2010 Boston Marathon!

Hello friends! I am pleased to tell you that my sour mood of late has been boosted by some good news, the official news that I will have a 2010 Boston Marathon number through a charity that I have been interested in for a very long time, The ALLY Foundation! I am so unbelievably proud to be on Team ALLY that I am ready for the snowy Saturday mornings and the long hours of training in the dark this winter! The below information is from The ALLY Foundation website:

On July 17, 2002 Alexandra Nicole Zapp was a unique and vibrant thirty year old woman with her whole life ahead of her. On July 18 all of that changed.

The Tragedy

That night, Alexandra drove to Boston for a charity cruise and a concert. On her way home to Newport, Rhode Island, she stopped at a rest area in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. When Ally went into the Burger King restaurant at the rest stop, the manager that took her order took special notice of her because “she was nice to me, she treated me like a human being.” That would be the last conversation that Ally would ever have. Neither Ally nor the night manager could have any way of knowing that a dangerous sexual predator, Paul Leahy, with twenty four convictions including rape and kidnapping was working in their midst; completely unsupervised, untreated, and recently released from prison by the state.

Paul Leahy attacked Alexandra as she opened the women’s restroom door. There was little Alexandra could do to fight Leahy, a man twice her weight, but she fought hard, even pleading with him to let her go and claim that he had rescued her from an attacker. It was useless.

Next door in the men’s bathroom State Trooper Stephen O’Reilly heard suspicious noises, and upon investigation saw blood on the door to the women’s restroom. Trooper O’Reilly drew his gun and opened the restroom door to find Leahy washing his hands in a blood soaked room. Leahy said “I lost it, I just lost it.”

Alexandra’s death was due to a catastrophic failure of the criminal justice system, the very institution mandated to protect the innocent. Paul Leahy’s rights were put before Alexandra’s when the state allowed a repeat violent sex offender to roam the streets freely.

The ALLY Foundation will relentlessly pursue an integrated system of cooperation between government, the criminal justice system, and citizens to ensure the safety of society is a priority so that what happened to Alexandra will never, ever happen again.

I look forward to raising money that will contribute to helping the vulnerable and innocent victims of these crimes, who are very often women and children. Follow me as I build my training base from now until December then begin the big climb towards the finish line in Copley Square. Marathon Monday is one of my favorite days ever in Boston, and I can not wait to be part of this great race again!

I am going to have an early night tonight, but I will be back tomorrow with a review of Stella, a fantastic place for after work cocktails and food in Boston’s South End. Later in the week I will be making coq au vin for deux and will finally follow up on my Chopped challenge. AND on Saturday I get to go see one of my childhood favorites Jaques Pepin at the Newport Food and Wine Festival. The week is looking up!

Have a great humpday everyone, and I will see you tomorrow! 😉

P.S. Since I have had a bunch of new readers/commenters lately, I have included some links to my favorite old posts.

Enjoy!

http://traveleatlove.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/magical-vienna/

http://traveleatlove.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/coastal-ne-wine-trail-kickoff/

http://traveleatlove.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/ciao-italia/

http://traveleatlove.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/eating-in-lake-lucerne/