Illinois woman brings special meaning to Boilermaker
Story Created:
Jul 3, 2009 at 3:43 PM EST
Story Updated:
Jul 3, 2009 at 4:57 PM EST
(WKTV) - Next Sunday 11,000 people will through the streets of Utica in the Boilermaker. One woman is making the trip from Illinois, and bringing and extra special cause with her.
Vivian Bales' son, Brian, left for Iraq in January. Two days after he left, she started to run and the goal is not stop until she runs the amount of miles that separate her from her son.
Bales says she was never a runner herself, but started to train with her son when he was on the high school track team.
She runs 35 to 40 miles a week, with the goal of running the necessary 6,436 miles that separates Charlestown and Iraq.
To this date, she has run 871 miles, but if you tack on the other 9 family members efforts they are up to just over 22 hundred miles.
Bales says the Boilermaker committee contacted her and invited her to come next week. She says its tough being the mother of a soldier overseas, but this cause is helping both her and her son get by, "I think it just lets all of them know there are people back home supporting them. It's really good motivation for them.
Bales's efforts have made national headlines. An article about her and her goal recently appeared in Sports Illustrated. She says once people saw that article they contacted her about donating their miles they have run to her cause.
Bales is taking donations of miles. By doing some quick math, if everyone, all 11 thousand participants in the Boilermaker donated their 9.3 miles, Bales could run to Iraq and back, 7 times.
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