I 'm sure not many people- if any- will read this.
and that is ok, but I needed to write it.
I would tell someone this, but I do not know who to share this with.I will share with Jamie- but just not today. It's too tough on both of us.
I can't imagine putting something as personal as this on Facebook. Just seems obscene.
So here it is:
One year ago today I told my son, the love of my life, my reason for being- that he was going to die.
His cry of "I'm going to DIE?!" echos in my brain on and off, and I'm sure it will forever.
Then I spent the night holding him... and wiping the blood off of his face...
as he died of Leukemia.
Maxwell Powers Herlehy died on the morning of May 18 in 2011.
I think this day- when I told my oldest son he will die, haunts me worse than the day that he died.

Official Time

Got the Official time today from the marathon- 4:26:35

Very happy with it. I like this marathon thing and will continue to do it. Though I believe the next one I run will be a 1/2 that I run with Jamie once she has recovered from baby delivery.

Marathon Man!

So it's been a while since I've posted. Mostly because I feel that if I don't have anything interesting to say I'd rather not waste peoples time. Also I have forgotten, and of course Max.

So I will be running the River City Marathon from Folsom to Sacramento tomorrow morning.... and it looks like it will be in the rain. But I will finish.

So the reason I'm writing today is when Max died last year I promised myself 2 things. 1 was that I would get in shape. And the culmination of this is that I wanted to run a marathon before the 1 year mark (May 18th). Also we will be welcoming in a new baby into our household. Jamie is due April 27th, so I can't wait too long (this will be news to many of you).

What I wanted to do was use this Marathon running also as an opportunity to raise some donations for my football program. I know some of my friends out there will be very cynical of this whole 'Herlehy running a marathon without properly training' thing. I get it. But here is your chance to offer up an incentive for time! Here is my goal: if I can get 100 people to pledge $20, then that raises $2000 for the football program. Much better than buying crappy frozen cookies.

So this is what I'm looking at for times:

If I get 4 hours and 20 minutes I would be crazy crazy happy, and mostly in a state of disbelief. Not expecting that. I would be super duper happy with anything under 4 hours and 30 minutes. A chance... maybe not a high chance, but a chance. And I will still be happy with myself for anything under 5 hours. Actually who am I kidding? I finish and I'm happy, but those are my goals. If anyone would like to pledge some money based on me finishing, or finishing in a certain time I would really appreciate it.

I'll post my results tomorrow night along with the address for the Wildfires Boosters Club, since any pledge given will be tax detectable.

I also have included 3 pictures here. The first is the Max tattoo I got at the start of the summer.

I designed it with some of the super heroes themes with the green light saber underneath. Some of his favorite things.

I also included the back cover of our football program from this season,

... and a picture of the Max sticker each player wore on his helmet.

We dedicated the season to Max and had our best season ever making it all the way to the CIF championship game. He has been motivating me with my running all year, and he will continue to motivate me tomorrow when I'm hurting like a sonofabitch.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, pass it along and...

Wish me Luck!

We are the Dragons

I'ts a book written by Max. You may need help translating- but you're own your own.

Merry Christmas!!

3 weeks In

This is a football post. We're three weeks into our 2009 season. Once again I have not been keeping consistent with the updates. It was a lot easier to make consistent entries when we were trapped in the hospital and there was nothing to do. So onto football.
Week 1 was brutal. Brookside Christian was a good team, and we were not. Then. We had the wrong scheme in place the first half to counter their speed, and we did not really block anyone nost of the night. We've learned from that and gotten better.
Week 2 was a terrific win for us. We really should have beaten Delhi by 4 touchdowns or so. We had 2 TD passes called back on rediculous penalty calls, and the ref was telling the other team he'd do what he could to make sure they'd win. No joke. So anyhow, we had a 7-0 lead with time running out. Delhi is driving, and gets to the 1 with no timeouts and the clock ticking (about 40 seconds or so). We stop them 4 times from the 1 to win the game. Really cool.
Week 3 we travel to Galt HS to play Jim Elliot. Once again we improve some more and we come away with a handy 21-7 win. Blocking is getting better and better and the young guys get experience with being o-lineman.
This week we have Sierra Rite of Passage at home. It looks to be a fairly evenly matched game. W feel like we'll win if we play good. We'll need to limit our mistakes (penalties and TO's). If we can succeed in those 2 areas I think we'll be fine.
We're happy about being 2-1 and looking forward to our next 2 games at home.
I'll try to keep up on this, but we all know how it goes.

-Coach Herlehy

Swine Flu?

Swine Flu? I say Pansy Flu. So we had an official case of the H1N1 Flu virus (AKA- the Swine Flu). Jamie and I went to the coast and when we returned found that young Samuel had been running a fever since that morning. The fever was there, but with Motrin in the system he was totally normal. We had him tested (swabbed) for the swine Monday morning when Max got his blood draw, and it came back positive.
So yeah we were worried some. The news makes it out to be Ebola. But in the end Sam only fevered for 2 days. Nothing serious. Bay had a fever for only one morning, which caused us to keep her home from the first day of school (talk about a 6 years old's world coming to an end).
Max was fine. Jamie and I felt tired, but that could have been tied to our weekend at the coast. Hey-O!
I say Pansy Flu. That was seriously the sissiest flu bug we've had in our house ever. That's right- I'm taunting.
First week of football done. Looking good. We got in full pads Friday. It will be interesting to see who emerges as our #1 TB. More to come.

Practice Begins

First Practice of the 2009 Season for both the Varsity and JV football teams will be Monday August 17th from 3:30 to 6:30. All players must have their physical paperwork turned into the school office, and have recieved clearance from the school before they are allowed to participate in practice.