26 Going on 26.2: 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.