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By Trish • April 24th, 2012

Last Monday, the 116th Boston Marathon went down in history as one of the hottest Boston Marathons on record, with temperatures soaring into the upper 80s. The scorching sun slowed down nearly all the runners on the course. It forced some to the sidelines without finishing, and prompted others to opt out of this year’s race altogether. This was not the case for 71-year-old Dick Hoyt and his 50-year-old son Rick, whom Dick pushed for 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston ..read more

Yesterday I skipped church and ran the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham instead. Yes, I said Birmingham, not Burlington. I had decided to travel to Alabama’s largest city to try to qualify for next year’s Boston Marathon by running 26.2 miles in 4:00 hours or better – my personal BQ (Boston Qualifier). I kept my qualifying quest a secret from most people, because  I knew it sounded crazy, and was afraid if I missed my goal it really would ..read more

Watch the 2010 New Bedford Race Video Some runners choose their races based on distance. Or notoriety. Or the terrain, the location, the cause, or maybe the color of the T-shirts. I didn’t choose to run New Bedford for any of these reasons. I chose it because it was an official “Boston Marathon” team run for our Alzheimer’s Run for the Memory team. I also signed up because I checked the weather on my iPhone and ..read more

Last week, I flew down to Key West to spend a quiet weekend with my husband. I left behind four kids and four-degree weather in Boston. Our plan was to relax by the pool, soak up any precious sunshine that came our way, and pretty much do nothing. That all changed when I arrived at Key West, and decided to try to share a cab ride from the airport. Always the enterprising one, I spotted a woman and asked her if she ..read more

It is the day after the 113th Boston Marathon, and I am still trying to take it all in. Not just the Women’s Elite race, where Kosgei beat Tune by a mere one second – and just 9 seconds ahead of U.S. favorite Kara Goucher. Not just the moment when I reluctantly overtook Dick Hoyt and his son Rick on Heartbreak Hill, and quietly gave tribute to a love that no one can imagine or conceive. Not when I ran a qualifying ..read more

Published in baystateparent Magazine Have you ever thought about running to get in shape and perhaps work off some of that “baby fat?” Or maybe running appeals to you because it’s more affordable than a gym membership and is just a step away from your front door? Perhaps you’d like to try running, but don’t know how to start, what to wear, are worried about getting out of breath or hurting your knees. Or maybe you’ve tried running in the ..read more

I  heard from a few fellow marathoners today… “Four weeks from today we’ll be at the starting line..” For those of you who don’t know what that feels like, it’s torture. We’ve been training for this event for months. We’ve endured low temps, high mileage, emotions that run from the lows of “Hell’s Alley” to the top of “Heartbreak Hill.”  We’ve calculated, we’ve conserved, we’ve raised funds, we’ve set our alarms every Friday night,  we doubt ourselves every Monday morning. Our minds are ..read more

It’s just a month away from the 113th running of the Boston Marathon. I will be at the starting line in Hopkinton, along with 28 other teammates from the Alzheimer’s Association Run for the Memory team. And my family, friends, and a half-million spectators will be loudly cheering me on as I make my 26.2-way from Hopkinton to Boston. But the biggest cheerleader in my life ― my mom―will be the person I hear the loudest in my ..read more

 “Success isn’t how far you got, but the distance you traveled from where you started.” A Proverb  You might say I found marathoning, step by slow step. Or perhaps it found me. I was never an athlete growing up; In fact, I have a hard time applying that term to myself even today, after 10 marathons, half-dozen half-marathons, and quite a few road races along the way. I was the youngest in a family of seven children, growing up with no sports (other ..read more