2014 -Operation: 5 Squared

Well, it is that time of year again. It is late January and I am looking forward to this year's Boston Marathon.  Last year was difficult for me because I lacked motivation.  I lacked the motivation to train and I lacked motivation to raise money for NF Inc.  Why did I lack motivation last year?  I don't really know and I'm not sure it matters but what does matter is that this year feels different.  I am actually running.  The weather has pretty much sucked but I have made my way out onto the mean streets of Millis and put in some miles.  When the weather (or the temperature) has forced me to stay inside I have actually climbed on the treadmill and put in a good workout.  I have a long way to go but I am encouraged and I feel like I have my desire back. 


Now that I have my mojo for running back I now have to do something about raising money.  For those of you that don't know (and I can't believe that anyone who actually reads this blog doesn't)  I run to raise money for a great organization called Neurofibromatosis Inc. Northeast.  This is an organization dedicated  to finding a treatment and the cure for neurofibromatosis by promoting scientific research, creating awareness, and supporting those who are affected by NF.  Why does this matter to me?  It matters because I have a 17 year old son that is afflicted with this disorder.  Max is a great kid that has lived his whole life battling this disorder.  On the surface you might not even know that there is anything different about Max but believe me, this disorder has taken its toll on Max and everyone who loves him.  He does very well in school and he is set to graduate this spring. (am I really that old??)  He is planning on attending college this fall and we could not be prouder of his accomplishments.  As strange as it may sound his mother and I have learned to appreciate the little things in life, the milestones that most kids reach, so much more because of Max.  He has always been delayed, not in his intelligence, but in his maturity level.  He is not your typical teenaged boy.  He isn't girl crazy, he is does not spend any time at all on any social media site (he has a Facebook page that he almost never checks) and he doesn't seem to be interested in taking the car out and just riding around with his friends (I, of course, am assuming that this is something that kids still do)  But, during his life we have watched him do things that we honestly never thought he would be able to do.  We will never forget the day when one of our twins came rushing in the door to tell us that Max was riding a bike.  It doesn't seem like much but because of his disorder Max has always had balance problems.  But Holy Crap!!  There he was, pedaling away.  It was almost overwhelming.


Max has had his share of physical problems as well.  His body is covered with a number of neurofibromas, or tumors, as well as a lot of café au lait spots.  They don't cause him too much trouble but they are a constant reminder of how he is different and sometimes when you are a teenager being different isn't exactly what you are striving for.(regardless of what the movies tell you)  He also has a large plexiform neurofibroma on his elbow that we have to watch very closely.  Our biggest worry is the inoperable brain tumor that Max must live with.  As a result of this tumor Max developed a condition called Hydrocephalus or a back up of fluid in his brain and even though the tumor is inoperable he had to undergo brain surgery to alleviate the back up of fluid.  All of this at the age of 6.  Believe me when I tell you that you don't ever want to see your child, who is barely out of kindergarten, have surgery on their brain.  The wait for the surgery to be over is indescribable.  A long, seemingly endless period of time where you can't stop your thoughts from drifting to the worst possible outcome.


This is why I am raising money for NF Inc Northeast.  they were instrumental in helping our family deal with having a child with NF.  They taught us what we needed to know and they lent us a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on.  It made us feel so much better knowing that there were people out there that not only understood but also cared deeply about our son and our whole family. 


Having said all of this I am launching Operation 5 Squared.  I am vowing to finish the marathon in under 5 hours and, more importantly, I am vowing to raise $5,000 for the great people at NF Inc. Northeast.  Neither goal will be easy to reach but neither goal is out of reach.  I need your help..  I need you to donate ANY amount of money that you can.  No amount is too small because every amount counts.  I am constantly amazed by people.  It seems like all we ever hear about on the news is tragedy, death and the dark side of the human animal.  But we are lucky enough to get to see the compassion, generosity and beauty of the human soul.  That is why I believe that this goal can be reached.  So please donate and tell your friends, family and strangers on the street to donate.


You can donate one of three ways:

• First - Go to my CrowdRise Fund Raising page here and leave your inspirational words of encouragement (or scathing insults) along with your generous donation.
• Second - Make out a check to NFNE and send it to NF Northeast - 9 Bedford Street - Burlington,  MA 01803
• Third - You can make out your check to me and I will make sure it gets to where it is supposed to.

If you want to visit NF Inc. Northeast you can visit them here.



Also take a look around this blog for some surveys and other fun stuff that I will post over the next couple of months.  Take a read of the book that I am writing and feel free to let me know your thoughts and opinions. I have posted the first several chapters on this blog.


Thanks for listening and please come back and visit often.


Til next time...

Boston Marathon 2013 - My Story

Holy crap!  Where do I start?  I'll start with an apology.  An apology to the people that support me, to the people who have donated money to my marathon run and to myself.  This year has been different.  I have been lazy and apathetic when it come to anything that had to do with this year's Boston Marathon campaign.  I did not fund raise anywhere near as much as I should have.  I did not post to this blog with updates on how my training was going or with thanks to the people who had donated.   I also did not train as hard or as often as I should have.  Oh, I had every excuse in the book, the weather was bad this winter, I was sick for a couple of weeks, I had to travel for work, I had rehearsals twice a week, blah, blah, blah.  At the end of the day I just wasn't into it this year.  I had times when I felt motivated and I thought OK, Now I am going to get rolling.  Those feeling would last for a day or two and then I would fall back into apathy.  For that I apologize to everyone.  You deserve better and so does Max.

Then came marathon day.  In the days leading up to the marathon I didn't feel the same buildup of excitement that I have in the past.  Normally I am really into it to the point of obsession.  I am constantly monitoring my water intake to make sure that I am staying properly hydrated, I will have a plan for how often and how far I am going to run in the two weeks leading up to marathon Monday.  I will obsessively monitor the weather and spend far too many hours thinking about what I am going to wear.  This year, however, there was none of that.  I woke on Monday morning with only a small amount of nervous excitement.  I really felt like I was going through the motions.  Kristen drove me to Hopkinton around 8:30 AM.  This year I was walking to athlete's village alone.  I did not have Katie O'Connell to keep me company on the trip to the starting line this year as she decided not to run.  So everything was different this year.  As I reached the starting area I felt like my lack of training was going to turn this into a very ugly day for me.  Little did I know how the day would end.

I started off the race OK.  I took my normal pee break at about the 1/2 mile point and I continued through Hopkinton into Ashland.  I ran into a guy that I met, and ran with, last year.  We traded pleasantries and this year, we went our separate ways.  I had a lot of other racers wish me good luck and comment on how handsome my son Max is.  (My wife did another fantastic job on my shirt this year.  It featured a great picture of Max on the back)  As I made my way from Hopkinton to Ashland and then to Framingham I still felt pretty good.  I was trying to remember all of the great things that were said to me and all the great things that I saw on the trip as these are the memories that make this day special.  One moment I always remember is coming into the center of Natick where my family is waiting for me.  They cheer so loud and are so great that it always gives me a lift and, thankfully, this year that was no different.  After the traditional pictures in Natick I headed off towards Wellesley.   After a brief lift from the girls at Wellesley College I found my self thinking the worst possible thought I have so far to go and I don't know how I am going to make it.  There really was a time that I thought I might not be able to make it.  I had half of the race to go and I was sooo tired.  But I kept going and thankfully I seemed to get a second wind.  As I made my way past Newton-Wellesley Hospital I felt OK.  Not great but better than I did in downtown Wellesley. 

I made the turn onto route 30 and I knew the hills were in front of me.  I had my IPod on (this is the first marathon that I have ever used my IPod) and it helped keep my mind occupied.  As I was about halfway through the stretch between the firehouse and the top of Heartbreak Hill I started to notice something.  Police motorcycles were starting up the hill with unusual frequency.  You always see an ambulance or a police vehicle go up the street but there was something different going on this year.  There were motorcycles, state police cruisers, Suffolk county sheriff department vans and various other emergency vehicles heading up the street, not at the normal cautious pace that I was used to seeing, but at high rate of speed with sirens blaring.  I knew something was up but I never could have guessed what was unfolding in front of me.

