4:20:59

I crossed the finish line in 4hrs 20 minutes and 59 seconds. The time was in the range I was hoping albeit, on the outer end. Nonetheless, it was a great day and I had a lot of fun. As you go down to sleep prior to running a Marathon if you were to go through the checklist of things you didn't want to happen it might have looked like this:
A. Wakeup at 2AM with Diaarhea
B. At 3:30 Have your 3yr old daughter kick open your bedroom door like she's a police officer from an episode of "Cops"
C. Vomit Blood (or what appeared to be blood until your wife realizes it was just the cherries from the 14 Green Apple Martini's you had)

A&B all happened to me on Monday morning pre-dawn. C did not happen (at least not Sunday Night/Monday Morning) So as Meatloaf say's "2out of 3 Ain't bad."

For the race itself the weather wasn't a factor until you got to BC and then you could feel the wind and the temps were slightly lower. I felt strong, had good wind but my stomach was off from the night before and I tried but couldn't take any of my energy gels it just made my stomach feel worse. But I made it through and got to Mile 22 and saw the wonderful site of all the family and friends and that got me through to the finish. As I got about halfway down Boylston to the Finish I gave the Apollo Creed response of "Ain't gonna be no rematch" but when I got home I couldn't agree with what Rocky said back to Apollo so the window is open for another shot.

From a brother who's smooth like a criminal....

Ran an easy 7 miles this morning and am feeling pretty good. A few more small 3 milers and I should be good to go. I'm not a fast runner so I have no delusions over time. That reminds me of an old Saturday Night Live sketch where Martin Short and another guy play male synchronized swimmers and Short's character, while wearing swimmies, proclaims "I'm not a strong swimmer." I really am looking to just finish, preferably before the street lights come on and preferably healthy.

No Ipod for me on race day so if someone could please, John Cusack style, hold up a boom box and play "We Want Eazy" as I turn on Boylston and head to the Finish line I'd much appreciate that. Forget Guns N Roses, AC/DC or Metallica, "We want Eazy" would absolutely be my entrance music if I were a Major League Baseball closer. I'm not sure if there are any teams in the market for a 36yr old with a 45mph fastball and a knack for throwing pitches way out of the strike zone but if they are then I'm their Huckleberry. Now tell 'em all who you came to see.....EAZY!!!

Special thanks to my sister who decided it would be a lovely Easter present for Maggie if she gave her the Wiggles CD. So now instead of just snippets of the %$&^* Wiggles music we get the whole shebang including Hot Potato Hot Potato, Fruit Salad, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wag the Dog and Captain Feathersword.

Fruit Salad

Have begun the tapering back phase of training and did an easy 6 mile run yesterday morning. Patriots day is a week and half away and am beggining to show some nervousness. I'm not sure of what times I'm looking at but am hoping to finish and finish healthy and on 2 feet (blistered and calloused I'm sure.)

Molly and I made a visit to Children's Hospital for an appointment and it went fairly well. No major issues and we go back again in a month for a followup. The worst part of the whole adventure was the ride into Boston. There wasn't any traffic and Molly was sound asleep, so she wasnt the problem either. The problem was with the *%$$^#$ Wiggles. Maggie was given as a gift a Wiggles Guitar where when you press one of the buttons it plays a snippet of one of their songs. The thing fell off the backseat and landed face down on the buttons. So after every bump in the road we got to hear, "Yummy Yummy Yummy Fruit Salad. Yummy Salad.....Yummy Yummy." This went on for the entire ride on Rt 93 to Storrow drive and then to Children's. I had visions of pulling a Pete Townsend of the Who, and smashing the thing to smithereens but cooler heads prevailed.

More Days in First Place....

Did the much anticipated 20 Miler on Monday morning prior to work. Waking up at 3 to run 20 miles left me not surprisingly a little sluggish. But I stumbled through it and now feel like there's a legitimate chance of me finishing the 26.2 miles. Added a pair of 4 mile runs and have started to Referee some Lacrosse games this week, which has a lot more running than I thought it might.

Will do a few more miles on the weekend and hope to add a 10-13 mile run on Monday morning. Other than my feet I seem to be holding up pretty well (knock on wood) and should be good to go for Patriots Day. Also a great surge was made in Fundraising and has now pushed our totals over $7,000 and squarely into first place. Thank You, Thank You to everybody....and Here's Big sister Maggie sharing our happiness at the tremendous outpouring of support.

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Eye to Eye Station to Station

Ran 7 miles yesterday morning and added another 5 miles this morning. Feeling good but have started to experience some new blister problems. Yesterday received an email from The Boston Athletic Association informing me that the Marathon was 26.2 days away. It'll be here before I know it. Wasn't listening to my ipod and got an unexpected '80s smorgasbord of hits from the overhead Gym music.

