6 Miles

6 miles... I actually did 6 miles today. I could hardly believe it!

And the real surprise?

I could've done more.

I don't know why I had so much energy today, but I felt like I could go on forever. Even from the 1st mile, where I usually feel the most sluggish, I felt energized. Maybe it was the gatorade I had just before taking off. Maybe it was the fact that I had my iPod with me & was being serenaded by Damien Rice. Who knows? But I did it!

I was so proud of myself. I thought for sure I'd be ready to pass out, but nope. I was able to keep up with the rest of the group instead of lagging behind. It was the 1st time I really realized... I can really do this!

I'm going to keep training as if I'm doing the full marathon. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually be able to do it!

Of course now, after resting for a few hours, my legs are super sore & feel like jello, but I think I'll be alright. I'm not gonna let the pain get me down. I can do this. I can do this!

In other news, I got a very generous check in the mail from a friend the other day. I was so shocked & moved. I had no idea he was going to be so generous. And to top it off, his company will match the donation, so I'll have double what he sent! I still have a long ways to go before I get to the $5200 minimum, but this sure was a lift I needed. :)

Tough day today. I worked out with my team at the park & did about 3.5 miles. My feet felt like lead the entire time. I was exhausted. Maybe it's the lack of sleep & the stressful day at work. Who knows? All I know is that I was the very last in the pack. I felt like such a schlub. Even the girl who I originally started out walking with was at a much faster pace than I was & she's a lot bigger than me! (of course, she's unemployed & has all the time in the world to work out & does so practically 7 days a week) The coach kept running back to check on me, making sure I was doing ok. She was super nice, giving me all sorts of advice & being very encouraging... telling me how great I was doing at keeping up my pace. However, the whole point of this particular workout was to go faster, then slow, then fast, then slow, etc. I did ok the 1st 1/2 mile, but the right side of my right calf kept hurting me. Then after about 2 miles, I started to have a little breathing trouble. I'm pretty much convinced my asthma was kicking again, especially with the warmer weather & everything starting to bloom again. Next time I'll be sure to take some allergy meds. If that doesn't work, then I'll likely go to the dr. to get a prescription.

Anyhoo... I eventually finished the work-out & hung around for a bit to chat w/ a couple teammates. We were giving each other fund raising tips, making plans for social gatherings, & discussing the best kind of running bra (apparently wearing 2 is better than wearing just one). I was even convinced to do the 5K "Rodeo Run" on Saturday. We'll work out at the park 1st thing in the morning (about 3 miles) then drive to the 5K downtown & do that, so our total mileage for that day should be a little over 6 miles. You can bet my iPod will be with me that day!

Ugh... why am I still awake? I need to go to bed. I'm never going to get any further if I don't start getting more sleep!

The kindness of strangers

I am continually amazed at the kindness of strangers. From a simple donation from a random person in Australia to a student in Ohio who saw a post I made on a message board & spread the word to her family. It warms my heart like nothing else has in my life. It is a beautiful thing.

There is also a chance I may get a corporate sponsorship or two from total strangers as well. A good friend at work has a friend that owns a chiropractic clinic that she says may be willing to sponsor me. I also ran into a former student intern today & he told me his step-dad runs a trucking company. He said he couldn't promise a full corporate sponsorship, but he said he would probably be good for at least a couple hundred dollars. So keep your fingers crossed that at least one (if not both) sponsor me. Each sponsorship is a minimum of $1500 & boy oh BOY would that ever help me reach my $5200 minimum! I'm still working on other ways to raise money, but man... this really would help put my mind at ease.

As for my training... today I walked about 2 miles & soon I will be off to the gym for a 1 hour yoga class. I'm really looking forward to getting back into yoga. I felt SO good when I did it before & now that my muscles are really getting a harder work-out, the yoga will surely help me feel a million times better. Hopefully my teammate, Lydia, will be in class tonight. It's always nice to have someone else to work out with, & it's even better knowing that person is there for the exact same reason.

