With all the traveling we're doing this Fall, I wasn't supposed to be in town for training pretty much any weekend in September. After the whirlwind of a weekend we had last week (Sam and I got engaged one week ago today - YAYYYY!!!!!!!), I decided to stay in town this weekend and join my team in the 20K Tour de Fleurs out at the Dallas Arboretum. I hadn't done a long-distance run in about 3.5 weeks because of my knee so I was little worried that I wouldn't be able to finish. My knee gave out on me twice in mile 1 alone and I was convinced I wasn't even going to be able to finish the 10K. My running partner and I got to the 10K turn off and honestly contemplated turning, but kept going. My knee had finally started to loosen up and she vowed to stay with me the whole way (thanks, Jaqui - you're the best!!!). We made it to the 10K mark on our course and realized we were actually making pretty great time...Turns out 60 degrees at the lake makes quite the difference! I won't go as far as to say the second 10K didn't hurt, but we made it through it! We finished in 2.5 hours!

Race day is officially ONE month away! It's great to know that we will only have 0.7 miles left to finish on race day. Doing the Tour de Fleurs really puts in to perspective where you are with your training and how much harder you need to work for the next month.

I'm so excited to be running Nike next to two of my best friends and some great new friends I've met through TNT! San Francisco (and Napa right after) turns out to the be perfect place for a girls reunion! Some of our best friends will be meeting us out there to cheer us on to 13.1, followed by an excellent trip to wine country on Monday. So excited Sam will get to be there too! Poor guy...as many races as he's tried to be at or made it to in the last year and a half, something always happens and he ends up missing the best parts.

I have a couple weeks left to fundraise and I'm about 80% to my goal. Every dollar helps! Anything you can offer would be amazing! For all of you that have donated and are just reading along to support, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Being the HUGE Texas football fans we are, Sam and I bought season tickets this year. For a race that's in the middle of football season, traveling to Austin the majority of weekends before race day doesn't really seem like an ideal situation, does it?

A few weeks ago, a runner on the Austin Team happened to be in town and she joined our Team for Saturday training. WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA! How did I never think of this?? - Join a local team when you are in their training area! I contacted my coach and she helped put me in touch with the Austin team so I could keep up with my training while we were in town. As soon as I got in touch with the Austin Team, they were so gracious and happy to have me join their weekend training sessions.

Then came the bummer - on a short, 3 mile training last week I somehow hurt my knee. The first 1.5 miles out felt great and on the turn around, there was all of a sudden a really bad pain in my right knee. I had to walk a lot of the way back. Well, in my mind, what better week/weekend to take a break than the opening season of the college football season and "let it heal"? (In my mind, it wasn't really THAT bad...)

Tuesday came around this week and I thought I'd had plenty of time to rest up, so I went on my usual morning run. The first half felt great again, and sure enough, soon after that, it started bothering me again!! Both my dad and coach (two runners I trust more than anything!) keep telling me to be patient and rest up. "Start slow, build back up...you're not going to get out of shape in a week...you'll just hurt youself further, and that's NOT what you want..."

I know they're right, but it's so frustrating!! I've worked really hard for this race, so to have this kink in the road is really discouraging. I know I have to listen to my dad and coach though - rest up and make sure I don't really injure myself! I've committed to taking it easy this week; doing slow, short runs and stopping as soon as it starts bothering me.

I will be back in the grind by next week - or so is my plan!!! Thank you so much to everyone for your love and support.

Go Team!

A big part of running is mental - yes, you have to be in decent shape to get out and run 13.1 miles, but if you have the right mental state, you can absolutely do it!

Having said that.....I was NOT in the right mental state this morning. I think the first thing someone said to me as I strolled up to meet up with my Team at 5:50 AM was "Well, that's a smile if I've ever seen one!" Followed by another Teammate saying, "You look excited to be here!" Like I said...not the right mental state. I was tired, and cranky, and hey, the idea of running from Mockingbird Station to White Rock Lake and back (11 miles) sounded terrible quite frankly. I wanted to be warm in my bed with the thermostat set at 68 degrees - not outside where it was already well above 80 degrees AND humid! But knowing why I'm running this race definitely made it easier.

