And The Winners Are...

Thank you to everyone who participated in my "Chance to Win" benefiting my Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles Boston Marathon fundraiser.  Through the generosity of those who participated, an additional $851 was raised for my fundraiser.  THANK YOU!

Now, the winners are:

1. iPod Shuffle- Lindsey Baumgardner
2. iPod Shuffle- Jeannie Mendez
3. Texas Roadhouse Gift Basket- Jodi Mark
4. $50 Trader Joe's Gift Card- Brian Bean
5. Instagram Print- Lauren Addesa

The video below shows the selection of each of the winners.  Thanks to my wife Jen for filming it and to my son Simon for his guitar "drum roll" along with the music at the end.



Thank you to Matt Labkon for the two iPod Shuffles and Matt Frohne, Managing Partner at the Brockton, MA Texas Roadhouse for the Texas Roadhouse gift basket.

There is still time to make a 100% tax deductible donation before Marathon Monday if you haven't had a chance yet.  Heck, there is still time even if you have already donated and want to donate again.  You won't be able to win a prize since the contest is over but you will get a tax deduction and, more importantly, the good feeling that you are helping Boston Children's Hospital in their mission of helping children and their families: "Until every child is well".

http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

 

Lucky Ones.

It's so easy, don't even have to try
You're the winner, you can take the prize
It's a dream come true, which one will it be
It's a dream come true, we'll just wait and see

Only the lucky ones, get to steal the show
Only the lucky ones, really get to know
Only the lucky
Only the lucky ones, get lucky

I certainly could not have put it any better.  Thank you Loverboy for that 1981 classic hit.  Haven't you always wanted to be a "Lucky One"?  Well now is your chance!  I'm holding a "Chance to Win" starting today Sunday, March 15th through Sunday, April 5th.  If you would like a chance to win one of five prizes just make a donation to my Boston Marathon fundraiser benefiting Boston Children's Hospital.  You will receive an entry for each $5 that you donate (ex. For a $50 donation you will receive 10 chances).

 Now for the prizes: 

Prize 1: 2GB iPod Shuffle*:

Prize 2: 2GB iPod Shuffle*:

Prize 3: Texas Roadhouse Gift Basket* (Contains 1 $30 dinner for two certificate, 1 6.88 oz. rib seasoning, 1 7.20 oz. sirloin seasoning, 1 glass boot drinking glass, 1 7 oz. package of peanuts and 1 Texas shaped basket)

Prize 4: $50 Trader Joe's Gift Certificate:

Prize 5: 12" X 12" Instagram Canvas Print (your choice of a picture from my personal Instagram gallery: https://instagram.com/runner716/):

How to enter:

1. Go to my Boston Children's Hospital fundraising page: http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716
2. Click on the big green "Give Now" button located in the gray "Please Support Me" section on the right side of my fundraising page.
3. Enter a donation amount for the number of chances that you would like to receive (I will send you an e-mail once I assign a ticket number for each $5 of your donation).
4. Fill in the rest of the form and be sure to include in the "Personal Note" field which prize you would like a chance at winning.  If no designation is made, one will be randomly selected for you.  If you would like to try and win multiple prizes note which ones and the number of tickets for each.
5. Click "Next" and fill out the "Billing and Payment Information" sections and then click "Next".
6. Review your information and then submit the form.

Winners will be announced Monday, April 6th on this blog as well as being personally notified via e-mail.  Good luck and thank you for your support.

 

*A special thank you to both Matt Labkon, who provided the 2 iPod Shuffles and Matt Frohne (managing partner of Texas Roadhouse in Brockton, MA), who provided the Texas Roadhouse gift basket.  I greatly appreciate their generosity in providing these items which will help to raise money for my fundraiser. 

Only the lucky ones, really get to know
Only the lucky
Only the lucky ones, ahh
 

Until next time, keep on runnin'!



Brookline.

Brookline, MA.  According to the city's official Web site, they describe their city as "an unusual urban and suburban enclave surrounded by the City of Boston, just minutes from Back Bay, downtown, and other parts of the city".  For me, Brookline, MA represents 88% of my goal of raising $7,000 for Boston Children's Hospital.  I started this fundraising effort back on the starting line in Hopkinton, MA with .07% raised.  Now, I'm at 88% of my goal which is represented by reaching somewhere along Route 30 (marathon course) within Brookline as shown in the graphic below. 

