Happy, happy birthday!

Today is my mom's 60th bday! Woo hoo!!! (Sorry mom for telling everyone your age... but it's a big milestone so be proud!!)

Happy Birthday... I Love You!!!

Tomorrow I'm off to San Diego for my race... I had a massage last night, and went for one last short run with Pam and I think I'm ready! Now I just need to actually pack! When I checked the weather it said that it's suppossed to be cool down there... which means I have no idea what to pack in terms of clothes! I can't pack summer clothes, and I can't pack winter clothes... I think that layers are the key.

THANK YOU ALL for the support (financial and otherwise) and well wishes! And THANK YOU Claudia and Rocky for coming down to cheer me on! Watch for a full race report next week!

Last Buddy Run

Last night was the last Buddy Run of the season, at least for those of us doing RNR San Diego. Since I hadn't made it out to a Buddy Run for so long, and since I didn't do my normal Monday night run, I decided to drive out there and do the run around the lake with my teammates!

It turned out that the same day I was all excited to go run with them, they wanted to skip the run and head to dinner instead! Just my luck! Thankfully a couple other people still wanted to run so I was able to get one loop around the lake in before I headed home! Tonight I have some laundry to do and I'll probably start packing a little-- Thursday I have a massage, run and the LOST finale to watch so I won't be getting much packing done then!!

Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat often

Saturday morning was our team's last real LONG run. This time it was the Bay Side's turn to host both the ST team and the East Bay Diablo Valley team. In Mill Valley the SF team was nice enough to schedule some gorgeous warm weather for us. We weren't so nice. We scheduled cold temperatures, lots of wind and even threw in some rain for good measure. That's how we roll in the East Bay. Huh.

Our crazy managers Tessa and Lindsay :)

I just realized it kinda looks like I have really saggy boobs in this pic... it's really just my arms folded under my sweatshirt. I swear :D

Ghetto talk aside, it was yucky out there :( Not the nicest way to start off a three day weekend, but for the most part it's ALWAYS been cold and overcast out in Berkeley on our long runs :( Great weather for running, not so much for standing around cheering. I was all bundled up, and even though I knew I was going to warm up, I couldn't bring myself to take off my sweatshirt, ear band and gloves. About a mile into my 6 mile run I WAS hot though and started peeling everything off. The run went well-- nice and short but just long enough to get the blood pumping. When I got back to the start I bundled up again and spent the rest of the morning eating all the potluck food and cheering in the other runners.

Finally warming up... the gloves and sweatshirt are off!

After the run I went home to shower and grab a quick nap before it was off to Brandy's for a BBQ. She had considered canceling the BBQ when she saw rain was in the forecast but I'm glad she didn't. It had warmed up just enough so that we could all sit outside, even though we all had long pants, sweaters and jackets on! If we got too chilly we could always just jump in the bouncy house for a mini, sweat inducing workout!

Sunday morning Rocky, Claudia and the dogs came to pick me up at 9:00am. They had invited me to go out to Granite Bay near Sac. to hang out at Rocky's brother's house with the Reyes clan. When we got there it was still a little chilly but around noon it started to warm up. It wasn't warm enough to go swimming in the pool, but it also wasn't warm enough to make us sweat out there in the sun, which was good. It was actually perfect sitting-outside-and-relaxing weather. We ate and drank ALL day, and I really mean ALL day-- from noon to midnight! We knew it was going to be a long day so we planned on spending the night in Granite Bay at their house. We woke up the next morning, had some breakfast, laid around reading the paper and magazines, and then headed back to the bay area (with a quick stop at L&L Hawaiian outside of Sac) :D I got home, took a nap and didn't do anything for the rest of the day!

Me and Patch chillin' in Granite Bay... look, he turns red just like me :D

All in all it was a really fun but busy weekend! Just the way a three day weekend should be!!

How rude!

Last night the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society staff organized a TNT alumni get together at Joe's in Lafayette. After running some errands (one of which included getting some new glasses... can you say expensive?!) I stopped by to hang out with some former TNTer's. There weren't a ton of people there, but we all managed to have a really good time. Joe's is a cute place, and they have a lot of live music during the week. (They also have a happy hour with some great food and drink prices... they even have LUMPIA!!!) Wednesday night is "Doo Wop" night and there was a band with three male vocalists. Man, they were good! They were incredible singers, and really worked the (small) crowd! Since there weren't a ton of people there, they spent a lot of time with us in the back-- they even let us sing into the mics a little. During one song that we were all singing along too, one of the singers who was standing next to me said, "Wow, you have a really low voice." Great, that's exactly what a girl wants to hear! :(

Class of 1998... GO BRONCOS!!!

