Hmmm, Maybe I should rephrase that. I suppose I should have said Ezra’s name is going to be on my running shorts! And because he has ass cancer he gets this real estate:
Anyone that donates (via the rather large Donate link on the upper right side of the screen) on my 2014 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge page will have their name also printed somewhere on my shorts. Or arm warmers (depending on the weather). Or hat. Or tube socks (again depending on the weather). I’ll be sending out e-mails to those of you who have donated so far to inquire about what you’d like written.
Speaking of my marathon outfit, I received the team singlet this week and have that in my grubby little paws:
I have to get creative with this at some point in the future. I’ll post photos as I make progress with this. In the meantime, here are some photos of my previous Boston Marathon racing singlets:
2000: Not a whole lot of creativity here, folks. Okay, I didn’t do anything!
2001: My first year with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC). Dedicated my run to my cousin Billy O’Brien who died of melanoma at 19 years of age. I also dedicated this run to my mother, a breast cancer survivor, and her husband Fred, a prostate cancer survivor.
2002: This was my first year to participate in the In Memory program with the DFMC. My former Dana-Farber patient was Joey Franceschelli who died from brain cancer when he was 3 years old. I’ll feature Joey in a future post. The Franceschelli family is a terrific bunch. I also dedicated this run to my friend Ellen Patton’s brother Robes who, coincidentally, died from the same type of brain cancer as Joey.
2007: My friend Suma was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and we were at a Labor Day party together and happened to run into Jan Ross & Jack Fultz who are the big cheeses at the DFMC. Jan encouraged me to run the 2007 Boston Marathon for Suma, and well, I obliged. As luck would have it, I again had Joey Franceschelli as my In-Memory patient. I’ll be including an interview with Suma in a later posting as well as a posting about Joey. Keep your eyes posted!
2009: My good friend Julie has a non-profit called CycleKids and she was fortunate enough to get 15 spots for the Boston Marathon. She asked if I wanted to run and well, I couldn’t say no! Again, not very creative but at least I did my name up nicely.
In other news, the decals and appreciation cards came in:
They look fantastic! Everyone that donates gets a sticker (included with the card that you get)! Perfect for your computer:
Your bike:
Your pet (here’s our lovely chihuahua):
Okay, don’t put one on your pet! They look good just about anywhere though!
On the training front, I’m happy to report I’m back in the saddle. Went to this week’s speed workout at Tufts. I’m taking it slow but am happy I’m making progress. I’ll be doing a majority of my workouts on an Arc trainer for the next few weeks to keep my core up. The Arc trainer experience is not unlike this:
Oh, and as I posted on Facebook, I got a little creative with my Adidas trainers as a shout out to Ezra’s blog:
I’m rotating between my Brooks and these. Still a little superstitious but once I’m back up to speed I might use these more often. On the Facebook front, I’ve started posting a daily photo of Ezra. These are the self portraits he’s done since he was diagnosed with cancer. He’s a wonderfully talented photographer and these really put a face for his disease. Quite literally.
If you’d like to donate, select the wicked laaaahge DONATE! link at the top of the page to navigate to my DFMC 2014 Fundraising Page.