Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Temperature Rising

Just checked the forecast again, and it looks like it'll be even warmer and sunnier in Seattle on Saturday than they thought! This might be a problem for us runners... but again, at least it's not going to rain!



We leave bright and early tomorrow morning, and I haven't even thought about packing. When I get home tonight after work, I also have to run and do some laundry. I really should have taken today off. Then again, I work best under pressure! ;-)

Oh, and just to make life a little more hectic, Chris and I just put an offer in on a house last night. Because really, what's the thrill of going across country and running 26.2 miles if you can't simultaneously try to buy your first home?

Monday, June 22, 2009

Fifteenth (& Final!) Group Run

Time has really flown. Saturday was the last group for me and Chris run before our marathon. Chris and I only had to run 6 miles, which was good because the new team is just starting out, and doing short distances. Chris and I are the only participants still training from the summer TNT team, since all of the others are done with their events. But, Christine and Matt are the other mentors, and of course Kristen is still the coach, so there are still a lot of familiar faces. And, the new team is great. Everyone is very cool!

Anyway, the run was pretty uneventful. It was SUPER muggy. My foot started hurting again, but not too bad. I’m not really worried about it.

At this point, I’m just getting antsy to get out to Seattle! We leave in three days, and the marathon is in five! It may be a little early for this, but this is the weather forecast for Saturday:

As long as it stays dry, I'll be so, so happy!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Almost There!

Last night we went to Atlantic Beer Garden, along with all of the other Massachusetts Team In Train-ers who will be running in Seattle. We picked up our race packets, which included our purple singlets and our itineraries for the trip!

We leave one week from today. I'm getting pretty pumped!

Monday, June 15, 2009

Fundraising Goals? MET!

YESS!! Today is the fundraising deadline, and I'm happy to report that Chris and I have both reached our fundraising goals of $4,300 each! We got some very generous last-minute donations, especially one from a crazy guy named Tony! He came over to our apartment on Thursday night, asked how much more we needed to get to our goals (about $600 at the time), and pulled out $700 and gave it to us! He was prepared to go much higher, too. That is some intense generosity!

Since then we've received even more donations, and the money from Margaritas and Uno's hasn't even been applied yet. In total, I think we'll have raised over $9,350.00 together! I'm so proud of us and so grateful to everyone who contributed in any way to this great cause. THANK YOU ALL!

I'm also so relieved to be done with fundraising. Now all that's left to do is RUN. Speaking of which, I've taken the last week off, but I'm going to try a short run tonight. My foot is finally feeling better... I wish I could say the same for Chris' knee. He's still hurting, but as always, he's hanging in there.

The marathon is in less than two weeks. It's really almost here!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Foot Pain & Fundraising

My left foot is still hurting me. It hurts to walk, but not every time I walk. It sort of comes and goes. Usually it doesn't hurt otherwise, but every once is a while I get a weird shooting pain along the side of it. I'm taking the week off from running, so I hope by next week it'll feel better. I have a wedding to go to this weekend, and I guess I won't be dancing much! Oh well.

Also, our fundraising deadline is MONDAY. As in, four days from now. EEK! Chris and I still need over $1,300 between us to reach our minimums... but really only about $600, because our fundraising event money (from the purse party and Margaritas nights) is going to be processed before our deadline. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the $90 we made from the Uno's night will come in in time, but it will still go to the LLS, so that's great. I was going to bake some cookies last night to have one last cookie sale at work, but we didn't have enough eggs and I was so tired after work last night, that I just let that plan die. Oops.

Well, that's about it for now! Have a good weekend! (I know it's only Thursday, but I have tomorrow off.) ;-)

Monday, June 8, 2009

Fourteenth Group Run

I'm calling this entry "Fourteenth Group Run" even though it was just me and Chris running together, doing our big 20 MILE RUN!

We woke up around 5:00am on Saturday, got dressed, and both had two hard-boiled eggs and a thick piece of Asiago toast with butter (yummy). We prepared some bags with water, Gatorade, and Starbursts and put notes on them that basically said "Don't touch." Chris loaded up his fuel belt and I loaded up my new fanny pack that Christine generously gave to me, and we headed to Hull to strategically place our supplies along our route. We did so, then drove to the Derby Street shoppes. Kristen was there early and we said hi to her, then headed out to run 20 miles!

We started out slow and steady. My knees and hips hurt me as soon as we started, but nothing I couldn't run through. It was cold and drizzling at the onset, so we each wore sweatshirts, but as we approached the first water stop at mile 3, we were both both getting warm, so we ditched the sweatshirts. (Side note: There were slugs everywhere. Slimy, orange slugs, all over the sidewalks. Just thought you should know.)

Chris and I both brought 3 GUs, and wanted to try to eat about every hour. We would have needed another GU each, but I think we stuck to this while we could. We both opened the first one about an hour into our run, around mile 5.