14 years after first leaving Yuba City for college, and 10 years after graduating from Santa Clara University, I went back for my college reunion. I have a lot of really fond memories of college, especially my junior and senior years living in a house across the street from campus with 10 other girls. I don't know how we survived AND actually graduated!

I was a little nervous about going back for the reunion. While some of my old roommates have remained really good friends, I really hadn't seen many of them for a few years. I was nervous about how it'd be being back together, and also worried that some of the other people I'd see would actually remember me! Well, it ended up that I had nothing to worry about and I'm REALLY glad that I went. It was so nice to see the campus again, reconnect with some old friends, and relive a little bit of our college experience. :D

After the run on Saturday I came home, got ready and headed down to the South Bay. My old roomie Viv lives at Santana Row and her place was the party hub for the weekend. Everyone was meeting up at her place for a little pre-partying before we headed to the reunion dinner. I got to Santa Clara a little early, and decided to take a drive around campus, since I didn't think I'd have a chance to see much of it later. A lot of the campus looks the same... all the old hang outs I remember are still there... but there are a lot of new things too, including a GORGEOUS new library!

After a quick drive around (it's a small campus) I headed over to Santana Row to meet up with everyone else. The pre-partying had already started and I came just in time to jump in on a game of King's (an old card game we used to play in college). We spent some time hanging out and catching up more and then all got prettied for the reunion.

The reunion was held in the new Leavey athletic building. They had us one one side of the big gym area, and the 5 year reunion peeps on the other. They had tables set up, a bar, a dj and dance floor. The minute we walked up to the building we saw some old classmates that we recognized. Pretty much the rest of the night was spent hanging out by the bar catching up with people. There were some people there that I hadn't seen since my freshman year, and some that I'd seen a little more recently. Despite how long it had been since the last time I saw them, it seemed like just yesterday that we were all in school together! We joked, we laughed, and we basically fell into our old friendships. I was really surprised at how easy it was to do that!

Towards the end of the night we started hearing about a party that some of our guy classmates were having at a house nearby. Because Santa Clara is a pretty small town (even though it's right next door to San Jose) the party scene consists of mainly house parties. Most all Juniors and Seniors live off campus is houses around the school. Every weekend (well, almost every night actually) someone was throwing a party at their house. It was also a Santa Clara tradition to name the houses... some names change every year with the new residents but some house names have been around for years. The house I lived in was generally called Old Theta Chi because for years before we moved in it had been the Theta Chi fraternity house.

Whoops, I got sidetracked a little... So some of the guys had "rented" (basically paid the current residents to get lost for the night) their old house, Clubhouse, and were hosting a party there. Ahhh, just like old times. We all walked across campus in search of Clubhouse (none of us could remember where exactly it was). Along the way we walked by our old house on Market Street and had to stop and take a picture on the porch. We spent a lot of time on that porch, and took a lot of pictures there to commemorate dances, parent weekends, graduation. Of course we had to take a pic to commemorate the reunion. I don't think we made the current residences very happy... one girl came out to tell us that people were sleeping (ummm, it was only midnight... what college student is sleeping then!) and then slammed the door! Oh well, we got a cute picture. :D

Once we got to Clubhouse we only spent a little bit of time there. I think were are all getting a little tired, and hungry, so after awhile we called a cab and headed back to Viv's place. She fed us and offered to let me stay the night on her couch (a VERY good idea :D). I conked out in my dress, and then woke up about 6:00am the next morning, got up and drove home so I could get some more sleep in my bed :D

All in all it was a fantastic reunion and I'm really glad that I went. Hopefully it won't be another 10 years before I see everyone again!! I'll add some more pictures once people send them to me :D

Big Baby

After my 10 year college reunion this last weekend, I came to the realization that while I might be able to party like I did in college, I can't recover like I did back then :( I'll update more on the reunion festivities later!

Saturday before I left for Santa Clara I went out to the Mentor Led Run in Alameda. We didn't start the run until 8:00, which was probably not the best idea considering how warm HOT it's been! BUT, Alameda is always a little cooler, especially out there along the water, so I figured we'd be fine. Especially me since I was only doing 6 miles. :D Once I started running though I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty run. It was hot from the get go, and the slight breeze didn't really much. I decided about a mile into the run that I was only going to do 4 miles instead of 6. I ran out to the bridge, and then started back. I took a couple of walk break (how sad is that) and stopped to talk for awhile to Mentor Tori who was "sweeping" the course on her bike. Have I mentioned what a baby I am running in the heat? I hung around the finish line for a little while and cheered people in, but I left before everyone was in so I could run a couple of errands, grab some food and then get ready for the reunion!

