Sweat365 » Good Luck Boston Runners!

Tomorrow, Monday April 21st, is the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. Good luck to all of the runners as they complete one of the greatest and most historic athletic events in the world. Special shout outs to the several members of the Sweat365.com community who will be participating in tomorrows race.

Many runners look up to the Boston Marathon as one of the crowning achievements of ones running “career”. Even for those of us who are not professionals, the tough qualification standards for entering the race are a sign of a truly well conditioned athlete. You all deserver a great deal of admiration for reaching the start line.

But for me, as someone who has watched you all prepare as I read your training blogs, I am equally impressed as your qualifications as human beings. There are clearly too many stories to tell, and so I can’t touch on them all. But since I feel like I’ve become so close to some of you, I must share a few of your stories with the rest of the world.

Kip, who has been running since 1990, and has logged over 26,000 miles, has been an incredible inspiration to me. His determination, and perseverance is amazing to me, yet, I know that he’s not the most insane deep mileage runner out there. He’ll tell you he’s just an average guy. And he probably is, but he’s the kind of “average” guy that averages 70 miles of running a week. It hasn’t been easy for Kip, he’s battled injuries, and recovered, and now feels 100% ready to accomplish his goal of finishing in two and a half hours or less.

Andrea, who I met one night at a dinner party for my kids school, is a typical dedicated wife and mother, who happens to also be a runner. Over a glass of wine she told me about her goal of qualifying for Boston, and I mentioned Sweat365.com and how I thought it would be a great place for her to meet new people and inspire herself to reach her goal. Not only did she join our community, but she ran with us at the Las Vegas Marathon and qualified for Boston at that race. Since qualifying for Boston she two has struggled with injuries, and out of concern that she might not make it, decided to go out and qualify for the New York Marathon as a backup. Well, Andrea qualified for NY by running a wicked fast half marathon, and has since recovered from her injuries and is also ready to race her heart out in tomorrows big event.

Injuries have been a common theme to these stories, which unfortunately leads me to Chris a.k.a. Goal Runner. He has been one of the most inspiring bloggers to me… not just because I identify with his story,  41 year old guy, who got into running after years of sitting around… (Well, I don’t think Chris sat around nearly as much as I did… but still… I definitely look up to him.)… but Chris has also always been full of good cheer and positive support for everyone in the community. And frankly, everyone is so nice around here, that it takes a lot of good cheer to rise to the top of the good cheer heap. But Chris too has been injured, and although he plans to toe the line tomorrow with the rest of the Boston qualifiers, he would tell you he’s far from 100%. What impresses me most about his story is that he is still positive and is still going to go out there and run the best race he can.

Finally, last, but certainly not least, is Lisa Sabin, who has worked so hard to welcome and support all of the members of the Sweat365 community while she trains for running Boston herself. Lisa who is one of the core team members here at Sweat365, is a wonderful person, loving wife and mother, and most of all an amazing person. She’s worked so hard to prepare for this race, and sacrificed so much… I promise, when she gets home from the race, I’ll make her some of my infamous home made macaroni and cheese… Don’t ask me why she thinks that’s what she wants more than knowing she’s completed the Boston Marathon. But who am I to argue… if Mac and Cheese is what she wants… then Mac and Cheese is what she gets!

Congrats to all of you! And good Luck tomorrow!

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