We Did It!

Susie and Ramzy ran and finished the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd in freezing cold weather, raising over $12,000 for a playground for Maysoon’s Kids in Silwad.

Ramzy’s time was 4:42 hours and Susie’s was 5:19. They wrote an essay about the experience, which can be accessed here

some highlights:
Ramzy flew in from Seattle on Friday. He stayed at Linda’s house believing he could avoid susie’s dogs, only to realize that Linda’s two awesome cats would fall in love with him and give him no peace.
A group of PfPers met at the Sahara Grill for a small fundraising lunch. We had a blast and raised several hundred dollars.
Susie drove to Linda’s house at 4:30am on Sunday and after taking good care of the runners [food and caffeine], Linda drove them to the Art Museum in Philly, where the gun was set to go off at 7am.
Sonia, who is NOT a morning person, arrived at 6:45am to take pictures. She was her usual chipper self and was there on the sidelines jumping up and down to cheer PfP on even before the race began.
There were over 18,000 runners and half of those made it to the finish line.
Temperatures were quite low, enough to freeze water and gatorade along the route, turning strips of the route into sheets of slippery ice.
Ramzy’s knee started to hurt at mile 2 and he mistakenly discarded his gloves half way into the race. So, he was hurting pretty badly in addition to having frozen fingers.
Susie’s right knee had swelled up quite badly by mile 15 and she employed every mind trick and self-motivation tactic in her bag to run through the pain
By mile 20, their bodies were depleted and they used only whatever brain power each could muster.
Sonia, Betsey, Joe, Jacqueline, and Dennis hung around in the ridiculous cold to cheer them on (THAT’s friendship!)
Susie’s daughter, Natalie, was waiting for her mother near the the end and the two of them crossed the finish line together, hand in hand.
Demons were exorcised, life was distilled to the one thing that ever really matters (love), and the belief that we will make it home to Palestine some day was reaffirmed during this 26.2 mile run.

Susie and Ramzy wish to thank…

Linda, for letting us use her house while she was away; and for stocking her house with lots of good food
Sonia Rosen, Betsey and Joe Piette, Jacqueline Berry, and Dennis Parrish for being there to cheer us on and take pictures
Karen Kovalcik and her kids for bringing Natalie and Amir to the race and having blankets and food ready after the finish line
Anan Zahr for holding a cooking class to help us raise sponsorship money
Karen, again, for helping us raise money at her olive oil party
Everyone who sponsored us to make this event a successful playground fundraiser!