First off, the latest round of amazing people:
HOWARD SHIAU
JOEL MAXMAN
KIMBERLY RUSSELL
KATHY VOYTKO
and
LARRY HELFER
Total to date:
$1,175
I am amazed and know not what to say, except thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
I'm not going to give a race report today, you can see it on the sidebar. I'll post a full report after tomorrow's race. I need to say something to y'all, and the report can wait for another day.
The past few days have been a real wake-up call for me. I am doing a benefit next weekend for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS ("Broadway Bares," I talked about it in an earlier post.) There are about a dozen original dance numbers, and at the first rehearsal of each number a representative from BCEFA comes to thank everyone and give them some more information about the organization. My first rehearsal for Bares was also the first rehearsal of a number. At the end of their presentation, they read a couple of letters from clients who have benefitted from the services. I must have heard these dozens of times in the past, but this time, as soon as Michael started reading the letter, I broke down sobbing. We're not just there to put on a dance show, and sometimes we forget that. Hearing those letters makes you realize just how much your effort means.
It's the same thing with Fred's Team. I think my attitude has been, yes, it's for a good cause, but I'm here to run a marathon. Until I received a letter from my friend Greg, who lost his brother to a brain tumor last year, and is running the MSKCC Rock and Run tomorrow in his memory. Many, if not all of you, have read my most recent missive that featured a portion of that letter, and thank you, Greg, if you're reading this, for allowing me to share it (even if I did send a bunch of letters out before I thought, "I really ought to ask him if this is OK." It is.)
It's a facile thing to say, oh, cancer affects everyone. But it does. It's been in my family, I've lost friends, my friends have lost loved ones, I have two nieces (and a third TBA on the way) and it would devastate me if any of them got cancer...and yet, I still needed to be reminded that there's a reason I'm putting myself out there that has nothing to do with my ability to run 26.2 miles. Maybe it's because last year it kind of was all about me, and I'm not negating the importance of the Aubrey Fund in all of that, it meant a lot for me to be able to raise that money for MSKCC, but it was more about celebrating myself and my recovery from surgery. Well, been there, done that, got lots of t-shirts.
So why am I putting myself back out there? Because I love running marathons? I confess, I don't. The training is brutal. Give me a nice 10K any day. A friend of mine said to me, after her first 5K, "I can't imagine how you run a marathon, I huffed and puffed all my way through the 5K." My response was, "I huffed and puffed all the way through the marathon. The only difference between you and me is that I was too stupid to STOP after 5K."
What I say on my Fred's Team page and in my letters is true -- seeing the children outside of MSKCC last year cheering us on, when we should have been at MSKCC cheering THEM as they face much bigger challenges, played a big part in my decision to run again this year. Because when you see them, it hits you -- this isn't an abstract concept anymore. You are helping those people right there. At a post-marathon reception at MSKCC, one of our Team members, who works at MSKCC and for years helped coordinate getting the children outside on the day, spoke movingly about how much Fred's Team means to them.
Greg's letter was a real smack in the head. It made me realize I'm not running the marathon to prove I can, I proved it last year. And I'm not running it just because I like my Team members (I do, a lot!) or because I like marathon training (I don't, a lot!) It's because my friend Greg lost his brother. It's because another friend, a survivor, has a foot-long scar. It's because there are people on my Team who had cancer, and now they run marathons. It's because an old friend lost his daughter over 20 years ago and still grieves. And it's because everyone has stories like these, both inspirational and devastating, about friends, family members, even themselves. This isn't just "a charity" I'm running for -- it's my friends, my family, the children at mile 18, who need the support to battle this deadly disease, and the physicians and scientists who are working to provide it.
Me running a marathon won't cure cancer. Me explaining why I am running a marathon -- to celebrate the hard-won battles of cancer survivors, and to ensure a future where these battles will no longer be necessary -- will. It is my hope to inspire you to support not just my effort, but the efforts of everyone involved in the fight against this disease.
MSKCC's slogan is: "Imagine a world without cancer." And thanks to the generosity of people like you, I can.
More anon,
xoxo,
MG
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
We begin, as always, with shout-outs:
GREG KORDICK
RASHEEDA GRANT
Total to date:
$675
THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!
I wasn't going to post until after the weekend, but today was one of those days where you'd never have predicted this was going to happen, you know? Nothing huge, just bizarre.
