And....Wrap!

Miles to date: 401
Money to date: $7,587

Yesterday was the 115th running of the Boston Marathon, this is my story:



I got to MGH at about five minutes of 6 and they bussed us out to Hopkinton, so we got there around 6:40 or so. There was an awful lot of waiting around. The awesome thing was that MGH/Spaulding Rehab/Bruins foundation had our own staging area, so they gave us a huge tent, food/drinks, DJ and our own porta-johns. We started heading over to the start around 10ish and didn't have to wait long once we were there. However, there was a lot of time to kill in the in between. Most people decorated jerseys or slept.

The start was a little anticlimactic, as the elite runners had left 40 minutes before us and there were so many corrals. That being said it was organized really well and I crossed the start line five minutes after my wave started, despite being in corral 7 of 9. It was incredible to just see the sea of people stretching out in front of you on the streets. There was not too much of a logjam and it flowed really well.

The crowd support was unreal for the entirety of the race. Starting in Hopkinton there were people lining every inch of the course being incredibly supportive. Some highlights include the Biker bar in Ashland where hundreds of giant, burly leather clad men and women lined the left side of the course and cheered like crazy. There was also the Santa Claus that's in Ashland every year and the drag queens in Natick.

Framingham and Natick were a little boring, the crowds were good, but there was not a whole lot going on. Overall, Framingham was the most boring town, especially because there is just not much to see around there. In Natick the town center was cool with lots of music blaring and tons of people.

One of the coolest aspects of the race was the Wellesley tunnel. You could hear it from about 3/4 of a mile away and as you got closer the ground was actually shaking. There were hundreds and hundreds of girls lining the course screaming at the top of their lungs and screaming for kisses from the runners, it was awesome (I abstained from the kissing).

Coming out of Wellesley I spent a lot of time mentally preparing for the Newton hills. As you guys know, I loathe the hill going over 95 up towards Newton/Wellesley hospital but I was able to handle that one in stride. I shortened up my steps and stared at the ground and it went by alright. Turning on to Comm Ave by the firehouse is really daunting but I used the same approach on the Newton hills and handled the first three great. After the third hill I saw my Dad who was there on his bike and then the MGH support team. There were so many MGH supporters lined up, including all of the patient partners, it was incredible to see. More than that, it was a good reminder of why I was doing this. Knowing that what I was going through was really nothing compared to the fights so many of these children were facing.

At this point I should probably mention that I was running the entire race with this girl named Lisa who I had met once or twice before who was also on the MGH team. We did a really good job of pacing each other and keeping our times around 10:00 miles. She was a phenomenal supporter and did so much for me mentally along the way.

All of that being said, the next portion was Heartbreak Hill. Lisa and I got a little separated at the MGH stop when she stopped to hug her family and I made it about halfway up the hill before I broke. I gave in and walked for the first time there. Shortly after, I saw Lisa and resumed running with her, but that was the beginning of the end, once I begin to walk, it's tough to keep it together to continue running.

We made it through the BC mile (awesome) where everyone was shattered and kept going down Comm. Ave., at which point I told Lisa to go ahead without me. Thus began the decline. I made my second walk stop for about 2/10 of a mile and then resumed. The turn from Comm. onto Chestnut Hill and again onto Beacon was really cool, with BC students going nuts the entire way. Beacon street was a bit of a blur, as I was in a lot of pain at that point, there was a whole lot of walking/running/walking going on. That's a really hilly portion of the race and I was really struggling. The crowd was great, but at the same time, I also felt like so many of them were so very drunk and a lot of the college students could be a bit patronizing. This is not to paint everyone that way, probably 90% of the support was very positive.

Coming through Fenway was awesome, just before you get there, on the hill/bridge going over the pike is the 25 mile marker, so mentally you're doing well, and the crowd there was unreal with people 5 or 6 deep on both sides of the course after the Sox game. Coming out of Fenway, it was a quick dip under Mass Ave and then I saw Meghan, my mother and a lot of other supports on the left hand side which was a huge pick-up.

