26.2 Long Miles.....

Oh Boy, it's official. My application to run in the world's oldest and most prestigious marathon has been accepted! For those of you who may not be aware, you can't just call up the Boston Athletic Association and say "hey, I wanna run in your marathon." "Qualified" runners for this event are those who have not only run a marathon before, but have done it in an acceptable time, typically 4 hours or less. The back door to getting in though, without having run a marathon before, is through their Charity Program. Local charities can apply to become official charities for the Boston Marathon and if selected by the BAA, they each get about 15 numbers to create their team with. I applied to several of the selected charities for the 2007 Boston Marathon and finally, one accepted me - Habitat For Humanity. I'm still waiting to hear back from Children's Hospital, my number one choice to run for, but at least I'm in if they reject me. All these charities get hundreds of applications so I'm pretty happy!

Now I have to raise the minimum $3000 that each charity requires non-qualified runners to come-up with.....so stay tuned for solicitations! Oh yeah, and I actually have to run this thing now! I guess that means not attending the traditional 11am Red Sox game on Patriots Day this year. Again, for those of you who aren't from these parts, Marathon Monday falls on Patriots Day every year which is a holiday for us (ie. we don't have to work or go to school). The Red Sox always play at 11am on Patriots Day and it's scheduled at that time intentionally so the game ends around the same time that the top runners are crossing the finish line just a mile or so from Fenway. It'll take me a few hours longer though because I'm neither a Kenyan or a professional runner. Wow....I'm wicked psyched!

Oh, and speaking of the Red Sox, see, Theo and the trio knew what they were doing when they didn't give Pedro his 4 years. He had rotator cuff surgery today, diagnosed just before the Mets began the playoffs. He's done until the middle of the 2007 baseball season at best. Go Tigers!