Sunday, April 15, 2007

Can't Go Fishing in a Watermellon Patch....


You might be wondering what this title, taken from a 1964 Roger Miller song, has to do with running the Boston Marathon tomorrow. That's right...tomorrow. In the rain (or snow?). With the wind blowing in our face at 500 mph. And temperatures hovering at artic levels. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit. Kind of reminds me of the stories my parents use to tell about walking 5 miles to school...in sub zero temperatures...wading through 4 feet of snow....in bare feet.

Anyway...I digress. Heather and I are nervous but anxious to get started. I'm most concerned about my injuries and how far my legs will last. She is most concerned about the weather (having trained in LA...in temps about 65 degrees). Most marathoners go through a bit of mental anquish in the last 24-48 hours before the race. Have I trained enough? Have I chosen the right clothes? Will I be too warm or too cold? Will that injury come back to haunt me during the race? Can I achieve the race pace I've been training for? Should I drink water or gatorade? Should I drink at all ( the BAA warns about drinking too much and too little)?

In the end it wil be more a mental game than a physical one. The decision to keep going long after the body says "no" will be challenging, but not nearly as tough as the effort it took to train through all the bad weather, endless miles and injuries to get here. Each runner has his/her own reason for running Boston and it is that motivation that carries them through. For Heather and I it is the memory of Nick and the ability to give back to the less fortunate by raising funds for people who are struggling with their own life marathons. Thanks to Lazarus House and Bestsy Leeman for giving us the opportunity.

To all of you who have helped us along the way we want you to know that we will never be able to thank you enough. Your kind words, encouragement and financial support has been awesome and will carry both Heather and I to the finish tomorrow...even if we have to swim there.

As Roger Miller says in this same song...

ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS PUT YOUR MIND TO IT
KNUCKLE DOWN, BUCKLE DOWN, DO IT, DO IT, DO IT

See you in Boston!!!

PS: For those of you who might be out on the course...Heather an I are planning to start out at 9 min./mile pace. We start around 10:30 so if my knee holds out till 13 miles we should be half way around 12:30 (give or take 10 minutes to get through the crowd at the start). We both have royal blue singlets with a white stripe on the front and with our names. I will have black wind pants and Heather will have on black tights. We will be wearing two of Nick's baseball hats...Heather has a camoflauge and mine is blue and says "Irish" on it. If it is raining Heather will have a Navy Blue Boston Marathon jacket and I have a black New Balance one.

For those that might be tracking us online...our numbers are 20640 (Heather) and 20641. We haven't even started and Heather is already ahead of me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dave - Thanks for the blog and best of luck to you and Heather. I'm worn out reading about the effort...

Chuck

Kyle Flaherty said...

Dave and Heather, I hope I get a glimpse of you on the course and when I check in online! We'll be thinking of you the whole time, go get 'em!

Kyle

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on a great, steady race under difficult conditions! Proud of my RTB teammates!!