#beardtoboston

Picture by: Photos by  Suzette

#beardtoboston - I haven't really mentioned it much here on my blog. Not sure why. I guess because I wasn't sure where I was going with this yet. As some of you might remember, last year when I ran Boston, I did the whole beard thing.  It was fun, but that only lasted 4 months. The longest I have gone without shaving at that point.

When I found out in July of 2013 that we would get to run Boston again in 2014, I thought to myself, could I do it again? Could I handle 10 months without shaving! I wasn't sure if I could do it so I didn't really mention it. But I gave it a shot to see how far I could go before it drove me crazy!! Jokingly I called it Beard to Boston at one point and it kinda just stuck. It has now become my theme to my running Boston. Even my workplace picked it up as part of project they are working on to get people excited about having one of their own run Boston. Very exciting!

The maintenance on of this beard is a little too much at  times. I wake up in the mornings, it's all over my place. I have to wet it and brush it to tame it. I can't tell you the last time I used shampoo and conditioner before the beard, but it's a nightly routine now. I even use a beard balm to give it body and shine.... don't judge me. It at the very least, needs to look presentable.

So eight months into it and about fifty something days away from Boston, the beard is still going strong. It's been through a 10k, a couple of 5Ks, two marathons, a half and this weekend it will be at a 30k.

At Hyaniss Half - Picture taken by my friend Monica

Even the cold doesn't stop it!! 

Picture by my friend Joanna

#beardtoboston  

Keep an eye out for it. It will be easy to spot come marathon day!! 

Cheer me on as I cross that finish line on Boylston St!!

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And Jim (http://50after40.blogspot.com/)....I know you plan on running Boston in 2015, how about a #beardtoboston2015 ?? I can just hear Michael now..... LOL

The Hyannis Half Marathon

I love this medal!!

The Hyannis Marathon, Half Marathon & Marathon Team Relay was held this weekend in Hyannis, Ma (Cape Cod). Me and a group of friends were all signed up to do the half marathon and what a perfect day it turned out to be!! The temps were low to mid 50s, one of the warmest days we have had in a while. I'll keep the recap short, as we all know that sometimes race recaps can be very detailed and very long. So I will not bore you with the details. So I'll just hit the highlights.

Race start was at 10am which was perfect. No need to wake up extra early to get there. Though we still kinda had to because it was a two hour drive :) ... I drove in with two friends and luckily for us we had friends that spent the night at the Cape at a hotel that was right at the start\finish line of the race. So we met up with them there and hung out til race time.

Pre-race picture with some awesome friends!

The races started on time and for the first three or four miles it felt tough as I worked out the kinks. Only after that did I start to feel good. I had no real plans for the race except to come close to or maybe even PR from my last Half which was 1:36:25. I honestly felt good all the way through. Not at one point did I feel like I was struggling. I had plenty of good one on ones with a few people along the course with me winning most of the battles. Some were a little tough especially early on, so I let hem go as I did no want to burn out so quick.

As I past the 10 mile mark I decided to pick it up a notch and go for it. Only at about mile 12 did I look at my Garmin to see what my time was. I knew I would be close to PR if I could hold pace.

Look at that last mile!!!

Garmin time 1:36:38 - Official time 1:36:22 - a PR by 3 seconds! Woot, woot!!

Ha! I'll take it!!

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After the race my good friends with the hotel room, Adam & Monica, let us shower up in their room. The shower was clutch! Nothing better than feeling brand new after a good race! Thank you soo much!! We owe you big time!!!

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After hanging out for a while a few of us decided to out for lunch at "Not Your Average Joes"...

Great times with great friends....

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Hyannis was a great race for everyone. Weather was perfect, the course was beautiful and many of us PRd or came close to it. A very successful day for everyone!! Congrats to everyone!!

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#LevelLegion #beardtoboston

Treadmill Runs = Blah!!!

On a recent business trip to our NYC office, I did something I had only done 2 other times in my life. Run on a treadmill. Now this only happened because I was stuck at the hotel and there was a snow storm going on that day. I was soo unprepared for this.

First of all, I had no shorts. I was prepared to run outside, all I had was my winter gear. I ended up using one of my t-shirts, but I had to run in my long tights. Then I couldn't figure out how to turn the damn thing on! I had to call someone in facilities to help me out. How embarrassing! Luckily for me, it was the power to the outlet that had been shut off. What a relief... LOL

Once I got it going I decided on the hill work outs. I started out at about a 9:30min pace slowly increasing the pace til I got it to about a 7min pace. Man was I sweatin'!!! The room being in the basement of the hotel with no ventilation didn't help things either. It was balmy in there. 

