United Airlines, Oh, The Joy!

Oy vey!  

Usually, I'm quite the laid-back, friendly, easy-going, not to mention handsome, philanthropic, and a perfect gentleman, but I had quite the 'vacation' this week in Las Vegas. United Airlines was kind enough to extend it by a day and, well, read my letter to them (sent today) for a snippet of my state of mind for the past couple of days. 

I'll update everyone with their response, but I had to get this one off my chest. 

Really, I have to get over it. I've spent the last 3 days at this point trying to control my blood pressure, as the tiniest of sideways looks get me to nearly explode. This is a great form of venting though, and what I've been trying to keep in mind was the fact that I did have a good vacation for the first three days, and beyond that, there's plenty else in the world that's worse than an extra day in Las Vegas, not that it was the happiest day ever there.

Still though, I was a tad upset, and I've channeled that energy into a strongly-worded letter, which is also hopefully entertaining for y'all. 

Enjoy! 

To whom it may concern,

I am writing today to inform United Airlines of my recent experience using your services, and to inform you of my decision to no longer use your airline for domestic flights unless absolutely necessary.

When I told friends and family about my trip to Las Vegas, an annual tradition for me and a friend from home, the first comment I got from many people was “good luck with United!” Having flown with you last year, with minimal issues (outside an airline’s control, at least), my reply was to hope for the best and rely on my good luck traveling with you in the past.

However, after my vacation began on Saturday, May 10^th, 2014, with a flight from Providence, RI, to Chicago, IL, that would be the end of my good experiences with UA. My vacation was subsequently cut short by not one, not two, but three separate customer service, informational, or mechanical issues, and that is without placing any extra emphasis on the final and worst issue. I realize there are certain things beyond an airline’s control when flying, and I certainly don’t place blame on United for those issues that are outside your control, but the response to those issues is far more important to me.

In my opinion, your response, for lack of a more eloquent way to put it at the moment, sucked.

First, the most minor and easy-to-understand issue  was  a mechanical issue with our plane on Saturday, May 10^th, when backing out of the gate in Chicago. It wasn’t a huge deal, mechanical issues are great to know about before takeoff, but we were told by the flight crew that, lucky for us, we had another plane to board, a few gates down, and we would be getting out as soon as we could get boarded and luggage moved. However, that plane wasn’t actually there. It took another 45 minutes, in fact, for that plane to arrive, an additional 30 minutes to prepare it, 30 minutes to board, and 30 to eventually get out, causing a total delay of about 3 hours to get to our destination. Again, this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of flight issues, but I appreciate honesty and the accuracy of the information given to me. Peace-of-mind goes a long way in flying and traveling in general, so just knowing the situation, for me, goes a long way in how I look back on the experience. However, the way that issue was handled, with United representatives telling 150+ people that they’d get right onto a different plane and right out, was not only incorrect, it was dishonest, because someone certainly had to know there wasn’t actually another plane waiting. That situation luckily did not affect me beyond arriving 2.5 hours late, since my final destination was Las Vegas, but to anyone looking to make a connecting flight, I hope they did not rely on your inaccurate information. That was the first issue.

The second dealt with my check-in for my flight on Tuesday, May 13^th, and also should have been very minor. When I attempted to check in online using confirmation codes or other information on Monday, the United website repeatedly was unable to find my reservation. I had to call and speak to a representative, which took a 45 minutes of the rep asking the same information (confirmation codes, names, flight #’s, etc), only to tell me that I may need to speak to a travel agent to re-book a new flight. And after this 45 minute run-around of the same 6-letter confirmation (by the way, the code is AKDQMQ, don’t worry, I’ve memorized it by now!), the conversation ended with me getting the correct email with my boarding passes, with the same confirmation code I had been using for the past hour. Again, I’m not entirely certain what causes issues like that, technology is a funny thing, but the response is more important, and the response this time was a simple ‘have a nice day’. I didn’t mind too much at the time, since I anticipated that phone call being the last of my issues, but an apology or some sort of explanation of what went wrong would have been nice. And, not having the first suggestion be “book another flight” would have been great too. Still though, my ‘vacation’ was still shaping up pretty well.

And then it unraveled on Tuesday, May 13^th, around 11AM.

The final straw was smoke in an FAA building in Chicago. Or rather, the final straw was United Airline’s way of dealing with the chain reaction and meltdown that followed. Again, a malfunction in a ventilation system is far, far beyond an airline’s control. And again, United’s response was abysmal.

