This morning, I met the rest of the charity runners at Revolution Fitness at 8am. Even though, I jumped in bed at 9:50pm last night and had a full night sleep, I still felt tired. After an inspiring speech from Coach Rick, my mood suddenly changed and I woke up for a wonderful 16 mile morning run. Everytime Coach Rick talks to us, he leaves us with a message and an inspiring story. I always on the verge of tears, but hold back because I'm mostly among strangers. The stories are about running for a purpose, running for his late mother, or how great it's going to feeel when we cross the finish line. Today, another woman did actually start to cry. Rick told us about his 8 year old son and how to age 3, he rode in the Children's Pan Mass Challenge. A tough 12 mile bike race! I don't think I could ride a bike at age 3 and definitely didn't have the leg power to move for 12 miles. His son has attended training runs every week with his dad since he was a week old. Not only are we helping raise money for charities, we're setting examples for others. It's a very inspiring, lifting experience. It gives me goosebumps. Each run is a victory!
Charity Runners Coach Rick is on the right and Linda is on the Left.
Today, I ran with Linda York. She's a member of the GFRC and Team GO Far as well. We both shortened the run and only ran 16 miles. To put the 16 miles into perspective, we ran to the Museum of Science down the Cambridge side of the river to the New Balance building or the North Beacon Bridge and back! Linda ran Boston last year so I posed the question to her, "When you received your Boston Marathon medal, did you wear it for a week straight?" She laughed, and told me all about the celebration after the marathon. I am going to wear my medal for a week straight, maybe even 2 weeks. I might even sleep with it on. That feeling got me through a few miles of running.
Check out our distance and speed. We increased the pace as we increased the miles! The windy Charles River head wind might be the reason.
Woo! I can't wait to run 18 miles next weekend. And, this upcoming week is going to be a blast. I have a hill run and massage scheduled with Stomp, fundraiser and charity swag party on Thursday night. holller!
I've never long enough in the morning to wake up with the sunrise. As I ran around in the morning darkness, greeting everyone that rose to gather their morning papers, I scared myself a few times. I whispered out gently to one man, "Ohh my, I thought you were a walking snowman!" He gave me a scare with his white bathrobe.
As I woke up, the world did too. I could see the beautiful pink colors in the sky over the Marlborough lake down the street. It was an awesome feeling and nice to think of as I rushed through my day.
And I received my official Boston Marathon postcard yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This evening, I had the pleasure of running and running fast for 5 miles with three hill repeats. Is it naive to think that if I run super fast now on a 5 mile run that the marathon will be easier? I think it is super naive, but it's fun to run fast. At the end of my run, Tiger Woods congratulated me on my fastest mile. I celebrated throwing my hands in the air and screaming! Then promptly slipped on the icey driveway. It gave me the opportunity to rest immediately. I cannot wear a bathing suit for months, my body is COVERED with bruises everywhere.
8 weeks from lining up in Hopkinton with 25,000 other runners. 8 weeks from participating in the most famous and prestigious marathon in the world! Ahhhhh!!!!! Wow!!!! I am so excited!!!!
"We are different, in essence, from other people. If you want to win something, run 100 meters. If you want to experience something, run a marathon." Emil Zatopek
That is the truth!
25,000 runners. Only 25,000! Runners are turned away and registration closed early, but I am one of the runners! My Bottom Line team of 20 has raised $40,000 so far. And you hope to raise $60,000 more.
This morning I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon. I did not officially sign up for this race and only decided on Friday afternoon with the coaching from Donna McAllister to run it. All week long I was under the impression that I had a charity run on Saturday morning. On Wednesday or Thursday, I realized I had no group scheduled and really didn't even know how long I wanted to run.
Anyway, the half was glorious!
The Cape ocean view was beautiful. The crowds, spectators, and fellow runners were cheerful and encouraging. The weather was perfect, about 43 degrees, with the sun peaking through the clouds every once in awhile, and the race ended with raindrops. They held off for the whole race though.
This was my first race that I have ever done solo, arrived and run solo. I stood at the starting line amongst strangers, but we all smiled, feeling the same anxious waiting feeling, knowing that we share a common goal for the day. The miles seem to fly by during races... maybe because of the crowd or the scenery, but the last two miles came up before I knew it. For the half marathon race distance, I crank it for the last two miles. In a slight lull of cranking, a loud little runner said, "Who wants to break 1:50?" I stepped up and ran with him, then he dropped out claiming that he was cramping. I finished really strong under 1:50. I wish I had signed up for the race. I love to have official times! Oh well, I'm $40 richer and closer to my final Boston goal!
After the race, I met up with Meg Bannon, Adele Dockendorff and Megan Judge for lunch on my return voyage to Central Mass. We ate a lovely lunch at a cute Cape Cod lunch cafe. Meg asked if I won the race, I replied yes and then she was apparently really disappointed when I retracted the statement with admission of joking! I LOVE that all my friends think I can win races against thousands of other runners. It's fun to be superwoman in the eyes of others, and on top of it, Meg is famous so it means more coming from her!
A quick note, please donate to my marathon charity. Visit
My donation page. As I ran the last 2 miles of the Hyannis race, my legs were hurting. There is now no doubt in my mind that running the Boston marathon will be painful, but it will alll be worth it if I can reach my $5000 goal. Please help me get there!
I am official. I am in! I received my confirmation email yesterday. I have a number for the 113th Boston Marathon and will receive the almighty postcard - similar to the golden ticket - in a few weeks. With the postcard, I have the power and right to walk into the expo and pick up my bib number.
Nike also informed me that I have completed 100 miles, 100 Mile Certificate which actually means I have run over 100 miles since I started training. I bought the Nike pod in December and I've missed two or three runs over the training.
I had the pleasure of running 8 miles with Stahmp. We ran a fun route around the Charles river, starting down Beacon, around the river and back up Commonwealth. We started out to run very fast, but I wanted to run fast so it worked well being that we both pushed each other.
It was so much fun running with Katie again. I'm really thrilled that she's running the marathon as well. When I think about high school track, it was us! The Katies dominated and now we're taken on Boston together!
Charity Runners 
Finish Line
Race Course
Stomp running on Valentine's Day. Funny right?