As I approached the top of Heartbreak Hill I noticed that there were course officials and medical tent workers ushering the runners off the road.  The runners, exhausted from the 20+ miles they had already run, looked confused but were otherwise very cooperative.  When I reached the top I was told that the race had been temporarily stopped and I needed to get off the road.  When I asked why I was simply told "there is an emergency at the finish line".  I had not been there on the side of the road for more than 5 or 10 minutes when my phone rang.  It was my wife telling me that there had been 2 explosions at the finish line and that they were on the train heading away from Boston.  Everyone was safe including my two nephews Jeremy and Sam who were going to meet with my family on Boyalston Street to watch me cross the finish line.  My family would have arrived in Boston earlier but through a series of karmic events they were delayed getting on to the train and therefore never made off the train.  They were turned around at the Fenway T-Stop.  (The sobering part of all of this is that my family, had they made it into Boston would have been standing within 50 or so yards of where the 2nd bomb went off.)

I was still on the side of the road waiting for news on what would be done with us.  The people in charge at the location I was at were great.  They kept us informed and calm.  My wife would call me periodically trying to find a way to get to me to pick me up.  Unfortunately, the roads in Newton were mostly closed.  She, with our neighbor and close friend Luigi driving, made their way as far as the fire station at the corner of route 16 and route 30.  The next time she called I told her to just go home as I had no idea how long it would take to get us to somewhere where I could be picked up.  I had finally got here to agree to that when they announced that they would take us by bus to the Newton City Hall.  That was a location that my family could get to.

I climbed out of the van at city hall in Newton and scanned the immediate area for my family.  After a few moments I saw my wife, at first slowly making her way towards me.  I started to walk slowly in her direction and then as I saw the agonizing mixture of happiness, relief and barely contained tears on her face we moved faster towards each other and we ended in a hug that will forever be the moment that I will remember most about this marathon.  The feeling of relief was indescribable.  We held each other and cried.  I asked if everyone was OK and she nodded.  More relief.  We broke apart and headed towards the car where I was met by more hugs and tears of relief by my three boys, Max, Anthony and Noah.  I was also given a huge hug by one of my "daughters" Julia, who said to me "don't ever do this again.  I was really scared."

I was texted and voice mailed and facebooked by so many people.  I never realized just how many people cared about me and my family until this happened.

So that was it.  My race ended about 5 1/2 miles short but more importantly I was able to go home and have dinner with my family.  Some people weren't so lucky.  I was contacted by a reporter for the Metrowest Daily News who wanted to know my reactions to Monday's events.  When he asked if I would ever consider running in the Boston Marathon again I immediately said absolutely and my family will be at the finish line cheering me on!!!  I refuse to let this be the last marathon I run!  Those bastards stole from me one of my favorite moments.  It is the moment my I am coming down Boyalston Street and I see my boy running out to meet me and then we run, hand in hand, across the finish line of the greatest marathon in the world.  I will be back as will most of the runners.  When I started running in this marathon I didn't know what to expect and now that I have seen it I never want to let it go.

I let this year slip past me and I learned that that is unacceptable!  Life is too short and too fragile.  Next year will be the best year ever!  I will run it faster and I will raise more money for NF Inc. NE than I ever have! 

And I will see all of you there because that is who we are!!
 

My Live Oscars Blog

This is my live Academy Awards Blog. It starts about a half hour into the show because I just thought of it...

By the way I am publishing it before I actually proofread it so there will be plenty of spelling and grammer mistakes that I will correct later...or maybe I wont.

Enjoy

8:55 - Paul Rudd and Melissa Mcarthy come out and do something that looked like it should have been funny but honest to god I have no idea what they said.

8:56 - My wife actually says "Why is she so fat?"  That's nice honey.

8:59 - Reese Witherspoon's boobs look like they are trying to eat her dress.

9:00 - The clamoring in my house for Les Miserables to win every Oscar including Best Animated Short, Best foreign documentary and the Cecil B DeMille Award reaches a fever pitch.

9:04 - Cinematography.....Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Oh Thank God one of the Doobie Brothers won.

9:07 - Visual Effects goes to......More people nobody knows or cares about!!  Hooray!!

9:10  - That guy really didn't get that his time was done did he??  Dude, That music means Shut the f' Up

9:14 - The Costume Design winner looked like she had to walk in from the parking lot.

9:20 - What the hell is Halle Berry wearing???  That looks like a costume that people in movies about the future wear.

9:24 - Did I need to hear Goldfinger?  Let me answer that for you...No.  No I didn't.

9:30 - Live Action Short goes to.... Les Miserables!!!  Wow! I did not see that coming.

9:40 - 10:10 - I had to get my clothes ready and take a shower so I missed whatever minor awards were given out and, apparently, a big  musical montage....  I feel all empty inside.

10:11 - Mark Walberg has to stand up there and pretend he is enjoying interacting with a teddy bear.  It always surprises me that the directors of the show think that will be funny.

10:14 - Did he just say there is a tie????  I would be pissed if I was one of those two.  That is kind of like getting "Participation Tropy"  You didn't actually win because everyone got one.

10:18 - Christopher Plummer looks like a corpse.

10:19 - My wife just said about Anne Hathaway "Look how her dress does the nipple thing"  What does that mean?

10:21 - Anne Hathaway and her nipple dress won!!!!

10:32 - The editing guy apparently had a seat in the parking lot next to the Costume Designer chick.
(as a side note how cool would it be to be handed your oscar by Sandra Bullock?)

10:34 - I hate hate hate the song Skyfall.  So boring.

10:43 - I didn't realize how many freakin pictures were nominated for Best Picture.  Nicole Kidman was the 10th person to announce 3 films that were nominated.  That can't be right.  Can it??

10:46 - Kristen Stewart bravely limps on stage and then sounds like she's stoned. 

10:47 - Oh My God!  Nice wig on the guy who just won for doing something for Lincoln.  He looks like if he took off his glasses the hair would come with it.

10:52 - The two old men from the Muppets balcony brought two of their friends with them and they all decided to carry an Oscar.

10:56 - Ah...the In Memoriam portion of the show.  We always love this part. A lot of sound editors and production designers this year.  Too bad more famous people didn't die.

11:00 - ...like Barbara Streisand.  She annoys the living crap out of me.

11:02 - My wife and I think that if Cher and Jennifer Anniston had a kid it would be the 2013 version of Barbara Streisand.

11:03 - Bunny

11:04 - Our Bunny comes to feast on human flesh.

11:07 - Catherine Zeta Jones is going to be my 3rd wife. (after my current wife and Diane Lane)


11:12 - OK. What the hell is Life of PI about??  I am tired of thinking it of it as the tiger on a raft movie

11:15 - Skyfall wins best son......Zzzzzzzzz

11:23 - OK.  The time has come for the big ones

11:24 - Tarrantino wins for screenplay.  I am going to come right out and say what an insufferable douche bag I think he is. 

11:25 - ...aaannnnnddd he proves it again.

11:27 - Two awards and another commercial.  No wonder these things last longer than a Yankees/Red Sox game

11:32 - I just realized the combined age of Michael Douglas and Jane Fonda is 412.

11:33  - Ang Lee wins Best Director for the tiger on a raft movie. 

11:35 - Two awards and another commercial.  Oh My God!!  This is an excersise in torture.

11:42 - Jennifer Lawrence Takes Best Actress and promptly falls going up the stairs.  What a bittersweet moment that must be.

11:44 - "Meryl Streep's dress looks like it is made out of cement".  ...Kristen Day

11:47 - Meryl apparently doesn't beleive in suspense. 

11:50 - Jack Nicholson ladies and gentlemen!!

11:51 - Why oh why are we listening to Michelle Obama and her stupid hair??  And what was the point of her ramblings??

11:55 - Argo takes the big one.  I stongly feel that anyone who looks as good as George Clooney should not be as rich  as he is.  You get one or the other.  Not both.

That's it.  The damn thing is finally over.  Remind me to never do this again.  I am going to hate myself in the morning.

Til next time.

