Game On

(Kicking this blog off with an email that I recently sent to friends and family. If you already got said email, then obviously no need to read this twice. New content coming soon...)

Happy New Year!

It turns out I made my New Year's resolution a little early this year: I decided it was time to run my first marathon. After putting it off for years, the 2014 Boston Marathon was just too meaningful an opportunity to pass up. So with a couple of half-marathons under my belt, and 16 more weeks of cold Boston winter standing between me and April 21st, training is already in full swing.

As many of you know, an important part of the Boston Marathon tradition has been the official charity program associated with the race. Now in its 26th year, this program allows runners without qualifying times to participate, while raising over $12 million a year for Greater Boston charities. If you've ever had a chance to watch the race in person, and paid close attention to the jerseys being worn by the sea of humanity shuffling by, and realized that so many runners have spent so much time and energy raising money for so many great causes, all for the privilege of running 26 miles... well, it's a pretty amazing sight.

And now it's time to do my part. I will be running this spring as a member of Team Brookline, my town's official marathon team, which supports a number of local Brookline charities. In particular, I'll be raising funds for the Brookline Community Mental Health Center, and my personal goal is to raise $5,000.

If you're willing and able, please sponsor me by making a contribution on my FirstGiving page. Alternatively, you can write a check to Team Brookline and mail it to me. (Let me know if you need my address.)

So what's the plan for the rest of this blog? Not quite sure (but credit to +Jeff Larimer for the idea.) I have a hunch this will be less of a training diary, and more just random stuff. Why the name "Base Work"? This refers to my least favorite part of training when I ran in college. The long, slow miles that you put in day after day, building up a strong aerobic foundation, increasing blood volume and glycogen storage, yadda yadda. I just remember how lonely and tedious these runs were, when meaningful races were still 6 to 9 months away. It wasn't glamorous, but it also wasn't optional, especially if you want to run 26+ miles. So you learn to make your peace with it. And it leaves you with a lot of time to think.

That's all for now. I should be going for a 5 mile run right now, but I think I'll shovel the driveway instead. Thanks Hercules.