Support Me in the Race Against Cancer!

As many of you know, I have decided to run the MANY miles of the Boston Marathon to fight cancer and I hope you'll help me take BIG steps! On Monday, April 19, 2010, I'll run with my Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC) teammates in the Boston Marathon, raising funds to benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. With your generosity, I’ll reach my lofty goal of $10,000 before marathon weekend!

Cancer touches all of us. We all know someone—a friend, colleague, parent, sibling, family member, child--who has battled this disease. Today, thousands of people worldwide are being treated for cancer and this is our chance to do something to help them. I, personally, was motivated to participate in the DFMC this year after the death of a close family friend and community member, Chuck Harvey, who lost his battle with pancreatic cancer this spring. A couple months after Mr. Harvey passed away, my best friend, Libby lost her stepfather, Bob Schneider, to the same terminal form of cancer after just a few short weeks of learning of the diagnosis. These two devastating losses really prompted me to want to make a difference ... to raise as much money as possible to help find a cure.

Please join me in my race toward the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer. Every mile and every dollar brings us closer! I realize that, in these hard economic times around the holidays, it is hard to find the money to donate. But, just think about how your gift will impact others in the near future. A world without cancer would be an amazing thing. Thank you in advance for supporting my run for DFMC.

Happy Holidays to you and your family!

- Amanda

* If you would like to send a check instead of donating online, please enclose a check payable to “Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge” in the enclosed stamped envelope addressed to me.

Amanda Allen
45 Lowden Avenue #2
Somerville, MA 02144

* Will your company match your gift? If so, please let me know and I will send you its matching gift form with your contribution.

Holiday 5K Race Against Cancer

Sunday, December 6 at 11am, hundreds of runners lined up at the Hatch Shell on the Charles River to run a quick, COLD 5K race to benefit cancer research. I met up with a friend, Sidi and two DFMC friends, Lauren and Tyler at the race. The course was so slick from the snow/rain fall the night before, and the wind was stingingly cold, but people were troopers and showed up! I got there 2 minutes before the race started and quickly joined the cluster of racers. When the time started we moved slowly but surely along the river. It wasn't until about the 1-mile mark that the crowd started to thin out a little. Since I started at the back of the race, it was pretty difficult to pass people in the first half of the race so I lagged behind a bit. The course was fun! We stayed on the Boston side of the Charles and went up nearly to the Boston Police Station by Lechemere. The best part of the race was that since the course looped back around, you could see the race leaders (finishing in 16 minutes or so!) sprinting past you on the opposite side of the bike path and we could cheer them on. I wasn't going for speed at the beginning, but half way through I decided to push myself. So I ended up running an 8 minute first mile with a friend, and then ran 2.1 miles at 7 mins a piece. I was pretty happy with that time of 22 minutes considering my pace at the beginning! Next time I'm going to shoot for 20 minutes or less...

Here are some other pictures from the race... The one of me is NOT so stunning. I'm going to work on my "race face" for Boston!

Thursday Night's Heat Wave

Thursday night has quickly become my favorite night of the week... the "new Friday" according to fellow DFMC runners. It's the night we meet at Crossroads to endure long, hard runs with teammates, and we all struggle together. The faster we run, the quicker we can make it back to the bar - for beer. and pizza, and our favorite bartenders Linsey and JJ. But this Thursday was especially awesome. It was 70 degrees out at 6pm on December 3!!! SEVENTY! Here I was dressed for a typical late-fall blizzard in my spandex pants and long sleeved top (thank GOD I opted out of the gloves and headband), and some of my teammates were wearing tank tops and shorts! I guess I forgot to check the weather pattern. Anyways, there was a pretty big group of us that decided to all do the Charles River to the Eliot Bridge (8 mile loop), so we set of with Tyler leading the pack, a nice, slow 1st mile, and then continuously sped up with each mile. Half way through, I ended up running just with Tyler and Shawn - two amazingly fast marathoners (didn't quite know what I was getting myself into!). I was keeping pace with them at 7-minute miles for just about 7 miles, and then the last mile, I was beat. I told the guys to just "go ahead without me - I didn't want to 'hurt my shins'" (which was really code for, 'I'm dying - can't.run.anymore.'). But they insisted that I persevere through the last mile and to "finish strong"... so that's what I did (or at least TRIED to do). When we got to the Mass Ave Bridge I couldn't have been happier. Crossroads was just ahead in the distance... Shock Tops and Cheese Pizza were not not far away :)
The best part of the night is always getting back, congratulating people on their good runs, and then kicking back and talking amongst your teammates! Caitlyn - a Colby alum and DFMC first-timer, me, and Sarah talked for a long time about NESCAC and college sports - and Sarah even started a page for all of us DFMC NESCACers :) - Check it out! www.dfmcnescac.webs.com/
Andrew and I ended the night Christening Crossroads' first ever Scorpion bowl, along with Mike, Lauren and Tyler, and played BU students in a Beirut Tourney... fun fun times!

