Why I Run - Part 2

What a night. 

Last night, Team MR8 and the Richard Family hosted Team MR8’s kick-off party at Fenway Park. I met some great new teammates & awesome people, we had incredible guest speakers ranging from the Richard family’s orthodontist to Henry Richard (Martin’s brother), to Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, we learned about some of the new partnerships Team MR8’s dollars will support, and most importantly, came together in support of an amazing cause.

A slightly blurry shot of the jumbotron the Red Sox set up for us

Most of the work for the presentation of MR8’s mission, values, and future/current projects was done by Martin’s father, the incomparable Bill Richard. His voice never wavered as he called person after person who shared their most personal memories of Martin, what running for the team meant to them, or even, for Charlie Baker, just what being a parent means to him, and how he relates to the Richard family in that way. Even having never met Martin, I can barely talk about him without my voice cracking here or there, or getting a bit choked up. I have no idea how this family does it, but I got a quick glimpse into how they keep moving forward last night.

To paraphrase Bill, we cannot choose the challenges that life throws at us. We can choose how we face those challenges, and how we respond to them. Powerful words from a man and a family that has been through so much, yet still has such an amazing, positive view on the world.

I choose to run for Martin. I choose to run for Bill, Denise, Henry, and Jane. I choose to run with my teammates and spread Martin's message of Peace to everyone I can. I choose to hang out with them, sweaty and smelly, post-run to get brunch and talk about our newest fundraising ideas. And I choose to get as many other people (YOU!) involved in this as I can. 

I met some first-time Boston Marathoners last night who were nervous to come out to group runs, thinking they may not have anything in common with the rest of the group because they were too young. When I thought about it, it's true: most of us have so little in common. There are 65 year-old banking lawyers with their own practices. 50-year old mothers of 3. 40-year old fathers of autistic children. Full time students. Teachers. Doctors. Even former Patriots. Then there's me - the ultimate black sheep - a New Hampshire native living in Boston with all the wrong sports loyalties, Yankees, Knicks, Giants, random Baltimore Ravens and Colts, you name it, I don't fit in with the rest of the people I run with. Not in that sense. But we do have one extremely important thing in common: we all run for things like MR8. For what's important to us. That's more than enough for us all to consider each other 2nd families at this point. 

And I love answering those first-time questions every time, because by the end of the night, everyone left with new ideas and re-assurance for sure, but also with a renewed sense of 'this is why I'm here', and a huge smile on their faces. I love that stuff. It's so easy to run for this team. And with the rest of my CharityTeams family. I hope to eventually talk to as many people as I can from both CharityTeams as well as my donors and supporters to infect them with the same enthusiasm I have. 

Shouldn't take long. I'll get around to you soon. 

So please join me in supporting the Richard family, and give to this amazing cause today! Either a straight donation works, or I have SEVERAL fundraisers going on right now (Super bowl squares here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1187h_TPtUWChuciOWW7HUTIu3cc4ny4OktqOJ90rIJg/edit#gid=0) as well as a planned Trivia Night (February 18th, 7:30, Phoenix Landing in Cambridge), and a Bertucci's dining voucher for Wednesday, February 25th at the Children's Hospital location. Look for all those facebook events and reminders this weekend.

http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/EdHarms/bostonmarathon2015

As Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow

For a man I never met, probably never even came within 10 miles of, talked to, or even tweeted at, I just realized that Stuart Scott sure had one hell of an impact on me.

In all my life, I've shed a tear for one person I never met. That was Martin Richard. That fact changed this morning as I began writing this post, listening to Rich Eisen say goodbye for the tenth time or so. Already today, Hannah's Storm's farewell message (just one of them, there are dozens...please ignore the name of the uploader...) has well over 2.3 million views as of the moment I write this. 

If you don't know who he is, this post will probably make absolutely zero sense to you. I won't even bother trying to describe who he was as a sports anchor, words will fall woefully short and in the end, you probably still wouldn't think he was any different than, say, Peter Jennings. And though Peter was an incredibly talented and well-respected news anchor himself, his passing was a sad moment for sure, but nothing like this. I'll just try to put into words how he fits into my life. 

