~ Christopher's Courage 2001~

This Year Christopher Was Definitely
With Us!
This year our time wasn't quite as good as last year, which is a bit disappointing since it wasn't near as hot. For lack of knowing just why, all
I can say is that Ron was fighting a sore throat and I had a migraine.
But we believe Christopher was with us because there were a number of "signs" that just had to be from him, there isn't any other logical explanation. Christopher's Uncle Billy was running the third leg, and he told me that he figured he would be handing to me just after 11 a.m. On the way to my relay station, we passed a church that had a sign out front. The sign had on it
"11 a.m. Sunday Service" and then it said Chris somebody would be the speaker. And here Billy did hand to me at about 11:10 a.m. I just wish one of us would have had the presence of mind to take a picture of the church's sign. And unfortunately I have been unable to locate a picture of Billy running his leg of the marathon. But whenever I do find his picture, I will
add it to this page.
As you can see from the wonderful picture above, Ron and his sister Jean decided that they would run my leg with me, which was rather cool in itself. We were about to the last mile marker, when it happened to me again, much like last year... all of a sudden, I got chills from head to toe, even though I was really hot; my scalp was even tingling. I felt that Christopher was right there with me. Last year this made me run better, but this year I actually lost my breath at this point. So here is a lovely picture of me struggling, yikes...



By the time we were to where we could see the finish line, I was almost in tears and I still couldn't seem to catch my breath. So I said to Chris, "Ok what do we do now to finish?" All of a sudden I am sprinting, and Ron and Jean are trying their hardest to keep up. We all ran through the finish as fast
as we could, so I know Chris was with us!

This is pretty wild too... we get our medals, one for each of us, and they are all tied together. I untied them and gave them to each of our team members, and here we have five medals. We all figured that the fifth medal is for our
real team leader, for Christopher!


Here are the Pittsburgh Marathon 2001 results --
place#  306 Christophers Courage      final time     4:00:31
	Jean Manning (Christopher's aunt)		
        Ron Faller (captain)
        Billy Manning (Christopher's uncle)
	Maria Faller

place# 685    Rosemarie Faller (Christopher's grandma)
 final time for her 5K walk/run        44:26






Ron had said that he heard the music from the Rocky movie as he was running and how appropriate that music was... so of course, that is why I used that music on this page. Thanks for a great suggestion!


And thank you again to both Ron and Jean for running my leg with me, I would never have run so well without your help!

Thank you again, Teresa, for the wonderful 'Well Done' sand graphic that
you made for us!


Since Ron had decided to run my leg with me, Billy drove our car down to The Point where the race finishes and parked in a garage nearby. As we were all walking back to the parking garage, Ron points to a restaurant sign across the street. This is exactly how the sign is written ~ Ruth's CHRIS Steakhouse. Way to go, CHRIS!


Again this year, after the race, we went to Grandma's house
to sing Happy Birthday to Christopher. This is the cake
and the little birthday gifts we had made in his honor.


Thank you,Rosemary, for sending Ron this
actual little Dreamsicle figure and for making
this adorable graphic and the background
on this page for us. You are the bestest!


Please read our page from last year's marathon Christopher's Courage 2000

Click here to see 1999's marathon page, made for us by
my buddy, Rosemary,Christopher's Courage

Click on the graphic below to go to the official site
of the Pittsburgh Marathon



This webpage is created
In Loving Memory of Christopher Ronald Faller
on May 13, 2000
Last updated: December 8, 2008
Please visit Maria's Tribute to Christopher
Angel Christopher
Two Very Special Angels

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