My Fundraising Page

2:44:10

April 5--not exactly speedy, but i'll take it. nice to finish 13.1 again, a month before Vancouver. Just need to do Vancouver faster... maybe 2:40? 2:36?

OOPS FORGOT TO UPDATE LAST WEEK!

March 28== woke up feeling not great and just KNEW I should not do the 11 miles at 8am. Instead, i ran in the afternoon with Laurela and part way, we picked up a friend to run. Felt strong doing it. Next week, I'll skip the Saturday group run in favor of doing the Martian Marathon Sunday morn. 7am start time in Dearborn! waking up early!!

PRETTY MUCH DITTO LAST WEEK

March 21== 10 miles again. no real sunshine but it was plenty warm. 2:06 which is not fast but is consistent for me post-injury. I had been running 11 and 11:30 miles but now am happy with 12s. Hope to get faster before race day.

LOVE the Sunshine with No Wind!

Mar. 14== Rocked the 10 mile run today, if I do say so myself. felt so good to be outside in the still, dry, sunshine! 10 miles you say? that's not what the full marathoners should be doing this late... well, you see, upon the advice of the PT lady, Coach Ken, and some seasoned runners, I'm runnign the HALF this time, given the injury. This gives me a FINE excuse to do another Team in Training event and REALLY do a full when I am fully healed. Hope that's not a huge disappointment to those of you who generously sponsored me... I hope you realize the important goal was achieved and now I will raise even more for LLS because i HAVE to return!

IT'S OFFICIAL!! THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME REACH MY TARGET!!!

It's not Saturday but I couldn't wait to say how thrilled and amazed I am with all of you for funding this important research even in this economy! I KNEW you would come through. thank you from me and from all the patients who will benefit from the research and treatment. You Rock!!

Running in the Rain

March 7: 9 miles, 8.5 in the rain, the las half in a torrential downpour. Still, it felt awesome to be out there!

Last week's Murder Mystery Party was AWESOME and very importantly, I think we'll soon see that I am very very close to my fundraising amount! (checks are in the mail to LLS to be counted here shortly). Yea!!

Cross-trained

Feb. 28-Today instead of the group run (they were doing 14, i planned to do 10) i cross-trained (biking) at Lifetime. I had SUCH a pounding headache when i woke up AND I didn't trust my recently re-tweaked iliosoas in the bitter cold. So I ran 2.5 miles plus the amount of time it would have taken me to do 7.5 miles running. I hope that got me some progress. I DO think it was the best plan. Tonight is the Murder Mystery== can't wait to have the fun associated with all the fundraising!

I'm BA-A-A-CK!!

Feb. 21- 3 miles Thursday and no big problems... 6 miles today outside felt AWESOME! i know my mates went 12 but I am confident I'll catch up in the 10 weeks I have if I continue to feel as good as I do now. Thanks for sticking with me.

Oh, and how 'bout a great big SHOUT OUT for my contributors?!??! I've gotten a couple of checks this week that I need to deposit so I know that I am JUST SHY OF $3000!!!!!! U guys so rock! Thanks for taking care of the important part of this while I do the running.

Still Healing

Feb. 14- After 2 miles Saturday and 3 sunday my hip flexor reminded me it was not yet healed. Tuesday at physical therapy Christina (therapist) said to lay off running until next Tuesday. What a bummer! Yesterday I felt a lot better (as in== could go up and down stairs w/o the railing and could put my pants on on the first try) and thought, "maybe I can go..." but thought better of it and decided to obey. :-) Ironically, my fundraising is sailing along (THANK YOU ALL FOR THAT!!) while my training is stalled. one day I will get them in sync!

I did go out to see my team training. I laughed as I drove past them== probably the only time I'll ever pass John and Stephanie! ;-)

Back in the Saddle

Feb. 7: I returned to running today with a very short 2 miles with the group. Of course, they went on to do 10 more like we were scheduled to, but it was nice to see everyone. Physical therapy has helped and their instructions were 1-2 miles on my return. I will run again tomorrow and Tuesday morn before going back to PT.

I've been particularly motivated on the fundraising side of late because of a little girl named Abby Riggs (www.riggsfamilyblog.com). Abby was in Hannah's Hope orphanage with our girls (or just before them) and is suffering terribly with leukemia right now. Thankfully she is long since home w her forver family, but she's not doing well. It's for people like Abby that we MUST raise these funds!

Long Week w/o Running

Jan. 31: So the irony of last Saturday's account of a fantastic week of running is that shortly after writing it, I realized I wasn't sore I was hurt. I have spent the last week not running. IN fact, not really heading up the stairs properly. I need to get to the doc but a PT friend has id'd what seems to be the issue (i.e. I look at the list of symptoms and go, "yep. that's me." I can't believe how much I've missed running this week. In part, I miss it bc I feel like i'm getting behind, but I know just like the marathon itself, the training is a long-distance event and there's no point in being stupid in the short term and causing harm for the bulk of the training. So i sit patiently (almost) by... Hope to run next Saturday's miles.

12 Miles of Cold (aka Why It's Important to Take Sustenance)

Jan. 24== Scheduled for 11 today but a loop around the lake is 6, so Steph and I decided two loops would be easier to keep track of. It was COLD today... not like last week but I didn't cover my face or head AND we weren't stopping back at the warming station every two miles. The run, besides the cold, was ok until the last couple miles when Steph began to feel the effects of not taking enough nourishment. We got thru fine.. just more walk breaks. And I swear, despite that, we were still faster than we were at Brooksie, which by the way, is only 1.1 miles longer than this little training run was. I remember when 13.1 seemed like forever....

