Thank You Everyone!

Dear Friends and Family,

Only two days away until the Boston Marathon is finally here. I just wanted to give everyone an update on my fundraising, my training, the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Partner Program, and give some additional information on how you can follow me on race day.

Fundraising

It has been seven months since I began this journey and decided to take on the task of training for the Boston Marathon and simultaneously fundraising for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. I knew going into this which would be the harder of the two. Training for a race, even a marathon, is something that I can control, for the most part, as long I devote the time and effort and stick to a training plan. Fundraising on the other hand is completely uncharted territory for me. Fundraising requires me to ask for other people to donate money to a cause. It's not something that I am really comfortable doing, even after doing it for these past few months. But I can honestly say that there is not a single organization that I would rather raise money for than Dana-Farber.

As of the typing of this blog, through the extremely generous contributions of all of you, we have raised $3,215.80 for cancer research. I can not express enough how appreciative and grateful I am to each and every one of your for your contributions to Dana-Farber. 100% of your contributions will go to supporting the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber.

For those of you who would like to make a donation to support this cause, you can still make a donation in two ways. To make a donation online via credit card, just visit http://www.rundfmc.org/2013/andrews or my easy to remember domain name http://www.2013bostonmarathon.com. Both addresses will go to the same place. If you prefer to donate via check, you can send a donation payable to "Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge" to Andrew Stack, 122 Lawrence Corner Rd., Pelham, NH 03076. All contributions are tax-deductible. Please also check to see if your company has a matching gifts program.

Training

Training for the Boston Marathon was definitely the easy part for me. Since I began my training back in September, I've logged 1,158 miles. There have been a couple bumps in the road as far as injuries go. I've had some hamstring and lower leg injuries during my training which has limited my training at times. I've learned to appreciate the power of Ibuprofen. "Vitamin I" has gotten me through what would have been some rather painful times. Dealing with injuries is a very common part of marathon training and you just learn to manage those injuries to put you in the best possible shape on Marathon Monday. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team is fortunate to have 1976 Boston Marathon Champion Jack Fultz as our training advisor. Having the guidance of someone who not only knows how to train for a marathon, but has experience training novice runners like myself, who have never had any formal running or track training in my life, has been extremely beneficial. Our training program included group runs often on portions of the actual marathon course. Heartbreak Hill will be a little less intimidating when you've run up and down is several times as part of your training. To be honest, I'm actually looking forward to Heartbreak Hill since it's the part of the course that I am most familiar with.  Indoor Track Speed Workouts at Tufts University was also part of our training program.

Something else I did as part of my training was I incorporated a lot of road races into my training schedule. In hindsight, this is one thing I wouldn't recommend doing. But I did manage to set a bunch of personal records in the process and made it through these races relatively unscathed.

Dana-Farber Patient Partner Program

One thing I knew I wanted to participate in was the Dana-Farber Patient Partner Program. This program pairs up Dana-Farber runners with existing or past pediatric patients of the Jimmy Fund Clinic. My wife Angela participated in this program during the 1996 Boston Marathon when she was going through her cancer treatments at Dana-Farber. It meant a lot to both myself and Angela to be able to bring things full circle and run in honor of someone else. Last month I got to meet my Dana-Farber Patient Partner, Patrick Skiba of Newburyport, MA. Patrick is a six-year old cancer survivor, Lego fanatic, and past patient of the Jimmy Fund Clinic at Dana-Farber. I'm looking forward to seeing Patrick at the Pasta Party tomorrow and again at Mile 25 at the Dana-Farber cheering section on race day!

Marathon Monday

For those of you who plan on cheering me on in Boston on race day, please LET ME KNOW WHERE YOU WILL BE WATCHING FROM. Please try to be as specific as possible too. Such as "in front of the Pizzeria Uno in Kenmore Square on the right side of the course" or "on the left side of the course just past the mile 8 sign". From past runners' experience, it is significantly easier for the runners to find you than it is for you to find a runner. Otherwise, there's a good chance that I will run right past you.

For those of you who won't be making it into Boston but still wish to follow my progress, you can sign up for AT&T Athlete Alerts by texting the word RUNNER to 345678. You will then need to text them my bib number which is 23031. You will receive a confirmation message with my name in it if you successfully signed up. You will receive text message alerts of my progress at four points along the marathon course.