Luckily, I was not one of the people that had to board and de-plane our aircraft 4 times that morning and afternoon. That joyous experience was only reserved for the elderly, active military, passengers with babies, and passengers with disabilities. I only physically boarded once, but some of my fellow travelers made it onto, and back off the plane FOUR times (presumably, the last time they were actually allowed to board, fly to Chicago, and get off the plane), and I find that somewhat absurd. After the situation began, I immediately looked it up on my phone, and it seemed like the entire time from then on, I was better informed of the situation and better understood the impact of it than United, which is hard for me to believe. Instantly, when there is a fire in an FAA building, 800+ flights were grounded for precautions, across two airports, which makes perfect sense given the importance of those folks at the FAA. I have no issue with being grounded for smoke, fire, or any sort of potentially dangerous situation.

However, we were subsequently told by United representatives, on two separate occasions, that if we could board as quickly as possible, we could get out in X minutes and hopefully many of us could make connections or get to our respective destinations, which sounded good. Too good to be true, actually. Since I had been checking from the minute the problem occurred, I was aware of the fact that at the time there were over 800 flights at two major airports grounded, delayed, re-routed, or cancelled. United had to have access to this same information, yet every time I checked United.com to check my reservation for my ORD to PVD flight that evening, it still said I would board at 6:30PM local time, and arrive at 10:10PM. Calls to United’s 800 number mentioned a ‘weather issue’ causing delays and heavy call volumes, and a promise of a longer-than-expected wait time. However, I didn’t wait on the phone. After going through the ever-so-fun-and-easy 10 step method to explain to your automated server what my issue was, I was promptly disconnected.

Additionally, it took until that fourth and final boarding of our flight (7 full hours after we arrived at the airport) to finally be able to speak to a United representative live and pry the most important piece of information - to my friend and I - out of him: the fact that our flight to Providence was, as I had a feeling it would be, cancelled.

He casually mentioned we could certainly still go to Chicago, but in the meantime he wouldn’t be able to find us anything to Providence right then, or pay for a hotel for us in either location, since this wasn’t a ‘United Airlines’ issue, it was an ‘FAA issue’. I informed him I didn’t have a house in Chicago, and thus that would be unacceptable since we were trying to get to Providence. Again, I understand the FAA versus United issues, I understand the nightmare that must come out of having to re-book and re-work over 1000 flights-worth of passengers’ issues, but at the same time, be a little realistic with your passengers. Telling me twice that I need to board as quickly as possible sounds great, but every other source I’m looking at is telling me that there are still massive delays, cancellations, re-routings, and all sorts of issues. The words “meltdown situation” were used in one article I read. I heard of other airlines cancelling much earlier, and re-booking their passengers, which would have been greatly, greatly appreciated. Any sort of feeling that United was going out of its way to improve the situation would have been appreciated. Instead, I consistently got the impression that everyone I spoke with was trying, essentially, not to be the bearer of bad news and to pass the buck to the next person to tell me. I don’t really need that when flying. It’s stressful enough as is, what I need is accurate information and again, peace-of-mind. A hotel room would have also been wonderful. I found it hard to believe that one option to rectify my situation was to fly me to Houston, then to Philadelphia, then to Providence, or even connect more ways and at who knows what cost, but a $35 hotel room (which is what I ended up Hotwiring later on, $70 after taxes and a resort fee) was out of the question in either Las Vegas or Chicago.

At no point did I feel that any person I spoke with through these three separate issues was going above or beyond to help me out or in any way rectify the issues that occurred. In fact, it felt like no one was willing to take even a centimeter step in the right direction, and in a customer service industry, I had thought the customer experience was paramount to getting repeated business. Rest assured, this week and the problems involved has led me to conclude that I won’t be flying United Airlines any time in the foreseeable future.  

Once more though, my main complaint is not with the actual issues, but the response. I would greatly appreciate speaking to another representative of your airline regarding my experience, at your earliest convenience. Should you need any more specific information regarding flight numbers, itineraries, passengers, any sort of documentation, or even to hear of a few more of the stories of other passengers whose experiences were even worse than mine (I’m single, I don’t have to worry about babysitters, a family, and luckily have a job with a very understanding group of people who were supportive of my situation, but that wasn’t the case with many other of those people), please let me know when you respond. I am more than happy to speak with anyone over the phone, at XXX-XXX-XXXX (cell), or via email at eharms1@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from someone soon. 

Thank you,

Ed Harms

Is It April 20th, 2015 Yet?

In a word, wow. 

To sum it up, it was the absolute perfect day. 

Described in great detail, in a couple thousand words, it was....

Incredible. I don't even know where to start. Now that the euphoria of crossing that finish line is finally wearing off, after a solid week-and-a-half-long runner's high, I can finally look back and reflect on the past year and a half, and man...what a year and a half it was! 

Reflections: watch your step, folks, this post is gonna get pretty deep

This is exactly what I wanted last year. The chance to look back and think about the year that was. To think about the teammates I had trained with, the friends I made, the money I raised for the Stork Fund, the run I just accomplished, my time, and my goals going forward. I wanted to tell all my teammates what a great job they did. I wanted to see friends at the finish line, get a drink with 100 other salty and exhausted people, and soak up the rest of what had been an awesome day to that point. 

