Hit Me with Your Best Shot

It has been one heck of a weekend. Thursday was my first group run, meeting at Crossroads and tackling just short of 5 miles at a surprisingly comfortable pace of ~9 minute miles (Mark and Melissa – THANK YOU for pushing us to go fast). I’m not sure Bud Light had ever tasted as good as after that run.

But then things went downhill…

It turns out that Bud Light is not your friend when your weekends are jam packed with two birthday parties plus a football tailgate. I’ll round and say I had…several…over the course of Friday and Saturday. And when I tried to run the 5k around Boston College (hello hills) on Sunday morning, I left like someone had attached a weight belt to my thighs and shoulders. I finished it, at a 10 minute mile, but it was pretty brutal.

Amanda’s birthday is today, and we celebrated over the weekend by singing karaoke. As she belted out Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” like a champ, it got me thinking.

Bud Light, early mornings, cold weather, wind / rain / snow, uncomfortable seams in running apparel, faster teammates, slower teammates, exhaustion, sore muscles…

You all can hit me with your best shot. Fire away, even. But I will prevail.

I’ll trade Bud Light for Gatorade, wind / rain / snow for the treadmill, and sore muscles for a massage. For every shot at me, there is a corresponding motivator that is bigger and better – like logging into my website to find that a two time cancer survivor has contributed to my fundraising. I thought it was the other way around – I am running to support people like her; to show her and her family that there are so many people out there who are committed to fighting cancer, to improving treatments, to one day eradicating the disease. Yet there she was, contributing to support me.

The generosity and thoughtfulness of friends, family, colleagues, and even complete strangers is indescribable. When I make the historic trek from Hopkinton on April 19^th, I will call upon every dollar, word of encouragement, and blog reader as my motivation.

Challenges? Sure, there will be many. You can hit me with your best shot – fire away. But I will beat you in the end, because come April, there is nothing that will keep me from crossing that finish line.