Acoustic Recap & Tenth Group Run

Acoustic for a Cure was a great time! After expenses, we raised $870 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! The performers were all fantastic, and Chris and I are so grateful to all of them for donating their time! We’re especially indebted to the one and only Nicholas Lavallee for bringing his sound equipment and really just taking control of the show. We really could not have done it without him! Did I mention he was sick AND came all the way from Manchester, NH to participate? His attitude was that his friend who died of Leukemia still came to school when he was sick, so doing what he could at Acoustic for a Cure was the least he could do. I wanted to cry when he told me that! It was such a reminder of why we’re doing all of this fundraising in the first place.

Anyway, thanks are also due to everyone who came and bought raffle tickets and made the night a success! You guys are all going to heaven.

The one thing we learned after hosting our first fundraiser was that it’s really important to get an accurate head count. We had a great turnout, but we were expecting even more, so we ordered more food so that no one would go hungry! And of course, they don’t let you take home any leftovers, so anything that wasn’t eaten was just a waste. You live, you learn!

I took a couple of pictures during the night but sadly, none that came out great. I was busy manning the raffle table, or chatting, or listening to the music, that I mostly forgot to even take many. Oh well! Rest assured, we bought purple balloons and streamers and hung Team In Training banners all over the place!

When the party was over at 11pm, we were sad to have to shut it down, but the bartenders needed to break down the room. We would have liked to party longer!

The next morning though, Chris and I were glad we didn’t. When the alarm went off, we were both miserable. So tired and so NOT ready to run! We both stayed in bed a little too late, and didn’t have breakfast. We were running in Quincy that day, from our apartment, so we got a few extra minutes in bed because we didn’t have to drive anywhere, so that was nice.

Then Kristen, Erika and Lorri showed up. And only Kristen, Erika, and Lorri! Everyone else was unable to come that morning. We hadn’t realized that. Also, Lorri only came to help Erika with the water stops, since she’d done her run on her own the day before! Now that’s what I call nice- getting up early on a Saturday just to support the team! But that meant it was just me and Chris running with Kristen.

We ran up to Hough’s Neck and it was a gorgeous, gorgeous, warm day. I love running in Quincy because you can just stick to the water, and it’s so pretty! We were tired though, and starving, so our 14 mile run turned into an 8.5 mile run. Kristen said she wasn’t worried about us since we still have two months until our race, so running the full amount every single time isn’t that crucial yet.

One quick anecdote from this run I must share: Kristen and I were waiting for Chris to catch up to us at one point. As he approached, we both noticed there was something on his white shirt. At the same time, we shrieked! It was blood. Lots of it. Coming from his nipple. HIS NIPPLE. I can’t imagine the amount of chafing necessary to make a nipple bleed so much. He ended up just running shirtless for the last leg of the run. Thank the good lord for sports bras, or we gals might get to experience that special pain.

I’ll just let you to think about that for a while.