THANKS TO ALL OUR FRIENDS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!

Thanks to your donations, Team Life was able to raise over $8700.00 !!!! The funds will be presented to the PICU by Michael Kelly (our little patient ambassador) sometime in February. The funds will be used in their entirety to benefit family centered programs in the PICU.

All members of team life completed the 26.2 miles race on January 13. The weather was perfect for marathon racing with a start temperature in the low 40s and a finish temperature in the mid 50s.

-Clay Brieger ran an amazing race and his personal record of 3h 32min 45 sec to qualify for the prestigious Boston Marathon!!!!!

-Alex Rotta ran his personal record of 3h 33m 15s in a very strong race.

-Frank Flores ran a very solid race and finished in 3h 39m 49s.

-Rich Martucci also easily broke the 4 hour milestone and came in at 3h 44 55s. He is scheduled to run an ultramarathon in February!

-Roswitha Goossens-Winter ran an extraordinary race finishing in 4h 08m 48s to win her age group division!

-Sidney Stech completed the tough course in 4h 12m 06s. Sid is already qualified for Boston and will run that prestigious race in April.

-Michael Elizondo, an ironman triathlon specialist, finished a very good race in 4h 19m 47s. Unlike the rest of the team's runners, however, he was ready to swim 2.4 miles and ride a bike for 112 miles!!!

-Julieta Martucci sustained a significant ankle injury around mile 6 and somehow found the strength to complete the additional 20 miles in a great deal of pain. She finished in 4h 30m 22s.

-Stephen McNeil, our veteran marathon pacer who volunteered to pace the race for athletes targeting a 4h 45m finish, once again showed his incredible precision by finishing in 4h 44m 50s!

-Charlie Ozuna was able to complete the race in 4h 45m 54s, while battling the flu. He improved significantly on his previous marathon time and ran a personal best. Charlie has become one of the faster runners in our group and should shatter this mark in his next marathon.

All runners drew strength and inspiration from Michael's life story and used the extra energy to advance to the finish line.

Super Michael and Team Life Marathon Training Group

What is Team Life?

Who are Team Life's Runners?

The Inspiration Behind Team Life

Super Michael is an engaging 1 year-old boy who has battled a series of very complex congenital problems. Born with a large diaphragmatic hernia (a defect in the muscle that separates the chest from the abdomen and plays a crucial role in breathing), Super Michael was critically ill from the very first second of his life. Since his lungs were severely affected by the large hernia and did not develop completely in the womb, Super Michael required advanced treatment and was immediately transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Driscoll Children’s Hospital where he spent the next couple of weeks undergoing extracorporeal life support (or ECMO, a heart lung machine used to treat the most severe forms of respiratory failure and shock). Against all odds, he was able to separate from the heart-lung machine and move on to the next stages of his treatment, which included repairing the defect in the diaphragm, open heart surgery to repair a large ventricular septal defect, placement of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt to treat the accumulation of fluid around his brain from a hemorrhage he sustained in the first week of life, placement of a gastrostomy tube to help with his nutrition and a tracheostomy to help with his breathing.

Super Michael spent most of first year of life in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Driscoll Children's Hospital. During his journey, he touched the lives of countless people, ranging from his health care team to the many friends he made at the hospital. Fortunately, our little hero is doing great now! He is finally able to enjoy time at home with his loving family and pets.

On January 13, as each member of Team Life races towards the finish line at the 2008 Chevron Houston Marathon, they will draw strength and inspiration from Michael’s life story. When their muscles start to cramp up by mile 22, the Team will know that their pain is nothing compared to what Super Michael had to endure. And when they hit “the wall” around mile 24, they will already know that no obstacle is insurmountable.

You too can participate by making your tax deductible donation online through the secure link on this page. There you can choose to donate $26.2 (to match the marathon distance in miles), $42.19 (to match the marathon distance in kilometers), or any other figure that would fit your charity budget. No amount is too small or too large.

Who benefits from Team Life’s fundraising efforts?

a) The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: All proceeds will go directly to fund family centered care programs in the PICU at Driscoll Children’s Hospital. They go a long way into making the high-intensity PICU environment a more humane place and a home away from home for the critically ill children.

b) Super Michael: Our little Marathon Ambassador will be busy cheering the runners and sending many positive vibes. Team Life is a great way for Michael to help give back to the Hospital and staff that cared for him.

c) The Team Life runners: We will have that extra “Umpf”, that extra push for knowing many of our friends will be pulling for us (and we know we’ll need it!). One cannot make 26.2 miles any shorter, but running for a reason makes the tougher miles and rough patches go by faster.

d) YOU: Your very Tax Deductible, very relevant and very needed donation will leave you feeling (you guessed it) VERY GOOD!

For more information about Team Life’s Marathon 2007 efforts, check out this article in the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!!!!

$0	109%	$8,000 Goal