UPDATED: Frankfort Teen Runs Chicago Marathon for Burn Survivors

• UPDATE (10:46 p.m. Oct. 9): Tricia Paul finished Sunday's Chicago Marathon with a time of 4:30:56. 

"I want to say I ran the Chicago Marathon and that I finished and not in an ambulance," said Tricia Paul, 17, of her ambitious plan to run her first marathon Sunday.

Paul has been a runner for years, starting with cross country and track in middle school and continuing with cross country during her first three years at .

"My senior year I realized I wanted to do something that was more of a personal goal," Paul said.

"With cross country, I didn't really enjoy running long distances for a (scored) time. I wanted to be able to reach my own goals," she added.

Paul began training at the beginning of the summer. During the week, she would run about 11 miles and then increasingly add more miles on the weekends. Her mom, Peg, who has run the marathon before and will again Sunday, trained with her daughter, but not alongside her.

"She'll be out there with me, but we don't run together," Tricia Paul said. "I'm out there with my iPod and beautiful nature."

The music on her iPod motivates her, she added, as well as the fact that she's running for a good cause. Last year, her mom formed an official Bank of America Chicago Marathon charity team called Team Phoenix, which raises money for The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. (Peg Paul is on the organization's board, as is actor J.R. Martinez, who is currently on Dancing with the Stars.)

The group, according to Tricia, helps bring people with really severe burns back into the real world through counseling and other assistance.

"Each of us has a goal to reach of $1,000. I'm almost there," she said.

Team Phoenix has runners from Orland Park and Wauconda, as well as Las Vegas and Hartford, Conn., including Tricia's older sister, aunt and uncle.

Frankfort businessman Mark Munnuzzo, owner of , noticed Paul running past his store on Old Plank Trail all summer. Initially, he offered her a job. Later, he offered to support her cause. For any donation of $26.20 or more ($1 for every mile in the marathon), donors will receive a coupon for a free gelato. Donations can be made online through Paul's website. She has less than $250 to go to reach her goal.

Although she might take the gelato job after the marathon, right now Paul is focused on Sunday.

"The hardest part is motivating myself to get up on a Saturday and do these long runs. It takes a lot of discipline," she said.

As a marathoner, her mom knows exactly how much discipline is required and said she and Tricia have been talking about keeping her goal at healthy training, learning to run the event and have fun.

"Training for a marathon is a huge commitment, and she has done almost all of her runs by herself. I'm also proud that she is committed to running for our charity team," Peg Paul said.

Clearly, Tricia's decision to run the marathon--and run it for charity--has given her an opportunity to grow, as a person and as an athlete.

"There are times I really do miss cross country," said Tricia, whose former cross -ountry teammates will be on hand at the mile 25 water station to cheer her on. "But I'm happy I made the decision I did."