Monthly Archives: April 2015

John Hancock Honors Team Hoyt with Boston Marathon Statue

TeamHoytStatueI know that for some, this is old news (April 2013), but this was the first time I’ve seen the completed statue.

YouTube: John Hancock Honors Team Hoyt with Boston Marathon Statue

Rick and Dick Hoyt (Team Hoyt) have been an inspiration to many and in particular, to Amanda and myself.  We’ve had the pleasure to qualify and start the Boston Marathon with Team Hoyt four times over the years.  I was inspired to train, push myself and qualify both of us so I could share the Boston experience with Amanda.

It’s surprising to me that according to Snopes, Team Rocket was only the second wheelchair team to complete the distance in Boston. I would have thought that there were more people crazy enough to qualify pushing a wheelchair.

My Mantra

All Gods critters have their place in the choir,
Some sing low, some sing higher.
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire.
Some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they’ve got, now!

This is my mantra and I repeat it over and over. It is my “little engine that could” and it keeps me traveling forward, first with my left foot, then my right. It helps move me. It’s not a lot, but it is enough.

It is a deceptively simple song called “A Place In The Choir”, written by Bill Staines in 1978. It starts with the chorus and has just five verses of four lines each. However, I only repeat the chorus, mostly because I can’t remember all the verses, but also because it’s too hard to think through the haze that stands between remembrance and self. My daughter, Lauren taught it to me when she was ten years old. She in turn heard it as a campfire song at Guide camp. I liked this quirky, innocent song, so I went looking for it. I found a guitar tab on the Internet and reformatted so that both my daughter and I could read it. It’s one of the many songs we perform for ourselves at home. We are a guitar and ukulele duo, accompanying an unlikely duet. One has a beautiful young voice and the other, an older, straining one.

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Around The Bay 30km – Pictures

Mark and Amanda Collis - ATB 2015 - Start Line SelfieStart Line Selfie – Sunny and not cold for a change!

Mark and Amanda Collis - ATB 2015 - SmallerFinishing the 30 km

Yeah, it was a PW (2:26 PB!), but if you don’t run for 5 weeks in the middle of your training schedule (I was sick then and I still was on race day), what do you expect?  Here’s to a faster time next year.

Amanda maintains her unbeaten streak with me finishing a close second behind her. We were running as a member of the corporate team. This year we were Team Orange Rocket.

For more info on Amanda’s chair and her sleeping bag cold weather snuggie, see the items under Team Rocket.