The Bet

I just made a wager with one of the fastest marathoners on the Dana-Farber team -- none other than the Bluestocking Runner!

Our wager is, of course, based on the race. As a Boston qualifier, the BR will start in the first wave -- a few corrals and several minutes ahead of me. (Her number is 6066; that is, she is runner 66 in corral 6. My number is 22175.)

We are racing gun time, not chip time. That is, whoever crosses the finish line first is the winner.
If I finish first, then she must read Gravity's Rainbow.
If she finishes first (by far the more likely scenario), then I must read Pride & Prejudice.

As if I needed more motivation!

Classic Inspiration XIV

Whatever lip-service we may pay to Reason, . . . to moderation and compromise, nevertheless there remains the lion. A lion in each one of you. He is either tamed -- by too much mathematics, by details of design, by corporate procedures -- or he stays wild, an eternal predator. The lion does not know subtleties and half-solutions. He does not accept sharing as a basis for anything! He takes, he holds! . . . You will never hear relativity from the lion. He wants the absolute. Life and death. Win and lose. Not truces or arrangements, but the joy of the leap, the roar, the blood.

Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

Classic Inspiration XIII

The first quality that is needed is audacity.

Winston Churchill

Week 3

Sunday March 30 through Saturday April 5

Sunday -- 22 miles (2:45:00)

Monday -- 2 miles (20:00)

Tuesday -- Tufts Track Run

Wednesday -- Rest

Thursday -- 7 miles (49:00)

Friday -- 2 miles (20:00)

Saturday -- 12 miles (1:30:00) + R.J. Crowley's 3 Miler

BU Law 5K

A big thank you and congratulations to the Student Affairs Office and the BU Law Running Club! Today was the first annual BU Law Race Judicata 5K, and it was awesome. Organizing a road race is hard, and everyone involved did an outstanding job. Registration was easy, the course was fast (we ran down the Esplanade along the Charles) and we received all kinds of swag. For $10, we got shirts (emblazoned with the Running Club's symbol: Justice, in full sprint, holding her scales and torch), a BU Law nalgene, bagels, bananas, water, Gatorade, and the Student Government President spinning the turntables for us post race. Plus the winners got some cool prizes.

The weather was excellent (windy though) and I ran 17:03.

Thanks again everyone!

25 Days and Mile 25

Many DFMCers have described the overwhelming emotion upon reaching Mile 25 (where Beacon crosses over the Mass Pike, just before Kenmore Square). This is where the Dana-Farber crew cheers; this is where our Patient Partners stand waving the posters and signs we made together earlier in the spring. Many stalwart runners freely admit to weeping as they pass their friends, old and young.
Will I cry? Hard to know what I will be thinking or feeling after 25 miles. But should I cry, I will be in good company, real and literary. Literary? Here are the protagonists from my two favorite novels. (Everyone should read Moby Dick; my younger readers may want to wait a few years before beginning Gravity's Rainbow -- I had to edit even the quotation below.) The moments that bring these men to tears are in many ways the pinnacles of their stories.

From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.

. . . and now, in the Zone, later in the day . . . after a heavy rain he doesn't recall, Slothrop sees a very thick rainbow here . . . and his chest fills and he stands crying, not a thing in his head, just feeling natural. . . .

The Elusive Runner's High

The New York Times discusses a new study showing that endorphins do flood the brain after long intense exercise.

Endorphins attach to areas of the brain associated with emotions, in particular the limbic and prefrontal areas. The limbic and prefrontal areas are activated when you see the object of your affection or "when you hear music that gives you a chill of euphoria, like Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3." That is the best description of the runner's high -- that is exactly the feeling.

Best Line: "You could really see the difference after two hours of running. You could see it in their faces."

Classic Inspiration XII

Aye, aye! and I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth . . . . What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave.

