April 15th, 2016 is the first official One Boston Day.
Last year marked the beginning of this new annual Boston tradition that serves as an opportunity to celebrate the resiliency, generosity, and strength demonstrated by the people of Boston and those around the world in response to the tragedy of April 15, 2013.
“April 15 is a date that has come to stand for our city’s deepest values, and we continue to be amazed by the spirit of the day, in the City, and around the world,” said Mayor Walsh. “I am proud to sign this proclamation so that every April 15 we are inspired to come together to honor the bravery, the resolve and the unity of the City by reaching out, helping those in need, committing random acts of kindness.”
“One Boston Day” encourages random acts of kindness and spreading goodwill, and activities across the City will encourage individuals to give back to their community. The new tradition came together in 2015 based on the desire expressed by many survivors to pass on the kindness, generosity and support they received following the 2013 Boston Marathon.
The City of Boston has launched onebostonday.org, where individuals and organizations can share their plans for One Boston Day and are encouraged to use the hashtag #OneBostonDay. As in the past, Hill Holliday is serving as the creative and digital marketing partner to help spread awareness and raise the visibility of One Boston Day.
– City of Boston
Here is the link to the full press release. If you go to onebostonday.org you can download images to add to your Facebook page and Twitter account. A link to the video below is also available.
Several community groups are hosting blood drives, running shoe collections and other events to support the community.
If you would like to support the community but cannot attend a fundraiser or donate blood, please consider a donation to FamilyAid Boston. This organization has been supporting Boston families for 100 years, and they could use your support today. Contribute here.
Since 1916, FamilyAid Boston has provided our city’s most vulnerable residents with homelessness prevention, shelter, housing, and support services. We help homeless families get back on their feet and plan for future stability and success.
This year I’m running Boston for FamilyAid Boston. Here is why.
Over the past five years, our Boston Marathon team has become one of our biggest fundraisers. In 2016, our 100th anniversary year, we hope to exceed $100,000.
As Marathon Monday approaches, that goal is becoming a reality. You can help us exceed our goal and help celebrate our 100th year of helping families in need of hope.
You may wonder, what good will my donation do? Here are just a few examples of the impact your donation could have:
$35 feeds a homeless family in shelter for one day.
$75 connects a homeless mother with an employment specialist who will help her write her first resume and begin a job search.
$100 provides a family a night of shelter.
$200 connects 2 families in shelter with a social worker who will help them save money, get the services they need, and create a plan to get them back into housing.
$300 ensures that an on-call worker is available 24/7 for one week to place homeless families in emergency shelter.
$500 connects 6 families living in shelter with a social worker who will help them save money, get the services they need, and create a plan to get them back into housing.
$1,200 is the average cost to resolve an at-risk family’s housing crisis, keeping them in their home and out of shelter.
Seven is a lucky number and I have been lucky my entire life and have never faced homelessness. I cannot imagine telling my kids to pack what they can carry, we have to leave.
Children need to go to the same school each year and make those life-long friendships. Children need stability and security.
FamilyAid Boston has been helping families create this stable environment for 100 years. Together we can help these families.
I’m ready to run 26.2 miles in what ever weather mother nature throws our way on April 18th.
Can you make a donation and help a family who may be facing dark skies?
My wife and I decided that instead of gifts this year, we would give the family a cruise. Our girls are in college, with one graduating this spring. Once they graduate it will be a challenge to coordinate a vacation like this. If not now, when?
Treadmill Running at 21 knots
Being a runner, I had to run while I was on vacation. It wasn’t the most important thing on my mind, but I knew I had to get in a few miles.
Disney Magic
The Disney Magic has a large spa area that I had to walk through to get to the gym. The gym looked a quarter of the space of the spa. Gym was free, spa was not.
The treadmills were in front with large windows over looking the decks below and out to sea. This would seem like an ideal way to run on a treadmill: the open sea before you.
Unfortunately I was too tall and could not see far. I did have a good view of the deck, which was rather boring.
When we were leaving the pier in Jamaica, I decided to go work out. What an experience.
As the ship changed directions my body weight shifted as well. With the side thrusters I shifted one way. When the ship moved forward, I shifted again.
