John and Mark are running 26.2 miles one more time for Chicago’s Our Lady of the Angels this October, but we’re not Half the Gospel anymore. Reinforcements have taken us to another level. This time around we’re joined by:

Matt "Skooter" Slootsky

Jim "Bighead" Bailey

Kristin "Iron Magdalene" Willsey

Still no Luke, but we’ve added the Gospel of Matthew and the Apocryphal Gospel of James, and no gospel is complete without an Iron Woman going the distance. We figure we’re at least like 99% gospel now.

If you don’t remember, or this is new to you, Our Lady of the Angels is a phenomenal mission serving the hungry and the homeless on the West Side of Chicago. Last year Team OLA’s team raised over $200,000 for the mission, providing major help for its effort to renovate a vacant school in the parish, which will allow it to double the size of its food pantry operations, as well as provide space for after-school classroom programs, volunteer housing, and retreat facilities. 

In terms of a little background on the runners, Bighead and Matt are our two biggest donors from 2017 and 2018, and this year they’re going all in and flying from NYC to Chicago run it themselves. This is the first marathon for both. Kristin, from D.C., really is an Iron Woman, but this will be the first time she’s done a marathon without having to bike 112 miles and swim another 2.5 first. Piece of cake. Krewatch cut his time down from 4:28 in 2017 to 4:04 in 2018 and has his eyes set on breaking four hours this time. Not a piece of cake. And Hennegan not only crushed Chicago in both 2017 (3:22) and 2018 (3:25), he just crushed Boston this spring (3:23). Hard to say what he might pull off this time, but if you want incentivize him, seeing how close he can get to breaking 3:20 might do the trick.

We’re doing our fundraising together, and we've committed to raise at least $10,000 for the five of us all together. Unclear if the retribution for falling short will be meted out in Old Testament or New Testament terms, but our goal is to bust as far past the goal as we can and avoid any potential castigation -- the Running Nuns are faster than we are, so there's no getting away.  Many of you have donated plenty in the past – please feel no pressure to repeat, but if you do, rest assured the dollars go to good use. And if you feel like throwing any sporting conditions onto your gift – like you’ll double your contribution if Krewatch breaks 4 hours or Biggie weighs in under 180 at the end of the race (he started training at 250+) – we love that. In addition, we’ll match the first $1,000 in donations out of our own pockets.

The Mission is a 501(c)(3) and relies entirely on the donations of private donors.