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.