Racing to the Finish! Come Celebrate with the Team!

Join us for an all-you-can-handle pizza party at Bella Luna Restaurant in Jamaica Plain on March 13 to celebrate the closing weeks of the Boston Marathon training season for our fabulous team!

All proceeds from the event will support the fundraising efforts of the 2013 Franklin Park Coalition Boston Marathon Team. Your ticket includes a night of all-you-can-eat gourmet pizza, five raffle tickets for some great, local prizes, and a cash bar.

Tickets are $15.00 for individuals and $40.00 for families. Advance tickets must be purchased by March 12, 2013 at midnight. Day of tickets are $20.00 for individuals and $50.00 for families.

When you purchase your advance tickets, be sure to "dedicate" or "comment" on the runner that you are buying your ticket for! If you are just buying a general ticket to support the team, feel free to just wish the team luck!

This special event takes places at Bella Luna (http://www.milkywayjp.com/) restaurant, located at 284 Amory Street in Jamaica Plain on Wednesday, March 13, 2013 from 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Questions? Contact Julie Arrison, Marathon Charity Team Leader at julie@franklinparkcoalition.org.

To purchase your tickets or to make a general donation to the team, please visit: http://www.razoo.com/story/2013teamkickoffparty

Second Year Runner Carleen Tucker Exceeds Fundraising Goal

Carleen Tucker is a superstar. The Franklin Park Coalition is thrilled to have her back on the Boston Marathon team for a second year and also participating as a board member. 

Carleen has exceeded her fundraising goal with a combination of private donations from family and friends and also using the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare "mini-grant" program that allows employees to donate up to $500.00 on an annual basis to a nonprofit of their choice. 

Carleen's story and connection to the park is compelling. Her husband Mark is born and raised in Roxbury and credits his time in Franklin Park as literally saving his life by giving him a safe place to play and grow up. Together, the couple has raised their children in the sunshine of the park between picnics and Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park nights. Like all of our runners, Carleen believes strongly in the programming goals of the FPC, but has seen the impact first hand of the good work of the park in generations of her family.

Join the Franklin Park Coalition in congratulating our fabulous board member and marathoning mama in exceeding expectations!

We also invite you to check out last year's feature on Carleen's Year One Experience from the Boston Globe Magazine: http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2012/03/17/runners-for-long-haul/buTsnC4I9oMSgj1qgUvwaJ/story.html

Oregon Runner Craig Kiest Exceeds Fundraising Goal for the Franklin Park Coalition

Choosing a landscape architect to run for the Franklin Park Coalition seemed a natural choice. Frederick Law Olmsted is considered the father of American landscape architecture and is the designer of Franklin Park. Olmsted considered Franklin Park to be one of his greatest works of art, combining decades of experience in planning with proximity of the harbor and the Great Blue Hills. 

For Craig Kiest (in orange on the left), choosing Franklin Park was more than a tribute to the fine work that Olmsted completed more than a century ago. For this seasoned runner who is close to completing 50 marathons in 50 states, he sees the health and fitness benefits that come from a safe place to train and play. Through his travels he has seen many places and believes in the good work that the Franklin Park Coalition is doing to provide fitness opportunities but also in teaching future generations the importance of preserving parks and open space.

Craig's donation was fufilled by the Richard and Janet Geary Foundation. The foundation focuses on giving to arts, youth support, healthcare research  higher education, and regional and national policy. Voted one of the top 50 Oregon foundations, the gift is much appreciated.

Explore Salem!

Special thanks to our North Shore partners in Salem, Mass. for donating to team member raffles and auctions. Our team leader, Julie Arrison, is the site manager for Historic New England's Phillips House Museum, located on historic Chestnut Street in Salem. She was able to reach out to colleagues who generously donated passes so that our runners could share a "Salem Exploration" package with their supporters, friends, and families!

If you've never been to Salem before, plan a trip this summer. There is a variety of information available through Destination Salem on transportation, hotels, restaurants, and attractions.

One of the attractions that gladly donated was the Salem Trolley. A "hop-on, hop-off" trolley ticket will not only share the history and lore of this great North Shore community, but will also allow the prize winners to stop at the places they'd like to check out while in town.

Luckily, the winners will have two great places to do just that. The Salem Witch Museum  is a classic stop in Salem and will regale you with the story of the 1692 witchcraft trials. For a look at Salem's maritime history, the winners have received passes to visit the Phillips House Museum.

On the (Boston Marathon) Run with the FPC and Playworks Marathon Team: Ashland to Heartbreak: “The trick, it appears, is to get out the door. The rest follows.”

Check out what the Franklin Park Coalition Boston Marathon Team is up to this week!

