This Dream of Boston

I dream and dream and dream about the Boston Marathon.

Always as I commute to and from work plus several times during the day I conjure imagines of being in Hopkinton and what it will feel like to stand on the starting line; of what I might say to my family and friends and guides; and how impossible it will be to run in front of the entire field if only for a few minutes, something I had felt once in a race a lifetime ago.

This being my second attempt to get to that famed starting line, I can say a very minute edge has been taken off the exceedingly sharp emotions I feel about the race. Even as I write this I know circumstance could take me out of the marathon on a whim as it did for 2012. Now whenever the first thought of Boston comes into my spacious head, it takes a few seconds for the magic to happen...then it does happen.

Having lost beloved family members, friends and pets, I can tell you, for me, being told my running days were over was just as hard a loss. When you first lose something you love it does not quite seem possible...you still have fleeting moments when they are not gone and then you know you will never see them again. Although in the back of my mind I knew I would somehow, some way run again, to run Boston would just be impossible.

Now it isn't. I just have to make it to the starting line.

Without dreams we move through life uninspired and with little purpose. When we touch our dreams we dream bigger, it serves to move us forward. Many people will try to dissuade or even ridicule your dreams; it is not really your dreams they find abhorrent, it is their lack of courage to dream as big if at all.

Start of fund raiser for Ashley Kurpiel's racing chair

Any moment this life can be taken from us. Every heart that ever beat is going to stop and return to dust. What is the purpose in any of this if we do not chase our dreams, even when we fall short of attaining them? To give up? Give in? Quit?

Here is what you do with one of the rarest conditions known to the human race, where your connecting tissues turn to bone and your mobility is forever compromised. You find your way to live an exceptional life, that by your very being you inspire others to lift themselves up. When you cannot run a single step, you learn to fly. This is the life of our friend Ashley, for whom I run at the Boston Marathon.

The dream of ending FOP is a good dream to dream, and when we awaken to the end of it all, we will have run a good race. It is one we must win. We must touch this dream. Together.

You can help here.

Superstar Ashley Kurpiel and race-organizer-angel-friend Cindy Ferst at the finish