Yesterday was pretty good... I did 4 miles with the team. The 1st mile was the hardest. My feet felt like lead & my calves were hurting not long after I started, but once I really got going, I didn't notice it any more. I felt pretty good, but I must admit, it was a bit harder this time around because I was walking alone. I started out walking with about 5 other women, but some of them started to run & therefore got ahead of me, then the others fell behind. It was so much easier last week having someone next to me to talk to & keep me going. My coach was running up & down the course & would stop to walk along side me every few minutes & cheer me on, but I still wished I'd brought my iPod with me so I could at least have lost myself in music.

About 2 miles in I felt like I was really hitting my stride & I felt great. It wasn't until about the last 1/2 mile that I started to tire out. It was around then that some random woman standing on the side of the path resting said "You got it girl! Keep it up! You can do it!" It was just what I needed. Hearing that random support from a total stranger really picked me up & made me get back on pace.

As each work-out passes, I continue to suprise myself with how dedicated I am to this. I'd been looking for something for so long to give me some sort of challenge, some motivation, a sense of peace. I think I finally found it.

The beginnings of a nasty cold/flu + an extra long day at work that included running errands around the city & REEEAAAAALLLLLYYYYY long, boring meeting = no happy hour or workout for me today. I am SO tired that I feel like I could go to bed right now & sleep until very late tomorrow morning.

Blech.

Well, due to a massive accident on the freeway, I missed my 1st Tuesday night group work-out. I ended up turning my car around & drove back home where I grabbed my dog & took a 30 minute power-walk through my neighborhood. The weather was simply perfect, I was jazzed & I made my dog very happy.

Today is a resting day. So nice!

Tomorrow there's a happy hour for the team at a local mexican restaurant, but I'll likely miss it. I have a late meeting at work that I have a feeling will run long & I also want to get in at least 30-45 minutes of a work-out afterwards. I'll likely be too beat to go out afterwards, but we'll see. After my late afternoon meeting, I may be in need of a nice margarita. :)

Today I put a bunch of donation flyers about my marathon on the wall next to all the mail box stations around my apartment complex. I also put about a dozen flyers in envelopes labeled "Please take one!" & put them up next to the mail boxes as well. Less than an hour later, I noticed some people had taken some of the flyers from the envelope in my building. YAY! Hopefully I'll get some nice donations from my neighbors.

Saturday I'll bring a bunch of letters to the group training session at the park for the staff to mail. (they told us the 1st 100 letters we bring them, they will mail for us) I'm also going to ask my parents to put together the addresses of all their friends & neighbors so I can hit them up for donations as well. Thankfully almost all of the neighbors know me pretty well, so hopefully that will help me out.

I'm also going to ask my mom's friend, who is a teacher, if she'd be willing to help me put together some sort of fundraiser her students can do for me to help me raise money. I haven't figured out just what they could do, but I'm working on it.

I'm just SO worried about not being able to raise all the money I need. I do NOT want to fail!

Ow. Ow. OW. My butt is killing me this morning!!!

Time trial

I was so good last night... I went to bed at 11:30 & slept SO well. I didn't even need my alarm to wake me up. I'd set it for 7:00, but I woke up on my own around 6:40. It was nice to not have to rush around in order to get to the park by 7:45.

This morning was my first group work-out. They broke us up into 3 groups... runners, run/walkers, & walkers. I was in the walker group. We did a 3 mile time trial & it went really well! I did much better than I expected. I figured I'd be at about 20 minutes per mile, but I ended up averaging 16 minutes per mile! It felt great! It was so much easier than I thought it would be. I could easily have done another mile. I think it really helped being in a group. I started out w/ 4 women, but after a few minutes we got to different paces & I ended up walking with one woman, Lydia & we really helped push each other. We talked the whole time which made the 3 miles fly by. Turns out she's a member of my gym, so we're going to work out together 1 or 2 days a week, starting w/ yoga on Monday nights. (a lot of the stretches they had us doing after the work-out today were very similar to yoga moves).

Next Saturday we'll do 4 miles & we'll add 1-2 miles every week. I'm feeling very good about this so far & am looking forward to seeing just how far I can go. My attitude may change as the miles increase. Only time will tell.

