Women problems.... hrumph!

My Saturday morning 10 mile run left a lot to be desired. We ran Shawnee Mission Park loop again which is more like 9.5 miles (2x around), but I did it and smoothly 2 weeks ago. Yesterday though, our coaches told us to push ourselves a little, so Sarah and I started out a bit faster than usual and even though I was breathing a little heavier than usual I felt like it was a pace I could handle. About half a mile from the finish of the first loop I got cramps like you wouldn't believe. My lower abdomen felt like it had been filled with lead and it made my legs really hard to move and breathing became a chore.

So the second loop I told Sarah to go ahead without me because I know how much keeping pace and running the whole thing means to her and I didn't want to slow her training down. So she went on ahead and the mentor that I ran with the last time I did this loop stayed with me and walk/jogged the second loop. I want to say we jogged a little over a third of the second loop and walked the rest. That means I ran about 3/4 of the entire thing. While I wish it had been better, I'm proud that I got the miles in and worked through the loveliness that is being a woman.

After I finished I ran by the nearby waldo-mart (wal-mart... Justin and I like to call it waldo-mart and I will refer to it that way from now on.) and picked up a bag of ice. I then took my second ice bath, which for some reason was a lot colder than the first, and Justin sat with me and told me when my time was up. After the ice bath was a luke-warm rinse in the shower and off to a nearby busy street corner to boot-block with my other Nike team members.

It went really well. The 12 of us managed to collect almost $1000 in about 2 hours. Each of us will get about $80. The Nike team will be there every Saturday after trainings and I think I am going to join them for quite a few. I'm definitely not done fundraising. I have reached the minimum I need to get to participate in the Marathon, but there is no limit on raising money to helping those in need.

Please visit my fundraising website and donate if you haven't already. Tell everyone you know. You might be surprised by how many people blood cancers have affected, I know I have been.