Fears, Cheers and Beers

The post has been delayed because of craziness at work but mark this as your official notice that I ran and completed the Harpoon 5 Miler ... and in addition beat my goal of finishing in under an hour with a net time of 51:57!

This race benefited the Angel Fund which is a Worcester based ALS fund with ties to Dr. Brown at UMass. For this reason I felt it extra important to have Grampa on my mind and with me while I ran so I made some inspiration to wear on my T-shirt.

I will not lie, I was petrified of this run. It was an almost completely flat course but for someone who is hard pressed to run 3 miles each month, an extra 2 was a really daunting obstacle. It was much smoother sailing than I expected and my shin splints played nice for the whole run. I have to assume Grampa was smiling down on me for things to have gone so well. I am very proud of my finish time, so much so that I have signed up for another 5 Miler in August.

Sadly the problem with this race was that I didn't have to drive so I couldn't store the camera anywhere and I certainly wasn't going to weigh myself down unnecessarily so there aren't anymore photos to share which is a shame because Harpoon put on a good party with lots of fun tents and funny team costumes. But my upcoming future races will require a drive of some sort so you'll be assured to get some better pictures than this go round.

Next week I'm off to Nantucket with the family so I hope to get in some good beach running/training while I am here because when I return ....

On June 5th I will be running the Krit Classic in Andover, MA in memory of a friend of a college friend that passed at far too young an age. In July you'll find me on the Boston Harbor Islands running a 5K to benefit children of the homeless and in August I'll be running with Lauren and Lauren out in Westford at the Puma headquarters in another 5 miler. So check in each month and follow along with my running and fundraising progress.

This summer is sure to be replete with hilarious training photos for the Rugged Maniac in August and more great playlists to steal.

Don't forget that May is ALS month, make a donation to the fund if you are able to benefit the ALS Association.

Thanks for following :)

5 Mile Style

After a week straight of miserable rainy weather I am ready to get out and run .... what I am not ready for is 5 miles of said running. EEEEEK! However I will rally and attempt to not be the last person to cross the finish line haha.

In order to complete 2 more miles than I am used to, I have enlisted a varietous (its a word now!) playlist strategically placing certain songs at carefully plotted points along my run so here goes, here's hoping I can finish in under and hour and without dying ... the promise of 5 beers to follow should help me make it through :)

I'm starting things off with a little poppy country:

My Oh My - The Wreckers (as a my oh my what the hell am I doing?)

And then diving in for the next 30 minutes with a little of this:

You Don't Know What Love Is - White Stripes

Wild Nights - Van Morrison

Diplomat's Son - Vampire Weekend

Don't Do Me Like That - Tom Petty

Life By The Drop - Stevie Ray Vaughn

Fire Burning on the Dancefloor - Sean Kingston (weird transition to keep me on my toes)

Rude Boy - Rhianna (cuz boys are indeed rude!)

Fat Bottomed Girls - Queen (arguably one of the best songs ever produced)

AND THEN AT WHAT IS USUALLY MY 5K FINISH TIME:

My Body - Young the Giant

(probably the best motivational song for a runner ever, which I will desperately need in the face of 2 more miles to go)

Nine in the Afternoon - Panic at the Disco

Love Me Dead - Ludo

Girls on Trampolines - Ludo

Bulletproof - La Roux

Wavin' Flag - Knaan (if it can inspire South Africa it has to do something for me right?)

Knock you Down - Keri Hilson

I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria (awesome pump up song)

Cookie Jar - Gym Class Heroes

Like a G6 - Far East Movement

CUZ ILL BE LIKE A G6 CROSSING THAT DAMN FINISH LINE TO GET TO MY BEER!

Now this is a little over 1 hour of music, if I hit My Oh My again I know I have been too slow. So pray for me on Satruday, cheer for me on Sunday and if the world ends before this stupid race I am going to be really P O'ed at G-O-D because I'm amped up and scared out of my mind at the same time ...  for the race not the end of the world so stop trying to steal my thunder Jesus!

And dont forget its ALS Awareness Month and the Harpoon 5 Miler benefits the ALS Angel fund so this weekend is all about raising money and awareness for ALS so please visit the fund link and make a donation if you are able!

Thanks and check back Monday for photos, finish time and funny stories I'm sure! Happy weekend all!

Support Your Troops! High Five!

The forecast was miserable but the morning was delightful! The sun was shining, the weather was warm, a little hot even, and it stayed that way long past the finish line.

Tom and Krissy came out around 8am and we began the trek down to  Carson Beach to check in where we met Lauren. On the way down we sadly had to pass a body that showed up on the beach ( no im not kidding), luckily covered by a sheet but now Tom and Krissy want me to move haha. Once we passed that sadness we got over to the Carson Beach House and checked in and got really awesome T-shirts!

