Miami Marathon Weekend!!

After months of training the Miami Marathon weekend was finally here!!! Three quarters of Team Donahue and road crew got on a flight out of Boston bound for Miami late Friday afternoon. We got in late Friday night, had dinner and went to bed excited about hitting the Marathon Expo to pick up our numbers and do a little shopping. For those of you new to marathon running, going to the expo is an exciting time! The Boston Marathon has by far the most impressive expo with exhibits taking up a large part of the Hynes Convention Center. Let’s just say the Miami Marathon Expo, while well organized and spacious it’s not as big as Boston. The best part of the Miami Expo is that it is held in the center of South Beach Miami. Where you can enjoy the warm sunshine, the beach and see lots of fellow runners carrying their orange bags from the expo around with them as they explore.

The Marathon and Half Marathon start promptly at 6:15 AM. We were all up early and headed down Biscayne Avenue with fellow racers, all pleased to be comfortable in shorts and T-shirts pre-6 am! On the way over we had our picture taken in front of the American Airlines Arena by an ING. Excitement ramped up in the corral – Heidi and Meredith were plotting strategy for the half marathon and Christine and Sharon, who were running the full distance, reviewed their plan to not go out to fast and synchronized their ipods.

The race kicked off right on time and the course did not disappoint! The first 3 miles are across as 3 mile bridge with a few of docked cruise ships all lit up in the dark, then along South Beach as the sun is coming up and the partiers are walking home from the night before. After a tour of South Beach the race turns back across the Venetian Causeway and through the “tube of cheer”, the Wii Rock Band Guys (stage and everything!) and then the course splits where the half marathoners finish (Heidi had a PR!) and the full marathoners head into the loneliest mile 14 ever! After a couple of transitional miles, the marathon route heads into a great residential area with tons of flowers, palm trees and enthusiastic volunteers and spectators.

Sharon and Christine ran together for the first 18 miles and executed the plan we had started with. But as the morning went on the temperatures rose from 63 to 75 degrees, Christine started to fade back. At mile 22 Heidi and Meredith were right underneath the mile marker cheering us on!! Between miles 22 and 24 is a 1 mile out and back where they hand out orange leis! Sharon and Christine passed each other waving wildly during this part of the run. Then it was on to the finish!! A great time was had by all.

Mid January Update

As any one who lives in the northeast knows, this winter has been really snowy and really cold! While the snow makes for a pretty landscape it makes training for a marathon tough. In the month of January we have had 9 days of snow totally 24 inches in Boston. Leaving the sidewalks icy and snow covered. As a result we have been doing a bit of indoor training. On one weekend our DFMC training run was canceled due to snow! Heidi, Mike and Christine headed out on our own the day before the snow came in 15 degree cold and ran 10 miles. Other than the cold it was a beautiful day.

Sharon and Christine’s taper for the Miami marathon was in full swing over Martin Luther King weekend. Christine was in Boston and chose to crank out her final 8 miler indoors. Sharon was fortunate to be visiting friends in San Francisco, so her 8 miler was extremely hilly!

The following day, Sharon was also treated to a hike on the Tennessee Valley trail in Marin County which included a maximum elevation of 860 ft! The hike was capped off perfectly with a visit to “Joe’s Taco Lounge” in Mill Valley (highly recommended).

January 4, 2009

Team Donahue’s training is in full swing. This Saturday morning we had a DFMC team run out of the Mt. Auburn club in Watertown. It was a beautiful morning, and we were treated to a nice view of the sunrise from the meeting room on the top floor of the club. We didn’t realize we’d be zapped with a pretty strong headwind for the first few miles as we headed up to Comm Ave and the marathon course. With so many of us running drafting was possible, at least when we could stick with the pack. Mike shot out ahead – seemed as if he was motivated to run off some of the happy hour cheer he had enjoyed on Friday night. Heidi, Christine and Sharon fell in with Julia, a first year DFMC runner and marathon veteran who is running to support lung cancer research.

The route was a bit clearer than it had been last weekend, although there were definitely still some treacherous patches. The well staffed (and stocked!) DFMC water stops were a welcome sight for all of us.