Can't wait to see many of my teammates at the Holiday 5K Race Against Cancer tomorrow morning at 11am!

Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler - "Turkey Trot"

At 7am on Thursday morning (Thanksgiving), my whole family dressed up in our warmest outdoor running gear, attached our race "chips" to our ankles, and snapped some good ol' shots of all of us that were about to partake in OUR 1st Annual Thanksgiving Day 4-miler around the Old Port in Portland, Maine. Over 1,000 people turned out for this race - adorned with turkey hats, pilgrim suits, and feathered arms (yeah, you name it, people wore it!)

My mom's best friend, Paula, her daughter Kelly, my mom, my two sisters, Ashley and Amy, and their boyfriends Andrew (who's also running for DFMC) and Ezra participated too! We lined up, and decided to pair off for the run because there were SO many people and it would have been impossible to all stay together, so I ran with my mom! When the shotgun fired we started the slow jog with the rest of the crowd for the first couple minutes - and then we were off! It started at the City Hall, then we had a nice easy hill to jog down right to the water, we went along Commerical St. on the water (cobblestoned streets and all), and then up Dana St and Exchange St. What a hilly course! ... but we hadn't even seen a 1/4 of the hills! Then came Free St. and Congress St. - all hills, but I loved it! It was a 2 mile loop that we did 2x, and surprisingly, I found it pretty easy! I ran a steady 8 minute mile for 4 miles with my mom - and we crossed the finish line holding hands at 32:47! She was so excited :) My little sister, Amy and her boyfriend Ezra booked it for the last 2 miles, and ran a 31:00, and Ashley and Andrew finished in 34:00. But the best was Paula - who finished in 40:00 - after losing over 100lbs, she ROCKED it and we were SO proud of her! Next on her agenda - training for a marathon, like me!
Thanksgiving dinner tasted so good after that run - we definitely made some space for it - and I didn't feel the least bit guilty eating 2 pieces of pie and loads of squash and potatoes after it!!!
The Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler is DEFINITELY going to be a new Allen family tradition :)

"Making Some Room for Turkey"

I recently found out that my mother signed my WHOLE family up for the annual Portland, Maine Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler. She said it would be a great way to "make room for turkey" and all that goes along with the typical Thanksgiving Day feast! - this statement completely contradicts the whole idea of Thanksgiving. I'm pretty excited about the idea of running with my mom (a super-star triathlete), and sisters, Ashley (a sophomore all-star lacrosse player at Hamilton College) and Amy (2nd place finisher in the Maine State Cross-Country Championship Race this year!)- can you tell I'm proud of my mom and little sisters? :) I hope I can keep up with them all, especially at 9 o'clock in the morning and in the rain, too, ugh!!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Thursday Night Run!

Last night was my third Thursday night meeting up with some of my DFMC team members at Crossroads bar for our weekly run! A little less of a turn out than last week but still GREAT for so early in the season. Half the group split for the hills - which I am dreading, and probably won't make an appearance on for another couple months - and the rest of us did the 4-mile Charles loop. With my new reflector snap bracelets glowing on either arm, I hit the trail with Andrew, Tyler, and some new teammates I had just met. Tyler and I ran together and he definitely pushed me to go fast! I'd say we ran the loop in under 30 minutes - which, to me, is VERY fast! I was grateful he stayed at my pace and we got to chat along the way. After that I stretched for a couple minutes, and went back out on the trail again, this time alone. I retraced my path and ended up running another 3-miles at a much slower pace. It was so nice out - the city looked beautiful and it was really relaxing to be out on the path. I was surprised at how many people were out running in the dark - probably because it was about 55 degrees out, which is balmy for Boston in mid-November! Thank God the rain held off until today (it's pouring out right now, but the clouds are moving quickly so we should be sunny and 60 shortly!).
After the run we all changed out of our running close and crowded around the bar where they filled our glasses and gave us FREE pizza! Nothing better than pizza and beer after a long, hard run ;) It wasn't long after that the BU students stormed the upstairs for games of beer pong and darts - and our space was quickly turned into a college party - which was fine... but next time Andrew and I have decided to show the BU students our skills on the beer pong table !
Unfortunately, the running group won't get together again for another 2 weeks because next Thursday is Thanksgiving, but we're all running short road races that day instead! I can't wait to run the Turkey Trot 4-miler in Portland with my family.

Crossroad Thursdays!

Last Thursday, November 12 was a great night at Crossroads Bar! I arrived at 5:30 all ready to go and there was a big turn out! We ended up all deciding to do the same 6-mile loop around the Charles River. We headed out around 6pm in a big pack and slowly dispersed into smaller groups of running paces. I ended up running with Sarah and Becky - 2 great, very FAST runners. It was a lot of fun and I was excited to run with such well-established marathoners. I really pushed myself to run their speed and it felt great! During the run we chatted about their past race experiences, training, school, etc... I know I'll learn so much from them by being on the DFMC team! The run also helped stretch out my tight calf muscle that I was complaining about before. We stretched a lot after the run, and went inside to have pizza and beer and to socialize. I ended up meeting a lot more of my DFMC team members at Crossroads, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again this coming week!
DFMC members and friends, if you're reading this - come on our group runs Thursday nights! It's so much fun!