Running at cruising speed
It may have been my imagination, but my weight shifted as the ship went “full ahead.” It felt like the bow dipped down and then came up again as the ship settled at cruising speed. For a few minutes it felt like I was running downhill and then a few minutes later there was a small incline.
As the ship turned to make its way out to sea, I continued to feel the fluctuations of my body weight.
I think it takes more than a few days to get your “sea legs.” I never really got my treadmill “sea legs.”
Fun with Garmin
On our last day at sea I decided to have some fun with my Garmin watch. One deck had low traffic and was set up for runners and walkers. I was told a lap was about 1/3 of a mile.
My watch quickly locked onto satellites and I was off for my sea jog.
1 knot equals 1.15078 miles/hour. Assuming the ship was cruising at 21 knots, we were moving at 24.166 mph.
Me and Usain
I wanted to see how my running pace would look on my Garmin. I only ran around the ship twice, which should have been about 0.66 miles.
Garmin had me running 2.77 miles in 5:48 minutes! My pace was a blistering 2:05! My average moving speed was 28.8 mph. Take that Usain Bolt!
It was pretty hilarious when I looked at my watch.
I was probably running at a 9 minute pace, maybe less. I was on a cruise after all!
None of these numbers mean anything; the USOC wont be calling anytime soon, but it was a fun experiment.
Check out the two maps below. The first is a close of of the course I ran.
The wobbles are probably from when I was turning around on the ship.
The second map shows where we were in the Caribbean.
Castaway Cay 5K
Our last stop was Disney’s Castaway Cay in The Bahamas. I heard rumors that they had a 5K there for guests.
With the booming popularity of running it only made sense. The gym on the ship was much larger and had a lot more cardio equipment than our last cruise also.
On our first night out I went to Guest Services and signed up. Fantastic!
The morning we arrived in port they gathered the runners in one of the lounges. There were lots of families and people who did not look like runners.
There were about 80 people and it was easy to spot the runners. All week I had been looking at people’s shoes. Not everyone wears Brooks or Mizuno running shoes on vacation.
I struck up a conversation with a few guys who were runners. We were looking for water before the race. Disney had none! It was 85° and there wasn’t any stinking water! Mufasa would never let that happen. 😉
Pre-Race
They had everyone check in, get a bib and make sure they had their ship’s pass. When the time came they assembled us. At the exit we had our own lane to check out and disembark.
The race started about a mile from the ship and it was 85º. I thought they would use one of those trams to get us to the start. Nope. We walked a mile in 85º temps.
This was a cruise. I didn’t have a water bottle or power bar. You couldn’t fall down on the ship with out finding a place to get a drink of some sort. Who needed a water bottle?
I tried to eat a higher carb breakfast that morning. But who can resist breakfast sausage? I may have had an extra pastry for good measure.
At the start they lined us up. We only hung around for a few minutes before they let us go. Me and a few other guys tried to do some warm up jogging, but we didn’t have much time.
And they’re off!
I ran Boston in 2012 when it was 85º. This 5K came in at 3.03 miles, but they were the hottest 3.03 miles I have ever run! The humidity must have been 100%.
About 20 of us took the lead immediately. We wound down the bike path to the air strip. As we crossed the airstrip to the bike path on the other side, I could tell I was going to lose the lead pack. They looked too good and I felt too hot to keep up.
It was just a fun run.
I managed a respectable 7:11 pace for the first mile. At the entrance to the bike path loop they had their water stop set up. They said they had two water stops, but it was the same one twice. I never use a water stop for a 5K. It’s a 5K!
As I came out of the bike path loop I stopped for a cup of water, chatted with the Activities Director and had another cup. I then proceeded down the runway.
On the way back down the runway I made a second water stop. I grabbed a cup, joked with the Activities Director and had another cup. Then I ran the second loop of the bike path, but I ran it in the wrong direction! Oops!
Did I mention that it was freakin hot?
There were runners of all abilities and lack of abilities. When I was running down the runway some poor kid was hollering out like he was going to die. “Why am I doing this”, I hate running.”
I was concerned and amused all at the same time. No one dies at Disney! I could just imagine this kid’s dad telling him he was going to run a 5K. The kid may have even thought it was a good idea.
Running your first 5K in 85º is not a good idea. The kid probably had not trained and probably did not have the right clothes and shoes. I wasn’t properly prepared and I know what I’m doing!
