Ok, here's the full story from Hyannis, now that I am warm, fed, and well-rested...

Hyannis is nothing if not a little bit of a shitshow. Maybe that's why we love it so much...it kind of suits us.

It was cold, rainy, and dreary in Hyannis for our marathon relay, but that didn't dampen the fun! Katie and I kicked off our relay team together; her plan was to get in a 20 mile training run, while my plan was to bust out a hard half marathon. We both succeeded! Katie, being the iron woman that she is, paced me for the first seven miles and I ended up with a new half marathon PR--1:38. It's more than a minute faster than my previous PR, though still not quite as fast as I'd hoped. I really do need to learn how to pace myself better and run negative splits....but back to the interesting stuff...

Coming through the half marathon point, we handed off to Mo, who ran a courageous 7.3 miles in the rain even though she was sick. As she made it to Craigville Beach for the final handoff to Kiirsten, the poor thing couldn't stop shivering! What a brave roommate she is!

Even with a fever and nausea (and 12 pounds of layers), Mo is still smiling.

Kiirsten took over the baton for the final anchor leg, and turned in quite a stellar performance! She decided NOT to go for a training run the night before the race this year, and we all thanked her for that. By the time her leg was up, she had to battle the worst of the rain and wind. But she came running through the finish line with a smile. It was her best run ever, and she finished her leg way before we even thought to look for her!

So Kiirsten, when will you start running marathons with us?

All in all it was a GREAT weekend...despite the snow/rain, despite my poorly executed splits, despite Mo being sick, despite Kiirsten's driving...simply GREAT. More fun than riding a bike, actually ;)

Team Chico pee before the race (yes, we really are dorky enough to all wear our race shirts)

ugh.

This is what you look like when you don't run a smart race--thanks to Kiirsten for the photographic evidence :)

team chico-pee

It has arrived! The weekend we all (well, my roommates and I) have been waiting for.....HYANNIS '09! This year's iteration of Team Chico-pee* in the Hyannis Marathon Relay will consist of me, Katie, Mo, and Kiirsten. We haven't quite figured out the order of our handoffs yet, as Mo and I both want to run 13.1 miles, Katie might do 20, and Kiirsten is going to be our anchor leg. That clearly adds up to more than 26.2 miles. But we'll figure it out...let's be honest, probably at the last second as we approach the starting line.

At Hyannis 2008, as "Team KEEK"

This weekend is less about the running, and more about the roommate bonding. We discovered last year that the pre-race pasta dinner, the mini-road trip, Kiirsten's inability to navigate/drive/park as a licensed driver should be able to, and the post-race happy hour can be more fun than the race itself! We went down to Hyannis last year as four roommates doing our own little thing...and came back from Hyannis with some new friends, new boyfriends, and good memories :) This year will hopefully be more of the same--but maybe with a new half-marathon PR if all goes well.

* "Team Chico-pee" has nothing to do with the town in western Mass, but is rather a reference to our back porch and our upstairs neighbor, a crappy little pug named "chico". Use your imagination.

"remember betsy? see dinosaurs!"

It's school vacation week! Aside from the extra sleeping and shopping time, I also got to visit the Museum of Science with my patient partner Theo on Monday (along with the rest of Boston's school-aged children). Here are some pictures from the visit:

Theo playing with the architecture exhibit, and dressed as a cow in the animal room at the Museum of Science.

We had a great time seeing the dinosaur bones and fossils, looking at the race cars and transportation exhibit, and playing with the animal costumes in the kids' discovery room. But of all the exhibits and special attractions that the Science Museum had constructed, Theo was most fascinated by the inner workings of the escalator--or "the roller coaster", as he so eloquently re-named it :) And when he got home later that day, he apparently told his Dad "Remember Betsy? See dinosaurs!"

Theo and me examining the inner workings of the escalator...er, 'roller coaster'

13 miles? i thought it would have been a gift...

Saturday's run brought back something that I haven't done in a loooong time: run by myself. With Katie out of town, I was left to my own devices to a) get out of bed on time, and b) navigate my way to the group run in Wayland on time. I failed on both accounts, and pulled into the parking lot at the run as everyone was already starting to run.

