Monday, March 30, 2009

Dancing for a Cure



Thank you to everyone who came out to The Place this weekend to support us!!!

Saturday, March 28, 2009

22 days to go, 22 miles this morning: a coincidence?

At the Hopkinton starting line, ready to run the 22 miles back to Boston!


Today's epic charity run by the numbers:

6am - wakeup
7am - bus to Hopkinton
1 - group picture with friends from DFMC, Joints in Motion, and the Liver Foundation
2 - running buddies for the first 12 miles (Aimee and Katie)
12 - peanut m+ms
5 - water stations
2 - bathroom stops
11 - shot blocks
3 - running buddies for the last 10 miles (Aimee, Katie, and Sarah)
6 - towns (Hopkinton-Ashland-Framingham-Natick-Wellesley and Newton)
4 - pictures taken of us during the run
3 - big hills
1 - trip up Heartbreak Hill
8:15 - pace per mile
tons of red DFMC training shirts
handfuls - volunteers on the course
hundreds - other charity runners
and
21.5 - miles run!

And now, let the tapering begin...

Friday, March 27, 2009

your Saturday night plans

Come party with us!

Katie and I are hosting our big fund raising event this weekend: the Dancing for a Cure bar night/benefit event tomorrow night! Tomorrow will be a busy day, starting with our 22 mile run from Hopkinton to Boston College in the morning. Then we'll hopefully have time for a good lunch, a quick nap, some stretching and resting up....and then we'll be busting a move at The Place in downtown Boston all night. Come join us! You can find all the details here: www.danceforcure.eventbrite.com

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Is anyone else getting tired of training for this thing?

I couldn't have asked the question any better myself; this was what Ryan posed to our small group on the T at Crossroads tonight. I am, finally, starting to get a little tired of training for this thing. Tuesday night track is hard. Thursday night hills are hard. I've already logged almost 26 miles this week, and I still have a 22 mile run on Saturday morning. At this point, I'm not getting any more fit...I'm only getting more anxious that something over the next 3.5 weeks might go wrong and undo the past 5 months.

Yeah, I'm a little tired.

Monday, March 23, 2009

My last two runs haven't gone so well...15 hilly miles with Gordon on Saturday, and 7 cold/windy miles by myself today. So rather than dwelling, I'll focus on my most recent good run: last week's crossroads.

We already established that I am competitive. And now that my brother Ted is training for the Chicago Marathon (his first), the heat is ON. He texted me last week at work to say he'd run 4 miles at 7:10/mile, and therefore was "definitely ready for a faster marathon" than me. hah. Well Ted, at crossroads last week I did 7:17/mile for 8.8 miles. More than twice the distance, not that much slower. Eat it!










I probably could have easily just texted that back to him, but something about this public sphere makes it a little more believable in his book. To be honest, I'm not quite sure where that run came from. I will probably never be able to do Crossroads that fast again without Chris on one side of me, and my new little German friend Matthias on the other. But it WAS a good one!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

a little shout out: volume 3

It's not really a secret in my family that I am neither coordinated, nor graceful. My brothers don't hesitate to remind me of this, by making me demonstrate my less-than-stellar jumping abilities, or reminding me of particularly awkward splats I've taken in field hockey or frisbee. I've been known to do things like trip and smash my ipod while running, bang my dad's car into the garage at age 17, and even fall off my bike and crush my own body.

Well, this week's shout out goes to Mom and Dad Gott--who probably listen to me talk about running more than anyone else, but never stop listening (and at least feigning interest). When I was moaning and groaning to them while driving to my track workout this week, their response was:

mom- "You're going to TRACK?"
dad- "Be careful."
mom-"Yeah, be careful honey....don't hurt yourself."
dad-"Yeah, wear your helmet".

You may laugh at my Dad's seeming exaggeration. But last year for Christmas, my family 'lovingly' gave me a helmet to be used for any and all athletic activities. Lucky for my running buddies in Boston, I choose not to break it out in public :)

But in all seriousness, I am lucky to have such a great team backing me up. I can't think of anyone that is more interested, more supportive, more excited, and more encouraging than my parents...and I CANT WAIT for them to be down here for Marathon Monday. And for all of you coming to Dancing for a Cure next week, keep your eyes peeled: Debbie and Ed might make a guest appearance (though hopefully not in a santa hat, a nightgown, or a bike helmet)!

Team Gott, spring 2008.
Ed, Debbie, Betsy, Ted (24), and Tom (21)

Monday, March 16, 2009

Patient Partners and Poster Partying!


On Saturday the DFMC runners and Patient Partners got together to make our posters for the DFMC pasta party and marathon weekend. Theo wasn't able to make it, but I hope he likes what I put together for him!

sneezes, sore throats, and [negative] splits

I am competitive. Lots of people can vouch for this: ask my good friend Fred, and he might tell you about the time I threw my controller when I was losing to him in Super Mario Brothers. Ask my brother Ted, as we always try to one-up each other with GPAs, salaries, and points scored in this game or that. Ask my brother Tom about our training for the Chicago Marathon, or my Dad about our annual rivalry in the Beach to Beacon 10k race.