The crowd was a thousand or so strong and was graced with a trio of the funnest guys around. They call themselves the Mullet Marathon (New England Chapter) and they are quite possibly the raddest dudes around. Like them on facebook, cuz they rock, high five! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/mulletmarathonnewengland?sk=wall

We took a minute to get photographed with Hank, Kenny and Bobby in all their mullety glorious-ness. Tommy even crossed the finished line around the same time as them just so he could possibly end up in race photos with them haha.

Drill Seargant something or other came out and gave us a military style warm up replete with ungodly amounts of pushups and stretches which actaully was a nice way to start the run. Then after some remarks about the awesome cause we were there to support they started the lineup with 6 minute runners (aka over-achievers), 7 min runners, 8 min runners, 9 min runners and then stopped after that basically implying slow f*&%s to the rear of the crowd which is of course exactly where I planted myself.

The run itself was a nice, flat course along Day Blvd tracing the water. We flipped it around at Farragut and ran back the same way. It was HOT by the time we made the turn. I raced a young boy of 12/13 years of age to the finish line (he beat me) and beat last month's time with a 33:06 finish. Not  even close to touching my best time of just over 31 at the St. Patty's 5K but better than my April finish by some seconds.

After the race we headed back to 8 Emmet and took some photo ops on the deck before hitting Stats for lunch.

All in all a great race day! Thanks for bringing the sunshine Bumpa!

Since May is official ALS month I decided to run 2 races this month and so in 2 weeks I will be doing the Harpoon 5 Miler in the Seaport area of South Boston. And until then will be attempting to train my rear off as best I can with shin splints.

Dont forget to donate to the Richard W. Hudson Memorial Fund to benefit the ALS Association of MA today or any day this month.

http://web.alsa.org/goto/hudsonshoofer

Thanks to my generous friends and family I broke the $1,000 mark this month, leaving me $3,775 to go to reach my goal so please donate what you can to help me reach $5,000 and support the sufferers of ALS.

And thank you to the following awesome people who have donated since February/March:

Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Boucher

Sheryl Dooley

Lauren Williams (my race buddy)

Lundy Carre

A-Bakes (thank you for your recurring donations rooms!)

Christian Panasuk

Kelly Clifton

Mary Jo & David Cotrell

and my amazingly wonderful, awesomest on planet earth Gramma Hudson

Thanks for reading and check back end of next week for the 5 Miler playlist which will need to be long and awesome to keep me motivated to complete 2 miles more than I am used to.

And tomorrow is Miss Emily (Hudson) Pattee's 32nd Birthday so do me a favor and wish her a good one, she's an amazing mommy to my 2 little nephews and she deserves love from the masses.

Spring Time Beats

Tomorrow I'll be running the South Boston coastline with Lauren, Tommy and Krissy for the Marine Corps Honor Run supporting children of soldiers and state police killed in the line of duty. It looks as though it's going to be another wet one for us but as far as running conditions go I'll take wet over 90 degrees any day.

The race starts at 10am at the Carson Beach House if anyone is up and about tomorrow morning for a walk you can cheer us on.

For this race's playlist, I floated the request out to facebook friends to shoot me songs for my playlist. Three things occurred:

1. People shot out really great songs that were on past playlists (Chris - Rolling in the Deep, Jon - Sail)

2. People shot out really great songs that I don't have in my iTunes repertoire and didn't have time to put the effort into purchasing/downloading them (Joe, Cal, Lo)

3. I realized a good majority of my friends have scary taste in music

So for the most part I ignored the suggestions completely haha, sorry to those that submitted songs, some decent songs except for Meggles suggestion of NSync 1999-2001 but my idea of what pumps me up to run and keep running is clearly vastly different haha.

So for your thieving hands, the following is one of the most random playlists around for tomorrow's race. Tommy will benefit greatly as I have agreed to sing all these songs to him since he doesn't have an iPod

 (? i know right!)

Don't Trust Me - 3OH3

Kings and Queens - 30 Seconds to Mars

If You're Wondering - Weezer

Untouched - The Veronicas

Baby Please Don't Go - Van Morrison (arguably one of the best songs of its time)

Shut Up and Let Me Go - The Ting Tings

Swagger Like Us - TI, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Kanye

Little Willy - The Sweet

Only Girl - Rhianna

Come on Feel the Noise - Quiet Riot

And there you have 10 tunes that will hopefully propel me across the finish line faster than a 33:30 so I can get my time back up where it belongs.

REMINDER: May is ALS Awareness Month, head to the Richard W. Hudson Sr. Memorial Community Fund Page, make a donation, and tell your friends about it to spread the word. All proceeds benefit the ALS Association MA chapter to help families affected by this horrible disease and all in the name of the one the best men I've ever known ...