First song I heard was "Living in America" by James Brown from the Rocky V soundtrack. I love the political incorrectness of that song and subsequent scene in the movie. Basically, mocking Ivan Drago and the Russians complete with Apollo Creed in his Uncle Sam outfit. 99 cents later and the very un-PC song is on the Ipod. Next was a "Get Outta My Dreams Get Into My Car" by George Clooney's distant step-brother, Billy Ocean. Some one should explain to Billy that yelling at a woman and forcing her to "Get into my Car" is a felony. That's called kidnapping. Originally, the Song was titled "Get Outta my Dreams, Get some Duct tape and rope and Get into the Trunk of my Car." Apparently, they shortened it for the radio version. The 3rd 80's song heard was "Do Me" by Bell Biv Devoe. Not sure how Messrs. B, B and D never spent any time in jail especially with lyrics like "Backstage, under age, adolescent." Is this an 80's pop song or a transcript from Dateline's To Catch a Predator? Also in that song is the lyric "I wanna rub you down with some Hot Oil." Now I'm not the ladies man that B,B and D are but to me Hot Oil is a euphemism for GREASE and if I were a lady I'd be all set with you pouring Hot grease on me. I made stir fry the other day and a little speck of oil popped up and caught me in the eye and that hurt like a son of a B. I do thoroughly enjoy 80's music though.

1 Month to go

Finished last week with a 13 mile long run and ran at about race pace. Felt pretty good and would have loved to have continued but ran out of time. A 20 miler should be in my forecast for this week and then the tapering back should begin. Less than a month away and am beginning to get antsy. The numbers became official and my Number is 22616. The 16 is quite symbolic as Maggie, Molly and Jimmy were all born on the 16th.

Molly and Jimmy just had their 6 month checkups and for the most part all are doing well. They're both in the top 75% on their respective growth charts for height and weight with Jimmy in the 91% for height. Molly just started to eat food and so far has done a much better job than her Brother who gagged the first few times he tried it. I can't believe that they're that old/big now, it seems like just yesterday that I was pretending to be asleep when they didn't sleep through the night and would cry at 12, 2, and 5am. I never really did that and it wouldn't have worked anyways as Pam is not afraid of throwing a well placed elbow or knee my way as a firm but friendly "wake up" call.

Toys for Big Boys

Finished last week with a 10 mile run. Trying to run it in around 8:30 and I was just about able to do that. Felt pretty good and will continue on with the training. Just about a month left and I'm starting to get a little bit nervous as to how well I'll do on Patriots day. I plan on running right behind the Kenyans (a couple of hours behind but who's counting) and I would be thrilled to finish in under 4hrs. March Madness time of the year always puts an extra hop in my step and I like Memphis and UNC and I'm looking forward to watching the First round of games on the treadmill it'll beat the reality junk I usually watch.

I found myself watching a reality show on the Travel channel called Anthony Bourdain No Reservations. The guy is a former world class chef who travels around to various locations and samples the food. He creeps me out to no end. If I were a female college student walking home from the library (not sure what's less believable, me in the library or me as a female) I would run not walk to security if he came around. He always seems to be in Thailand or Vietnam and I would not be surprised if he ended up in cell next to Gary Glitter, who by the way, as legend has it, penned Rock and Roll Part II while at Providence College. I wouldn't want this guy cooking me up a Grand Slam at Denny's never mind the five star ultra expensive meals at the fancy restaurants he used to be a Chef at. He probably drives a white econoline van or better yet a van more like the old "Toys for Big Boys" van that used to patrol the hardscrabble streets of Wakefield, MA. That van was probably in existence early to mid 1980's and it was a sweet ride. I dont know who owned it and thank the good Lord I don't know but it was all Black and had airbrushed paintings of Naked women on it. Above the pictures were the words "Toys for Big Boys." I think from now on I'll stick to a safer brand of reality TV like Jon and Kate plus 8, although she annoys me and there are the rumors about them.....

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Rainbow of Fruit Flavors

Completed an 18 mile run on Sunday which put me at 41 miles for the week. You have to love New England as I ran in shorts outside on Sunday and was shoveling snow on Monday. If the planet has a fever as Al Gore claims then New England must be immune as I have not seen much evidence of global warming. I spent the latter part of Sunday spraying Pam's Aqua Net into the air and it's still cold. The roads were horrible, all potholes and sand, and I rolled my ankles twice but managed to finish and thanks to the trademark "loose joints" of the Preston's, my ankles are fine.

We've resorted to bribery in our attempts to potty train Maggie. She had been doing great and was well on the way but the Twins came along and the progress kind of halted and went back a tad. Akin to a "Dollars for Scholars" telethon we've instituted our very own "Skittles for Pittles" drive. She gets some Skittles everytime she goes to use the bathroom. So far Maggie is leading on the tote board and is doing a great job. Although, If I start to hit the Champagne of Beers on the weekend I might just get all of the Skittles.

