Defying all odds

I cannot believe that today is February 23rd and there's just 1 month 22 days and 18 hrs to go before the big day! AAHHHHHHH!

I ran a half marathon in Hampton NH this past weekend with a coworker.  It was zero degrees, 30 mph winds, and surprisingly, I felt good. Finished in 2 hours and 23 minutes maintaining a 10 min 57 second pace. I'm totally ok with this and hope I can sustain this pace for the race in April.  It really is amazing to me. I was always an athlete growing up but NEVER a distant runner. In fact I absolutely hated running and would dread needing to do drills in softball and basketball. I never ran more than 3 miles before last spring when I did the Nashua Soup Kitchen 10k race.  I've seriously made a lot of progress and I hope to continue.  I'm finding I really do actually enjoy running and maybe this will become a lifelong hobby.

Next milestone to meet  - a 14-16 mile Dana Farber team run this coming saturday.   Looking forward to it, and building my mileage.

http://www.pingg.com/rsvp/dfjaj7rm35q4x5jd3

I just RSVPed to an invite to a Dana Farber all you can eat pasta event and program for runners on Sunday April 17th right before the race. WOO!

Just heard that there are 560 people running for DFMC this year. That is amazing. And the goal is to fundraise $4.5million. 

My new credo to follow in running and in all that I do "DEFY ALL ODDS". Because that is exactly what I do. My hope is for everyone to find something in their life that they've always wanted to do and go for it, no matter if they think they can accomplish it or not. It can be done. 

Give it everything you've got and overcome the obstacles.

It is hard to believe that the marathon is just a little over 2 months away.  I've been training until now, but not as consistently as I'd like to train. This winter weather has been brutal.  I'm making the best of it, running at my gym in Southie, the Merrimack NH YMCA, and some running clinics at Tufts University with Dana Farber team members. These clinics make me feel very nervous and novice as it is mostly people who have run multiple marathons and are looking to do speed work.  But I try to look at it as an opportunity to challenge myself alongside the best.  I've done that all my life, why stop now?! The Dana Farber team coach, Jack Fultz, has run 15+ marathons in his life.  I spent a few minutes talking to him and voicing my concerns about my own running and my experience level. He told me to relax, have fun, and keep in mind that the goal of your first marathon is to FINISH and to not feel like you are going to die at the end of the race.  He advised me not to set a time goal, and to focus over the next few months on endurance.  Pretty good advice for my first time around. I'll take it.

I ran 7 miles last sunday, 4 miles this tuesday, and 6 miles today (thursday).  My goal is to do 10 miles on saturday.  I will likely do a cross training workout on friday night and do some strength training as well.  Next weekend, I am doing a half marathon with a co-worker in Hampton, NH (pending there is no ice and snow) so it will a good assessment as to where I am at  the mileage halfway mark.

Got some very good news from a Novartis colleague this week.  Novartis has revisited the team sponsorship (there are eight of us in Cambridge who are running for Dana Farber) and they will cover our team costs and registration fees which amounts to several hundred dollars in personal expense savings. THANK YOU NOVARTIS! I believe they are printing us Novartis shirts as well to wear under our DF singlet. 
I received my Dana Farber singlet today in the mail.  It is AWESOME and I have posted it as my profile picture on facebook.  I'm hanging it my room as a motivator to keep training hard. 

And in other news, I will be fortunate enough to meet a very courageous and strong young girl this weekend who has a rare type of ovarian cancer.  She has been treated at Dana Farber for the past few months but is doing well.  I am looking forward to meeting her, her family, and hearing their story.