With two weeks to go before the 2011 Boston Marathon, I've done just about as much as I can on both the fundraising and training fronts. Not much left to do but make sure I'm rested and healthy on April 18th!
Fundraising
As I come into the home stretch, I've raised just under $5500. That's about $500 less than I was hoping to raise, but still pretty good! I'm sure it will go up a little bit more over the next couple of weeks.
I'd like to take a second to thank Jack Yackup for all of his faithful support over the last few years. A friend and co-worker or my mom's, as well as a fellow photographer, Jack has always taken the time to keep up with what I've been doing in my life and support me in my efforts. He has donated generously for every Memory Ride I've done in the past and has once again come through this year with a very nice donation for the marathon.
Thanks Jack!
I'd also like to thank the following people who have donated since my last post...
Lauren Eldridge
Amanda Casale
Larry and Shirley Ivey
Bob Parker
Thank you all so much!!
Training
From what I hear, the rule of thumb is that "The Taper" begins on April 1st. For those who aren't that into running, tapering is just what it sounds like. Easing up on the miles to get the legs fully rested so that you have maximum energy and strength on race day. For shorter races, tapering down for a few days will usually suffice. For a marathon though, many runners will begin tapering down a few weeks before the race and gradually lessen the mileage further and further.
So here I am with two weeks to go, and "The Taper" has officially begun. I took an extra day off last week, and this past weekend's long run was only 15 miles (which is short compared to the 20+ miles of my last three long runs!) This upcoming week I will shorten each of my mid week runs by a mile or two and finish this weekend with a long run of only 8-10 miles. Then, during the last week before the race, I will do almost nothing! Maybe a couple super short 2-3 milers just to remind my legs that this isn't over yet!
Saturday Long Run
This week, I wasn't able to join the RFTM crew for the weekly saturday long run. My running club, The Tri Valley Frontrunners had their annual race, the 15K Boston Tune Up. I volunteered, helping out with set up and breakdown as well as handing out water at a water stop. The race was a lot of fun. It's always cool to see a race from the other perspective!
Sunday Soup Group
15.25 Miles
This week, the Soup Group was hosted by Dennis Coakley. (no photo on file.) Since many of the marathon runners in the group had volunteered at the race on saturday instead of running, we had a pretty decent group of us running long miles on sunday. I ran at 15+ miler that wound mostly through back roads of Medway. It was a beautiful course, but we were plagued by gusty winds all morning, so the 15 felt more like 20!
Afterwards we regrouped at Dennis' house for the soup!
The Payoff..
This week we were treated to Venison Stew made by our host Dennis Coakley.
That's it for now.....
