Tracking Boston

Six days to go... Here is the email I sent to my friends and family. Friends and family, First, thank you to my wonderful and supportive friends and family through all the years of training, racing, and competing. I'm very lucky to have everyone of you in my life. As you know, I've pretty much been training for this one race, the Boston Marathon, for about eight years since I ran my first one (Marine Corps Marathon 2004) days after the Red Sox won their first title in 86 years. And, to this day, my mom and dad still ask when I tell them I'm running a marathon: "Which one are you running - the Marine Marathon?" So, as I get set to run the "Marine Marathon" again, here is some useful information to watch the race and my progress. To watch the race online, I believe you can stream it through: http://universalsports.com/2012/04/09/universal-sports-network-presents-multiplatform-coverage-of-the-2012-boston-marathon/ Attached is the Boston Marathon spectator guide as well as the course map. To track my progress, sign up for text alerts. TEXT - Simply text the word RUNNER to 345678 using your US mobile phone. You will then receive an sms text response with instructions on how to submit a runner’s bib number. (You will be opted in to receive 4 messages during the race. Message and data rates may apply. Text STOP to cancel, Text HELP for help. This program is available on the following carriers: AT&T, Boost, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon Wireless.) http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/participant-information/att-athlete-alert.aspx My bib number is 4186. It will confirm with the reply: "Boston Marathon Alerts: Ur signed up 4 race alerts 4 bib 4186 (Kenny S. Ames) & entered to win a VIP race experience. Txt STOP 2cancel." Also, if you plan to be along the course, please email me your planned location to watch so that I may look out for you. Again, thank you everyone for your support and encouragement through the years. My quest has taken eight years, over fifty pairs of running shoes, through seventeen marathons, run a marathon in nine different states (CA, VA, ID, OH, GA, PA, VA, MD, NY, RI), raced 80 races ranging from the 1 miler to 5K to the ten miler and up to the marathon, and a few bumps and bruises - all in my strive to race the Boston Marathon - the greatest race in the greatest city! It's finally almost here - and I have to carbo-load on matzah until Saturday night! But, I'm looking forward to mom's pasta sauce as my secret weapon! See you along the route or at the finish line... Kenny Ames P.S. The photo attached is from the marathon in Pocatello, Idaho, where I first qualified for Boston. It was the most amazing feeling... "Success does not come to the most righteous and rigorously disciplined but to those who continue running." - Amby Burfoot "The real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart." –Bill Bowerman "We find time for the things that are important to us. Period." - Scott Douglas, Scott's Original Miscellany, Running Times - March 2011 "Anybody can be a runner. We were meant to move. We were meant to run. It's the easiest sport." - Bill Rodgers "Even when you have gone as far as you can, and everything hurts, and you are staring at the specter of self-doubt, you can find a bit more strength deep inside you, if you look closely enough." - Hal Higdon "What I've learned from running is that the time to push hard is when you're hurting like crazy and you want to give up. Success is often just around the corner." - Sir James Dyson, Inventor of the Dyson vacuum cleaner "Man imposes his own limitations, don't set any." - Anthony Bailey "A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you've done it you feel that you can do anything." - Anonymous "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the Gift." - Steve Prefontaine "We all know that if you run, you are pretty much choosing a life of success because of it." - Deena Kastor "Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow." - Henry David Thoreau "Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don't have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up." Amby Burfoot "When you run in the morning, you gain time in a sense. It's like stretching 24 hours into 25. You may need to sleep less and get up earlier, but if you can get by that, running early seems to expand the day." - Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon "There's no magic to running far or climbing Everest. Endurance is mental strength. It's all about heart." - Bear Grylls, Host of Man vs. Wild “If you can find meaning in the type of running you need to do to stay on this team, chances are you can find meaning in another absurd pastime: Life.” - Robert Towne, screenplay for Pre "You feel good while you're running and you feel even better when you're finished." - Fred Lebow "The expression 'misery loves company' is meant for winter running. As I'm lying in bed on dark, cold mornings, it's a lot harder to talk myself out of getting up when I know I'm accountable to other people." - Jason Lehmkuhle, of Team USA Minnesota, runner-up at 2008 U.S. Half-Marathon Championships "Running should be a lifelong activity. Approach it patiently and intelligently, and it will reward you for a long, long time." Michael Sargent "Run into peace." - Meister Eckhart, 14th-Century Philosopher "There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people." -Bill Bowerman "The distance race is a struggle that results in self-discovery. It is an adventure involving the limits of the self." Paul Weiss "Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence." - Colin Powell "Running, one might say, is basically an absurd pastime upon which to be exhausting ourselves. But if you can find meaning in the type of running you need to do ... chances are you'll be able to find meaning in that other absurd pastime - LIFE." - Bill Bowerman “Remember, the feeling you get from a good run is far better than the feeling you get from sitting around wishing you were running.” - Sarah Condor “Running is a statement to society. It is saying 'no' to always being on call, to sacrificing our daily runs for others' needs. When we run we are doing something for ourselves.” Phoebe Jones, runner “The obsession with running is really an obsession with the potential for more and more life.” - George Sheehan "I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible." - John Hanc, running writer "It's the one thing that's mine. My runs everyday are my thing. It's my therapy, my hour to myself. Nobody can really take it away from me... It's such a huge part of me. I love to say that I'm a runner." - Summer Sanders, Olympic gold-medalist "There is something magical about running; after a certain distance, it transcends the body. Then a bit further, it transcends the mind. A bit further yet, and what you have before you, laid bare, is the soul." - Kristin Armstrong, Mile Markers blog at Runner's World “When you run, you log on to yourself. You flip through the pages of your being.” - Kevin Nelson, The Runner's Book of Daily Inspiration "Training for a marathon started out as a life-list thing, and it turned into a lifestyle." - Mike Post "Racing is the greatest sport. Your competitors push you to run better, stronger, and faster; and you can only fail by quitting." Kenny Ames 2-6-12

One week to go...

With one week to go until Boston, I am being needlessly worried by weather.com predicting weather in the 80s for Marathon Monday. Accuweather, however, has the day listed at 62 degrees. Wunderground has the high at 64. I'm not going to panic until Friday at the earliest since it is too soon to tell. I will simply go on with my taper and hope for the best. I do think about the race pretty much every hour. I can focus on the immediate - ie work and life - but in my spare time, like walking, or during down time - I think about the race and what it will mean and how great it will be. Let's hope the weather is great and my training and strategy pays off.