Humbled & Honored

I just spent some time reading through the honor roll on my fundraising website and I am humbled and honored.  Humbled by the outpouring of support from friends and family, with more than $2100 in donations coming in since Monday.  Honored to be able to run in honor of, in memory of, and in support of the loved ones of those same friends and family. In addition to doing this for my Dad, I am also running Monday for the following people:

In memory of:

Frank Luz

Suzan Doyle

Irene Carlota Angara-Aragon

In support of:

Kim R’s friend Holly

Sarah L’s sister Laura

In honor of

Richard H’s Father

I will also run Monday in memory of both Sue Williamson and Jim Ponce. Sue  was the coordinator of my Masters program at the Kennedy School of Government who I ran for in 2007.  Jim is my friend Jamie's father, who I ran for in 2008.

I take this outpouring of energy and positive thoughts with me as I make my way to Boston tomorrow.  I spent part of today getting my race jersey ready.  I found out by accident the power of writing your name and/or cause on your shirt during my very first marathon in 1993.  I ran in my high school track shirt, and everyone cheered me on by my high school name, "Go Shawnee!"  Ever since I have had "Murph" written on every marathon jersey.  It makes a huge difference when you are hurting during the last few miles of the race.  You here someone call your name, and it helps you dig a little deeper and keep moving.  So if you are ever on the cheering side of any race, and you see someone's name or cause on their shirt, call it out loud and cheer them on. It will make their day.  This year I have "Murph 4 Dad" on my jersey front and back.

1 Week to go!

So exactly 1 week from today I will be out pounding the pavement, making my way from Hopkinton, Mass. all the way back to Boston.  My wave starts at 10:40 am, so I will be almost an hour into the run at this point.

One thing about Boston that is different from all other marathons is they bus you 26.2 miles outside the city, and then you have to run back to Boston.  It is quite intimidating the first time you have to do it, because it makes the distance feel that much farther. You run through 7 towns before getting back to Boston: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesly, Newton, and then Brookline. 

The whole race is a non-stop adrenaline rush because there are crowds cheering the entire way, but some of the most exhilarating moments are the screaming Wellesely students near mile 13, the crazy Boston College student cheering near mile 21 (they will offer you a beer), and then the Dana Farber cheering squad at mile 25 near the Citgo sign.  In fact the entire final 5 miles is just non-stop crowds and cheering.  No matter how bad you are feeling at that point (and usually its pretty bad), you can't help but get pumped up by the energy.  The absolute toughest part of the race is 1/2 way between miles 20 & 21:  Heartbreak Hill, yes, that is the name.  The hill itself is not so bad on a normal day, it just happens to come at the one part of the race where the last thing you want to be doing is running up hill.  

I'll post some of my favorite picture in my post tomorrow...but for now I have attached a link the official course map so you can see the points I mentioned:  Link to map of Boston Marathon

8 days to go, Easter, and Bib #23,314

Only 8 days left until the race.  I head to Boston on Saturday so that I have a full day to relax on Sunday before the race.  My official bib # is 23314.  It's a high number because they assign the numbers to the charity runners after they have given numbers to all the people who qualified on their own.  I have qualified 3 times on my own in the past, but not this time around.  Maybe next year, when I get another time bonus for turning 40! 

There should also be a way that people can track my progress live via Internet on race day, but I think I have to sign up for that on race weekend.  Stay tuned for more info on that.  Through out the week I will be posting other info as well, like the course map, walking you through what its like on race day, etc.

Finally, we had a great Easter weekend with family.  I got to see my Dad & Maureen, as well as my brother and sister's families and my Mom.  Dad & Maureen will be heading up to Boston next weekend as well.  We finally took some family photos while we were in Pennsylvania:

Cherry Blossoms, beards, and running 42 miles in 2 days....

The most difficult part of the training is now behind me.  A few weeks ago I ran back to back 20+ milers over two weekends.  20 miles one week, and then the final 22 miler at three weeks before the marathon.  What else are you going to do with three spare hours on a Sunday? 

The first run happened to coincide with one of the warmest DC spring days all year (80 degrees!) which meant I had to use the $20 I always tuck in my shorts to buy extra water along the way.  I also used that run to try out my Marathon jersey (below), and as a special bonus, the run coincided with an early blooming of the cherry blossoms this year.  The blue sky backdrop made for some great shots, even using my blackberry camera.

The next time you see the jersey it will be all decorated for race day.  One thing you won't see this year is my traditional marathon beard (yes, Murph usually goes Grizzly Adams for the month before a race).  In a bit of poorly planned scheduling, we are taking our first set of extended family photos in a long time this weekend.  So I ditched the beard in favor of looking presentable.  It just means I'll need more sunblock on race day now!

Zero to Boston?

The name "Zero to Boston" refers to how much running I had done the last year before I started training on December 2. This really was starting from scratch, but as of this weekend I am up to 19 miles for the long weekend run, so we are plugging along!

My brother Chris drew the logo. He modeled it after a comic strip character he made for me when we were in high school. For those not familiar with the Boston Marathon, they literally bus you out of the city to a town call Hopkinton, Mass. and then during the race you run the 26.2 miles back to Downtown Boston. It was a bit intimidating the first time around, but in the end there is no other race quite like it.

In future posts I will talk more about the race, but for now the slide show on the blog give you a bit of a feeling for what race day is like. The photos are a mix of shots from my past runs in Boston in 2007 & 2008, and then from a time during graduate school in 2005. I did not run that year, but rather walked back from the finish line during the race to the infamous "Heartbreak Hill" and snapped shots of the scene along the way. These are now the photos I use for motivation.
Thanks for taking time to read these posts, and joining me on the journey and in the fight against cancer. -Andy