Pravin Palaniappan, MIT Student
It started with a bet that one of my friends made...he decided to do the marathon only two weeks before its date. I, being a runner in high school, had always planned on doing it, but always wanted to do it "properly," after 3 months of training. I thought this year would be it, but by March I realized that I was way behind. When my friend decided to do it 2 weeks ago, I started considering 'winging' it like he did. I made my decision a week before the date! (much to the dismay of my parents) But I realized that I would never (at least while at MIT), have the time or energy to do this properly...so I figured I'd just try it on a whim. After no more than 20 miles of training all the week before (and nothing for 6 months prior to that), I couldnt be happier with the 4:30 time that I came in at. It literally was one of the greatest experiences of my life...and something I'd highly recommend to anyone living or working in Boston for some time.
Jay Cameron, MIT Student
Haha... sort of permanently injured my knee in a fight when I was like six years old so this is gonna be tough. Some other Sigma Nu runners: Paul Asari, Jeremy Mason, Pavel Gorelik, Sidd Bhola, Issao Fujiwara.
Maurice Hage-Obeid, MIT Student
John Perry, MIT Student
I qualified but cannot run because of IT bands :(
Pat Petitti, MIT Student
Come cheer for me :)
Chris Grossman, MIT Student
3rd year as a bandit
Mike Matczynski, MIT Student
I'll be bandit-running with Kathleen Rubritz '04. This is our first marathon.
Ravindra Bhatia, MIT Alum
Running.
Sushil Kumar, MIT Student
I read this last night and I got so excited that I'm going to run it. Haven't run more than 5 miles for a while now so Wellesley girls - this is just for you!
Cory McLean, MIT Alum
I bandited the Boston last year as my first marathon ever. It was so much fun that I decided I wanted to qualify. I moved to California for my job and qualified in the CIM, so I'm coming back to Boston to run the race for real!
Daniel Oliver, MIT Alum
My 31st marathon and 3rd Boston, bib # 15706. Have 9 heart stents. Running with my classmate and Phi Signa Kappa fraternity brother, Pat Coady. Staying at lacrosse/soccer coach Walt Alessi's house in Hyannis. Will visit MIT and old friends.
Jennifer Peng, MIT Student
Running the Boston Marathon is one of the things I want to do before I graduate in June. Finishing it is another story. I hope there will still be people cheering when I eventually crawl across the finish line.
Matthew Debski, MIT Alum
This is my 8th Boston Marathon; I've done it every year since I was a sophomore. My goal for this year is to make it my fastest Boston time. My fastest so far is 2:49:06.
David Cooke, MIT Alum
Ian Hoag, MIT Student
I'll be running. I also do ADVENTURE RACES and am looking for teammates. If your comfortable on a mountain bike and a kayak, feel free to send me an email: hoagc@mit.edu.
Hao Hu, MIT Student
Doing it just for fun.
Margaret Cheng, MIT Alum
I will be "running" the Boston Marathon with Hao Hu for the Hu-Cheng Clan's first time. If I actually end up enjoying the stint without any near-death experiences, I will consider training and running more seriously for future marathons. Until then, I'll be keeping the dollar-twenty-five in my pocket in the case of exit strategy implementation.
Danna Remen, MIT Alum
Alumni CE 1991 - running to raise money for Boston Ronald Mcdonald House!
Eve Phillips, MIT Alum
Racing it!
Philip Sanborn, MIT Alum
Elizabeth Cate, MIT Staff
I qualified at Boston last year, and just couldn't pass up the chance to run again!
Naomi Hasegawa, MIT Staff
I will collect signatures of my friends who will be on the course in Marathon Day. I do not know how many signature I can get. But that would be fun and a treasure for me.
Larry Bacow, MIT Alum
I am running as part of the Tufts President's Marathon Challenge. We have close to 200 runners from Tufts in the race raising money to support research on nutrition, fitness and aging. My two sons, Jay and Kenny, are running the marathon with me. Jay is also an alumnus, class of 2002. It will be his first marathon. Kenny and I have each completed two others.
Steve Bratt, MIT Staff
Like many, I'm hoping for a day that is a bit cooler than last year's Boston Marathon. Last year's steamy event was my first Boston Marathon since I was a MIT grad student, some 20 years and 20 pounds ago. For some unimaginable reason, my times are slower these days than those days.
I train with a wonderful group of folks called the Winchester Highlanders. I'll be wearing the singlet of the Cambridge Sports Union and number 8922. Hope to see and hear some Engineers along the course.
