Caught By Surprise: My Path to the Marathon

A Team McGraw Runner Finds Hope and Heart While Training

(Runner Ilene Mack-Zaghloul offers this insight into joining the team, new friends, and the hard lessons learned long before even stepping in sight of the starting line.)

My name is Ilene Mack-Zaghloul.  I am native to Fairfield, Connecticut, and I currently live in New Hampshire.  (My family still lives in southern Connecticut, which is roughly forty-five minutes from New York City.)

Runner Ilene Mack-Zaghloul, member of Team McGraw marathon team.

When I applied to run on behalf of the Tug McGraw Foundation, I did not know a single person who had a brain tumor.  I applied to be on Team McGraw because I definitely wanted to do the marathon, and I needed to pursue a charity team since my times are not fast enough to get me qualified for the marathon. 

If this seems a little self-centered, it was.

Once I was accepted to the team, I started my fundraising.  Little did I know that this was the beginning of a change of heart for me as well as a lifetime of friendships. 

Though I didn’t know a single person who had a brain tumor before, that sure changed.  Through my fundraising efforts, I discovered that a coworker lost his sister to a brain tumor…and another coworker is a survivor.  I also found out my cousin had just lost a dear friend to a brain tumor.  As the months passed and I started to have more fundraising events, I unfortunately met several more people affected by brain tumors, but none affected me more than the three children with whom I became acquainted who had brain tumors. 

Not only did the ING New York City Marathon take on a new meaning for me, I was on a mission to let everyone whom I came in contact with know that children and adults are affected by brain tumors.  In fact, one of my coworkers kidded me on how I must be
New Hampshire’s spokesperson for the Tug McGraw Foundation.

Team McGraw also allowed me to make a special friend who I hope to have for the remainder of my life--Cindy Bohlin.  She was cordial enough to send me an email early on, and we have been corresponding ever since.  She was to be my running buddy for the marathon.  As more team members emailed, I began to feel like I was part of a very special team.

On September 13th, I was in a car accident.  Currently, I am attending physical therapy and have not been released to run.  Although I am feeling much better, I haven’t been running/training for three weeks now, so even if I were to stop physical therapy today, I would not want to risk further injury. 

However, I am still very much part of the Team!

Team McGraw has changed my life, as I no longer will be going to New York City for a self-centered reason.  I will instead go to help out at the expo, to let other runners and spectators know about my inspirations, and especially to cheer my team members on November 4.

Go Team McGraw!