I'm being a fuddy-duddy & staying home tonight. I'm pretty tired & not in the party mood so I'm going to rest & relax tonight so I'll hopefully be rested enough for my 1st group training session tomorrow morning. 8:00 am comes awfully fast! At least I should be done by 10:00 & then I'll have the rest of the weekend to do whatever the hell I want. :)

I guess all my Fridays are gonna be like this for the next few months. As the training progresses & we increase the mileage we walk/run, the work-outs will also start earlier in the morning to accommodate for the extra time needed. So that will mean no staying out late partying & instead getting to bed early on Friday nights. How fun! ;-) Not that I have always been a big party animal on Friday nights. Quite the contrary. I have a tendancy to stay home & be a tv watching bum on Friday nights. The only difference now will be the early bed time, as opposed to my usual bed time of approximately 1:00 or 2:00 am.

That is going to take some getting used to.

Ugh. Late nights out drinking at birthday parties do not make for energetic work-outs the following day. I got practically ZERO sleep last night, & was a little bit hung over, but I still went to work this morning & I still worked out when I got home... just not as much as I had originally planned. I only went about 1.5 miles & I was exhausted. Looks like I'm gonna have to forgoe the continuing festivities & call it an early night tomorrow night so I can be fully rested for the time trials Saturday morning. Oh well. It's for a good cause. :)

In other news... I got on a scale for the 1st time in about 5 or 6 months. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be... I've only put on a couple pounds. After not working out for the past 2 months, I thought for sure it would be more. Of course, since I haven't worked out in so long, I'm definitely "feeling the burn" more now than I used to. Hopefully it won't take too long to get over that. I'm a little worried about how I'll do in front of everyone else on Saturday. The people I met last weekend are all in MUCH better shape than I am. I just don't want to be the slowest one in the bunch.

Day 2

It didn't rain all day... until just before I was to leave work. I was hoping it would let up eventually. A friend drove me home & by the time I got back outside to walk Moe, it was POURING! Forget that! After he did his business, we ran back inside & I popped in a dvd "walking" workout. I did 2 miles in 30 minutes & feel pretty good.

Tomorrow is a day of rest. Hopefully the rain will stop by Thursday. I want to do at least 2 miles, maybe 3. I really hate working out indoors, especially when the weather is cooler. I need to feel & smell that cool, crisp air. It really helps get me going.

I received a few more donations today. One in particular gave me the BIGGEST smile... not because of the amount, (which was nice) but because of who it was from. :)

I sent out emails to some of my old co-workers yesterday, but I haven't heard back from any of them yet. I figure at least 2 of them are good for about $100 (I hope) & maybe even a corporate donation. *crosses fingers* Later this week I'm going to put together a proposal for a customer I had at my old job who absolutely loved me. He runs a big industrial company that also has contacts to some very large construction companies. I'm gonna see if maybe his co. would sponsor me ($1500 minimum). If I can get just one corporate sponsorship, that will help me SOOOOO much.

Wish me luck!

I'm world-wide!

Holy crap! I just got my first international donation... someone from Australia! WOOOOO!!!! That is so friggin' cool! Thank you!!!! :)

Gotta love the power of the internet!

Training Day 1

Well, day 1 was a VERY wet day of training. Since my 1st 3 days of training are solo days, & I wasn't given specific work-out instructions (only that they had to be at least 20 minutes) I decided that walking home from work would be part of my 1st work out. It had been raining most of the day, but by the time 5:00 rolled around it was a mere drizzle, so I decided to brave the elements. I donned my sweats & old walking shoes (I didn't bring my new running shoes to work... didn't want to get them wet & muddy on the 1st use), packed all my stuff up in my backback & started my 1.5 mile walk home. I didn't go my usual strolling pace. I walked as fast as I could (not too easy w/ a big ass backpack on my back). About 1/3 of the way home, the drizzle turned into a downpour. Thankfully I had my umbrella ready, but it didn't exactly offer me full coverage. By the time I got home, I was soaked from the knees down. But the rain made me pick up the pace even more & I got my heart rate going nice & strong.