Right now my body is finally getting the better of me. The past few months of diligent sleep and vitamins have worn out their welcome, and have been replaced by a fever, a stuffy nose, and a god-awful voice.

And unfortunately, I am not helping myself--because my biggest competitor is often Betsy.

At Crossroads on Thursday, I had planned to do an easy-ish 10.5 miles with Marisa and Mike, not wanting to push myself too hard. But as soon as the hills came into view, my legs felt great. So I pushed the pace and decided to do a hard 8.8 miles over the hills--I couldn't bear the thought of not trying to better my time at Crossroads (it's a sick little game I play with myself each week). It turned out to be my best Crossroads run ever, finishing at 1:05 (yes Ben, that is 7:30/mile. For all 8.8 miles). My legs felt great, but my throat and head felt awful.

Yesterday's DFMC group run in Wayland was supposed to be 20 miles...and I got out of bed approaching it as twenty-with-a-question-mark, meaning I would run until I felt awful enough that I should stop. I was hoping for just 10 or 12.

But at the first water stop, my legs felt great. I couldn't bear the thought of running these 20 miles slower than my last 20 mile run. So I pushed the pace and decided I would focus on negative splits. I reached the 10 mile mark at 1:22, and finished the full 20 miles in 2:40. So the run became twenty-with-an-exclamation point!--and my legs felt great, but my head and chest felt awful.

What do I have to show for these two great runs today? Not much. As I write this I am home from school, with a box of tissues and a bottle of cold medicine at an arm's length. Since I can't run today, maybe I should use that extra time to talk some sense into myself.

Friday, March 13, 2009

a little shout out: volumes 1 and 2

After reaching the halfway point in my fund raising last week, I decided I should pay a little more lip service to the people that are behind all these miles I'm putting on my legs. So every once in awhile I'll include little "shout outs" to special people that did some big--or small--thing to motivate me or help my cause.

My first shout out goes to my Aunt Lauree and the Veazie Community School in Veazie, Maine! Lauree is Aunt Karen's younger sister, and is a middle school teacher in Maine. She has been so incredibly helpful in my fund raising process. She spread the word around her school in Maine, and rallied a huge amount of donations from people that know our family and that have a stake in cancer research! (She's also the best homemade pizza chef I've ever met).

My second shout out goes to my students at the Boston Renaissance Charter School. My co-teacher Carrie and I have been doing a poetry unit with our 3rd graders, focusing on grammar and parts of speech. This week we learned how to write a "setting poem", describing the nouns and verbs in a particular place that is special to the author. My students helped me write a setting poem about The Boston Marathon:

The Boston Marathon

At the Boston Marathon, the runners race,
The crowds cheer,
The feet stomp,
The hands clap,
And the voices yell.

The legs work,
The arms pump,
The lungs breathe,
The brains concentrate,
And the runners celebrate,
At the Boston Marathon!

So for all your DFMCers out there, you have a classroom full of Boston 3rd graders cheering for you, even though you don't know it :)

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Sunday, March 8, 2009

it's a numbers game

THANK YOU!

With six weeks to go until Marathon Monday, I hit two big numbers last week:
500 miles in training
$3,000 in fund raising
That means I am halfway to my fund raising goal, and far more than halfway through my training. I thought the countdown clock at Marathon Sports was a fitting image for this post....I walk by it two times a day, on my way to school and on my way home...and I would be lying if I didn't admit how excited/nervous/anxious/incredulous/scared it makes me each and every time.

But I wouldn't be anywhere without the support of all of you. I may be the one training for, and running this race...but for every mile I run, there is a person along the way that has
supported,
encouraged,
donated,
helped,
cheered,
commiserated,
pushed,
organized,
inspired,
comforted, and
listened.

I try hard to let you all know that, with a thank you or a hug, or a mention in the blog, but sometimes it's impossible to reach everyone that is reaching out to me. So this is for you. Without you, this whole thing would be a lot more challenging--and a lot less meaningful.

Thank you.

Friday, March 6, 2009

who was the oaf running along the river?

Have you ever seen the craigslist "missed connections"? It's a section of craigslist where people can post a message about a mysertious 'person of interest'--usually a highly attractive member of the opposite sex--they saw while out in public, but didn't have the nerve, time, or courage to speak to them and find out more. It's usually pretty amusing.

Well, if anyone saw me running yesterday afternoon along the Charles River, their missed connection post might have read "Who was that oaf in a yellow jacket and black spandex running along the river? And who told her it would be okay to run in PUBLIC???" They would be writing not in hopes of finding out more about a highly attractive, agile woman. Nope, none of those in sight. Rather, they would be writing to question her sanity, her coordination, and her physical well-being.

Yesterday's run was rough. It was beautiful outside, I was running along the river, I had a new mix on my ipod, and the sun was still high in the sky--but my body just did not cooperate. It was one of those days where you feel so slow, and so heavy, and so uncoordinated, that you just want to give up. I felt certain all the other runners were laughing as they passed--and that everyone else out enjoying the sunshine was thinking "good god, I hope I never look like THAT when I run."

