Good Girl/Bad Girl

Last night I had planned to run on my own a little later in the evening when it was a little cooler. But yesterday my friend Amy emailed me to tell me that her dinner plans with a friend had fallen through so she could run with me. Yay... a running partner! We met up in Danville at 5:30. Even though it was a little earlier in the evening, the weather was very nice... a little cool with a nice breeze.

Amy and I headed out on the trail for a short 30 minute run. My legs were still super sore from that darn exercise video the night before and I could definitely feel it in my quads and thighs while we were running. After awhile the muscles loosened up a little but by the end of the run they were tight again. Amy and I really pushed it... we went out a little fast but slowed down on the way back. Our final time was 30.21 minutes for 2.7 miles ... not too bad for us!

After the run we ran into a TNT alum who had done NY the year before. He gave us some really good tips-- especially about what we should do while we're waiting around for hours for our wave to start. :( He said it's an amazing experience and the crowd support is awesome! I can't wait!!

After we spent about a half hour chit chatting, we headed over to Amy's house to eat the food she had bought for her dinner guest :) A running partner AND dinner... I'm so lucky! The dinner was super yummy-- I had a chicken breast, some corn and tomato salad and broccoli salad. What good girls we were. Ummm, that is, until we started drinking the wine! Bad, bad girls! I was just going to have a glass but Amy, sneaky lady that she is, kept refilling my glass! And who am I to tell her no!! Next thing I know, she says something about it being 10:45... WHAT?!! 10:45PM?!! I was still in my previously sweaty and I'm sure stinky running clothes! Time to go home, take a shower and put myself to bed!

Tonight Claudia, Amy and I are meeting again in Danville for our run... it's pretty cool out right now so I think it'll be nice. I'm just hoping my legs feel a little better tonight!

Cherries, how I love you...

... but oh man, my belly sure doesn't :( I bought some cherries on Friday night and I've been really good about not eating too many until today. I ran out of the yogurt I eat for breakfast so all morning I've been snacking on a bowl of cherries. Yuuummm, but now I have a belly ache. :( I always go overboard with the darn cherries... it's just so easy to keep popping them in my mouth! Next thing I know, the bowl is empty :(

And on a semi-side note, when I bought these cherries at Safeway, they rang up for OVER $30!! Thank god I have a club card which brought it down to only $14 for the two bags but STILL!!! How do two bags of cherries cost $30?! Are they not in season yet? Are they super rare cherries from some far away place? I think I scared the guy at the check out counter because I kept going on about the expensive cherries.

The rest of my body is also sore today :) Last night when I got home I did an exercise DVD that I have. It's a super good workout and fun because there are 9 sections that you can mix and match: 3 ab workouts, 3 bun workout, and 3 that are arms, legs or both. Each section is 10 minutes long so you can customize your workout depending on how long you want to workout for and what areas you want to work.

I did one leg workout (lots of lunges and plies), one bun workout (more lunges, some squats and ballet type moves) and one ab workout (a few core moves and crunches). Boy is it a good workout... it's enough moving around so I work up a sweat and I can already feel it in my booty cheeks, abs and legs. Hopefully tonight's run will loosen up those tight muscles!

Where did the weekend go?

Wow, that seemed like SUCH a short weekend! Probably because it was a busy one...

Friday I went straight from work to Lindsay's parent's house in Orinda for her graduation party. A bunch of people from our TNT gang were there and it was really fun to be able to socialize at a non-TNT event! Just like I anticipated, there was lots alcohol and some very yummy food (like this pine nut covered wheel of brie.... YUUMMM). I was a pretty good girl and just had a beer and a little wine. After Lindsay's party a few of us headed over to our friend Bryan's, a TNT alum, to help him celebrate his 40th bday. We caught up with some more TNT peeps and enjoyed some of the best BBQ'd pork I've ever had! But man did it ever get chilly out there! When I had left the house that morning I contemplated grabbing a jacket but didn't, remembering how HOT it's been lately. Yeah, that was a mistake! Bryan's wife Jennifer provided us all with sweatshirts and long sleeved shirts. They're both tall people so I just want to know how I ended up wearing a shirt with sleeves that were two inches too short! Oh well, I was warm and happy with my margarita so I didn't mind :)

Saturday morning I went to go run at Heather Farms with the Diablo Valley team. Our Spring team was also having our last Mentor Led Run there for the people going out to Anchorage. The temperature was SO nice out there, at least for running! It was overcast, cool and breezy :D I decided to do about 4 miles and ended up running with Joseph, one of our Spring mentors. Despite the beer, wine, margaritas, brie, pork, cherries and HUGE slice of chocolate cake I had the night before, I felt pretty good out there... at least I did after the first couple of miles. My end time was 51.02 minutes for 3.98 miles. My actual running time was a little less than that-- I kept forgetting to stop my watch while we were waiting for lights and chit chatting at the water stop! Oops!

