Have you ever seen those intense mom and dad runners? You know who I'm talking about -- those parents who take their toddlers out for a quick twelve-miler after work. Are you wondering where I'm going with this post?! I'm starting to wonder myself. Basically, I just wanted to tell you about the dad I saw running up this nasty hill in North Reading last weekend. I'd guess that the guy was probably about forty-two years old, and he was pushing his toddler up this ridiculously steep and long hill. GET THIS -- he was ALSO pushing his six-year old son on a bicycle up the hill! The POOR DAD!! His toddler was crying, and his six year old was whining about how he wasn't going to make it. I have a hard enough time just running up the hill. IMAGINE running up the hill with two small children! I stuck behind the bunch for a bit during one of my long runs because the scene made me chuckle outloud. Bottom line: that's dedication! Hats off to all of those parents who run with their children!

Also … I just wanted to send out a quick reminder about my contest for a chance to win a $25 Visa gift card.  All you have to do is make a guess at:

 How long it will take me to complete the Boston Marathon in hours, minutes, and seconds (for example, 3 hrs., 15 min. & 22 seconds).

I will select the winner after the race -- the person who guesses the closest estimate of my race time in hours and minutes will win – it’s that simple!

Here is how to enter the contest:

1.      Please make either an online donation to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, or you can make a check payable to “Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge” and mail the check to me:

                                       Sarah Crocker

                                       109 Lowell Road, Unit 313

                                       North Reading, MA 01864

2.      Once you've made your donation (or if you have already made one prior to the contest), submit your best guess by filling out this contest form online (or you can just write it on a post-it note & include it in the envelope if you mail me a check).

 Good luck and thank you for your support!

Now to my GENEROUS DONORS of the past few weeks: Lorainne Allen, Maggie Perkins, & Lavinia, Matt Magliozzi, Paul Filtzer, and Jonas Geiger. Muchos Gracias to you all, and the good work continues thanks to your efforts and generosity!!

The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge is a set of big challenges. And "challenge" is in the name, so "hard" is OK!


It's a bit of a challenge to apply for the Dana-Farber Boston Marathon team, complete with multiple essays and spreadsheets, donor plans & goals. It's a big challenge to say "I'll commit to raising thousands of dollars, or pay it myself!" It's a big challenge to raise that much money. It's a challenge to find the time to train enough to be able to be confident heading toward the start of the longest run you may ever have done, and without a doubt one of the most difficult marathon courses in the world. It's a challenge to stay safe, and courteous, through eight different towns that will accommodate the 26,000+ runners that will toe the line in Hopkinton the morning of April 19th.

Those all seem like challenges, until I think of the challenge of battling cancer.

Then it seems pretty reasonable, and well within my grasp.

I happened to be reading about the history of St. Patrick’s Day last night, and learned the meaning behind the Irish flag. I should really know this already, since my stepmum is Iris, born & raised. Nonetheless, I admit my ignorance. The green and the orange symbolize opposing cultures while the white stands for the hope of unity, of peace.

Peace.

In my life there is division. Two sides of me warring against the other – pretty much every single day of my life. I certainly don’t mean to trivialize the tumultuous history of a country nor do I mean to equate my small trials to those of a nation.

The meaning of the flag simply moved me to a place of personal reflection. I want to exist in the white, that place of hope. I want to exist in peace and harmony within myself. I want to silence the internal conflict, the perfectionism, and the out of reach expectations. I want to shut the door on the all or nothing thinking that too often dominates my mind. I want to call for an inner “truce”.

Hope you had a great St. Patrick’s day! While I did manage to wear something green yesterday, the only thing green I ate was some lettuce. :-O

WOO HOO!! So I just looked up the BAA website and searched my name and there it was: 22603, my official bib number for THE Boston Marathon. I got chills. It’s getting so close and the days are flying by. Having said that, the weekend cannot come soon enough.