So I'm in computer class, and I get called out by a woman named Patricia. She tells me, "They're doing a photo shoot for Barnes and Noble using some of us, you want to do it?" Apparently this has been in the works for a few days, but someone dropped out at the last minute. Well, I look like poop, but OK. Why not?
Here's the deal: Barnes and Noble publishes a magazine that they put in their college bookstores that have logo clothing and so on. The graphics design firm that creates this magazine is located in the same building as my school. One thing led to another, and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in Battery Park, wearing a Carolina sweatshirt, tossing a football , and later sitting on the grass eating a Dove chocolate bar. Not the way I was expecting to spend my afternoon!
My haul for the afternoon: the sweatshirt, a Clemson t-shirt, a padded laptop computer sleeve, a set of headphones, the chocolate bar, a pair of Crocs (believe the hype, they are comfortable) a day planner, and a $25 B&N gift card.
This weekend, two races -- the NY Mini 10K in Central Park on Saturday and on Sunday I've got the inaugural Rock and Run -- Celebrating Life Beyond Cancer, a benefit for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. MKSCC is the home of FRED'S TEAM and the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research, so I am thrilled to be running in this event. You can read about Fred's Team and MSKCC by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
Oh, and if you want to see more about Broadway Bares, the benefit I'm working on, click this link: http://www.broadwaycares.org/events/bares.cfm I highly recommend the "promo video," it is gorgeous. No, for real. And I promise I'm not in it!!
Must go study for a test now (the way I was supposed to be spending the afternoon.) More after the weekend races.
GO GAMECOCKS!!
GREG KORDICK
RASHEEDA GRANT
Total to date:
$675
THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!
I wasn't going to post until after the weekend, but today was one of those days where you'd never have predicted this was going to happen, you know? Nothing huge, just bizarre.
So I'm in computer class, and I get called out by a woman named Patricia. She tells me, "They're doing a photo shoot for Barnes and Noble using some of us, you want to do it?" Apparently this has been in the works for a few days, but someone dropped out at the last minute. Well, I look like poop, but OK. Why not?
Here's the deal: Barnes and Noble publishes a magazine that they put in their college bookstores that have logo clothing and so on. The graphics design firm that creates this magazine is located in the same building as my school. One thing led to another, and the next thing I know, I'm sitting in Battery Park, wearing a Carolina sweatshirt, tossing a football , and later sitting on the grass eating a Dove chocolate bar. Not the way I was expecting to spend my afternoon!
My haul for the afternoon: the sweatshirt, a Clemson t-shirt, a padded laptop computer sleeve, a set of headphones, the chocolate bar, a pair of Crocs (believe the hype, they are comfortable) a day planner, and a $25 B&N gift card.
This weekend, two races -- the NY Mini 10K in Central Park on Saturday and on Sunday I've got the inaugural Rock and Run -- Celebrating Life Beyond Cancer, a benefit for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. MKSCC is the home of FRED'S TEAM and the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research, so I am thrilled to be running in this event. You can read about Fred's Team and MSKCC by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
Oh, and if you want to see more about Broadway Bares, the benefit I'm working on, click this link: http://www.broadwaycares.org/events/bares.cfm I highly recommend the "promo video," it is gorgeous. No, for real. And I promise I'm not in it!!
Must go study for a test now (the way I was supposed to be spending the afternoon.) More after the weekend races.
GO GAMECOCKS!!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Jewish Guilt, or Runners Have No Manners
First off, it's SHOUT OUT TIME...
DAVID KUZNICK
MICHAEL & LISA MOSSBERG
thank you so much!!
TOTAL TO DATE: $575!!
If you visit my Fred's Team website, you will see that my stated goal is $2500. In reality, it's $5000, but it's one of those things where if you pledge it, you have to raise it, and in case I can't raise it, I can't afford to donate that much cheddar. I haven't sent out all my fundraising pleas yet, and you may recall I can get pretty persistent once I start (!) but at the same time, because I'm in school and not working I don't have the kind of access to people I did last year. But slow and steady, may not win the race but it'll get you across the finish line just the same. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all you lovely people out there reading this, and supporting me.
Did you look at the right side of the page? They are called "sidebars," I think, and they're courtesy of Buckeye Outdoors, a site that caters to all your obsessive training-logging needs. I thought it would be neat to put my training schedule and race records up. It will certainly keep me training, knowing that people will be checking up on me. The one that reports on races just gives a race countdown, doesn't report the race itself. Ah, well.
