This one's for Jerry. Same for the four other marathons Maryann Carrero has run since taking up the sport in 2006.
Carrero, 56, of Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, is set for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Sunday, Oct. 11, and again, it's all for Jerry, her brother who was gay and died of AIDS May 18, 1994.
"I've been surprised that I can do it, but the National AIDS Marathon Training Program shows and trains you how to run a marathon and successfully complete it," she said.
Carrero ran her first 26.2-mile marathon in Washington D.C., in 2006. She reached the 17th mile in the 2007 Chicago Marathon before the event was cancelled due to the surprising October heat that Sunday morning. She ran the Las Vegas Marathon in December 2007, recording her personal best time. She then finished the 2008 Chicago Marathon.
"I'll continue running marathons until I cannot anymore, until it's physically too much for me or until there's a cure for AIDS," said Carrero, who details her brother's story in her fund-raising letter, seeking contributions to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago on his behalf and she wears red ribbons on her hat and shirt on race day in tribute to him.
"Late in the marathon, when I'm often struggling, I remind myself why I'm doing it. It's those times when I really remember him and what he had to go through. I saw all that he had to go through, and others who also were or are battling AIDS. I know that what I'm doing running a marathon is nothing compared to what he was doing, what he went through."
Carrero, who is single, attended Eisenhower High School in south suburban Blue Island, and then went to the University of Illinois-Chicago. She received her graduate degree at the University of Illinois.
Carrero years ago worked for Helene Curtis and started the AIDS Walk, as it was then known. She also then endured and battled prejudices against AIDS patients, mostly from the perception that it only affected gay men. And some of her family wasn't even fully supportive of Jerry as he battled.
"When he was sick, it bothered me how people reacted to him being sick," said Carrero, who participated in the AIDS Ride in 1996 from Minneapolis to Chicago, also a tribute to Jerry. "I wanted to get more involved raising funds and raising awareness; that's what led me to the National AIDS Marathon Training Program.
"My brother always was the life of the party and, still to this day, he always is part of the entertainment. I'm so happy and honored to run the marathon for him."