I am pleased to announce that the Newton Wellesley Hospital will be hosting the SECOND annual Boston ERG Marathon on Patriots day April 16th. As was the case last year, stalwart ERGers will have a front row seat for the other marathon. Again the event will benefit the Breast Cancer Program at Newton Wellesley Hospital. Individuals and relay teams are welcome. Anyone interested should write to Dr. Frederick Millham at fmillham@partners.org.
Come join us, water, gatorade, and a cook out will be provided.
2007 Boston ERG Marathon
2007 Boston ERG Marathon
To Err is Human, To ERG is not. Ernie P.
Annual Boston (rowing) marathon
Fred, I hope to have one of the front row seats next April.
To anyone that ergs, this is the way to watch the Boston Marathon. You don't get tired standing around for three hours while all the runners go by!
Cheers,
Paul Flack
To anyone that ergs, this is the way to watch the Boston Marathon. You don't get tired standing around for three hours while all the runners go by!
Cheers,
Paul Flack
I am not even going to think about doing a marathon again right now. But if rowpro is able to implement their plan to allow multiple ergs on one site racing together and connecting online with other rowers online, then this would be one of the perfect venues for such a row. I guess I may be overlooking that detail that you are outside in the rain, so hooking up computers may not be the best idea....
See SteveV's post on the future of rowpro:
http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12383
See SteveV's post on the future of rowpro:
http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12383
M 51 5'9'' (1.75m), a once and future lightweight
Old PBs 500m-1:33.9 1K-3:18.6 2K-6:55.4 5K-18:17.6 10K-38:10.5 HM-1:24:00.1 FM-3:07.13
Old PBs 500m-1:33.9 1K-3:18.6 2K-6:55.4 5K-18:17.6 10K-38:10.5 HM-1:24:00.1 FM-3:07.13
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sledgehammer
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Bill Moore
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Fred,
I may be up to speed to participate this year. At a minimum, I'd like to donate any equipment my company has that you need for the event. Please checkout www.festiveoccasions.com.
Regards,
Bill Moore
bill@festiveoccasions.com
I may be up to speed to participate this year. At a minimum, I'd like to donate any equipment my company has that you need for the event. Please checkout www.festiveoccasions.com.
Regards,
Bill Moore
bill@festiveoccasions.com
A year ago today my wife and I were sitting in an overflowing waiting room at the breast cancer center at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, awaiting a meeting with the surgeon for official diagnosis and a treatment proposal. A week earlier my wife had received a phone call while at work that her breast biopsy had comeback positive for cancer-not a good day. Its quite an experience sitting in that room with patients in various stages of treatment doing their best to ignore the elephant in there with them-big C. I think if I were a woman in there by myself for the first time, I would have bolted.
It has been a long eventful year. The irony was my wife was training for the Boston Erg Marathon, and in the best shape she had been in since moving here from Michigan in 2002. I was going to run it and she was going to erg it. Then her gynecologist found a lump, and instead of being a participant, she became a patient. We hadn’t been married a year. The plan consisted of 8 rounds of dose dense chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, a lumpectomy, followed by radiation. The weekend before she started chemo, she did a 30k on the erg to try and salvage some meaning out of all the training she had done, and not knowing whether she would ever be able to do that again.
Chemo is still pretty brutal. A two day ‘honeymoon’ after infusion were followed by 5 days where she would come downstairs and barely leave the couch. Then she would gradually come out of the woods, and it was time for the next infusion, every two weeks.
Luckily our 8 year old black lab,’ Mr. Wilson’ was there to be therapy dog. At night we’d all howl together to get all the’ bad stuff out’. The pack that howls together, stays together. While I was in Boston running the marathon, she started her last four rounds of chemo, taxol, and had a bad reaction. She described it as feeling like a human pinball machine. After that weekend, she called her oncologist to say she had had enough. He said no they would change her to another drug, taxotere –every 3 weeks.
All emotions are allowed-whatever you need to get through. From the depths of despair-is this ever going to end or am I ever going to be the same to mild elation over completing another stage or testing negative for breast cancer genes. You can understand her rage over seeing the overwhelming number of women, young and old, in the supermarket in horrendous shape-but they don’t have breast cancer. She was a good steward and her body betrayed her.
