A Shifty Fellow.....

Yesterday was a beautiful day. For those of you who ran a certain 3 mile race starting and finishing at a certain pub in Newton, I hope you enjoyed the experience half as much as I did. The race director was a certain member of the DFMC team who will remain nameless to protect his identity (note: he may be pictured behind the runner wearing the medal in the photo below) given the impropriety he committed, or played a part in committing. But before you rush to judgement....before you rightly or wrongly convict this modern day Robinhood and his band of merry thieves....who steal from the fast and give to the almost fast enough (but not quite), let me explain.




Yesterday, for the first and only time in my running life, I was accompanied to the race by my wife and two daughters, 3 and 5 years old (my oldest may be pictured behind the runner wearing the medal in the photo above). Whenever I come home from races of any distance, my 5 year old always dashes to the front door like Dino from the Flintstones, throwing herself at me with full force yelling, "Daddy!!! Did you win? Did you win?" As it turns out, I never do. I've never come close to placing in an organized race. Most of you know how hard it is to actually accomplish this feat. I always tell her that I tried my hardest but there were some pretty fast people out there. Time and time again, she tells me that she loves me anyway, which is great. Yesterday, I ran a pretty fast 3 miles. 18:30, which works out to 6:10 pace and good enough for 9th place overall. However, during the award ceremony, the announcement was made that a certain someone (this someone may be pictured...you get the drift....) won third place in his age category. I have to say, it felt pretty damn good to hear my name called, though surprising, as I was fairly certain that I hadn't placed. But hearing my name called was nothing compared to the look on my daughter's face, who screamed at the top of her lungs and just about jumped out of her shoes when my name was called. The first thing she said to me when she was done thanking the race director for my medal was "Daddy, I'm so proud of you..." Wow.


DIVISION MALES 20-39
Jamie Kreider 15:59.4 1 39 M 1 274 5.20 Newton
Tyler Hart 17:39.2 6 33 M 2 358 5.53 Arlington
Greg Obenshain 18:14.6 8 34 M 3 428 6.05 New York
Matthew Whitcomb 18:29.7 9 36 M 4 233 6.10 Cambridge
Daneil Green 18:33.8 10 30 M 5 339 6.11 Watertown


When I got home later that evening, I went into Cool Running to see the official results, and as it turns out, yours truly finished in fourth, not third place. At first, I was a little disappointed. I sat and thought of how this could be, and what the logical excuses were. Was this an innocent mistake? Doubtful.....Did Greg Obenshain get screwed because he was from New York? Well...maybe, but still not that likely. Did the race director, with a little help from some pretty solid citizens with hearts of gold and questionable ethics, perform a little post race magic to give an "almost fast enough" runner and his family a truly memorable day? You decide. I've made my decision. Thanks, guys...really. Oh, and Greg...better luck next year!

-Boner

B is for Butt!

as always when i arrive to work in the AM i go through/clear out the stupid amount of emails i get during the few hours i am not here. it is crazy that Boston College's spam filter doesn't pick up the most blatant stuff. it's a good thing you can't actually increase your size or longevity just by opening an email, because i'd be frickin' HUGE (for hours....YIKES). in any event, among all of the viagra emails, there is one from katie with the most recent update to hunters CaringBridge site which she wrote after after yesterday visit to the Jimmy Find Clinic.
enjoy~
Journal
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 9:44 PM EDT
We had clinic today and we've now officially got just 12 weeks left of treatment! (OK it's not "we", it's "she" - you see how I make this all about me? Good right? You like that?)

Anyway, chemo was pretty much uneventful. We had some visitors which was fun. Suzanne, the liaison at Dana Farber for the Taco Bell fundraiser, came to visit and meet Hunter. She asked how old the girls were, and then asked when Taylor would be four. Hunter answered, "on her birthday." (Seriously, I think she thinks grownups are sometimes just so dumb...)

Suzanne also brought the girls pink Red Sox baseball hats, which they loved. On the way home, Hunter announced, "My hat has a B on it. B for Busy."

I said, "well yes, busy does begin with B, but that B is for Boston - it's a Red Sox hat."

She replied, "B for Busy. Busy kicking cancer's BUTT! B is for Butt too." (Hysterical giggles and more "B is for Butt" followed.)

I nearly drove off the road trying to stifle my laughing. I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at a Red Sox hat again without thinking, "B is for Butt."

i quite sure mike, hunter's dad, will get a lot of mileage out of that one....
MAJOR yankee fan.....

www.caringbridge.org/ma/hunter

are you going up?

For you non-runners out there, one of the ways to estimate how far into the training season your spouse, significant other, friend is into his/her training for the Boston Marathon is to gauge their response to inane things that other people do that affect them. Case in point. Today, not once but twice I was riding in the elevator going up to my office. Both times the elevator stopped on a floor that was not mine and people were standing in front of the doors as they opened. Neither time did a single person get on the elevator. In fact, the second time someone actual got on, looked at the arrow pointing up and said, "Oh, you're going up?" Now, I was not in the hall to see if both the up and down buttons had been pushed, but I can guarantee you that these people thought that the elevator would come more quickly if they pushed both buttons. My experience was made more frustrating by the fact that the elevators in question do not have a close door button. I was forced to stand in the elevator, making my ride longer, shooting poison arrows with my eyes at these people until the doors closed. To make matters worse, the second time that it happened, Mr. "Are you going up?" was on the SECOND FLOOR. Use the stairs for crying out loud, down is the easier direction you know! So, all you non-runners try this experiment on your loved ones and measure their reaction. It will tell you a lot about how close to April 21 you are.