This is a very different training than I've done in the past in a lot of different ways. I'd definitely not be at 11 miles with 2 months to race day if I were training on my own, that's for sure. But, beyond that, I'm doing this for a much higher cause. I'm doing this for so many people that don't have the choice to get out there and run, when I know they would absolutely trade anything to be in my shoes (no pun intended, but hey it works!).

Once we got started, the run felt really good! We were keeping a pretty good pace for a long run. We made it to the lake just as the sun was rising. I really wish I had taken my phone with me so I could take a picture and post it, because it really was one of the prettiest things I'd seen in a while. I think it's safe to say I found another thing that makes me LOVE Dallas! The turn around point was at the end of a long bridge that bounced - talk about throwing your equilibrium off! The way back was tough, but we made it! We beat the time the pace projector was setting us to come in, so all-in-all I'd say it was a success!

It's definitely safe to say today was another day I was so thankful for my Teammates!

I'd like to end this blog post by thanking everyone who's helped support me on my way to reach my goal! Your support will truly make a difference for blood cancer and the LLS. EVERY little bit helps!

GO TEAM!

So before I get in to my learning's, can I just throw out a fact we're all well aware of? It's HOT outside! At one point around mile 5.5, I must have run through some kind of tree sap or something because for a split second I legitimately thought "the bottom of my shoes MUST be melting!" Then, about a half mile later, I thought to myself "I don't think I'm going to be able to make the full 10 miles. I may have to cut this one short..." But, then I quickly realized I had run 5 miles out and didn't really have any other option but to run the last 4 miles home......

Anyways, I'm happy to say I did finish all 10 miles!! I was supposed to wake up for a 10-mile team training yesterday morning, but after a bad decision to attend a happy hour that went well past happy hour on Friday after work, a 5AM wake-up call just didn't work out for me. So I woke up this morning and got my miles in on my own, and along with the 10 miles came a few learning's:

1. Not all bug spray is sweat repellent. (Note to self: buy the sport version of Off! today when you go grocery shopping.)

2. Katy Trail is one of the best things about Dallas! I think we all know I've loved living in Dallas this last year. Katy Trail is a big part of that! There's something really awesome about knowing on any given day, you can get out on the trail and there will be tons of fellow runners out there. There's just something really cool about knowing you all share a passion even though you don't know each other at all.

3. I prefer running with a group of people. I've run all of my distance races with other people, and I knew I liked running race day with a partner or two. But what I didn't know was that I also prefer training with a group of people. After running a long distance alone like I did today, I realized how nice it is and how much you get out of the support Team in Training provides. Even if you happen to be running alone on a training run, there's something comforting knowing that at any given moment you'll see someone else on your Team to give you a little boost.

Until next week, Go Team!

We did a tough hill run this morning - almost 9 miles of it! Nike Women's will be my 4th half marathon, and 5th distance race, since I ran my first race about a year and a half ago. No matter how many times you've done it, running that amount of mileage is tough...especially when you add in the hills. A run like that takes a lot of mental and physical strength for someone like me. I wasn't a runner two years ago (and those of you that know me, know I'm not lying!), so I still surprise myself when I get in miles like that.

This is my first TNT event, and I can honestly say that the coaching and mentoring makes a big difference. When my alarm went off at 5 a.m. this morning, I definitely had a "Should I skip this run??" moment. But I made the commitment to help kick cancer's butt, and I'm really glad I got out there! Our coach had put motivational messages along our course in sidewalk chalk, and I have to admit, they sure did help when I was going up some of those hills!

I'm about 25% to my fundraising goal with three months to race day. Please join me on my journey to fight this terrible disease that affects too many of our loved ones! I promise to be better about posting updates to my page, so even if you've already donated, please come back and follow me on my training to 13.1!