Mike's Marathon Blog

I received a letter in the mail a few weeks ago, telling me that I was paired with a Patient Partner for NYC. They give you the option to run for someone when you apply to be on the Miles for Miracles team. For whatever reason, I wasn’t given a Patient Partner for Boston. I think the team was so big that they didn’t have enough patients for everyone? I’m not sure how that makes sense, but that’s what I was lead to believe.

My Patient Partner’s name is Braedyn. He is almost 4, lives in Southern Mass and has been a patient at Children’s for the past 2 years. He originally went because of an undiagnosed lung disorder. They are still searching for a firm diagnosis, but they currently think it’s asthma and a reactive airway disorder.

His mom and I have emailed back and forth a few times and she sent me some pics to post:

Braedyn and his family will even be in NY for the race. His mom said that he’s more excited to see the dinosaurs at the History Museum and ya know what? I couldn’t agree more! I’m excited to have a Patient Partner this time around and honored to run NYC for Braedyn.

What I’m not excited about is my excruciating back pain this summer. Today, and this past week, is the 3rd time that I’ve ‘thrown my back out’ in the past 3 months. I’m 28! I don’t think this should be happening! I can’t golf, I can’t bike, I definitely can’t run! I can barely walk! It’s very frustrating, especially when you’re right smack in the middle of training for a marathon. I am seeing a back specialist next week, so hopefully he’ll be able to help.

And believe it or not, I have been training. I run about 10 – 15 miles during the week and have been doing long runs with my friend/NYC partner on the weekends in Boston. So far, so good minus all the back pain of course. We ran 14 miles last weekend and I felt great. You know who did not feel great? Jacky. I made Jack take the Sunday morning trip to the city to run with us. We told her that we were only going 8. Why would I drive all the way to Boston to run 8 measly miles? It was the longest she had ever run (seriously). Needless to say, she was not very happy with us! Hey, I did the same thing to my friend the week before. She had been running 3, 4 miles. I told her we would try 8. I lied, we did 13. It’s like taking a beginner skier to the top of a mountain. There’s only 1 way down.