$9,030 and 3 months and 9 days to go...

Today I am 3 months and 9 days away from the race. I started my fundraising efforts early as my goal was a lofty one and I wanted to make sure I had the time to raise the needed funds. My family, friends, colleagues, and classmates have really gone above and beyond where I believed I would be after only 2 ½ months of fundraising. I have passed the $9,000 mark and now only need another $970 between now and April 20th to reach my goal. All I can say is that I am humbled by your generosity and very thankful to have friends and family like you. Thank you.

I am going to keep this short this week as I already posted a message about my 3rd run on the actual course. But, I do want to give a shout out to someone who also was generous enough to mention my blog on his “goofy little podcast” (see Steve I do listen). His name is Steve Runner. You can find a link to his website here on my blog. If you hit the link, it will take you to his website and if you go on the “Home” portion of his web page, you will see his latest podcast link and a link to this blog.

I have been listening to Steve’s podcast for 2 years now and really enjoy it. I have never met Steve even though he does not live too far from me here in Massachusetts. There seems to be a strange symbiosis between us. We are very close in age, middle of the pack runners, practice our respective religions, enjoy a nice wine or beer periodically and have an almost obsessive compulsion to run no matter what the weather. What I like most about his podcast is that it is truly like having a friend to run with even if he is not there physically. It makes my long runs fly by which is always helpful. I am hoping to see him at the starting line of the Boston Marathon this April so I can shake his hand and thank him for being my virtual running partner.

So with that, I will just say that the quick pace of my Sunday long run took a bit of power out of me for my runs this week. That coupled with a sheet of ice I slipped on in my drive way on Monday caused me to run quite a bit slower than the last few weeks. But, I got back on track today with a good marathon pace tempo run.

Here are my training totals for this week:
Jan. 4 – 10.00 miles (1:26:30, 8:39 pace)
Jan. 5 – 6.00 miles (59:11, 9:52 pace)
Jan. 6 – 3.00 miles (22:41, 7:34 pace) – Speed work
Jan. 8 – 6.00 miles (56:06, 9:21 pace) – Tempo Run
Jan. 9 – 8.10 miles (1:18:00, 9:38 pace)
Jan. 10 – 6.20 miles (56:46, 9:09 pace)

Total Miles: 39.30 miles
2009 YTD Miles: 52.30 miles