Corinne Makarewich of Harrisonburg, Virginia, wins Runner's World USA contest! Join her, John "The Penguin" Bingham and Team America, at Toronto Waterfront '06

Hi Alan,

This is amazing! Thank you so much for this opportunity, how surreal! I am so excited about this trip!

This e-mail might seem like it runs on a bit, but I am just so excited!

My full name is Corinne Makarewich. The person I'd like to accompany me is my twin sister, Catherine Makarewich. In your e-mail you said it would be our choice if we stayed 2 or 3 nights in Toronto, and we would prefer to stay for 3 nights—this will be our first trip to Toronto and we would love to have one extra night to stay! We would both like to run the half-marathon—this will be my twin sister's first half-marathon, and my third. I am so excited to have the opportunity to accompany her on her first half-marathon!

As far as my other past race experience goes, I have run three full marathons: Grandfather Mountain Marathon on 7/9/2005 (4:43:31), Richmond Marathon on 11/12/2005 (4:04:13), and Myrtle Beach Marathon on 2/18/2006 (3:53:30).

I have been running for 14 months, since March 2005, and so far I have improved on my times with each race. My most recent race was the Ukrops 10K (Richmond, Virginia) which I ran in 47:58. Both my twin sister and I have always run to stay in shape because we both played soccer and basketball in high school.

During a typical week I usually run about 5 days a week, averaging out to between 30 and 40 miles/week. I run solo on about 3 of those days. One day a week I run with a close friend, and the other day I do a group run with the Shenandoah Valley Track Club.

My occupation is a student—I graduated from James Madison University (JMU) in 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. This May marked the end of my first year of graduate school at JMU; I am studying to be a School Counselor. Two more years and I will be set to work in the real world!

I grew up in New Fairfield, Connecticut. I have the most wonderful, supportive parents in the world! I also have an older brother, and the twin sister who will be accompanying me—we are 22-years old, turning 23 in August. My dad is a State Park Supervisor for the State of Connecticut, so I was given the opportunity to grow up within a state park, which was amazing! The love that I have for the outdoors has surely stemmed from that experience!

I entered this contest because I routinely visit Runnersworld.com and I saw that this would be an opportunity of a lifetime for my sister and I! I would absolutely love to meet Ed Whitlock, he is such an inspiration to the running community.

I am so shocked that I won this contest!

Thank you,
Corinne M.