Last year's finish line, this year's starting line

It's official - I procrastinated / had a short term memory loss about this blog so here I am trying to make up for lost time.  Before I start into this year, a quick overview of last year's marathon and how my fundraising finished up.  To say that it is difficult to put the whole race-day experience into words is an understatement, but I'll do my best to give a little inside insight.  The night before I slept fairly well considering my combination of nerves and excitement, but the alarm rang early and I was up and getting dressed at 4:30am.  Anyone who knows me knows that at 4:30am I am usually not a happy person, but this morning I couldn't wait to get going.  Once I was dressed and had my bright green bag packed, for the second year in a row I took out a black sharpie and participated in my tradition of 'arm motivation'.  By arm motivation, I mean writing on my forearm each mile that I was expecting to see my parents or other relatives or friends.  While the Boston Marathon is run with over 25,000 people and hundreds of thousands of spectators, one of my favorite parts of the race is checking to see which upcoming mile I can expect to see a familiar face and give out a nice, sweaty hug.  I arrived at the DFMC meeting place early, thanks to my spectacular driver Kelli  : )  and made the walk over to the dozens of yellow school buses with some DFMC teammates.  This year, I didn't have as good luck as the year prior finding a short line, and so by the time I got on a bus and arrived at the DFMC refuge near the starting line it was a bit later than I had hoped to arrive.  I still managed to have enough time to settle in, have some food, and send my green bag with my extra clothes onto the bus to wait for me at the finish line.

I chatted with a couple DFMC teammate friends, and then headed out to the starting line - race time was finally here!  As I crossed the starting line, I had the familiar rush of adrenaline and excitement as I had the year prior.  If no one has told you about the beginning of the Boston Marathon - let me inform you.  I've never been to the running of the bulls in Spain, but I would imagine the feeling is similar.  Although I wasn't a speed demon by any means, I started out running a ten-minute/mile pace with my fellow teammates - a speed at which I felt would be respectable.  But the first few miles of the marathon, and in particular the first mile, is always overwhelming.  Picture yourself standing still amongst thousands of people sprinting past you in the street; that's about how I felt.  Except for the fact that I was moving, and moving at a pace that was slightly faster than I expected to be able to maintain for the duration of the race, and these people were still sprinting by at light-speed.  I kept looking over my shoulder to find the end of the line of people, expecting to be trotting along by myself sooner or later.  The end never came, just more sprinting people.  Luckily I had the pleasure to be running with three other lovely DFMC ladies, each of which I had gotten to know during group training runs and been inspired by their stories.  One was a fellow Friar and rugby player, running her first ever marathon raising money in honor of relatives. Another, a special education teacher my age who had lost her mother in December during the training to cancer, yet carried on with her training and fundraising with unthinkable grace.  And the fourth member of our 'turtle' group, a lady who was celebrating her 7th year of being cancer free following a battle with breast cancer.  I had the pleasure to be inspired and motivated by each of these 3 ladies, and am proud to have shared the experience of training and racing with them.

Anyway, back to the race - my parents for the second year in a row made meticulous plans of how to see me at several different points during the marathon.  We had driven the marathon course prior to the race, and agreed on the points where I would look for them - they had so many pages of google maps and highlighted routes printed out, I'm not sure how they kept track.  I saw them half a mile into the race and handed off my camera that I had carried around that morning.  My mother brought her step stool, an enormous flag, pom poms, and multiple signs which she rotated for each stop.  They were pretty easy to pick out in the crowd  : )  As our 'turtle' group passed the miles we each saw family and friends who cheered our group on.  The miles seem to blur together now, but the faces from the crowd cheering us on because of our Dana Farber singlets is something I won't forget.  It was meaningful because I knew that these people had in some way been touched by cancer, and for that moment we shared a bond.  It was the reason I was running in the first place - because cancer had touched my family, and I wanted to do something to make a difference.  I ran for my aunts, I ran for my grandfathers, I ran for friends of friends, and I ran for a cure.  I teared up at points during the marathon thinking about these people and what it meant to me to be able to run for them.  I still get chills just thinking about it.  I had numerous friends who stood on the sidelines long after the Kenyans had sprinted by to see my limp by, and to them I am so thankful.  Looking forward to seeing my family and friends kept me going through some of the tough miles - who am I kidding, all of the miles were tough!  Mile 25 passed by, and the Dana Farber cheering group was on the sidelines with some of the Jimmy Fund patients in the group.  Those smiling faces carried me along that last mile, as I slowly made my way with a few friends and my uncle who had joined me for encouragement the last several miles.  As I crossed the Finish Line, my legs were burning and my whole body was in pain and exhausted.  I had finished.  I wasn't fast...I wasn't even semi-fast.  But I had finished the marathon 16 minutes faster than the year before, I hadn't died (yet), and I had a smile on my face.  It doesn't get much better than that.