I labored through 9 miles, then figured I needed something to boost my spirits...so I took a turn onto Boylston (thanks Mike), and decided to run across the marathon finish line, just for kicks. Mind you, there were no balloons, no neon clock, no giant archway or mylar blankets, or finisher medals, and certainly no fans on this Thursday afternoon....but there was rush hour traffic, slushy puddles, and just the tiniest hint of the faded finish line on the pavement. That, and my imagination of what Marathon Monday will be like, made the whole run just a little better.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

in jack we trust

"In Jack we trust" is a phrase spoken often on the DFMC team: in response to hard workouts, injury advice, long runs that end up being longer than they should, race strategies, etc.

And I can't remember where I saw it, but I once read a quote by our coach, Jack: "To get something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done."

True. And sometimes the truth hurts. Case in point: last night's track workout. Legs feeling a little heavy after the weekend's 20 miler, and a little tight after two days off, I wasn't really looking forward to track. (Does anyone ever really look forward to running in circles? Not likely.) But, if I really want to run a strong marathon on April 20, track is the name of the game.

Jack's workout was a version of the Yasso 800s -- the idea that if you do a lot of repeats of 800 meters, the pace should be a good predictor of your marathon potential. For example, if I run my 800s at 3:20, my marathon time could potentially be 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Jack's workout was 12 x 800 with only a minute recovery in between. YIKES. Definitely hard. Definitely a step up from the three or four 800s that we used to do in high school track. hah! I knew I was in trouble when the fifth one started to hurt...it would still be a long way to 12.

"Just make it to 6" I told myself. "Then at least you did half of them."

Okay, 6 repeats done.

"Just make it to 8" I told myself, "then you can stop. Your legs are tired from the 20 miles anyway."

Okay, 8 repeats done. And everybody else out here tonight has tired 20 mile legs too.

"Just make it to 10" I told myself, "then you can feel good about doing most of the workout."

Most??? Since when am I happy with doing mostly a good job?

So, legs burning and mind virtually a swimming pool, Aimee and I took turns pushing each other and leading the pace. It was definitely a struggle to maintain the 3:22 pace we started at...but as I was pushing through # 10, 11, and 12, all I could think was "to get something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done." To get a qualifying time for next year's Boston Marathon (under 3 hours, 40 minutes), I have to push my body to it's limit now, and put all these good workouts in the bank. Come Marathon Monday, I want to line up in Hopkinton feeling like I did everything I could--and that hopefully the training will speak for itself. In Jack, I trust.

Monday, March 2, 2009

good for the soul...and good for the legs

Today's post has nothing to do with running at all. In fact, yesterday and today had nothing to do with running at all. I can't remember the last time I took two days off in a row; but the blizzard, the snow day, and my tired 20mile legs were all welcome excuses today.

Instead, I did two things today that were good for the legs and good for the soul: I took the day off from running, and went for a long walk in the snow instead.

I didn't have a destination in mind as I started walking; but then I remembered a story I had seen on Boston.com about the patients (including our Patient Partners) at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana Farber (click below to see the video):

Ironworkers at Dana-Farber resume a beloved ritual, providing moments of joy for young cancer patients - The Boston Globe

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't leave home without my camera. So camera in hand, pants tucked into my knee-high boots, and not an inch of skin exposed, I ventured down to the Dana Farber building to check out their handiwork. It was beautiful, moving, and brought a smile to my face...even though there wasn't a child or an iron worker in sight. Here are my photos.







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Sunday, March 1, 2009

a huge 'yay moment'

This weekend's long run was a HUGE yay moment...we did a 20 mile run on the marathon course, and I felt fantastic!!!

This was the first 18-20 mile run in which I did not feel like I was going to die, like my legs were going to fall off, or like I would never be able to walk again. Instead, although I was a little stiff and tired for the first 8-9 miles, I finally eased into the pace around mile 9. I never thought it could take my legs 8 miles to warm up...but maybe they are adapting to this endurance training?

The goal for the day was to run negative splits (for you non-runners, that means running the second half faster than the first). This is something I need a lot of work on. Running with Aimee and Katie, we eased through the first 10 miles and shed plenty of clothing along the the way. When we started pushing the pace on the way back, I couldn't believe how great I felt--less than a week after a hard half-marathon, and my legs felt like they actually had something in them! In fact, our last few miles were run at a sub 8:00 pace. We finished the second ten miles a full 2:30 faster than our first ten...mission accomplished!

This was a huge yay moment for a few different reasons:
1. I have never before felt good on a 17+ mile run. I nearly always want to cut my legs off at the hip somewhere around mile 16. So this was a welcome change. yay!

2. I finally ran a long run with negative splits. I am far from an experienced runner, and I tend to make the beginner's mistake of going out way too fast, then slowly losing steam. yay!

3. Katie, Aimee, and I make a good running trio. We take turns leading the pack, pushing the pace, and keeping each other entertained and motivated...especially up the Newton Hills. yay!

4. This gives me a lot of confidence for the marathon. We held a pace of about 8:18/mile, which is close to my goal pace for the marathon. yay!

5. This was the first good run I've had in over a week. YAY!

Here are some pictures from after the run, during our DFMC team breakfast in Watertown.

Katie and Aimee, and Aimee and me