At about 2:48, I finally got through the finisher's area and was just beginning to start my reflection and put on my finisher's jacket. Those first moments were shattered along with windows, limbs, and lives the very next instant. In the extremely surreal week that followed, I felt cheated, to say the least. I was angry at the perpetrators, sad that my friends were unable to finish, guilty that I did, unsure of how proud to feel. 

My view of the finish line on April 15th, 2013, a block from the first bomb

Regarding the Boston Marathon and marathons in general, you can buy books or read articles on how to prepare. How to train, what to eat, when to taper, the best ways to recover. You can check out elevation maps, take a virtual tour of the course, you can even find a Boston-specific pace calculator that tells you exactly how fast to run each mile based on a goal time, and what obstacles you'll be facing within that mile. However, there's no guide on what to do in the event of a terrorist attack. Even though I'm sure we all had a great support system around us (I know I did), you're on your own. There were a lot of emotions, a lot of complex feelings that I had to sort out in my head before I could even think about moving forward with my life, but there was one thing that was clear: I had to run 2014, and I had to do it with my Second Family. 

Fast forward to 9:00 or so, Monday, April 21st, 2014. A day literally a year and a half in the making. The weeks leading up were full of stress, emotion, and anticipation. Every mention of the word 'marathon' rang in my head. Every time I saw the names or faces of Lu Lingzi, Sean Collier, Krystle Campbell, or most of all, Martin Richard, I welled up a bit. Every siren made me a bit jumpy. Stunts like the one pulled on Boyleston a few days earlier had me so anxious it wasn't even funny. 

So imagine my stress level at the starting line at 9AM: 

Foreground: STF teammate & new friend Mike lets the nerves get to him

Not what you pictured? Yea, I have to say, me neither. I think part of it was that I just didn't have any room left for nerves or stress. I worked my ass off with my team for over a year to get there with those people, and knowing it was finally our chance at finishing what we started was comforting. Clearly! The anticipation of getting to that point, though, had killed me for a year or more. Now that the moment had arrived, there was nothing to be anxious or nervous about any more. Just time to get out there and have some fun. 

Me with 32,000 of my closest friends, about to have the time of our lives.

Fun doesn't really begin to describe it, however. There are no words that exist that could accurately describe it. I decided a few days before that my goals for time and performance were basically useless. My overall goal to this day will be to one day qualify for Boston (3:05 for my age group, yikes!), but that day, I had one goal only: enjoy every last second of it that I could. There was no need to put any additional pressure on myself, no need to look back if I ran 3:06 to find out what went 'wrong'. There could not have been anything 'wrong' about this run, unless I created a problem in my own head. Thankfully though, it never came to that, and I was able to quite easily accomplish my goal.

I had a freaking blast. I still am. And, even at a comfortable pace, even in weather a solid 20 degrees above any training run the entire year, I ran 16 seconds faster than last year. 

3:26:18 - PR, Baby!

Even now, almost 2 weeks later, I still have a grin ear to ear when anyone asks about it, comments on my jacket (that may as well have been sewn onto me the week after), or when I check the CharityTeams Facebook group, which happens on average about once every 14 seconds. I simply cannot get enough of this event, or the people I get to associate with while running it and training for it. Though I've told people each of the last 2 years during training "I'm not sure I want to do next year", as soon as I get to about mile 3 in the actual race, all I can think is "next year is going to be AWESOME!" Such is the disease myself and a lot of my new-found friends are afflicted with. 

And man, I'm just fine with that. Again, I can't describe to you the feeling of running down Boylston with thousands of people cheering. Unless you're a professional athlete or have run Boston yourself, you probably don't know what I'm talking about either. So to that, I say, come join me. Anyone can do this. To quote our fearless leader, Susan Hurley, "never doubt yourself". She's so, so right. In my two years I've run with everyone from former linebackers (not exactly the 'runner's body' you'd look for in someone running a marathon) to lifelong runners, single parents with 2 kids and full time jobs to retirees, 18 year olds to about 65, the most outgoing people you'll ever meet to the very reserved, and everyone in between. Most are first-time marathoners. Most come to Susan at first thinking there's no way they can find the time to train for a marathon in addition to raising $5,000 or more for charity. All are wrong. 

For anyone who wants to experience it for themselves, send Susan an email. Or me. Though I'm not an official CharityTeams employee, I certainly advocate for them like one. I hope I can do for you what Susan did for me: make me believe, in one short phone call, that I was not just capable of hitting the minimums, but far exceeding my goals, and having a ball the whole time. 

Again though, words just don't do it. Check it out for yourself below, the look on my teammates' faces says it all. Quite simply put: you have to experience this for yourself. I'll help you. I know at least 309 other CharityTeamers who will, too. All you have to do is do what I did, make that first call, email, or facebook request. You won't regret it. 

