everyday Athlete
Sarah and Becky gould
Becky and Sarah Gould
chArity: teAm SpeciAl OlympicS chicAgO
F
or the Gould sisters, running is a family affair.
Five years ago, Becky planned to run her first 5K with a friend. When her friend could no longer do the race, Sarah filled in, competing in her first race ever. Motivated by her finish, Becky continued to sign up for longer and longer races, eventually registering for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2012 with Sarah. “It’s kind of always been a sister thing, motivating each other, signing up for races together,” Sarah says. “It’s more fun when you have someone to wait at the start line with and meet at the end, and because we’re sisters we can give each other tough love.” When the sisters decided to run the marathon in 2012, they knew they’d need a little extra motivation to push them to complete the full distance. With that in mind, they joined Team Special Olympics Chicago: a charity particularly close to their hearts, as their brother David had been a Special Olympian for years. “We thought if we were going to do this thing, we had to pick a charity that matters to us and commit to raising money, because once people had donated to the charity, that would give us the motivation we needed,” Becky says. “We ended up doing it and had a really good experience.” 24
august/september 2015
MyChiCagoathlete.CoM
David’s high school had a Special Olympics basketball team, Becky says, and as a middle schooler he became interested in the team. Once he reached high school, he started playing basketball and eventually added bowling and track into the mix. He has since finished in his school system but continues to play softball with a community Special Olympics team. “That’s been a good bridge for him to transition,” Becky says. “It completely opened the door for him in terms of having a social life and being with others who want to be active and making new friends. … We saw so many changes in him and said, ‘That’s a program making a difference for people like him.’ It was kind of a no-brainer when thinking about what charity we wanted to run for.” After taking 2013 off, Becky returned to the Bank of America Chicago Marathon last year, and this fall Sarah will join her as well. Though they both plan to run the race, Sarah’s location—she moved to Finland in 2013 for her master’s degree—will prevent them from training side by side. “So far we’ve kept each other accountable, talking on Skype or texting about running,” Becky says. “In 2012, when we ran we started a blog for all of our donors to keep ourselves accountable and to document the experience as a way to get people involved.
The blog is something we’ve kept up and we hope to do more in the next couple of months, even though we’re not together.” Despite living far from Chicago, Sarah still has connections to the local training community and follows a Chicago Endurance Sports virtual training plan to help prepare her for the upcoming race. “[Running] is a pretty popular sport [in Finland],” Sarah says. “There are really nice trails and the weather doesn’t get too hot, so it’s really nice. I have a lot of friends who don’t mind running with me.” Sarah hopes to run a half marathon in Finland in September and Becky will continue with her goal of running one race per month, but the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and fundraising for Special Olympics Chicago remains the main focus for both sisters. “[Special Olympics Chicago] is such a well-organized program and you can see where the money’s going that you’re raising,” Sarah says. “I always felt so supported in every step of the process. I can’t think of another charity I would run with.” To learn more about Becky and Sarah Gould and their fundraising, visit www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/slowmilesarebetterthannomiles.