Trying to fight adversity and failing

I woke up Sunday morning with the knowledge that I needed to run 14-16 miles. I was feeling a bit run down and tired, but figured the run would put me back in the right mindset. I finally threw on my running clothes and headed out the door. I have done this 16 mile course at least 3-4 times already and know it way too well. Run down the long way to Washington Street, follow route 16 for about 5 miles and turn onto Comm Ave following the course into Washington Square. At Washington Square, swing a left onto Washington Street and follow it home for the 2 miles.

As I was plugging along the first part on my way to route 16, the thought of running the course 3 times this week was making me sick. For those that live far away, you are probably ready to yell at me through the screen. People kill to train on the Boston course and yet it is the last thing I want to do. You see, I really have no choice when picking a run. It all at one point has to hit the course based off of where I live. There is almost no way to avoid it unless I run side streets up and down for the entire run and even then it would be parallel to the course. So, as I am not wanting to run the course, I devise the best plan ever. I am going to run 7 miles to the high school, run 5 around the track and then run 2.5 home.

I am instantly in a better mood when realizing that I do not have to do the same course for the 1000th time this year. I continue on my run in good spirits and make it to the track. Low and behold, what do I see, peewee lacrosse games occurring. Ok, I will just run on the side of the track in which no one is viewing the kids. I start until a stray ball comes into my path. The peewee kids may not have the best accuracy! I give up and decide that I will run to the middle school and do the .5 mile course 10 times to get my mileage in. I take the long way to the middle school in which I develop a blister. This blister is now my focus of the run. I threw on new socks for my run and am blaming them as the culprit. I make it to the middle school and the thought of running the block makes me want to kick and scream in a little girl tantrum. I instead call it a day and limp home.

All in all, I fell 1.5 miles short of my minimum goal. Was I disappointed? Surprisingly not. I really was not feeling the run from the start and was fighting it the entire time. Should I have continued? Maybe, but maybe this was a sign from my body that I need to let it rest sometimes. Heck, no rest day really wreaks havoc on your mental state. You feel like an endless exercise machine with only one goal out there. So, today will start a new week and hopefully a much better mental state. And you will see me on the course multiple times during the final push towards Boston.

The amber gold of running

This past Friday, myself along with 3 other teammates hosted a fundraiser for the marathon challenge. It was inspiring to see friends show up and donate and those that have already donated continue to openly give. All in all we raised close to $800 in one night. It was a fun event filled with coronas that went down a little too easy and meeting new people. Friends and I ended the night at the diner down the street. The cool part about this is that when I say friends, yes they are all my friends, but none of them knew each other. Here were 5 strangers to each other eating and laughing the night away. I always say how fortunate I am to have been surrounded by such amazing people over the years in Boston, but seeing them all connect solidified it. These friends, along with others who couldn't make it, have been my rock along these last 16 or so weeks. They've calmed my nerves and listened to my freak outs all while being there in all the right ways. Man, am I a lucky duck!

Saturday was another fun non-running day. I showed up to the Multisport Expo to compete in the team challenge with my tri team. I watched the runners as they were insanely fast along the course. I was part of the bike portion and this too was incredibly fast. While waiting for the bike to start, I talked with teammates and had fun shopping. The bike went off about an hour late which put a kink in my planning for the day. I ended up showing up to Shifter's 5k as the runners were lined up and ready to start. As I felt banditting would be uncool at a race like this, I instead chose to cheer them on at the finish. I headed home after that skipping the party in lieu of a good Saturday nap. I woke up around 5ish to a text from a friend seeing if I wanted to head over to his house for a drink. This means that I had now officially missed the 2nd fundraiser I had wanted to attend that day, Rob's pasta party. I was on a roll!

The plans of the evening quickly changed to going to CitySide. For those that do not know CitySide, it is a bar and grill in Cleaveland Circle that we all run by on marathon day and usually a minimum of 1 night a week in practice. My route for Sunday included running by it as does my route for this Thursday. I somehow was able to pull myself off the couch and away from Dr. Mario to head over and meet people. As we were all ordering, the guy next to me ordered the Sam Adams 26.2. Jamie was much more hip into beer knowledge as they had just released the kegs a day or two prior. Of course I had to order the beer as it was beyond exciting.

We all sat around the table discussing the upcoming marathon while drinking the special brew. I won't lie, it was possibly my favorite Sam Adams they have released yet. The light German style beer was going down super smooth and had all the flavors I like in a beer. In the end, my awesome friends picked up the tab for my 26.2s in honor of the marathon. Yes, I really do have cool friends!

I know many people reading this will vomit in the amount I am getting sucked up into the hype. Heck, I have not even crossed the start line. Yet, this season has been the experience. I started in December having never run more than 13.1 and now I can say I can run 23.5 and live to tell the tale. I can talk about the 800s on repeat that have been done at the track time and time again. I also can talk about the $7,500 I raised for Dana-Farber. So yes, if my running stops today, I would be devastated, but at the same time, I would be thrilled at what I've done thus far. It has been a good run so far with still so much more to come!

