Author: Jack Prior

Boston Marathon Playlist Fundraiser to support Newton Rotary Scholarships

On Monday October 11th I’ll be running the 125th Boston Marathon to raise money for Newton Rotary Scholarships.

We reached our goal of funding 2020 and 2021, so now lets help get 2022 started!

I will be running with my daughter Kayla, who is participating in her first marathon. Our goal is to get to the finish line in 5 hours.

I have been informed that she will be listening to her books on tape and not taking pestering questions from her dad for 5 hours, so I need something to listen to while taking the 42,000 steps to Boston.

So here is the plan. Here is my marathon Spotify playlist. Make a donation of $5 or more to the Newton Rotary Foundation and let me know the song you would like to add to the playlist (by email or in comments). If you have a spotify account you can add the songs directly.

You can make a tax deductible donation by these methods:

  • Send a check to Newton Rotary Foundation, PO Box 600057, Newton, MA 02460
  • Donate via our gofundme page (until September 30th)
  • Donate directly to Newton Rotary by PayPal
  • Donate directly to Newton Rotary by Venmo ( Newton-Rotary)

If you have already contributed to the cause, feel free to add songs. We appreciate your support!

Jack

Race Day Plan (2020)

I will be running the 124th Boston Marathon ,at 6:00 AM on Saturday, September 12th; 30 min before sunrise

Rather than do the virtual run the actual course (which is being discouraged), I will be running 10×2.6mi USATF certified Charles River Marathon Loop.

I’ll set up my “aid station” on my Subaru or on the sidewalk near the start adjacent to the parking lot for Christian Herter Park. Here are directions if you want to stop by in the later miles.

The plan is to run 8:20-8:30 per mile pace for the early miles, and then see what happens in 2nd half. Ultimately I’d like to finish under 4 hours — somewhere between 3:40 and 3:59 — which would put me at the finish around 9:40-10:00 AM Anything under 4:19:37 would be a “flat ground” PR.

The official BAA app appears buggy, so I’ll be using Garmin LiveTrack for those curious to follow along. Send me an email if you’d like to get the tracking link automatically when I start. It should also post to my twitter account at that time.

The biggest challenge for the race with be uncertaintly associated with my limited long run preparation. I only did two 16 milers whereas many marathoners do two 18 milers and a 21 in their preparation. How my legs will hold up in last 10 miles is unclear, particularly if it warms up.

It was a hard choice to not run the actual course, but I’ve raced Boston twice, and run the 1st 19 miles several times, so I’ve had that experience.

Photo above is my virtual packing/dressing check list. Thanks to Sue and Susan for the custom-made Rotary technical shirt!

The Online Auction is Live!

We’ve had a bit of a lull here on the fundraising front. I planned a late March ramp up as the marathon approached, but then Covid-19 happened. I’ll post more on that development later…today we are launching our online auction at https://auction.jackprior.org.

While the marathon date has changed, my personal goal of raising the full $6000 amount for the Newton Rotary Scholarships to be awarded in the coming weeks to six Newton High School Seniors has not! We are just $564 dollars short of that amount at the moment, and with over $2400 worth of items donated to our online auction, we should be able to exceed that handily with your help.

Funds raised beyond the scholarship target will go to support Newton Rotary’s efforts to support the community during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The online auction is simple — Browse for items you like and bid in $5 increments. The bids are just like comments on a blog. You can bid under aas many fake names you like, just include your real email address on the bid form so I can contact you if you win. Just put in the dollar number of the bid (no text comments) and bid in $5 increments. The auction is currently scheduled to close promptly at 1:00:00 PM on Tuesday June 9th.

If you are the winning bidder, you will just make a donation at the fundraising page for the amount of your bid and I’ll arrange to get your prize to you. Send questions to Boston@jackprior.org.

If you have an item to add to the auction, there is still time — just drop me a note and we’ll get it posted.

Auction items include an Old Elk Gift Pack, a collection of antique postcards, and several rare books including the History of the Emblem of the Codfish. Or you can condense all those National geographics in your attic into a digital DVD ROM with 125 years of issues at your fingertips.

Marathon Sports has donated two $120 gift cards to get your 2021 marathon preparations started. Cross-train with a 3-month family membership at the West Suburban YMCA. Or be ready to get back outdoors with some sports photography coaching (can be done remotely) or a full photoshoot at the event of your choice.

Visit the auction site (https://auction.jackprior.org) to browse the other great items available.

Jack

Thanksgiving

In Light at the End of the Tunnel (read now if you haven’t yet), I described the challenge my doctor faced as I lay on a continuous x-ray machine in a space-age operating room at the Brigham on Friday, June 15. A cholesterol plaque had ruptured in my right coronary artery five days earlier at the finish line of the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon. The resulting clotting triggered by the rupture had resulted in an undetected myocardial infarction (a heart attack).

Continue reading “Thanksgiving”