We finally made it out onto the course with our friends from Playworks (www.playworks.org) for a phenomenal run from Ashland to Heartbreak. It was a great chance to combine resources and get 11 of our runners out there and getting acclimated to the highs and lows of the Boston course while being supported by Jonathan Gay from Playworks and our team leader, Julie Arrison.

Snow seems to be the new theme this February and it was no different this weekend. While just a dusting accumulated on the run, it was certainly February in New England for our runners. We think Craig from Oregon has the biggest “treat” of all as much of his running on the West Coast has been cool and dry—not snowy and blustery! Besides some complaints about soggy feet and chilly cheeks, the run was great and included high fives from Franklin and some faux excitement for the beers in Julie’s Jeep—meant for lunch, but stared longingly at by the runners on the course.

Jason and Shari enjoyed their snowy run through Beverly and Manchester-by-the-Sea (not to be confused with Michelle’s ManchVegas, NH!) and both enjoyed a good, long run.

Owen, our crazed third year med student/superstar runner/team doctor, had a rough long run. While setting out for 17, he fell approximately 5K short, but threw up three times. Once per mile missed equates, right? He equated this issue to carb loading with beer and decided this is best done two days before a long run at a 6:00/mile pace and wished that he learned that key life skill in undergrad. On his second attempt at 17 he decided to combine pain with pain and listen to an audiobook on abdominal surgery—which caused a scowling expression for all of the miles.

While we all recognize that not every run is a good run, our biggest wakeup call this week was Elizabeth. With all good intentions, she set out for the 17 on course but realized her under-training was problematic. Elizabeth dropped around the 10K mark, but is ready to “hit the reset” on training and take on the next 10 weeks with a vengeance—using Owen’s quote--“The trick, it appears, is to get out the door. The rest follows.”

To stay up-to-date on all of our team's training efforts, please visit our On the Run Page. If you are impressed with our efforts and would like to donate to the team, please visit: http://www.razoo.com/story/2013teamkickoffparty

Meet Pete: The Newest Runner on the Franklin Park Coalition Boston Marathon Team

Peter Marr has moved, shaked, surfed, ran and contemplated on six of the seven continents.  Traveling deep into the Ecuadorian rain forest to visit a Shaman, trekking for days on a camels back through the Northern African Sahara desert finding distant nomadic Berber villages and free diving off the coast of Australia on the great barrier reef swimming with sea turtles. In 2010 he finished climbing every mountain in New Hampshire with at least a 4000 foot peak and has started hiking them again with his dog.  For years before growing light roots in Boston he threw himself into a van for months on stretch and would travel the world playing in a punk/metal band that went to almost every state in the U.S, Scotland, England, Whales, Canada, Australia and Puerto Rico. Peter Marr has taken a great interest in running the Boston Marathon, watching family and friends run in the last few years.  To support Pete's fundraising efforts, please visit: http://www.razoo.com/story/Running-The-Boston-Marathon-2013.

Do you want to run the 2013 Boston Marathon? We still have 3 spaces available! Our team applications are available for runners who have not secured a number and for those who have an would love to run for a great cause.

Dining for Dollars with Dani at the Dockside

Sometimes runners make great nutrition decisions when they train...other times "nacho" much...

Join team member Dani Blais for a night of Dining for Dollars at the Dockside in Malden. The generous restaurant owners will be donating 25% of the proceeds from all food and beverages to the Franklin Park Coalition. 

The menu has some great options. I'm thinking the steak tips look amazing myself. 

If you can't join Dani tonight, she has some other great events coming up. Be sure to visit her website to learn more or to donate.

So, get down to the Dockside tonight and join us for a great cause and a great meal!

Franklin Park Snow Photos

Franklin Park is beautiful all year round, but there is just something about a coat of white that makes this place really stand out.

If you visited the park this weekend or got to take advantage of a training run in the park or around the Emerald Necklace, share those beautiful pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/Franklinparkbos/photos_stream

Gotta Scratch?

Franklin Park Coalition Boston Marathon Team Member Brain Parsons has the way for you to be set for life...maybe...Super Bowl Sunday is the last day to be entered into the raffle to win 100 $10.00 Massachusetts State Lottery Tickets. It begs the question, what might be hiding under there?

The best part? All of the proceeds from the raffle will benefit the good work of the Franklin Park Coalition who provide summer jobs, athletic opportunities, and cultural events in Boston's largest urban greenspace.

To purchase your raffle tickets, visit http://www.razoo.com/story/Run-For-Franklin-Park and make sure to leave a note that you are buying a raffle ticket with every $20.00 donation you make.