We battled some serious headwinds on the way back to the club as well (it’s not supposed to work that way!), but the team all made it back in one piece, better off for having done the run (especially Mike!).

On Sunday, Christine and Sharon hit the Minuteman Trail for their last 20-miler in preparation for the Miami marathon at the end of the month. With a starting temperature of 18ºC, we were both bundled up and grateful that conditions on race day are expected to be much better. Even the neoprene sleeve didn’t prevent Sharon’s camelbak hose from freezing! Something to keep in mind for folks running the Minuteman – it’s plowed through Somerville, Arlington and Lexington but not Bedford! Despite frozen water, some last minute route machinations, knee pain and a bit of left over fatigue from the previous day’s run, we ground through the 20 miles and are really looking forward to Miami!

The full Team Donahue took its first training run together this weekend. On a balmy (55º) Sunday morning we headed out along part of the Boston Marathon course for a 10 – 12 miler. Mike took an early lead with Heidi close behind (take note, for those of you who are voting) and Sharon brought up the rear feeling a bit of lingering knee pain after several runs in the ice and snow during the week.

Heidi and Sharon at the Avenue Deli

Along the course, which included a run up and down the Heartbreak Hill series, we stopped in at the Avenue Deli, where the proprietor had been so helpful during Sharon and Christine’s epic run in the Nor’easter last weekend. He promises to be open on Marathon day this year, so if you’re out there spectating on Comm Ave, be sure to stop in!

On December 20, during Boston’s first Nor’easter of the season, Christine and Sharon faced their first 20-miler in preparation for the Miami Marathon at the end of January. Typically, one would prefer not to do a lot of shoveling prior to doing a 20-mile training run but unfortunately there was no choice for either of us, so we both had a mini-work out before the run even started. We were resolved. We had gear. Thanks to some foresight from Christine, we had Yaktrax for our shoes, hand warmers, and even a new neoprene coated tube for the camelbak (due to some technical issues, Sharon decided to wear a coat over the camelbak and save the new tubing for next time…..).

Since the snow was still coming down at a good clip at 7:45 a.m. and it was unlikely that the old faithful routes (the river, the minuteman trail) would be cleared, we decided to play it safe and run along the Marathon route primarily on Commonwealth Ave so we could take advantage of the carriage road. Of course, what this meant was that we had to conquer Heartbreak Hill twice during the twenty miles! While running we encountered a few other brave souls out there getting there miles in, as well as a very helpful deli owner who offered dry, warm socks and snapped our picture after 12 miles. While we were never able to hit a solid stride, instead focusing the whole time on not wiping out, the run seemed highly manageable, at least for the first 18 miles. Miles 19 – 20 were a test of our wills, our faces so frozen we had difficulty speaking clearly, managing only to throw out a few words about whether Teixeira was a good idea for the Sox (we all know that’s moot now!). When Christine’s Garmin hit 20 miles and we had reached our destination we could rest assured that was the craziest 20 miles either of use had ever run!

This past week was week 8 on the DFMC training schedule and the first weekend group run with the DFMC team. Mike made it to the 10 mile run at the Mount Auburn Club in Watertown where he met fellow teammates and enjoyed the post run buffet of snacks. The route brought him out into Newton and over the infamous "Heartbreak Hill". One of the really great things about the DFMC training program is the number of training runs they have on the actual Boston Marathon course. The value of knowing the course mentally can't be over estimated. Especially Heartbreak Hill, which really isn't just one hill, it is actually a series of 4 hills that occur between miles ~16 and 21. Heartbreak is the last of this series of hills and isn't even that big! It rises only 88 feet over just under a half mile but it comes at absolutely the worst time in a marathon experience, right when your body runs out of fuel and you hit the mental wall. When you run Boston this is where the real work begins. Here is a fun fact according to wikipedia:

"The nickname "Heartbreak Hill" originated with an event in the 1936 race. On this stretch, defending champion John Kelley caught race leader Ellison Brown, giving Brown a consolatory pat on the shoulder as he passed. His competitive drive apparently stoked by this gesture, Tarzan Brown rallied, pulled away from Kelley, and went on to win—in the words of Boston Globe reporter Jerry Nason, "breaking Kelley's heart."

