26.2 Days until the Boston Marathon!

It's officially 26.2 days until the Boston Marathon! Wow, it's coming fast!

I am feeling good about training! On March 15 I did a long run of 20 miles out in Wayland, MA. It was a very rural run through winding roads, various wildlife reserves, all the way to route 2, where we turned around at mile 10 to head back. I have been running steadily with Deb, Meg and Beth during team runs, and we were quite excited to run back at that point. However, around mile 12 we didn't realize how much uphill we had going back, and we all got very quiet. with the cars going by on the street we had to run single file, we didn't have much conversation going. so... we tried to come up with some new topics of conversations to keep our minds off how many miles we had to go. once we hit the next water stop i think we all felt much better. we finished strong at 3 hours and 5 minutes (not counting our chatty time at the waterstops w/ the volunteers)!! so we ran a steady 9:25 pace. I felt good about it. Thanks to these girls who helped me keep going, and of course the volunteers at the water stops!

Last weekend we locked in a 13 mile run. It seemed to go pretty quick for me. i felt better than i thought i would, considering i didn't sleep well. I didn't want to get up for the run, but knowing that i would have my running girls to run with.. it made me get up and go. we did a out an back from BSC Waltham. Chatting it up through winding roads of Lincoln to who knows where.... and back (not familiar with this area!), past horses and some beautiful homes, we logged our long run for the week!

This saturday is the last LONG run. it's a 20-22 mile run starting at Boston College out to Wellseley and back to Boston College. we will run the course backwards to Wellseley and back again... it will be tough, but definetly do-able. you may even say i'm looking forward to it!! :)

I attended Deb's Wine Tasting Fundraiser at Gordon's on Saturday. I have included a pictures of myself, Beth, Meg and Deb!


26.2 days and counting!


PS. we got our bib numbers. I am # 22472!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you so much for coming my Dana Farber Marathon Challenge fundraiser event last Thursday at Vlora.

I really appreciate your attendance at the event and for your very generous donations to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. The Dana Farber Marathon Challenge directs 100% of funds raised to the Barr Program, which enables gifted young scientists at the leading edge of discovery to achieve better cure rates and to enhance patients' quality of life. Through your donation, you have personally been able to help these scientists find a cure.

The past few months have been a real eye opener for me. When i took on this challenge, i looked at is as an equal two part project: fundraising $6,500 & training to run 26.2 miles. I knew both would be tough, and i wasn't sure which would be more challenging than the other. Initially i started to focus on my fundraising plan and once i got that underway i started to focus on the running. On the fundraising front, I am almost at 75% of my goal! Just the other night at the fundraising event, i received over $1000 in donations! It really amazes me that each each one of you is willing to reach into your wallet/bank account and give money. I want you to know how much I appreciate your donation to cancer research through my fundraising program. I am truly touched by what you have given.

It's 6 weeks to Marathon Monday, and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your help!

The best of luck to each of you who bought a square on my "Guess Anne's Marathon Time" Board. I will be in touch with the winner the day after the race. I will look for your on the course!

Thank you once again for your continued support!

Fundraiser - TONIGHT!

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a very successful fundraising event tonight at Vlora. See you there!

Hyannis Half Marathon

Back on Feb 22 I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon! Hyannis is about an hour and a half south on the Cape. I drove down with fellow DFMC team member Paul that morning. The weather was warmer than predicted... there was snow/rain in the forcast. Setting out to run the half marathon i was nervous! i get nervous of the unknown. Not knowing what the weather will be, if i will have a cramp, or a tight muscle, anything can throw off the race. My goal is to feel good, finish strong and hopefully beat my PR. The last half i ran was in Oct. 2007, the Boston Half Marathon that I hardly trained for. I finished in 2:10. I know i have finished one of the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half marathons in 2:05, so close to 2 hours was going to be my goal, even better if it was under 2hours. I ran the course, sort of bored, i had no running pals with me! Paul ran ahead, and Beth, another DFMCer, was going to be there, but i didn't end up seeing her until mile 12 when she tapped me on the shoulder to say hi (and then she sped up the hill- Beth is good at uphill!). I ran by my lonesome... and actually listened to my iPod, which i don't think i have EVER done during a race. I don't prefer it, but it gave me some good distraction over the 13.1 miles. My preference is to take in the race and talk with fellow running friends.

I finised at 1:58, just in time to miss the oncoming rain!

The map of the course is below. The full marathon runners had to run the same 13.1 route twice! I think that would be tough!

Running snacks are YUMMY

As a mentioned previous, my favorite running treat is the Cliff Shot Blok- Strawberry flavor, actually all flavors are delicious. I need to stop and buy a few more on my way home from work today, actually, i should look into buying in bulk! The ingredients sound sort of gross, but they give you what you need to keep running, and they taste good!

Ingredients:
CLIF Shot Bloks
Clif® SHOT® BLOKS™ are organic energy chews that naturally enhance your performance. Because they're chewable, they're easier to grab, store, handle, and consume than many energy options.

Features/Benefits
- Serving size: 3 pieces
- 2 servings per bag
- Consumer 3 - 6 SHOT BLOKS every hour during activity; always follow consumption with water
- Each serving contains 20 mg potassium, 24 g carb, 20 mg sodium
- Ingredients include organic brown rice syrup, organic evaporated cane juice, organic brown rice syrup solids
- Each bag weighs 2.1 ounces
- Multiple flavors available

Regarding GU, Chocolate was the only flavor I will buy. I have issues trying to eat them, so I try imagine that it's chocolate icing, and I can deal with it. For some reason I still buy them because I feel like I should mix GU and Shot Bloks throughout my runs. However, I could probably give up GU completely! I remember the first time I tried it when i was training for Chicago in 2000, I thought it was pretty gross. I avoided it as long as possible, but finally had to start eating them! I am so glad that now there are so many options that are also delicious! WOW- I am getting hungry!

Map My Run

I was checking out this website, pretty cool!! Maybe i'll run this soon:

Interactive Boston Marathon Map

I found this map: http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/map_interactive/

There are tabs on the top of the map that show you miles, communities, stages, start and finish... and discribes each of them. Click on the markers on the map to read the discription, and of course you can zoom into the map to view it larger.

I think this will help me as I become more familiar with the course, and also can help spectators, like my parents who will be here watching.

I like maps, if anyone knows of any other good ones, let me know!