For some reason this week, it’s like all of the months of training suddenly caught up with me and I’m EXHAUSTED. I can barely hold my head up and my eyelids feel like little lead weights. I have had my resting metabolic rate tested so I know I’m eating enough (no chance of undereating for me!!), and I’ve taken it easy and backed off the cardio a few days now. I’m averaging about 6-7 hours of sleep each night, although the quality of my sleep isn’t that great). And I’ve had a nasty awful headache pretty much every single day for the past week (unusual for me) – which may quite likely be related to the fatigue issue I’m battling. Not sure what is going on, but I hope it passes and I feel better soon.

Quick recap of the week so far, I had a strength training session on Monday morning, did absolutely nothing on Tuesday & Wednesday (due to my lazy arse once again not wanting to crawl out of bed at 4am unlike my uber-diligent & rather superhuman Hubs who manages to do so every. single. day – and yesterday at 3:50am for pete’s sake!), and had another strength training session Thursday morning. Anyway, that’s it for now… getting super psyched for the race – coming up on the 4-week mark now!

Bib Name Age M/F City State Country Ctz *

________________________________________

22603 Crocker, Sarah 32 F North Reading MA USA

"Look for the good all about you, and you will become happier."
                          - Charles Shipley (paraphrased)

Pretty good advice...from a hospital wall.

If I look for the good, doesn't that suggest I expect to find it? When I do, that confirms my "hypothesis," or fulfills my "prophesy."

I'm going out to live the day, looking for good. I'll let you know what I find.

I agonized for months last year, contemplating applying to be a member of the 2010 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team of runners. I evaluated, thought, assessed, and considered how difficult it would be to meet the $3,250 fundraising minimum for 2010 Boston Marathon charity runner program.

I have faith, and that faith is a cornerstone of my participation in the DFMC, and the experiences that surround it.


I have faith that my friends and family, and their friends and families, will come together to support the research the doctors and scientists conduct at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute because they too have faith that cures for cancers will be found, and that their contributions matter.

I have faith that we are getting closer by the mile, and that the sweet young man in the picture will live to be 77.

To make a donation, please visit my secure online website at: www.rundfmc.org/2010/sarahc, or make a check payable to "Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge" and mail it to me: Sarah Crocker, 109 Lowell Rd., #313, N. Reading, MA 01864. Thank you for keeping the faith alongside me.

As I considered blogging through the roughly 200 days of my 2010 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge experience, I wondered if I would create 200 entries. Of course I wouldn't -- I wasn't fully committed to that as a goal. Blogging over the course of the 200 days, and through the range of experiences, was, and is, my commitment.




166 days closer to the Boston Marathon -- 34 days from today -- and I more clearly understand what I am committed to for this DFMC campaign:

• to acknowledging the fragility of life while appreciating the innumerable blessings of my fortunate existence, whatever it may hold;
• to encourage and invite people to help fund more life-changing and life-saving research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute well beyond the minimum requirements of the DFMC runners. To donate, please visit my DFMC e-gift secure webpage;
• to deepening relationships with anyone who is generous enough to allow me to run in honor of their friends, family, and loved ones who have faced cancer. If there's a cancer survivor, thriver, or angel that you'd like to share with me, please email me with a favorite story, a fond memory, picture, or just a name;
• to give platelets as often as every two weeks, and to encourage others to do so. It's easy, no more painful than giving blood, and it allows a cancer patient to have a treatment that otherwise must be postponed. Here's info on donating platelets in the Jimmy Fund building at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• to embrace the DFMC experience as a meditative practice that allows and requires me to be aware of the ebbs and flows of thoughts and feelings through the season. Hence this blog!

RUNNING BOSTON FOR A CURE

APRIL 19, 2010

I'm running many miles to fight cancer and I hope you'll help me take big steps! In only 5 short weeks, on Monday, April 19, 2010, I'll run with my Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC) teammates in the Boston Marathon, raising funds to benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at the world-renowned Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. With your generosity, I’ll reach my goal of $5,000 before marathon weekend!

