Back in Business

After the knee pain and a plateau in fundraising, I finally feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things on both fronts.

I ran 9 miles Saturday morning - slower than usual, but a good way to ease back in. And after all, it's a marathon not a race - the point is to make it through all 26.2 miles!

Then I spent a lot of time this weekend re-energizing my fundraising campaign - less than $1,000 to go now! I sent out reminder emails and postcards, updated my fundraising website and planned for the Creative Memories party I'm having this weekend. (leave me a comment if you'd like to come!) I got my first donation notification in a while today - so exciting! And it was from a former co-worker of mine who, as it turns out, is the daughter of a lymphoma survivor - awesome!

I'm off to bed now ... 4 am comes too soon...

No Pain, No Gain

Just as I was thinking I was indestructible .... it started with a little pain on the lower outside on my left knee cap. But it didn't hurt that bad, so I ran 10 miles on Saturday.

By Tuesday morning, it wasn't really hurting at all ... until I started running, but it went away after the first mile.... So I ran 6 miles with the team as the sun was coming up on Tuesday morning.

I was fine. ... until I stopped running. Then it hurt ... a lot.

I'm ok now - still a tiny bit a pain if I start walking too fast, but I've been icing it, resting it and massaging the muscle as much as I can. And I've learned my lesson ... listen to your body! I had to miss the run this morning which I was really bummed about - they went up to Millerton Lake and I had really been looking forward to that.

This morning at 4, when I got up to take the puppies out, I gave a second of thought to going to training, but I stopped myself... Because if I don't listen to my body now, I won't make it to the finish line on October 19th. And that's the real goal. It's a marathon, not a race ... in the big picture too.

TEN

I hit double digits yesterday - 10 miles. For some reason, that's a really big deal to me - I sort of feel like it removed any doubt that I can totally do this. I'm definitely feeling it today ... but that's ok - I ran ten miles : )

I always raised a bit of money yesterday with a Pampered Chef fundraising party - it was great. Thanks to all who came!

This week should be an adjustment - because of the heat, the coaches have moved our Tuesday/Thursday practices to 5am. Umm... yeah. I'm not a morning person. Here goes nothing..

Running Buddies in Training

Paul and I adopted two black lab puppies on Sunday. They are two and a half months old. Needless to say, it's been a long sleepless week. There are many things I am looking forward to as the puppies grow up - other than the obvious not peeing in the house thing. Namely, I am looking forward to having two awesome running buddies...

So I took them out for their first training tonight. We were supposed to run 4 miles to make up for the no training last night. So the plan was to take Bailey (girl dog) for a 2 mile loop around my neighborhood and then trade and take Blizz (boy dog) for a second 2 mile loop.

Bailey did pretty well except for her inability to run in a straight line, mostly because she was trying to lick my leg as we were running. She pooped out at about mile 1.5 though - I can't really blame her since it is like a million degrees outside. So I carried her for a bit and then she ran the last stretch home.

Blizz was a whole other story ... we got as far as the front yard before he decided he'd rather lay down on the front yard. It was like pulling teeth to get him down the street and back. He also went to a dead stand still any time he heard the slightest noise. Some guard dog!

Needless to say, I didn't get my 4 miles in, but I did have a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to the day that will come all too soon when these guys will be my favorite running buddies.

Eat Steak, Cure Cancer - TODAY at Tahoe Joe's!

If you're feeling hungry in the Fresno area today, please print this flier and take it to Tahoe Joe's. You can go to either location (Cedar & Herndon or Shaw & Marks) anytime today, even for take-out. As long as you give them this flier when you pay, 10% of the proceeds will go towards my fundraising efforts for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Thanks - I really appreciate it!

Almost double digits...

9.6 miles today! I ran mostly with my mentor, Lindsay, which was great - it takes a lot of good conversation to get through that many miles and she is a fun person to talk to. The set Level 1 mileage today was 7; Level 2 was 9 - we weren't quite sure where the turnaround point was so we ended up doing 9.6. I was so excited when Lindsay (who wears a GPS watch) told me how far we'd gone - that's almost 10! I was proud of myself today because I started off feeling pretty stiff and tired from the race yesterday and 4th of July binge-eating : )

Speaking of which, note to self - do not go grocery shopping for "a few things" right after a nearly 10 mile run. You will end up buying the whole store.

Race newbie no more!

I ran my first race today! The 4 mile Freedom Run at Woodward Park - It was a lot of fun - perfect weather and a fun atmosphere. I really haven't timed myself at all during this whole process so it was fun to find out we ran it in just under 40 minutes - that's a steady 10 minute mile! I will take that. Here are some pics:

My running buddy Angie and me at the Finish Line - we ran the whole thing together:

A bunch of my teammates with our honoree, Leukemia survivor Jenny Martinez standing next to me - how inspiring!

My mentor, Lindsay and me:

The practical benefits of endurance running

So we got robbed today. Literally. My husband came home from work to find two guys inside our house packing all of our valuables into our suitcases. Luckily they were more scared than he was and ran away only with my ipod and digital camera. My husband chased them for a block before stopping. In an effort to laugh through a really scary situation I told him if he were training for a marathon like me, he would have been able to catch them, saving my ipod and digital camera.

In all seriousness though, it was a scary day - but I still ended it with a 4 mile run!