A little extra motivation..

Today was the long run of the week, and since Somerville is still covered in piles and piles of snow then I grudgingly headed over to the gym to do my run indoors.  Ugh.  But I was a bit excited since this would be my first trip to my new gym, the local BSC.  There was hardly anyone else on the cardio floor when I picked a treadmill and started running.  The quirk about the treadmill was that it wouldn't allow me to run any longer than an hour - so after my hour was up I had to stop, and then restart again to finish up my last .9 of a mile.  I felt pretty good overall though, staying at a relaxed pace most of the way through and then kicking it up on the last mile to just under a 9:00/mile pace.  Overall, I did 6.5 miles in about 66 minutes (give or take a bit, considering my stop / restart).  My legs still felt fresh at the end of the run, which I was happy about and I was right around my target pace.  During my miles of running, I came up with a creative way to motivate myself over the next 3 months that remain before the marathon.  Last year, I fell far behind my target time and finished the marathon in 5:56.30.  I was, and still am thrilled to have finished my first ever marathon.  That said, I'm also a competitor - so to motivate myself to keep pushing hard in my training I decided that in addition to setting an overall time goal (which is 4:56 in case you were wondering) is to pledge that for every minute I cut off of last years time, I will donate two dollars to the DFMC team.  So, if I hit my goal time of 4:56 then that's 60 minutes, or $120.  I figured it's a unique way to motivate myself - and all for a great cause!  If you'd like to join my minutes for money challenge then let me know!  The more the better!

The dreaded treadmill run

Hi all and belated Happy New Year!  I took a bit of break from blogging over the holidays, but not to worry I'm back  : )  As I'm currently snowed in at my apartment I decided this would be a good time for an update.  2011 has arrived, and with it I've received several donations via my fundraising website as well as in the mail.  With each donation, I'm humbled by the generosity of family and friends particularly during this challenging economic climate.  At times I feel hesitant to ask for donations, as I'm very much aware of the financial squeeze that many people are undergoing.  But with every DFMC team email that we receive, I'm reminded of the important work that the donations are funding.  Just this week, I read about this update from one of the Barr Program-funded scientists:

William Sellers, MD, and his colleagues identified genetic abnormalities in proteins that control cell growth in cancers. These major discoveries led directly to the development of targeted drugs used  by patients worldwide for the treatment of multiple cancers, including lung cancer, leukemia, and melanoma. This work has become the model for personalized medicine in cancer treatment and is widely 

credited for helping transform the approach that pharmaceutical companies use for drug development.


Being able to support the efforts of these scientists is a very exciting endeavor, but one that I couldn't do without your help.  If you'd like to donate, head over to my Fundraising Page !  As for my training, this past week my long run was 6-7 miles.  I was on the road with my hockey team, the Boston Blades, on the day of the run so Annie (my marathon running buddy!) and I headed down to the hotel treadmills early in the morning.  I'm not much of a treadmill person - it's incredibly boring for me.  But nonetheless we finished up our 6 miler without too much difficulty.  This week will be the turning point in terms of running distance as we move past 7 miles and start really building up to the longer runs.  I can't believe that the marathon is just about 3 months away...time is certainly flying!  I'll be heading to the gym later today to run on the dreaded treadmill since the snow has made running outside nearly impossible - stay safe in the snow!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Mom and Dad  : )

Greg, Cherie, and Jonathan 

DFMC 2011 - Here I come!

Merry Christmas!!  : )  It has been a whirlwind week, and part of me still can't believe that it's Christmas morning.  This past weekend I took the first part of my state certification testing for my EMT-B license, which was the practical exam.  For the exam, there are several 'stations' each of which presents a different scenario (for example, an unresponsive/not breathing patient in need of CPR/AED, a broken wrist that needs splinting, etc.).  The first station that I got assigned to was a victim with a broken femur (that huge bone in your thigh).  As I stood before the two state examiners mentally rehearsing all the little known facts that I knew about broken femurs, I gave them the nod and began verbalizing the steps I needed to take.  But after the first step I had one small problem - my mind suddenly went completely blank and I totally forgot what Step 2 was.  My mind was racing and I decided that I couldn't just stand there staring blankly so I knelt by our 'patient' and began to examine the arm for a radial pulse, sensation, and motor function.  The arm.  I was examining the arm of a patient with a broken femur.  Why I thought that was a good thing to do, I'm not sure!  But as soon as I finished looking at the arm my brain cleared and I remembered all the remaining steps with ease.  My partner told me that the look on my face when I realized what I was doing was priceless.  After that small bout with nerves, I managed to go through the rest of the stations without any hiccups and - although they don't explicitly tell you - I think I passed!  An early Christmas present to be sure.

The rest of the week flew by, beginning with my trip to NYC to see The Tree in Rockefeller Square and many other Christmas sights.  Next came the Hendrickson Christmas celebration - always a highlight.  We draw names at Thanksgiving so each person buys for one other person, and this year baby Connor had me.  He (slash Kevin and Emma, his parents) did an awesome job and gave me some new winter running clothes - I've already put them to good use!  Then yesterday on Christmas Eve my family was all together for the day  : )  including my little nephew Nathan.  My parents went along with the running theme and I am now the owner of a Garmin GPS running watch - pretty sweet!!  I'm excited to put it to use...after I figure out how to use it of course.

All in all it's been a great week, and a reminder of how lucky I am to be surrounded by such great family and friends.  A popular status on FB lately has been, The average person has 1000 wishes, but a cancer patient only has one: to get well.  This Christmas I hope you'll join me in helping to bring that wish to reality for many patients by donating to the DFMC team.  Click Here to visit my fundraising page and donate!

Thank you, and have a very Merry Christmas!!

