Teen Pushes Limits to Run First Midwest Half Marathon for Boston

Jamie Parks was sure his daughter Annalyn was ready to run just over 13 miles in one run.

She had been preparing in a way for the last five years. Annalyn, 13, has run at least one mile every day since she was 8. There was one time when it was about 15 minutes to midnight and she still hadn’t run, but will power prevailed.

“A couple of times, I thought of quitting the streak,” Annalyn said, at her Tinley Park home. “But inside my heart and my brain, I just can't quit now. I've gone so far.”

Jamie is an avid runner as well. He is on a streak of running at least a mile a day himself, only his streak goes back for about the last 21 years.

Jamie has run the First Midwest Half Marathon almost every year since it began. He runs while pushing his wife Lynn, who was severely injured in a car accident shortly before the two were to be married in 1987. Lynn was in a coma for 17 days. Lynn and Jamie would marry in 1994, where after seven grueling years of physical therapy she was able to walk down the aisle.

The Parks family story has been told in many forms. They have been featured on Oprah, written about in nearly every area newspaper, seen on several broadcast news shows and heard on radio stations. The Parks’ story can be seen in the documentary “Marathon Love,” first shown on the Discovery Health Channel.

On Sunday, the family’s story continues when Jamie and Lynn’s daughter runs the entire First Midwest Half Marathon.

“The original plan was Annalyn would run four miles out, pacing her cousin Shannon, and then join her on the last four miles back,” Jamie said.

She prepared for the eight miles, but eventually was able to run 10 miles.

“I used to think three miles was so much, about a year ago,” Annalyn said. “People say you can do anything after eight (miles), but (a half marathon) that’s more than five more miles and I was feeling pretty dead after eight.”

The Grissom Middle School student kept at it, and about a month ago, she took on her hardest challenge. The Parks ran from their Tinley Park house near 80^th Avenue and 159^th Street about 11 miles to the Eagle Rock Community Church in Homer Glen, a path marked with hills especially west of Orland Park.

“After the 11 (miles), I was still not sure if I could do it,” Annalyn said. “I was happy in my head thinking before Boston, I only have to do eight miles. Then all of that happened, and I thought it'd be a good idea to run for Boston.”

Jamie and Lynn ran the Boston Marathon in 2008. On the home stretch, Annalyn came out and ran with her parents across the finish line.

The Parks know several members of the local Yankee Runners group, who travelled to Boston this year for the marathon, including a close neighbor.

“I didn’t believe it at first,” Annalyn said. “I would never think that would happen at such an event.”

She then made up her mind to run the entire marathon for Boston. Annalyn will be wearing one of the finisher shirts her parents got in 2008.

“Boston affected all of us a lot,” Annalyn said. “We were there in 2008 and I just wanted to dedicate the half marathon to all the victims.”

Learn more about the Parks on their website.

Read on for more stories about the First Midwest Half Marathon and local reactions to Boston.

• Half Marathon Co-Director: ‘The Race Will Go On’
• Over 200 People Run in Solidarity for Boston

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