A Comedy Night to Benefit NF and the Becca Pizzi 5K
Comedy Night to Benefit NF Northeast
On April 29th, we had our first annual Comedy Night to Benefit NF Northeast. The show was held at Beth El Temple in Belmont and thanks to Leilani Germain and Ameriprise Financial 100% of ticket and raffle sales went directly to NF Northeast.
Everyone was fed well with Pizza from Nick's Place II, Asian Cuisine from Shine, veggies from Wilson's Farm, bread from Iggy's, hummus and dips from Samira's Homemade, and beverages courtesy of Star Market. To top that off we had Moozy's Ice Cream served by the one and only Becca Pizzi (Who was putting on a race the next day).
The two part show, by Improve Troupe Improvised History was an absolute blast. They even got the crowd involved in the second half where they poked fun at runners, cyclists, and triathletes, which made up about a third of the crowd.
Following the show, Karen Peluso, the Executive Director of NF Northeast, spoke a little bit about NF and then lead us through an awareness video where the whole crowd said "The word is Neurofibromatosis." (Click here for more on #TheWordIs campaign).
Huge shout out to Improvised History, Leilani Germain and Ameriprise Financial, and everyone that donated items, food, money, and / or their time. We couldn't have done it without you.
Looking forward to next year's show.
Becca Pizzi 5k
On April 29th, we had our first annual Comedy Night to Benefit NF Northeast. The show was held at Beth El Temple in Belmont and thanks to Leilani Germain and Ameriprise Financial 100% of ticket and raffle sales went directly to NF Northeast.
Everyone was fed well with Pizza from Nick's Place II, Asian Cuisine from Shine, veggies from Wilson's Farm, bread from Iggy's, hummus and dips from Samira's Homemade, and beverages courtesy of Star Market. To top that off we had Moozy's Ice Cream served by the one and only Becca Pizzi (Who was putting on a race the next day).
The two part show, by Improve Troupe Improvised History was an absolute blast. They even got the crowd involved in the second half where they poked fun at runners, cyclists, and triathletes, which made up about a third of the crowd.
Following the show, Karen Peluso, the Executive Director of NF Northeast, spoke a little bit about NF and then lead us through an awareness video where the whole crowd said "The word is Neurofibromatosis." (Click here for more on #TheWordIs campaign).
Huge shout out to Improvised History, Leilani Germain and Ameriprise Financial, and everyone that donated items, food, money, and / or their time. We couldn't have done it without you.
Looking forward to next year's show.
Becca Pizzi 5k
Location: Belmont, MA
Date: 4/03/2017
Distance: 3.1 miles
Distance: 3.1 miles
Goal: 17:59 (5:47 / mile) / Win
Actual: 17:55 / 3rd Overall
Last year I won the inaugural running of the Becca Pizzi 5k in a time of 17:18 (My 5K PR). Other then my friend Todd that I had passed with about 75 meters to go, no one was even close to us. Going into the race this year, people kept asking, "Are you going to defend your title?" Laughing, I said "We'll see who shows up."
Unlucky for me two pretty fast people showed up this year. The first was a local Belmont man named Russell who I have raced against before and the second was a 15 year old vision impaired kid.
We started the race at a wildly unsustainable pace and didn't even slow down a bit until about a third of a mile in. I hit the one mile mark in 5:33 and at this point was in fourth overall, with the vision impaired runners guide just in front of me. The kid was pulling away from his guide quickly.
By the half way point I had also dropped his guide (who had muttered "I didn't sign up for this pace" on the way by) and was I beginning to struggle on keeping my pace below 5:50.
For the third mile, we had a long straight away, then a 150 degree turn which pointed us back towards the track. I settled into a slightly more comfortable pace for this section knowing I wasn't going to catch the leaders and ensuring I had enough left into the tank to hold onto third place. As I hit the track I picked it up again and finished strong.
Following the race, I got a few minutes to talk to the kid that came in second. A few people had asked him if he had trouble after dropping his guide. Laughing he said, "My bib say's vision impaired. At every intersection people were screaming which way for me to go."
All and all had a fun race and even won a free pair of Newton Trail Running shoes.
Next Up
26 X 1 Mile Club Challenge.
- Scot
We started the race at a wildly unsustainable pace and didn't even slow down a bit until about a third of a mile in. I hit the one mile mark in 5:33 and at this point was in fourth overall, with the vision impaired runners guide just in front of me. The kid was pulling away from his guide quickly.
By the half way point I had also dropped his guide (who had muttered "I didn't sign up for this pace" on the way by) and was I beginning to struggle on keeping my pace below 5:50.
For the third mile, we had a long straight away, then a 150 degree turn which pointed us back towards the track. I settled into a slightly more comfortable pace for this section knowing I wasn't going to catch the leaders and ensuring I had enough left into the tank to hold onto third place. As I hit the track I picked it up again and finished strong.
Following the race, I got a few minutes to talk to the kid that came in second. A few people had asked him if he had trouble after dropping his guide. Laughing he said, "My bib say's vision impaired. At every intersection people were screaming which way for me to go."
All and all had a fun race and even won a free pair of Newton Trail Running shoes.
Next Up
26 X 1 Mile Club Challenge.
- Scot
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