So today's race was both a really good one and a really bad one, all in one. The good part first -- even though it was a hot and humid day in NYC (my two least favorite conditions to run in) and even though it was 8 in the morning, I managed to clock what was for me an amazing time for a 4-mile race -- 35 minutes and change. I was not expecting to do that well in the heat, and I frankly felt pretty good most of the way, not too winded or anything, although the sprint at the end did leave me a little queasy for a minute or two.
And the bad part? To sum it up, here's an excerpt from the email I sent to NY Road Runners when I got home:
Hello,
I want to bring up an issue that I know you are all aware of, but I feel I need to add my voice.
About half a mile into today's Japan Race, I almost crashed into a pack of three walkers,
as well as the people also trying to avoid them. As I made my way around them I muttered,
"Start with the walkers, dammit!" One of them said something back to me, but I didn't catch
it. They weren't Galloway runners on a walk break, they were walkers. I felt bad about
snapping at them. It was the wrong way to react, but it was in the heat of the moment, a
bunch of people almost got hurt, and I got mad. And it's spoiling a race that was one of my
best, I set a PR.
(A "Galloway runner" is someone who follows the Jeff Galloway marathon (or any race) training plan, which involves periodic walk breaks.)
The letter goes on to talk about the problem of people not lining up at their proper pace time and creating dangerous situations because folks are wiping out trying to pass them.
I blither on:
These races are getting more crowded, and while I'm glad that so many people are
discovering running, they don't have any understanding of race etiquette. Do you think
there is some way to teach these people a little running etiquette, to make these races a
safer, and less frustrating experience for everyone else?
And then I list a couple of suggestions about how to try to accomplish that.
Anyway, I totally over-reacted, I think. Which is eating at me in the same way that every mistake I've ever made eats at me constantly. Jewish guilt -- nothing like it. Except maybe Catholic guilt. Or (insert religion or ethnicity of your choice) guilt. I feel bad, I do, in a lot of ways it ruined the race for me, and I ought to be really happy. In that kind of heat, it was a personal record, and I can't believe my last mile was an 8:13. For me, that's like the freakin' wind. There are some people who talk about running a "nice easy 7-minute mile pace." I couldn't run a 7-minute mile if I was being chased with a pickaxe.
But back to my guilt. It's so funny that this happened, because I listen to this running pocast called Phedippidations, and there's a web component and a Google group (oh my God, I really AM a running geek!) and the last podcast was about RUNNING ETIQUETTE. I was on the message board, reading about people's race gripes and such, and I posted about something my Team coach saw at the last race -- there was a woman who had clearly lined up with the wrong pace group and she was creating a bottleneck. Someone accidentally bumped her as they went past and she said something nasty. Well, this guy turned around and went back to the slow runner and YELLED at her, "If you don't want to get bumped, line up with your own pace group!" And there I go and do it. And even though I'm sure it came and went for those walkers, and even though I'm probably not the only person to mutter something to them, it upset me that I behaved like that. So that's why the cloud of sadness looms overhead.
Bizarre side note: There are some, for a lack of a better word, "interesting" people who come to these races, like Larry the Lighthouse (remember him?) Today, as I was walking to the race, I saw a guy walking with his lady friend. I noticed him because he had an enormous afro and was wearing a colorful shirt, he sort of looked like the Crab Man for you "My Name is Earl" watchers. He was also smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. At 7:30am. So, a few minutes later, as I'm heading to the starting line, there he was again -- with a RACE NUMBER. He was in the race! AND HE BEAT ME! I ended up next to him in the finisher's chute. I almost said something to him but he started retching (wonder why?) so I moved away.
There's more, but this is a long entry and I've got to go to rehearsal. I'm doing "Broadway Bares," the annual strip show that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. I must have done really bad in a past life to get myself involved in all these charitable events. I really do enjoy them, though. I'll sneak a mid-week report in and give y'all the down-low on school, races, and repercussions.
DAVID KUZNICK
MICHAEL & LISA MOSSBERG
thank you so much!!
TOTAL TO DATE: $575!!
If you visit my Fred's Team website, you will see that my stated goal is $2500. In reality, it's $5000, but it's one of those things where if you pledge it, you have to raise it, and in case I can't raise it, I can't afford to donate that much cheddar. I haven't sent out all my fundraising pleas yet, and you may recall I can get pretty persistent once I start (!) but at the same time, because I'm in school and not working I don't have the kind of access to people I did last year. But slow and steady, may not win the race but it'll get you across the finish line just the same. So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all you lovely people out there reading this, and supporting me.
