Last week I reached my personal goal of raising at least $3000 for the New England Center for Children. So as promised, the beard had to go. To be honest I don’t miss it. I grew it to raise awareness of what Mike and I were doing and it certainly served its purpose. In the course of three months several people asked me about the beard (mostly expressed as, “What’s up with that?”) and some lead to discussions of how their lives had been touched by autism. I read a similar story today about the president of Autism Speaks and his lapel pin. I might have to get some of those.

Although the beard may be gone, the fund raising continues. Our team of 15 is getting close to $100,000. Mike has totaled an impressive $9,148.20. My $3,504.00 to date has come from 48 people for an average of $73 per person. Amazing. Aunts, uncles, cousins, coworkers, classmates, neighbors, long-time friends, friends of friends. Especially surprising and humbling are the donations from folks I haven’t talked to in a while and even folks I don’t know personally. Thank you all for the support!

Mike and I completed one of our last two long runs on Saturday. Every time I think the conditions couldn’t get worse, they do. I was thankful for missing the pouring rain last week, but compared to Saturday that didn’t seem so bad. For me there were a couple other factors that made this run particularly difficult. First, I missed two long runs in a row, so the fitness level just isn’t where it should be at this point. Second, my calf is still bothering me. The good news is I’m used to the pain and it really isn’t that bad if I can run 18 miles on it.

We started around 6:30am in a steady cold rain and total darkness. The route was two laps just over 9 miles each on the roads between our houses in Hopkinton and Holliston. After about an hour it started snowing. Not fluffy dry snow, but wet driving snow. It was the type of snow and wind where you have to run with your head bent forward in order to see. As we neared the start, Mike asked if I was in for another lap. Clearly he wasn’t suffering as much as I was, but I had to keep going. Only six weeks until marathon day.

I actually felt relatively good around mile 13 when Mike mentioned that if we were doing the New Bedford half-marathon (which was happening the same day) we’d be done by now. About a mile later I wished I was done. But the purpose of the long runs is as much mental conditioning as it is physical. I have always trained alone so doing long runs with Mike and the team is a tremendous help. Three days later I don’t remember much about the last four miles other than I finished. It was cold. I was drenched and tired. We passed a dead opossum (for the second time). We’ve always jokingly called this type of run a “character builder.” I’m hoping the 21-miler in two weeks has a little less character.

Last Wednesday night the team got together at NECC. Kristen Sidman, the school’s Director of Occupational Therapy and Adapted Physical Education, filled us in on the new pool. A few things I learned:

• Custom design. NECC’s pool, instead of sloping from the short sides, slopes from one long side to the other. Stairs make up one entire long side. This allows a greater area for use in class sessions.
• Maintenance. It’s incredibly expensive to maintain an indoor pool. Chemicals, heating, equipment. It adds up quickly to the tune of over $100,000 annually. Kristen described the dynamic nature of a pool in that chemicals and temperatures were continuously changing and the computer system keeps everything in balance.
• Safety. The school’s top priority. There are no diving platforms or extraneous equipment. The student/aide ratio in the pool is one-to-one. There is also a ratio of swimmers to life guards and anyone in the pool area is considered a potential swimmer.

It truly is a beautiful pool and, knowing how much John loves the water, a tremendous resource for the students at NECC.

For the remainder of the meeting our coaches Leon and Sally gave their perspective on running the Boston Marathon. Both have run it multiple times so they know the course well. It was great hearing about their experiences and how the race has changed over the years.

Rob and I have been blown away by the amount of support and encouragement we’ve received. So far we’ve raised an amazing $5,559.20 for John’s school!

To show our appreciation we’re holding a drawing for a chance to fill our Celtics season ticket seats to the game on 3/28 against New Orleans at 7:30pm. That’s $110 value, plus the invaluable experience of witnessing the play of the 2008 NBA World Champions! (Ok, maybe they have to get in and win the finals, but those games will be a mere formality.)

In order to be eligible for this random drawing you have to have your donation in by Tuesday 3/25, so if you haven’t donated already jump on in by clicking on the red Donate button below John’s picture.

*The above picture represents one of many seats to be filled for that game by all ticket holders. Your results may (ok, will) vary.

Set your Tivo now! Rob and I will be watching for sure.

“Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education” on April 13, live on Comedy Central (8 p.m. EST).