Minor Training Woes

So up until recently, the farthest distance I would typically run was 7 miles. There was a great 7-mile loop around the Bowdoin campus I would run once a week - maybe twice if I was feeling ambitious. But since living in Boston, I've found it SO much easier to run longer distances... without even really meaning to! Every Monday over the summer I would run a 10-mile loop around the Charles River, and just a couple weeks ago I ran from my home in Davis Square through Harvard Square to the Charles River and it was easily a 12-miler. It felt great - and I had no problems until just last week. Lately, I've been feeling some pressure in my shins - I've never had shin splints before (even through 8 years of school soccer and lacrosse seasons) and then TODAY I felt this cramping in my left calf muscle. It feels like its contracting and knotted up. I've been stretching constantly, and I can't figure out why I'm having these issues. I've taken all the precautions with my training. Changing up the types of exercise, trying to run on soft surfaces, not overdoing it with mileage... For the past two days I've taken it really easy, doing long, but light cross-training at the gym on the elliptical and lots of stretching. I just hope that I can run the distance tonight at our group run! I've been excited for it all week - the team is so much fun and it's great to run with a new group of people. It makes the distance pass by quickly and the Charles River is beautiful at night! I also love the social scene after the run - pizza and beer at crossroads ... so much fun.
If anyone can offer advice or tips on how to treat with these "injuries" or how to prevent them I'd love to hear it! Thanks!

First Group Run!

Last night my friend (and fellow DFMC teammate) Andrew decided to meet up with some of the more experienced DFMC runners to do a group run around the Charles River! It was such a blast. We met at 5:45pm at Crossroads Bar, changed into our running gear, and hit the pavement. Tyler - who kindly introduced us to the bunch led me, Andrew and a few others on a nice little 4-miler that went over Mass Ave into Cambridge and around the Museum of Science. The view was breathtaking, and it was a lot of fun to chat with other DFMC team members while we jogged along. Just as I thought we were going to go a nice, easy, 10 min/mile pace, though, our new friend, Tyler pushed Andrew and me to practically sprint the last 2 miles of the loop. To our surprise, he had actually just ran the NYC Marathon the weekend before, and boy, is he a pro! He's hoping to run in 3 hours or LESS for Boston this year... so I've decided this guy is my new BFF and mentor for Thursday night runs! Just trying to keep up with him will definitely get me into good shape.

When we got back to the bar, our bartender Lindsey was busy setting up the upstairs for us all! It was so nice to come back together at the end, socialize more, meet new people, and change out of our sweaty clothes! I met another Bowdoin Alum, Betsy, who is an experienced Boston Marathoner and DFMC member, and many others who inspired me to train hard and come to all the weekly gatherings!

I can't wait for next Thursday night! Other DFMC members: If you're reading this and you haven't come out to Crossroads yet for Thursday night runs, COME! It's so much fun!!!

My First DFMC 2010 Post!

I was so excited to hear that I had been accepted onto the 2010 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge Team! Not only am I pumped to officially be enrolled in the Boston Marathon - a dream of mine for quite some time - but I am going to get to meet so many incredible people along the way, and most importantly, contribute my time and efforts towards raising money for better cancer treatments at one of the most established hospitals for cancer research in the world! (Can you tell I'm excited?!)

This all started because a little less than a year ago, a close family friend of mine was suddenly diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer - doctors said he had less than a couple months to live, and there was nothing more they could do. This left his family and friends devastated. Chuck Harvey was one of the kindest, easy-going, fun-loving people that ever was and he is missed greatly by the 1,000s of people he has touched in his lifetime. In Chuck's memory, my sister, Ashley, my mother, and my grandmother all competed in the 2nd Annual Tri-For-A-Cure Triathalon in Maine this summer - and raised 1,000s of dollars for cancer research. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough space in the hugely popular event for me to participate, so I volunteered for the race instead. I have to say, watching all the breast cancer survivors with their bright pink bathing caps on as they entered their first leg of the race, and then crossing the finish line, many hand-in-hand, it was so inspiring to me. That was what truely sparked my interest in running for Dana-Farber. There are so many people out there that have been affected by cancer and with it currently being the leading form of death in the US, there's always more we can help!

Now, I really need your help and support though. In the next 6 months, I am hoping to raise $10,000 - 100% of which will fund the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research! We all have been touched by cancer in some way... and it's our job to help find a cure for it. Whether you can donate $1,000 or even just $10 or 20, every little bit counts and gets me closer to my goal and my team's overall goal of $4.4 million!

Thanks for all your love and support! Keep tuning in for more stories of my journey as a member of 2010 DFMC :)

Amanda