Cancer touches all of us. We all know someone—a friend, colleague, parent, sibling, family member, child--who has battled this disease. Today, thousands of people worldwide are being treated for cancer and this is our chance to do something to help them. In undertaking this challenge I’m honoring a very special and brave 5 year-old girl, with whom I am privileged to call my friend: Ashley Dumont.

 Ashley came into the world full of energy! Happily, she's the same today, five years later. But between then and now, Ashley and her family went through terrible times when her future was anything but certain. At age two, Ashley was diagnosed with Wilms' tumor (WT), a type of kidney cancer that accounts for about 6 percent of all childhood cancers. Unfortunately for Ashley, the cancer was found in both of her kidneys. Overnight, her family's life changed dramatically. She had five tumors the size of grapefruits in her kidneys and was admitted the next day to Boston Children’s Hospital and began treatment. Her family has had to make the exhausting four-hour drive from their home in New Hampshire to the hospital for Ashley’s treatment. For three years there were four surgeries, multiple blood transfusions, hospital stays, low blood counts, infections and countless invasive tests and chemotherapy. Ashley just recently underwent follow-up scans – the kindergartener is now able to lay awake in the MRI machine for 2 hours without a nudge – a remarkable feat in and of itself (and something most adults would be hard-pressed to accomplish!). Now, thanks to research, she is finally in the clear and celebrating her good health!

I can think of no better way to honor Ashley than to raise funds for the vital efforts of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. One hundred percent of the funds raised will support the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber and will provide support to help improve the chances of cancer survivors like Ashley. I hope you will support my challenge by giving a gift to my run and, in so doing, help bring an end to cancer.

To make an online gift visit my donation page at: www.RunDFMC.org/2010/sarahc - it’s fast, easy and secure! Or enclose a check payable to “Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge” and addressed to me. Will your company match your gift? If so, please include its matching gift form with your contribution.

Please join me in my race toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer. Every mile and every dollar brings us closer! Thank you in advance for supporting my run for DFMC.

Best regards,

Sarah 

~ 109 Lowell Rd., Unit 313, N. Reading, MA 01864 ~

The 114th running of the Boston Marathon is so close, but yet so far away. According to the web widget running on my site, the race is a mere 35 days, 10 hours, 35 minutes and 46 seconds away.

For those registered to run in the race, you’ve received the same emails I have and for the most part they are quite motivating; everything from pre-sale on the apparel, health tips, and the Boston Running Fitness Examiner’s Ben Haber. Ben chronicles "Faces of the 2010 Boston Marathon" who’s profiling the anti-elite runners that are running the race.

Ben's article last week profiled Vanessa Van Dongen who likens Boston to “running mecca” vs. my description of “running Nirvana.” A great read -- for both of us Boston will be a first, but rather than raise money for a charity, she time-qualified in her fifth marathon in Chicago…I am qualifying by my pledge to raise a minimum of $3,250 for Dana-Farber, 100% of which will fund the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. If you have not already done so, please go to my secure online website to make a donation (or you can write a check made payable to "Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge" and send it to me).

The stories are quite motivating particularly as we get closer to Nirvana. What I can’t figure out is the emails I keep getting that’s advertising all of the Boston paraphernalia. Don’t get me wrong…I’m ordering EVERYTHING when I get there… jacket, shirt, magnet, coffee mug, hat, water bottle, mouse pad, bumper sticker, pennant, and bobble head doll if they sell them.

Something about the timing that rubs me the wrong way.

So what am I supposed to do, order online and stare at this stuff for another five weeks? The Adidas Ad touts, “Run Boston Better.” The issue is that you can’t wear it until you’ve earned it. Talk about a SI Cover photo jinx…what would happen if you wore that jacket before the race…I can’t even go there.

It reminds me of a story (true confession time) when I was a kid in grade school and we’d gone skiing at Cypress Mountain in the northshore mountains of Vancouver, British Columbia. It was a real “badge of honor” to show up to school on Monday with a lift ticket (they had the wire brackets back then) on your Patagonia down ski jacket.    