Sunday morning I drove back to WC and went straight to bed (after popping a couple of Aleve and 2 Pepto Bismol). A few hours later I dragged my poor hungover self out of bed, grabbed some food (ugg, not such a good idea) and then headed out to Pt. Isabel for Ms. Daisy's 1st bday party :D I was running a little late and missed the cake eating, but made it in time to join all the doggies and their parents for a long walk. When I left WC it was hot... not so at Pt. Isabel-- the wind was whipping around! The doggies and humans had a good time (except for a little doggie scuffle at the end of the walk) and Daisy looked very pretty in her party dress!

Fat boy Patch got a little lazy towards the end of the walk :D

"Hot, Sticky, Nasty Uncomfortable"

That's not just what I feel like, that's actually a quote from a weather forecaster about what the weather's like right now! Seriously, what is up with the extreme heat! Even for warm California, we're having some unseasonable super high temperatures. I read on SFGate today that "It was a full 11 degrees hotter in Oakland than it has ever been on any May 15 in the recorded history of planet Earth, the weather service said." That's just plain crazy!

Because of this crazy heat, I haven't really been doing much the past few days-- just trying to stay cool. Monday night before it started warming up I met with Pam and Amy in Danville for our regular Monday night run. When we started out Amy said that if we slowed down enough to match her pace for the beginning of the run, then once we got to Sycamore Valley we had her permission to take off :D Amy kept us running at a not-all-that-slow pace until Sycamore Valley and then she let Pam and I take off. Because she'd been going a little faster than normal for her, we actually kept pace with her until we reached the trail. At that point she took a walk break and told us to go ahead. That only lasted until the stop light when she caught up with us again :D It was a good run, and I was just happy that the heat hadn't hit yet!

Tuesday I spend the evening catching up on all the TV I had missed over the weekend and past few days. I LUV TiVo :D I watched Desperate Housewives, Brothers & Sisters, Gossip Girl, Keeping up with the Kardashians (yes, I admit I like that show!) and The Hills!

Wednesday Claudia and I got together for a former roomie date :D Since she had been on vacation, we hadn't see each other in what seemed like FOREVER so we met up for some drinks and dinner. We went to this new wine bar in Walnut Creek called Artisan. They had really yummy sangria, and I also tried a "flight" of some white wines. Since we had only eaten a little bread and cheese, we decided to go to Pyramid for dinner. We sat outside on their back patio (And was it still super hot then? YEP!) and each had a salad and a beer while we listened to some live music. It was a fun evening :D

Last night Lindsay and I had planned to do a repeat of last Thursday and go for a 6 mile run together since Pam couldn't do our usual Thurs. run. I had told Linds at the beginning of the week that if it was too hot I didn't want to run, but I'd be okay walking. She called me a wimp, I agreed, but once she felt how hot it was yesterday, even in SF where she works, she had no qualms about calling off our workout :D Instead I make us a pasta salad and some chicken, we drank wine and watched 27 Dresses in my comfy air conditioned apartment! I MUCH better way of spending the evening in my opinion!!

Mother's Day Surprise!

The plan was hatched about a month ago... I was trying to figure out something special I could do for my mom for Mother's Day and her birthday, which is at the end of the month when I'll be in San Diego for my race. I thought about planning a party-- nope, too broke, too busy and too hard to do from the bay area. Then I thought about what would really make my mom happy-- and that was to have the whole family together for Mother's Day! My mom and dad were planning on coming down to visit me for Mother's Day weekend so I asked my brother if he might be able to fly down for the weekend. He thought that was a great idea and said sure he could do it! Perfect... I knew my mom would be SO surprised to see him here!

Because of the cost of tickets and our schedules, Grady ended up taking the train down from Portland to Oakland. He left on Friday afternoon, would spend the night on the train, and then would arrive at Jack London Square at around 8:30. Since I had to be at the Coached Run in Mill Valley super early that morning, and wouldn't be done until around noon, he was planning on just hanging around until I made my way back to the east bay and could swing by to pick him up.

The run in Mill Valley went really well. I went out with the first group since I had heard it was going to get warm (when I got there at 6:30 it was already warming up). The course was a double out and back... the first 5 miles out and back were along Tennessee Valley Rd. all the way out to the ocean, and the 2nd half was out and back from the start area to Tiburon. I was worried that the first half of the course was going to be boring because it was pretty much a straight shot out to the ocean along a tree lined road. It ended up being a gorgeous run but hillier than I was prepared for. After a flat 1.5 miles, the next mile are so was a long incline to the top of the hill... then we got a short downhill before we veered off on a trail which had a lot of rolling hills. I didn't do too bad on the hills, considering how much of a wimp I usually am with them! Two hours after I started, I rolled back into Mill Valley feeling very good!

