What a week! Sunday I ran the Hyannis Half Marathon, the longest road race I’ve done so far; Monday, the 4th Annual Rare Disease Day, I met the woman for whom I’m running the Marathon. Then today, I ran 18 motherslappin’ miles.
At the half marathon, I posted a 1:59:02, which makes me very happy; I had been shooting for 2 hours so to actually meet the goal I had set was pretty awesome. I no longer run with an iPod with a timer, so I had to guess at how hard I should have been running. With approximately 5 miles left, I ran past a church with a clock tower and realized that breaking the 2 hour mark was totally attainable. The weather was a miserable mix of rain, sleet and snow but it didn’t matter once I crossed the finish line.
As I said, Monday was International Rare Disease Day and Genzyme commemorated the day by inviting Suzanne, the woman I am paired with for the www.runningforrarediseases.org program as well as Jean Campbell, a patient advocate who worked for many years at NORD to speak at Allston. Suzanne’s story was so powerful and inspiring; I carried it with me through my long miles this week and was able to draw from it today during the afore-mentioned 18 miles, which I’ll get to later. I also spoke to the site about my experiences training and running. Stef came to support me, which was nice. We then went to my teammate Radhika’s fundraiser at Za followed by dinner next door at EVOO with Suzanne her husband Bob and one of Genzyme’s patient advocates, Kathleen. It was great to have a chance to sit down and get to know Suzanne and Bob and to make plans for Marathon Monday. They plan to come back to Boston to cheer me on to the finish line, which is awesome. Dinner was delicious; Stef and I are planning on returning, so if you’re wondering what’s good in Kendall Square, look no further.
Today’s run was rough and not because I had an ill advised omelette. After about 7 miles I was really feeling this week’s 31 miles in my legs and feet. There wasn’t a major muscle group in my right leg that didn’t hurt, from the bottoms of my feet, all the way up to my hip, some part of each section either ached or just outright hurt. I still had so far to go, though, but one of the good things about picking routes that bring me so far away is that once I’m out there, I might as well run back. So, that’s what I did; I remembered Suzanne’s story and all she overcame because she had no other choice. I did have a choice, though. I could have hobbled over to the train and packed it in for the day but instead I finished out my run and head into work. I went to work on a Saturday after running 18 miles because I was reminded this week of what’s at stake if patients don’t have their therapies on time. I remembered that there are 6000 rare disorders which people face that still need a treatment. So, I’ll keep running for them and I’ll keep running for Suzanne regardless of how much my legs hurt.
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