Bob Hearn, MIT Student
Boston will be my second marathon. I qualified at the Victoria
marathon in October, in 3:12:18. I'm shooting for sub-3:10 at Boston,
really hoping the weather will be tolerable, unlike the past couple of
years.
I've only been running a bit over a year, so I'm excited to have
reached this milestone so soon!
I've been lucky to be able to train in Vancouver, BC (where I live,
finishing my AI Ph.D.). I feel for all of you who've had to train
through the winter in Boston.
I'm #5200 - look for me!
Melissa Read, MIT Student
Running :-)
Chip Stewart, MIT Staff
Bandit runner. First time at Boston. The other runner stories here are very good. Hope to see and meet some of you along the way.
Nguyenthanh Tam, MIT Student
Kyle Vogt, MIT Student
Brad Johnson, MIT Alum
Thanks to the MIT marathon clinic and the training runs of the MIT running club, I was able to run the 2004 marathon in comfort and style (if not blazing speed). I'm looking forward to doing it again this year. It's habit-forming.
Robert Panas, MIT Student
This will be my 2nd year as a bandit runner. I'm hoping to be able to make at least a slight improvement over last year's time of about 3:30, but more importantly I want to simply run it each year no matter what time I get.
Brian Loux, MIT Student
Having done two Boston Marathons as a bandit before, I decided to add a twist to this year's event by making myself a trifle bit more legitimate by raising money for Oxfam. My friends donate money for every minute I go under five hours. The still ugly page descibing said endeavor:
http://web.mit.edu/elbaron/Marathon!.html
Kevin Lohner, MIT Alum
I am an MIT Course 16 SM alumni (1999). I am qualified for and will be running in this upcoming Boston Marathon 2005. This will be my 8th consecutive running of the Boston Marathon (I'm shooting for 10-in-a-row!). It will be my 24th total marathon. I'm currently a PhD student at Stanford.
Patrycja Missiuro, MIT Student
I am a grad student now, and started running Boston since 1998 (my first time) every year until now. Boston was my first marathon ever but definitely not the only one. I encourage everyone to try other marathons in New England such as Baystate Marathon, Hyannis Marathon, they are cheaper and you meet many great people as well. Also, I encourage varying the distances (anything from 2K to a marathon, www.coolrunning.com is an amazing free resource for finding races around the US). Cheers.
Cameron Sadegh, MIT Student
i will be running...
Heath Holtz, MIT Student
I am running the 2005 Boston Marathon to raise money for the Colonel Daniel Marr Boys & Girls Club. The club's programs and focus expanded beyond "gym and swim" to include educational support, leadership and life skills training, arts and cultural appreciation, and individual counseling. If you are interested in supporting this cause and would like to make a contribution, please visit my website at http://www.justgiving.com/pfp/hholtz. Thanks.
Sharon Benedict, MIT Staff
I'm grateful for the opportunity to run my 1st Boston Marathon in 9 years (ran 99th & 100th). THANK YOU Roberta Gibb, the first woman to finish Boston in 1966, and Katherine Switzer, the first woman to finish Boston with an official number in 1967, both making it possible for women to run officially starting April 17, 1972 (the day I was born!). I qualified at the Vermont City Marathon and will be running for the Somerville Road Runners (black singlet, #7967). I'm looking forward to a fun day, seeing family and friends along the course, perfect weather (please!!!) and if not a PR then close to it!
Kyle Rattray, MIT Student
I ran six marathons in Spain this year (took a year off from MIT) and thought I'd return to Beantown by foot, starting in Hopkinton.
Edward Steinfeld, MIT Faculty
I'll be running this year (as long as I can remain injury-free over the next three weeks) as an officially-registered runner.
Fran Miles, MIT Staff
Our daughter, Stephanie Miles, who is a senior at Boston College , will be running in her first marathon. Stephanie, a passionate cross country runner, has been training for this grand event for the past year. We (myself, her dad, and her older sister Jaime) will be her personal cheering squad and plan on seeing her whiz by us in Wellesley Center . We will then travel to the finish line area and await her triumphant finish as she crosses the finish line !! As her mom, I know that I will have tears of joy in my eyes !! GO Steph :-)
Heather Hagerty, MIT Staff
On April 18th, Heather Hagerty will be running her eighth Boston Marathon for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC). Over the past seven years, she has raised more than $56,000 in support of innovative cancer research through the Claudia Adams Barr Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Heather's goal is to raise $8,000 this year in honor of Amber DaRosa, the daughter of a friend who successfully finished leukemia treatment this past September, and in memory of Brittany Lambert and Mark Schlowsky-Fischer. Brittany was Heather's patient-partner during her first marathon and passed away a short time later. Mark was the husband of a college friend and passed away this fall. To support Heather's run, read her annual fundraising letters or peruse an archive of photos from past marathons, visit her Web site at: http://www.racedirectors.com/H/marathon.html
Noah Smick, MIT Student
I qualified in the Hyannis marathon in February '04 with a time of 3:03:42 or so. I ran in the Boston marathon last year in the heat (where I was happy just to finish). My qualification is still good for this year, so I figured I'd take advantage. I'm currently recovering from a brutal 26 mile training run I did yesterday in the rain with my training partner (a student at BU law). On race day however, I'll take rain over heat hands down.
