One Goal

Last year a general education teacher announced to me that she did not think it was fair that ‘my’ student got to use a calculator on his math test. I am a special education teacher and one of the things I fight for is making sure ‘my’ students have a fair chance at doing and learning the same things their non-disabled peers do. This often means I make sure they have the appropriate accommodations to help them.

General education and the rest of the world could learn a lot from the running community about providing accommodations for different abilities. When I run the Chicago Marathon this October, I will do it with the top athletes of the world. I will run 26.2 miles just like them. I will cross the same finish line. The only difference is that I will finish around six hours and those top athletes will finish in just a little over two hours. But no one is going to tell me it isn’t fair because I had more time or that only my first 12 miles count. I will instead be congratulated on my personal accomplishment.

 Besides time there will be other accommodations that day. If a person is visually impaired they might run with a guide person. Some people will be running with prosthetic limbs, others in a wheel chair. Still others will be pushed the whole way through by another runner. Some runners will take frequent walk breaks. Some runners will run with headphones to drown out the million spectators.

In the running community everyone gets to run the same race and cross the same finish line, regardless of your ability or the accommodations that you need. Those that cross the Chicago Marathon finish line on October 13, no matter how the runner got there, will be considered a marathon runner. No one will say to me that it doesn’t count or that it isn’t fair because I required extra time than the top athletes. It also will not take anything away from those top athletes because I too got to run the same race as them.

Shameless plug please go here http://bit.ly/10VgYkz read why I am running for Lurie Children’s Hospital and consider donating towards my run!

After finishing the 2011 marathon in 6 hours and 14 minutes.