The workout was set for 45 mins. This was the LONGEST 45 mins of my entire life!! Holy Moses! Minutes felt like hours! This workout wouldn't end! I was almost positive that the timer had stopped at some point when I wasn't looking. ha!.... It sucked, but I got it done. I really don't want to do again anytime soon!

The day after while in NYC, I did get to run outside. Made my way through Times Square then to Central Park. I got about eight miles in. It was awesome! If it were not for work, I could have probably done my long run that day :)

A quick snap shot while in Times Square

I really gives kudos to anyone who runs on treadmills on a regular basis. People call me badass for running in the cold weather, but no way!! Badass is the person that can run mile after mile on that dreaded machine. Good for them!!! But it's NOT for me! 

How do you guys do it????

Give me the minus degree temps, or the hot and humid days of summer, give me cars and give me traffic.... the streets is where I belong!!!

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Til next time!!! Have a great week everyone!

Leveling Up

A few weeks back, I was contacted by a Tim Ritchie, one of the writers for Level Renner Magazine via Facebook, to see if I would be interested on a project they were working on. They were looking for 6 runners, 3 men & 3 women, from New England that were running the 118th Boston Marathon to do a little bio on us and kinda follow us through our training up to marathon day. I immediately said I was interested and responded right away. I was told that they had a list people people to go through and would be notified if I were selected.

Last week I received an email with a couple of questions to answer and they asked for a picture. There were 5 other email recipients on this email. I knew that I was in!!! Woot!!

Yesterday, while at work, my iPhone was blowing up with Facebook notifications. When I finally got around to checking it, it was because Level Renner had posted the article and my friends and family were tagging me on it.

The 3 men they chose:

and the 3 women:

Pictures posted by Level Renner but submitted by each runner selected.

Article here:

Level Renner: Boston Marathon Edition

The article is meant to build the excitement about running the 118th  Boston Marathon and to get to know a few of us that are running it. From what I understand this is part one of maybe three articles they will write about. I am super excited about this!!!

I am honored they chose me as one of the runners they are profiling for this project!


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Follow Level Renner... Even if you are not from the New England area. They post some really cool stuff about running:

Facebook page here
Twitter account here
or subscribe via email right on their website!
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Like the article says.... more to come! Stay tuned!!

16 Miles of Fun & Pictures

Fun, fun times....

Jumping around at about mile 6 of our 16 mile run.

This weekend's long run was a 16 miler mostly through the streets of Thompson, Ct. Each week we try to pick different routes suggested by group members. This week's run was picked by my friend Kristen, who happens to live in Thompson, Ct.

This run was no different than other run except for the fact that my sister in law, a photographer by trade, followed us through a good portion of our run taking some great shots of us running and having fun. She met up with us at about mile four and took shots of us on and off through mile nine and then again at our finish. It was soo cool of her to this. She took tons of pictures!!

Here are a few....

she added the words... Love this one!!

Awesome B&W shot

Through her mirror

Some of these pictures I swear are Runner's World worthy... she did an awesome job!!

My sister in law did this as a favor and I truly appreciate it. She got up early and not really knowing the route, followed us for quite a while. She is awesome, I love her, and I owe her big time! She did mention coming out again as we get closer to Boston to do another picture session.

Just to point out... Not all of in the group are doing Boston. Only two of us pictured are. Two others are training for an Ultra, one is doing a marathon in Virginia in March and the other is just running for the joy of it. It's just happened that this week's 16 miler worked out for all of us.

At the end of the run, my wife surprised everyone by meeting us with waters and snacks for all us. God bless this woman!! Everyone appreciated this greatly!

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Boston training for me still continues on strong. Next week's long run is 17 miles. It will be interesting to see who joins me as I will be picking out the course.

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I'm like three weeks away from the Hyannis Half, my first half in over a year. Quite a few from our group will be running this half. I'm super excited about it!

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This week I will be working out of our NYC office so I will miss our Tuesday night pub run and our Thursday morning run. But as usual, I will bring my running gear with me and hopefully get in a run or two through Central Park or by the Hudson River. There is nothing like running in the city. I love it!!

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Til next time!!........... Have a great week everyone!!