STF teammate Chuck crossing the finish line

MR8 members and CharityTeamers Susan and Patrick, who happened to find each other in the final yards

Selfie from the author immediately after high-fiving Doug Flutie in mile 7

STF teammate Kristy, seeing one of her biggest fans (me) at the finish

STF teammate Emily, seeing the finish line. Priceless.

Superheroes

I just wanted to share something with you guys in case you missed it on your local Boston-area news station last weekend. 

Or in case you missed it on Boston.com.

Or maybe you didn't do your daily rundown of the Huffington Post. 

Maybe you were on vacation in Kansas City, but you didn't happen to tune in to the local Fox news broadcast that morning. 

You could have even missed it if you were in Washington, San Francisco, Las Vegas, St. Louis, or even Columbus, Indiana. 

Well, now you know. About 300 of us turned out last week to run the final 18 miles of the Marathon course to train (one slight mis-reported detail was that it was not a race...however if it was, I won) and raise awareness for our respective charities. I represented only a small fraction of the stories all over the country above, so I'd say we succeeded. 

Most of us ran in full Superhero costumes, ranging from Quail Man, to the Joker, to Thor (complete with giant homemade hammer), to "Marathon Girl," and other such newly-minted Superheroes. My 'costume' was admittedly a bit simplistic - I ran as Shawn Thornton - but I wanted to stress that, at least in my eyes, people like Shawn or the people who ran 18 miles in full costume last week are already doing heroic things.

I think I've probably mentioned this before, but running sucks sometimes. 

Running in a harsh Boston winter sucks even more. Since the beginning of the year (calendar, not running year), it's snowed at least half a dozen times and temperatures have reached below 25 degrees 43 times. That creates tough road and sidewalk conditions, which makes running even more of a pain. Jumping over snow banks gets pretty old after 12 miles or so, except at this point in the season, you still have 4-8 miles to go. This past weekend when temperatures reached 55 both days, the amount of runners on my usual paths increased exponentially. Those of us who are training for Boston don't really have the luxury of waiting for those pristine late-winter days though, we're out there clad in head-to-toe spandex, 3-5 times a week, regardless.

This happens often.

You get the idea. It's cold and stuff. But, even crazier, that's not even close to where the commitment to Boston 2014 ends. After you've put in 18 miles this morning, after your cool down, stretching, ice bath, 3000 calorie meal, and shower, you've got another job: fundraising. I'd guess that 80% of the people I'm training with this year have to raise the BAA set minimum of $7,500 for charity. The other 20% may have waivers from not finishing last year, or may have even qualified, but the minimum, with waiver, to just to be accepted to one of the teams I run with is $1,000. Most are raising far more than that. 

It's a huge commitment, mentally and physically. However, not one of these Superheroes I run with complains (too much) about the cold. It's pretty much a running joke (see what I did there?) among us now. No one complains about how high the fundraising minimum is. We all have full time jobs in addition to our running lives, but, as often happens when people do something they love, there are no complaints about the time commitment. We couldn't be happier to be a part of this. Sometimes I wonder if I'm smiling too much when I run in the snow. People think it's odd. But I can't get enough of this running season. 

We're getting down to the wire - 40 days to go now - and I have to admit I'll miss it when it's over. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to miss 15 mile runs, in 10 degree weather, on ice, at 8AM. I'm going to miss running with my second family, with whom, over the past year and a half, I've been through a lot. 

The one thing I ask in return: for you to support me or one of the Superheroes with whom I run. Team MR8 for Martin Richard, the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, WalkBoston, GoKids Boston, the NE Patriots Foundation, Dreamfar, Lazarus House, the Doug Flutie Foundation, or my near and dear Shawn Thornton Foundation, to name a few. There are dozens of other charities though, and I encourage anyone reading this to support them in any way you can. Obviously, financial help is great, but words of encouragement go a long way towards making the mental part of it easier. Every time someone shouts "Yea Bruins!" or "Thorty!" when I run by, my stride gets longer, my pace quickens, yet I feel lighter. It's such a simple thing to do, but you don't realize the effect it has on runners in those conditions. It's nice to know other people are taking notice, not just in Boston but around the country. It makes the extra 2-3 hours per day spent on running and fundraising that much easier. So if you're one of those people who donates or encourages, keep doing that. 

Personally, as far as fundraising goes, I'm over the halfway mark at a little over $4,000, so I could use your help! As always, HUGE thank-you's to everyone who's donated so far, and even bigger ones to those who donate in the future. Your support means everything to me. Makes being a Superhero pretty easy. 

An Apple a Day

There's a brief moment of quasi-panic I experience just milliseconds before taking my first bite into an apple. Almost every time. 