Text Alerts are sent at the following locations:

10K (6.2 Miles) - Past the Framingham Train Depot

Half Marathon (13.1 Miles) - After running past the "Scream Tunnel" at Wellesley College

30K (18.6 Miles) - In the Newton Hills approaching Heartbreak Hill

Finish Line (26.2 Miles) - Copley Square

You can also follow me on the Boston Athletic Association's website which is http://www.baa.org. You will have to enter my name or my bib number (23031). The website will provide my times at every 5K interval. So if you have access to a computer or smartphone during the race, you can find out a little more information on my progress.

There is also a new smartphone app that the Boston Athletic Association has just unveiled that you can download by texting APP to 345678.  I've tried it out on my iPod and it looks pretty good.  It'll let you track up to ten different runners.

Please note that I am starting in Wave 3 of the race which starts at 10:40AM which is 40 minutes after the elite runners start. So if you are wondering why I haven't crossed the 5K mark an hour into the race, that's probably the reason why. That also means that the Kenyans are halfway through Natick before I even cross the starting line.

Thank You!

The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge has easily been one of the most incredible and rewarding experiences of my life and I couldn't have done this without all of you. Thank you for allowing me to bombard your with all the emails, Facebook posts, and blog entries over these past few months. Thanks again to all of you for your generous support!

Andrew

Long Overdue March Update

Been a long time since I've posted an update to this blog.  It's been a busy couple of months and I just haven't been in a writing mood.  Anyways, just under one month to go until Marathon Monday.  So here is my update in no particular order.

The Boston Athletic Association has assigned the bib numbers for the race.  So I will be wearing bib number 23031 and will be starting in Wave 3/Corral 6.  There's 27,000 runners broken up into three waves containing nine corrals which have a thousand runners each.  They space the start times out with Wave 1 starting at 10:00AM, Wave 2 starting at 10:20AM, and Wave 3 starting at 10:40AM.  That's so the foot traffic isn't overcrowded.  So by the time I cross the starting line, the Kenyans will be halfway through Natick.

You'll be able to get text message alerts of my progress during the race.  AT&T will send you a text message when I cross the 10k, Half Marathon, 30k, and Finish Line.  They still haven't released info yet on how to sign up for the free text message alerts, but they should be announcing that soon.  You can also track my race progress online at http://www.baa.org.  There will be a link somewhere on their main page on race day.  I'll be sure to let everyone know once they release info on signing up for the text message alerts.

Training Update
For the past month or two, I've been dealing with both hamstring and lower leg injuries.  The hamstring injury has been more of a nuisance than anything else and I typically only notice it when I'm driving longer distances.  The lower leg injury has actually kept me from running for a couple weeks and I now limit my actual running to my long runs on the weekend.  During the week I have replaced my mid-week runs with either Cybex Arc Trainer or Elliptical workouts.  I've also eliminated running in the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge's weekly indoor track speed workouts at Tufts University.  So long story short, I'm minimizing the impact on my joints during the week which allows me to do my long runs on the weekend which is the most important of all of our weekly runs.  Throughout these past seven months, I've learned that marathon training is as much about injury management as it is about training.  I have logged over 1,000 miles since September.

Race Update
I've run four road races since I last updated.  Here's my brief reviews on each of them.

Boston Prep 16 Miler on January 27, 2013 in Derry, NH
Finished in 2:10:31 (P.R. [Personal Record]).  Ran most of the race with fellow DFMC veteran and Tewksbury native Mike Doherty.  Maintained an 8 min/mile pace for most of the race which has some pretty significant hills and was designed to mimic the Boston Marathon course.  Well organized race with good post race food.  If I run Boston again, I would definitely run this race again.

Bradford Valentine's Road Race on February 16, 2013 in Bradford, MA
Ran the 5 Mile route and finished in 35:26 (P.R.).  My wife Angela ran the 6k route and finished in 41:52.  Race got rescheduled from a week earlier due to a blizzard.  I'll skip this race in the future.  On the critical first turn on the course (where the 5M and 6k routes split), they didn't have any race marshalls or volunteers directing runners which way to go.  So unless you heard the announcement made literally a minute before the start of the race, telling you which color coded arrow to follow, you wouldn't know which way to go.

Half at the Hamptons on February 24, 2013 in Hampton Beach, NH
Another snow storm.  Race cancelled.  No reschedule.  No refunds.  $70.64 flushed down the drain.  I get the no refund policy and I understand that weather is beyond their control.  But the fact that Loco Races (the race directors) run a race in New Hampshire in February and don't have any contingency plans in the event of weather, I find is inexcusable and I'll be not running any of their races in the future.  Also, I certainly won't be signing up for any winter races until I hear what their plans are if there's bad weather. Lesson learned the hard way.

Ras na hEireann on March 10, 2013 in Somerville, MA
Finished this 5k in 22:27.  Ran this St. Patty's Day themed race in Davis Square with a few of my college friends.  The race itself is nothing special, but the post-race party is pretty sweet.  A bunch of the local bars handle the post-race duties where runners file into the bars (we went to Sligo Pub since it's the bar closest to the finish line) and it's open bar on the Harpoon Beer for an hour.  Good times.  This might be one of the races I'll do every year.

New Bedford Half Marathon on March 17, 2013 in New Bedford, MA
Finished in 1:47:16 (P.R.).  Got into the race for free as part of my new membership in the Gate City Striders which is a running club out of Nashua, NH.  Race was very well organized and the crowd support was tremendous.  The crowd was deafening at a couple points along the route and gave me an idea of what it's going to sound like in Wellesley, BC, and Boylston in four weeks.  Great post race food too with some really good clam chowdah and fish sandwiches.  Probably won't run this again simply because it's almost a two hour drive from my house.  But otherwise, it was an awesome race.

Future Races
Eastern States 20 Mile - Portsmouth, NH to Salisbury, MA - March 24th
Cohasset Rotary Road Race by the Sea (10K) - Cohasset, MA - April 7th
Boston Marathon - Hopkinton to Boston - April 15th
Twin Lights Half Marathon - Gloucester, MA - May 5th
Mount Washington Road Race (7.6 miles) - Gorham, NH - June 15th

Dana-Farber Partner Program

I finally got to meet my Dana-Farber Patient Partner at the beginning of this month.  Patrick is a six year old from Newburyport who has a passion for Legos.  In addition to being a Legomaniac, he is a cancer survivor.  Patrick is a tough little kid who kicked cancer's ass and I'm proud to be running in his honor and I'm looking forward to seeing him at the Pre-Race Pasta Party the day before the marathon and at Mile 25 on Marathon Monday with the Dana-Farber cheering section.  So on race day, no matter how much pain I'm in or how exhausted I am, it is nothing in comparison to what Patrick had to endure during his cancer treatment.  That is why I am running.  So that hopefully someday we'll find a cure for cancer so that people like Patrick and my wife Angela (who was also a Dana-Farber Marathon Patient Partner herself for the 1996 Boston Marathon during her battle with cancer) don't have go through these cancer treatments.

Race Gear

Tried out the new Adidas Energy Boost shoes.  Hated them.  The upper part of the shoe (where the laces are) are way too tight even when I ordered a half size up as recommended.  Ran in them once and returned them to the store.  Felt like it was so tight that my foot was going to go numb.  Good thing they didn't look at what I was returning since after 19 miles on the Newton Hills through puddles and snow, they certainly didn't look new.

So I ended up buying another identical pair of Brooks Ghost 5's which I have been running in for most of my training.  My original pair are pretty worn out now so I replaced them with just enough time to break them in for Marathon Monday.

We also got our DFMC Singlets in the mail.  I can't say I'm a fan of how they look but...it is what it is.  I will be customizing this singlet.  So if you would like me to add the name of a loved one who is a cancer survivor, is currently battling cancer, or who lost their battle with cancer, I would be honored to add their name to the back of my singlet and run the marathon in their honor.  Sorry for the short notice, but please let me know by March 21st since I am bringing it to the silk screen place on March 22nd.

Heart Health Study

On March 30th, I am going to Mass General Hospital for the second and final round of tests.  They did an initial test back in early January where they measure your lung capacity, do an echocardiogram and an electrocardiogram while I'm running on a treadmill at 5 mph (which is a fast paced walk) with them increasing the slope of the treadmill every minute.  Sounds easy enough.  But trust me, by the time I made it up to 18% slope, I was completely spent.  So we're doing the same thing again to see the before and after effects of marathon training on the heart.  It's pretty cool to be able to participate in this study because you get to find out some pretty in-depth information on your own heart that is typically reserved for elite athletes.

Bone Marrow Registry
I recently joined the National Marrow Donor Registry.  My DFMC teammate Hilary Hall is living proof of the importance of registering.  If you want to sign-up, visit http://marrow.org/Join/Join_the_Registry.aspx and enter code PIF070109.  It won't cost you a dime and all it takes is a simple swabbing of your inside cheek.  Chances are you'll never be called, but who knows, you could be a match and could save someone's life.

