An excellent pal (and colleague) right here within the Florida Keys wants assist, however is afraid to ask. There’s the stigma and the sense that individuals will take a look at him in a different way. So I made a decision to step in. Right here’s the deal.
Our Marathon editor, Alex Rickert, my counterpart within the Center Keys, clearly went off the rails in current months and has now gotten himself in a bind. Apparently struggling some match of altruism, vigor and integrity, Alex determined to run the Boston Marathon.
Sure, THAT Boston Marathon, as in 26.2 miles. That’d be like me working from my desk right here on Inventory Island to the blinking mild on Huge Pine. I can’t think about. I don’t run. I hate working, which was at all times handled as a punishment for me after I performed subject hockey, basketball and softball in highschool.
“Mandy, in case your mouth insists on working throughout apply, then your legs can observe,” one coach would yell earlier than pointing to the far finish of campus and jerking his head dismissively as I set off to run the perimeter of our (sprawling) faculty grounds.
I’ve by no means run something greater than a 5K. That’s 3.1 miles. It was the previous Turtle Kraals Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving weekend about 23 years in the past and it didn’t go effectively. I solely did it for the t-shirt, however I didn’t do it effectively. The truth is, I threw up atop the Palm Avenue Bridge, though that was possible a self-inflicted results of my poor selections at Schooner Wharf the night time earlier than.
However I digress. Marathons will not be for me. And the sensation is mutual, as confirmed by my single previous expertise with marathons and the wackos who run them.
Whereas in faculty about 27 years in the past, I used to be courting a highschool cross-country coach from Jersey, who was working the Philadelphia Marathon. I agreed to accompany him, geared up together with his Energy Bars, some gross sports activities gel drink and a race map so I might meet him at two or three spots alongside the best way.
Simply so you realize, marathon runners do NOT take kindly to snide, running-averse blonde chicks who mild a cigarette on a public sidewalk whereas being handed by a pack of self-righteous runners. One man truly spit on me. So I advised him his working tights didn’t go away a lot to the creativeness they usually weren’t doing him any favors. Then I mentioned I hoped his nipples chafed till they bled. (Ya gotta love Philly).
However once more, that is about our pal, Alex.
It’s truly not the working half that considerations him most proper now. (See? I advised you he wants assist, as in some form of intervention over bloody Marys.)
Somewhat, Alex, in his disgusting good-heartedness, is fearful about letting folks down, not by tossing his cookies in downtown Boston, however by falling in need of the fundraising purpose he should attain to take part on this self-inflicted torture venture.
Every workforce member has to decide to elevating $10,000 for the Dana-Farber problem. Alex’s purpose is $15,000, but when he can’t discover sufficient beneficiant pals to succeed in the $10K threshold, then his bank card will get charged the distinction. (I attempted to inform him there are less expensive methods to see Boston, however he’s dedicated to this madness.)
Alex is working the Boston Marathon as a part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Problem workforce to lift cash for the Dana-Farber Most cancers Institute. (God, he’s SUCH a greater individual than I.)
Race officers annually permit teams representing legit charities to take part with out having to qualify for Boston by efficiently finishing a previous marathon in a sure period of time.
So, come April, Alex will get to run 26.2 miles in a metropolis that has loads of extra interesting issues to do. (Hell, even Paul Revere had a horse for his huge Boston outing.)
However actually, as quickly as he advised me which workforce he joined — Dana-Farber — I finished him mid-sentence.
“Say no extra,” I advised him. “I’m in. I misplaced my grandmother to breast most cancers after I was 8, and a long time later, Dana-Farber made positive my sister-in-law beat it.”
Although Alex was reluctant to ask folks to donate, I had no such drawback. So please, scan the QR code beneath to donate to Alex’s fundraising web page or e-mail alex@keysweekly.com or me at mandy@keysweekly.com.
Whereas I’m nonetheless satisfied there are a thousand higher issues to do in Boston, I’m absolutely dedicated to serving to Alex Rickert assist others beat most cancers — so long as it doesn’t contain me working.