Did you look at the right side of the page? They are called "sidebars," I think, and they're courtesy of Buckeye Outdoors, a site that caters to all your obsessive training-logging needs. I thought it would be neat to put my training schedule and race records up. It will certainly keep me training, knowing that people will be checking up on me. The one that reports on races just gives a race countdown, doesn't report the race itself. Ah, well.
So today's race was both a really good one and a really bad one, all in one. The good part first -- even though it was a hot and humid day in NYC (my two least favorite conditions to run in) and even though it was 8 in the morning, I managed to clock what was for me an amazing time for a 4-mile race -- 35 minutes and change. I was not expecting to do that well in the heat, and I frankly felt pretty good most of the way, not too winded or anything, although the sprint at the end did leave me a little queasy for a minute or two.
And the bad part? To sum it up, here's an excerpt from the email I sent to NY Road Runners when I got home:
Hello,
I want to bring up an issue that I know you are all aware of, but I feel I need to add my voice.
About half a mile into today's Japan Race, I almost crashed into a pack of three walkers,
as well as the people also trying to avoid them. As I made my way around them I muttered,
"Start with the walkers, dammit!" One of them said something back to me, but I didn't catch
it. They weren't Galloway runners on a walk break, they were walkers. I felt bad about
snapping at them. It was the wrong way to react, but it was in the heat of the moment, a
bunch of people almost got hurt, and I got mad. And it's spoiling a race that was one of my
best, I set a PR.
(A "Galloway runner" is someone who follows the Jeff Galloway marathon (or any race) training plan, which involves periodic walk breaks.)
The letter goes on to talk about the problem of people not lining up at their proper pace time and creating dangerous situations because folks are wiping out trying to pass them.
I blither on:
These races are getting more crowded, and while I'm glad that so many people are
discovering running, they don't have any understanding of race etiquette. Do you think
there is some way to teach these people a little running etiquette, to make these races a
safer, and less frustrating experience for everyone else?
And then I list a couple of suggestions about how to try to accomplish that.
Anyway, I totally over-reacted, I think. Which is eating at me in the same way that every mistake I've ever made eats at me constantly. Jewish guilt -- nothing like it. Except maybe Catholic guilt. Or (insert religion or ethnicity of your choice) guilt. I feel bad, I do, in a lot of ways it ruined the race for me, and I ought to be really happy. In that kind of heat, it was a personal record, and I can't believe my last mile was an 8:13. For me, that's like the freakin' wind. There are some people who talk about running a "nice easy 7-minute mile pace." I couldn't run a 7-minute mile if I was being chased with a pickaxe.
But back to my guilt. It's so funny that this happened, because I listen to this running pocast called Phedippidations, and there's a web component and a Google group (oh my God, I really AM a running geek!) and the last podcast was about RUNNING ETIQUETTE. I was on the message board, reading about people's race gripes and such, and I posted about something my Team coach saw at the last race -- there was a woman who had clearly lined up with the wrong pace group and she was creating a bottleneck. Someone accidentally bumped her as they went past and she said something nasty. Well, this guy turned around and went back to the slow runner and YELLED at her, "If you don't want to get bumped, line up with your own pace group!" And there I go and do it. And even though I'm sure it came and went for those walkers, and even though I'm probably not the only person to mutter something to them, it upset me that I behaved like that. So that's why the cloud of sadness looms overhead.
Bizarre side note: There are some, for a lack of a better word, "interesting" people who come to these races, like Larry the Lighthouse (remember him?) Today, as I was walking to the race, I saw a guy walking with his lady friend. I noticed him because he had an enormous afro and was wearing a colorful shirt, he sort of looked like the Crab Man for you "My Name is Earl" watchers. He was also smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. At 7:30am. So, a few minutes later, as I'm heading to the starting line, there he was again -- with a RACE NUMBER. He was in the race! AND HE BEAT ME! I ended up next to him in the finisher's chute. I almost said something to him but he started retching (wonder why?) so I moved away.
There's more, but this is a long entry and I've got to go to rehearsal. I'm doing "Broadway Bares," the annual strip show that benefits Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. I must have done really bad in a past life to get myself involved in all these charitable events. I really do enjoy them, though. I'll sneak a mid-week report in and give y'all the down-low on school, races, and repercussions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