Her tumor was shrunk by at least 50%. Surgery was successful-lumpectomy ,clean margins and the removal of 4 lymph nodes, also negative for cancer. Range of motion issues followed-worked through with exercises. She went back to work from home. She works in IT for Fisher-Price, the toy people, and jokingly said working in IT gave her cancer. Then 30 some sessions of radiation resulting in deep tissue inflammation. She tried erging, but it was just too painful. In October it was finally over, and she was back in the office.
By the Holiday Challenge she was starting to erg a little more consistently. With a week to go, the odds were stacked against her to get to 200k-she needed about 70k. True to her old competitive self, she hammered it home, including a 15k and
½ marathon in the last week to make it. Unbeknownst to her I had ordered a custom pink holiday challenge shirt as a Christmas surprise-on faith that she would make it. The next weekend she did a 30k on the erg, as much a psychological hurdle as a physical one. At times she’d say , “Sam they finally broke me”. She thought she’d never reach the same training level she had been at. Fatigue is still an issue, and probably will be for another year.
This past Tuesday she saw her oncologist for her 3 month checkup. He said she looked too healthy to have anything wrong with her. She responded, ”I looked too healthy a year ago!”. She’s forever snapped out of the cocoon. God willing, come April 16th, I’ll be in Hopkington getting ready to run, she’ll be in Newton getting ready to erg.
She has a saying she has become fond of, ‘Its good to be healthy, its better to be lucky.’
It has been a long eventful year. The irony was my wife was training for the Boston Erg Marathon, and in the best shape she had been in since moving here from Michigan in 2002. I was going to run it and she was going to erg it. Then her gynecologist found a lump, and instead of being a participant, she became a patient. We hadn’t been married a year. The plan consisted of 8 rounds of dose dense chemotherapy to shrink the tumor, a lumpectomy, followed by radiation. The weekend before she started chemo, she did a 30k on the erg to try and salvage some meaning out of all the training she had done, and not knowing whether she would ever be able to do that again.
Chemo is still pretty brutal. A two day ‘honeymoon’ after infusion were followed by 5 days where she would come downstairs and barely leave the couch. Then she would gradually come out of the woods, and it was time for the next infusion, every two weeks.
Luckily our 8 year old black lab,’ Mr. Wilson’ was there to be therapy dog. At night we’d all howl together to get all the’ bad stuff out’. The pack that howls together, stays together. While I was in Boston running the marathon, she started her last four rounds of chemo, taxol, and had a bad reaction. She described it as feeling like a human pinball machine. After that weekend, she called her oncologist to say she had had enough. He said no they would change her to another drug, taxotere –every 3 weeks.
All emotions are allowed-whatever you need to get through. From the depths of despair-is this ever going to end or am I ever going to be the same to mild elation over completing another stage or testing negative for breast cancer genes. You can understand her rage over seeing the overwhelming number of women, young and old, in the supermarket in horrendous shape-but they don’t have breast cancer. She was a good steward and her body betrayed her.
Her tumor was shrunk by at least 50%. Surgery was successful-lumpectomy ,clean margins and the removal of 4 lymph nodes, also negative for cancer. Range of motion issues followed-worked through with exercises. She went back to work from home. She works in IT for Fisher-Price, the toy people, and jokingly said working in IT gave her cancer. Then 30 some sessions of radiation resulting in deep tissue inflammation. She tried erging, but it was just too painful. In October it was finally over, and she was back in the office.
By the Holiday Challenge she was starting to erg a little more consistently. With a week to go, the odds were stacked against her to get to 200k-she needed about 70k. True to her old competitive self, she hammered it home, including a 15k and
½ marathon in the last week to make it. Unbeknownst to her I had ordered a custom pink holiday challenge shirt as a Christmas surprise-on faith that she would make it. The next weekend she did a 30k on the erg, as much a psychological hurdle as a physical one. At times she’d say , “Sam they finally broke me”. She thought she’d never reach the same training level she had been at. Fatigue is still an issue, and probably will be for another year.
