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 ...

April Showers

Well Saturday sure was a wet one ... it poured from the start of the race, all the way through and then even more on the dreary drive home.

I crashed at Lauren's on Friday night so I'd be in a good place in the morning. Being down in Westerly to start meant I only had a 45 minute drive versus 1.5hrs.

I woke up early and got my gear on and made Lauren take a sad looking photo.

And I hit the road for Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI. It's a beautiful park if you've never been. The view when I pulled in to park would have been spectacular had it been a sunshiny day ...

Nonetheless it was a pretty view. I got there a little early so I scoped out the reg "tent" which was actually set up inside an old building that used to house a carousel. I walked over to the starting line to snap a quick photo ...

And at 10am the race began, it was windy and rainy but the temp was just right for running. After 2 weeks of being sick and not doing much running I came in with a decent time of 33:30. Not my bet but certainly not my worst either. I was glad to have made at least under an 11 minute mile even if only by a bit.

I hopped in the car almost immediately after finished and began the 1 hour trek home where I made dad document the soak-factor.

And with that this race is put to bed.

In just 1 week we are in the month of May, which is ALS awareness month, don't forget to donate to the fund. And check back soon because my next race is just 2 weeks away, on May 7th.

Thanks for reading.



Rain, Rain Go Away!

So tomorrow is the big April race at Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI for the Scott Carlson Memorial ALS 5K. The weather isn't looking like it's going to play along so I'll be schlepping it in the rain. This could be a good thing as far as motivation to finish faster?

After 2 weeks of a head cold and my arch nemesis, Severe Lung Trauma (my new moniker for asthma) my training has been in the dumps. I've worked out some and played soccer some but really not done any running whatsoever. Needless to say my hopes for this month's race are not that high that I will beat my March time of just over 31 minutes.

We starting running on the beach and we finish running down the beach so maybe the scenery will cause me to rally big. Either way see below for this month's playlist with a sweet suggestion from Miss Cal Mahler, if you don't have this song on your playlist, you need to! And check in sometime on Monday to see where I came in for time.

Playlist for the April Romp:

Changing - Airborne Toxic Event

We Used to Wait - Arcade Fire

Sail - AWOLNATION

Howlin' for You - the Black Keys

You Are a Tourist - Death Cab

Rill Rill - Sleigh Bells

Under the Cover of Darkness - the Strokes

What You Know - Two Door Cinema Club

Post Break-Up Sex - The Vaccines

My Body - Young and the Giant

Thanks for following the blog and don't forget to donate to the Richard W. Hudson Sr. Memorial Fund to benefit the ALS Association of Mass. I am $75 away from hitting $1000 with a long way to go to $5000 for the year. Spring donators have been generous thus far and will be announced the day before summer begins so get your name on that list!