It's pretty irrational. I would say 95% of the apples I eat are exactly what I expect them to be; delicious, sweet (or tart, depending), nutritious, nothing wrong with them. But every once in a while, you get that one bad apple. It looks fine, no more or less bruises than the apple you had yesterday, the same shade of red, no funny smells. Only when you take that first bite....

Nothing. The flavor didn't burst into your mouth. The juices didn't run down the side of the apple. There is no tart, no sweet, no tang. You got a mouthful of sand, with a slight hint of artificial apple-seasoning. 

Plus you probably look about as dumb as this kid, holding your sandy apple in two fingers at arm's length as if it now has SARS and you need to put as much physical distance between you and the offending fruit lest you get infected. You've still got a mouthful of dry, mealy apple too, that you're trying to nonchalantly spit out, but you're unable to both spit and maintain your image as a polite, proper, and productive member of society. 

Today's cultures frowns upon wasting food

So you bite the proverbial bullet in your mouth, and swallow it. No other option. Gross. Now, not to be melodramatic, your day is completely ruined. There goes your delicious treat, your pre-workout energy boost, or your train commute snack. You find yourself wandering aimlessly, stumbling through the next 3 minutes of pointless life with a blank expression and an empty tummy. You wonder how things are ever going to right themselves. You contemplate your very existence on earth, and why God lets bad things happen to good people.

Again, not to exaggerate the feeling of getting a bad apple. 

Sometimes running can be like that. A bad run leaves a bad taste in your mouth just the same as a bad apple does. 

It's just as unsatisfying, and maybe even more frustrating. At least with the apple, you know instantly that your apple is bad. With a bad run, it takes some more time to figure out. You spend an extra 10-20 minutes chewing on your mealy jog before it slowly dawns on you that this is a lost cause. Even on a flat course, you feel as though you're running uphill. You cramp more easily, your form feels off, and you never feel like you're in a rhythm. 

And when you're finally done, you sit with that bad taste in your mouth. Nothing you did beforehand indicated a bad run. You ate the same as before last run. You stretched like normal, you warmed up like normal, the weather isn't all that different than yesterday's run...so what gives? Why hath God forsaken thee? 

Put simply, running just sucks sometimes. Apples are just mealy sometimes. 

95% of the time, as with apples, running will be exactly what you thought it would be. Your interval run is hard, your recovery run is relaxing, and your long run is....well, long. Most of the time you can trace a bad run to an injury, a birthday celebration the previous day, a long layoff, etc. It's just mentally more challenging to deal with a bad run if it's for no reason. 

Your bad apple probably won't be literally screaming at you

Just remember though, like the apple, tomorrow's run is going to be fine again. When you get that bad apple, it might not be blatantly obvious, but recognize it for what it is: the exception rather than the rule. Tomorrow, don't have a mini-panic attack before you even step out the door though. Just take that first bite, realize it's a new day, and forget that bad apples even exist. 

Hell of a Tuesday

Guys, I have terrible news, so brace yourselves.

Iowa lost last night. 

I know, I know, they were at home too! Gotta give credit to Michigan State though, they turned up the D in the second half and Iowa went 1-13 in the last 10 minutes of regulation and OT. Tough, tough loss for the Hawkeyes, who led most of the game, but I'm confident they'll bounce back and be a top 5 seed when March Madness starts. 

The good news is, the rest of the night was fantastic.

First, the CharityTeams group finally made it out to Hell, aka Newton, for our first hill run of the year. Cold weather and snow have forced cancellations the past 2 weeks, but it was awesome to finally get back out there and do some hard running with a great group of people. I'm actually going to write another post specifically about training and my running schedule, so I'll delve into more detail about the format of hills and the people involved in a later post.

I'll stop beating around the bush now though. Ok, maybe a little more messing around:

The REAL reason I'm writing this post today is because I had my first fundraising event, A Very Special Trivia Night, yesterday evening at Common Ground Bar & Grill in Allston. Geeks Who Drink, a Denver-based organization, runs the trivia sessions every Tuesday, but for a minuscule (i.e. $0.00) fee, they'll put on the exact same trivia night, only with an entry fee of your choice, with all the money raised going to a) a cash prize, and b) the charity of your choice. It's a really fun way to get people out on a Tuesday, have a ton of fun, and raise money for charity, all with zero stress of having to cover room or DJ fees, or that sort of thing. Great stuff.

I'm usually there for trivia each and every Tuesday with my team, Dikembe Mutombo(a decade-long trivia name for my friends, dating back to high school), along with 6-7 other teams on average during the winter. Yesterday we doubled that, 16 teams showed up in support, helping me raise $215.00 for the Shawn Thornton Foundation. 