Motivation...or lack thereof

So I clicked on the BAA website and I got a sobering slap in the face.  There are 64 days until the marathon.  64 DAYS!!!  Holy crap!!  I have just over 2 months to train and raise money for this year's race!  After regaining my senses I wondered to myself how the hell did I let it get this late without getting some donations or getting really serious about my training???  One of the things I hate about myself is that I have a tendency to get complacent and lazy.  Just ask my wife...she'll tell you.  I go through times in my life when I am motivated and a man of action.  ...and then....well...right now I am in one of those other moods.  I have lacked any kind of motivation to get things done.  I have no idea why this is the case.  I don't know whether it is the stress at work, the Patriots loss in the AFC Championship game (to Ray Lewis no less), the fact that I am getting older and more crotchety with each passing day, the debt ceiling, my continued inability to create cold fusion or my hatred of sweet gherkins but I can't seem to get going with anything around this year's marathon run.  I have had a hard time getting out running this time of year because the only time that I can run during the week is after dinner and it is dark and cold. (and yes, I will have some delicious smoked Gouda cheese with that whine)

So I need help.  My wife does what she can to motivate me (which mostly consists of telling me to get off my fat, lazy ass and go for a run) but I think this year I am going to need more.  So I am asking anyone that reads this post to take a minute to post a comment urging me to get going.  I don't care if it is inspirational and uplifting or slightly mean or downright offensive and insulting.  I just need to have a fire lit under me.  I need to be motivated to get out on the street and I need to be motivated to do more fundraising.  As of right now I have raised exactly...well, let me check the big board....oh yeah...the tally right now is a big fat ZERO.  That won't do.  Not for Max and not for NF Inc Northeast.

I will try my best to do my part.  I hope to post here more often and really start to get the word out to get donations.  So you should get used to hearing my shameless plugs for money.  I will be more annoying than PBS during the 475th airing of the 25th anniversary concert of Les Miserables (by the way, how GOOD was that concert???)  I am going to be the Jerry Lewis of NF fundraising, I will be more cloying than Sally Struthers trying to get you to throw a sandwich at some poor Ugandan kid or Sarah McLaughlin mewling about a mangy dog that looks like it just spent a coke filled weekend at Michael Vick's house.

It will start today!  After I shovel the 214 feet of snow in and around my driveway..side rant here...My frickin snow blower broke!!!  The biggest snowstorm in 20 years and my God forsaken  snow blower breaks!!!  I'm out last night at 10:00 doing the first pass at the snow and I run over something in the driveway that gets stuck in the auger and I think it ended up either breaking or dislodging a belt.  Why does God hate me so????...end rant.  Anyway after I shovel a million pounds of snow I am going to run on the treadmill for at least an hour.  By the way if you read my last post I included a list of things that were the Devil's Work.  I count treadmills among them now.

Help me...Motivate me and let's kick this thing's ass together.  Remember I need to raise $4,000 and I want to finish in less than 5 hours.  Not much time to do either but let's give it a shot.

Til next time...


*****UPDATE *****

I did it!!!  I cleared about 250 tons of snow from my driveway (by the way my snow blower only had a hunk if wood jammed in the auger.  Once I got it out everything worked like a champ)  I cleared some of the snow off the roof and I got on the treadmill and ran for an hour.  The treadmill said I did a little over 5 miles but it seemed like it should have been longer than that.  My thanks to Jason Bourne for keeping me company for that excruciatingly looooong hour. 

I Have Nothing to Say

It is my understanding that the purpose of writing this blog is to get people to read it and as a result they will learn about NF and Max and as a direct result of THAT they will donate a few shekels to NF Inc Northeast and help to make Max's, and every other person afflicted with this indiscriminate disorder's, life better.

It sounds simple enough, right?  All I have to do is sit down once a day and bang out a few hundred words filled with humor and intelligence and witty observation and people will say to themselves "My what a smart and funny young man.  His cause seems worthy of some of my hard earned money". The problem is that I really have nothing to say.  Since starting this blog I have developed a real admiration and respect for the people that write blogs everyday.  Everyday they have something to write about, some opinion to express or some story to tell.  I got nuthin'

Don't get me wrong I think about it everyday but the thought of stringing together enough coherent sentences to make it worthwhile for anyone to read seems way harder than running a marathon.  I think about all the different blogs that I see and it seems like I am not even smart enough to rip off their ideas. 

I could go on a rant about how tired I am of hearing about Lance Armstrong and as disgusting as I find him I also find Oprah Winfrey equally as reprehensible for trying to turn her interview with him into a two part extravaganza that will get people to watch her network. (by the way, has anyone told her that she is no longer relevant?)   I could opine about Notre Dame's Manti Te'o and how I could care less of whether he had a girlfriend or not.  Somebody should tell him that most people stop claiming to have imaginary girlfriends sometime around the 10th grade.  ("She's from Canada.  You wouldn't know her")

Maybe I could breakdown the AFC Championship game and what the Patriots have to do to get past the Ravens. Here's my analysis.  If the Patriot's offense can score more points than Baltimore I can virtually guarantee you that they will return to the Super Bowl.  That is my mortal lock.  Go right now and bet the house on that.

If sports isn't you thing, maybe you would want to read my reviews of current movies.  Well, I have been to the movies exactly once in the last 6 months.  A couple of weeks ago I went to see Les Miserables and I loved it.  I sobbed like a 12 year old school girl and I will NOT apologize for it!  Anyone who doesn't get at least a little misty when Anne Hathaway sings "I Dreamed a Dream" has no soul.  My advice to you though, don't expect a real uplifting film.  This is a beautiful but long and very very sad film.  By the way Sasha Baron Cohen was badly cast in this.

If sports or cinema doesn't float your boat then maybe a list.  I see a lot of blogs with lists.  Best this or worst that.  I think it has something to do with lists being easy and quick to read.  OK.  I'll give that a shot.  Anyone who has spent anytime around me has heard me refer to many things as "The Devil's Work"  These are things so heinous and such a blight on human existence that they could only have come from the Satan himself.  So here is a top ten list of things that are the Devil's Work:

10 Speed Bumps
 9 The Real Housewives of Anywhere
 8 Microbrewery Beer
 7 The Beatles ( C'mon...The most overrated band in the history of music)
 6 The Westboro Baptist Church
 5 Pumpkin Flavored Anything
 4 Twitter
 3 Grapes with Seeds
 2 Brownies with Nuts
 1 There's Something About Mary

Or maybe I just ask for donations.  Please donate to NF Inc. Northeast.  If you do you will feel better about yourself and good things will come to you.  You will feel better, your family will love you more, your friends will respect you, you will be regular and all of your hopes and dreams will be within your grasp.  How can you pass that up???

See...like I said...I got nuthin' to say.

Til next time...

A New Beginning

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends...

It is January of 2013 and I have officially begun training for this years exercise in pain, agony and stupidity.  I am of course talking about the Boston Marathon and I have sent in my application and received confirmation from my good friends at the BAA that, yes, in fact they are going to let me run this year despite my less than ideal body type.

I have fully recovered from last year's ungodly hot run and I am looking forward to making this year the best one yet from not only a time but also from a fundraising standpoint.  Last year I was overwhelmed by the donations that I received.  I set a goal of raising $3,000 and I was thrilled to receive over $3,700.  This year I am going raise the stakes and see how people respond.  This year the goal will be $4,000 and I am confident that it can be reached and surpassed.

As far as  time goes...well...I think we all know where this is going (or at least you would if had read this blog over the last couple of years) My goal this year is to break the ever elusive 5 hour mark.  For some perspective the first year I ran I finished in 5:55:21.  That was followed by times of 5:21:29, 5:33:20 and last years brutal 6:03:42.  To shave 22 minutes off of my best time is, at best daunting, and sometimes, it seems downright impossible.  However, I am going to work harder than I ever have and I WILL break that 5 hour mark.  It is up to you to break the $4,000 mark.

Now I want to say a little bit about why I am doing this at all, my son Max.  As a lot of you already know my oldest son was born with a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis.  It has caused him a wide variety of problems including a number of tumors that have grown on the surface of his skin, a larger, more complex tumor that has grown on his elbow, some learning disabilities, some fine and gross motor skills problems and an inoperable brain tumor.  He has done remarkably, inspirationally well despite all of the things going against him.  He is now 16 years old and a junior in high school.  He gets pretty good grades (much better than I did in high school) and he is now a licensed driver. (Yikes!)  He is very heavily into the FIRST Alarm Robotics team (and now he can drive himself to the lab...Yay!!!)  He is now looking at (gulp!) colleges.  He originally wanted to go to WPI for video game development but we are also looking at Fitchburg State for the same discipline.  He continues to surprise us every day.  He is a smart, funny, weird and always inspirational figure in our family. 

I know every parent thinks this but I truly believe Max is destined to do great things and by raising money for NF Inc, Northeast I think we can all make that happen.

As always ANY amount of money is greatly appreciated and you can donate in one of two ways:

• First - Go to my CrowdRise Fund Raising page here and leave your inspirational words of encouragement (or scathing insults) along with your generous donation.
• Second - Make out a check to NFNE and send it to NF Northeast - 9 Bedford Street - Burlington, MA 01803

If you want to visit NF Inc. Northeast you can visit them here.