Turning onto Hereford there is an unexpected little hill, which normally would not be worth mentioning, except for the fact that you're at mile 25.6 or so and are on the verge of death. Turning the corner onto Boylston was incredible. The crowds are nuts and seeing the finish line really does make you feel awesome. The only problem is that you can see the finish for almost 1/2 a mile, so despite it being so close, it's still really far.

So that's my tale of the Boston Marathon. It was hands down the coolest running event I have ever been a part of. Thank you all for your support and encouragement.

The Other Side of the Hill

Miles to date: 356
Money to date: $6,525

Too much time has gone since my last update. I hope you have all been managing without me but life has been crazy, work has been busy and I need to prioritize.

Lots has happened, lets get up to speed.

About a week and a half ago I took part in the MGH 20 mile team run. We were bussed out to the marathon start line in Hopkinton and finished up just past mile 20. Long time readers will remember that I did this same run while training for the Cape Cod Marathon and it was just as bad this time as it was then. The Boston Marathon course is very challenging, with an absurd number of uphills and downhills, and to the honest, I am not sure which took more out of me. By the time we reached Wellesley, about mile 13, my knees were barking from all of the downhills, just in time for the start of some serious uphills in Newton.

All of this being said, the run went well, I ran it in 3:20 which puts me exactly on the pace I hope to be on for the marathon. As painful as it was, I felt good for the majority of the run.

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with my patient partner, a young man from Braintree who is currently treating for lymphoma at MGH. I met he and his parents for dinner and had a wonderful time. It was moving to see how positive an experience they have had with the oncology unit at MGH and I could not be prouder to be raising money for such a worthy cause.

Continuing the positivity, the taper began last week. It's every bit as wonderful as I was hoping it would be. It is such a relief to be taking a step back in training. The trick now is remembering that I'm not running as many miles when I sit down for dinner.

The Taper is Coming! The Taper is Coming!

Miles to date: 305
Money to date: $5,465

It's been an exciting week with lots of miles logged, but none of that compares to how much I am looking forward to this weekend. I will get to that in a few minutes.

This past weekend I had a friend's bachelor party on Friday night, meaning that Saturday's run was going to be painful. I had the foresight to set my alarm early and force myself to drink somewhere in the vicinity of five gallons of water. After some serious re-hydration and loading up on food I headed out to do a 14 mile run with a few friends.

On a cool, crisp morning we headed from Mass General out along the harborwalk down to Castle Island and back. One of the other runners was doing 18 miles and planned to keep going ahead, despite initially feeling like crap I felt pretty good by the end of the run and decided to put in an extra two miles.

This week the runs went well, if fairly uneventful. I ran four on Monday, ten on Tuesday and four today. Ten miles before work was a bit much, I had to leave the house by 5:30 and I still ended up running late.

The training schedule that Mass General gives it marathon runners actually suggest taking a day off from work the days you have to do these long runs. Even if I had vacation time to spare (which I don't) I can not envision a world in which I would take an entire day off for a run that takes just over an hour and a half.

The reason I am excited about this weekend is that as of Sunday I will officially begin tapering. The long, awful mountain of training is now largely behind me and we begin the countdown towards race day. There is the little matter of the 20 mile run on Saturday, but I'm choosing to focus on the good rather than the bad.

Miles to date: 266
Money to date: $5,350

Take a look at that again, it is not a type, Five Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty Dollars. That is a ton of money. So how did it happen?

March 5th I held my fundraiser at the Vault and it went better than I could ever have possibly hoped for. Thank you to everyone who came out and donated, it is greatly appreciated and with your help I was able to surpass my goal of $5,000. Additionally, thank you to all the companies and individuals who donated items for the raffle and door prizes. I can not express my gratitude to everyone enough.

All the fundraising aside, there has also been some serious logging of miles going on. The day of the fundraiser I ran a rainy 15 miles with a few members of the MGH marathon team. We ran along the marathon route and it was a pleasant run. Since there were so few of us, we spaced out pretty quickly but all the other runners on the course made it enjoyable.

