I don't know if there is such a thing as love at first sight, but she was absolutely breathtaking. Because I think I stopped breathing for a minute the very first time I saw Erica. I knew what she looked like from the picture she emailed me, but I never expected her to be this beautiful. Still, sucks about her personality though. I knew her from online I didn't like her very much. Judging by the slight glare she was now giving me she felt quite the same. And sure enough we started arguing before we even arrived at the highway on ramp in Milwaukee. I was having second thoughts about agreeing to take her with me to visit a mutual friend in Cincinnati. It didn't seem very likely that either of us would go unscathed by the end of this trip.

But our love of some obscure music soon broke the tension between us and we started to relax around each other. She turned out to be a very good co-pilot! I was driving but she was guiding me. Handing me a drink, or a snack before I even asked for it. Talking to her felt so natural for some reason. Our idle chatter soon turned to relationships and the people we dated. That conversation, and those people, seemed to disappear behind us like the passing miles. We spent the rest of the drive talking and laughing about all the crazy things we did. All of a sudden I felt like my best friend was sitting next to me. And by the time we reached Cincinnati no other woman existed anymore.

We talked well into the night and early morning about anything and everything. She had a rough life, having spent most of it in and out of hospitals. She was smiling a little as she was recounting the number of surgeries she had as if   they were some sort of collection. Erica was really the most incredible woman I had ever met and the smile she gave me after telling her so made me realize I found the love of my life.

I picked her up on our first date a week later from dialysis. Our second date the following week, Valentines Day,  was spent mostly in the emergency room. Her life really was that crazy. Her health gradually deteriorated over the years, eventually ending up in a wheel chair. She once spent a whole summer in inpatient rehab just so she could walk one more time at one of her best friend's wedding. All the while never letting her medical issues get in the way of us having a good time. Not if she could help it, anyway. I loved her strength through adversity. I loved being with her. She was my world.

And when she died in 2009 my whole world collapsed. Like so often in the past when things got rough for me, I turned to drugs and alcohol ending up in the hospital several times over the next couple of years. One day, altogether by accident, I discovered the joy of running. It slowly started healing me. I stopped drinking and taking drugs. I even stopped smoking after 20 years. 19 months after I started running I finished my first marathon. Running gave my life new meaning. It had saved my life.

And this is what GLASA does on a regular basis.The Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association is a charity that helps people with physical or visual impairment take part in competitive or recreational sports. I know from experience that participating in these sporting events goes well beyond the field or race. It permeates every aspect of one's life enriching it, and those around them, like almost nothing else. So running the Chicago Marathon for a charity that touches on so many aspects that are dear to me was the only natural thing to do. The marathon will be the third for me this year. The second in a week. While she isn’t next to me anymore, the Erica that’s inside me will still be guiding me forward just like she has always done since we met on the cold January day in 1997.