My fundraising total for last year was $4,350, bringing my two year total to $9,125 - a figure that I couldn't have imagined I would be able to raise.  A huge thank you goes out to all my supporters - without you, I couldn't have done it.  Together we are taking steps forward in the cancer fight.

All of which brings me to this year!  I am BACK for my third year running with Dana Farber, and am more excited than ever to be in the midst of training and fundraising.  This year I stepped up my training and am following the intermediate plan, which means I'll be running 16 miles tomorrow.  More updates to come!

DFMC 2011 Video

Less than a month to go!

The last three weeks of training I've been pushing the mileage and with just under a month remaining until race day I have a very challenging 19-miler as well as an 18-miler under my belt, and am looking forward to next week's 20+ mile run!  This will be my longest training run, and then the tapering begins!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Anyway, over the past couple weeks I've been able to attend several DFMC group runs, which has certainly made the longer training runs more bearable.  My moving pace has been pretty consistently below 11 minutes for all the longer runs, so I feel well-prepared thus far but don't want to get too far ahead of myself just yet.  In terms of fundraising, I'm just over the $3,000 mark and am hoping to have a strong push before Marathon day!  I spent most of the day today putting together a video that outlines what the DFMC team is all about, so be sure to head over to my facebook page and check that out.  Pretty cool stuff!  I'm going to attempt to post that here as well, but since I'm not terribly blog-savvy then I won't make any promises.

13.1? Nah, let's make it even and do 13.5

Today marked my first participation in a Dana Farber Group Run - and it was awesome!  This year I've attempted to schedule my long runs on Thursday or Friday due to my hockey schedule, but I decided to make an exception this week since I had a rare weekend off from hockey and the DFMC run was schedule on Sunday (today).  My longest run to date had been a 10-miler on a treadmill, so I was a bit wary about increasing the mileage to quickly as this week my long run was scheduled to be 12-14 miles.  I also didn't want to go to a group run and be the last one to finish...but, I when my alarm rang at 7am I dragged myself out of bed and headed over to Watertown to meet the team.  I found an old hockey friend of mine, Christine, in the group of people inside the gym and we waited together to hear the announcements and an outline of the run.  It turned out that there was a group of women along with Christine and myself who were all running a similar pace.

We set off in the freezing, windy weather together and I got to chat with a couple different women who I hadn't met before.  The talking made the time pass faster, although the biting cold wasn't so pleasant.  Every 3 miles, the DFMC team had a water stop set up with Gatorade, water, fig newtons, M&M's and chocolate covered raisins.  Now, let me backtrack for a second.  During last years marathon I got sick halfway through and had to familiarize myself with nearly every porta potty between Mile 13 and Mile 22.  Prior to that, I had run two half marathons - one of which had a run to the bathroom immediately after I had finished.  Since those experiences I've been particularly careful what I eat before and during long runs in hopes of finding a successful combination before this years marathon.  Last night, I had a plate of Vegetable Lo Mein and two cookies (hardly a good night-before-a-long-run dinner) and this morning I had a large bowl of Kix cereal and milk.  In other words, I wasn't optimistic about my chances of making it through the long run without having to run to a bathroom.  Then, at the first water station and each successive one I decided it'd be a good plan to have a handful of chocolate covered raisins or M&M's (I alternated) along with my standard cup of Gatorade.  If I was gonna have to sit on the toilet for a half an hour after the run, might as well make it worth it right?

Then...surprise of all surprises, the longer I ran the better I felt.  My stomach was fine, my legs were relatively loose and I was cruising along nicely.  Who knew that eating chocolate would solve my stomach issues??  Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised  : )  I ended up running 13.5 miles instead of the 12 I had originally planned on, and got to meet many new DFMC teammates along the way.  It was a great experience that I hope to participate in again very soon.