Our winners, apparent local-trivia-ringers Quiz in My Pants, were one of the few teams who I didn't know, but they still came out, donated, had a great time and ended up essentially eating and drinking for free. Read the full recap, along with YOUR results, answers, and of course, the all-important team names, on the Geeks Who Drink blog here. It's written by the Quizmaster, Corey (I won't use last names, he's kind of a big deal and I don't want to blow up his spot), who donated an additional $50 himself. 

To everyone who came, who braved 12 degree weather, who did the hill runs with me then didn't shower(I didn't mind, I didn't shower either) and came right over, who came over from Somerville (I know it's only 4-5 miles, but it's a Big Deal to cross the river), or who just came down the street for a few minutes to say hello, thank you. I've been pretty excited for this to happen for a couple months now, and the reception was incredible. Seemed like everyone had a good time, win or lose, and I've already had several people ask me when the next one is, or tell me they're coming out to more trivia nights in the future. I love that, the more people who are involved, the more fun it is, so if I do end up doing this again, I'd love to see the same people there, and more! 

So thanks for making my night, week, and month. You all get huge, awkward high-fives for that.

The grand total I've raised for the STF at the moment stands at $1,877, or almost exactly a quarter of the way to my $7,500 goal. I still need some help folks, but nights like these are so, so encouraging. Distance running can be a pretty lonely sport at times, but knowing I have so much support behind me makes it so much easier. My legs may be tired today, but man, I'm as excited as ever to run. 

Oh yea, and by the way, the Bruins won, and Shawn scored on Tim Thomas. He was excited.
Hell of a day. 

Talk Nerdy to Me

18 Weeks. 

Minus one day. April 21st 2014 will be here before you know it, and I've got work to do. The easy part? 

This. 

For those of you who are counting, that's about 450 miles to wrack up in the next 5 months. Now look outside. From my window, it's about 4 degrees. It's snowing. It's only supposed to get worse. Winter hasn't even started yet, technically. And this is the easy part! 

The hard part is finding ways to raise $7,500. As of this moment, I'm 1/10th of the way there, which is SUPER exciting that it came so fast, but at the same time there's a long way to go. 

In order to make donating JUST as fun as running (or more!), I've come up with my first fundraising event: a Quiz for a Cause put on by Geeks Who Drink. I play pub trivia most Tuesday evenings at Common Ground in Allston, but Tuesday, January 28th at 8:00 pm will be A Very Special Trivia Night for me and for the Shawn Thornton Foundation. 

How it works: 

-$5 per person for everyone who wants to play and donate. Note: you can play if you don't want to donate, however you will NOT be eligible to win prizes, and you WILL be ridiculed. (Just kidding)

-Max team size: 6 people (teams with more than 6 are ineligible for prizes...split up!)

-The prize purse will be based on the number of teams at the event. 1 entry per team goes to the prize pool, i.e. if there are 10 teams of 5, 10 x $5 = $50 for the prizes, and the rest (4 x $5 X 10 = $200) goes to charity. 

-The trivia format itself is 8 rounds, 8 questions per round, 1 point per question unless otherwise noted. More specific trivia rules will be discussed at the event. 


That's pretty much it! The best part is that Geeks Who Drink does this completely free of charge, out of the kindness of their own hearts. If you ever have the need for fundraising pub trivia, I would highly, highly recommend them. Very easy to set up, deal with, and extremely friendly and a home-grown-type business out of Denver, CO. They do private events too, or look around your neighborhood for regularly-scheduled trivia events. Also, I swear I'm not getting paid for any of this. I'm just excited to work with GWD on this type of event, and they're excited too. 

Hope to see you there! Check the Facebook event (linked above) for more details closer to the date. 

The Shawn Thornton Foundation/Excitement

Ok, so I'll try to make this one short. That's typically what I think each time I post, and you can see the results. I tend to ramble. I'll also try not to do exactly what I did after my last post - which is disappear for long periods at a time. However, this time, there was a good reason for my absence: I hadn't yet been accepted to run for a charity.

My wait went down to the wire, the last day to be accepted to a team was November 22nd, and I just squeaked in at 3:24pm. If you've read this blog since about August, you know I've been waiting a while for this. Actually I've been planning on running this year since about 2:15pm on April 15th, 2013 (seconds after finishing my first and only marathon thus far), and right now I couldn't be happier to be a part of 2014 for 2 reasons:

1) The Shawn Thornton Foundation. Last year, I ran for Team Stork, a fantastic organization dedicated towards not only health babies, but educating parents and helping those in need raise healthy babies. It was an incredible group of people, but unfortunately this year I've changed jobs, and thus had to find a new charity. I couldn't be prouder to join Shawn Thornton. 

For those of you who don't know, Shawn plays hockey for the Boston Bruins, and is the epitome of a leader on and off the ice. Whether it's standing up for his teammates after a cheap-shot, hosting a charity golf tournament  with Daniel Paille and Tuukka Rask, hoisting his 2nd Stanley Cup,  holding his annual Cuts for a Cause fundraiser, or just showing up at my new place of employment to shake hands, inspire hope, and promote the Jimmy Fund, Shawn is a prominent figure in the Boston community. 

