Day 8: Another lap of Fresh Pond

Man what a hectic couple of days that was. On Thursday, Jess joined me for a run and I was surprised she actually completed 3.5 miles with me. It was a little slower pace for me but that in itself was a challenge as I was running outside of my comfort zone and from what i have been reading, this helps prepare for the psychological challenge that the marathon presents.

Over the weekend we went to NYC to see the Lion King and we stayed in Times Square at the excellent Times Square Hotel, no week long stay at the Waldorf or the luxurious W but it was perfect and central for us. I got in a nice strength training workout on the 26th floor of the Edison and watched the Champions League Final on TV while alternating between the threadmill and the weight machines. It was a strange feeling to be the only person in the Gym, I don't usually workout at Hotels, in fact this may have been the forst time I ever did.

We also made it to the top of the Empire State Building whaich was awesome. If you ever get the chance, bring binoculars and dont get conned into the "Skyride" by the guys selling tickets outside. We made that mistake and spent about 30 mins of our lives doing some really lame video tour ov NYC prior to heading to the observation deck. Instead of $18 we ended up paying $45 for tickets and were left feeling ripped off.

All in all a great trip and I can't wait to get back there in November or the Marathon

Day 3: My 1st Training Run and Weird Experience

This morning, Jess reminded me that you don't run in events by talking about them let alone blogging about them and left for work but not before delivering her ultimatum... "You must go for a run today".

The weather here today is crappy at best, it's warm and sticky but with misty rain at the same time. Anyhow I realized that I needed to get off my ass quickly because there is only 171 days left to get myself in shape to get around that course.

And so I decided to push it from day 1, at least from an out of shape fool like myself. The challenge 3.5 miles!!!

I got ready, did the mandatory stretches and the likes. Hydrated a little bit and set off... Man did it feel good... I was running at a pace that I hadn't been able to manage in years.. I felt the wind at my back, my feet landing on the pavement like they were landing on cushions and leaving the ground like I had just tipped a hot coal... I was flying. I thought I could look for a really decent time in this Marathon and maybe I should start thinking about entering some road races around New England...
All this was racing through my mind when I had to stop at an intersection to let a car turn. When suddenly i started to pay attention to my running partner a.k.a my body!! I noticed that my lungs were on fire.. i was shattered and I looked back and realized that I had covered a magical distance of 3 blocks and short ones at that.

So I pressed on, I was determined to finish the 3.5 miles, if I had to crawl. I'd like to say I did it without stopping but I had to walk 3 times (the most I've ever had to stop on that particular run) my head was just not in it today for some reason.

One very notable thing did happen on the run and it was this.. I was running around Fresh Pond and there were only a few people around and as I passed one particularly large tree there was a loud BOOM! and the tree collapsed into the pond. I just happened to pass by as this was happening and thought about how long it had been there and why at that particular moment in time the tree collapsed. Most people have heard of the Butterfly effect of chaos or have heard the term.. "If a Butterfly flaps his wings...." Well the collapse of the tree made me think that perhaps the slight breeze caused by my passing by had somehow contributed to the collapse of the tree.
Is this a sign that by undertaking the task of running the NYC Marathon for Livestrong can in some small way contribute to the collapse of the barriers that cancer has managed to erect before us? I'd like to think so.

The rest of the run was uneventful and I managed to make it the rest of the way without having to stop...

I've got a long way to go.

Day 2 Sponsor My Training Runs

One idea I had for my fundraising is to have companies sponsor me for my training runs and races.

All you have to do is send me a T-Shirt and donate $20 at my fundraising site over at Livestrong and I will wear your shirt on one of my training runs.
What you will get for your company is the following...

1. I will update my Facebook Profile with a picture of me wearing your company T-Shirt.

2. I will wear your T-Shirt running through the streets of Cambridge MA, a really busy area with lots of traffic and close to Harvard University. (This could be anywhere from 5 to 20 miles)

3. I will post several twitter updates linking to your companies Website and acknowledging your company as the sponsor of the day.

4. Anything else positive that I can do to get your company some good exposure.

5. I'm open to other ideas

If it's something you would be interested in please get in touch.

Day 1

This all started 20 years ago... I wanted to run a marathon and signed up to run in the London Marathon. I trained really hard and felt like I was going to do really well and clock a good time. However I was also playing rugby at the time and happened to play in a tournament in Co. Cork in Ireland a month before the London Marathon. The tournament was only for fun and not too serious but I managed to get injured and hurt my back to the point where I had to withdraw from London.
Over the past 20 years each year I found myself saying, "next year I'm running a marathon... blah blah blah..."
During this time I have seen a lot of people succumb to illness and in particular to Cancer in one of it's many ugly forms. I've seen survivors and I've also seen people who have not been so fortunate.
I watched my father battle with COPD and literally have the air taken from him when the rest of his body was perfectly healthy.
I vowed that I would not put this off any longer because you never know what life is going to deal you and decided that this year I wanted to do my marathon. However i decided that if i am going to do it I am not only going to do it for myself but also for those others that wanted to run a marathon but for whatever reason never got to.
it is with that in mind that I decided to team up with Livestrong and help as much as I can to help them in their fight to make Cancer a thing of the past.
I'm hoping that through this experience that I can make some new friends, learn a little something about myself and most importantly be a tiny wheel in the machine that is fighting this disease.
I hope that you will join with me and help me to achieve my goal. Who knows if anyone will ever read this but if there are people out there know that we can all do our part while at the same time pursuing our dreams.

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