Less than 24hrs...

At this time tomorrow I'll be about 13.1 miles into my 26.2 mile journey from Hopkinton to Copley.  Luckily, I've already run part of the course this morning, or at least the last 1 mile or so.  Today was the BAA 5K (or baby unicorn race as some are calling it) and a good chance to stretch the legs out after all this tapering.  Amy and I decided to break out the new shoes as we kick off the BAA Distance Medley.  The medley covers the BAA 5K, 10K (June) and 1/2 Marathon (Oct).  

 With the marathon tomorrow, I had no plans to 'race' this race, but we ran a respectable 29 min race.  Amy even mastered the art of picture taking while running, capturing this awesome image of me running and others at the finish...

  

 

3.1 miles completed, 26.2 miles to go...

After the run this morning, we have the DFMC pasta party this afternoon to remind all the runners why we have trained so hard the last 16 weeks, why we did all the fundraising and what will inspire us tomorrow.  I know that I am looking forward to it.  As a fun little activity yesterday, Mom, Amy and I went to The Paint Bar to paint the marathon finish, or at least an interpretation of it.  After telling all us Type A personalities to relax and not worry about lines that were not straight or colors mixing, we proceeded let our creative sides out and create our masterpieces!  

Yesterday we painted the finish, today Amy and I ran through it and tomorrow I'll finish my 2nd DFMC experience running on the support of family and so many friends, running Running in Honor Of and in Memory Of many individuals.  If you're on the course tomorrow, look for me in the stylish DFMC singlet...

BAA Expo & DFMC Registration

Today started the final preparations for Monday.  I went to the BAA Expo at Hynes Convention Center, got my number and swag bag!  I also picked up my number for the BAA 5K on Sunday AM.  Yup, I'm running both BAA races this weekend and will run a total of 29.3 miles in <30 hours.  We'll see how well this strategy pays off on Monday, but the Sunday race should prepare the muscles for Monday.

After the BAA registration and meandering around the expo (but resisting the urge to buy lots of expensive items) I went to the DFMC registration at the Marriott Copley.  This year I actually remembered my forms and was prepared for the process.  In addition to picking up all the DFMC materials, I also got to pick up my "Pace$etter" patch to wear on my singlet.  This patch is given to all runners who raise $8000.  I wear this patch this Monday and thank all the individuals who have helped me raise over $11,500 for DFCI and Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research.

More to come this weekend, and hopefully some pictures...

6 Days to Go...

Wow, it's been an incredible last week...$1,880 raised in the last week alone!!  That brings the grand total raised to $10,757 from over 150 donors!  The support from so many new and repeat donors has been incredible and your support and generosity will be a huge motivating factor come Monday.

Speaking of Monday, I'm not sure about others, but I've been checking out weather.com every day for the last week or so.  Today's forecast is for 63-64F as a high with partly sunny skies.  While this is not an ideal temperature range (I'd prefer about 45-50F) it is substantially better than this year.  There's still time for the weather to move up or down, but fingers crossed that it stays dry at the very least.

As for my current training, I'm continuing to taper and last week ran a grand total of ~21 miles, many at a much slower pace than past runs.  This week will be about the same distance though I'll also be running on Sunday in the BAA 5K as a warmup race.  Though I won't be racing this race, I'll use it as a nice opportunity to stretch out my legs and get warmed up for the marathon on Monday.  We'll see how well this strategy works.  As for the race itself, I'm definitely getting excited for Monday and there's only a few days of work and the weekend to get through!

Fundraisers, Long Run and 1st week of Taper

I didn't realize that it had been over 2 weeks since updating the blog!  Apologies to all those waiting for the next edge-of-your-seat exciting post :)

So for everyone's enjoyment, I'm going to attempt to be brief tonight.  I will undoubtedly leave out details, but if you're truly interested in hearing the details, drop me an e-mail or call or message on facebook or whatever.

On March 20th, I had another fundraiser at the Asgard with a raffle for the numerous donated and purchased gifts from so many generous people.  A great group of coworkers and friends turned out to support the cause and DFMC!  We had a great night and between both fundraisers raised ~$1,500 before any company matches!  A very nice success and everyone left the bar happy.  Thanks to everyone who came out, who has donated to DFMC and who has supported me in my training and fundraising over the last 16 weeks.  As of tonight, we have raised ~$8,500 for DFMC and I'm within $1,500 of my goal!

On March 23rd, the DFMC team gathered at BC to start our 22 mile training run!  My 'normal' group ended up going to Hopkinton and running in on the marathon route but I chose the out-and-back approach, getting a little more work on the hills.  Also, for the first time this training season, I used my headphones the entire time.  I wanted to run the training run that I wanted...not getting caught up going to fast just to stay with a group.  Yes I ignored the social aspect, but this was me trying to be smart in this training run.  I managed a nice slow run though my Garmin freaked out on the way back to BC so I don't actually know how good of a run it was.  According to my watch I ran some miles in ~4-5 minutes!!  Guess I was really speedy :) Overall it was a great run and I felt good at the end of it, which is the best outcome one could hope for.

Since March 23, I've been in taper mode.  This has been even more critical as I tweaked a hamstring at last week's track workout.  I've been taking it easy, foam rolling every day/night and even skipped the 'long run' this weekend in favor of rest.  It was hard but apparently I'm getting a bit wiser in my old age.  Today I skipped the track workout and instead had a nice run of ~6 miles in the 20-30mph winds around Boston.  Let's hope that we don't have such winds on marathon day, at least not a head wind!  Speaking of weather, if you're interested, Accuweather.com offers a 25 day forecast and right now, April 15 is looking pretty good.  Fingers crossed it stays this way!

I'm lacking any pictures from the fundraiser, including pictures of the amazing cake that Selina and Kiss My Kakes put together.  I'll post those this weekend along with some more updates hopefully.  Now that we're in taper mode I hope to have a little free time to update the blog before April 15th