We kept going, and just before mile 6, Kate, Christine and Monica found us and gave us some Powerade and some encouragement. So, we skipped our bag of water and kept on going.

Around mile 8, Chris was feeling tired and thought he'd have to walk. He had anther GU and decided to at least keep running until the half-way point. We stopped at our mile 9 water stop, and there we pulled out some of the Starbursts and devoured them. He felt much better after that, and started running so fast I could barely keep up! He said he really just needed to eat something. I think it helped me too. We're both thinking of pre-peeling some Starburts and carrying them with us in baggies for the marathon!

We kept going on towards mile 10. Lorri drove by and stopped to say hi. At the intersection of Nantasket and Draper Aves., it was time to turn around! We stopped again at mile 11 for more Gatorade, water and Starbursts. Around mile 12, we took a walk-break, and then Kate and Christine stopped for us again. After that, Chris' knees just wouldn't let him keep running, so I went on ahead.

I felt amazingly energized for some reason, and was able to run at what felt like a pretty good pace for the rest of the run! I really think this is because of the nice, slow pace for the first half, and also the GUs! For my 18-mile run a while ago, I felt completely drained. The Rice Krispie Treats helped for a few minutes, but I think I must have really hit that wall. GUs have saved my life! I wish I hadn't waited so long to try them out.

Just before I got to the mile 17 water stop, I noticed my belly was feeling a little empty, so I had more Starbursts when I got to it. That helped for a while, but the hungry feeling came back. Unfortunately, I was out of food, but fortunately, I only had about 2 miles left to go. I knew I just had to hang in there and get it done, and then I could go to Panera and eat whatever I wanted! It wasn't that easy, of course. The bottom outside of my left foot started to hurt then, but I just plowed through that pain and kept going. When I got back to the car at Derby St., I had a huge, goofy grin on my face, because I WAS DONE! I had run 20 miles!

I went to Panera, but the weirdest thing happened: my hunger temporarily disappeared. I got a drink and got a text from Chris; he was on his final 3 miles! I went to the running store where we typically meet, and where TNTers get 20% off, and asked the sales person about my foot. I have has the same pair of running shoes since February and I wanted to know if that could have anything to do with the weird new pain. He said it was probably just from running 20 miles! haha! but he said it was probably time for new sneakers anyway, so I bought a brand new pair of the same exact sneakers.

Then I read my book on a bench until Chris ran up, and we drove our route again so that we could collect our bags of supplies.  For the rest of the day, we iced our knees and watched DVDs, then went to bed at an embarrassingly early time for a Saturday night!  IT was around 8/8:30.  

Now we taper down until the marathon!  I'm feeling much more confident  about the race now that the 20-miler is over!  I was pretty nervous after the 18-er.  IT was so rough!  I feel more prepared now.  My only concern (and it's not even a real concern) is the weird foot pain, which still hasn't gone away, but I'm going to stay off of it for a few days instead of going on my 4 and 6 mile runs this week.  



Thursday, June 4, 2009

A Few Things

1. Like I mentioned before, I had to skip the 15-mile run last weekend. I haven't been running very much this week. On Monday I still wasn't feeling great. So I ran 4 or 5 on Tuesday (I still haven't mapped it out), then took Wednesday off. I'll run 5 or 6 tonight, but that's it. I have to rest on Friday if I want a shot at being able to run 20 on Saturday! I'm sort of feeling unprepared for that 20-miler because I haven't kept up with the mileage lately. But on the other hand, I think my hips, shins, ankles, and knees are happy with the rest they've had this week. So, we'll see what happens! 20 is the longest we run before our marathon. I can't believe it's here already!

2. Chris and I have just one fundraising event left! It hardly seems possible. haha... If you're in the area, come to Margaritas in Weymouth for dinner or drinks this Sunday, June 7. As always, 5% of your check will go to the LLS!

3. I'm going to miss out on running with the new South Shore team on Saturday. Chris and I are starting early and finishing late (20 miles is going to take a long, long time). I'm bummed, because I got to meet most of them briefly at kick-off and they all seem really cool. However, we have a whole summer to get to hang out!

That's about it for now!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Weekend Update

Friday night was my purse party. I'm happy to report that it was a big success! People bought over $1,000 worth of Tamara's adorable handbags, which means that over $250 is going to the LLS. I helped, of course, by buying several myself. ;-D

Saturday morning was Kick-Off for the new participants. Chris and I held a sign in front of the building and directed people inside. We got to meet our "mentees" face-to-face, which was great! They seem really cool and we're excited to start training with them.

Yesterday, Chris and I were going to run our scheduled 15-mile run together... but I had a cold! I felt slightly dizzy every time I stood up, so I didn't exactly think running was a good idea. Chris put on his new fuel belt, though, and headed out himself. He's such a trooper!

I'm feeling better now, which is good, since our big 20-mile training run is this coming Saturday! I want to be in good shape for that. I feel well enough to attempt my 4-mile run tonight... I'll just bring extra tissues!