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Friday, May 13, 2016
2015 Club Awards
In addition to the Hall of Fame, GLRR recognized their 2015 award winners at the dinner on April 15th. Photos courtesy of Jimmy and Andrea Shelton.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Jocelyn's Boston Story
By Jocelyn Thibeault
My involvement began last March when I read a post on FB .. March 23, 2015.
See pic of post and link to article.
After reading the article, or mid way thru, I wanted to help him, not really knowing what that entailed or meant.
To me, I read a story of a young man, a few years older than my own son, who had given ten years of his life helping others as a firefighter as young as 18, a police officer and was teaching at the fire fighter academy. He hiked, he ran.. He was active and loved the outdoors, only to find out his kidneys were failing and due to genetics, his siblings could not help. He needed to find a donor match outside his family...
What if this was my son? Would someone help and come forward? What was his mother going through? Would he have to live on dialysis, his would that change his life? I'm 59, have had a great life, I have ran many races.. Can I give him added years with the quality of life that he deserved ?
He was O- according to the article!
I'm O- , is that helpful? I didn't know.
Within two-three hours, I had contacted the reporter to see who to contact to try and help, who contacted Rob's mom for the information needed to contact Tufts Medical Center in Boston. After discussing with my wife, I submitted my name to be approved as a donor on March 25,2015.
Testing began in May with a cross matching with Rob, who I met at that time and we chatted about running and marathons.. Not that he has ever done any.. But I bragged a little as we marathoners do. Heehee...
A variety of testing was done thru 2015, X-rays, blood work, stress test, EKG, CT scan, etc. with each positive outcome, Rob and I had been texting back and forth with a fingers crossed, getting closer to an approval.
By October all testing was done and I was cleared to become a donor with December 8, 2015 as a date for transplant.
The Saturday before the surgery, we went to dinner, Rob & his sister Leigh and my wife Laurie and I..we chatted for hours and it was then I realized that he was not the guy the paper article said he was, he was better, he is a great man.
The surgery was a success without any complications for either of us. We chatted each day as we walked together doing laps around the nurses station and the corridors ... We shared our first meal together two days later from Panera Bread... We ordered take out and his buddy picked it up for us. We both needed real food ... I was home after three nights and Rob was home after four nights.
I was limited on exercise, but could walk.. My 1st outside walk was .32 and it took 28 minutes... I could not imagine waking a mile at that time, never mind running a mile. That was 12/15/15..
My walks became longer, then faster and by mid Jan I could begin running... At a slower pace.. As I built to 3 mile runs at a "decent pace" not fast... Boston became a potential reality. Doctors stated to listen to my body... I was tired often so if I didn't want to run, I didn't, if I felt good, I would. My goal was if I could do at least one 20+ long run, then I would give it a go.
I was able to return to work part time after 4 weeks, full time after 6 weeks and Rob returned to work full time by early March. We agreed that once back to work, we would run a race together. So in March we ran our first 5k together and then again in April.
The first was a 10:13 pace..
The second a 9:37... His PR for a 5K...
I loved pacing him to improve...
Having a qualified number couldn't just sit without hitting the starting line and running to finish. I wanted to get my 12th Boston medal & my 20th marathon finish since 2001.
So there it is...4:27:55... I'll take it.. Fastest recovery on the legs in a long time.
The way I see it now I have two sons. I am so glad to be have helped him, so thankful for the relationship that came out of it, that I didn't expect.
Joc
Boston Marathon 2016 Recap
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| Brian and Michele Martin |
The Theme of Marathon Monday was "Just Finish!"
Over and over we heard our runners say "Well, I finished!".
It appears the weather was sneaky hot - resulting in the highest number of DNFs we ever seen - five out of our 61 didn't make it to the finish line - most are OK - though I know Mike Hartin landed at Newton Wellesley Hospital. Don't have a report on that - hopefully he's OK.
First Chicken was Will Swenson - who also led the Master's Chickens to a 7th place finish (with help from E-j Hrynowski & Joe Loureiro). First Hen (Chicklet?) was Lauren Liuzzo followed closely by Jill Trotter.
Congrats to all who finished!
Full GLRR results can be found here.
An Ras Mor 2016
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| Ally enjoying the warm-up. |
By Matt Story
An Ras Mor was the 5K championship this year in the USATF-NE Grand Prix. Seventy four Angry Chickens made the trip down to Cambridge for the first race in the series.
