'When I Run, I Feel Like I Can Do Anything'

On a chilly morning last October, Jesse Carrico wiped the sleep from beneath his sports goggles as he struggled to pin on his race bib. It was still three hours before he'd run his seven-mile leg of the 2011 Baltimore Marathon, and he was already nervous. But when the 20-year-old finally spotted his relay mate's matching royal blue singlet coming toward him, confidence had replaced worry. With no idea what to expect as he took off for the finish line, Carrico simply remembered something his coaches had said to him often: Trust your training. You can do this.
That training had begun in April 2011, when Carrico's coach, Andy Parsley, started preparing a group of four students at the St. Elizabeth School to run the Baltimore Marathon as a relay team. Parsley, the principal of the Baltimore school, which serves those with learning and physical disabilities, is himself an eight-time marathoner.
"I thought the coaches were pulling my leg when they told us we were running to the lake near our school," Carrico, now 21, says of an early practice. "I didn't know if I'd make it, but I did and was very proud of myself."