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Week 4

Sunday March 23 through Saturday March 29

Sunday -- 2 miles (20:00)

Monday -- 3 miles (24:00)

Tuesday -- Waltham Hills

Wednesday -- 3 miles (25:00)

Thursday -- 4 miles (34:00)

Friday -- 4 miles (32:00)

Saturday -- BU Law 5K (17:03)

My Bib Number

22175

22 is the Dana-Farber corral (yes we start at the back).
175 is the magic number. 175 minutes is 2:55:00, and I must run Boston this fast to qualify for New York.

Tufts Track Run (18 Mar)

400m, 600m, 800m x 5.
200m rest between intervals (1 min).
400m rest between sets (2 min).

400m __ 600m __ 800m
1:29 ___ 2:12 ____ 2:53
1:28 ___ 2:13 ____ 2:59
1:28 ___ 2:14 ____ 2:56
1:29 ___ 2:13 ____ 2:57
1:29 ___ 2:11 ____ 2:52

Classic Inspiration XI

And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Week 5

Sunday March 16 through Saturday March 22

Sunday -- New Bedford Half Marathon

Monday -- 3 miles (29:00)

Tuesday -- Tufts Track Run

Wednesday -- 3 miles (29:00)

Thursday -- 4 miles (35:00)

Friday -- Rest

Saturday -- 18 miles (2:10:00)

My Race as Whale Hunt

The Beginning


The Middle


The End

New Bedford Half Marathon

Yesterday I ran the New Bedford Half Marathon with several other runners from the DFMC. We had great weather for racing: about 40 degrees and overcast with no precipitation. The course is fast. Big hills at miles 3 and 12, but otherwise pretty flat. My goal was sub 1:18:00 (5:57 per mile). I ran 1:18:07 (5:58 per mile). Eight seconds over 13.1 miles is nothing, and I have no good reason for missing my goal. Upward and onward though, April 21 is fast approaching!

ps I recommend the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Moby Dick.

Road Rage

I rarely post about my runs, but I have to post this. I ran three miles today in my old Brown Crew sweatshirt because all my high tech gear was wet. At the end of my run, I take a left at a small four way intersection (from Corey Ave to Summit Road). I had the light, so I cut across the intersection, and continue on my way. And then this horn starts blaring behind me. I move to my right (the road is more than big enough for a car and a runner) and look to my left. As this big Mercedes rolls past this ninety year old man and his ninety year old wife both glare at me and both give me the finger! Both! And as they drove away I saw in their window a bright Harvard decal and thought: Damn, I hope I have that much venom when I get old. Then I ran past them at the next light and blew them a kiss. Go Bruno.

Classic Inspiration X

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and turns to its advantage.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Tufts Track Run (11 Mar)

One pyramid: up and down.
All rest was 200m (1 min).

400m __ 600m __ 800m __ 1000m __ 1200m
1:25 ___ 2:00 ____ 2:43 ___ 3:27 _____ 4:14

then 600m rest (4 min), and back down

1200m __ 1000m __ 800m __ 600m __ 400m
4:11 _____ 3:31_____ 2:49 ___ 2:05 ___ 1:18

The Pinnacle of Fitness

The New York Times contends, "As a symbol of health and wellness, nothing surpasses the simple push-up. . . . The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness."
Forget hitting the road -- I need to hit the deck!
Here are the US Army standards.

CRASH-B Photos

The Race

My coach, 1976 Boston Marathon Men's Champion

Week 6

Sunday March 9 through Saturday March 15

Sunday -- 15 miles (2:00:00)

Monday -- 3 miles (29:00)

Tuesday -- Tufts Track Run

Wednesday -- 4 miles (30:00)

Thursday -- 6 miles (45:00)

Friday -- 3 miles (30:00)

Saturday -- Rest

Classic Inspiration IX

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Epictetus

Week 7

Sunday March 2 through Saturday March 8

Sunday -- 20 miles (2:25:00)

Monday -- 3 miles (20:00)

Tuesday -- 7 miles (55:00)

Wednesday -- 3 miles (21:00)

Thursday -- 7 miles (51:00)

Friday -- 7 miles (50:00)

Saturday -- 3 miles (30:00)