Chicago Marathon: campus community ready to run and cheer

2014 Chicago Marathon runners head west along Taylor Street near campus. Photo: Apoorv Nene

UIC runners will take strides — 26.2 miles’ worth — to support various good causes at the 38th annual Bank of America Chicago Marathon Sunday.

The marathon’s course starts and ends in Grant Park, racing through 29 Chicago neighborhoods. The trail runs through UIC’s campus near Mile 17, where runners will go south on Halsted toward Taylor Street, then west toward Ashland Avenue around Mile 18.

UIC groups will be lined up to support the runners at three locations: near Mile 12, 17 and 25.

Third-year dentistry student Janna Mitsos has been training for almost a year. “I’ve been progressing every weekend just increasing it little by little, so it’s been a long process,” Mitsos said.

She and 10 other College of Dentistry runners hope to raise $10,000 for Goldie’s Place, a support center for homeless people in Chicago. Goldie’s Place offers career and counseling services and a clinic where College of Dentistry students provide free oral health care.

“A lot of these clients haven’t had dental care in a long time, and it’s hard to go to an interview with missing teeth or if your oral health is not good,” said Alison Doubleday, assistant professor of dentistry who organized the dentistry running group.

Last year, the team raised $6,500. “It’s a charity that’s a special place for us,” said Doubleday, who runs her sixth marathon Sunday.

Videography by UIC News Contributor

Cellmates on the Run, a group organized by UI Health chief of transplantation surgery Jose Oberholzer, raised $115,000 for its 2014 run. The group has been a marathon partner charity for five years. “The runners all share this one passion: to cure type 1 diabetes,” said development officer Michelle Le.

This year the group has 19 runners, each raising a minimum of $1,000.

Fundraising will help Chicago Diabetes Project research towards finding a functional cure for type 1 diabetes patients through islet cell transplantation.

Other UIC runners, like Ryan Muench, a graduate student in public health, are raising funds for other causes. Muench, who graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology in 2014, is a member of Team to End AIDS (T2), which benefits the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

Muench looks forward to running past UIC.

“I still remember east campus from undergrad, so it’s great to think, ‘Oh, I’ve made this walk from campus to my apartment a lot before, so it’s not that long,’ and it’s always a big boost to see people cheering for you,” he said.

UIC National Residence Hall Honorary members and Campus Housing residents will hand out water near Mile 12, on Wells Street between Grand Avenue and Hubbard Street, from 5:30 a.m. to noon.

“We’ll be making a poster to encourage them and we’ll be sharing some positive comments,” said Misael Laboy, a sophomore in biological sciences.

The women’s basketball team, Pep Band, cheering squad and cheerleading team will be stationed on Halsted Street in front of Student Center East, near Mile 17.

A group from the Sports Medicine Fellowship in the College of Medicine’s family medicine department will start the morning at a first aid station at the marathon starting area. Then they’ll move to an aid station near Mile 25, on Michigan Avenue between 18th and 16th streets.

“We cheer everybody who comes across Mile 25, it’s our job,” said Terry Nicola, assistant professor of clinical rehab and director of sports medicine rehab.

“The Chicago Marathon is an extension of the running community and being able to play a role in that serves as a key part of our sports medicine program,” said Nicola, who ran in the first Chicago Marathon in 1977.

The cheers make all the difference, Doubleday said.

“You’re doing this thing that you work so hard and train so long for and you don’t know if you can do it, but there are thousands of people telling you that you can,” she said. “It’s just a powerful thing.”

UIC CHEERING SECTIONS

Mile 12 Wells between Grand and Hubbard
National Residence Hall Honorary
and Campus Housing residents

Mile 17 Halsted by Student Center East
Women’s basketball, Pep Band,
and spirit squads

Mile 25 Michigan between 18th and 16th streets
Sports Medicine Fellowship (also first aid)