Thank you to each and every person who has donated to my fundraising effort thus far (listed under "Donors" to the right).  Without your support I would have never made it to this point.  I am truly grateful for your generosity.  I would like to say a special "Thank You" to two recent donors who made very generous donations.  The first is Lynn Turgeon who made a $500 donation.  She supported my fundraising efforts last year as well so I'm truly grateful for her continued generosity and dedication to the children who are being helped by the fundraisers.

The second is Dianne Byrne who donated $1,000 from the proceeds of winning the Brown Rudnick Center for the Public Interest M. Robert Dushman Community Service Award.  As a recipient of this award, Dianne directed Brown Rudnick LLP to make a donation on her behalf to my Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles Boston Marathon fundraiser as well as a donation to the St. Vincent DePaul Society in Dorchester, MA with which she is a very active member.  This is the second year that the Center has been directed to make a donation to my fundraisers as part of the M. Robert Dushman Community Service Award.  I am very grateful to Dianne and the Center for the very kind and generous donations.

The Boston Marathon is only 43 days away.  If you had previously thought about donating to my fundraiser but haven't had a chance yet, you're in luck as you still have time!  If you have already made a donation and want to donate further, you're in luck too.  Please help me complete the last 12% of my goal.  While Brookline is a very nice community, I would really love to reach Boston and the finish line.  I can only do that with your help.  Please consider making a 100% tax deductible donation today: http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716

I will be announcing a "chance to win" opportunity later this week to help raise additional funds for my Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles fundraiser.  Keep your sneakers tied up, the Gatorade cold and your GPS watch connected to the closest orbiting satellite for more information to come.

Until next time, keep on runnin'!
 

Thank You.

Thank You.
noun \ˈthaŋk-ˌyü\ 
something that you give or do to show thanks : a polite expression of thanks

Thank you to Joe and Heather Barros for holding a 50/50 raffle during their New Year's Eve party in support of my Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles Boston Marathon fundraiser.  Thank you to Barbara Barros for running the 50/50 raffle that night.  Thank you also to everyone below who contributed to the raffle which raised a total of $146 ($73 went to the winner of the raffle and $73 went to my fundraiser):

Gloria Shainis
Dianne Goldberg
Heather & Joe Barros
Barbara Barros
Jill Barros
Abbey Wolent
Barbara Joseph
Lindsey Joseph
Daniele Bullock
Bobby Joseph
Linda Kosonen
Jose Barros
Michelle Dolan
Tom Dolan
Shannon Joseph

Thank you again to everyone involved.  I greatly appreciate your kindness and generosity.

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

#GivingTuesday

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are for shopping, Giving Tuesday is all about giving back to a cause you care about.  Please consider making a 100% tax free donation to Boston Children's Hospital as part of my Miles for Miracles 2015 Boston Marathon fundraiser.  All donations made online through this link http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716 on Tuesday, December 2 will be matched 2 to 1 by a generous donor and New England Acura Dealers.  Please note that only your donation will count towards my fundraising goal but the match will greatly help the hospital with its mission. 

My fundraising goal as part of Boston Children’s Hospital  Miles for Miracles team is $7,000.  Please consider supporting my run, and supporting the Boston Children's Hospital! It is fast and easy to make a 100% tax deductible donation, whether small, large or somewhere in between.

Donations by Credit Card:
Please visit my Children’s Hospital fundraising page: http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716

I am currently at 22% of my fundraising goal due to all  of the generous donors (listed on the right)who have already made a contribution to my fundraiser.  Thank you all!

 

Thank you in advance for any support that you can provide.

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

All By Myself.

Hard to be sure
Sometimes I feel so insecure
All by myself
Don't want to be all by myself anymore