Also take a look around this blog for some surveys and other fun stuff that I will post over the next couple of months.  Take a read of the book that I am writing and feel free to let me know your thoughts and opinions. I have posted the first several chapters on this blog.


Thanks for listening and please come back and visit often.

Til next time...

06:03:42 - Melting in the Marathon

There is no way to accurately convey just how freaking hot it was on Monday but I'll give it a shot.    The day started for me at around 6:30 AM because that was about the time that I finally said to myself  "Well I'm not going to sleep anymore so I might as well get up"  I felt pretty good when I got up and I put on my awesome shirt that my wife Kristen battles over every year. (believe me when I tell you, every year she has the worst time with the shirt and every year it comes out looking awesome)



Awesome. Just Awesome.

 ...and if that weren't enough...

This is what she made for Max

I had the pleasure of riding in with two "real" runners and two of the nicest people on the earth.



This is me, Katie O'Connel and Jonathan Steeves
This is about as close to them as I will get all day

 Everybody was psyched, even though the weather was shaping up to be everything they warned us about, and we headed off to Hopkinton.

Where I saw this dude.

Hopkinton was everything it always is. It was crowded and hot but everyone seemed to be ready for the challenge. I am happy to report that my normal bathroom break did not happen on the side of the road just shortly after the start but in a port-a-potty in this vast city of dreams.

Behold the Glory of my Kingdom of Poop

The race started off great and I quickly settled into a rhythm. I was very careful not to start out too fast (a mistake I have made before and would have been deadly this year) and my calf was feeling pretty good…for about the first 2 ½ miles when I started to feel it. I thought “holy crap…I have a loooooong way to go and I can already feel this?!? Not good.” But as it turns out my calf (thanks to my newly purchased calf sleeve) was the least of my problems on Monday.

Hopkinton turned into Ashland and Ashland turned into Framingham and Framingham turned into Natick and the sun continued to get hotter and hotter. The crowds were amazing. Because of the nice weather they came out by the thousands. There were very few spots early on where the street wasn’t lined with wildly cheering spectators, as always, offering a variety of drinks, snacks and, on this day, a hose to cool you off. The best sign I saw was one that offered “Twizzlers, Vaseline and hugs”. I thought “what else do you need in life”.

The best part of running the Boston Marathon, for me, is the crowds. They are more supportive than you can imagine and they are and endless source of distraction and entertainment. In east Natick I made a spectacular reception of a pass from a teenager while holding my water bottle and a wash cloth that I was using to wipe my face. The energy I used to make that once in a lifetime catch probably added 45 minutes to my finishing time but it was a remarkable catch that was commented on and cheered by everyone that saw it. So…you know...totally worth it!

While we are talking about Natick I can’t fail to mention this is my favorite part of the run. This is where my family always is, cheering wildly. This year, my amazing wife Kristen, as she does every time I run the marathon, got my family and our neighbors, the Molinaro’s out to Natick where I was greeted with frozen towels, a frozen gel thing to wear around my neck, a healthy slathering of sunscreen and pictures. Take a look at this video and tell me that this isn’t a pit stop that even NASCAR would be proud of.

After that I went through the spray tent at the Natick fire station and headed off on my way. Natick turned into Wellesley and the girls at Wellesley College didn’t disappoint. They were as loud as they always are and they always provide a nice pick-me-up heading into the halfway point. While headed through downtown Wellesley I was surprised by a gentleman that came from the sidelines and started to run next to me. As it turns out it was the music teacher in the Millis school system, Mark Femino. He ran next to me for about ¾ of a mile keeping me company. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise that was a highlight of this years run.

Not long after Mr. Femino and I parted ways I began running next to a gentleman named John who I found out was a school teacher in Boston and we kept each other company / motivated each other for most of the rest of race. As Wellesley became Newton I was pleasantly surprised that my body, particularly my legs, was doing pretty good. Usually by the time I reach the hills in Newton every step is an exercise in torture. My feet hurt. My legs hurt. My back hurts. Pretty much everything from the neck down hurts. But this year everything was ok. My legs and feet were tired but I wasn’t in agony. The only thing that was starting to give me trouble was the muscle just above and on the inside of my knees. They were beginning to spasm. This was a problem that I had the last time I ran but this year it started much later in the race and it wasn’t nearly as bad.

So here we are…cresting Heartbreak Hill and heading down the hill into Brookline and the heat has really taken its toll on me. Even though throughout the day you couldn’t go ½ mile without someone spraying you with a hose or offering you ice or offering you water, it was too hot and I had been out there for too long. My body really was starting to break down. I could only run for ½ - ¾ of a mile at a time before I had to stop and walk due to my spasming leg muscles or my hamstrings, which were now starting to give me trouble, or just from sheer exhaustion. Everything began to take on that hazy summertime feeling when it’s so hot that everyone is operating in slow motion. Even the spectators were starting to thin out and the ones that were there looked almost as hot and tired as the runners did.

As Brookline quickly became Boston, I now was sure that I would finish. Yeah I felt like crap but I only had a couple of miles to go and I knew that Max and the rest of my family were waiting for me on Boylston Street. When I saw the turn for Hereford Street I called my wife and told her I would be there shortly. As I rounded the corner from Hereford to Boylston Street I was out of gas. The finish line looked impossibly far away but I kept going. I have never walked across the finish line and I wasn’t about to do that this year. I got about half way there and I saw Max running out to meet me with a huge smile on his face and that gave me just enough strength to bring it home.   Here is how it looked from the sidelines.

After telling Max to slow down a little we made it across the finish line. It took me just over 6 hours. I want to feel like that is a horrible time but I think I am more proud of that, my worst time, than of my best.

Well that is my marathon tale for this year. Thanks to everyone that supported me along the way. Thanks to everyone that donated. You all rock and you inspired me to finish what I started. I can’t tell you how much inspiration you’ve given me over the last couple of months and I can’t thank you enough,

Thanks go out to my wife Kristen who has almost as difficult day on marathon Monday as I do. She drags a whole slew of people from Hopkinton to Natick to Boston and back again and it always touches my heart that she does it. This year was especially heroic because she wasn’t feeling 100 % and…MY GOD IT WAS HOT. Thanks Kristen…I’m glad I’m on your team.



Til Next time…

Marathon Eve...(or the eve of disaster) and the Rocking continues.

Well...Here we are.  It is the day before the marathon and, if you listen to the BAA, if you decide to run this may be the last night you will ever see.  Due to the projected high temperature of around 85 degrees they are strongly suggesting that those who are not real men should not even get out of bed tomorrow for fear that as soon as they step foot into the sun they will burst into flames and burn the state of Massachusetts to the ground.  It seems that the race organizers are really nervous about people who are not "experienced marathoners" running this year.I, however am going to go and give it my best.  Now I am not a compete moron I am going to modify my approach to this years race.  I am going to have to give up my goal of finishing in under 5 hours and focus just on finishing without causing myself permanent damage.  The heat is just another thing to worry about as I head off to Hopkinton.  I am still very concerned about how my calf is going to hold up.  I bought a calf sleeve today and I am hoping that this will help me deal with what I am sure to be a long afternoon.

On the bright side my donations continue to come in and as of right now I am at $3,684 and according to my good friends at Firstgiving that is 123% of my goal and that ROCKS. 

While we are on the subject lets take a look and see if there is any more people out there who rock.

As it turns out the Monaghan family rocks

When I posted on Facebook that I was within $16 of my goal and I asked if anyone wanted to be the one to push me over the top, an old friend of mine John Sibley replied with just one word..."Done".  He rocks.

A month or so ago I played in a trivia contest with Lori Saywer.  We won so it is obvious that she rocks at trivia and she rocks in general.

Kristen and I have some old friends that we don't get to see nearly enough but the one thing I know about the Corriea family (that would be Angie, Joey, Joey, Evey and Sam) is that they Rock.

The Millis school system continues to impress everyone with their rock-i-tude because I got donations from 3 more people.  That would be Amy Day (no relation), Gayle Kendall and Susan Donelan.  There really is no disputing how much they rock.

The aforementioned (I mentioned her in another post) and lovely Donna Cabibo and the equally lovely Brian Hoell both rock.

While we are discussing the amazing people from the Millis Theatre Group let me mention Peg and Joel White as well as the wonderful Karen Motekaitis who, you guessed right, Rock.

I have another friend from the theatre group that I am still waiting to have an over-act off with.  His name is Bob Orsi and he rocks.

