The Horizon

A lot of people have been asking me "what's next?" I mean, I started this blog last year to chronicle my journey from lazy, overweight, average guy with bad knees, bad back, and every excuse in the book to NOT be a runner, to Boston Marathon finisher. Something happened on the way to that finish line. I fell in love with running. I lost 80 pounds. Lex and I had added another child to our family. Isabelle ran her first one mile race (in 12:34) at four years old. We had yet another successful Lex's Run and raised $5000 for the MDA. Lex and I decided we were going to train together and run the Grand Island Trail Marathon on July 30, 2011 as Lex's first marathon. Life happened. I got off of my training schedule for well over a month. I got back on the bus. I put-in over 100 miles in October and am well on my way to over 100 miles for November as well. I set 2 new PR's in the 5k distance and am currently busting my ass to run a sub-20 minute 5k before the end of the year.

I discovered a love of running trails. I've decided that 2011 is the year that I will become an Ultramarathoner by running the Vermont 50 (50-miler) on September 25, 2011. I've also decided I'll be doing a lot of trail and mountain races as a lead-up to the Vermont 50, including the Wachusett Mt. Race, the Cranmore Hill Climb and possibly the Ascutney Mt. Challenge. I've assembled and continue to assemble a great group of friends to run Vermont with, along with a great group of friends and wives (Lex included) to crew and pace our team. It would be great if we could find a sponsor or two for the #NERTs Ultrarunning Team!

Anyway, in the immediate future, I've decided to train for and run the 115th Boston Marathon as a part of the Children's Hospital Boston "Miles for Miracles" team and raise money once again to honor the memory of my good friend's daughter Brenya Elizabeth Sullivan (03/02/09-10/18/09) who died at the age of just 7 months of complications related to a genetic brain malformation called polymicrogyria. Children's Hospital works miracles every day. Most of those miracles are funded through private donations and programs like "Miles for Miracles" which raised over $1.1 Million last year. What this means is I have to committed to raising $3500 by the time of the Boston Marathon on April 18, 2011.  Although, me being me, I have set my goal at $10,000 (double what I raised last year)! So, I'm going to need all the help I can get.

I've got a lot of ideas of how I'm going to do this. One thing I plan on doing is holding a fundraising party, with a band, dj, dancing, drinking, silent auctions for things like Red Sox and/or Patriots tickets, and other auction-able items. I'm going to hold a virtual 5k, 10k and maybe even Half-Marathon challenge via dailymile where everyone who wants to participate will donate their "entry fee" to my "Miles for Miracles" campaign and the winners will win some nice donated prizes. And last but not least I'm going to have contests here on this blog whereas donors from that week will get the chance to win some really cool prizes of which I already have ready to give away in the upcoming weeks from Zensah, Go Headbands, the Blue Ridge Marathon, and custom knit hat, scarf, and gloves set from @MrsKnitPho and @wickedphysics, just to name a few.

Keep your eyes glued to this space to win some really cool stuff by donating to a good cause. And most importantly follow along to see if this average guy can cash the checks his butt has been writing lately: the sub-20 5k, cutting almost an hour off of my time and running a BQ in Boston this year, and becoming an ultrarunner without really trying (yeah, right)!

And if you just want to donate please go to my "Miles for Miracles" page - https://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/bostonmarathon/pfp/?ID=wd0030 and donate whatever you can. No donation will be refused for being too large or too small! Although $26.20 has a nice ring to it, and it's only $1/mile run DURING the marathon (never mind the 1000 miles that I will put-in during training)!

I'm going to sign-off of this blog post with a tag line stolen from my friend Mary McManus...

Be Well, and Live Like You Were Dyin'!
From My Heart to Yours, with Love and Gratitude!

Doug