ONE WEEK! 7 days til the 118^th Boston Marathon!  Well it has been a while since I updated the blog, but the last two months have flown by (I think we have established that I am not an avid blogger).  Between work, parenting, traveling, and marathon training–there is little time to blog.   Here are some highlights from my marathon journey.

The two most important updates:

1. Have you donated to my campaign? There is still time, donate here:   www.tinyurl.com/dfmcjenn
2. Sign up to track me on race day! Choose your level of stalking:
   1. Follow me on Twitter, @kenzington11 My phone will send out a tweet ever 5 miles and also read me your replies in my ear (I run with the music playing)
   2. Text “26333” to 345678 or subscribe on www.baa.org and receive text updates of my progress on race day. http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/participant-information/att-athlete-alert.aspx
   3. Follow me on facebook.   www.facebook.com/jennsbostonrun

Marathon Training.  I’ve been suffering with Plantar fasciitis that started up at the end of January.  I had it before in my left foot 3 years ago, now it is in my right foot.  I laid off running for about 3 weeks in February and beginning of March, which put me behind on my training.  Luckily, I am seeing a physical therapist who has really helped.  I tape it before my runs and see the PT twice a week.  My PT sessions are really painful but as of this week I have no pain when I run!   I got back on the training schedule in March with long runs of 16, 15, 20 and then my last 20 on March 29^th the day thousands of Boston runners are out on the course from Hopkinton to Heartbreak Hill. This was a great run and the excitement of so many runners on the course gave it the feel of a real marathon.  The Dana-Farber team ran from BC out to Wellesley and then back for 20-22 miles total.  I ran 20 which was a great simulation of running up to Heartbreak Hill having run 16 miles prior.  It is intimidating due to all of the marathon ‘lore’ and it’s also a really long hill.  I did some walking, some running, asked a traffic cop where was the “top”of Heartbreak.  Mt. Alvernia St.  He was right.  This is my first time running the Boston marathon but I got a great ‘preview’ of the course which will help me on race day.

Fundraising update. Goal achieved, almost to my “Stretch Goal”!  Thank you to all who came out to my fundraiser at Flatbreads and Orange Leaf on March 4th!  I raised $1765 for Dana-Farber from FB, Orange Leaf, silent auction and the raffle.   This was a huge success!   My original goal was to raise $10,000 and I am just over $11,000 today.  I am not hoping to reach $13,100 (13.1 miles is the distance of a half marathon) which would put me at the next Dana-Farber Pacesetter level!  For bragging rights but also to raise that much more for cancer research!  I attended our last Dana-Farber team meeting two weeks ago and I’m on the board as an 8K pacesetter. Help me reach 13.1K!

7 Days of Rest and Anxiety! We have entered the period of marathon training called the Taper, where runners cut back on all the training runs and relax. From what I have learned, few are good at taking this advice, myself included. I will be running a few shorter runs this week—nothing more than 6 miles and starting to think about carbo-loading starting Thursday. Contrary to popular belief you want to carbo-load well before the night before the race.   What else to do during the taper period? Try not to freak out that the marathon is in 7 days!  Plan my outfit.  Lay out my race day stuff.  Re-plan my outfit.  Check the weather.  Decide on my back-up outfit.  Repeat.   You get the idea.

Cheering Section.  I hope to see a few friends and family along the course but you can still watch and cheer me on from wherever you are in the world!  There are a few ways to track me along the course and send me cheers and encouragement.   I’ll be running with my phone and an app called Runmeter.  Runmeter will tweet my progress every 5 miles and read me your tweets.  This is very cool and I love to hear your voices out on the run.  Runmeter will also post on Facebook and read your comments and “likes”.   BAA also offers runner tracking by text and email from their site at baa.org.   I hope to hear some cheers while I’m on the run!   See the links at the top to follow or sign up for text tracking.

Thank you for reading and if you haven’t, please donate to my campaign at www.tinyurl.com/dfmcjenn   I really appreciate your support.

best,
– Jenn

One of my training runs at Heartbreak Hill

my race day “singlet” for Dana-Farber!