Douglas's 2015 Boston Marathon Adventure: 2015 Boston Marathon Introduction

***Disclaimer: This is a very long first blog.. For my friends with ADHD, scroll to the bottom for cliffs notes***

This has been one crazy week, We have had the first real blizzard of the year and I am officially running in the 2015 Boston Marathon! Both things seem to have come out of nowhere, but they look like they are here to stay for a while. Although, I hope that on Marathon Monday there will not be snow to contend with but only reality that I will have to run 26.2 miles.

The idea of running another Marathon, has been something that I have been recently starting to consider. I last ran a Marathon in 2011 in Philadelphia. Since then I have been sticking mainly to half marathons and relay races.

2013 was an off year for me when it came to running, I started a new job and got married and could never really find a consistent time to run, Because of that, the battle of the bulge was lost and I added on a few pounds that I had hoped to never see again. I needed to start again in 2014 and really focus on getting a solid routine for running. I knew I needed support and accountability. It is so easy to start something and then have it fade away. I needed to take this seriously and really challenge myself. What I needed was competition...

Some may say that I am competitive, people who know me would say that I am super competitive, and my closest friends and family would say that I am obsessively competitive about everything, and hate to lose. It's true. I hate losing. One of my favorite quotes is from Ron Hextall (Retired NHL Goalie) he said: "The Love of Winning is only second to the Hatred of Losing." that is how I feel about losing.

I eventually found competition in the way of a friendly wager with my friend Mike. We both wanted to run more, and we both have Garmin watches. On Garmin's website you can add friends and see how much they are running and then compare that to your own runs. The wager was simple. Each month we would run, and who ever ran the least miles between us would need to buy the winner a beer. Simple bet, but its all I needed. a small bet, and a friend to keep me motivated.

In 2014, I ended up logging 1204 miles. which is more than 3 times my previous yearly totals (something else about me, I love stats). I did not race that much, only 2 half marathons (South Shore and Philadelphia) and 2 relay races. (Ragnar Cape Cod and Reach the Beach), but I made running a part of my life again. I set goals for myself in 2015 to get to 1500 miles on the year. I figure this is reachable because by the end of the year I was averaging 120-130 miles a month, and if I maintained that throughout the year I could reach that next milestone.

On Wednesday, January 28th I received a text message from Andrew Grove from Amicable Lodge. simply asking "Do you want to run in the Boston Marathon??" To which I almost immediately called him to see what he was talking about. He told me that Jeremy Gross was asking around for interested runners to help out Boston Cares. Apparently someone had dropped out last minute and they needed someone to run. From there, I called Jeremy for more details, and he directed me to Kirsten over at Boston Cares. With in a two hour span I went from a normal day of work to in 10 weeks I will be running the Boston Marathon.

I had heard of Boston Cares before Wednesday, but I admittedly I did not know that much about them. After talking to Kirsten, I started to look into what they did a little more closely. I must admit, it's pretty impressive stuff. They have been around for almost 25 years coordinating volunteers from all over the Boston area to help with community development projects. They work with Children, corporations and people from all different backgrounds who want to help give back to their community. Giving back to the community is something that many people want to do, but often do not know how. Boston cares does all the coordinating work, allowing volunteers the opportunity to give back in anyway that they can. Check them out for yourself at www.bostoncares.org

I am planning on updating this blog a lot over the next 10 weeks, with my runs, thoughts and training plans, so be sure to check back in.

Here are the two runs that I have done since Wednesday. I've got a lot more to do!

Wednesday: http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/685039220

Thursday: http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/685722821

also, do not forget to donate here: https://www.crowdrise.com/bostoncares2015/fundraiser/douglaswilliams

- Douglas

Cliffs notes: