As of 10:30 tomorrow morning, one week.

It's not like I'm counting down or anything...

That's right all, as of 10:30 tomorrow morning I have one week until I run the freaking Boston Marathon.

Luckily for me, I've had some distractions lately that have kept me from fretting too much about April 19.  As you know from my last post, I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago (it feels like months already) and upon my return I had a ridiculous amount of work waiting me.  As you also know from religiously reading my blog, I work for Boston Partners in Education.  As you may or may not know I work in Development.  There is one major day that is always on my mind: Gala day.  This year our gala was planned for April 8.  Long story short, after my vacation I had just a couple of weeks to catch up and get ready.  There was a LOT to do.  I won't go into all of the details, but we were working on a number of hard deadlines and I had no time at all to worry about running a marathon.  To be completely honest, I had very little time to focus and clear my head to concentrate on running.  After the 21 miles, it was all about the gala.  And honestly, thank goodness.  My marathon nightmares were replaced with gala nightmares.  What if there was a horrible glaring error in the program that I forgot to edit?  What if we didn't get the signage in time?  What if I completely screwed up the entire guest list?  AHH!  Lucky for me, all was well and good.  The gala was a success and it took my mind off of the insanity that is about to happen next Monday.

Like I said, running the last couple of weeks - with the exception of my epic comeback (21 miles) was relatively easy and I just didn't give it the amount of anxiety/focus I normally do.  Two weeks ago I ran 12 miles with Todd.  It was half of the Power Lunch run.  We ran all over the city to visit some (not all of) the Power Lunch schools.  The full run would have been 20 miles.  Anyway, we met at my house and Matt (who is awesome) drove us to Allston to begin our run.  We ran from Allston to Jamaica Plain to Dorchester to South Boston back downtown to Mass Ave.  It was the hottest weather that I've trained in.  I really hope it isn't like that on April 19... I'm pretty sure it was over 80 degrees.  It was awesome though - I ran through areas of the city that I have never been to.  Also, we saw some interesting and random things.  Todd stepped on a snake that had been run over by a car and if I hadn't been sweating so much I probably would have shed a tear for Mr. Mittens.  He did not get run over by a car, but he no longer lives with us and that makes me sad every now and then... until I think about feeding him.  Anyway.  We also saw this in South Boston (obviously):

At first Todd did not believe that I saw a leprechaun bus sign, but luckily we passed it again.  And now I have proof.

We also ran along-side the ocean, past the beach.  We stopped at a bath house to refill our water bottles and were horribly shocked that the outdoor drinking fountains had not yet been turned on.  After a dramatic 10 second "NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  A man who was air-boxing with weights told us that we could just use the drinking fountain inside.  Crisis averted.  After the run I missed the number 1 bus, twice.  I think the cruel bus driver enjoyed seeing me sprint my butt off to make it and just to approach the bus as he/she (never did see either way) closed the doors on me.  Did I mention that happened TWICE?!  Anyway, I had to get home as fast as I could to make shower and return downtown to work as Skipjack's.  Which leads me to my next topic...

On Wednesday night bartenders Rachel, Pia, and Cory hosted the most amazing fundraising event ever.  They generously donated all of their tips to me that evening.  It was awesome - and much needed.  It was quite a stressful day (the day before the gala) and being able to surround myself with kind-hearted, kick ass friends later that night was exactly what I needed.

Rachel and Cory (Pia is too damn quick for my camera...)

Team Baker

Team Jess

How frickin amazing are they?  And guess what, they raised $435 for Boston Partners on Wednesday.  

As we move onto fundraising, I have to say I have had a HUGE week.  The Skippy bartenders raised $435 for Boston Partners and on Friday, I had another someone pulling for me.  My dearest Matt hosted a "jean's day" at State Street.  It's a simple concept, people pay $5 to wear jeans on Friday and the money goes to charity - I mean, how easy is that?!  People were incredibly generous - a number of people giving more than $5 - a special thank you to Ryan Yanaro for your $40 jean's day donation - whew!  And to all of Matt's co-workers who have been so supportive.  Donating money, attending fundraising events, participating in jean's day... so great.  You guys rock.  And thank you, thank you, thank you to Matt for getting up at the ridiculous hour you had to get up to finish up your morning work so you could sit in the lobby and collect the cash.  $354 later - totally worth it.

Thank you thank you thank you to:

Aunt Shelley, Uncle Sean, Hannah, Spencer, & Sydney Carl! 

Aunt Amber!  And of course, the rest of the Genetski family!

Nikki Dissette! 

Trixee!  :) 

Gina Portnowitz!

Mom!

Brian & Evelyn Sommariva!

At this point I have raised $4,779.40 which is $220.60 short of my $5,000 goal.  I am so super close!

All in all, it was an awesome week.  We had a great gala, beautiful weather, and with the help of all of the amazing people in my life I had a great week of fundraising.  

I cannot wait for April 19 - although, my anxiety is at level yellow/orange (measured appropriately in ROYGBIV; red being the highest level of anxiety).  Fortunately for me, I plan to give up coffee this week.  On the flip side of that, I am drinking my last glass of wine for the week.  Cheers to being properly hydrated!