Me, Deb, Ray, Belinda and Leslie at the beach... the turnaround point for the first half of the course.

I waited around for a few more hours cheering people in. Once our water stop peeps got back, I loaded my car back up and drove out to Oakland to pick up Grady. We got back to Walnut Creek, took some quick showers and then figured out how we could best surprise my mom! My idea was that when my mom and dad arrived, I'd sit my mom on the couch, tell her I had a present for her, bring out my brother, who would have been hiding, and then SURPRISE!!! My brother had a better, and slightly more evil plan. He thought he should hide in my closet and I then I'd tell my mom I had something for her, but she had to get it out of my closet, and when she'd open the door... SURPRISE!!!

I thought she might find it a little strange that I had something in my closet for her but we went with that plan since we thought it have the most shock effect. And boy did it ever!! My mom opened the closet door as planned, but since my brother is so tall, and she was expecting something to be on the floor, all she saw was his feet at first. It took her a few seconds (which seemed like minutes) before she looked up at his face and realized what she was looking at! She SCREAMED!!! And not an "Oh-my-gosh-I'm-so-excited" scream... it sounded more like "There's-an-axe-murderer-in-the-closet" scream! I think she was surprised :D

A reenactment of the "reveal"

After the shock wore off, we headed off to my new favorite BBQ place Cuz’nz BBQ for lunch. We were there for a LONG time enjoying some BBQ, coconut cake and just visiting. After lunch we looked around the bookstore, went down to 1515 for some drinks, and then went to see Iron Man at the movies. By the time we got out of the movies it was 9:30 and we realized we never did have dinner. I think we were all still so full from lunch that we weren't really hungry!

The next day my mom, dad, Grady and I went down the street to the Sunrise Bistro (owned by the same people who own the BBQ place) for a yummy breakfast. We got there kind of early, hoping to miss the major crowds and we were successful. We even got to sit outside on their patio! After brunch we went out to Borges Ranch in Walnut Creek to walk around a bit and take some pictures. I had never been out there and thought it would be a good way to walk off all the food we'd eaten :) My mom was having a bad allergy attack but we were still able to walk around and take in the gorgeous views. We even saw goats, chickens and piggies (big fat ones... not the cute little ones) :D We were all hungry for a treat after all the walking around so we went back downtown and had some ice cream at the San Francisco Creamery. BY then it was getting into the late afternoon and my parents needed to get home so my brother got packed up (he was going home with them for the night) and then they were off! It was a really nice Mother's Day weekend, and fun to have all four of us together for the weekend!

Congratulations Brian!!

On Saturday night Brian won the LLS (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society) Man of the Year! To achieve that distinction, he raised almost $50,000 for the society!! What an amazing achievement... and here I stress about trying to raise $2,000!!! I had to miss the big gala on Saturday where they announced the winner because my family was in town visiting for Mother's Day but I saw the pictures and everyone looked gorgeous in their black tie attire!

This weekend was super busy... I ran my longest run (10 miles) on Saturday in Mill Valley and then spent the rest of the weekend with my parents and brother (who made a "surprise" visit). I'll post more on the weekend later once I've gotten the pictures off my camera!

Call your mother...

This week has been pretty busy... which is why I haven't blogged since Tuesday :( I've been getting things ready for our Coached Run this weekend in Mill Valley, and also my parent's visit this weekend.

Wednesday Christina and I went for pedicures and dinner. We went to this SUPER yummy place Cuz'nz BBQ in Walnut Creek. I had driven past there a bunch but never went in before and I'm so glad that we ended up going there... I think it's one of my new favorite places! The food was REALLY good, and prices were very reasonable and the food is all natural with no artificial colors or flavors (not that I care too much about that but some people do)!

Last night I went running with Lindsay. Pam couldn't make it so we decided to run together at Heather Farms. She wanted to 4, I said let's do 6... and 6 we did (5.62... close enough) :D The first 3 felt really good, but the 2nd three weren't as fun... we were overrun with icky bugs and I think we pooped ourselves out the first three miles. We finished in exactly an hour so our pace was pretty good. After doing shorter distances during my usual weekday runs, it felt weird to be doing 6 miles-- I felt like we were out there forever!

Tonight I have a few errands to run to get supplies for tomorrow, and then it's home to do a little more cleaning to make my place pretty for Mom and Dad. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mommas out there!!!