Other Stuff
Aside from that, to keep my sanity (or insanity depending on how you look at it), I've made a couple trips to Skyventure NH for some indoor skydiving in preparation for the upcoming season which starts pretty much marathon weekend.  So just when my wife thought she was getting her husband back from marathon training land, it's Skydive New England time.  It's a vicious cycle.  But hey at least this marathon training has completely transformed my body to the point that I need to wear a weight belt to increase my fall rate when skydiving.  The thought of me wearing a weight belt last October seemed absurd as my fall rate typically resembles an anvil in a Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Fundraising Update
The support I have received has been absolutely incredible and I am extremely grateful to each and every one who has donated to support Dana-Farber.  Currently, we've raised just under $2,300 for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research.  I'm having another drawing for a pair of Red Sox tickets.  All donors (including past donors) until 11:59PM on March 22nd will be entered into a drawing for a pair of tickets to the Patriots Day game vs. Tampa Bay.  If you would like to make a donation, please visit:
http://www.rundfmc.org/2013/andrews

That's all for now.  Hopefully that wasn't too long.

Angela's Cancer Story - Part 1 - The Diagnosis

Everyone who is diagnosed with cancer has a story. I asked Angela if she would be willing to share her story with the world, all the while knowing that it would be difficult emotionally for her to relive that part of her life. When you go through a traumatic experience in life, reliving it in your head can be almost as difficult as the initial experience.

Angela did not keep a diary of her experience, which she regrets. But this is what she remembers from that time.

It was June 1995 and Angela was a junior at Arlington High School. It was a couple weeks away from the end of the school year and she was looking forward to the summer. She had plans to hang out with her friends and was looking forward to going to an R.E.M. concert with her brother and sisters.

Angela was feeling a little bit bloated one day, nothing major. But she just really didn't want to go to school that day. She told her mom she was feeling bloated and that she had an upset stomach. Her mom let her stay home from school. While her mom was at work, Angela used this as an opportunity to lie on the couch, workout to some exercise tapes (the old VHS kind which she still has a pile of cluttering up our house), and watch some soap operas.

Angela's mom came home from work and asked her how she was feeling. Angela didn't really want to go back to school the next day so she decided to milk this a bit more even though she wasn't in major pain. She told her mom she was still bloated and that her stomach still hurts.

Angela's mother, maybe being a bit overly cautious, decided to bring her to the pediatrician in Arlington much to Angela's dismay. The pediatrician felt Angela's stomach, pressed on it in different places, and privately told Angela's mom that she felt something in Angela's stomach, and then told them that they need to go to Children's Hospital in Boston for further diagnosis. Angela wasn't told anything at this point other than she needs to go to the hospital.

Angela wasn't sure if it was just her nervousness upon hearing she had to go to the hospital or if it was real pain, but as time went on she truly did start hurting a bit and she was still feeling bloated.

Angela, along with her mother and father, went to Children's Hospital. After waiting a few hours she was brought to the emergency room. The emergency room doctors took turns feeling Angela's stomach and then she had an x-ray taken. The doctors still haven't told Angela what was going on at this point.

They did tell her that she would have to stay overnight. Angela got really nervous when they told her that. She was moved from the emergency room to a regular room at Children's Hospital.

The next morning, all of Angela's siblings came to the hospital. A biopsy was performed because the x-ray did reveal a mass in her stomach. A few hours later, two oncologists came into Angela's room and sat on the bed and told her that there's a mass in her stomach and that they performed a biopsy to see if they can find some more information. They told her the mass was about the size of a football and that the biopsy revealed that the mass was malignant. Angela, thinking that the word malignant meant the non-cancerous-type, smiled at this diagnosis. But then they continued to tell her that she has Burkitt's Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.  Due to the size of the tumor and its potential to burst if it grew any larger which would likely have fatal consequences, they would have to quickly begin a very strict chemotherapy regiment to combat the cancer.

She was then told the potential side effects of the chemotherapy which included nausea, vomiting, fever, hair loss, and they continued on with the list.   But all Angela could hear was "hair loss".  That's when the seriousness of the diagnosis finally hit her and she started crying. The possibility of hair loss was a difficult thing for her to accept as would surely be the case for pretty much any teenage girl. Angela was told that they could not take the mass out by surgery.  Only chemotherapy could hopefully shrink the mass.

Almost as quickly as she went from a girl trying to take some time off from school to a girl diagnosed with a potentially deadly disease, chemotherapy would begin a couple days later...

NEXT - Part 2 - The Treatment

Please consider making a donation to support the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research, which funds the brightest, most creative scientists making basic research discoveries.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

2013 Boston Marathon Entry Confirmation

I just received this email from the B.A.A.:

Dear Andrew A. Stack,

This is to notify you that your entry into the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate.

