ST. LOUIS – Finishing a 26.2-mile run is a feat anyone has the right to brag about for a life time.
However, if Sunday's Go! St. Louis marathon runners want to add another special element to their course, all they have to do is look up and wave.
Murelle Plotner is an 18-year-old cancer survivor currently staying at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Because of a lingering infection, the St. Joseph, Illinois native is entering her third straight month inside the hospital, heartbreaking for the recent high school graduate whose passion is running.
"I like my 3.1 milers," she said. “I used to run six days a week ... My best time was 21:21”
Plotner had a double lung transplant 11 months ago following a bone marrow transplant in 2013.
“I know I can run a mile in 6 minutes. Now I can’t even do that. Mentally it’s not good," she said.
There's no question it's a challenging time right now for Plotner and her family. But when Plotner found out the Go! St. Louis marathon would be running near her ninth story hospital window on Sunday, she decided to create a sign to cheer them on.
“It’s hours of entertainment," she said. “We’re just trying to help them out and put some motivation to them.”
Her sign will say "Think fast, run faster."
But runners have already been putting their thinking caps on. As of Friday afternoon, a grass-roots movement had started on social media, encouraging marathoners to look up and wave at Plotner as they run near her window at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Plotner, who loves the idea, will be watching the runners as closely as she can.
“Knowing someone else is cheering me on and they don’t even know me makes me accomplish a little bit more in life," she said. “Knowing that you can’t leave, that someone out there is still thinking about you is what makes me go.”
Considering she will be watching from her south window, runners are encouraged to look out at St. Louis Children's Hospital and give Plotner a GIANT wave while on Clayton Avenue in Forrest Park near Jefferson Lake (mile 13 entering the park and mile 19 exiting).