Sharon and Christine on the hill up to Balboa Park in San Diego

While Mike was back in Boston braving the ice and cold training last week, Heidi, Christine and Sharon were on the road for work and ran in California. Big hills were a common theme on their runs too! Heidi spent the week in Palo Alto CA where she ran the hiking trails in the "Dish" at Stanford University. She reports the hills here made Heartbreak look tiny. During the week Sharon and Christine were in San Diego for a conference and went on several sunrise runs with co-workers Eric and Shuhao (thanks Shuhao for being the official Team Donahue photographer in San Diego!!). Their route frequently ran from Harbor Island up into Balboa Park. This involved running up a hill nearly 300ft high!!

Heidi on the Coastal Trail on "hill" number 2

After a fun week of running in sunny San Diego, Sharon headed off to Colorado where she hit the roads to train at altitude and Christine joined Heidi in San Francisco. Christine and Heidi went on their first ever trail run at Muir Beach. They ran a 7 mile course over the Coastal Trail and Tennessee Trail where they enjoyed spectacular views of Pirates Cove. While the scenery was beautiful and the run was fun, they weren't too crazy about the giant hills, over 1000 feet high!!

Welcome to the first installment of our training blog!! We are training to run the 113th running of the Boston Marathon on April 20th, 2009 with the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC)!! This year will be the 20th running of the Boston Marathon for DFMC. Since 1990, the DFMC has raised over $38 million dollars for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Cancer Research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. All of the funds raised go directly to funding basic research in cancer at the Dana Farber. We all feel really fortunate to have been selected to join the DFMC Team and are looking forward to the up coming months of training and fundraising with our new teammates. Mike, Sharon and Heidi are new to the DFMC experience. This will be the first marathon for Mike and Heidi. Sharon has run 4, including last years Boston Marathon. Along with her previous teams, Christine has raised ~ $50K for DFMC, so we’re counting on her to keep us on the right track as we spread the word about supporting this important cause. Mike’s fundraising is off to a great start, with over $500 collected so far. The rest of us are getting things rolling around now and chances are if you’re reading this you’ve received one of our letters or e-mails. Thanks for checking out our blog and for supporting our efforts!

Recently, the Team Donahue DFMC newbies ran 7 miles in the pouring rain along with other first time members of the team! Starting in January we will have training runs nearly every weekend and will be updating the blog with our experiences and some fun stats! Please come back and visit us periodically over the next several months for updates and to track all the miles we run in training (it will be more than 1000 miles!)

BAA Half Marathon Crew

We have been keeping in shape this fall by running several half marathons. Heidi, Sharon and Christine ran the Maine Coast Half marathon for women. Catherine Switzer, the first women to run the Boston Marathon and winner of two New York Marathons, was there and called out our names as we finished. Heidi and Sharon had great runs that day, Heidi’s finish time was a personal best! Christine lagged behind, challenged by a stuffy nose! In the beginning of October all four of us ran in the BAA Boston Half Marathon along with a bunch of friends. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time during the run! Mike beat us all literally by more than a mile, finishing in a blistering 1 hour and 43 minutes! Christine and Sharon each had personal bests that day. In November, we ran the Smutty Nose seacoast half marathon, not the best day for the group but the weather and the scenery were beautiful and the Donahue family came out to cheer us on!

One of the “training runs” for a few of us will be the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon in January. Heidi plans on running the half marathon, while Christine and Sharon will be running the full 26.2. We’ll keep you posted on how that goes as well.

Sharon and Christine had one of their first doses of “winter” training yesterday. While out on the Minuteman Trail at 6:30 a.m. putting in an 18 miler (that’s 30,000 steps for any Adnexans who may be reading this) the hose to Sharon’s water supply froze solid! Clearly a new product concept needs to be pitched to Camelbak – insulation!



We look forward to sharing more stories of our training adventures over the next several months. Till then take care and we will see you out on the road!!


Cheers all – Team Donahue.