Addison woman runs marathon in husband's memory
Even the sun hadn't yet risen.
Still, Caroline Parisi awoke before dawn several days a week to train for the Chicago Marathon two years ago.
Her husband, Lenny, hated the idea of Caroline running alone in the dark. So he would get up early before heading for work, hop on his bike and ride slowly next to his wife as she trained in their Addison neighborhood.
"Once in a while people would look at us funny. But one day a woman saw us, laughed, and said she needed to tell her husband to do that," Parisi said. "It was just really nice."
Practice wasn't the only time Lenny helped. At home, he listened to Parisi's running woes or massaged her sore legs. With his constant encouragement that continued all the way to the finish line, Parisi completed the 2006 marathon in just more than four hours.
"He made a great sign with rods that he could raise and lower when he saw me during the race," she said. "He just always thought of inventive ways to do things."
But when Parisi again joins 45,000 other runners and wheelchair racers on Sunday at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, she won't see her husband cheering in the crowd.
Lenny Parisi, an athlete in his own right, died at 36 last July. An avid cyclist and track and field athlete in high school, he collapsed and died during an ice hockey game with friends. An autopsy revealed he suffered from an enlarged heart, a medical condition neither he nor his wife knew about.
Still, Parisi believes Lenny will be there in spirit among the 1.5 million spectators the race attracts. She's running in Lenny's honor.
On the day of his funeral, Parisi missed a 15-mile run with the Elmhurst Running Club, a group she had steadily trained with on weekends. For several days her regimen halted completely, until Parisi's sister, Adriana Milano, convinced her to go for a short walk.
Soon the walks turned into jogs, and Parisi realized Lenny would want her to complete the 2007 Chicago Marathon.
"I thought there's no way Lenny would want me to stop my training right now," Parisi said. "I used training to keep some kind of order in my life, and it made those first few weeks somewhat bearable. Even though Lenny wouldn't be there, at least I was doing something that he was supporting me in."
But when she arrived at the starting line, Parisi almost quit before the race began.
"I knew I was going to need help that day," she said.
She had donned shirt that said, "Cheer me on: My biggest fan is in heaven." Parisi decided to run and, soon, other athletes and spectators were, indeed, cheering.
"People would pat me on the back and be like 'You can do this!' or ask 'Who is your biggest fan?' and I'd tell them about Lenny," she said. "I think he worked through them to get me through that race."
On Sunday, Parisi will be flanked by two friends from the Elmhurst Runners Club, all aiming to run the course that snakes through 29 neighborhoods in less than four hours. But she will still wear a shirt that honors her husband. And, Parisi says, she will still seek inspiration from his creative spirit and sense of humor that gained him affection from everyone he knew.
"He just left a legacy behind that still has a profound effect on me," Parisi said. "Being able to draw from his lasting words and acts of kindness has helped me this year a lot. I could say I'm doing this by myself, but I don't think I could do any of this without him. Truly, I'm running in his honor."