We look forward to seeing you in April! Best of luck in your training!

Sincerely,

Boston Athletic Association

It's pretty cool seeing your name on the list of people running the Boston Marathon.
http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/participant-information/current-entry-list.aspx 

Race Schedule

My race schedule is officially set between now and Boston.  I've registered for all of the following races so that there's no backing out of anything last minute.  The schedule worked out pretty nice with long races followed by shorter distance races so that I'm not totally destroying my legs.  That wasn't by design, it just kinda worked out that way.  I have a race roughly every two weeks.  I figure why not run a bunch of races between now and Boston and hopefully bang out a few PRs in the process.

Boston Prep 16 Miler (16 M)

Sunday, January 27, 2013, 10:00AM

Derry, NH

http://www.gdtc.org/bostonprep/

 

Bradford Valentine Road Race (5 M)

Saturday, February 9, 2013, 10:00AM

Bradford, MA

http://www.bsrs-timing.com/valentinerace/

 

Half at the Hamptons (13.1 M)

Sunday, February 24, 2013, 10:00AM

Hampton Beach, NH

http://www.hamptonhalf.com/

 

Ras na hEireann (5 K)

Sunday, March 10, 2013 11:00AM

Somerville, MA

http://baevents.com/rasnaheireann/

 

Eastern States 20 Mile (20 M)

Sunday, March 24, 2012, 11:00AM

Portsmouth, NH to Salisbury, MA

http://www.easternstates20mile.com/

 

Cohasset Rotary Road Race by the Sea (10 K)

Sunday, April 7, 2013, 1:00PM

Cohasset, MA

http://www.roadracebythesea.com/

 

Boston Marathon (26.2 M)

Monday, April 15, 2013, 10:40AM (Wave 3 Start)

Hopkinton, MA to Boston, MA

http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon.aspx

A Belated New Year's Day Update

Happy New Year and here's the latest and greatest on my marathon training and fundraising efforts as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team.

Photo by Ted Tyler from Cool Running

Lowell 1st Run 10K
On New Years Day, I ran in the 2013 Lowell 1st Run 5K/10K.  I ran in the 10K which was the same course as the 5K but a double loop.  There were about 1600 total runners in the two races despite it being a really cold morning with temperatures right around freezing.  I set a personal record for a 10K finishing in 46:51.

My race review for those that care about these kinds of things:  The race registration was easy and there was plenty of communication from the race directors leading up to the race.  Race day bib number pickup was a little hectic with 1600 people trying to get into and out of the Lowell Elks through one small double door.  Might be worth considering having packet pickups in advance of the race.  Course itself was well marked with mile markers and timers at each mile.  Post race included a beer, a bowl of some ziti/broccoli and a cup of chicken noodle soup.  Not quite the gourmet meal that was advertised but that's just minor details.  The finisher's medals on the other hand were exactly as advertised.  The medals are easily one of the nicest finisher's medals I've received from any race.  The medallion is actually a wine stopper, not that I would actually use it as one.  This is definitely a race that I would run in future years.

Next Race
The next road race on my calendar is the Boston Prep 16 Miler in Derry, NH on Sunday, January 27th.  This is a pretty challenging race due to major hills throughout much of the course.  Here is a nice video of the course.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESNumRR-RxQ

Training Update
So now that 2012 is officially in the books, I logged 642 miles last year either on the pavement or the treadmill since September.  Not bad for someone as out of shape as I was!  This Sunday is the 2nd DFMC group run of the season and we'll be hitting the Newton Hills (in both directions).  With just over 100 days until Marathon Monday, this will be my first time running the Newton Hills and the infamous Heartbreak Hill.  The hills can't be much worse than the hills near my house, but we'll see on Sunday.

Heart Health Study
This Saturday is my first visit to Mass General Hospital where I'll be doing my first of two rounds of tests to see the effects of marathon training on the heart.

Partner Program Update
I will post more about this later this month or early next month.  I have been paired up with five year old Patrick from Newburyport as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Partner Program which matches DFMC runners with pediatric patients of the Jimmy Fund Clinic.  I'm looking forward to meeting and getting to know Patrick and his family!  I will be running in Patrick's honor this April!

Fundraising Update
To date we have now raised $1,374.80 for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Cancer Research.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and everyone of you who donated to this cause!  If you would like to donate to support my run, please visit http://www.rundfmc.org/2013/andrews.

That's all for now.  Go Pats!