Fundraising-wise== attendance at the Murder Mystery is rising, but it's still not full. It's now Feb. 28 given so many winter vacations (lucky friends!!). if you're interested, just shoot me an email or leave a note here.

Eight is Enough

Although we were scheduled for 10 miles today, the Alberta Clipper changed the plans a touch. Complete with my new balaclava (think ninja hood in fleece) I set out with John and Stephanie and a couple others to run. Coach Ken said no more than 1 mile out and another mile back at a time so we could head into the warming station and check our reactions to the extreme (-1, -12+ with windchill) cold. In mile 7 the Alberta Clipper started with a serious crosswind and snow. The tiny bit of flesh I had exposed was stinging and my eyelashes were frozen shut so we thought Coach was right that 8 was enough. Stephanie, however, did 10. Crazy woman that she is.:-)

And to think== two weeks ago I thought 8 miles was hard without those elements!!

What a Difference A Week Makes

Jan. 10== MUCH easier to do today's 9 miles than last week's 8. For one thing, I got a full night's rest last night. Another important factor is there was plenty of company out on the trails. Never underestimate the power of chatting with other people. On the fundraising front, I sent a bunch of evites to the Disco Murder Mystery party 2/21. I'm counting on that to raise a bunch. (If you're interested, let me know with a note here or an email). I still have a LONG way to go on fundraising... to be honest, I'm a little jealous of my friend Laurela. She was too chicken to send her donation requests out until this week and she has now passed me! :-(. i'm staying positive that fundraising is like a marathon== slow and steady.

Today Was Hard

Jan. 3==I guess it was bound to happen after all those great Saturday runs== today was brutal. Maybe it had something to do with being sick during the week or with getting bad sleep last night, but it was so hard to pull off 8 miles today. I was alone for miles 5, 6, and 7 and they were on a desolate stretch of the trail. I so wanted to turn around early, to make it 7 instead of 8 miles... the thought of everyone else waiting for me back in the warming station was getting to me, but I knew I'd be cheating myself, so I kept going. On the way back with about a mile or so to go, the search party came looking for me. First Stephanie (she was a little earlier. turns out she WASN'T lightning fast, she had accidentally only done 5, not 8 miles! :-) ), then Coach Ken, Jennifer and John (aka The Mentor and The Marine). I could never do this without a team.

The Marine, The Mentor, and Me

Dec. 27: So, what happens when the group run only has 3 people (including me) and none of them is my 'pace buddy'? And what happens when you add incredible fog? well, it turns out when faced with the choice of being alone in the creepy fog or running 12 minute miles with the Marine and our team mentor, I choose the 12 minute miles. 7 of them. I can't believe it. I guess it really is largely a mental challenge vs a physical challenge.

I'm Not Last

Two big pieces of news: First, and most importantly, I hit an important milestone in fundraising as I had a December goal of hitting $750. As you can see, I achieved that short-term goal. Yea to all of you! Fittingly, I crossed that mark with a donation from my mom's long-time friend, Sandy Brandt who is a lymphoma survivor. Praise God for research and good doctors!!

Like any short-term goal, I quickly moved past celebrating that victory and began thinking more about how to hit the next goal which is THE WHOLE ENCHILADA by end of Feb.

Hmm... maybe I should set another short term goal... Let's say 2,500 by end of Jan. Can we do it???

Running front: I really wanted to skip today. Slept poorly. Actually got out of bed, sent an email to Coach Ken saying I'd run on my own later, went back to bed and darn it if I couldn't stop thinking about them out there. So I got up, got dressed and went. Was i glad! Marla (pace buddy) was there. Also, for the first time in this training I DID NOT FINISH LAST. I actually passed someone. Yea!!!

The Accidental Mile

Today was a different group run on many fronts. First, it was clear==no snow blowing in my face! Second, my "pace buddy" Marla came this week. It was so great to have her there. Third, Coach Ken had ME set the pace going out. I felt bad holding everyone else back BUT it felt great not getting burned out in that fist mile because you know what? it turns out I don't need a walk break when I go my own pace! Marla and I walked for about 30 seconds in the first 4 miles!! Then, we couldn't see the last mile marker and we walked a bit looking for it, not so much out of a need for a break but out of true bewilderment. We finally figured we missed it and turned around. We went about 6 miles instead of 5. Woohooo!! I feel like a real runner today.

I'm sure we were partly fueled by meeting our Team Hero, Wendy, this morning. She told us about getting her Hodgkin's diagnosis when she was 19, feeling very fit, running 5 days a week. What a change to her lilfe but after her chemo she was cured. Even a decade before her illness that would not have been possible. Research funded by LLS makes a difference!! Thanks for your support.

Running in the Snow

You can see my fundraising progress on the left... as you can see, it was a good start, but it has slowed. I can really use your donations!

This morning, I went on our group run. We did 5 miles== while it snowed on us. There were a couple of spots (bridges) where we had to walk carefully, but otherwise we braved it running through the tracks of others in some cases and forging our own in others. The wind was pretty exciting too! still, I will take this over the rainy start to our group training a few weeks ago.

I keep telling myself that surely our training in the snow will overprepare us for a May marathon in flat Vancouver. This is my mental trick when I find myself thinking, "if this part feels hard, what in the blankety blank am I gonna do when I'm running LONG distances??"

Still, a "PR" (personal record)== I ran in the snow. like a crazy person. I must be becoming a runner!

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!