Hook 'Em Horns

News of Jimmy's recent growth spurt has gotten out so he decided to commit real early to play football in Austin Texas.

Added another 16 miler for the long run and felt ok but was a little sluggish. I was hoping for 18 but I decided not to push it this week and did my best Costanza and quit on a high note. Ideally, I'd like to add 2 20 mile runs and an 18 before the Marathon Day. I'll shoot for the 18 this upcoming weekend if we can get the new snowfall to melt. I'm done with the snow. I remember back in college I was watching Channel 7 news during a snowstorm and they were about to interview a 7 or 8 year old boy. The bubbly reporter, expecting the kid to be all happy and excited, asks, "So all this snow, another day off from school you must be really excited?" The boy, who's knee deep in snow, turns his head to the reporter, and with a look of utter disgust says to her in a very calm but firm voice, "I hate snow." and back to you in the studio... That kid's response pretty much sums up my feelings on winter.

Watched the Biggest Loser last week and was viewing the footage of Dane, was 4oolbs now in the 300 lb range, crossing the finish line at a Marathon in Phoenix in a time NBC reported at 3hrs 53 minutes. Having run a marathon in under 4 hrs (3:57 to be exact) I was a little surprised that this guy did it as well. So I went to The Google and found that he didn't run it that fast and in fact he didn't even finish. NBC's crew picked him up at about mile 17 and drove him to the finish for a staged photo shoot. Thanks Al Gore, this internet stuff is amazing.

Here Molly celebrates the Longhorns victory over the Baylor Bears.

Green Alligators and Long Necked Geese

Finished last week at 42 miles for the week which included a long run on Sunday of 16 miles. Feel pretty good so the hope is to keep this pace up for the next few weeks and then begin to taper back the mileage. While running Sunday at around 5:30 am I stopped as I came across a family of Deer just hanging out in somebody's front lawn. As soon as I stopped to watch them they all stopped and turned around to stare at me and we had ourselves a good old fashioned Mexican standoff. I remembered the Lady with Chimpanzee in CT and I quickly continued on running all while looking back to see if I was being followed/hunted.
Took the Kids to the Shriners Auditorium as they had an indoor zoo exhibit. If you like animals who are barely keeping the grim reaper at bay then this is the Zoo for you. If these were the animals Noah had to choose from then the Arc might as well have been a row boat, they weren't going to need the space. The big draw was the Unicow. Now, if you're like Pam and I then you quickly read that as Unicorn and who doesn't like Unicorns, they are the Loveliest of all. What this place had was a cow who only had one horn. What a fantastic lesson for the kids. Let's take this animal who is slightly different than everyone else (through no fault of his own), let's segregate it from everyone else and let's all point and gawk at it. Good Family Fun. Maggie did enjoy the cotton candy though.

A.B.C.

Little Miss Molly returned home from a Week and a half long hospital stay on Thursday and is doing great. No real reason as to why we were in there as long as we were, but we'll be going to Children's to see some specialists who can hopefully shed some more light on it. Her Brother is sure happy to see her home. A few of the mornings we've found them holding hands and talking/cooing back and forth with each other. I resumed running on Sunday and did an easy 5 miles followed by another easy 3 miles on Monday. Hopefully, the nearly 2 week layoff hasnt set me back too much.

Saw a guy at the gym with the Tattoo "ALWAYS BE CLOSING" on his arm. I get that that is a phrase often used in Sales and I saw Boiler Room with Ben Affleck and Glengary Glenross and I know it's a famous quote from those movies. I don't get why you would ever tattoo that on ANYTHING. If I'm taking sales 101 in College then I'm absolutely writing it in my notebook but I'm not permanently marking my body with it. That tattoo is basically just an indicator to the rest of the world that "Hey FYI, I'm pretty much a Knucklehead." This guy must have friends/family and I can't believe none of them told him that the ABC tattoo was a bad idea. I would bet a small fortune that in the planning phases of getting his tattoo he was explaining it to people like this, "Look it's a double meaning I'm always trying to close the deal with my sales and I'm always trying to close the Deal with the Ladies...." The guy at the Tattoo parlor must have struggled mightily to keep from laughing, "You want what?? Seriously?" If I'm buying anything and I know the salesperson has that tattoo then I'm going out of my way to NOT buy that from him. I will pay extra to not give that numbskull the commission.