Simply put, he was a part of my morning, afternoon, or night, since 1993. From '93 until 2004 when I graduated high school, my morning was: Wake up. Brush teeth. Take shower. Go downstairs. Pour bowl of cereal. Put on SportsCenter. Every day. On days I stayed home from school, I laid on my couch with a blanket and watched the same SportsCenter on repeat until 1pm or whenever it happened to run to that day - only taking a break at 11am for the Price is Right, of course. Every year, at the end of the year, SC runs a special showing just about every "This Is SportsCenter" commercial they can pack into an hour long special...and every year I watch it, tape it, and watch it again. Every year, I watch the Espy's, not really to see who won Best Female Athlete, but to watch Jim Valvano's speech from the same year that Stuart Scott went on the air. Again, for the millionth time. It gets better every year.

I love sports. Sports have been a part of who I am my entire life. A huge part. From tee ball at 6 years old (we were undefeated if I recall correctly. I was absolutely awful, played right field, mark of a bad ballplayer when you're 6, but loved it anyways), to rec league basketball, to high school golf team, to college club teams, to my current part-time job as a marathoner, Stu Scott has been there for it all. Telling me who went 'bonkers' last night and dropped 50 points (probably Jordan), giving me catch phrases to use at the playground, sitting back and saying to myself, "damn, that'll be on the top 10 tomorrow", when I hit a nice shot in golf or made a great pass in basketball. 

To a great many people, he was a legend. He practically created the concept of a catch phrase - from something as simple as "Boo Yah!" to the title of this post. When Saturday Night Live spoofs your ability to come up with the most absurd new ways to describe a hockey goal, you're bigger than 'just sports'. Just a guy talking about a silly game where 11 men a side chase around an oblong leather ball for 3 hours. That may be what sports boil down to at the heart of things, but for most of us, at some point, sometime in our lives, tee ball to the big leagues, sports are a big part of us. Until yesterday though, I never looked at Stuart in the same way I may have thought of a guy like Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter (sorry Boston friends who didn't already know - I'm a Yankees fan), or even Shawn Thornton. I didn't really think of him as someone you looked up to when you think about what you want to be when you grow up. But, like the end of that SNL clip illustrates, there's a ton of people out there who aspire to be just like him. To transcend the sports world into entertainment, journalism, and pop-culture with the kinds of things that kids like me would quote literally every day on the playground. All of my friends and I weren't just mini-Marshall Faulks when we played football, we were Stuart Scott, Kenny Mayne, Rich Eisen, Keith Olbermann even. We were writing an episode of SportsCenter while we played our silly games. 

If you've read Those Guys Have All the Fun (if not: read it), the story about the creation of ESPN and SportsCenter as its crown jewel, you may know that originally, ESPN's founders didn't want big personalities as anchors. They wanted it to be totally about the sports. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They didn't want you tuning in to watch Charlie Steiner lose his crap at a Kenny Mayne joke. Well, with the re-hiring in the past couple years of Keith Olbermann, the way Stuart Scott was on TV right up until 2014 for 21 or 22 years straight, I think at some point, ESPN realized how wrong they were. 

Hey, everyone makes mistakes, and if you get really lucky, sometimes your mistakes look like absolute genius. I think that's exactly what happened in this case. 

One of my favorite stories from that book was just the simple fact that Stu and Rich Eisen would moon each other on the highway on their way to work. Again, if you're unaware of ESPN, it's located precisely in the Middle Of Nowhere. Nothing to do except work, go home, and come back. But Those Guys Had SO Much Fun, they messed around with each other even while driving to work, let alone on the job. I love my job and Dana Farber, but I sit silently on the E line and do the crossword in the Metro every day. I wish I had that much fun commuting!

As I've gotten older and like many other old high school friends, I've sort of grown apart from ESPN, I have to admit. SportsCenter may be a little too much entertainment now, in one man's humble opinion. And without the guys I grew up with, like Stuart, it's just not the same, is all. It's still typically the first channel I turn on when I flip the TV on after work, though I might not spend countless hours a day with it any more. 

Sports are still a huge part of me though, and as such, Stuart and the rest of those classic SC anchors will forever remain a part of who I am. That's the best I can put it. The world lost a great man yesterday, and I feel in a way, I lost an old friend. 

So I'll leave you and echo Rich Eisen's final words from the clip above: tonight, in his honor, before you go to sleep, flip your pillow over to the cool side. 

I'm gonna miss you, buddy. Even though I never met you.