My mile 2 and 3 splits are not bad when you consider that I stopped for drinks and a quick chat with the Activities Director twice.
I was impressed to see that they had a real timing clock for the race. The bibs didn’t have a timing chip and they didn’t have any awards. it was a fun run.
Everyone did receive a Disney “medal” and a nice bib.
My wife joked that it was the most expensive 5K I ever ran, but it did come with a free cruise!
Running on a cruise is a challenge. When you are in port you usually want to do things. Quite often these activities can involve walking, climbing or swimming. Sometimes you don’t really know how strenuous the next day may be.
While there is the urge to get in a few miles there is also the realization that the next day will be active. It’s a balancing act, kind of like walking on the ship itself.
Some people dressed up in holiday costumes. Most of us wore our Halloween costumes of reflective vests, colorful clothing and head lamps.
We jogged through the streets of Melrose like horribly lost carolers looking for the next house party.
Our Social Committee put together a series of tasks for us to carry out. Some requiring physical dexterity, others mental dexterity.
I was appointed Team Captain by The Director. My main contributions were the team name and making sure no one got lost. Pretty odd given that I had little idea of where we were going!
At one stop we had to toss ping-pong balls into cups of water. We were also encouraged to drink beer which made it more difficult the second time you had to go and take aim.
At another stop we had to carry an un-cooked egg on a spoon and pass it to the next team member. At this stop we were invited to drink egg-nogg, spiked if we chose to.
This is our first year with both of our girls off to college. That probably has a lot to do with it. Even when the girls were teenagers we would get a tree within a week of Thanksgiving. Sometimes it took a week to get around to decorating it, but we never waited until December 14th to get our tree.
Sunday we finally got around to getting our tree. We felt we were running out of time. The kids will enjoy decorating it when they get home.
Our Charlie Brown Christmas Miracle
We’ve cut our own trees a few times but there never seemed to be a great selection out in the field. When we got home, the trees always seemed to have scoliosis.
A few races that I’m running, that I’ll be at and other fun stuff.
13th Annual Run for All Ages
This 5K will be held Saturday, November 1st at Lake Quannapowitt, Wakefield, MA at 10AM.
The race is organized by the New England 65 Plus Runners Club and is a celebration of running for all ages. It’s not unusual to see generations running together.
Omni Running will be there selling “My First 5K” medals. So if you are looking to run your first 5K or know someone who is and would like to get a medal, this is a nice flat course.
RUN FOR A CAUSE
3rd Annual 5K Stride For The Saugus Y
Saturday, November 8th, 9:00am
SAUGUS FAMILY YMCA
If you register today (10/31/14) the cost is only $15! The race is in Breakheart Reservation, so you better be prepared to run some killer hills!
I’m running this race as part of my “50 5Ks at 50” project. Not looking forward to those hills!
Will Run for Beer 2015 Series registration is open!
Click on the series schedule to go to their registration page. This is a favorite series of mine that I have been running for four years.
If you register for the series before December 31st you pay only $5.00 to get the race jacket. After January 1st the fee is $10.00.
You have to register for the series AND run at least 5 races. You can even skip the half marathons if you want to.
The series starts with your pick of three New Year’s Day races.
You can run the Hangover Classic 5K in Salisbury, and then jump in the ocean!
You can also run the First Run 5K or 10K in Lowell. I would not advise jumping into a canal after one of these races. I’ve run them both, but tend to like the Hangover Classic.
Some years New Year’s Day is warm and a dip in the ocean isn’t as bad as it sounds.
Here’s one for the kid’s or the kid in all of us.
A Pumpkin Smash with Salvatore’s catering and Harpoon serving up some cold ones. Fun for the whole family. Salvatore’s is in Medford Square and the food is excellent. What can you say about Harpoon?
If you’ve never been to Smolak Farms you should take the kids to this event. They make the best apple cider donuts also.
My wife joked that it was the most expensive 5K I ever ran, but it did come with a free cruise!
Some people dressed up in holiday costumes. Most of us wore our Halloween costumes of reflective vests, colorful clothing and head lamps.
If you register for the series before December 31st you pay only $5.00 to get the race jacket. After January 1st the fee is $10.00.