Hopefully the rain will be gone by tomorrow. I plan on walking home again and, weather permitting, walking at least another 1 or 2 miles with the puppy when I get home. If it's raining, then I'll just go to the gym & work on my legs w/ weights or maybe hit the pool. I need to get my knees back in shape & the pool really helps. I'm still not sure what my Thursday work-out will be. Saturday is the 1st group distance workout. We'll do a 3 mile time-trial to see where we stand. From there, they'll group us with people of the same or similar paces.

I can't believe how excited I am about working out. That's just crazy, isn't it? It's funny how knowing there are so many people relying on you can really keep you motivated.

Getting started

Today I went & bought my 1st pair of running shoes. I went to a local running shop that was recommended by my coach called RunSport (TNT members get a 10% discount there). They guys there were super nice & very helpful. They analyzed my stance & stride to find exactly how my feet react to my body weight. Apparently I have a pretty good stride... only a teeny bit of inward roll on the ankles, which can be fixed with the right support. They hooked me up w/ a nice pair of Asics running shoes. Since I have such a wide foot, the women's shoes didn't fit right & I had to go to a man's shoe.

Turns out the owner of the shop ran the Mayor's Midnight Run last year. He's run in races all over the country, including Hawaii, but he says the Alaska run was absolutely the most breathtaking. Hearing that made me even more excited about this race. I'm even more determined to accomplish this goal.

I've also decided to train as if I was doing the full marathon. My coaches encouraged me to sign up for the full marathon because as they said "you never know"... I may surprise myself & get strong enough to do a full 26.2 miles. They said it's easier to sign up for the full marathon & move down to the 1/2, then it is to sign up for the 1/2 then move up to the full (paperwork-wise), so I'm gonna go for it. If, by race time, I don't feel I can make the full 26.2, I'll just change to the 1/2. Either way, I'm gonna do this! I CAN DO THIS!!!

Kick-off

Today was the official Team in Training kick-off. Everyone got together to meet their coaches, mentors, & honored patients, & we got our training schedule for the next 4-1/2 months. It's a packed schedule with workouts 4 days a week (2 of them with the group, 2 alone. Days of rest are Sun., Wed., & Fri. First official workout is Monday) & several team meetings & gatherings throughout each month. At first glance, I felt a bit intimidated, wondering if I'd really be able to do this, but after meeting the coaches & my mentor, I felt a lot more comfortable. They all seem so supportive & willing to give almost anything to help us all out.

During this kick-off meeting, some cancer survivors got up & spoke to the crowd, giving us even more inspiration to get out there & do our best. Several times I got a lump in my throat & a tear in my eye. But more than anything, I felt warmth in my heart... especially when I met my honored patient (a cancer patient for whom I will be running/walking in honor of, in addition to my BIL, & who also will receive a portion of the money I raise for his care). His name is John Purtee, he is 9 years old & was diagnosed with Lymphoma at the age of 5. He recently had a bone marrow transplant & is in remission & he is the sweetest kid you ever could meet. I'd heard about how at the Houston marathon a few weeks ago, he was at various mile markers & whenever he saw someone in a purple TNT jersey, he would run beside them for a good long ways & cheer them on. When I introduced myself, he thanked me for joining in the effort & gave the biggest smile. When I told him how I lost my BIL to Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, he said "that's why I'm here... that's why we're all here. I'm here for all of those who are no longer with us. And I'm here because of all of you."

That killed me. He's nine years old. NINE!

This is the best decision I have ever made. I do NOT want to let him down.

So now I am even more obsessed about fundraising. I am constantly checking my email to see if I have any messages with the words "donation confirmation" in the subject line. When I check it & I have no new messages, or if the new messages end up being SPAM or just regular email, my heart sinks & I worry that I will never be able to reach my goal. $5200 is a LOT of money & not being able to raise it all is my biggest fear.

So every time I do get one of those "donation confirmation" messages, I get a huge smile on my face & my heart swells. I have been so touched by what people have been giving (or what they tell me they will give)... whether it's $10, $25, $100... it all moves me. I am especially moved by those who have donated, even though I know they are struggling with money. Yet they still give what they can. It's truly amazing the hearts these people... these friends of mine... have. :)

Run for a cure

I started this blog as a way for people to follow my training/progress for the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon. I will post updates on my training, as well as thoughts, concerns, fears, accomplishments, & whatever else comes to mind.