What if I told you...

...that last night I bundled up and went into Boston to meet a guy I've only ever seen on the internet, and who had no clue who I was? Sounds super shady, right? Luckily, it wasn't...but it could have been...but it wasn't.

Lemme back this train up and explain myself. A couple of months ago, my friend Megan sent me this video of a dude named Ben who lost a gazillion pounds after making a promise to his grandmother to get his life together: watch the video here. We had decided after the Boston Marathon last April that if all of those people could run a marathon, we could too! Our plan has been slightly revised and taken a few turns, but his video and subsequently his blog reminded me that my running plan needed to be incorporated into my life, rather than exist as a separate entity. You see, Ben and his brother and his dad Do Life. They preach this whole concept of living your life happily, healthily and realistically. The three of them have accomplished goals most people could only dream of, and they've done it with smiles on their faces along with sweat on their brows. (Ben, have I sufficiently filled your ego up to the tippity top yet? I'd like to go on with the story now...)

Anyhoo, back to yesterday...I got a text from Megan that Ben was going to be in Boston, looking to meet up with some Internet peeps. After a fateful cancellation of plans with another friend, my evening magically cleared up and we headed off to the big city. After we mistakenly blew him off for fish tacos (misunderstanding of timeframes ooooops), we headed over to Kings to find Ben!

We got into Kings and saw Ben pretty quickly, leading a pack of lovely ladies out of the bowling area. Apparently there was a long wait to either eat or bowl, so we set off to find another location. Long story short, we ended up at the food court in the Prudential Building of all places. Strangely enough, it ended up being the perfect place for us to all grab some good eats, pull up chairs and tables and just chat. Despite the fact that we were mostly all strangers to each other, the conversation flowed beautifully and we never ran out of things to talk about. If you're looking for some good reads, some of the other girls have blogs too! (They're all on tumblr, which is a giant mystery to me but I'm considering investigating it. I did sign up, at any rate.)


http://bestfriendsdolife.tumblr.com/
http://runningwithguts.tumblr.com/

http://straightupbecky.tumblr.com/
http://workthemhips.tumblr.com/

What did you say? Less words more pictures please? Fine, fine...as everyone peeled out, we made sure to get our individual pictures with Ben. Here would be a good place to add my impressions of Ben before I close up with our beautiful faces.

• Although I was kind of worried that Ben might be a little 'too cool for school' after his recent explosion of popularity, he was awesomely kind and rather awkward humble.
• Despite being able to train for and complete an Ironman, Ben is surprisingly wimpy when it comes to being in the cold.
• If you have the opportunity to meet Ben, you absolutely should because he likes to go "off the record" quite a bit. Secrets, secrets!
• Doing Life is not an overwhelming pain-in-the-ass, in-your-face kind of program. It's just being you, the you that's been haunting your dreams for years now. BE that person, stop repressing.
• If someone is unable to work a camera, Ben will lie to their face that they took a great picture rather than face the awkwardness of helping them learn the difference between the 'take a picture' button and the 'turn the camera off' button. It was nice, though, really.

Okay, this post is way longer and more complementary than I'm used to, so I'll end as promised with a few glamor shots (total coincidence that we were all wearing essentially the same outfit).