the audacity to lope

Back at it again…Spandex Pants and All

Well, I suppose it’s about time to update the world on my progress towards raising a bunch of money for Dana-Farber and running the 2011 Boston Marathon. As it stands right now, I’m my only follower according to NetworkedBlogs. So essentially I’ll be talking to myself for the rest of this message.

Last night was the first official Crossroads run of the marathon training season. As I probably mentioned a few times last year, this is always the highlight of my week as far as training is concerned. We haven’t done the full “Hills” run yet, but it’ll happen soon enough. Right now, it’s an out-n-back to Cleveland Circle, which is about 6.6 miles with a few rolling hills and some amazing smelling restaurants that make me want to stop and eat cheeseburgers. The Publick House, in particular, is the hardest place to run by without stopping - ridiculously good beers and food waft out and grasp at my frozen nostrils, lingering there and teasing the senses until we’re well out of sight…I digress. That said, I’d like to plug the folks at Crossroads Pub as well. They put up with a bunch of sweaty runners invading their establishment every Thursday night and even serve us free pizzas. GOOD PEOPLE! Anyway, last night’s run went well, despite wind chills hovering around 10 degrees. The spandex pants were in full effect, and I shamefully enjoyed every second of it. If this is December running, I can’t imagine what February will bring!

From a training perspective, I’ve decided to run much less this year. This is both because of my injury from overtraining last year and a different level of confidence about my ability to actually run the marathon when the time comes. Based upon the races I ran in the past few months, I’m fairly certain that if I can get to the starting line in April in one piece, I’ll be able to finish the marathon. So I’m following the “Shifter Plan” - named after a teammate who has run about 20 marathons in a row for Dana-Farber - which essentially is this: run less, drink more (beer). Oddly enough, I’ve had very little trouble adopting this as my mantra.

Finally, a few thoughts about fundraising. So far, I’ve raised $200, half of which I donated to myself. Last year at this time, I was closing in on $3,000! I suppose I’ve been hesitant to begin the fundraising push because I feel like I still owe a marathon to those people who donated last year. However, I’m hoping that everyone will recognize that the money still went to the same good cause, and I did my best to run a couple races this fall to partially honor my running commitment. If you’re interested, you can click on my race reports for the Reach the Beach Relay and the BAA Half Marathon. So with that said, I’m getting my letter ready to send to all you potential donors out there; hope you’re feeling generous this holiday season!

Goodbye to Richard Casey

I just wanted to post a quick note about the passing of Richard Casey, the Founder and CEO of my company, Square 1 Bank. Richard passed unexpectedly at the age of 63 after a brief battle with an undisclosed illness. I’ll be adding his name to the list of people in whose honor I’m participating in the 2011 DFMC.

Richard was admired for his passion; both for his work and for the people who worked for him. In my interactions with him, he always made a point to tell me that my contributions were appreciated and he valued my input. I guess it’s not surprising that many of my colleagues are proud to say that they worked for and with Richard for 20+ years. He will be missed.

2011 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
- Albert Einstein

Reach the Beach Relay - the Aftermath

* Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Run

“We lived more in a weekend than I normally do in a month”
- teammate, van-mate, fast-running and twisted tea guzzling Steve Allison

This was simply an incredible adventure. I was nervous heading into it, but as soon as I took two steps in my first leg, all the butterflies went away and I lived in the moment. The running is challenging and fun, but the camaraderie is what the RTB Relay is really all about. My team, the Cutters, has a long history of RTB appearances dating back 10 years; now that I’m finished I can join that illustrious group and officially call myself a Cutter. I’m so lucky that I was able to run with such awesome people who had done the race before and organized the entire weekend to perfection. I hope to have the ability and good health to run this thing for many years to come!



On to the running report:
My first leg was 8.67 miles along RT 302, ending at Attitash Mountain. It was mostly downhill, and the adrenaline was really pumping for this one. My time for the run was 1:08:22, which works out to a 7:55 split. Considering that I’ve only run 1 training run under 8 minute miles, I was amazed how fast I ran. Coming into Attitash, I received the loudest ovation I can ever remember at the end of a race. I had the good fortune of running the last leg for Van 1, so every team who started early like us had their Van 2 waiting at this exchange. Sweet!

My second leg took me 4.89 miles through downtown Laconia. It began around 11pm so the roads were quiet. This leg started downhill but ended with a full mile of straight uphill running. I felt like I was running in place, and my time reflected that - 42:38 for an average pace of 8:41. Considering that I probably ran the first 3+ miles in the (very) low 8’s, that hill really slowed me down.