I have been putting off changing over to new running shoes. I get oddly sentimental about putting a pair of shoes down (I'm even talking about them like they're a pet), and I kept avoiding it last week until it was too late, as I did not want to start using them for the long runs. Lesson here, as always, is that I am an idiot.

This past weekend called for 18 miles, my longest run to date. Due to various scheduling conflicts I had to do the run on Sunday and chose to do it as early in the morning as possible which meant I was heading out by my lonesome.

Considering I did the majority of my training for the Cape Cod Marathon by myself, long solo runs do not bother me too much. That being said, 18 miles is a long time to run solo. Meghan was kind enough to meet me at mile 6 with a few refreshments, which was a huge help, but that was one hour in, leaving me with just under two hours remaining.

The run went well, I finished in about 2:50 and did not feel too awful. Don't get me wrong, I felt like crap, but it went away quickly enough. Looking at a bit of a step back week with "only" 14 miles on tap for the weekend.

Keep on keepin' on.

In the darkness before the dawn...

Miles to Date: 213
Money to Date: $2,480

I am not the biggest Allman Brothers Fan. I appreciate a lot of their music and enjoy their greatest hits album, but that is about the extent of my fan-dom. That being said, they have a song that I absolutely adore. It is a song that they only performed live and never did in the studio and it's called "Soulshine." It is a phenomenal song, go download it. Do it now.

The point of this is that there is a line in the song that I love that goes "Boy, in the darkness before the dawn you got to let your soulshine." That line was going through my head this morning as I trekked through the pre-dawn gloom.

Running in the morning can be a surreal experience, it's so quiet and there are so few people out. Given the time I need to start my runs, especially the long runs, this is very much the case. Due to the darkness when I start my runs I have stopped running with an IPod, so it is just me and my thoughts on the road. It can be great and at times it can be maddening (I spent the better part of a seven mile run with a Miley Cyrus tune stuck on loop).

The next three or four weeks are going to present the biggest challenge of my training. Everything I have done to date has been building towards this few brutal weeks. So I'll be out in the darkness before the dawn, working towards my goal, all I'd ask is that if you are one of the few people on the road that you keep an eye open for me.

Making Strides

Miles to date: 201
Money to date: $2,430

So very close to halfway! I set my fundraising goal at $5,000 and at this moment I am only $70 away. This is going towards the best of causes and I could not be happier with the progress that has been made. Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far, your support is making this all possible.

This past weekend I ran in the Hyannis Half marathon. This is my second time taking part in this race and it remains my favorite half. The conditions were pretty tough as it was a mixture of snow and rain for almost the entirety of the race. That being said, it was a great race. I managed to run a personal best time of 1:55:55. I took over ten minutes off of my time from last year. It's nice to see that all this training is adding up to something.

Now comes the tough part of training. All of the weekend runs are over 12 miles, the long weekday runs are 8 miles or longer and it gets tough to get it all done. The days are getting longer and with any luck the worst of the winter is behind us.

Come Sail Away

Miles to date: 173
Money to date: $2,155

This past weekend Meghan and I took our first vacation since our honeymoon and went on a cruise in the Western Caribbean. It was an incredible vacation and we had a great time.

Despite this awesome vacation, I still had to put in my miles. We left on Wednesday evening, so I was still able to get in my weekday long run but had to sacrifice my Thursday shorter run as we were trying to load on the boat that day.

I was unwilling to sacrifice any of our time in ports to running as I am pretty sure that would have provided Meghan with immediate cause for divorce. Due to this, I had to figure out how to run ten miles on the ship. The good news: the boat had a gym and a running track; however the sun was out and it was in the high 70's so there was zero chance of me running inside. The bad news: the running track was only 1/10th of a mile, so running ten miles meant 100 laps while at sea.

I obviously opted for the track and subjected myself to 100 laps. It was early in the morning, the sun was out, the weather was beautiful and it was some of the most boring running I have ever been involved in. It did not held that we were out at open sea and the pitching of the boat meant that there were unexpected uphills and downhills.

But now we're back and it is time to really lock in for training. Time to lower the boom.