My sister-in-law has a friend that she works with named Joan DeRubeis who most definitely rocks.

There is a woman named Laura Hill that donated to my run.  I don't know who she is but I do know that she rocks.

I have friends that are named Lydia and Melita and they are going to run the marathon this year as bandits (shhhh... don't tell anyone) I won't give out there last names to protect them from the marathon police.  But I will tell you that they rock.

Finally there is my wife's friend and co-worker Joe Valle.  He was given $50 by someone whose husband died.  She gave Joe this money simply because the husband always liked him.  Joe turned around and donated that $50 to my marathon in honor of that man.  His name was Talbot Smith and he rocks.  That story rocks and so does Joe.

That's it.  I have to get some sleep, I have a long hot day tomorrow.  If I don't burst into flames I will give you the low down on how it went.

Til next time..

You Have GOT to be kidding me!!!

So here I am just a few short days from the marathon all worried about my calf muscle.,  I'm worried that I won't be able to run very well on it and I am seriously worried that my goal of breaking the 5 hour mark will go by the wayside.  But...I'm trying to stay positive.  I think to myself...well,  I'm just going to go out there and give it my best.

If that weren't bad enough lat night I woke up somewhere around 2:00 AM feeling like I caught my son Anthony's stomach bug.  I spen the next 2 1/2 hours holding back the inevitable.  Then some time around 4:30AM my body said "OK you need to find the bathroom now!!!"  and then I proceded to...well...I'll spare you the details but lets just say dinner made an encore appearance.  So I eventually got back into bed and tried to go back to sleep but at this point it felt like every last joint in my body was filled with shards of broken glass and my head felt like it was filled with angry, stinging wasps.  So needless to say I didn't sleep for the rest of the night.

Now as you know I just started a new job so not going into work was out of the question and I limped my way in at 7:30 after discovering that, apparently, everything in my body had turn to liquid.  So I sat at work not knowing which is a worse image of me for my co-workers.  Is it just calling in sick on my second week when I am alreading taking Monday off or is it the image of me gently weeping in my office because I'm so tired I am hallucinating and every inch of my body feels likeI have been abused by a pack of rabid gorillas that have been taught to fight with baseball bats.  Needless to say I meekly limped out of there at about  9:30 this morning and I have been in and out of sweet sweet unconciousness ever since.

So there you go...I have 2 days to get better.  My wife came home from work this afternoon and brought me Powerade so I won't dehydrate and saltines so I would have something in my stomach.  She's so good to me. :)

What does this mean for the marathon?  Well I am kind of banking on feeling better by then and I have told myself that I will either finish the race or they will cart me off on a stretcher.  I was sent a couple of quotes from another member of the NF marathon team that I really like and I will leave you with them

Anyone can run a marathon in 3:00:00 hours, but it takes a real man /woman to stay out there for 6:00:00 hours.


Champions aren't made in gyms

" Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have that last minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill".

Muhammad Ali

The Greatest

Thanks to Jeff Brown for these quotes.
 
Til next time...

MISSION ...1/2 ACCOMPLISHED!!!

$3,200 and counting!!!!  Thanks to everyone who helped achieve this goal.  I am deeply moved by the generosity I have seen from friends family and complete strangers.  It has inspired me to try even harder to achieve the second half of my goal which is to beat my old nemesis...the 5 hour mark. (Que sinister music)

It is now 5 days before the marathon and I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't worried.  Although I feel like my training has been going as good as could have hoped, a problem has arisen.  I have had a calf muscle that has been giving me grief for the last week and a half and although I have scaled waaaaayy back on my runs it is still refusing to feel normal.  I have heated it, iced it. elevated it, stretched it and even had Kristen knead it to within an inch of its life. (an act that was excruciating and yet I thought I heard Kristen chuckle as she was doing it)  However, I refuse to let it stop me.  I am going to show up in Hopkinton on Monday and do my best to make everyone proud.  I'm not sure why it should make a difference when I finish but I feel like I would be letting people down if I don't finish in less than 5 hours.  So I am going to say F it I'm going for it and calf muscle be damned!!!

*******



Just a couple of quick things before I sign off tonight.  First Take a look at the two surveys that are to the right of this post.  One asks how quickly you think I will finish this year.  The other is about the most handsome man on the planet.  I will have you know as you take a look at that second one that as of this writing there have been two votes.  One person voted for me and I swear on a stack of bibles that it wasn't me.  I have no idea who it was.  The other vote was cast by my wife so you know you can be brutally honest with your vote.  Oh, and don't worry, I have know way of knowing how you voted.  The only reason I know my wife didn't vote for me is that she proudly told me.

Also,  this weekend is number pick up weekend.  This is when the Day family makes the trek into Boston to pick up my official number as well as my Boston Marathon shirt.  This year it is at the Seaport World Trade Center as is the Hancock Sports and Fitness Expo.  I always enjoy this but I don't know if I can say the same for my poor family.  I'll post a report about this on Saturday or Sunday.

My donations are STILL coming in and I am thrilled to death about that. Keep them coming!!! There will be one more installment of "People Who Rock" before the marathon so stay tuned for that.

Well I am off to have my leg brutalized again by Kristen.  I swear if I am able to finish this race in any kind of reasonable time it will be because of her.

Til next time...

People Who Rock 2012, The Sequel.

A lot of people say to my wife and I "How do you do it?  How do you get through each day dealing with the kind of crap that you have had to deal with in your life?"   They are talking about the fact that in the past couple of years our life has been...well let's just say, less than a box of kittens.  Now, before you say "there are people that have it worse" let me just say this...No Kidding.  Of course there are people that have it worse off than us but the one thing that I have learned is that your problems are your own and no one can tell you that you shouldn't feel bad if you are going through a rough patch in your life.  I have had people complain to me about their life and then quickly say "I shouldn't complain because you guys have it worse."  To which I say "So what???"  Does that mean that you can't feel bad?  Does that mean no one should give you sympathy?  Does that mean that you are not worthy or deserving of hugs or well wishes?  The answer, of course, is a resounding NO!  We all have a right to bitch and moan when our lives take a turn for the crappy.  And we all appreciate it when others lend an ear and offer their sympathy and understanding. It is what you do from there that defines you.  You can choose to wallow in self pity or draw from the strength of friends, family and sometimes, complete strangers and realize that you can handle anything.

That is how we do it.  In the past couple of years we have had to deal with death, disease, joblessness, fear of not being able to pay the rent, fear of not being able to pay for health insurance as well as the thousand other challenges that face you every day of your life.  We learned that it is not a sign of weakness to accept help.  We learned that people are willing give their time, money and love and ask nothing in return. We also learned that, although we never feel like we are deserving of their generosity, we should accept it with our sincere and heartfelt appreciation.  I have learned that, although you think that the world is filled with bastard filled bastards covered in bastard frosting, there is actually more decent, caring and generous people that will give you the shirt off their back with a smile and a kind word than you could ever imagine in your wildest dreams.

So with that in mind let me get to this installment of .....(drum roll please)

PEOPLE WHO ROCK!!!!!!!!!

Let's start out with the lovely Melissa Holt who is someone I know through the Millis Theatre Group.  She and her whole family rocks

How about Shellie and Sam Goldman?  Shellie is proof that people with NF absolutely ROCK.  And I am sure that if Sam hangs around with Shellie he also rocks.

Then there is Katie Sawyer who I met just a few weeks ago and I could tell than that she rocked and now I have proof.

There is a guy that I used to work with at Gillette Stadium who has always had a kind word and has always supported my marathon runs through Facebook.  His name is Jesse Stearns and he rocks.

Another Theatre Group friend who rocks is Ed Quinlan Esq. (Don't let the fact that he is a lawyer make you think that he doe anything but rock)

I received a generous donation from a woman named Beverly Temple.  She wrote me a touching note about her cousin's son Tommy.  Tommy has NF and she made her donation in his name.  Is there anyone who will argue with me about the fact that Beverly, her cousin and Tommy all ROCK?

Barbara Kennedy works with my wife at Middlesex Savings Bank.  She rocks as does her husband Lawrence

I have a cousin on my wife's side of the family that, if anything ever happens to my wife (God forbid), is the only woman that I can marry.  Her name is Karen Wright and she has a husband named Jeff and they, along with their adorable kids Ben and Matt rock like there is no tomorrow.

We have some old friends that were formally from Millis named the Fischers and they all rock

My cousin Kim and her husband Bill both have rocked at every family reunion and I can proudly say they still do.

