Team Photo

Run for the Memory Team '08.

With Dave McGillivray, Race Director of the Boston Marathon

Week # 6-9

So if you can not tell by the title of this blog I have been very busy. Training is at its peak right now, grad school is starting to kick me in the but and unfortunately, my grandfather (caretaker of my grandmother who has Alzheimer's is not doing so well) On a positive note the running has been going great. Since I last posted I have had a 20 and 16 mile training run. This past weekend I participated in the Hyannis half marathon. I finished with a time of one hour and fourty-three minutes (1:43), not as fast as I planned but still on track for my marathon pace.

Some inspirational stories:

* As I ran one cold Thursday morning I cam across a blind man trying to cross the street, naturally I helped him. Our travels together did not stop after we crossed the street. We continued to walk together for another quarter of a mile, until we reached the T. On our short travels together we discussed locations like the Perkins School for the Blind and the Alzheimer's Association in addition to some of the daily struggles he faces as being a blind man in a seeing world. My struggle to run 9 miles on a cold Thursday morning was not so much of a struggle anymore. I ran the last three miles of that route the fastest I ever had.

* As I ran one cold Thursday evening I stopped into Dunkin Donuts at the end of Wollaston Beach to grab a cup of water. As I stood in line a man asked me if I was running the Boston Marathon this year and I replied back with a yes. We continued to talk about the marathon which eventually lead our conversation into the Red Sox. Come to find out this man was not a fan of the Red Sox (I kept talking to him anyways) but he was not a fan of the New York Yankees either. His opinion on the two teams was, "The Red Sox and Yankess have destoryed the game of baseball, what team beats out another team 4 straight games, they have taken over the MLB?" I replied "athletes" win series in a clean sweep like that. His response was they aren't athletes it's people like you that are athletes. I love the Red Sox and I disagree with his statement that they are not athletes. On the contrary to be compared to such elite and professional players really motivated me to finish my run strong.

Week #5

Week #5 went well. I am starting to feel strong and into the grove about my running again. I made it to my Wednesday and Thursday morning run along with some other workouts at the beginning and the end of the week. I did my first speed workout. Uhhh, it was a killer. A 45 minute run/sprint felt harder than a 2 hour run, go figure? This was a cut back weekend so I only ran 13 miles on Saturday. I ran with my run club (Colonial Road Runners) rather than my run team (Alzheimer's "Run for the Memory" Team) this Saturday. It was good to catch up with the runners in my run club. Both groups are filled with inspirational and athletic people so I benefit from running with both groups.

The Alzheimer's "Run for the Memory Team" has started a blog of their own. I happen to be one of the writers for the blog; let me just say next time you hear a song by Vanilla Ice you may or may not think of the Alzheimer's Team. At this blog you can find updates, interesting stories and pictures on the entire team http://www.alzmass.org/marathon/blog/ !

Fundraising: I am still itching to get to $2,000 before February 15th. Please help by buying a ticket into my HOT raffle. If you would like more information about the raffle (which includes two free ski passes to Waterville Valley) please e-mail me at Lori.Coburn@alz.org