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