Numbers

48- Days it's been since I've updated this blog (I know, I KNOW!!!)
63- Days until my marathon! (Wow. That's not very many)
6912- How many people died of a blood cancer during those 48 days (That's too many)
2520- How many dollars people have contributed to my fundraising (I'm over my goal!!!)
140- Miles I've run over the last 48 days.
14- Miles I ran yesterday (that's the farthest I've gone to date!)
2- Number of rattlesnakes encountered during training
4- Scabs formed under my sports bra from long runs
-30%- Rate of return from my 401K. Yes, that's a negative sign in front of the 30.
26- How old I turned on October 25th. :)

So......it's been awhile, and I apologize for my silence. Rest assured this won't happen again- this cause is much too important to be quiet during my training.

A bunch of stuff has happened over the last month and a half- I've run farther then I ever thought possible, completed a 10 mile race, achieved my fundraising goal, got a new pair of shoes (time to start breaking them in for marathon day!!).

Last week was recommitment day- the day that we tell Team in Training "I will do this. I am committed to raising $2500 and completing this marathon in honor and memory of those who are afflicted with blood cancers". This is when Team in Training starts incurring expenses on our behalf- they pay for our race day registration (that's over $100), our hotel room, our race day jersies, pasta party shirts, etc. It was so exhilerating to check that box that said "I have already raised $2500 and am recommiting".

Thank you thank you THANK you to those who have contributed. Especially in these hard economic times, the number of people who need assistance from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is staggering. I know you're sick of hearing (reading?) it, but every dollar counts. Jennifer and I went to the U of A tailgate, selling red and blue mardis gras beads for just a few dollars a piece. We had 288 beads. We made $400. People contributing just $1-2 apiece, and look what we did. That's pretty cool.

Oh, and my new running shoes? They're pink. I'll save my rave about my favorite running store for another post.

I'm still up and running, no pun intended.

I just discovered something

If I've spoken to you about the race, I may have told you that there are over 23,000 people participating.

I was a bit off.

In 2007, over 32,000 runners participated in the marathon and half marathon.

Holy crap.

And there's an expo two days before the race, complete with "Official Race Souvenirs".....that's where we pick up our numbers and timing chips- for those of you who can't be there in person, you'll be able to view my results online! I'll have a chip on my shoe that will track my progress/time and you can look it up by bib number/name.

http://www.rnraz.com/expo.html

Six Miles, Suds, and Sunburns

Well, after running hills last week, my coaches decided that we needed a recovery day, to let our taxed muscles rest and.....well....recover! So they said we were "only" going to run 6 miles. Um, ok....sure....ONLY 6 miles? Coach Brian said that we should feel really good at the end of it, with a lot of energy. I immediately thought that I'd pushed myself too hard last week, because there was no WAY that this was going to feel like a leisurely jog.

I was wrong.

I never thought that I'd think running "only" 6 miles was a breeze, but it was. We finished in just over an hour (good pace time!) and I felt fantastic. I STILL feel fantastic (sort of, anyway, I'll get to that).

The best part about finishing a long run is the washcloth- Louanne, our marathon coordinator, greets us at the finish with a washcloth that has been soaking in ice water for who knows how long, so it's COLD. To wipe your face and put it on the back of your neck feels Ahhhhhh-mazing.

But let's put things in perspective for a moment: Six miles, I'm so awesome, right? Well, the Nike runners (their marathon is Oct 18th) ran TWENTY MILES yesterday. Yes. Twenty. In fact, we didn't even SEE any of them, they started at 5:30 so they were at a completely different part of the trail. Wow. Twenty miles. All to beat cancer! My 20 miler will be right around Christmas......a blessing and a curse, I suppose.

SO......I couldn't stick around too long, because a group of us were having a car wash to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I ran home, showered, crammed in some breakfast, and I was off again, to the gas station right by campus (wow, that brought back memories).

We hadn't even put out SIGNS and people were already lined up to get their cars washed! We got lucky because it rained on Friday and cars were looking pretty dirty......

So, this was the first car wash I have *ever* participated in. I managed to go through high school and college and never do one....but here I am, almost 26, and I have my sleeves rolled up ready to wash some cars.

Let me share with you a list of things that I learned/observed:
1) Wear real shoes (that you don't care about). Flip flops/sandals were a bad idea because they were slippery!

2) Sunscreen is always your friend. I managed to get away relatively unscathed (I kept reapplying, Mom, don't worry) but others weren't so lucky.

3) A car wash for donations is just that. People can donate whatever they feel like, or they don't have to donate at all (but we like it when they do). There will always be a few people who decide not to donate, and all you can do is wash their car with a smile, thank them for stopping by, and move on.

4) You'll see one of everything, from donations to cars. People donated $40, some donated $0. We washed (among others) an older Mercury Comet (convertible), a Camaro Z28, and a 2003 Corvette.

That's just a few things on the list.....we had a LOT of fun, and we had so many people helping us who weren't fundraising themselves (family members, etc). People were more generous than not, and it was so amazing to see all of the support! Hey, even coach Rick stopped by (after running 20 miles) and got his car washed.

When all was said and done (washed?), we each got $50, which was awesome!

So I think today will be a recovery day from the recovery day. :)

My apologies

For the lack of posting the last few weeks- it's been a whirlwind of a time, and I feel like I'm just settling back into a routine.....

So, let's recap, shall we?

Saturday, September 6th
We ran 6 miles and it felt good, but Jennifer and I seemed to fight it for the first few miles. Our coaches noticed that we were running "sloppy" (they seriously used that word!). I think we were still sort of recovering from the race on Monday (that brutal 8 miler), and our muscles were a lot tighter than we expected.

It's at this point that I started icing my knees after a run on Saturday, and eating breakfast soon after a run, usually with a teammate or coaches. I feel so much better when I eat right away, I don't crash when I get home.....

Wednesday, September 10th
At this point, we've entered into phase II of our training, the strength phase. We'll be introducing hills and speed training into the mix. Today we met in Ried park to do speed training and run a few miles- coach Rick and I warmed up for a bit, then sprinted (ok, not sprinting all out, but we were running pretty fast!), jogged, sprinted, rinse and repeat for 4.25 miles. The point of these is to get our muscles into the anerobic phase, and then recover and make our muscles absorb as much oxygen as possible so we can utilize it better during the endurance events. (at least, that's how they explained it, all I know is that it made me embarrasingly tired!).

Saturday, September 13th
This Saturday was an 8 miler, and it went really well. While we took it slower than we had been, I finished feeling like I could have gone further, which is where the coaches want us to be. Today was also the fluid loss analysis clinic. We weighed in before we ran, kept track of how many ounces we took in (or deposited, depending on bathroom stops) weighed in again when we were done, and then our coaches analyzed the numbers and let us know if we were taking in or losing too much liquid. My results were that I had the potential to gain THREE AND A HALF POUNDS during the marathon. Um, no. Not gonna happen. Coach Rick thinks the #'s might be off, so we're going to try again next month.

Monday, September 15th
Hill training day!! Oh boy! I met with Coaches Rick and Lauren and some other teammates and we hiked up Tumamoc Hill. I don't know the distance, but I do know that it was an 18% grade, if not steeper. It was INSANE, but I was fine, and I wasn't sore the next day! We ran down which was so much fun, too, and it was right as the huge full moon was rising over the Rincon Mountains- picture perfect.

The rest of the week was less than stellar- I came down with some sort of bug and spent my time attempting to recover in time for Saturday.

Sunday, September 20th
Time for a change of scenery- we went to Sabino Canyon and ran some more hills- it's a 3.7 mile out and back (7.4 miles total), and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Teammate Jennifer wasn't too thrilled about the "Beware: High Mountain Lion Activity!" signs, but I assured her that I'd never seen one. The way in was rough, but the time it took to go out FLEW. I remember run/walking Sabino in 2005, and it seemed to take forever, but this time seemed to take no time at all. Hell, I remember going partway with my parents and getting tired before a mile (that's when I was REALLY out of shape....)How quickly our perceptions of mileage and time change when we start doing long distances!

Which brings us to today, Sunday. I am only a few dollars short of the $2000 mark and I couldn't be more thrilled. Everyone has been SO GENEROUS with their donations and I am so thankful and grateful for everyone who has supported me. Every dollar you donate will make a difference in someone's life.

It's so important that we find a cure for these blood cancers- they affect way too many people. In fact, by the time you're done reading this post in my blog, one person will have died from a blood-related cancer and two more will have been diagnosed. That's too many, so I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for donating to help get these numbers to a big fat goosegg.

Blessed be the tie that binds

Unfortunately, though, these days, most of those ties involve cancer. Stupid cancer.

In reaching out to those around me, and sharing my personal stories with cancer (the blood cancers, anyway, don't get me started on the others, those hit even closer to home), it seems that almost everyone knows someone who's had a blood cancer: they've had a family member battle it, or they themselves have had it (there's a woman on my team who is in remission for Lymphoma and she ROCKS). These diseases affect everyone, and it sucks. Cancer sucks.

There's a bunch of stuff on my mind and it's probably too scattered to put in one post, so I'm just going to recap the weekend for now, and then wrangle these lottery ball thought patterns into something coherent and share them later.

SO.....

Saturday: 6 miles. I shortened my inervals to running 7 minutes and walking 1. I finished with a mile pace time of about 10 and a half minutes- not bad, but the coaches still seem to think it's too fast still. UGH. Oh, and it was windy so it felt like I was running uphill.....bleh.

Anyway.....OH! I almost forgot- when I finished practice last week, I got back to the ramada where everyone checks in-out and there was a pair of socks waiting for me:

Aren't they NEAT???!?!?! So APPARENTLY, they were an incentive gift because I reached $500 already! They were SUPER proud of me and were really excited about the progress I've made with my fundraising. So, those of you who have contributed already, THANK YOU so much. As of right now, I have $975!! (my website says otherwise, because some checks are being sent in). Only $1525 to go!

Sunday was spent reading books 1 and 2 of the Twilight series. Addicted? Probably. Vampires. Who knew?

Monday: What better way to spend Labor Day than run an EIGHT MILE RACE????! What a GREAT IDEA. Um.....

Ok, really, I had fun because I ran it with my coach, Lauren, and teammate Jennifer. But holy crap, this course had some hills. Here's the course profile:

We decided to run it to practice our intervals and hill training......which meant we were automatically in the "Not in it to win it" category. But we were towards the bottom of the stack, which was quite the test for me to put away the competative streak (ok, so it's more than a streak) and run my own race. It wasn't easy, for multiple reasons, but I stuck with the intervals and I finished! Go TNT chicks!

Here's me finishing- No, I'm not showing tons of leg under the skirt, the spandex underneath are pink. :)

Speed Racer!

Week 4- another 5 miler done.

I feel good, if not a little tired (surprise!!)


This was the 4th Saturday practice we've had and it wasn't too hot (we've been meeting around 6) but it was SUPER HUMID, so we were sweating in no time, but I did have my handy dandy hydration belt! It has two 10-ounce bottles and a little pouch for energy gels and such. (I apologize for the atrocious spacing, another thing I have yet to figure out). ANYWAY, mine's blue, but I wanted pink, but TriSports was out. I try not to pout about it, but it's hard.
I ran with my friend J again and it was nice to have a companion- it really helps pass the time and sets your cadence. The Nike team was out there too (they're training for a marathon in San Fran in October, so they're up to 10-12 miles these days). It was so neat to pass them- we would cheer each other on, then we would keep trudging.


We've adapted to the run/walk method of completing a marathon. Let's face it- I'm not training to win this race, and probably 90% of the people who are running it will walk at some point. Our coach told us that by running for x number of minutes and walking for 1 or 2, we would shave some serious minutes off of our time. Yeah right, you say. Well, coach Rick took about a half hour off of his time when he did run/walk.



Ugh, ok, FINE. I'll WALK. But only for 1 minute, and I'll run for 10.



Worked like a charm. It was awesome. While the legs were a bit heavy at the end, we weren't doing "The Marathon Shuffle", as Rick calls it.


I find myself becoming anxious and wanting to increase the mileage, like, NOW........Not like I could DO 10 miles tomorrow, but I want to start. I don't know why, I guess I'm just itching for the longer distances, since it IS a marathon, and it IS over 26 (don't forget the .2!) miles.....how is "only" running 5 miles going to help? I know, I know, it's rhetorical. I know the answer, I'm just throwing the question out there.


I think next week will be good in the sense that we're changing directions on the path, so a change of scenery will be welcome. However, J will be at Sea World in wonderful San Diego, so I must toe the line alone on this one. We'll see what happens.

After that we're going to start doing hills- so we'll run Sabino Canyon a few times.


Not familiar with Tucson? (The 520, as I like to call it) Check out Sabino Canyon at:
http://www.sabinocanyon.com/index.htm

It's 3.7 miles out and back (so, I guess it's more like 7.4), and it's a wonderful place- so beautiful and ALIVE. There was some flash flood damage from last year's monsoon season and it was closed for a long time, so I'm eager to return.


Yes.....Arizona has monsoons and flash floods. We get regular rain from June-August, so don't give me that "It's a dry heat" crap. Come visit me mid-July through late August. We'll see what's dry, because it certainly won't be you. :)


And not marathon related, but something else that's near and dear to me: Marching Band!

Last week was band camp for the Pride of Arizona, the University of Arizona's marching band. I was in it for four years, 2001-2004, and I miss it a lot. In fact, it's always this time of year that I start dreaming about it too. Like the other night, I dreamt that we were performing for the president and I couldn't find my music and plume (you know, those big feathery things on the hats [also known as a shako, and Todd wants his back]).....



Marching band kids (I can say "kids" now, I graduated!) work so hard. At the U of A, they easily put in 20-25 hours a week for 1 class credit. Practice from 3-6 MW, 3-10 on Friday, 8-noon on Saturday, then back on campus at 5 or so for a game, then they *might* get home before 11. Maybe. But they love it, *I* loved it. I still do and always will.



I am lucky enough to be with someone who understands this- he was a drummer on the snare line at U of A (not an easy feat- tryouts are killer), but as irony would have it, we didn't know each other then- we met after we'd both graduated from college. Anyway- he gets the need to stop by that final night rehearsal of band camp and see the show so far. He gets needing to go by the warm up drills before a game. Everybody who was ever in this marching band gets it.



So, on that note, I leave you with the cheer of the trombone section in the Pride of Arizona.

"Don't stop, get it get it!"

A small note about Comments

I've fiddled around with my comment settings.

If you aren't a member of Blogspot, you can still leave a comment, just do it as anonymous and then sign your name in the comment. :)

I've also changed it so that comments don't have to wait to be moderated by me, they'll just appear instantly, so you can see if yours posted or not. Instant gratification!

Hope everyone has a great Sunday.

I have a feeling today is going to involve some chores. Ugh.