A little bit of adventure, a lot of inspiration

This week has been a mixture of adventure on my runs and some inspiration sent my way in the mail.  First, the adventure.  Thursday I was getting treadmill-crazy and decided that I was going to run outside in the fresh air no matter what.  I headed out for an 8-9 mile run and decided to trek along memorial drive in Cambridge.  I have to say, the view of Boston from that side of the river is arguably my favorite.  I did find, however, that the sidewalks were much worse than I had anticipated.  In other words, it was 100% ice and 0% pavement or anything other than ice.  Despite the fact that I felt like I was prancing and dancing on the ice rather than running, I carried on until I was 4.5 miles out and then turned to return home.  I was feeling confident, so I decided to try a slightly different route home that would hopefully put me on some pavement rather than the ice route back.  I soon found myself somewhere in Cambridge other than where I had thought I would end up.  I knew generally where I was, but couldn't figure out how to get back to the bridge over to Somerville.  Soon enough I was at mile 7.5 and still running circles around Cambridge, so I quickly decided that although I could likely find my way home it would probably add another 3 or 4 miles to my run that I hadn't anticipated.  At this point I was very thankful that I always run with my license, phone, and some money in my pocket in case of emergencies.  I found my way to the nearby T stop and was able to buy a ticket and catch the next train just as it was pulling up.  After changing lines, I was on the Orange Line heading home and breathing a sigh of relief.  My relief was short-lived, as at the next stop the doors to our car opened for .2 seconds and then shut as the train operator announced that the cars were filled to capacity and couldn't take anymore passengers.  The next stop came, and this time the doors to all the other cars opened normally - except my car.  The doors stayed shut.  Soon enough there were other passengers knocking and banging on the windows to the bystanders outside yelling 'Let me out!!'.  I'm sure we looked like idiots.  Then the T took off to the next stop - with several displeased passengers still stuck in my car.  At the next stop someone found the emergency intercom and began pressing it, with no response.  The man shouted into the intercom 'Car 1233 the doors are not opening!  Do you acknowledge?!'  I truly felt like I was in a movie.  But at the next stop, the doors slid open normally as if nothing had happened.  It was a good thing too, as it was North Station and there were several Bruins fans who were headed to the game.  The rest of my T ride was uneventful, and I made it home safe and sound!

My inspiration came from a note that I received in the mail today accompanying a DFMC donation.  The note came from a lady who lives down the street from my parents, and who had supported my run last year.  She wrote, "Cherie, Great picture!  Good luck this year in the marathon, it sure is a great cause.  Dana Farber research saved my life 6 years ago."  That small note manages to reach to the heart of why I'm running.  To say it made my day would be an understatement.  I could go on, but I won't - the note says it all.

Woodward - for the long run

I must say, since my training last April I think I forgot what it was like to feel the pains in my knees and feet after a semi-long run.  Now I remember.  The last two weeks have been forgettable in terms of training...I was sick and then last week was my 'getting back on track' week.  Originally I had intended to run yesterday outside, but in my haste to take advantage of the one day this week that didn't have snow in the forecast and get some errands done it was suddenly 8:30pm and I hadn't run yet.  Oops.  So today I headed to the gym with some friends for a semi-long run...unfortunately on a treadmill since we are in the midst of yet another snow storm here in Boston!  Melissa cleverly pointed out to me that the Woodward treadmill was different than the other ones, and was supposed to be easier on the knees.  It also had the slogan 'For the long run' on it, so clearly it was for me.  I have to say that it did feel different than the other treadmills I had been running on - bouncier, for lack of a better term.  I ran alongside Thatcher, another friend of mine, for 1.34 miles before Melissa notified us that the basketball court was now unoccupied.  For the next hour or so the four of us played knockout, 2 v 2, and 'horsies' - kind of like horse, just with two more letters since we weren't very good.  But don't be fooled!  Our lack of skill didn't translate into a lack of competitiveness - put a few hockey players together and...well...it's not your average pick up game.  We had a lot of fun, but after an hour of chasing the basketball around the idea of hopping back on the treadmill for another 4.7 miles wasn't very appealing.  I knew I had to push through though, so I somehow made it through for a total of 6 miles on the treadmill plus an hour of basketball.  Not a bad day at the gym!  But after two weeks of light training, pushing my mileage back up has certainly been a bit of a struggle and my feet and knees are feeling it.  That said, I'm happy to be getting back on track!

On the fundraising front, I've raised just over $2,400 already!  Thank you to all who have donated!  And to those who haven't, check out my fundraising page and please consider making a donation  : )

Everybody can do something

After over a week of battling a thick cough and fever I'm back in the training saddle!  Last week I missed nearly the entire week's worth of training because I was lying in bed sick - so my long run was shortened to a paltry 4 miles.  That said, although my pace is still a bit higher than I'd like I'm feeling more energized by the day!  I decided for one of my no-impact cardio workouts to test out the gym's pool - man, I forgot how tiring swimming can be!  After twenty minutes of lap swimming I was very tired and headed for the showers.  Since it appears as if Boston has been a snow magnet for storms lately, I've been relegated to training on the treadmill for the past two weeks or so since the sidewalks are just barely cleared.  And although the treadmill is something I dread - it's been good for me to push through.  This week I'm looking to have a long run of 7 to 8 miles, although we'll have to see how my legs respond after last week's lack of training.

Today on the runDFMC community board one of my teammates had posted a link to a website for a new movie - www.myrunmovie.com.  If you have an extra minute or so to check out the preview for the movie then I highly recommend it.  The summary: 75 marathons in 75 days.  75!!!  This man had lost his wife to breast cancer, and was a single parent.  Oh, and he wasn't a runner.  Anyway, during one of his interview he says, 'Every one of us can do something.  Be a hero.  Be somebody's hero.'  I liked that a lot - everyone can do something.  What can you do?