What a bit of cold weather and stiff winds brings out?  Nothing.  Nobody.  It's amazing how the paths along the Charles and the sidewalks around the harbor are now pretty much deserted.  Vacant of most walkers, runners and bicyclists now that the temperatures have dipped south of the 30's.  I'm "all by myself" you could say.  Well, sing anyways.  OK, for all of those who don't get this musical reference (I don't blame you if you don't as it is going back a ways) it is the power ballad "All by myself" released by Eric Carmen in 1975 (thanks to my wife Jen for coming up with this one).  Who is Eric Carmen?  Again, I don't blame you if you have no idea.  He only gave us such great songs as "Marathon man"- 1977, "Make me loose control"- 1988 and "Hungry eyes"- 1987.  Alex, I'll take absolutely useless music trivia for $300 please.  "What movie was the smash hit "Hungry eyes" featured in?"  Seriously though, when the weather is nice it is jam packed with people getting in all kinds of outdoor exercise.  Kind of like sardines in a can.  Warmth + sardines.  Eww, like totally gross.  Gag me with a spoon.  Grody to the max!  Barf me out!  I know, enough already with the valley girl talk- thinking of those 80's songs just made me do it!  When the weather gets cold and windy though, you can hear the crickets.  There is hardly anyone out and about.  Actually, you cannot hear the crickets as they have all died off due to the cold.  Sorry.  It's a circle of life thing.  You do come across a couple of other die-hards here and there but it is pretty much wide open the entire way.  So much so that I want to run on the left hand side of the path instead of the right.  I know, "wow, he is such a rebel".  Well, I haven't mustered up enough courage to do it yet.  Hey, you never know when a bicyclist is going to come up from out of no where.  Just trying to think of their safety.  Yep, that's me.  "Mr. Safety".  Ha!

I ended up going into Boston yesterday morning to get in a long run to boost my miles for the week.  I finished the run with 13.2 miles and a weekly total of 27.1 miles.  I have to say that that morning run was pretty lonesome just like my weekday nightly runs.  I have to break out into song for a moment...  "All by myself, don't want to be...".  Yesterday was pretty cold.  30 degrees with winds gusting at 25 mph which made the real feel at a balmy 20 degrees.  Special note to the folks at Weather Bug and the Boston Museum of Science: You may want to have maintenance take a look at your anemometer as it is reporting zilch, notta, zero, nothing.  I found that out the hard way yesterday.  There was no wind when I left my house.  But boy, when I got off the train in Boston, there was wind.  Again, gusting to 25 mph.  Silly me, I wore shorts based on Weather Bug reporting no wind.  Silly, silly me!  I have since switched over to the Seaport Hotel station since that is accurately reporting the wind.  I kind of like these conditions though.  Peace and quiet and cold temperatures which make it exhilarating to run.  Gives me a pep in my step.  Sounds good to me. 

Thank you to everyone who has donated to my Boston Marathon Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles fundraiser!  I appreciate the generosity of all the donors.  If you would like to make a donation please visit my fundraising page.

I'll be posting soon about the patient who I've been matched up with as part of the patient partner program.  He sounds like a very active 9 year old and I can't wait for our families to meet at the Miles for Miracles kick-off event coming up in the beginning of December.

The answer to the trivia question: "Ghost" released in 1990.  Congratulations to everyone who got it correct. 

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

Here I Go Again.

I don't know where I'm going
But, I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises in songs of yesterday
An' I've made up my mind, I ain't wasting no more time
But, here I go again
Here I go again

Lyrics from "Here I go again".  Such a great 80's song by the classic big hair rock band Whitesnake.  That said, it does have a wicked cheesy video though with its scenes of the band playing on a stage interlaced with Tawny Kitaen doing gymnastics between two cars and polishing them while slithering all over them.  The cars that is.  So cheesy that it makes me think of a couple of other classics.  Cheeses that is: Roquefort with its sharp, sweet and nutty flavor or Parmigiano-Reggiano with its great crunch and deep caramel-y, nutty flavors.  How quickly I get distracted...  It really is an appropriate song in this situation though because "Here I go again".

I told my family that I had met my goal and felt a sense of closure after I completed the Cox Providence Marathon in May of this year.  That I was done with Marathons and would focus my attention on training and improving my half marathon races (which worked as I had both a half marathon as well as a course PR for the B.A.A. Half Marathon last month).  That's the same thing that I said a year ago when I completed my first marathon up in Hampton Beach, NH.  My wife and son know me better than that though and they told me both times that I would run a marathon again.  Well, they definitely do know me too well, because:

Here I go again on my own
Goin' down the only road I've ever known

I'm running the 119th B.A.A. Boston Marathon on April 20, 2015.  However, I'm not on "my own" as I have been accepted as a member of the Boston Children's Hospital Miles for Miracles Marathon team.  This was the team that I tried to become a member of last year but wasn't able to because they filled their team very early on so I am very grateful that I have the opportunity this year.  Being able to support Boston Children's Hospital's critical mission personally means a lot to me as my son has received outstanding professional and compassionate care from this outstanding organization over the years.  I am very appreciative to have the opportunity and to be able to be associated with such a prestigious organization in the health care community.