No list of people who rock would be complete without my mother-in-law Caryl.  She always rocks.

There is a guy that I used to work with in my old TJX days named Paul Inferrera.  He rocked back in the day.  Now I haven't heard from him in years but, sure enough, it turns out he still rocks.

One day I had to go into the town hall and pay my excise tax bill.  The woman that took my check gave me one in return and even though I spelled her name wrong on my donation page, she really rocks.  For the record her real name is Laurie Walker.

I have two friends for my old Oxford days named Pat and Erin Sibley.  I have known forever that they rocked and now you know it too.

This next person is someone that without whom I am not here and I am not the person that I am.  That person is my mother and you can bet she rocks.

Donna Cabibo is a lovely young woman that I consider a good friend.  She was nice enough to send my request for donations out to a lot of people in town and as a result I recieved donations from a number of people in town including Carolyn and Paul Neeson.  Anyone who sends money to someone they don't know obviously rocks...as do Jeane and Robert Burke.

Someone in town sent me a cash donation and simply wrote "Good luck in the race"  I don't know who that person is but what I do know is that they rock.

You know who else made a donation?  Molly Kane did and that qualifies her as someone who rocks.

When you are in school and it gets to be lunch time who is always there to get you some tasty vittles?  Why that would be the Lunch Ladies.  The rock at lunchtime and at every other time of the day as well.

While you are at Millis High School you might want to swing by the principals office and see Mr. Bob Mullaney.  He is a great principal and, as it turns out, rocks as hard as anyone.

Max had a special ed teacher named Julia Fredette and she has a husband named James Clark and they couldn't rock any harder.

Another one of Max's teachers is Bernadette Lindgren.  She has a husband named Michael and they both rock

Another great family in town are the Fogarty's and you guessed it, they all rock.

Yet another teacher form Millis has generously donated.  Her name is Sharon Monaghan and she and her whole family rocks.

Cheryl Skeats is a friend from a million years ago when a I was just a young schoolboy.  She rocked then and she and Chris Brunelli rock now.

I recently reached out to a business contact named Bryan Reinhart.  He works for a trucking company broker and he does, indeed, rock.

There is a teacher in the Clyde Brown elementary school named Amie Colcord and she rocks.

And finally a donation form a group of people came through this week that had me shaking my head in dis-belief.  Earlier this week my kids had came home from school and told me that Mr Alconada, one of the science teachers at the school was spearheading a fundraising effort at the school to support my Boston Marathon run.  When I saw the amount that was raised by the students faculty and staff at the school I was stunned.  Over $1,000 was raised and THAT, my friend, ROCKS.  Many many thanks to Mr. Alconada and the entire Millis School system.

The motto of the Millis Middle/High School is "Small School.  Big Family."  Those words have never been personified better.   I am humbled by their generosity and grateful for their kindness. They all ROCK!

As of right now I am just $14 short of my goal of $3,000.  I now know that my fundraising goal will be met.  Now I want to find out how much I can beat it by.  So if you haven't already, throw a couple of bucks in the kitty and lets see where we can get to with this thing.

Til next time...

24115

With 21 days left I have received the first tangible evidence that I will be running in this year's Boston Marathon.  I got my official number.  It is 24115 and I am part of wave three.  This means that the BAA doesn't want me to get  in the way of the people that can actually run.  I will be sharing a ride into Hopkinton with two of those people.  Jonathan Steeves is a friend of mine and he will be running in his first Boston Marathon.  He is no stranger to marathons, though, as he qualified for Boston this year with the jaw dropping time of 3:10 and that wins him a spot in wave one.  To give you some perspective on this, when he finishes the marathon this year I will still have at least another 2 HOURS to go.

The second person I am riding to the start with is the lovely Katie O'Connel who is running in her fourth Boston Marathon.  She also qualified for this years marathon and she will be heading out in wave two.  Of all of the real runners that I know Katie is always the one that makes me feel good about the training that I am doing and she makes me feel like I am doing all the right things to prepare for the race even though I really am just winging it. 

I really have no idea what I am doing when it comes to training for a marathon.  Sure I go online and look up what I should be doing or I will ask people that I know for some pointers but what I find is either information for people who are, apparently, going to be running either at a pace that only Kenyans can hit or are running their third marathon this week or, more often I find a hundred websites that all offer tips on how to train.  The problem is that if I find a website that says you should stretch before a workout invariably the next website that I find will say you shouldn't.  You see for every tip one website gives there is always another that says you should do the opposite.  I have no idea what to believe because there have been some tips that I have seen that promise dire consequences if you do one thing or another or if you don't do one thing or another.  I read somewhere that if you drink Gatorade at the begining of a race you should NOT drink water at anytime during the race because it would dilute the Gatorade and negate its benefits.  So I shouldn't drink water during a 26 mile race?  You sure about that??

I guess the point is that I could spend every waking moment of my life reading about how to train for a the marathon or I could just run.  So I think that my intensive training program will include some running and then maybe I will drink something but you can bet that it ain't gonna be water because that would just be foolish.

Til next time...

People Who Rock. The Reboot 2012

Well it is just over a month until the big race and I think it is time for the first installment of this year's "People Who Rock".  As you know my fundraising goal this year is to get $3,000 in donations for the amazing people at NF Inc. Northeast and as of right now I stand at  $755.  Now I could dwell on the fact that this is well short of my goal but instead I will heap gobs and gobs of praise to those people who have so generously given money to this cause.

• First off let's talk about my brother James Day who, as it stands right now, gets the golden sweaty sock award for the largest single donation to the cause.  I think that in and of itself elevates him to the status of someone who rocks!
• How about my old friend and neighbor Terry Rizzo.  You know that she rocks.
• Then there is and ex co-worker of mine named Deb Teague and even though her company laid me off last November she still rocks.
• My sister Jean rocks. (as if you needed me to tell you that)
• My sister Jean's friend Barbara Lubin must have spent a lot of time around Jean because her rock-ness has rubbed off
• There is my cousin Bob Ackley and his lovely wife Mandy who donated in memory of an old friend of theirs who did a news story on their amazing daughter Tori.  Bob and Mandy Rock and it is obvious their friend James and their daughter Tori also Rock!
• How about my sister-in-law Julie AND her husband (my brother-in-law) Jim.  It is obvious that they both rock.
• Then there is my other Sister-in-Law / Brother-in-Law set, Beth and Mark Vozella.  They also Rock!!
• There is a family here in my home town that rocks and it is the Battaglino family.
• Melissa Holt donated and as a result, I can safely say that she rocks.
• There is a lovely young woman named Dawn Anderson who is married to a man named Alan.  Now I don't know Alan that well but I do know that Dawn rocks so I am sure that he rocks as well.
• Now there are a couple of people that have donated that I have either never met before or donated anonymously.  Peter and Leesa Themistocles rock.  Sharon Eva Lee-Bense most definitely rocks.  And there was one donation that came without any name attached to it.  You know that a person that donates like this absolutely rocks.
• Let's talk for a moment about the Molinaro family.  Luigi (obviously a nice Irish boy) his wife Cathy and their children Julia, Annalisa and Danielle all Rock!  But it goes beyond that.  Luigi has posted my donation request on his Facebook page so many times that he got  friends of his, The Riggs Family to donate as well.  So it is a foregone conclusion that the Riggs family Rocks.
• And last but not least, I got the first (of what I hope will be many) donations from a local business.  The good folks at Roche Bros have donated and, along with being the finest purveyor of groceries, it has been discovered that they Rock.

Well that is it for this round.  I hope to have many many more posts like this.  From the bottom of my heart thanks to all of you who have donated to this cause.  I know that there is so much negativity going on in the world today but whenever I need a pick-me-up all I need to do is go to my fundraising page and see the generosity and compassion of the human soul.

Please keep the donations coming in.  There is a link to my fundraising page on the right side of this blog and while you are over there go ahead and vote on how long you think it will take me to run this year's marathon.  The votes are anonymous so feel free to be brutally honest.

Til next time...

My role model...

When you think of a person in your life that you look up to you probably think of a parent or maybe an aunt of uncle or maybe even someone in the public eye that has inspired or motivated you in some way.  In my life I never thought much about a role model for myself.  I suppose that I could mention my father who was a hardworking and quiet man with a very dry sense of humor, but he died when I was just 20 years old and I never got a chance to bond with him as an adult.  I also could look to my father-in-law who was a big part of my life as an adult and who was definately someone that you coud look up to.

