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Team In Training inspires Del. woman running Chicago Marathon

When Noel Sarah Dietrich was a kid, she wanted to be Vicki Huber. Huber, like Dietrich, was from Wilmington, De., and Dietrich watched the Villanova all-American's path to the 1988 Olympics in awe.

One problem though: Dietrich enjoyed running, but she didn't think she was really good at it. "I was typically an overachiever and wasn't used to things that didn't come easy to me," she said. In high school, she went to one track practice then dropped out. At the University of Delaware, she knew running helped relieve stress, but she never really got into the sport.

Then six years ago, her then-boss signed up for her first marathon at 60 years old and trained through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, which since 1988 raised more than $1 billion for blood cancer research. "Every time she talked about it, she would express how wonderful it was to be part of the organization, and I realized I needed something like that in my life."

So without having even run a 5k, Dietrich joined the Eastern Pennsylvania chapter and ran the Disney World Half Marathon in 2011. Dietrich's cousin had survived childhood leukemia, and she ran in her honor.

"I can't say enough about the coaching they provide," she said of Team in Training. "Without their support and my amazing teammates, I never would have made it through a half marathon let alone a full." So far, she's raised more than $23,000 while part of Team in Training.

"During my first season, I had a teammate who was training for a half marathon while undergoing chemo. I have another teammate who runs with a scarred lung to her cancer treatment and another who has a heart transplant," she said. "It's totally inspiring and when things get tough during a run, I remind myself that my pain is only temporary and is nothing compared to what those suffer from cancer deal with for months and years."

She's now run four full marathons: the Philadelphia marathon three times, and the Marine Corps Marathon. She'll be running her fifth, the Chicago Marathon, on Sunday.

Dietrich is the director of communications at Wilmington Montessori School, and for the last two years has been co-coach to their running club for kids in first through sixth grade. The program helps them get ready to run the Delaware Marathon's kids race or a leg in the marathon's eight-person relay. "My goal is to help them learn to love running, and to help them remember that even though running is an individual sport, we're all stronger together when we support our teammates," she said.

She chose Chicago because it's known to be a fast and flat race, and that she's never been to the city before. Her goal is to finish and "not do anything dumb," especially because the forecast calls for warm weather on Sunday.

She thinks she has a shot at improving her personal record of 5:25:32 from the 2013 Philadelphia Marathon, if she gets things right. "During my first marathon, I didn't eat enough. During my second, I went out too fast. Last year, I ran with bronchitis," she said. "I don't make the same mistake twice at least!"

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