Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Where are we running to?
One of my very best friend's Angie, met with me for breakfast this past Sunday and we were of course talking about my training with TNT. She said, "You know when I see people running, or meet people who are runners, I am always tempted to ask: Where are you running to?" She was talking about the drive, the addiction to running that avid runners often talk about. Well, I haven't figured that out yet. I mean during training we run around the park...IN CIRCLES!! So...yeah. I wish I knew. The head coach says that the first 5-6 weeks of training will suck, and then it gets worse! Way to sell it coach! Actually, I am getting the feeling that it will get better. Somehow, someway I have convinced myself I can do this. That is, of course, until Jason printed out the map of the course we will be running in SanDiego-NOT HELPFUL! We have to run a LONG WAYS! And let us not forget it is in San Diego. Not NYC. Therefore, I HAVE to fininsh the run. If I stop at anytime I won't know where I am! And thank goodness there will be other people running it ( THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE, mind you) so I guess that makes it easier to know where we are running to...I hope. What am I thinking!!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Al Gordon Snowflake 4 mile Race
My first day of group training and guess what? We have to run a race!!! That's right. The head marathon coach Ramone, said he wanted us to do the race to pracitce what it's like to run with lots of people. Cool, I guess. I mean so far all I have done is run on a treadmill for my training, and even that is an overstatement. With the warm spell we were having this past week, I figured it wouldn't be too bad. But you know how the weather is: never like the weather guy says it'll be. In fact it's, 20 degrees outside! GAH!!! I have on my dance pants (I don't have running pants, yet), a sports top, a dry fit longsleeve shirt, the race shirt, my TNT shirt, a fleece, a puffy jacket, a scarf, a hat, gloves and for extra warmth those pants you put on over your clothes-they make that swishy sound when you walk and have zippers at the ankles so you can take them off over your shoes. About 10 mins before we start the race, coach tells us to strip down to what we are running in. That's funny, I am planning on running in all of the above. My toes are frozen and I can't feel my fingertips, how am I going to decide what to take off?? So coach suggests that I lose the puffy jacket and the over pants. It's a hard deal, but I do it. In fact I am glad I did. About 1/2 mile into the race I am HOT-can you believe it, hot!! Well, that is until we turn a corner and the wind takes my breath away. Man I could have used some carmex on my lips!
By the end of the first mile, my lungs are burning, my nose is running and my tounge is freezing to solid ice in my mouth from mouth breathing. YUCK! Why do people do this???
Then I remembered what coach Ramon had said, somewhere in one of his novel length emails, to take it in what you are doing: running with hundreds of people in Central park!! He was right. I took a look around, and it was incredible. I think it's how I managed to run the entire race. I mean save for walking up to get water at re-hydration tables. The cups of water were frozen, so you had to squish it hard in your hand, or poke a hole in the first layer of ice to get the water out. But as I said, and this really is what I am most proud of: I RAN all 4 MILES!! My time: 42min. A little long, but for someone who is not a runner, pretty darn good-if I may say so! Best of all our TNT teammates hung out and cheered us on at the 3/4 mile mark and about the last 3/4 mile mark. What a great feeling to hear others who know you cheering you on. We should have that for everyday life. It would certainly make getting out of bed and going to work a LOT easier for everybody!
By the end of the first mile, my lungs are burning, my nose is running and my tounge is freezing to solid ice in my mouth from mouth breathing. YUCK! Why do people do this???
Then I remembered what coach Ramon had said, somewhere in one of his novel length emails, to take it in what you are doing: running with hundreds of people in Central park!! He was right. I took a look around, and it was incredible. I think it's how I managed to run the entire race. I mean save for walking up to get water at re-hydration tables. The cups of water were frozen, so you had to squish it hard in your hand, or poke a hole in the first layer of ice to get the water out. But as I said, and this really is what I am most proud of: I RAN all 4 MILES!! My time: 42min. A little long, but for someone who is not a runner, pretty darn good-if I may say so! Best of all our TNT teammates hung out and cheered us on at the 3/4 mile mark and about the last 3/4 mile mark. What a great feeling to hear others who know you cheering you on. We should have that for everyday life. It would certainly make getting out of bed and going to work a LOT easier for everybody!
Friday, February 23, 2007
Let the running begin!!
Hi!
So if you are viewing my blog right now, that means you know all about how I am training with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training(TNT) to run a the "Rock n' Roll" Marathon in San Diego, CA this June. You also know, that in doing this, I am rasising $4,000 for the Society's mission to cure blood cancers. Thank you for checking out my blog, where I will wax on about my training and experiences leading up to San Diego!
I want to talk about how I came to do this. Well, a friend, Megan McCourt, has been doing 100 mile bike rides with TNT for awhile. By now I would estimate she has raised over $10,000 alone! Her motivation came when she lost her fiance during 9/11. He was doing the 100mile bike races with TNT in honor of a family member that was diagnosed with Leukemia. Without hesitation, she picked up where he left off to continue his work and honor his memory. Amazing! She had been after me to get a bike and join her. My excuse was that when I was about 10, I flew over the handle bars of my bike so fast that I scraped the BACK of my hands. She didn't buy it.
A short time later, I was thinking about her amazing work. It really made me consider what I could do. My first step was to become a patient-to-patient volunteer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During this process, my volunteer supervisor mentioned that she thought my passion would be well used to help raise funds for cancer research. That's when I started to really allow myself to open up to the idea that maybe I could do an event with TNT.
Two weeks ago while at church, our Associate Priest, Kate Flexer, who is an avid runner, encouraged me to check out TNT-in fact she said, "if you do it I will give you money." Talk about some incentive. Before I even check out what's involved, I have a donor!!!
The following Saturday, the first thing I did was look up the TNT website:
www.teamintraining.org. As it turned out, there was a "last chance meeting" on that Tuesday. Better yet, and perhaps a result of Divine Intervention, the NYC chapter of TNT is exactly one block from my work. How much of a sign do I need??
That's it. I told Jason what I was doing. He's response-I'm coming with you!
Now we are both on our way to raising a total of $8,000 and runnning 26.2 miles on June 3!!
Continue to read...the training begins!!!
So if you are viewing my blog right now, that means you know all about how I am training with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training(TNT) to run a the "Rock n' Roll" Marathon in San Diego, CA this June. You also know, that in doing this, I am rasising $4,000 for the Society's mission to cure blood cancers. Thank you for checking out my blog, where I will wax on about my training and experiences leading up to San Diego!
I want to talk about how I came to do this. Well, a friend, Megan McCourt, has been doing 100 mile bike rides with TNT for awhile. By now I would estimate she has raised over $10,000 alone! Her motivation came when she lost her fiance during 9/11. He was doing the 100mile bike races with TNT in honor of a family member that was diagnosed with Leukemia. Without hesitation, she picked up where he left off to continue his work and honor his memory. Amazing! She had been after me to get a bike and join her. My excuse was that when I was about 10, I flew over the handle bars of my bike so fast that I scraped the BACK of my hands. She didn't buy it.
A short time later, I was thinking about her amazing work. It really made me consider what I could do. My first step was to become a patient-to-patient volunteer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. During this process, my volunteer supervisor mentioned that she thought my passion would be well used to help raise funds for cancer research. That's when I started to really allow myself to open up to the idea that maybe I could do an event with TNT.
Two weeks ago while at church, our Associate Priest, Kate Flexer, who is an avid runner, encouraged me to check out TNT-in fact she said, "if you do it I will give you money." Talk about some incentive. Before I even check out what's involved, I have a donor!!!
The following Saturday, the first thing I did was look up the TNT website:
www.teamintraining.org. As it turned out, there was a "last chance meeting" on that Tuesday. Better yet, and perhaps a result of Divine Intervention, the NYC chapter of TNT is exactly one block from my work. How much of a sign do I need??
That's it. I told Jason what I was doing. He's response-I'm coming with you!
Now we are both on our way to raising a total of $8,000 and runnning 26.2 miles on June 3!!
Continue to read...the training begins!!!
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