But, if I am being honest with myself there is one person that I do look up to and it isn't who you might think.  The person that I look up to is the whole reason I am running in the marathon and doing this blog; my oldest son Max.  Why do I look up to him?  Well, it isn't because he constantly talks back to my wife and I and it certainly isn't because he complains about e v e r y t h i n g from what we are eating to school to homework to bedtime to getting up in the morning to going to bed at night to having to comb his hair to not getting to ride shotgun in the car to what we are watching on TV to what we have for snacks to having to put his clothes away to having to clean his room to having to wash his hands to just being tired.  I swear if he isn't complaining about something (or whatching japanamation on TV) then I'm afraid he's sick.  Oh wait...he complains about that too. 

No, I don't look up to him because of any of that.  I look up to him because I know how impossibly difficult it must be to live in his skin and he does this without complaint.  I think of how hard it is for him to control himself and focus at school and still come home with A's and B's.  I look up to him because he does what he wants without regard for how it may make him look to other kids his age.   He will go to a dance by himself without even bothering to ask his friends if they are going.(Something that my wife and I agreed that we would never have dreamed of doing at his age)  He does not give a second thought to taking off his shirt to jump in the pool even though his chest is covered with small tumors and large cafe-au-lait spots.

I look up to him because no matter wht the cicumstances he knows what he wants and he is not afraid to ask for it.   I look up to him because he is an expert at adapting.  He can't write anything by hand so that it can be read but instead, he can type on a computer faster than most adults. 

I look up to him because in his short life so far he has had adenoid surgery, knee surgery and brain surgery and has been a better patient than anyone.  He has had to suffer through countless MRI's and medical exams.  He has had more blood drawn than a vampire victim and he has spent more nights in a hospital than I care to think about.  When he was lying in his hospital bed after his brain surgery and our hearts were being torn apart by the vision of him with the bandage covering the hole that was now in his head, it made me so proud that he didn't bitch and moan about how he felt, he just wanted to play on the ICU's video game system.  Oh, and get something to eat from McDonalds.

That is why he is the person that I look up to.  His life will not be easy, but knowing Max he will live it his way and to the fullest.  This is why I am writing this blog and running in the marathon and raising money for NF.  I want Max to have every chance possible to reach his fullest potential.  I would love to be able to pay back Max for being the awsome influnce that he has been in my life by helping to find a cure for NF.    But I can't do it alone.  I need you to donate to NF Inc NE in suport of my Boston Marathon run.  They do such great work and I know that they are trying their best to help find a cure.  But it goes beyond just that.  They have been instrumental in our lives in giving us advice, compassion, a shoulder to cry on and access to others that know what we are going through.  I know that as Max gets older and starts to make his own way in life, it will be a great comfort to him to have those same people available to him whenever life tries to get him down.

I know that there are plenty of great charities and causes out there but please give whatever you can.  It WILL make a difference in Max's life as well as the lives of thousands of others that look to NF inc for help.
You can donate by clicking on the link to the right or make a check out to NF Inc NE and send it directly to them.  Or you can send it to me and I will make sure it gets to where it needs to go.

Thanks.

Til next time...

Randomness

In lieu of actually having something of any substance to say I offer you the following things that I am pretty sure that I think:

• I think that flags should fly at half staff ONLY for people who have actively served this country and not for celebrities that have wasted their talent and their lives in pursuit of their own interests
• Happy Endings is one of the best sit-coms on TV right now
• I will really miss Tim Wakefield.  I know he has got a ton of crap over the last few years for his declining effectiveness and consistency but when is the last time you saw a professional athlete stay with a single team for 17 years and be a class act throughout.
• I don't think we HAVE to have an explanation for last year's collapse by the Red Sox as some radio stations are clamoring for.  If we get an explanation will that change anything?  Just win this year and all will be forgiven
• Barstoolsports.com is among the most ridiculous, misogynistic, juvenile websites that I have ever read and I can't stop checking in on it.  I am so ashamed of myself.
• I will never, ever understand the appeal of watching over privileged "housewives" bitch about each other and how difficult their lives are on a daily basis. They should come and live my life for a month.
• Will someone, for the love of all that is good and decent in the world, tell Geico that both the squealing pig and the caveman are the most annoying characters on television and I would not purchase their insurance solely because of those two add campaigns.
• As long as I live I will never understand the world's love affair with soccer... or NASCAR.
• Someone needs to tell the people over at ESPN that the dunk is really just a very routine shot and not every single one is worthy of a spot on their top plays.
• Maybe it's the old man in me but I just don't get Twitter.  I have a Twitter account that my wife set up for me and I never use it.  Although I have been notified that I am being followed by several different girls that are apparently looking for a good time.
• I am convinced that there is far more generosity and compassion in the world than we are led to believe by the media.  I have personal knowledge of this fact.
• There are 56 days left until the marathon.  Have you donated yet?  If not, you should go here.  You will be glad you did.
• Did Harry Potter actually do anything that he didn't end up with him getting bailed out by someone else?  I never cared much for the HP movies but every time Harry was in some kind of battle with the nose-less bad guy he never seems to actually win on his own.  As a matter of fact it seems like he always needed someone else to save his bacon and yet he is greeted by everyone as if he is some great wizardly badass.

That's all I got.  What do you think?

Til next time...

Time to set some goals

There are only 64 days left until the marathon and my training has been going very well.  I am pretty encouraged that I am getting out as often as my body will let me (Of course, not having to get up and go to a job certainly frees up a lot of my time) and the fact that I am tolerating longer and longer runs without any part of my body being sore for the next 4 days. With all that being said I thought it was time to set a couple of goals.

 First, my fundraising goal : The last time I ran the marathon I set a fundraising goal of $2,000 and I am proud to say that that goal was reached thanks the the unbelievable generosity of family, friends, friends of friends and, most amazingly, some complete strangers.  This year I am aiming even higher.  I want to raise at least $3,000.  This will be very difficult but I know that, with your help we can reach it.  If you are asking yourself why should you donate I say to you...take a look at this kid.

The big kid not the baby.

Max is just as awesome as he always has been and I would love to help stamp out NF in his lifetime.  So please please please give as much and as often as you can.

Now for my race goal.  My goal this year is the same as it was the last time I ran.  It is to finish the race in under 5 hours.  As a point of comparison my finishing times in my three previous marathons were

2008 - 5:55:20
2009 - 5:21:29
2010 - 5:33:20.

So needless to say shaving 22 minutes off my best time will be challenging (or damn near impossible) but I am going to do my level best to make it happen.

So there they are.  Two challenging but ultimately achievable goals that I have 64 days to accomplish.  As always I can't do it alone.  I need your help. 

Here are all of the links you will ever need to help me out.

Donate to my run
See what NF Inc Northeast is all about
Learn a little about my awesome son Max

Thanks for listening and if you see me running out on the street give me a honk and a wave...I love that shit.

Til next time...

Treadin'...

So it snowed here yesterday.  It is funny to me how much your attitude toward snow changes as you get older.  I have a few kids (I'm not really sure how many at this point) and they were thrilled when they looked outside and saw the snow.  I, however, whined to myself  "I don't wanna go out in the cold and shovel".  There really is no time, in your adult life, that you are excited to see snow.  Unless you are one of those people that see the beauty and peace in the gently falling snow.  I hate those people.  I am so cynical and such a self involved bastard that as soon as I see accumulating snow one of my first thoughts is, I hope the kids don't want to go out .  Because as any parent can attest you will spend hours upon hours getting them out the door.  Especially when it is the first snow of the season because you can always count on the scavenger hunt for boots, snow pants, gloves, scarves, hats and coats. 

So you finally find everything and then you proceed to pack the first one into his snow gear like a Scandinavian sausage which includes tying his boots (although he has been able to tie his own shoes for several years) and zipping up his coat because, lets face it, no one can zip up their own coat with gloves on.  Now lather, rinse and repeat that for each one of your darling little arctic explorers.  After hours of hunting and dressing you are now free. Oh, wait...no you are not because no sooner have you pushed them out the door they are itching to come back in and shed their now soaking wet and snow covered crap all over your house.  Making it extremely inadvisable to walk anywhere in socks.  And lets face it, is there a worse first world problem than stepping into a cold puddle with socks on??

