Every November, Victory Programs' Boston Living Center holds the Celebration of Life Thanksgiving Dinner - a free, full-course dinner for people living with HIV/AIDS and their loved ones. This event welcomes more than 700 guests and several hundred volunteers and is the Boston Living Center's largest fundraiser of the year. Between corporate sponsorships and individual donations, we raised more than $135,000 - a record breaking total - for the BLC! The Celebration of Life was held on Tuesday, November 25 (check out photos here), so I've been pretty preoccupied with work to keep up with my writing as much as I would have liked to, but have no fear - I am back!
Feeling Thankful
HUGE thanks to James S., Heather B., Amy B. and two wonderful anonymous donors who have given to my Boston Marathon fundraising page since my last post. I am now only $8 away from the $3,000 milestone and $2,008 from my $5,000 goal! You can help me out by making a donation here!
Thanksgiving is an exciting day for me from a running perspective. I ran my first ever road race on Thanksgiving last year - the Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 Miler in Somerville. I couldn't wait to run a race for the second time and try to crush my time...and I almost did. The G3 is a really crowded race, with about 4,000 runners. Last year I was so nervous and excited, I started running before I even crossed the starting line. This year, after over a dozen races, I was a little less jumpy and MISSED THE START LINE! That's right folks, I didn't realize I had crossed the start line and walked for quite awhile before I realized my error. Had I not made such a bonehead move I am sure I would have beat my previous time, as I was only a minute slower this year than last - 38:28/9:48 minute mile.
About 2.5 miles through the race, I came to the hill that killed me last year and cruised up it. In 2013, I had to stop and walk. I had a stitch in my side and just couldn't power through the hill. It felt really amazing to get to that spot again and feel great. Progress is real!My mom, brother and his girlfriend met me at the finish line for the second year in a row, which was cool and the entire race was a blast - yes, even missing the start line - and it was time to get home and start the turkey!
Happy Soles
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| American Fresh Tap Room in Assembly |
For the local folks reading this, you're probably familiar with Slumbrew beer. You might NOT know, that Slumbrew has a running group that participates in the Cambridge 5k races throughout the year. I've had a great time running the Big Bad Wolf 5 Mile Trail Run and the Oktoberfest 5k with the Slumbrew Happy Soles and will be joining them again for the Yulefest 5k on December 14.
Slumbrew has just opened the American Fresh Tap Room in Somerville's Assembly Row and kicked off what is soon to be a monthly 5k run from the new space! The inaugural run was on Sunday, November 11 and was a lovely 3.1 mile run around the Mystic River and through Assembly Row. I can't wait to add this monthly run to my repertoire!
Knee Update - The Good, The Bad and The Torn
As you all know, I've been dealing with pain in my knee since running the BAA Half Marathon in October. It has kept me from running as much as I would like to out of fear of injuring myself more than I already am. Well, I finally had an appointment with a sports medicine doctor today who, after about 30 seconds of messing with my knee said I had to torn meniscus and would have to have an MRI and arthroscopic surgery.
I normally would have felt totally freaked out, but the doctor really talked matter-of-fact with me about how common this injury is and how easy it is to take care of, that I really feel comfortable with what needs to be done. I am looking forward to getting it over with so I can finally put my energy into my training and NOT into worrying about me knee.
The good news is that given the type of injury I have, I can't make it any worse by continuing to run, so pain aside I can keep running and training.
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