Women's watch: Runner keeps Chicago Marathon close

Before the Chicago Marathon was sponsored by Bank of America, it was sponsored by LaSalle Bank.

When LaSalle Bank became the title sponsor in 1994, Kim Harris, a resident of Aurora, was in her fourth year of working with the company. She stayed as Bank of America took over in 2007 and she is now in her 27th year there.

Clearly, Harris, a senior vice president in marketing for the bank, has been around her fair share of marathons. To say that she is a fan of the massive event her employer has sponsored for 23 years is probably a bit of an understatement.

"I love the marathon," said Harris, still buzzing about the success of the 40th edition of the Bank of American Chicago Marathon, which had 40,000 registered runners last weekend. "The crowds, the course. It's just so amazing."

And yet, even Harris had no idea just how special the marathon can be to people. That is, until she ran it herself in 2009.

"I was going through a divorce at the time, and I was feeling very down about myself and who I was. There were a lot of personal challenges for me," said Harris, who had three young kids at the time. "I had never been a runner growing up, but I just thought that maybe running could be an opportunity for me to get some relief, to kind of get away from all of my worries and the weight of it all.

"I started running on my treadmill in the house, and then I decided I wanted to try to run a marathon. I thought it could be good for me to do something for myself that would require a lot of diligence and focus and it would be a really good accomplishment when I was finished."

Harris took to the internet, found some marathon training plans and got to work. She started training in June, three runs of 3-to 5-miles each during the week and long runs on Sundays, when her kids were with their dad.

By August, Harris was up to 13 miles and ran a half-marathon for practice.

By October, she was running her first marathon. She finished in just over five-and-a-half hours.

"I mean, I never ran before, not even when I was young," Harris said. "To be able to achieve something like running a marathon, I was just so proud of myself. And the whole process was such a transformation for me. It made a huge difference in me that year. I was a very bitter person. But every time I left the house to go on my runs, I was able to leave a little more of that anger and anxiety behind. By the end of that year, the anger was gone. It's like I had transformed into someone else."

And in the meantime, Harris could beam that she had done something that is on the bucket list of so many.

Now, Harris helps a lot of those bucket-listers celebrate.

She is still faithfully hanging around the marathon on race day, just not as a runner.

Sunday marked the sixth time Harris worked as a medal distributor at the finish line. Only Bank of America employees are eligible for that volunteer job.

"I know what it means to receive a marathon medal, how special it is," Harris said. "It's one of my favorite things, passing out the medals because it can be such an emotional moment for people. It was for me. I've had friends come through and I've given them their medals. It's been a cherished moment for me. So inspiring."

And, in many ways, inspiration is what the marathon is all about. So many runners, like Harris, are fighting their own battles just to get to race day. She says she gets chills when she sees some of the runners crossing the finish line in tears, clearly moved by the experience.

"To know that I could do something like a marathon spoke volumes to me," Harris said. "It made me believe I had so many qualities that I didn't even know I had, like strength and perseverance.

"I see that all the time when I'm handing out the medals. The Chicago Marathon is really a life-changing experience. It was for me."

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

Follow Patricia on Twitter: @babcockmcgraw