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Hiatus

The running for the last week has been non-existent as Molly has been in the Hospital with a bad bout of pneumonia. She seems to be doing much much better now and we hope and pray that she'll be coming home in the next day or two. They don't tell you in any of those "What to Expect" books about how awful it is to see your child being poked, prodded and hooked up to all sorts of monitors. They very well might have mentioned it in those books but, as I assume with with most new Dads, I left that fancy book learning to my wife. Nonetheless, it was awful to see. Pam has always and continues to amaze me with how unbelievable a mother and wife she truly is. She has single-handedly held everything together and has been by Molly's bedside for 90% of the time while I worked or took care of Maggie and Jimmy. She has a big present waiting for her when she gets home and that present is a whole heaping pile of Laundry.

Spare Change

Did a long run of 14 miles on Sunday, which for the week ending Jan 25 gave me a total of 31 miles and I think thats about right on track at this point. Felt as though I could have gone a little further if necessary and averaged at around an 8:30-8:45 per mile pace, probably a little faster than it should have been but still ok for now. Looking to possibly run a 15K race on Super Bowl Sunday morning and it should be interesting to see how that goes. Healthwise, everything has been pretty good, some blisters and some minor aches and pains but a newly ordered pair of sneakers should alleviate a lot of that.
At Dunkin' Donuts Drive thru this AM (as my buddy Fronge likes to say, "They F... You at the Drive thru) and the total rang up at $2.19. Not wanting a fistful of change, I handed the woman a $5 dollar bill and 2 dimes. Now if Pam were with me she would get aggravated and say that I'm trying to cause problems by making them do simple math. Sometimes, yes that is true. Although, I'm not causing problems I'm merely testing them. How can I count on you to properly make me a large cream with 3 equals if you can't figure out that on a bill that costs $2.26 and I hand you $3.01 that I need 3 of those larger shiny silver coins back (there better not be any copper in that pile.) The woman today at Dunkin Donuts hands me a hodgepodge of coins and dollar bills that don't even remotely equal enough change. It's not the fact that the woman couldn't do the math (the registers now do all the math for you) it's the fact that she didnt care to give me the right amount back, that she was annoyed that I was interrupting her 6AM text messaging. Do you think this woman's friends when they play Monopoly ever let her be the Banker? "Ummm Rita hey I just passed go and you gave me a few of the pink 5's, 2 orange 500's, 2 hotels, the thimble and what I think is the lead pipe from Clue. I'm pretty sure that's not right."

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Cuff links

Finished last week at about 24 Miles. The snow put a damper on the total but overall for the time in the training schedule it wasn't too bad. Did 12 miles indoors on Monday morning and followed that up with a 5 mile jaunt early Wednesday morning. Molly has started to smile and laugh/smirk a little which is incredible to watch especially since everything we were told and read said that might not happen until much later. We've discovered that she likes to stay awake a lot later than her brother and sister and we think it's because that's her time to hang uninterrupted with mom and dad. Last night she thoroughly enjoyed watching "The Biggest Loser" and like everyone else, she was aggravated that Joelle was above the yellow line.

While getting ready to shower at the gym this morning I saw a gentleman putting on cuff links on his shirt. I don't own cuff links. Should I own some? I don't think so. All of my shirts have the prerequisite number of buttons (plus the extras hidden on the bottom ) Maybe if I'm in someones wedding I could just take the ones from Mr. Tux like I'm sure I did from the Prom although I didn't keep those I believe those ones are at the bottom of Lake Quannapowitt.

If life is a radio, turn up to ten...

Finished last week at 19 miles. Pushed the long run off from Sunday to yesterday. Ran 13 miles yesterday in a comfortable 1 hr and 55 mins. Felt Ok, a little tired as I started at 5am and it took some time to warm up but overall it was pretty good. This week looking at another 13-15 miler, hopefully Saturday or Sunday.

Listening to Crazy Crazy Nights by Kiss and I decide that if I ever write an early 80's rock song I'm definitely stealing the "WOOOOO" opening line from that song to use as my intro. The "WOOOO" coupled with a David Lee Roth high leg kick is Gold, Pure Gold Jerry. You know how sometimes you'll hear about how someone was cleaning out their attic and they stumbled across the original piece of paper or notebook that a song was written on (something like the bar napkin that Jim Morrison wrote "Light my fire on") I'm convinced someday we'll see a grayish piece of that first grade/kindergarten paper (you know the kind you used to write with in elementary school with inch wide lines with the dash marks through it so kids can practice upper and lower case letters). Someone will find it and it will be a piece of paper entitled "Crazy Nights" by Paul Stanley. Take any Kiss song and google the lyrics (Don't google Bang, Bang You) and they had to have been written by an elementary school student. I can picture Paul Stanley being in school and having to write a story and coming up with Crazy nights.. "The teacher said we needed to have a 100 word story and I've only got 85...what to do, what to do???I've got it! Instead of Crazy nights I'll make it Crazy, Crazy Crazy nights."