One week down, lots to go

After my first week of official marathon training, I'm still alive and kicking!  : )  Ok so it wasn't all too strenuous of a week.  I had a few runs, being 3 and 4 miles long they only scratched the surface of what's to come.  But nonetheless, I kept all my average mile splits under 10:00 without having to push myself too hard.  Hey...for me, that's a pretty good start!  I picked up a friend to run with...one of my Blades teammates will be joining me for the 26.2 miles come April 18th.  She'll be a 'bandit' and I'm very excited to have her along for the training journey / marathon experience!  We sat down together to go over the marathon training plan provided by Dana Farber / Jack Fultz, our training advisor, and settled on moving the weekly calendar ahead by one day so our 'long' runs each week will fall on Friday rather than Saturday.  Since our hockey games are played on Saturday and Sunday, we decided that running 15 miles before a hockey game in February might not be our best bet!  Needless to say I've been excited to get back into a daily routine.  Also, my fundraising letters have been finished, printed, and are in the process of being stamped/signed/addressed/sent out the door!  Just in time for Christmas  : )  I hope you'll consider making a donation in support of the DFMC team - there's no better gift than changing the life of someone else in need.

And so it begins...cold weather running

I came to two conclusions when I headed out for a 6 mile run on Wednesday evening.  The first conclusion was that it has indeed begun - those months of the year when as soon as I step outside to begin my jog my face starts to tingle at the cold.  On Wednesday night in Somerville, according to weather.com it was 29 degrees, but felt like 17.  Coldddd!  I have to say that once I start going I warm up for the most part - minus my face which is the only thing exposed to the cold air.  It's an interesting paradox - but needless to say, if you see someone dressed entirely in black with reflectors on and a ghost white face running around the Somerville/Medford area at night - it's probably me!  My second conclusion was that it is not easy to write a blog about running.  Since I have plenty of time to think during my runs, I decided that I'd get ahead of the game and brainstorm what I was going to blog about.  But my next thought was...ok, what do I write?  I ran by a white house...then a blue one...and THEN, I ran over a bridge.  It's not all that thrilling, except for when I happen to see odd occurrences - like when a car tried to pull a u-turn on Broadway but was going entirely too fast and drove straight into the curb on the other side of the street.  (True story)  Or, last year when I was running during the day in Boxford by my parents house...and if you know Boxford, it's a super small town with lots of woods and animals...and while I was jogging along I saw a rooster hanging out by the side of the road.  Not an uncommon sight for me, so I ignored it and jogged by - only to glance back and find it bobbing it's head and running after me.  So I suppose there are a few such entertaining stories that I typically find hilarious - and those are what would make a 'running' blog interesting.

Anyway, Monday begins my official training schedule!  More updates on that to come..

A List of Thanks for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  My day started early this morning as I was up helping my mom to prepare the big bird.  Since she had foot surgery about a month ago, I volunteered to assist the food preparation for the day.  Little did I know what I was in for!  It's not so easy to whip up my mother's homemade stuffing and get the turkey all ready to go...but several hours later I feel much more domestically experienced.  After we had most of the food ready and had a break in the preparation phase then I headed out for a quick run.  During this 'pre-training' month before my strict running schedule begins I've been running a couple times a week, usually around 4 or 4.5 miles.  I'm a pretty slow runner (not my forte) so my miles have averaged around 10:00 or 10:15.  Today I decided on a shorter run - 3.48 miles to be exact, but I think that the thought of our big turkey dinner kicked up my pace a bit because my splits were about 9:30  : )  Last year I ended up with a finishing time of 5:56.30 for the marathon - far slower than I had been aiming for after I had battled stomach issues for several miles.  This year I'm just hoping to improve on that, and maybe aiming towards a 10:00 average split.  Of course, we'll see how the training goes once that begins in earnest!

I'm also hoping to finish up my fundraising letters this weekend - yes, I've been procrastinating.  I sat down to draft my letter a few days ago and was trying to figure out how to fit last year's experience, a background on Dana Farber, why I'm running, and a whole lot of other things into a one-page letter with font big enough to read.  Now that's a challenge!  But I guess that's also why I'm keeping a blog.  I can tackle one topic per blog post and hopefully finish before Marathon day!

So the big question - and the one I usually get asked most often.  Why would you choose to run 26.2 miles??  My answer usually begins with me explaining that I'm not much of a runner.  I know, I'm running a marathon - but running has never been my thing.  Usually when we'd be having conditioning sprints/runs on the turf at Providence I'd be the one that everyone loved having in their line.  Not because I was fast - actually just the opposite, I'd be slower than most other teammates and so whoever else was in my line got more rest waiting for me to finish  : )  So why a marathon?  I guess it's because I'm not a good runner.  Since I struggle (an understatement) through my training both physically and mentally, I feel as if I can gain some sort of understanding in a very very small way of the struggle that people experience in the fight against cancer.  It's a humbling experience to attempt something so out of my own comfort zone.  In addition, I had two aunts who were treated at Dana Farber - both were battling breast cancer.  One of them passed away a few years ago, leaving behind a son who I'm enjoying getting to watch grow up living nearby with my aunt and uncle's family.  The second aunt was treated successfully and I'm so excited to say is now cancer-free.  These are just two of the many other family members, friends, and friends of friends who inspire me to put on my running shoes and train.  It's pretty amazing that by taking on a relatively low-risk athletic feat such as running a marathon, I can raise a large amount of awareness and support for the cancer cause.  If all I have to do is sacrifice some free time each week to run in order to make that happen - it's an easy choice.  So I'm not just running for my two aunts, I'm also running for each of those people who donated in honor of someone.  I'm running for a cure to a disease that affects 1 out of every 3 people.  And that marathon?  A piece of cake compared to the fight of a cancer patient and their family.  Anyway, that's my lecture for today - Happy Thanksgiving to all!