So ten minutes later, I set off by myself--no ipod, no running buddies, no traffic, no sense of direction...nothing but me and the wilderness in Wayland. What a change! And what a challenge.

In preparation for a good race at the Hyannis half marathon and marathon relay next weekend, I cut down on some of my mileage this week. Jack recommended not running the full 18 mile team run in Wayland on Saturday, but doing 13 miles instead. Great! I thought. 13 miles sounds awesome. Until I realized what Jack had in mind...

The first 7 miles out were easy, just to get my legs warmed up. But for the back 7 miles, Jack wanted me to try and hold 7:10s for 5 of those miles. Yikes! Consistency not always being my strong point, I hovered between 7:00-7:30s...took a short break for some M+Ms and a chat with Shifter at the water stop...and finished the last 3 miles around 7:40s. meh. It was hard. I was sore the next day. But it was incredibly nice to get off the Boston streets and see the Wayland, Concord, and Sudbury suburbs for 14 miles:

bowling for the boston marathon

Katie and I are hosting our first fund raiser tonight! If you are in the Boston area, come down to Jillian's/Lucky Strike in Kenmore for a few hours of free bowling, appetizers, and happy hour. We'll be there from 5:30 until at least 8pm, and we'd love to see you!

bare legs and bloody marys

No, this post isn't about my wild spring break adventures. Rather, it's about a pretty nasty run and some pretty sweet post-run activities!

Today was our long run day with DFMC, and I tackled 18 miles with Katie and Aimee. We ran from Wellesley towards Boston to the top of Heartbreak Hill, then turned around and did it in reverse. After starting the run with Ben, Gordon, and Laurie, we continued on to the 6 mile waterstop as a pack of six. That's when the speed demons took off, and Aimee, Katie and I stuck to our own 8:05-ish pace. The three of us finished the back nine miles together, though I had a rough last three miles and pretty much wanted to die.

BUT, it was a PERFECT day for a long run: 40-something degrees in Boston and a little bit sunny. It was the first time I've worn shorts on a run since the Chicago Marathon (!!!), and the melting snow and puddles meant that I had a hard time getting the mud and salt off my calves in the shower afterwards! And speaking of showers...

BEFORE...

me, Aimee, Laurie, Katie, and Kristan
(i promised them the "before" shot
would be small, so you all couldn't

fully see the grossness! read on...)

After showering and not washing our hair, Katie and I headed down to Newbury Street with Laurie, Kristan, and Aimee for some bloody marys, appetizers, and hair appointments. This was probably the coolest DFMC fund raiser I've heard of: two girls organized a salon on Newbury Street to give $30 haircuts, with all of the money going to DFMC! And we obviously needed to be fixed up from our post-18-mile-grossness. Here is the photographic evidence :)

...AFTER

Much better!
me, Aimee, Laurie, Katie, and Kristan

And who else was there getting his hair cut? (He graciously informed me that men don't get their hair "done", they simply get it "cut"). None other than Jack, our fearless DFMC leader (and winner of the '76 Boston Marathon). I promised him that I wouldn't put the pictures on Facebook...but he didn't say anything about my blog!

This was the perfect end to a very busy week with a lot of miles...notably, the most miles I've ever run in a week (45)!

team chico-pee

This has been a fantastic weekend so far....my roommates Katie, Kiirsten, and I trekked down to New Haven last night to visit our old roommate, Mo! After some wine and girl talk last night, we got up for our morning ritual of coffee and watching The Office, then headed out for a run around East Rock and the Yale campus. It was a beautiful day, I was with some of my favorite running buddies ever, and it was all around just awesome.

me, Mo, Katie, and Kiirsten after our run in New Haven

We ran together today in preparation for the Hyannis Marathon Relay in two weekends; last year we ran as Team KEEK, and this year we'll be running as Team Chico-pee. (The name comes from our upstairs neighbors who let their little pug, Chico, pee all over their back porch. Which means that it drips riiiight down onto our porch. ew.)