Please take some time, look up his foundation, look up his work around Boston, read these stories. I hope it inspires you as it's inspired me. I hope to have even 1/100th of the impact Shawn has on a daily basis with my fundraiser, but I couldn't do it without you, the reader. Which brings me to my other reason I'm pretty excited to run this year.

2) Last year was pretty intense. Simultaneously one of the best and worst days of my life, though I prefer to think of it more in a positive light than a negative one. The atmosphere of the city was electric all day, I couldn't get enough of the crowd, the energy, other runners cheering encouragement to each other, all the stories that ended up coming out of that day, my other friends running, the support from my friends and family watching on phones or live, everything. It was such an incredible experience for me, one I wouldn't have forgotten anyways even if nothing happened afterwards.

However, something did, and those events changed me, the Boston Marathon, and the city itself afterwards. We came back, we got stronger, and we came together. The outpouring of support for the victims - even for me, though I was physically fine - was overwhelming. People across the country and even the world were asking where I was, how I was. They still ask. The OneFund still gets donations by the thousands. The spirit of the city of Boston still shows every day, on shirts, pins, bumper stickers, license plates, hats, gloves, you name it - but more importantly in the actions of the residents. There are so many incredible stories that came out of the tragedies of 4/15/13, and throughout my training and with this blog I'll try to share some of those with you, because truly that's a huge part of my inspiration to run this year.

In short, I hope to inspire people to help others through my training this year, just as I've been inspired to do this by people I know and admire. 

One way you could help RIGHT NOW, is to donate to my cause, and help support the amazing work Shawn Thornton does through his foundation. Since I've just spent the last hour or so reading and writing about it, I decided to start the party myself and donate. Your move, blog reader. 

Note to self: keep it shorter next time. 

Ready to Rock N' Roll

Picture the starting line: it's 7:05AM in Providence. 4,000 or so runners line up in more than a dozen corrals on Gaspee street near the Providence mall, wisps of steam rising from their heads in the morning fog. Katy Perry blasts over the speakers, followed by Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory". The race director, in a polite English accent, asks for everyone's patience as they clear the last few cars off the 13.1 miles of road ahead - "for everyone's safety". 

My first thought is, "do these guys know Rock n' Roll, or what?" 

Ok, I was a little grumpy. I woke up at 5:30, shivering, on a friend's couch in his spider-infested house. On top of that, my first mile of the race was dreadful. I was stiff, slow, cold, and I forgot my watch. 

But ah, the beauty of long-distance running. Once I got over being a miserable bastard, I was ready to race again. After a few more slow, steady miles, I gradually picked up the pace. By the end of it all, I finished with a Personal Record - 1:32.45, 30 seconds faster than my previous best at the New Bedford half earlier this year.

What this made me realize? I'm awful at racing. 

By that, I don't mean I'm slow, necessarily. Just that, for my current level of training and ability, I feel as though I should be able to easily achieve the times I've been hitting. Take this race, for example. I had originally planned on running around 7:30/mile. I was grumpy and distracted for the first few miles, took it easy for the middle of the race (that was part of the pre-race plan), but when I realized I was already going far faster than anticipated, I stepped it up hard for the last 5k, and kinda lost steam in the last 1/2 mile or so. If I was more consistent in my splits, or ran a smarter race (i.e. THINKING the whole time instead of just the last few miles), there's no reason I couldn't be hitting these times and far better ones even today. Ok, maybe not today. I'm still a bit sore. 

But the point is, I need to get better at this. My overall goal for the 118th Boston Marathon is to qualify for the 119th Boston Marathon, so I need to be smart about it. Qualifying times are 3:05 for my age group, so I need to actually run slightly faster per mile at Boston as I did in Providence. Half of the plan to reach those splits is to train hard and smart for the next 6 months, but the other, possibly bigger half, is to get better at the whole racing thing. 

I'll accept any pre-race rust-shaking techniques, in-race tips, tricks, mental bargaining, etc. I need to use the next 6 months to work on this sort of thing so I can maximize my potential. I almost feel as though I still don't have a baseline time for a half marathon to work against, simply because I get better at racing each time I go out for one. I'm training at the same time too, but it's hard to tell what gains are made with training versus with race technique. 

Ok, now I'm done complaining. Really, I should be much more excited, it's just strange to think I ran a bad race AND PR'ed. This is how excited I was at the time, though: 

The good news? I get another crack at this in just 2 weeks for the BAA half. I have to say, the one good thing that comes from not running your best race is the motivation for next time. And given the proximity to 'next time', I'm feeling pretty good about it. I'm ready to Rock again.

Just....less Katy Perry this time, please.