My New Orange Jacket

About a week ago, I got a coupon in the mail for 20% off of City Sports. A few nights later, I was walking home from dinner with friends when I walked past the Boylston location decked out in Orange and Black. I was on the phone at the time and started gushing to my friend about how amazing it all looked. Yes, the color is awful, but it is my year!

Fast forward to yesterday and I needed to get in a 4-5 miler. What a surprise, City Sports there and halfway back was exactly the distance I needed. I threw on my running shoes and made my way to the store where I proudly spent $80 on one of the ugliest jackets I have ever purchased. Yes, it is also pretty flimsy. Does it matter? Of course not, as this jacket means so much more than that. I carried that jacket home and hid it away as it is bad luck to have it out and about before then. It is hard to resist looking at it and I am tempted to ship it off to a friend until after the race. Readers, you now see how superstitious I am. In my life, I have never bought race memorabilia until after I have finished. Then again, I have never put so much energy and attention into training for a race before. Good thing the MCM merch is so much cheaper or I may go broke!

23.54 and Dancing the Night Away

This past weekend ended up starting normal and ending up anything but normal. I came home Friday night and sat down to eat dinner and watch a movie. In bed by 10 pm, I was ready to go for the long run and activities that followed.

My alarm was set for 5:15 am Saturday morning, but I hit snooze a few times. For all that know me, it should come as no surprise! At 6:15 I was finally awake and ready to head out to meet the runners at BC. As I live pretty close to BC, I figured I would walk over to avoid having the hassle of parking in the garage. I also knew that it would probably be better to get some miles in before the run so that I didn't force people to wait for me at the end. 3.7 miles and I was running into the gym at BC to meet up with my team. I hit the bathroom, talked with people and heard the announcements. It was during that time that I realized we were really at the end. A bittersweet ending to an awesome season in which I loved almost all minutes of it.

Runners were off and we headed out west on Commonwealth Ave wishing each other good luck on the 22 miles about to happen. I was keeping a happy pace and stopped at the first water stop to say hi. The second water stop came by pretty fast. In between the 2nd and 3rd water stop, I noticed that there was a slower runner behind me. At the 3rd water stop, she caught up right as I was about to leave. I had two options at that point, keep running or see if she wanted to join up with me. Ruth kept saying that she didn't want to hold me back and I kept telling her that it was better that she did it than me go out to hard on the first half which is common. We were having fun gabbing away on through Wellesley on towards the college. As we were heading onto 135 the crowds started coming. I have run many races, but I have never in my life seen so many people on a day without a race occurring. Often times there would be 50-100 people on one block. So many people were nice and cheering each other on. It was nice to see so much support for each other as we all work towards the common goal of finishing Boston. Like any situation, there were some super rude people that got under my skin. A reminder to runners, we are all out there running for a good cause, so please be kind to each other. And yes, I am looking at the team that earns the rude card who were running in bunny ears and tails....I only wish I knew what team they were so I could write to their coach about the unsportsman behavior that occurred. After dealing with some of those "nice" runners, we were headed right on to Hope Street which signifies the start of the hills. I won't lie, the hills were tough, but it was nice not to go through them alone. We made it to the last water stop and knew we were in the home stretch. Pep talks were given to each other as needed, but we stuck together. 2 miles later and we were turning onto the BC campus.

I felt good as we were turning into the parking lot of the gym. In fact, I almost broke down crying as Ruth told me our final time for the 19.85 miles we had just done. It was a realty that I could make my goal time and finish well. Add the miles I did prior to the run with Ruth and I officially finished 23.59 miles. Way over my goal of 22, but that is what happens when you end up talking and not wanting to leave your running partner. We walked inside, stretched, debriefed and talked with the volunteers. I said goodbye and started the walk home.

As I had made it maybe .05 miles, Leslie asked me if I needed a ride. Leslie has been my team mom and biggest supporter this season and seeing her ask me for a ride was the perfect end to the support that she has provided the last few months. I hopped in her car and walked from the end of my street home. I ended up deciding I needed to loosen up a little more and walked an additional 1.42 miles to make sure I didn't cramp. Up the stairs and into an ice bath followed by a hot shower and I was jumping in the car to drive to the Berkshires.

A good friend was hosting her 50th birthday in true fashion and I couldn't miss it. The theme was medieval and it was necessary to be in full dress. Amazon was my savior in providing me with a nice medieval dress and I had packed my 2xu tights to sleep in. I put on my dress and was happy to see that it went down to the floor. An a-ha moment came into mind as I decided to slip the tights under my dress. Imagine:

+

and you have what I looked like at the party. I kept loose all night as I practiced my dance moves on the dance floor. Shifter's party, bring it on! I am now officially ready to dance the night away after the marathon as long as I wear my tights under a long skirt or dress. 

I woke up this morning with minimal soreness ready to concur the day and drive home from Lee. Who knew this would be possible? All in all, this weekend was one for the record books and I am happy to have had the experiences.  Bring on the taper!

