F.or Videos

VIDEOS: Below are the videos that I have made, when I made them and brief description. They are in chronological order.

1. My Journey To The Boston Marathon, Part 1 (aka “The Most Inspiring Video You Will Ever Watch”). Created April 16, 2009. When I made the decision to change my life and run the 2009 Boston Marathon, I decided to chronicle my journey. My thought would be that as I got closer to the marathon, I could send out the video to friends and family, asking for donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I had posted the video on one website and approx. 1.5 years later a friend (Brian) asked if he could repost/rename the video and I gave him permission. It ended up going viral with over 6 million views!

2. My Journey To The Boston Marathon, Part 2 (“How I Did It”). Created April 16, 2009. After I made the above video, I watched it and decided I needed to add a small part onto the end telling how I did it. I had my video camera on a tripod sitting by my desk, turned it to face me and without knowing what I would actually say, I just started talking. I finished it and thought I could add it onto part 1 but unfortunately Youtube only allowed 10 minute videos at that time so I had to keep them separate.

3. 2010 Boston Marathon Video (“One Day”). Uploaded April 12, 2010. This is the second fundraising video I ever made. Initially the video was almost twice as long but I wanted to keep it shorter so as to people watching to the end. Tried a couple of new “tricks” with the video editing.

4. 2010 Boston Marathon Scream Tunnel Uploaded April 22, 2010. Long before I ever ran the Boston Marathon, I knew about Wellesley College’s “Scream Tunnel”. I purposely took a camera with me to catch this 100+ year old tradition by the women of Wellesley College. It might seem easy to hold a camera and run but by the end of the video my arm was exhausted and I had to drop my arm!

5. My Journey To The Boston Marathon – Updated Uploaded Nov 12, 2010. I started giving talks to various groups about my running experience and decided to update the original video with pictures of me losing the weight each month as well as pictures of me finishing the race and the after party. I made this a few months before I was to run the 2011 London Marathon. Go to 5:18 to skip the original video.

6. 2011 London Marathon Video (“London Calling”),Uploaded on Apr 27, 2011 I put this video together for the 2011 London Marathon as a thanks to all my supporters as well as give people a glimpse into what goes on during a marathon. The London Marathon is extremely charity driven and I would estimate at least half the runners run for a charity. It is a testament to their devotion to help find a cure or support a cause they believe in. Like me, they all believe in Miracles.

7. 2011 Ragnar New England Relay (aka “Smells Like Bean Spirit”) Uploaded on Jun 1, 2011 This is a video I did for the 2011 New England Ragnar Relay on May 20-21, 2011. Relay started at 6 AM in New Haven, CT and we crossed the finish line in Boston,MA, around 3 PM for a total of 198 miles. I ran with it with 10 of the coolest running friends a person could ever ask for, 9 from NYC area and 1 from Houston. The name of our team was “Smells Like Bean Spirit” based on the fact that Boston is called “Beantown” so the music I used was a mashup based on “Smells like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and Blur’s “Song 2” which was created by The Kleptones.

8. 2011 New England Relay. Uploaded on Jun 14, 2011 This is a 12 person relay race that I ran with 11 other people on June 10-11th. It was the inaugural running of the race setting two records: Longest continuous relay in the US and the only race to cover all SIX New England states. Started in RI, through CT, MA, VT, NH and 223 miles later ended in Maine. Our team name was Running Like We Stole Something. The race was originally supposed to go through the Sturbridge,MA area, but due to the devastation created by the recent tornadoes 10 days earlier, we were rerouted.

9. 2011 NYC Marathon Video (“iRun”) Uploaded on Sep 14, 2011 The NY Road Runners, the founders of the NYC Marathon, sent an email out to the runners of the 2011 NYC Marathon asking a simple question: What motivates you to run? I initially replied in an email but then decided that it might make more sense in my case, to respond with a video as well. This is my response.

10. Spinabration. Uploaded July 26, 2012 I made this video for a Spin fundraiser that I had in order to raise money for the Berlin Marathon. I called the fundraiser “Spinabration = Spin + Celebration). Reuploaded to Vimeo (due to copyright flag) on 04.12.16

11. 2012 Berlin Marathon Video (“Just Say Julia”) Uploaded Sep 21, 2012 This is a video I have been working off and on for the last 3 years. I continue to collect “Julia” videos whenever the opportunity arises. This is one of Mary’s favorite video. 🙂

12. “Unofficial 2012 Berlin Marathon Video (“Outro”) Uploaded September 30, 2012. Unfortunately Youtube would not allow this video due to copyright issues with the song so I had to upload it to Vimeo instead. I never really ever promoted it as “Just Say Julia” was the official marathon video that year.

13. “Hope” Uploaded  on Sep 22, 2012 This is a video I made for my “Spin For CF” fundraiser that I had on Sept 9th. I wasn’t going to upload it but my brother called on this day and informed me that 50 years earlier, my mom “Hope” died. I was one. Also since a lot of people probably didn’t have any idea why I have footage of myself in a cemetery and who “Hope” is, it answers those questions.

14. Dicks Sporting Goods: “I Run For Hope”. Uploaded on Apr 11, 2013 DICK’S Sporting Goods created a web series with true stories about runners and what they run for and I was fortunate enough to be a part of the campaign. Wasn’t particularly happy with the choice of clothes they gave me (gray shorts? seriously? lol) but they did an excellent job with the subject (me) that they were given.