This past Tuesday she saw her oncologist for her 3 month checkup. He said she looked too healthy to have anything wrong with her. She responded, ”I looked too healthy a year ago!”. She’s forever snapped out of the cocoon. God willing, come April 16th, I’ll be in Hopkington getting ready to run, she’ll be in Newton getting ready to erg.
She has a saying she has become fond of, ‘Its good to be healthy, its better to be lucky.’
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Yankeerunner
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Thanks RickYankeerunner wrote:Thanks for the update Sam. I hope to see her there, and that we're still all there when you run by.
Rick
She cranked out another 30k over the weekend. This week is hell week at work for her-members of her group are in from the Netherlands and Wisconsin for a tete a tete,7 to 7,so she won't get much erging in.
As you said last year,the marathon is going off at 1000 and 1030. I think I ran fast enough last year to be in the first wave this year. So, I should be going by around noon. Thats what I love about that race-its not just a tradition but a tradition of making it better!
Thanks STTabbRows wrote:Sam,
What an inspiring story!The next time, I'm grousing about how "tired" I feel, I'm wiring my brain to rmrber the courage and strength your wife showed all of us!! Hope to see her erg time at Newton in this thread on Patriot's Day!
ST
I'm reminded by wife's illness,that every day counts,particularly now when I find myself in a mid winter funk.
She said if she can handle 3-1/2 hours of caustic,noxious adriamycin,cytoxin dripping into her arm,collapsing veins and all,she can handle 3-1/2 hours on the erg.
Her hair is a lot shorter and a lot curlier than it once was-they call it 'chemo curls'-but perfect for erging!
Thank you very much David.DavidA wrote:Sam,
I would also like to say thank you for the story, and for the inspiration. May your wife continue to get better, and may the you both continue to do marathons for many more years.
David
She's looking forward,and feeling grateful to be a participant and a survivor come April 16th.
The very sad news of Carole MacNally's death, makes it all the more urgent to find better detection,treatment and ultimately a cure for all cancers.
Sounds like an opportunity to do my first Marathon with a support group to "erg' me on. I've done a few HM at 2:05 pace but the thought of sitting in my basement for 3+ hours has never appealled to me. Once CRASH B and the Hull Lifesaving Museum's "Snow Row" are behind me I'll give it serious thought.
Do we bring our own erg? Is parking provided? Am I blackballed forever if it's pouring rain and I watch the Boston Marathon on TV from home?
Do we bring our own erg? Is parking provided? Am I blackballed forever if it's pouring rain and I watch the Boston Marathon on TV from home?
If you don't try, you will never know how bad you suck.
Master D (54) / 208#
500M/1:38, 2K/7:02.3, 6K/22:17, 10K/38:31, 30'/7,700M, 60'/15,331M, HM /1hr 23:03 (all done back in 2007)
Master D (54) / 208#
500M/1:38, 2K/7:02.3, 6K/22:17, 10K/38:31, 30'/7,700M, 60'/15,331M, HM /1hr 23:03 (all done back in 2007)
ERGs for Marathoning
I'm gratified by the interest in the Marathon. We have a number of ERGs volunteered by the always helpful Tom Borher. These are excellent machnines, mostly D's. It will be important for me to have a head (or at least seat) count to be sure we have enough. We do have other sources of machines, but obviously need to know in advance how many we will need. Anyone who wishes to bring their own (as several did last year) are welcome to do so.
I also will be forwarding some materials to participants soon. While sponsorship is not required, we are, afterall, doing this as a benefit for a breast cancer project.
Please send me your email address if you are planning to attend so I can send you directions, instructions etc etc.
We had a blast last year, I'm looking forward to an even better time this year.
Fred Millham
I also will be forwarding some materials to participants soon. While sponsorship is not required, we are, afterall, doing this as a benefit for a breast cancer project.
Please send me your email address if you are planning to attend so I can send you directions, instructions etc etc.
We had a blast last year, I'm looking forward to an even better time this year.
Fred Millham
To Err is Human, To ERG is not. Ernie P.
More info
To Err is Human, To ERG is not. Ernie P.