Back to the January run schedule

Last night I met up with Pam and Amy for our Monday night run. Pam had been out of town for the last few runs so it was nice to catch up with her. We kept the pace easy (although Amy says we were still going to fast for her :( ). About halfway through our run, we see Amy stumble very slightly... something had popped in her knee :( She said it didn't hurt, but rather than risk anything, she decided to hang a right and head back on the trail to her car. Pam and I continued on, picking up the pace a little more. All of us forgot our watches so I have no idea what our final time was!

Pam is going to be out of town again for work this Thursday and next Thursday so for at least the next two weeks we'll only be running together once a week. After a few months of being good and running twice a week, we're back to our January schedule where one of us always had something going on and we were only able to run once a week together, if that! Oh well, I'm sure we'll be back to our twice weekly schedule again soon!

Back in the WC

After a week of house/doggie sitting for Claudia and Rocky while they were on vacation, I'm back at home. (WELCOME BACK CLAUDIA AND ROCKY!!!) It's nice to be in my own bed again, but house sitting was almost like a mini vacation. Claudia and Rocky have a nicer TV than I do, nicer appliances and kitchen stuff, sodas in the fridge and free laundry. :D Oh, and two little furry babies that I miss :( It's so funny how pets have personalities just like we do... and Patch and Daisy are not lacking in the personality department. Every day they did something that would just crack me up :D

I didn't really do much over the weekend... Saturday I had a coached run in Fremont. That was the other benefit of being in Oakland-- my commute to the run was MUCH shorter than it would have been from WC! We had a pretty small group since a lot of the team was heading up to Humboldt County for the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon! The marathoners were doing their 14-16 miler, and us half folks only had to do 4-6 miles. As happy as I was only doing 6 miles, I kind of felt sad that I wasn't doing the 14-16. There is nothing like that sense of accomplishment, and camaraderie with your fellow runners, after doing a long run like that. It made my 6 miles seem wimpy :(

After the run I went back to Oakland, took the dogs for a long walk, showered, ate and napped for 2 hours. Sunday I spent the morning getting the place ready for Claudia and Rocky... packing up, doing a little cleaning and laundry, and taking the doggies out for one last walk :( Then it was back to WC where I did some UNpacking and then took another nap. I have no idea why I napped so much over the weekend... it's not like I did anything tiring, although Sat. I was up at 5:30am and Sunday got up at 3:00am when Ms. Daisy was throwing up :(

13 days left...

... until my fundraising deadline!! I can't believe that the date for the Rock N' Roll Half Marathon is just around the corner! And that means my fundraising deadline is fast approaching too! I'm ALMOST at my goal amount, $2,000, but I'm not quite there! If you've been meaning to donate but haven't yet, there is still time! 13 days to be exact!! PLEASE help me reach my goal! I will be your best friend forever (well, maybe not forever but at least a day :D).

Training had been going pretty well. I kind of took an unplanned, extended break from training after the Relay but I'm back at it now! Amy and I went for a run last night and although it was a little warm, it felt nice to be back out there again. Since Pam couldn't join us we met a little earlier in Alamo, instead of Danville. When Claudia, Amy and I were training for the NY Marathon we ran here every week... but it was MUCH hotter then! We really took it easy... Amy's knee was still bothering her after her half marathon last week and we had a lot of catching up to do since we hadn't seen eachother for awhile. We ran a little, talked, and walked some when we felt like it :D

This weekend I have a 6 mile run in Fremont. After that it's a 10 miler the weekend after and then I pretty much taper until race day! It seems like it's still a long way off but it's really not. Before you know it it'll be time to pack up and head off to San Diego.

Remember... click HERE if you'd like to donate by credit card. Email me if you'd like me to send you a form so you can pay by check!

Is it Friday yet?

I haven't been up to much exciting the past few days. :( Monday I went to the Send Off party for our runners who are participating in Avenue of the Giants half marathon this weekend. It's so fun to see how nervous and excited they all are-- it reminds me of when I was in the same place 5 years ago. And even now, after all the races I've done, I still get excited and nervous when I'm about to do another one!

Tonight I'm going for a run with Amy. Pam is not available since she has to jet off to DC for work. I wasn't too sad about not running but then Amy said she'll run with me so darn it, no night off! Eh, it's good that I'm NOT taking the night off... I haven't run since The Relay so it's time to get back into the swing of things!

On the cold front, I'm feeling much better. It was kind of a false alarm since the "beginnings" of that cold never actually turned into a full fledged cold. I still have one swollen but thankfully not painful lymph gland sticking out of the side of my neck but since it doesn't hurt anymore, I'm sure it'll be gone soon too!