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15. Dicks Sporting Goods: “I Run For Hope (Directors Cut)” Uploaded on May 31, 2013 The day after the Boston Marathon bombings (04/15/13), I received an email from the director of my original Dicks Sporting Goods video (see 14) letting me know that he was concerned about my well being and attached his version of the video that he had edited. Not to take anything away from the original but personally I preferred this version.

16. “The 555” Uploaded on Oct 11, 2013 This is a video I made for the Center Of the Nations Series (CONS) of marathons that was nicknamed “The 555”. When my friends suggested I run it with them, I initially laughed but realized anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

17. 2014 Boston Marathon Video  (“We Come Running”) Uploaded on March 21, 2014. This is the video I made for the 2014 Boston Marathon. When putting it together I wanted the viewer to pickup on three things: 1. How important the Boston Marathon is to my life. In a nutshell, it saved it. 2. The camaraderie of runners throughout the world as well as the runners of Boston 2014 as being one large group: WE come running. 3. Solicit donations for Cystic Fibrosis for the benefit of Julia and all others who suffer from CF.

18. Boston Stronger Uploaded on April 20, 2014. The night before the 2014 Boston Marathon I was going to post a Facebook update wishing my friends that I had trained with or I knew would be running a quick “good luck”. One thing led to another and ended up making a not so quick video with everyone’s picture. As I posted on Facebook “Tomorrow we run as one and will finish stronger than when we started”.

19. BSC Boston Sports Club Run ) Uploaded on June 22, 2014. On Tuesday my friend Bill invited me to a Red Sox game. As he works in Boston and lives a couple of miles from me, he offered to drive me home after the game. I just had to get there. After a little debate, I decided to run the 12 miles there with a backpack containing fresh clothes, shower at the “Fenway” location of the Boston Sports Club (a local chain of heath clubs) and go to the game.

On Friday I was planning my “long run” for the next day, thought back on my Tuesday run and wondered if I could link several BSCs together in a loop. You can and I did. Fortunately I decided to bring along my video camera to check in at each location I made it to. I ended up running 30 miles and had a great time along the way. This is a quick video that I made from the footage.

20. Hurts Like Heaven – The 2014 San Francisco Worth The Hurt 52.4 Ultra Marathon. Uploaded on August 4, 2014 This is the video I made for the SF Marathon. Blog is here: http://wp.me/p3jAd3-2Z

21. Wish You Were Home. Uploaded on August 28, 2014 I found this mashup of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” and Michael Buble “Home”. A couple days later, my sister in law Deb left a message that Julia was going to spend another week at Childrens Hospital (thanks cystic fibrosis).

In a perfect world there would not be a need for a “Childrens” hospital, but in life nothing is perfect. Julia has been going there approx. 5-6 weeks each year for her entire life (15 years) and has come to dislike it more and more with each visit. She really just wants to go home…

We were going to drive the ~13 miles in to Boston for a visit but I decided I needed to run off my frustration so I told my wife I would meet her there. At the last minute I decided to grab my video camera and film from my door to hers. This is the result.

22. Roger’s ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Uploaded on September 4, 2014 This is the video I made for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

23. Rick  Uploaded July 1, 2015. This is a video I made to commemorate my friend and trainer Rick. Unfortunately Rick passed away today (July 1, 2015). Without his help, guidance and most importantly his friendship and belief in me, I would never have been able to cross the finish line of the 2009 Boston Marathon. Thank you my friend.

24. We’re Almost Home – 2016 Big Sur Marathon Video. This is the video I made for the 2016 Big Sur Marathon on April 24, 2016. Hopefully the video is self explanatory but for more information, please read my blog post I wrote on 04.14.16 which is HERE.

25 i Am: 2016 New York City Marathon CF Video.

For my 50th marathon, I wanted to do something “big” and when The Boomer Esiason Foundation offered me a number for the 2016 New York City Marathon I took them up on it.I was trying to come up with a video that celebrated the last 7 years and went to my first video for (ironically) inspiration. For the next two weeks I went through and read every comment (~5400) and was reminded again how incredibly lucky and humbled I am by the incredible comments. This is the result.

26. Race Review . Uploaded February 8, 2017. This is a video I made in response to a request for a small article for a website (http://eatdrinkandbeskinny.com).

I had just completed the 2016 NYC Marathon which was a landmark for me (#50) and I started thinking back to all of the races I had run, the friends and strangers, the experiences and the beauty of running that I was able to capture on video. Running has changed my life and it is my hope that this video inspires others to see life through the lens of a race. This is Race Review.

27. Letter From Dublin Uploaded February 23, 2017. I received a packet of questions from students at a school near Dublin after they watched my “Most Inspiring Video..” They had some followup questions so I thought I would answer them via video.

Initially I was just going to hold the questions up and then answer them but thought they might appreciate Julia asking the questions, allowing them to see how she was doing, especially since she is about their same age. So I set up the camera on one of her many visits to Childrens Hospital and she read the questions.

Eventually I got around to setting up the same camera here in my office, watched her ask the questions on my monitor, stood up and hit record on the camera and then sat down and recorded what came to mind. Started out a little slow but as I got more relaxed felt more comfortable with answering the questions, trying to keep in mind that this was going to high school students.