Anyway...because of the weather yesterday I decided that I would put in some time on the treadmill.  So I put on the Bruins game and began running in place for an hour.  According to the treadmill I did a little over 5 miles but I think it was further than that.  I'm convinced that the treadmill is deliberately shorting me on distance.  I know that sounds crazy but when I leave the room after I have run,  I swear I hear it laughing at me.  Also, to add insult to injury, for the first time ever, as I was running, I drifted too far off to the side and accidentally stepped on the rail and nearly snapped off my foot at the ankle...twice.  This time I am sure that it was laughing at me.

Til next time....GO PATRIOTS!!!!

It Begins Again...

After a loooooonnnggg time off to deal with two years of crap I am back.  I was informed this morning that I will be given a number  for this years Boston Marathon and I couldn't be happier.  Sure, my wife is going through radiation treatment for breast cancer and sure, I am out of work for the 2nd time in two years and sure, the very day I find out that I have a number, it snows but what the hell...No Guts, No Glory.

I am putting the past behind me and focusing on the road in front of me.  For those of you that recall my last marathon (if you don't you can read about it in past posts on this blog) I had two goals.  One was to raise $2,000 for the amazing folks at NF Inc Northeast and the other was to finish in under 5 hours.  I am happy to say that goal number one was reached but I was disappointed to come up short on the second one.  This year I have set my fundraising goal at $3,000 and I hope to beat that handily.  My race goal will again be to beat the elusive 5 hour mark. 

Please Please Please help me reach my fund raising goal by donating as much as you can help us eliminate Neurofibromatosis.  You can donate a few different ways:

1. Donate by credit card through my fundraising website here.
2. Donate by making a check out to NF Inc., NE and slip that bad boy in an envelope and mail it to

                                                      NF, Inc., NE
                                                      9 Bedford Street
                                                      Burlington, MA 01803

or 3. You can just send me a check made out to NF Inc NE and I will make sure it gets to the proper parties....Trust me. :)

If you would like to find out more about NF Inc NE, please take a moment and visit their website Here.

I thank everyone in advance for your generosity.  It never ceases to amaze me just how amazing people can be.

I'll be updating this blog on a regular basis as I continue my training for the big day.

Til then...

Requiem for a Heavyweight

It's been a while since my last post and I apologize for that.  Given the fact that this blog is called Running for Max it seem like I should actually be running before I start posting again.  Yeah...wellll....since the marathon I haven't ran a single step.  Now in my defense life around here has not exactly been a barrel of laughs.  We lost a man that has left a huge hole in our lives.  My father-in law died on May 2nd after a relatively short illness.  It has been every bit as bad as I had always imagined it would be and my heart breaks every day seeing the people that I love in pain and knowing there is nothing that I can do about it. 

While it would be easy to focus on his death and how sad it has been and how much we all miss him, instead I am going to celebrate the man's life from my perspective.  I think that everybody should know about Larry and how he affected my life and how I saw him affect the lives of other people around him.

My life with Larry started in the summer of 1992.  I had started seeing a beautiful young girl from Natick and one day I was invited to her house. The reason why is lost in my memory but it really isn't relevant.  I was introduced to her father who greeted me with a smile and a warm handshake.  Luckily for me my handshake was firm because Larry always said that the way a person shook your hand would tell you a lot about them.  A weak, limp wristed handshake indicated a weak, self concious person while a strong handshake spoke of a self assured and strong person.  I passed test #1.  How do I know that I passed this first test?  Well before I said my goodbyes that day, Larry presented me with a coupon.  What store do you suppose that coupon was for???  That's right, a coupon to Condom World.  This is the father of the girls I was dating!  Not only that but, although I didn't know it at the time, Kristen was his baby...his little girl...I had no idea at the time how close a relationship that they had.

As time went on and Kristen and I became more serious, I was welcomed into the Maletta family with open arms.  I kind of think that this had more to do with the guy I was replacing more than anything special that I had done.  It was kind of like getting a new job and everybody praises you for how great you are doing but the fact of the matter is that the last guy who had the job was such a complete f*** up that anyone else would be a genious by comparison. 

From day one Larry treated me like a son.  He offered help whenever he thought it was needed.  He offered advice (even when it wasn't asked for ) and he offered support even though it was sometimes turned down.  And all of these things were done with love and without strings attached.  He wanted nothing in return except for me to be a good father and a good husband.  I was, after all, responsible for his daughter and his grandchildren.  I didn't always meet the expectations that I had for myself but as long as I was out there trying, he never made me feel like I was inadequate or that I wasn't good enough.

Larry was not without his quirks, however.  You see, he had such a big heart and such a big sense of responsibility that he wanted to fix everything.  When he couldn't, he would often times assign blame first.  One of my favorite quintissential Larry stories had to do with my sister-in-law Beth who was carrying my niece Jenny through Larry's yard in Natick when she tripped over a drain pipe and laned in the driveway.  Both her and Jenny were hurt and Jenny was crying pretty loudly.  When they made it in the house did Larry rush to see if everyone was ok?  No.  He said to Beth "What are you doing walking in the driveway?!?"  As if walking in the driveway was the most dangerous and irresponsible thing she could have been doing.  Of course, once the shock wore off, he would help to bandage the wounds and offer comfort.

His generosity was beyond question.  I have had some of the best times of my life because he was there to pay.  He took his whole family to Ogunquit, Maine and put us all up in a hotel for HIS anniversary.  That was the year that we sat outside in a jacuzzi while it was snowing out.  It was also the year that some of us embarrassed ourselves singing karaoke at the Ogunquit Bar and Grill.  Larry wasn't with us at the bar that night but if it wasn't for him none of us would have been and we wouldn't have that memory.

I look back with a smile on my face and think about going to Red Sox games with Larry and my brother-in-law Jim.  I would get the tickets from a contact at work and I would invite Larry.  He would more often than not refuse to go because he had always had a bad back and the thought of spending 4 or so hours in one of those seats at Fenway would make anyones back hurt.  He would, however, accept once in a while and it was around this time that Jim and I came up with the "Three Refusal Rule".  You see, Larry wanted to pay for EVERYTHING.  Parking, food, souveniers...whatever.  If it cost money he wanted it to be his money.  While Jim and I always appreciated his generosity, we didn't think it was fair for Larry to pay all the time.  However, as anyone who knew him could attest, Larry was a VERY stubborn man and when he dug his heels in you really had no shot.  So Jim and I came up with this rule that we would refuse Larry's money three time and then ultimately accept it.  When Larry wanted to pay for parking a typical conversation would go like this:

Larry: "Here...Let me get the parking"

Me (or Jim):  "No, Larry I got this"

Larry: "No... Here...Take this."   **he holds out the money**

Me (or Jim): "No No No I got this. It's OK"

Larry : **still holding out the money**  "You drove...Please let me pay for the parking"

Me (or Jim) : "Really, Larry...I already planned on paying for this.  Put your money away"

Larry : **now beginning to get a little angry** "I am paying for this so take it"

Me (or Jim):  "Ok fine" **and we take his money**

Now keep in mind neither Jim nor I would ever make any kind of effort to pull out our own wallets during this exchange.  We refused him 3 times and then, because we knew he would never give up, we would let him pay.  The funny thing about this is that Larry knew what we were doing and he LOVED it.  He liked spending time with us and we loved spending time with him.  He was a father figure to both of us but he was also a friend.  How many people can say that about their father-in-law?

I know that he loved his immediate family more than he loved anything else.  I saw evidence of that everyday.  He couldn't help looking out for his kids even though they were adults and could make their own decisions.  He worried about them like every father does but Larry always took it just a little  bit farther.  When a big snowstorm was coming you could always count on an e-mail coming that reminded you to make sure that you had gas in your snowblower.  When daylight savings time rolled around there was another e-mail that reminded you to change your clocks.  Oh...and while you are at it, you better change the batteries in your smoke detector too.  He loved me but it was my wife that was his baby.  You couldn't be in the room with the two of them for more than a few minutes without seeing the bond that they shared.  It was often times annoying but in the end I was jealous.  I wasn't jealous that she loved him as much as she did but because, although I loved my own father very much, we never had the kind of bond that they did.  I'm not sure that I have ever met anyone that did.

Whether he was hosting the Fourth of July party or cooking lobsters at Lobsterfest, Larry was bigger than life.  He was a force in any room that he was in.  He wasn't loud or self serving.  He bore his own demons quietly and without complaint.  He was a patriot, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a grandfather and to more than just his own kids, a father.  He held all of these titles with pride.  I know that I am a better man for having known him and I will miss him everyday.

Rest in peace Larry.  I will try to make you proud.

Cent'anni