Why Boston will be incredible.... besides the obvious....

Today was a great day for me.  I ran my 20 miler for my marathon training plan.  It may have come a week too late... and after a failed attempt that ended in dissapointment, feeling unable to compete, and frustration.  But it gave me exactly what i needed... the excitement back in my training.

In less than a month I will be running the Boston Marathon.  It will be my first Boston Marathon that I will run and it will be only my second marathon that Ive ever run.  That being said, I have never had the "pleasure" of training for a spring marathon.  Spring marathon training means training in WINTER.  It was terribly to put it mildly.  Not only is it cold, snowy, and dark.... its just so hard to get motivated and my circulation is so bad in my hands that often times they would feel like they were being constantly smashed..... a strange burning feeling.  I never was motivated to go out and run... and when I did it was never for too terribly long or very often.  This winter I suffered two significant injuries as well that kept me out of training for a few weeks straight.

So all this being said... the frsutrations were mounting and I was starting to wonder if i could even run those distances anymore.  But today I did it... and it was awesome.

I wanted to share something about why Boston is not only exciting for the obvious reasons... but far more special for other reasons.

Feb 2009 My PapPap was starting to very much go downhill with his battle with prostate cancer.  He was bed ridden and hospice was in and out helping us care for him.  I would go over to visit with him and my Nanny after work several times a week and spend time with them.  Afterwards I would head to the gym and workout... i was trying to lose weight and it was a good stress relief and got my mind off things.  That april he passed away.
In the beginning of August, Monica told me about a race that her and some friends planned to run... it was a 5k.  I was not a fan of running and rarely stepped foot on a treadmill... i hated to run and always had.  The race was called the great prostate cancer challange and i agreed to run simply because my PapPap died from that and I wanted to contribute to the funds and run in honor of him.  It was POURING DOWN RAIN that day... and we all headed out to run on Sept 11, 2009.  I ran that race and realized that day..... i could really get into running.  and thats where it all began.

Fast foward to today..... I am running the Boston Marathon because of that race.  If I had never signed up for that run with Monica, Pete, and Sarah... I dont know if i ever would have gotten to where I am today because i just had no desire to run.
So what makes Boston SO special to me?  Boston is so special because my PapPap is the reason I started running in the first place... and I will be running a race of a lifetime on April 18th... which is his birthday of all days......

I can hardly wait... im sure he will be thrilled to see me do it.