I have also signed up to be part of the Miles for Miracles Patient Partner program where I will be teamed up with a patient of Boston Children's Hospital.  This is such a great opportunity as we will be able to provide support and inspiration to each other during my training.  I'll provide more information about who I'm partnered up with when I get the details in early December.

My fundraising for Boston Children's Hospital has just begun.  If you are interested in helping me with my goal of $7,000, please visit my fundraising page:  http://fundraise.childrenshospital.org/goto/runner716  Any donation, whether small or large or somewhere in between is greatly appreciated. 

I want to thank my wife and son for their continued unconditional support and understanding of my need to do this.  Training for a marathon takes a lot of dedication, shuffling of schedules to fit in training and a lot of time away from family.  Knowing that they are behind me 100% makes it a bit more manageable.  Thank you and I love you both more than you'll ever know.

I'm going to blog about my training and new products that I will be using as part of my training along the way.  I've already made several trips to running stores and picked up a few new things that I cannot wait to try out.  It's a bit geeky I know.  As I'm finishing up this post, we are getting our first snowfall of the season.  It reminds me of some of my training runs this past winter.  I cannot wait for those days with 2 degree temperatures, whipping winds and snow in January.  Now that is geeky!

An' I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time...

But, here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go again,
Here I go,
Here I go again...

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

Delivered.

Last Thursday was a momentous day as it is the day that I delivered the $5,856.40 that I raised to the Curley K-8 School.  I met principal Katie Grassa who informed me that the extra money that was raised ($856.40) will go towards benches and trees for their new playground (funded by another fundraising project).  It was great to finally see the learning community that was going to benefit from all of the generous donations that were made to my Boston Marathon fundraiser. 

Thank you again to each and every donor who helped me obtain my goal and then some. You are all very generous individuals and I appreciate your kindness. 

There are only 24 days until the marathon!

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Joe & Heather Barros

A heartfelt "Thank You" to my friends Heather & Joe Barros who organized a 50/50 split during their annual New Year's eve spectacular that they held last night.  The proceeds from the event went towards my Boston Marathon fundraising. 

I was very surprised and very appreciative when I found out on Monday from Joe that they were planning to do a fundraiser for me to help raise money for my marathon goal.  That was such a kind gesture and something that I will never forget.

Generous Contributors & New Year's Eve Revelers

A heartfelt "Thank You" also goes out to all of Heather and Joe's friends and family who attended the party last night and generously contributed to this cause.  The outpouring of support by everyone was very much appreciated and I thank each and every one of you for your generosity.

Due to everyone's kindness, $126 dollars was raised in the 50/50 split and $104 of that will go towards my goal of $5,000 for the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain (Shannon Joseph donated an additional $41 of her share of the split).

Congratulations to Shannon Joseph who was the winner of the 50/50 split!
 

Shannon Joseph and Myself

Thank you again to Heather, Joe, and all of their family and friends who generously donated.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

 

Until next time, keep on runnin'!

Accepted.

I am a very lucky runner.  A little background as to why.  I am an avid distance runner (one 5K, one 4 mile bridge race, one 10K, five half marathons, one full marathon and many many training runs this year) and proud member of a running club at work.  After the tragic events of April 15th 2013, I vowed that I wanted to run the 118th Boston marathon in April 2014 to show solidarity in the running community and to be part of the “We are Boston.  We will run.” movement.  That was all dependent on whether I would be able to actually run and complete my first marathon and qualify to run Boston.  I completed my first marathon in October 2013 but did not have a qualifying time for Boston.  I was obviously disappointed but realistically knew that I wasn't going to qualify.  The only remaining option available was to run for a charity.  Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for them, the available charity spots filled-up quickly.  Just when I thought that I would not be able to fulfill my dream, an opportunity to run for an outstanding charity that is near and dear to my heart became available.  I submitted my application and it was accepted.  Yeah!

 

I will be running the Boston marathon April 21st, 2014 supporting the art, music and science programs at the Curley K-8 School which is a Boston Public School located in the heart of Jamaica Plain.  Thank you to Susan Elsbree and the Curley K-8 School for giving me this opportunity.

My fundraising goal for this endeavor is $5,000.  These funds will go a long way in helping the school to continue the great art, music and science programs that benefit all of the deserving students in this academic community.  This is an absolute honor and privilege for me to be able to run in the first Boston marathon since the awful events of April 15th, 2013.  Please consider making a tax deductible donation, whether small, large or someone in between, to the Curley K-8 School.  I am finalizing a donation page and will post information about it as soon as it is ready.