Open Men were 13th -- led by James Sullivan's great 15:59 time. Open Women came in 10th, with the fastest woman Trish Bourne at 20 flat. Trish also led the Masters Ladies to 7th and Senior Ladies to 5th. Masters Men were 5th and Senior Men were 5th -- led in both cases by the amazing Mark Reeder. Mark was the 2nd Senior in the race. Bill Dixon was 1st Vet and led the Male Veteran's team to yet another victory. Also on the invidual side was new comer Jaye Morgan (Peggy Kelly’s daughter) who was 2nd 15-19.
Full results can be found here.
New Bedford Half Marathon 2016
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| Valerie and Kyleigh were a couple of happy finishers. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Shelton |
By Matt Story
The next race is the Grand Prix circuit was the New Bedford Half Marathon. As always this was a popular one with the club. With 76 finishers, we sent our own sea of green down to the shore for the annual game of wind roulette. This year it hit with a vengeance during miles 10 and 11.
The wind didn't slow down Alex Eld, who was the first GLRR over the line with a smokin' fast 1:14. He was followed by James Sullivan (1:16), Mark Reeder (1:17), Will Swenson (1:18), and Mike Luebeck (1:18). They formed our men's open team and their effort was good for tenth place. Reeder and Sweson added EJ Hrynowski, Kevin Carnabucci, and Chris Hancock to bring the men's masters team to a nice 5th place finish. The ageless Reeder also anchored the 2nd place men's seniors team of he, Hrynowski, David Oliver, Kevin Christie, and Bill Dumont. Ken Goodin, Glenn Stewart, and Tom Peters netted yet another victory for the men's veterans team -- this time by 10 minutes over second place.
The women were led by Jill Trotter with a 1:32. Melissa Scott and Sarah Moseley added a pair of 1:33s to push the women's open team to a 12th place finish. Bethany Knoettner and Maureen Pellegrini joined Jill for the 3rd place women's masters team. Pellegrini plus Allison Washkurak and Melanie Hire finished in 9th for women's seniors.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
I heard, but did I listen?
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| Zona, Dave, and Matt reflected in 'The Bean'. Photo courtesy of Zona. |
"Are you yessing me?"
That was a familiar question from my Mom back in my youth. I heard she was talking and had asked a question. Since I wasn't listening I just answered "yes" to placate her. She saw through that pretty quickly.
Revenge is a dish best served cold. I now have a 10 year old boy of my own who doesn't even bother with the yes. Pretty much everything that doesn't interest him goes in one ear and out the other. With him we try to stress the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is passive. It is just the act of your ears picking up the sound. Listening is active. It requires your attention.
I found out this summer that I am no better a listener than my 10 year old. Not when someone is talking to me -- although I'm sure I still need work in that area. No, when my own body is talking to me.
I started off training for the Chicago Marathon back in June. I had a very solid two months of training. I watched my weekly mileage, ramping from 35 to 55 but mindful of the 10% rule. I bonked on one long run but everything else was feeling good. I was rolling every night and getting regular massages. But come August some bad runs started creeping in. I would get an occasional run where my legs had no bounce. "Just tired legs," I thought to myself. The next run I would bounce back.
Mid August we went up to Lake Winnepesaukee for our summer vacation. The bad runs progressed from every other to two out of every three. I lost the ability to hit on my marathon pace runs on the road. I blamed the hills and thought my legs would come back after vacation. So I kept plugging and things kept getting worse. I started having runs where my left leg would have no push. Breaking 9 minute pace was a struggle.
Come the end of August I skipped my first long run and needed to adjust. Started to get lower leg pain that moved around, which was eerily reminiscent of the injury I had leading into Boston 2014. The difference was that I had three months before the race to recover from that one, including five weeks of PT. I was down to six weeks this time. Out of stubbornness I followed the same pattern that I did before Boston. Reduce mileage and cross train. It had about the same effect. Cross training felt good, running felt bad. I was able to hit my track workouts and somehow win a 5K in this time, but I knew 26.2 was going to chew me up and spit me out. I hit a low after bailing halfway through a track workout. That Friday I was resigned to not finishing Chicago.
But Saturday was a new day. I woke up and started actually using my brain. Teri, my massage therapist, had mentioned that my left fibular head was stuck during my last few massages. Maybe I should drop that puppy into Google. This blog post came up. It mentioned that a chiropractor was able to solve the problem in pretty short order. So I called and made an appointment with Dr. Doug on Teri's recommendation, but I couldn't get in until Friday -- 9 days before the race. But I at least had some hope.