For those of you unfamiliar with a marathon relay, it is basically the 26.2 miles divided up between 4 relay legs: Katie and I will run the first 13 miles, then hand off to Mo for the next 7.3 miles, who will hand off to Kiirsten for the last 5.8 miles. We're not out to win any medals...just to enjoy the pasta dinner the night before, cheer on the father-son team of Rick and Dick Hoyt, and have some more roommate bonding time :)

Last year's Hyannis adventure consisted of some interesting driving by Kiirsten, some new male friends, a very strange continental breakfast in which we were told our eggs WILL explode, and a race director who made us keep getting closer to the porta potties (as if that would help start the race on time). This year's adventure has a lot to live up to.

mind over matter

Last night was week #2 of track....ugh, track. I would rather run 16 or 18 miles than do a track workout, and I don't even pretend to keep this hatred a secret! Last night's workout was 600 meter repeats--12 of them. Because I am hoping to run the marathon in 8:20 per mile, that meant about 2:25 per 600 meters.

At the beginning of the workout, that just seemed so, well, insurmountable! That's essentially 4.5 miles of hard running, and that doesn't even include the brief "rest" (ie, easy running) in between repeats. As we worked our way though the 600s, they got harder and harder, and my legs got heavier. And by the middle of the last set, I pretty much wanted to give up.

BUT (and as I tell my students, watch out for this BIG BUT coming through the door), track is necessary if I really want to run a qualifying time for next year's Boston Marathon. So luckily for me, there are good people that run track on Tuesdays. I would not have made it through last night's workout without Katie and Aimee. I would have run a lot slower if they hadn't been there both pushing me from behind, pulling me from up front, and making me lead every few repeats! Good people running together seems to be the theme of DFMC. And I love that with track, crossroads, and long weekend runs, I get to see the same good people up to three times a week!

Up next on the agenda is a 'team' run with Katie, Kiirsten, and Mo down in New Haven this weekend--in preparation for our Hyannis Marathon Relay in a few weeks. Then Sunday is group run day (17-18 miles) and then haircuts on Newbury Street and drinks with some of the DFMC girls!

it's all about the kids

Last weekend I finally got to meet my little Patient Partner, Theo! Theo is two years old, and lives in the Boston area with his older brother and parents--he is also a patient at the Dana Farber Jimmy Fund clinic, which is how we both became involved with the Patient Partner Program. DFMC has a program to pair runners with patient children, and Theo and I got to spend a wonderful morning at the Children's Museum at the first event, the meet your match party! He has a ton of energy, and his questions about firetrucks and cameras and elevators kept me on my toes all morning.

We had a great time with the Dr. Seuss activities, looking at all the birds and ships out the window, and playing beach ball challenges with the other runners and patient partners. Theo even asked if I would "come to my house to play and eat food", but told me I would have to "make sure and leave my shoes outside". What a polite young man! Throughout the season we'll be gathering again with our matches to have pizza and make posters, for the giant DFMC pasta part on marathon eve, and they will all be gathered at a special DFMC cheering station in Kenmore Square (mile 25) on Marathon Monday. If that's not motivation for the first 25 miles, I don't know what is! I am proud to be running in honor of both Theo and my Aunt Karen in this marathon challenge: they are both fighting tough battles with cancer, and I remember that often no matter how hard my training workouts get. You can see more photos of Theo and the Meet your Match party here.

I also got to meet the wonderful Sarah Nixon on Thursday at Crossroads, and we got talking about her fantastic program for young girls in Boston: Fit Girls! The program combines health and fitness with community outreach for girls in grades 4 + 5...and the more we talked, the more I thought about what an exciting program this is: it combines running, reading and kids, and I can't think of three things that I am more passionate about! Sarah is a fellow DFMC teammate (and an incredibly fast one), and and librarian, and she started the organization herself in 2002. I am so excited to become involved with Fit Girls...maybe first as a 'race buddy' for the girls doing their first 5k, and hopefully soon trying to bring the program to MY school!

And finally, on the training front: yesterday I did a long (and fast) 17.7 mile run with Katie, Ben, and fellow Bowdoinite Chris at the DFMC group run. We trekked 8.8 miles out Comm Ave to Wellesley, then turned around and did the same thing in reverse (which meant hitting the Newton Hills TWICE). It was fast, but fun...which means today I am both sore and satisfied.