What what! (Spoken like a true white girl)

This morning started off a little shaky. I got to the park at 5:20am and it was so dark that I just sat in my car thinking, "I can't run in an empty park in the dark. That's just asking for trouble". Then I saw a clan of GIGANTIC possums waddling across the field and thought, no freaking way am I going out there. So at 5:40 when the sky was a touch lighter, I climbed out of my car and started the loop I had mapped out in reverse because the second half was along a main street and that was well lit. By the time I got around to the park half, it was light outside and there were several other walkers/runners/bikers/soccer players.

The run itself was AWESOME! I had a super steady pace, I felt great for most of it and at the end when I was getting tired, I just told myself repeatedly how well I was doing. In the end, it took me 2hrs and 50min to do 14.25 miles and 10min of that time was fuel/water stops. So if I do the math I did approx. a 11min 15sec mile steadily.

Throughout the whole thing, the strangest thing happened to me. The temperature was decent, though the air was muggy, and I was drenched from sweat, but my entire upper body including my scalp was covered in goosebumps. The hair on my arms were sticking straight up even though I was hot and dripping with sweat. My mom says that means that my body is working correctly and my sweat is cooling my skin, but it was so strange.

My mind raced with thoughts the entire time because I decided not to take my ipod since I don't use it for regular trainings. I thought about everything from different ways to wear my hair, to if I have everything packed for tomorrow, to what I would say in this blog. It made the time pass pretty quickly.

I am so proud of my run today. I ran by the waldo-mart on the way back to get some chocolate milk and ice. Then I promptly made myself an ice-bath, but I should have gotten more ice because my body melted the ice within 10 minutes of getting in. I drank my chocolate milk and talked on the phone with my sister while I was soaking and let myself run on the high that I had run the entire 14 miles and at a good pace.

Unfortunately, the high came to a crashing low after a horrible interviewing process with a company that I should never have bothered wasting my time with. But I have decided that even though I lost 4 hours of my day and was frustrated, it can't even touch my excitement at what I accomplished this morning.

Thank you for sharing this triumphant moment with me. It means a lot to me that I am not on my own. But I also remember that while this is a big moment for me, it is also for something so much bigger than me. Please spread my achievements with friends and help me raise money to save lives!

Public does not mean you can dominate!

I decided to do my 3 mile this morning instead of yesterday because I am doing the 14 mile on my own on Thursday and I didn't want to do my short runs on Mon/Wed and then my long run the next day. So I will stretch tomorrow and then do my long run this Thursday since I am leaving for ITALY! on Friday.

Anyway, back to this morning. I went on my run about 8am which is way too late to be running in this heat. I will start my long run at either 5 or 5:30. My small loop goes through a public park near my place where apparently at 8am a running camp for kids starts. So halfway through my run I am tripping over kids who are either a) zooming past me cause they are doing sprints, b) walking the loop as a group therefore making a blockade across the path, or c) walking back and forth across the path from the field to the picnic tables where their water is. While I understand that it is not my path and it does not need to be cleared for my goddess-like presence, I do feel that the camp counselors should talk to the kids about path courtesy, such as not forming a blockade and looking at the path before crossing it to make sure they don't cut somebody off. I feel like this is not too much to ask.

Off my rant though, today was a decent run except for the kids. I went a touch faster than usual and even though it was hot I felt good. I'm hoping that if I start early on Thursday, then that run will go well too. After my run, I went to Tae Kwondo where I got an EXCELLENT workout in. We really worked on our forms which works every muscle in my body and leaves me winded. I am proud to say that my step-jump-sidekick is starting to look really awesome. Unfortunately, my high-low switch block still has a booty shake going on.

I got a couple more checks in the mail for my fundraising and I am still waiting on one of my larger donations that was promised to me. I am thinking of doing a dinner event. I need to speak with the owner of the restaurant who is a relative of mine. I think it could be a big event if I do it right. I feel a little greedy fundraising like this when others haven't hit their minimum. I also realize it is charity so it is hard to call it greedy, but that is how I feel.

Thanks for following and share my stories with others and help fight blood-related cancers!! Come back on Thursday to see how my first 14 miles on my own goes!

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.