When I learned that my Dad had Parkinson's Disease, all I knew about it was that Michael J Fox and Mohamed Ali had it and that they experienced debilitating tremors as a result. Over the past several years, I've learned plenty about PD and it's dramatic impact on those living with it. That it's an all-encompassing foe that forces you to fight it in the least obvious spaces of any given day. But for everything I've learned about the disease, I've learned so much more about both of my parents - their tenacity, their stubborn stoicism, their faith, and their enduring commitment to one another.

I decided to run the Chicago Marathon with the Parkinson's Foundation to honor the daily struggles my father faces and to honor the journey of endurance he and every PD patient is on and to raise money for research and awareness in the hopes that one day we can celebrate its being eradicated from the planet entirely.