Kevin Chen, MIT Student
I'm running with Nell Curran (from Boston College ) to raise money for pancreatic cancer research.
James Thompson, MIT Staff
Adam Rosenthal, MIT Student
I will be running for charity with the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Marissa Wozniak, MIT Staff
I am running the marathon with the Tufts University President's Marathon Challenge (with Tufts President Larry Bacow, formerly of MIT). We are raising money for Tufts programs to prevent childhood obesity, in the Friedman School of Nutrition and the Medical School .
Mary Heckbert, MIT Staff
A close friend, Janice "Apple" Byrnes is running the marathon to raise funds for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She is running in memory of her brother, cousin, and my husband who died of colon cancer six years ago. You can read more about her marathon fund raising goals at http://www.kintera.org/ Select Support a Runner and enter Janice Byrnes for the name.
Her energy is unending and she helped me every day during my husband's painful demise. I have been assisting in any way I can to help raise funds. My husband was such a fun loving guy, working in Boston radio for many years including WROR, WKLB and WMJX. Thank you for the opportunity to spread the word.
Anita Villanueva, MIT Student
This'll be my first marathon ever! :) Though I'm not a qualified runner, I'll still get an official number...I'm running the Boston Marathon with Team in Training (one of the charity programs). As part of my participation, I've committed to raise $2,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which will go to fund blood cancer research & direct patient services. This cause means a lot to me, since several years ago I lost a family friend to leukemia (she was just 12 years old). It's a really great cause, and it is what has really motivated me to train for this marathon! Just a few years ago I could not run more than 4 miles at a time, but a few days ago I completed our 20-mile training run!
Also, I just wanted to say about 95% of the funds I've raised so far ($1,700 as of 3/29) has come from the MIT community (students, faculty, staff). I'm really impressed with how generous everyone here has been!
I have a personal website set up for my marathon training & fundraising at http://RunAnitaRun.hopto.org (the server is having technical difficulties at the moment, but it should be up in a few days). On there I also have sites describing the HANDMADE soaps (http://soap-for-hope.hopto.org) and candy (http://candy-for-a-cause.hopto.org) that I'm selling to help my fundraising. So far I've netted about $700 for this cause, just by selling soaps & candy that I made myself!
I want to provide links to the pictures of the candy I made (to help my fundraising, I'm selling these and having all net proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society).
http://web.mit.edu/~anita7/www/images/candyeggs.JPG
http://web.mit.edu/~anita7/www/images/lollipops4.JPG
http://web.mit.edu/~anita7/www/images/candybags.JPG
Jennifer La'O, MIT Student
This will be my fourth Boston Marathon. Each year I run the Boston marathon with my friend Jennifer Deboer--we've done this every single year that we've been undergrads at MIT.
Gaylee Saliba, MIT Student
I'm running the Boston Marathon for the 2nd time. I ran my first Boston marathon in 2004 and I also did the Chicago Marathon in 2003. I ran last year for the Dana-Farber Cancer Society. This year I am running for the C.A.S.A.. It is a charity that supports abused and neglected children. If anyone wishes to donate to this great cause, email me at gaylee_s@mit.edu and I'll arrange to meet with you. No donation is too big or too small!
My mother will also be running the marathon (although she's faster than me). Her name is Myrna Saliba.
We have bib numbers:
GAYLEE'S BIB NUMBER: 19890
MYRNA'S BIB NUMBER: 20004
Wish us luck and cheer! :)
Catherine Weng, MIT Student
Anyone who has been touched by cancer has a unique personal story to tell. I recently lost my grandmother to cancer, and I'd like to tell you her story.
