPS truck and we were off to find Coral #27. The site was unbelievable. There were so many people . . . over 30,000. The race ended up starting at 7:45am and by the time we reached the start line it was 53 minutes into the race. We couldn't wait to get started. We were with several other Team Challenge walkers and runners. Once the horn sounded for our coral to go, we were off. The two of us and Marilyn and Val hit the pavement at a good pace. My mom and I ended up on our own before we got to mile 1 and by mile 3 Naomi had come back to walk with us and she finished the race with us. It was a lot of fun and we will do this again for sure. We finished the 13.1 miles in 3 hours 45 minutes and we ran to the finish line, smiled for the cameras and received our medals. What an accomplishment for us - it was so great to do. Then we had more pictures taken and then picked up our gear and headed to the Team Challenge tent where we checked in and received our Team Challenge 13.1 pin. They had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a ton of other snacks and drinks waiting for us.

The 27,000 people ahead of us . . .

The rest of the marathoners behind us . . .

The first band . . .

The first water station . . .

Because of the cold weather this morning people bundled up and as they warmed up they ditched their clothes on the course. Volunteers walked along the route collecting the clothing and it was all donated to Goodwill.

Our friend from the Del Sol store across from the Alamo. We met him yesterday and he said he would watch for us and we looked for him and he was at the curb outside the store so we had to stop for a picture.

Mile 4 - Tyler took this action shot of us.

The FINISH LINE!!

WE DID IT!!!

Getting her medal . . .

At the Team Challenge check in tent after the marathon.

After awhile I finally decided I should take my shoes off and put on my flip flops. The only part of my body that ached was the bottom of my feet and they had been aching since mile 3. I felt like they were full of blisters. I took my left shoe off and went to take off my sock when I found this huge blister on the side of my heel larger than a quarter. I was afraid to take off my sock. I ended up having to go to the medical station and have them pop it and bandage it up. No pain, no gain, right! :-)

Tonight we have the post marathon party, dinner, dancing, drinks! I am not sure either one of us will be doing any dancing tonight. We are both pretty sore but it was well worth it! The entire Team Challenge Team (14 chapters from across th country) raised over $850,000 today. Thank you to all our friends and family who supported us on this journey.

Team Challenge Pasta Dinner

A Pasta Dinner was arranged for all the members of Team Challenge and their families at the Hyatt Hotel. When we arrived we all gathered on the second floor and were waiting for the rest of our Wisconsin Chapter to arrive. All of a sudden we heard this screaming and cheering and we all rushed over to the balcony to see where it was coming from. Across the way we see all these people in Team Challenge shirts hootin' and hollorin' so we headed over that way. There we found two lines of the Team Challenge Reps and Coaches cheering all of us on and giving high fives as we walked into the room where the Pasta Dinner was being held. It was very cool.

Coach Rick, Tyler and Coach Naomi

Retired San Diego Charger - Rolf Bernirschke - motivating us for tomorrow's race!


We had the Wisconsin Team sign the banner at tonights team meeting

At Del Sol today I bought Blue and Orange nail polish and painted my toe nails

We decorated our hotel room door!