The issue was I attached the un-removable lift ticket to my ski pants. My mom, being the trooper she is, delicately removed my brothers lift ticket and re-attached it to my jacket Sunday night so I could walk in “like a peacock” on Monday. Problem was, I was still considered a "child" and a year off from hitting the "youth" lift ticket age and I was “busted” by one of the older students. A proud moment turned into a major embarrassment.

In modern sports (football, basketball, hockey, etc.,) the cardinal sin is premature celebrating—even though they had Super Bowl winner caps printed up for both the Colts and Saints, you don’t see them wear them until AFTER the game is over (what do they do with the boxes of Colts Super Bowl champs caps anyway?)


My point is, quit teasing me because I won’t buy the goods until I hit the expo and I won’t wear that jacket until I’ve earned it—after the race.

For those of you that may be interested (I know I am!!), I found this interactive map of the Boston Marathon: http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/course/map/


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 who will be in town watching.

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

Thought for the day:

If you see a runner with their race number on their back you know it’s their first race. Welcome them to the greatest sport on the planet. Then use this line: RUNNING AIN’T NO RODEO. Put that bib number on your chest!

That headline is a joke. Truth be told, there are three things I truly, deeply dread during training: Tempo runs, races and speed workouts. The night before these workouts, I'm a nervous wreck. Butterflies arrive by flocks in my tummy, making it hard to fall to sleep. The morning of, I'm pacing like an AIG exec, sipping coffee and trying to chill out. Then it's off to the treadmill (my version of a track at 4am in the middle of winter) and...here we go! 






Hard effort for 800m (~ .5 mile), recovery jog for 400m (~ .25 mile); repeat until you pretty much feel like puking.

I make too big of a deal out of a simple workout, obviously, but no matter how many of these sessions I complete, each time the fear of the discomfort I know I'm going to endure freaks me out anew. This morning I did eight Yasso 800s. I haven't done Yasso's yet during this build-up, but I did have a smile on my face (despite the butterflies) as I headed to the gym. 

So, anyway, after all that drama, I survived. The funny thing is that the efforts that create the most pre-workout angst tend to have the biggest payoff--crazy-awesome endorphins, a sense of accomplishment, and, hopefully, some faster legs. 


The photo grabbed from oregonianphoto at Flickr is of Adam Goucher (Kara Goucher's husband) sprinting along the beautiful outdoor track on the Nike campus in Oregon. The track is surrounded by soft trails rambling through the woods and trees everywhere--even inside the oval shape. It's the kind of place that looks like it could easily make you feel like you could run Yasso 800s forever... or maybe not!

Does the weather ever get you down? If you know me well enough, you'll know that I spend half my time lamenting over the snow, wind and bone-chilling temperatures all winter. You then may have noticed a bit of a spring in my step when our Beantown weather improved and I began to shed my layers (prime example: this past weekend with its GORGEOUS blue skies & 50 degree BALMY conditions!). With last week being wet, gray and gloomy, my mood seemed to coincide with the weather--difficulty getting out of bed, mopey, finding it hard to focus, and sounding like Eeyore every time I spoke.

So it got me thinking, can weather affect your mood? I figured I couldn't be the only fluke out there and right away, a study released in October 2008 popped up on WebMD. Only problem the results from this study done in Germany didn't produce the results I expected. I guess I've taken living in Beantown for granted and didn't even take into account how wind could affect mood. And apparently it can give you a negative mood more so in the spring and summer than the fall and winter. Not many were fans of the shorter days--I'd hate to live in the far north where it's even more dark in December--and darker moods could put you at risk for seasonal affective disorder. And I knew there was a reason I'm always eager to get outside when the temps heat up and the sun comes out more frequently. Not only do I feel better, but according to this 2004 study, my mood is elevated from spending time outdoors when it's nice out. But I'm starting to think that maybe I'm spending too much time outside in the summer so it's making that winter indoor time even tougher to struggle through. Or maybe I'm just crazy...!