Friday came and I met with Dr. Doug. He checked me out for a few minutes, watched me walk, and agreed that my fibula was jammed, likely due to collapsed lateral (outside) arches. In addition my pelvis was stuck forward on one side and back on the other, causing more impact on my left leg. He did some adjustments on both my leg and pelvis and we scheduled three more appointments for the next week. Over the week it seemed to get better, albeit slowly. The leg was sore but would move. But my last run before Chicago still left me with some doubt.
How did Chicago go? Here is my Strava writeup:
Fought through a fibular issue (official term.. not sure) if my left leg to make it to the starting line of the Chicago Marathon. Why do injuries always happen in the races I need to sign up for far in advance? More about that some other time. Despite most of my training being for 3:10ish I decided to run the early miles with Dave and aim for 3:20. I felt this was a safe goal despite the spotty training in the last month and a half. We were consistently clocking 7:3x through the early miles. The only blip was when the 3:15 pace group essentially ran over us which forced a slight speed up. Mentally that was the group I wanted to beat. But after that mile I started to get that bonkish feeling. WAY too early for that. Dave pulled ahead in the next mile as I tried to get my groove back. I kept him in sight for a few miles and then lost sight of him. Just tried to keep plugging, following that blue line. Pace was still OK, but had a doom is coming feeling. Dave caught up to me (potty break) around mile 14 or 15 and we were able to run a couple more together before he stepped off to stretch. I was able to hold it together mostly until 19 when the wheels started coming off. Pace slowed, left calf tightened (surprised it took that long). Pace group after pace group started chewing me up and spitting me out. Kept plugging, though, knowing it was a LONG walk from there. Tried to feed off the crowd and all the 'Go Lowell' calls. Sang Josie, did a lot of fist pumping, anything to get the crowd going. It didn't help the legs but made the time pass faster. Finished in zombie mode, but finished. Failed to PW by 30 seconds or so. Given two weeks ago I couldn't run without pain I'm happy with the finish. Not surprised the wheels came off due to the missed training. As always, swore off marathons immediately afterwards. But it's hard to go out on one like this. Have some things to figure out with my legs before even attempting training for another, though.I was able to fight through to a 3:35:04 finish. In a vacuum the time is disappointing, but given the obstacles encountered on the way I'll take it.
Hopefully this experience can help someone else who might have the same problem. I haven't gone the orthotics route yet to address the arches. I'm more comfortable with the devil I know versus the devil I don't. Of course I'm debating training for another marathon. Hopefully I'll listen better this time.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Nancy's Mother's Day Run - Walk For Addiction Awareness
We had been having a "fun run" from our home in Chelmsford for six years on Mother’s Day and coincidentally it had outgrown our little 1730’s era house.
And considering that Portland Maine gets 3000 runners for their Mothers Day race, seemed like a local race on that day might work here.
We began our education with an afternoon discussion with Dave Camire and Jessica Costa after the Hoyt race. They pointed us in the right direction.
We wanted the event to be a fund raiser and considered several possible charities. In the midst of that process a dear friend told us that her child asked for help to deal with opioid addiction. Our charity was chosen.
We joined the Elks to get access to their facilities in Chelmsford (yes we told them the reason when we applied). When we initially approached the function hall manager about a Mother’s Day race she was not very receptive. Were we new? Did we not know that Mother’s Day was the biggest day of the Elks year? When we told her about the charity that would be the beneficiary, she said that she would get the lodge to reschedule Mothers Day.
Funny story but a great example of how opioid addiction has touched the lives of so many folks in New England. Two young folks die each day in Massachusetts from opioid overdoses.
We are partnering with the Chelmsford Board of Health, which has a 501 (3) (c) charity which will be the beneficiary. Actually all money will flow through the Board of Health so that there will be no question about use of funds.
A serious cause but if we are asking folks to do a race on Mother’s Day the event needs to be fun. It will be.
Kids run at 9:30.
Tech shirts in Mens and Womens sizes.
Race at 10:00. Yankee timing.
A flute of sparkling wine or sparkling grape juice to participants.
5 years age group awards. Logo coffee mugs.
My son is a well known DJ in the Boston area and will be playing tunes.
Special thanks to Kara Haas for guidance on what mothers look for in a race. Many great ideas, and we are still working through a few.
Also thanks to Glenn Stewart and Scott Casper for their sage advice on things to do and things to avoid.
Also many thanks to the club for use of cones and signs!
We hope for participants. Discounted entry runs through February 13.
We need volunteers. All will receive a volunteer shirt. See Nancy or I at any club meeting or email us dgpatch77@gmail.com; nancympatch@gmail.com.
Website: www.NancysRun.com
Hoper that you can make it!
Don and Nancy Patch
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