“Try hard — try harder!”
On Friday April 15, 2016, I was on the train to Boston to attend a conference on Native American Running presented by Harvard’s Peabody Museum in collaboration with the Boston Athletic Association and other sponsors. This topic has interested me since reading a book by Peter Nabokov which described how Indians ran to communicate, fight, […]
Finally, a BQ at Boston
Brian and I hit the road early Sunday morning for the 3.5 hour drive to Boston. The drive was uneventful, and before long we were checking in to the hotel and making our way to the expo by 11:00am. The expo itself was a madhouse. There were so many people crammed into the space it […]
In the last two miles, it finally sank in I was going to finish this marathon
Any story of Boston 2012 has to begin with the weather. Runners anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard were well aware of the brutally hot weather forecast for Monday, April 16th. At first I thought weather.com was playing a cruel April Fool’s joke on us – 89 degrees and sunny in mid April?! I’ve run three […]
I kept screaming, “Just like you’re here for us, we’re all here running for you, for Boston…”
If I had to sum up this race, it’d be easy: it hurt like HELL! I suffered every step of the 26.2, but OMG was it worth it! It was FANTASTIC and during the whole race I had to deal with my uncontrollable body and the crowds making me cry and dry-heave all the way […]
An Eater’s Guide to Marathon Weekend
My running life began when I joined my high school’s track team in January of 2000. I had never run before and thought I might be a shotput/ discus/ javelin thrower or jumper. After it became clear I lacked any sense of coordination, my coach decided I should try sprinting. My first races were the […]
Charting my race versus plan
“Life is just a place to spend time between races.” — George Sheehan, Running & Being: The Total Experience I completed my third Boston Marathon in 2:48:32. This was just over a minute faster than my time in 2014. It was my eighth marathon PR, my fifth PR of the year, and my 12th PR since turning […]
I Learn “You’re not ready to run another marathon until you’ve forgotten the last one”
In May of 2009, the day after I ran my first marathon (Cox Sports), I went online to check post-marathon protocol. Specifically, I wanted to know when I could run again. Overall I felt pretty good, although my thighs were killing me when I walked down any stairs. I knew I should probably take at […]
I might have gotten a tear in my eye, but it was probably rain
Race day came and once again it was a long wait at the Vision Center before our 11:15 start. I am once again guiding for Rachel Weeks, a visually impaired runner from South Carolina. We are lucky the VI athletes and guides have the Center as a place to congregate before the race. It is […]
Running Boston: A bittersweet accomplishment
The horrific event that occurred in 2013 at the world’s most coveted finish line has forever marked the Boston Marathon. For the 17,000 or so runners who crossed, their accomplishment is darkened by a coward’s attack on the greatest spectators in the world. For the approximately 5,000 runners whose run to Boston was halted, they […]
Drinking Beer, Kissing Wellesley Women and Abstract Journeys
In one sense this was 26.2 mile journey. In another it was a three-day weekend. In yet another sense it started in 1994 when I finished my first marathon and I realized that I had never tested my physical limits. And in another sense the journey started in 7th grade when I ground to a […]
We were Unstoppable
The headline of the Boston Globe on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 read “UNSTOPPABLE.” That sentiment could not have been more true. Meb Keflezighi, the American winner, was unstoppable; Shalane Flanagan, the Boston native women’s favorite who despite coming in seventh broke the American women’s record, was unstoppable; the 31,878 runners were unstoppable; and all eight cities […]
“NEVER GIVE UP”
“You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt It was a cool fall morning on the other side of the country in 2011 when I decided I was going to attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I was in California with Team GSF, an amazing group of athletes who race […]