More details and results for the Rock n' Roll Providence Half Marathon can be found here.

The Waiting Game

My wait continues. Over a month after registration began, I waited. I watched deadlines come and go for qualified runners and deferred runners who didn't finish last year. I waited as other charities opened their registrations and started filling their teams. I waited and waited, sometimes I even waited patiently, and yesterday was the day. Kind of. It was, at least, FINALLY my turn to apply. 

So what do I do now? I wait. My charity (which I still won't name given that I haven't officially been accepted yet) is new to the Marathon this year, and as such took a bit more time getting set up. So I'm again playing the waiting game until I hear back for sure, and it's getting harder. 

I need better things to focus my energy on than watching my inbox. To pass the time, I've decided to work on some fundraising strategies. One of the most important parts of my fundraising last year was actually starting this blog. Almost overnight, my fundraising efforts doubled, and I was able to hit my $5,000 goal with weeks to spare. 

Those figures are actually kind of amazing given the stats I've been looking at. Google tracks page views by post, and I can remove my own views (seriously just about cuts the views in half) so I can see just how many people read each post, and when. From March to April, my first 5 posts, I averaged just under 38 views per post. I don't really know if I was expecting more or less, but I think raising about $3,500 on 38 views per post from March to April isn't half bad. 

My one post-race entry? 456 views. Holy crap. Now I'm working on how to get those types of numbers without any bombs going off. 

To achieve that, I'm adding a few things. First, and sorry that I didn't realize before, it seemed comments were disabled unless you were registered, or signed in, or something. Now it should allow you to comment any time, and please feel free to do so, or send feedback on any aspect of the blog. I also added a couple of widgets to follow me on Google+, so feel free to add me to your Circles of Trust and I'll do the same. I'm also going to add a couple polls on fundraising ideas and some other things once they come up, but all in all, I want this to be more interactive. Actually, in reality I'm just starved for attention. I crave it, and I need an audience to play to. Ok, not really, but it would still be great to see some more comments and feedback. I do read it and I will respond! 

So here's my plea for now: whenever you see a post (and actually read it), share it on Facebook. Add me on Google+. Take my picture and put it on the bulletin board of your local coffee shop next to a few dozen ads for guitar lessons or 1-man recreations of the entire Harry Potter series. Just make sure you throw the blog address or title in there somewhere, too. Whatever you do, even if it's just clicking one 'share' button, it's going to help, and it means a lot to me. I'd love to start seeing these page-view counters get up into the hundreds by the time I'm ready to run in 2014. 

Now I'm going to wait again. And see if any of these changes helped. I'll certainly be checking to see if YOU read this. 

I'm Back!

It feels great to be back. Well, I didn't really go anywhere, just into Blog Hibernation, but nonetheless, I'm back, running, and blogging. And there's much to discuss.

First, like you didn't already know: the JT(and Jay-Z) show was awesome. Here are some awful pictures to prove it:

Hopefully in 2014 there will be a similar concert and therefore a similar raffle. If not, I'll find something to raffle off, and if not? I'll put on a concert and sing some JT and Jay Z myself. Trust me, I know the words. 

Second, in regards to April 15th, 2013, my last blog post, and the 4(4! It's been that long!?) months since: thank you EVERYONE who helped. All of you. Who reached out first to encourage, then congratulate, then to console, then to keep in touch. Thank you. I can't say that enough, and those simple words don't seem to convey enough, but it's all I can come up with at the moment. 

Next on the list: the B.A.A. Half Marathon and the charity implications. 

For those of you who don't know me, I recently changed jobs and hospitals, going from the Brigham to Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, this means I won't be running for the AWESOME Team Stork, but I would encourage everyone to please visit their website anyways. It includes pictures and stories from last year, as well as information on how you can help support 2 victims of 2013 who weren't actual Team Stork members, but close friends: Jeff Bauman and Michelle Mahoney. Though you may have only seen pictures of Jeff, he and Michelle were both waiting for Team Stork runner Erin Hurley at the finish line and were both severely injured when the first bomb went off. 

So while I will not be officially affiliated with the Brigham this year, Team Stork remains near and dear to my heart. On the other hand, I am extremely excited to run the Half Marathon for Dana Farber. DFCI was one of the first organizations to be included in the Boston Marathon's official Charity Program in 1990, and has raised more than $56 million for charity since then. To run the Half Marathon, I need to raise just $500 (waaaaaay less, in fact, just a tenth of what you guys helped me do in April!) for this fantastic organization by October 12th, 2013. Please donate what you can or if you can, my personal page can be found here.

Last on my list for today, registration for the 118th Boston Marathon opened this week. A quick tease: I'm trying to work some things out regarding the charity I'll be running for come April, but I can't reveal anything just yet. Hopefully it'll all work out, I'm pretty excited and you know what? You should be too. 

More to come soon.