I called her Nainai and she was the world to me. Six months ago, Nainai was diagnosed with a high grade Astrocytoma brain tumor. She had taken care of me for so many years as I was growing up; and it was now time for me to help take care of her. Wherever she went she carried the most genuinely beautiful smile on her face. It has been a difficult and sad time for my whole family, and somehow Nainai managed to be the calmest of us all. It seems like she was still taking care of us after all. Nainai passed away this past December leaving me with 21 years of beautiful memories and a lifetime to try to live up to her example.
On April 18, 2005, I will be running the Boston Marathon for Dana Farber Marathon Challenge in memory of my Nainai, Yinlan Ye. My personal goal is to raise $3000 for the Claudia Adams Barr Program to fund basic science cancer research at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Among the projects that have been funded by the Barr program is the discovery of a protein that protects neurons from damage that may play a role in brain and breast cancers and effective radiation therapies for pediatric brain tumors. I would be very grateful for any amount of donation towards my goal. (Donations can be made online at http://web.mit.edu/cweng/www/ or by check made out to Dana Farber Marathon Challenge).
Nadia Cohen, Family of MIT Staff
On April 18th of this year I will be running the Boston Marathon. As part of
the Massachusetts General Hospital Team 2005, I will be raising money to
help children with cancer.
This experience is one that is very close to my heart. As many of you know,
I battled cancer as an adolescent and consider myself lucky to have survived
the disease. I persevered with the love and support of my family, friends
and the staff at Mass General. Many children battling cancer are surrounded
by this love and support as well but desperately need money for cancer
research and clinical resources. I have wanted to give back to the doctors
and nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital for a long time. They work
selflessly, without expectation, and they have made such an impact on my
life. I figure the best way to make an impact on the lives of those who
helped me is to help other children who have fallen ill in life and need
assistance. Even if my survival is based on luck, I know that I am an
inspiration for these children and that is why I am asking you to help me
make the most of this experience.
I am training hard for this upcoming marathon. With every step, I am
reminded of what I am running for--the life of a child and for future lives
in generations to come.
Please support me in whatever way you can. You can visit my online web page
at http://www.justgiving.com/pfp/shira which is secure, efficient and
enables you to make a donation by credit card. Donations by check or money
order can be made payable to Mass General Marathon Run and mailed to my
attention at: Nadia Cohen, P.O. Box 150094, Brooklyn, NY 11215
I appreciate your support in helping children survive cancer.
Jennifer Teng, MIT Student
Michelle Tiu, MIT Student
My boyfriend (Kyle Rattray) and Kappa Alpha Theta sisters (Val Kuo, Melissa Read, Jennifer Peng, Jenny Teng, Betty Zhang) are all running the marathon!! I wanted to run the last mile in with them... and somehow that became the last five miles... and then the last thirteen miles, to make it an even half marathon... and now I am somehow running the whole thing! Haha :)
Katherine Ingle, MIT Student
I am running as a charity runner for Medicines for Humanity, a not-for-profit organization that brings sustainable medical care to children in impoverished nations around the world.
Jordan Wirfs-Brock, MIT Student
I am running the Boston Marathon this year after qualifying during the Portland Marathon last October. In addition to running for MIT's women's cross country and outdoor track teams, I also play for the basketball team.
Ken Ross, MIT Staff
I will be running in my fourth Boston marathon this year. If the weather cooperates, I should finally break the 3 hour barrier at Boston (I've done it in other marathons).
Kartik Lamba, MIT Student
I'll be running as a bandit for the 3rd straight year. My goal is a humble sub-4 marathon. Let's hope it's not 90 degrees again this year.
Kyle Shen, Alum
This will be my 4th Boston Marathon. I am trying to break the 3 hour barrier!
Carol Matsuzaki, MIT Faculty and Alum
This will be my 10th Boston Marathon (14th marathon overall) and probably my last!
This is always such a great event in Boston, looking forward to it.
David Bancroft, MIT Alum
Josh Barandon, MIT Alum
I am an MIT alum [Master of Architecture, 2004] running the 2005 Boston Marathon on behalf of the American Liver Foundation's Run for Research team. If you are interested in this cause and would like to make a contribution toward my fundraising efforts please visit: http://liverteam.org/sponsor.html and click on "Make An Online Donation" and then click on "Josh Barandon." All proceeds benefit research into the causes and cures of liver diseases. Thank you.
Jay Miller, MIT Student
This'll be my first marathon!
Kevin Wilson, MIT Student
Valerie Kuo, MIT Student
I'm bandit running it!
Kathryn Miller, MIT Student
Every year since I started graduate school at MIT, I've cheered the Boston Marathon runners and vowed someday I'd run it, too. So this is the year! I've joined the Mass General Marathon Team to raise money for pediatric cancer research.
