Motivation

So, I may have told you, I am running the Boston Marathon to raise money for the National Organization for Rare Disorders and have committed to raise $2500 to support their efforts.  What I may not have mentioned is that as part this experience each runner on the team will also being paired with a patient who lives with one of the 1200 diseases that qualify as rare.  We will run on behalf of them, using them as inspiration and motivation and make a connection between our efforts and the people the funds we raise benefit.  

On Friday, I learned that I will be running for a woman living with Gaucher Disease, a lysosomal storage disorder which affects the metabolic process within the cell.  Patients’ bodies do not produce or only produce a limited amount of a protein that breaks down a certain lipid, which can cause it to accumulate in the liver, spleen and bone marrow, resulting in a variety of life threatening symptoms.  It can be treated by Cerezyme, the first drug made at Allston Landing and the first process I learned when I came to work at Genzyme.  Cerezyme, as well as some other treatments, replaces that missing protein and reverses many of the symptoms, affording them a much better quality of life.

I was reflecting on what it means to be running for this person during yesterday's run .  I’ve always felt immensely proud of the fact that I helped produce a drug that made a very real impact on people’s lives.  We don’t make drugs like Prilosec or Claritin; we make something that saves lives.  This has always motivated me at Genzyme and now that I have an opportunity to get to know someone who directly benefits from my work, it will help motivate me to live up to my commitments.  

In fact it already has: at the tail end of my 10 mile run (it was only supposed to be 9, but I made another wrong turn) I was running up the other side of Corey Hill, exhausted and legs screaming.  I wanted to stop, I wanted to walk and I really, really wanted some water.  I thought of this woman who was relying on me to finish 4 hills and 26.2 miles and the responsibility I owed her.  It was enough to motivate me to reach the top.  

On the way back down that hill, I realized that my focus has been on preparing for the Marathon rather than the reason why I am running in the first place.  There are many more people who have no treatment for their rare disease and who rely on NORD to fund and advocate for research that will give them hope for a better quality of life.  I’m glad that I remembered this in time to draw inspiration from it.  

Fundraising Page is up!

Hi everyone,

NORD has set up the fund raising page for the Genzyme Boston Marathon Team.  If you would like to make a donation to help me reach my goal of $2500, Follow this link and enter "Boston Marathon - Matt O'Shea" in the "In honor of" field. 

Thanks for your support,
-Matt

On Saturday I ran the longest I have ever run up the biggest hill I've ever ran.  It was the first long run of my training, and because I took a wrong turn towards the beginning, it fell just short of the 8 miles I thought I was running thought I was running.  I've already marveled over the fact that I'm running wicked far, so I can't really repeat that theme.  So instead, I'll marvel over how easy it was.

The second mile of my run included Corey Hill, or Summit Ave in Brookline.   When I told Stefanie this, she looked at me kind of funny.  I'm not going to pretend as though it didn't immediately occur to me when I turned onto to it didn't seam like a really stupid idea.   Before my run, I read this guy's blog about how Boston's hills are nothing to complain about and while running up that hill I thought a lot about him ridiculing Heartbreak Hill, calling it a pimple and about the elevation profile of the Pike's Peak marathon. 

When I reached the top and started my way down towards Beacon Street, I realized I wasn't exhausted and my legs wouldn't be useless for the next hill which came about 3 miles later.  How could this be? The simple answer is that I had prepared for it.  I've been averaging roughly 15 miles a week for the past year and apparently adding a little incline apparently isn't as bad or scary as I thought it would be.  A slightly more complicated answer could be that I stopped allowing myself to be psyched out by the hype of this race and allowed myself to just run and enjoy it.

Please join me and the rest of the 2011 Genzyme Boston Marathon Team as we kick off our fund raising efforts at the Landsdowne Pub. 10 Boston Marathon runners from Genzyme, a corporation dedicated to making a major positive impact on the lives of people with serious diseases, have teamed up with The National Organization for Rare Diseases (NORD) to make a difference.

We will have appetizers, information on the rare diseases th...at your donations will benefit and some great raffle prizes. Please come and spread some holiday cheer for the patients that we will be running for in April.

Tickets are $10 in advance/$12 at the door

Raffle prizes include:

• 2 tickets to Bruins/Penguins - Saturday January 15

• 2 tickets to Bruins/Thrashers - Thursday December 23

• 4 tickets to Boston University Terriers vs Harvard Crimson on January 15

Here we go...

So, I'm running the marathon.  The Boston Marathon, to be specific, and I'm excited, scared and something else I can't quite put my finger on yet.  A lot of people say that Boston shouldn't be your first marathon, that it's too hard and training through the winter is crazy.  Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Boston and there would be no other that could serve to be my first.

The fact that I'm going to run a marathon at all is still a little crazy to me.  A year ago, I was close enough to 250 pounds to realize that I never wanted to weigh an eighth of a ton.  So, I joined a gym and started doing cardio, thinking that was the best way to burn calories and slowly I worked my way up to being able to running on the treadmill without vomiting.  After a while I realized that I was running what those crazy people who run call 5Ks.  So, I gave myself a new goal: a triathlon.

The training program I followed for the triathlon was an 8 week program that assumed I could run, ride a bike and swim by a guy named Hal Higdon, who apparently writes that sort of thing.  In the end, it prepared me to not only meet, but exceed the goal I had for a finishing time.  Being on the other of a triathlon and looking forward to the training for a marathon , it sort of seems like I shouldn't have been that daunted by the prospect of completing a sprint triathlon.  I mean it was only 1/3 of a mile swim in the ocean , a 12 mile bike ride and then the 5K, which is really just 3 miles.

I hope my sarcasm translates well, but anyway: the fact that I actually did it taught me something about myself.  It taught me that I have the discipline to stay the course I have set for myself; that I can remain focused on something which will serve to better me; and that I can do something that I never thought I could do.