14 inches

Years ago I heard about Locks of Love and was drawn to grow my hair out to donate to them. Time and time again my hair would get unruly and I would chop it off and send it in. I, like others, did not do my homework and while thinking that my donation went to cancer, it was really going to alopecia. I am all for providing wigs for kids with problems, but then also found out that the hair was getting sold when not used and that only a portion of the wigs made were actually given to patients free of charge. I stopped donating in 2010 and 2011 and instead kept my hair long.

The week before I got accepted to be on the team

When getting accepted into the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, I made a decision to grow my hair out for the length of my training to donate to make a wig for cancer. It was my way of adding to the meaning of the run besides all the other reasons I was running. I got accepted way back on September 23rd and my hair has been growing since. 

My hair over the last 6 months has grown and grown to the point of unruly. It was getting a pain to wash and brush and was the longest I've had it in awhile. While it was getting long, I realized how much your hair is part of your personality. People would comment on the length of it and how thick it was. As much as it was driving me nuts, I realized how important these wigs are to someone who has just lost their hair.

This past Sunday

This weekend marks our last group run and with it marks the time to cut my hair. I was originally going to wait until after the run, but thought it would be cool to show up with the short hair as a sign of the culmination of the training (I am continuing to run until the day before the race, but the group activity is over). I made the appointment for this afternoon and showed up to a new salon that had great yelp reviews. There was a bit of a language barrier and I did not understand the question of how short I wanted it cut. All of a sudden she took the scissors to my head and 14 inches were gone.

I had a mini-panic attack when I saw how short my hair now was. I was freaking out the entire cut as it kept getting shorter and shorter with each layer. As she blew it dry, I finally calmed down. I actually ended up loving the new short do and can run my hands through it without issue. The one issue I will have is putting a ponytail in it, but don't think I will need to as it is short enough to not get in my eyes. Small issues compared to losing your hair in clumps as a result of chemo.

My hair is now in a bag ready to be sent off to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths which makes wigs for the American Cancer Association. To date, over 18,000 wigs have been given free of cost to those in need at a variety of cancer hospitals around the country. I feel great for what I did and am happy to give someone the chance to feel a little more like their normal self.

I raised $7k and all I got was #23166

$7,000 got me to this point. $7,000 going to fight a well needed fight. $7,000 from 38 amazingly awesome individuals and families. $1,615 of that $7,000 from matching gifts. Generous coworkers, childhood friends, people I have not seen in 5 years, random strangers, family, friends, teammates, friends of my parents all give without hesitation.  $184.21 the average gift donated. Hard earned money from each person who so generously gave without asking questions or wondering if I was nuts. $7,000 of pure pride in knowing that I can do anything I set my mind to accomplish. $7,000 of tears from each donation I received. $267.18 per mile through Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline and Boston. From here on out, this challenge is real.

Weekend Activities

This past weekend was an active blast. Who knew that you could have so much fun being active and staying active? After Friday night's bike session, I came home, ate dinner and went to bed. When did my life become so exciting?

I was up early Saturday morning headed to BSC Wellesley. For those of you who don't remember, the last run at this location was where the wheels fell off. That run was the day of a meltdown of epic proportions. Saturday was like night and day from that run. I headed out with the group destined to do 12 miles as I had a run later in the day. My times for the first three miles were way too fast, but I was feeling awesome. As the miles progressed, I kept about an equal pace and made it to the 6 mile turnaround in a respectable time and super happy. The run back was equally as nice with the ability to maintain the same pace until Grossman's hill. That hill took the best of me and I slowed down to a 14 minute mile. I never really recovered back down to my awesome pace after that, but finished the 12 miles in a pace that I hope to maintain on Marathon Monday. All in all, it was a great run.

I hit up Whole Foods on the way home and headed on back to my hood for a one hour chill out before leaving for my next run. The afternoon run was with the NH3. I have not hashed in what seems like a decade (really only 5 years) and it was nice to be back to it. The trail ended up being more of a walking situation with barbed wire and embankments, but the group finished a respectable additional 4 miles for a total run of 16 miles on Saturday.

Sunday in Boston is like the Mardi Gras of the north, our St Paddy's Day parade. Everyone and their mother claims to be Irish and runs around like it is amateur hour. I have spent many a years being one of these people and took the last two years off to hit NYC's parade. A little tamer, but still an awesome time. Our friend had us all over to his place to watch the parade and have fun. As the weather was about 70 degrees, the world decided to descend on the streets of South Boston meaning that you had no chance of getting anywhere close to it. I ended up walking about 2 miles to get to the party and an additional 1-2 getting back. I felt every inch of those miles as I hoofed it around the city. An unexpected 4 mile walk is not a bad way to go especially when you are eating and drinking like it is 1995.

I ended the weekend having dinner with a friend discussing my marathon and running. We were laughing about how this is the new norm. As he left, I realized that every aspect of my weekend had something active involved and how it is just life now. I am happy to have found tris and an active lifestyle 5 years ago and continue to live it daily.