Planet Jeffro

A wonderful race in memory of my sister

On Monday, January 2nd, my family hosted our second annual “Jillana’s Bandanas 4 mile run”.  About 40 people came (!) and walked/ran/cheered along the 4 mile route.

In November 2008, my older sister Jillana ran the New York City Marathon.  She loved running more than anything.  Just 3 weeks later she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor.  She died March 2 2010 but my family decided to celebrate her memory with a race that she would have been proud to compete in.

Jillana never ran a race without a bandana (Yes, we know the correct spelling of bandanna, but this goes better, and we’re stubborn, just like Jillana.)  So we figured we would all wear these ugly shmatas!

My mom set up a donation page for the National Brain Tumor Society and it brought in a whopping $1,500!  Thank you so so much to all of you who generously donated and of course to all of you who came out on a nippy day.  Ariella and Jason were notably missed - Ariella won last year’s race.

One day maybe we’ll shut down a few streets, supply some port-o-potties, have a ribbon for the winner to run through, and maybe even have an official time keeper!  We can dream.

We were all winners … but the first three winners of the day were:

#1 - Eric Friedman

#2 - Chen Lim (We really need instant replay- almost too close to call!)

#3 - Matt Westermann- and that’s not just in his age group either!!

Nice hustle everyone!  (I came in 4th, but since 2nd gets a set of steak knives, and 3rd is “you’re fired”, I don’t think I want to know what 4th gets!)

Oh, and here’s a quick video of the crowd: