Something Exciting To Share!

With kick-off just around the corner for my season with TNT, we are starting to get emails about different things. When I saw the email at work, I didn't have too much time to read it so I just read it within the last 30 minutes. It is nice to read little check-ins from different people every now and then. One of the major things I noticed in the list was a little mention of the top 3 fundraisers. With the help of you all I am number 2! As of this afternoon I hit $1,373 with the help of Phil! We are $102 from hitting the half way mark! I'd love to reach that by New Year's Day!

This is a first! I've never been in the top 3!

We also got to meet our honored hero! The honored hero is who the team will run for as a whole. I'm excited to share that with you all. Her name is Tracy. She's 27. That's just 2 years older than me & she is going through more than anyone ever should. She will be spending her New Year's getting transplants, while the rest of us are already hating our resolutions. You can check out her story below.

Tracy

Remember there is still time to donate & have a tax deduction for this year. Any amount can help people like Tracy. If you can't think of what to get someone for Christmas, donating to a charity in their honor is a great idea! If you would like to donate directly to me you can do so through this link:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/nikewhlf13/nnew5066

I've Been Missing...

...from the blog.

Holidays in retail are time consuming. Holidays in general are time consuming. Holidays stress me out. If you meet me during this time you'll hear "I hate Christmas" more than once before you leave. Fitting in exercise is even more stressful. I've been doing a Holiday Squat-A-Thon for the month of December. Today I did 185 for missing yesterday. There's a couple of 100 squats a day coming up. Squats don't really bother me much. I'm surprised I haven't felt it more afterwards.

Onto where I've been the past few days...

Thursday I helped a friend paint & do some stuff around his new house. Before I drove close to the end of the world (aka Plymouth), I met up with a friend to stop at Target. Our work adopted a family to give Christmas presents too. I like this part of Christmas. Helping people who need it more than you means a whole lot more than just junk you get from family. (Yes I said junk!) I'm happy that I got to participate in making 4 kids Christmases special.

Friday was my other day off last week. I decided I would be in a positive mood all day. No one was going to ruin it! I went to Wompatuck to run. I ran and ran and then ran some more. After a few near death experiences I made my way back into the park & to my car. I learned my lesson to stay off the roads near there. People are crazy! I ended up doing a little more than 10 miles. I felt like it should have been at least 5 more, but I guess not. As I ran I thought of how hungry I was & how I should of brought win snacks. Then I thought about how when I got home I'd blog about how crazy drivers are. (Remember I almost got killed multiple times.) when I got myself situated at my car I noticed a text from a friend saying something about shooting. I mean I just was in the woods/risking my life on roads. When he told me a little more about it, I couldn't believe it. Then I heard it on the radio. Then I got home to see it on the tv. I decided we'll before I got home to forget my positive attitude that day. I'm not going to go into what happened or what's wrong with the laws or any of that. I still feel sad about it. I will leave it at that.

Today being my only day off means I had to do stuff that I didn't necessarily want to do. I went to the gym. I've gone once in like 3 months. I clearly need a gym buddy STAT! The weather has been crappy & seems to be staying that way. The marathon is coming up way too soon. I'm way underprepared. I just want to finish this marathon & get on with the half in DC. I have a lot of respect for people who do marathons consistently. You guys kick ass!

I'll be letting you guys know about a TNT event soon. And another fundraiser. Hopefully both before Christmas.

Until then...

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder?

I've been a little distant. Working in retail during the holiday season will do that to ya. Plus I can't access a blog post on my iPad.

I did a long run last Monday. I know why haven't I done one since then? I haven't been off of work since then. I'll be back out there on Thursday before helping a friend paint around his house. Okay back to Monday. I ran 10.1 miles. It was long, but not close to the 26.2 I need to accomplish in a month. (AHHHHHHHH!) I went to Wompatuck State Park in Hingham, MA. You can do a lot in there. I ran for myself, not for a time, not for a distance, but just for me. There was some running on trails which slowed me down. I also brought my camera along with me. Running in Disney means taking photos, so I might as well try it out. I kept around a 14 minute pace which is fine with me. A muscle has been taking a toll on me. It's annoying & I hate it. That run was the first time running with my Bondi Band. I wrote about these in my last post (or 2 posts ago). Growing my hair out is annoying. It's not long enough to pull back, but its not short enough to leave alone. I pulled my hair back, put it on, & ran. I didn't have to keep adjusting it. It stayed put. It was great. I was definitely a giant plus. Even when I took it off after the run my hair looked okay enough to go into the post office.

The print of my Bondi Band.

I have some Bondi Bands still for sale as a fundraiser for TNT if you are interested. I have the pink with white polka dots, the plain aqua, the purple print, the black with the pink tiara, the pink that says "Powered by Pixie Dust", & the black one that says "Mirror mirror on the wall who's the fastest of them all".

By donating $10, you can receive one band.
By donating $16, you can receive two bands.

To get a band for yourself just donate to my fundraising page:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/nikewhlf13/nnew5066

In the comments you can let me know that it is for the Bondi Band fundraiser. 

Hopefully by my next post I'll have much more to share with everyone.

The Week That Was Nothing

So I haven't run since my last post. Yeah I know. I'm feeling a little discouraged. Okay, a lot discouraged. I don't know if I'll be able to do this marathon. I'm kind of stressed about it. I'm feeling nervous about raising money all over again too. I mean I've raised over 40% in a little over a month. Being hard on myself again.

In other news I started to fundraise with Bondi Bands. If you never heard of a Bondi Band its okay I hadn't either until the first time I went to Disney for Marathon Weekend. It's a wicking headband. The ladies love them! (Lady runners that is!) They can also act as ear warmers. (Stand outside at 4 am waiting for the start of a race. It's cold!) I've sold 4 so far & I have someone else wanting to buy 2. I'm going to buy one also. (Yes I will donate to myself!) So make that 7, no 8 I have being taken. One more I have for someone else! I've done pretty well on that now that I think of it. :-) There might be another order going through soon. :-)

Tomorrow I'm going to force myself to run. It will be in the 50s so I think I can do it. Hopefully I get myself together!

This will be my cheer up for this week.

Animals make everyday better!

A Run & an Accessory

Yesterday I ran. I ran 13.32 miles in fact. I felt like it was longer, but I guess not. I had a normal running experience, except with a new accessory. (I'm a girl & we love accessories!)

For about a year I've been trying to figure out good headphones for working out in. Of course there are way too many to figure it out. I've been staring at the Yurbuds for awhile. I saw people return them or other people say they are just too big to fit in my ear. So I've been hesitant. Then I saw during the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, they released Yurbuds specifically for woman. I was intrigued by this. Then they released the info that they would only sell at Target stores or Target online. The price tag? $29.99! A steal! I still went back & forth with the decision. Even looking at them in store, but walking away in the end with nothing. Yesterday morning I spent a little bit reading honest reviews on blogs. I then decided I'm going to get them. I got a pair of purple ones & decided that my long run would be my trial for them.

They come with 2 different size inserts. (I kept the smaller ones on.) At first they felt different because they don't go all the way into your ear like other earbuds do. I plugged in my iPod & off I went. Almost 3 hours later I returned home & could not have been happier! I didn't have to play with them in the middle of my run. I could hear my music perfectly as well as everything else going on around me! (That is important if you're going to be running on the street & are not looking to be killed by a car.) The fact that I could forget they were there was impressive, especially with my piercings.

I have both tragi pierced, which makes it hard to wear earbuds sometimes.

My ear didn't even hurt afterwards!

I highly suggest these earbuds! They come in 6 colors.

Aqua, Orange, Yellow, Green, Pink, & Purple

You can get them at your local Target or at Target online. And they are only $29.99! (Look at the price for other headphones specified for exercise. Don't be surprised to see almost $100 for a lot of them!)

What do you listen to when you run?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is about being thankful for what you have, the people in your life, and helping others. Or about planning your Black Friday chaos for the next morning. I do not think any sale is worth sitting in the cold for 6 hours and risking your own life. (Sorry Mom!) This year it did seem pretty straight forward. By the time I woke up everyone was home and done with their shopping. So back to Thanksgiving.

For the half with TNT I made a goal to raise at least $1,000 by December 1. On November 1, with the help of 2 friends, I hit $1,025! I was really thankful for everyone who had donated so far. I still have a ways to go with fundraising, but I'm feeling much better about it.

I started my Thanksgiving at 5 am getting ready to run with Sean & Stan. Sean picked me up at 6 & we began our journey to Plymouth. After an experience at Dunkin Donuts, we got on the highway & soon we were in Plymouth. The 3 of us did something called the Second Helping Challenge. We did a 4.77 mile run throughout downtown Plymouth first then moved to the Pinehills for a 5k. It was fun. Even those hills downtown was an experience. We all finished. We all got medals. We even all placed in our age groups! (Sean coming in 3rd!)

After the Turkey Trot. We just have another 5k to do. No big deal.

From Plymouth I headed home to shower & change for "dinner". This year my uncle & his husband came home from NYC so we went out to eat. It was good. We all got turkey. (No surprise there!) Then we went back to my grandmother's house to eat more dessert. Yum! After watching too much Family Feud & Cash Cab we went off to the movies. We saw Lincoln. It was really good. It's long so make sure you don't eat too much turkey & haven't been up since 5 am without a nap first.

Being Black Friday, I'm off to work now! Remember to be nice to the sales people & other shoppers. No deal is worth being treating others poorly.

A Run Meet-up & A Football Game

A few weeks ago I met with my TNT campaign coordinator, Whitney, before work. We were meeting to talk about fundraising & just to getting to know each other. She had mentioned that the Team going to Disney for Marathon Weekend were holding a run meet-up in Lexington for the grand re-opening of the Greater Boston Running Company (or GBRC for short). So I checked my work schedule & saw that I had the day off so I said that I would go. I go in my car at 6:15 am & drove about an hour to Lexington. I was nervous getting there because I had never done a meet-up before, but figured it was a good way to get to know other people who were going to Disney in January, as well as other TNT members. I ended up running with 2 women who were going to Disney. One was doing the Goofy Challenge & the other was doing the half. For those reading this & saying "What the heck is the Goofy Challenge!?!" let me explain. On Saturday these runners get up hours before the sun to run the half marathon. The next day they do it again to run the full marathon! You get a special medal for doing both. You can also spot these people out of a crowd. They are limping & in pain, but smiling the whole time. They will usually wear all 3 medals the rest of Sunday so you can hear them before you see them. (FYI-the medals are not light. I've read that wearing them is worse then the pain from running!)

Look at those medals!

Anyways one woman & I did 6 miles so we split off from the woman doing the Goofy Challenge & headed by to the GBRC. It was really nice to run with someone (which I normally do not do) & talk about whatever we wanted. In the end, we did 6.22 miles. For the first time ever I ran 2.5 miles without stopping. The longest I ever did was 2 miles & said never again. (I'm a big promoter of the run/walk method.)

After I left Lexington I was then en route to meet my friend Chris for the Harvard-Yale football game.

If you know me personally, you know I'm not a football fan. I actually hate it. So this was a strange day for me all around. I parked at the Cambridgeside Galleria & took the train to Harvard. (I also can't parallel park, so I need a parking garage to get me through. Especially when weekend pricing is $3.99!)  I met up with Chris & we walked throughout Harvard before heading over to the game. After eating a hot dog (which was better than we could ever imagine and way cheaper than anywhere else!) we went to sit down. I critiqued most of the stuff that doesn't matter too much. (Like how Harvard cheerleaders kind of suck. Sorry!) We left before the end of the game to get some late lunch/early dinner & to beat the crowd out. Harvard did beat Yale. (Go team!) We ended up taking silly pictures in Harvard.

Chris & I in front of the John Harvard statue.

We may have went into a classroom & wrote on the chalkboard (there may or may not be pictures of this.) Before leaving Harvard Square we made our way to Pinkberry. We then went our separate ways to our homes. I was exhausted by the end of it & had a long day at work the next day.

I guess the next time I write it'll be about Thanksgiving & the Second Helping Challenge.

Stay tuned!

My Life as a Runner (So Far)

A few years ago I thought running was crazy. Living just outside of Boston means every April people from all over the world show up to run 26.2 miles. A few years ago I went into Boston with my ex & we watched a little of the marathon. I saw people of all ages running this race. It made me think about how some of these people were 3x as old as I was! I couldn't run a mile. I wouldn't even think about it! So it was right then that I decided if they can do 26.2 miles I surely can do a 5k! (Then I probably questioned how long a 5k was.) I then signed up to do the 5k during the 2010 Disney Marathon Weekend. I had a friend doing the half so I would have a roommate & supporter. (I still though she was crazy running 13.1 miles.) A 5k was pretty easy. Not a huge deal, but it was an accomplishment for me.

Here we are at the finish!

It was a few months later that I thought I want to accomplish 7 things before I turn 30. (Being 23 that gave me 1 accomplishment a year.) I said I wanted to do a half marathon and a full marathon. I even thought I was crazy during this time.

Rewind to this past January. I found myself back in Disney World during Marathon Weekend. I had a full weekend of running. On Friday morning I was standing alone in the dark and cold waiting for the 5k to begin. I was not worried about this by any means. It was the rest of the weekend that was scary to me. The next day I was running my first half marathon. Could I do this? Was I crazy? I can remember getting out of the Magic Kingdom thinking people who do this all the time are crazy. I don't want to do this ever again. I finished. It may have taken me 3:21:55, but I finished. I was excited & proud of myself. I could feel my right knee getting sore, so after a little while I chose to go back to the hotel to ice it before meeting up my mom & our friends for fun in the Magic Kingdom. On Sunday I was awake at around 3 am again to be part of the Marathon Relay. I knew I was in trouble though. My left knee was in a lot of pain. (Yes left knee which was fine the day before!) I was okay walking on so I figured I needed to just warm up a little bit. I was runner #2 during the relay, so I got to go through the Animal Kingdom & Disney Hollywood Studios before returning to Epcot for the finish. Even though we had to be at the runner #2 area at the same time as the first runner, we spent a couple hours just sitting around in a parking lot. I was really nervous for this half marathon. After finding Andrea (my relay partner) I was off on another 13.1 miles. I tried to do a run-walk ratio of 1 minute running, 2 minute walking. I knew I wouldn't be able to do this. I tried 30 seconds of running, 2 minutes of walking. Still I could not do this. I was getting discouraged big time. I even thought about quitting more than I would like to admit during the entire thing. I knew I couldn't let myself or Andrea down though! Being the second runner & being towards the beginning of the pack of marathoners was a little nerve racking. I mean here I was walking! Even when I had a few miles left I wanted to quit. Around the Beach Club I got the push I needed for a complete stranger. Behind my sunglasses were tears & thoughts of failure. I just happened to look at this complete stranger. She looked at me & gave me a thumbs up with a head nod. That was it. It was what I needed to finish. After forcing myself to run to the finish line I did finish. There may have been tears, but I did it! Fast forward 3:38:54 I was getting my medal & hobbling to the bus while calling my mom saying I need ice & lunch meet me in the lobby! I said I would never do that again. Goal accomplished. Then I signed up for the Disney Marathon. My training hasn't been awesome, but I'm not scared of a half marathon now. I'm working towards it. I'm listening to my body & getting support by people I never thought possible.

A weekend of running!

This blog isn't just about my story towards completing a marathon, but my story of doing another half marathon for a reason. I'm running the Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC with Team in Training. Raising money is scary to me then any amount of miles. Here I am helping other people. The official training hasn't really begun yet, but I will be meeting some other members on Saturday as they prepare for the Disney Marathon! I'll fill you in on what Team in Training is. Team in Training works with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. By signing up for an endurance event you are also raising money that goes directly to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. For this half marathon I have pledged to raise $2,900. I have already raised $775 thanks to generous friends, family, & co-workers. Any donation amount to any cause is helpful. I know $1 doesn't seem like a lot, but If 100 people all donated $1 that would equal $100. That helps more than we think about.

If you would like to donate to my cause here is the link:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/nikewhlf13/nnew5066

I will also be holding fundraising events over the next couple of months. Keep an eye out for that.