Finally, I had the great luck of my last leg being a mere 3.15 mile run that ended at Sanborn High School in Kingston. Despite having only 2 hours of sleep and legs like lead, I wanted to finish strong. I pushed the pace for the entire run and finished in 24:24, which is a 7:44 split. To my knowledge, this is the fastest I’ve ever run for any real distance. To be fair, I had more than myself as motivation - for the entire 3+ miles, there was a dude from another team about 25 yards behind me. I was NOT going to let this guy pass me on my final leg!

In summary, I really don’t have the words to adequately describe this kind of an experience. I feel very lucky to have been invited to join such a great group of people; I can’t thank our Captain Matt Cox enough for his organization and leadership. Simply awesome.

Reach the Beach!

T-minus 1 hour until departure for the 2010 Reach the Beach relay in New Hampshire. Starting at 8 am tomorrow morning, my team will be running over 200 miles from Franconia Notch to Hampton Beach. The 12 of us will each run 3 legs over the course of the route - all of which is already set and mapped out. I’ll be running legs 6, 18 and 30; the three combined total about 16.7 miles and should take me around 2 1/2 hours to complete. Check out Reach the Beach for more details. If you’re in the area, feel free to stop by the celebration tent in Hampton Beach on Saturday. I have no idea what condition I’ll be in, but there’s free beer for the runners so I have a feeling I may be rejuvenated…

Guess Who’s Back (for more punishment)?

Today, I’m returning from my 4 month blogging hiatus to update the world on my running status. Please understand that I’m using the word “world” generously - google analytics tells me that 1-2 people (out of approximately 2 billion with internet access) visit my little site daily. I’m hoping to improve on those numbers by updating more often than semi-annually. Other suggestions are welcome.

In any case, it’s been a challenging road getting back, but I am finally beginning to feel positive about running again. I started back in late June, but nagging tenderness and discomfort in my foot left me doubting whether I had really healed. Several visits to foot massage specialists and a chiropractor later, I’m pleased to say that things are starting to look up again! That being said, I know it’s a long road back so I’m certainly not rushing things.

As for my upcoming races, I’m super excited for the Reach the Beach Relay which takes place September 17-18th in New Hampshire. Each team in the relay consists of 12 runners, each of whom run 3 legs of the 200 mile course that takes us from Franconia Notch to Hampton Beach. From all I’ve heard, the party the night before the relay is as epic as the actual running…

Following that, I’m signed up for the BAA Half Marathon in late October. If all goes well between now and then, I’ll be entering Boston Marathon training season (November-April) in really good shape. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this soon-to-be 31 year old body holds up better the second time around!

Finally, I can say with a lot of pride that when the dust settled on the DFMC fundraising season, I ended up with a total of $5,612 dollars raised for this awesome organization. After all, the whole thing was less about me and more about raising money for cancer research! I still haven’t figured out if I’ll be fundraising again this year - I still owe all those donors from last year the 26.2 miles I promised I’d run to earn their donations. So to all of you who donated, encouraged, and supported me - thanks again. On to the next one.

Failure is Not the End

Today is the first day of my next Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. There are 363 days until the 2011 Boston Marathon; let’s hope I make it in one piece this time. As I stood watching the marathon yesterday, I wondered to myself what was harder - standing on the sidelines and cheering on my teammates or actually running the race? Next year, I’ll be able to answer that question. What I do know is that I’ve never been more motivated than I am today after watching all of my friends run by me at mile 24, knowing that they were about to accomplish something amazing.

Looking back, I couldn’t help but feel like a failure after I got injured in February. Of course, everybody reassured me that “you tried hard” and “you couldn’t help getting injured” - which I knew was entirely true. But when you set a goal and do not accomplish it, you have failed. What kept me going was knowing that failure was not the end of the journey, and there was no dishonor or shame in this particular failure. Lacking the gift of prose, I couldn’t articulate these thoughts when I posted about the injury in February. Fortunately, my friend Andrew pointed out that Teddy Roosevelt already took care of that:

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

The interesting thing about this experience is that in my professional life, failure is recognized as an inevitability for the majority of startups I work with. And contrary to there being any shame involved, many entrepreneurs who have failed are seen as having learned more than those who have succeeded. They bear the scars of not having achieved what they set out to do, but they wear those scars with pride. Above all, the past failure makes them even more committed to succeed at their next venture.

I believe I am also that person, who, having failed once, is even hungrier the second time around.

I also learned today that I can continue to receive donations for the 2010 Challenge for several months. If you are so inclined, please donate. I’m well shy of my original goal of $10,000.