After the run and a shower, I headed up to my parent's house in Yuba City for the rest of the weekend. I did lots of laundry, watched movies with the folks, played with the dogs and just spent time relaxing. I got to hear all about the cruise my parents went on last week-- they had a good time and even brought me back some jewelry from Mexico :D While they were on this cruise, they booked their next one... through the Panama Canal!! I'm so jealous excited for them! Umm, maybe I could stowaway in their luggage. :D

I even ran into a couple of friends from high school, John and Karen, when we went out to lunch on Sunday. If turning 30 didn't already make me feel old, this did... they have a son who is going to be a freshman in high school next year! AHHH! Okay, so they had him when were in high school but still... that means I could technically be the parent of a high schooler.. oh lord, now THAT is a scary thought!

Happy, happy Friday!

Woo hoo! First week of training is over! Only 20 more weeks to go! Wow, that doesn't sound very long does it? :(

Usually when I'm training, Fridays are a very low key night. No parties, no going out, no craziness-- it's too hard when we have to get up at the butt crack of dawn the next day to run. Well, who am I kidding... even when I'm NOT training there's no craziness on Friday nights. I know, I'm such an old boring 30 year old :( BUT, tonight I will not be spending the evening catching up on trashy tv... I have 2 party's to go to! Right after work I'm off to Lindsay's to help her celebrate her upcoming graduation! CONGRATS LINDSAY!! Right after that, it's off to Bryan's 40th birthday party! HAPPY BDAY BRYAN!!! I have a feeling both parties will have a large supply of booze but I'm going to TRY to be a good girl and not have too much :D (Yeah right) I do need to get up tomorrow (the earlier the better with this heat) to go for a run. After THAT, it's off to Yuba Duba to hang with my parents for Father's Day :D It's going to be a busy, but very fun weekend!

Have a safe and wonderful weekend everyone!

Running update for the week...

I've been a good girl all week and got my running in-- I even did 3 out of the 4 runs on my own! Here's the break down:

Saturday:
Last Coached Run of the Spring team, first Coached Run of the Summer team. I went out to help at one of the water stops and decided that I would get my run in by running towards the start for 1.5 miles and back. My Garmin says that I did 3.08 miles in 36.42 minutes. Not too bad for my first run. I did go out a little too fast and on the way back took a couple of walk breaks. I felt really good afterwards but two days later I was SUPER sore!!

Tuesday:
I decided to wait and do my run about 7:00PM since it would hopefully be a LITTLE cooler at that point. Yeah, not so much. It was still really hot out then. I started out on the Iron Horse Trail that runs behind my street and ran out one direction and back, and then out the other direction and back. There are tons of big, tall trees along the trail which provided some wonderful shade, but also screwed with the GPS on my watch. I ran for 25.21 minutes and my watch said that was 1.86 miles-- the Iron Horse Trail map says that section is 1.18 miles so out and back my REAL mileage was 2.36.

Wednesday:
I met up with Claudia and Amy to run the Iron Horse Trail in Danville at 5:30PM. I was seriously scared about running that early in the evening when it was supposed to be nearing 100 degrees. I had vision of me fainting with heat stroke and Amy and Claudia dragging my body back to the car. No fun. BUT, it wasn't actually as bad as I had anticipated. There was no fainting, no heat stroke, no hallucinations. It was super hot yes, but we still did the damn thing, with only a little bit of complaining! It definitely helped to run with other people... on my own I probably would have walked much more! Final time was 33.35 minutes for 2.65 miles.

Thursday:
To avoid another hot, evening run, I decided to drag my lazy bum out of bed and go for a run early this morning. Ahhh, SO much nicer out there at 6:30AM than it is at 6:30PM. I decided that since Thursday is usually our track day, I would do something a little different than just run. On the section of the Iron Horse Trail near my apartment, there are two overpasses that cross the street-- they both have a set of stairs that go up one side, and down the other. One overpass is right where I access the trail and the other is about a half mile down the trail at the high school. I started out from my apartment and ran the 100 yards to the trail, then I ran up and down both sets of stairs on the one overpass. Pause... catch my breath. Then I headed out towards the other overpass, did those two sets of stairs. Walk break... catch my breath. I ran to the end of that part of the trail, and back to the overpass to do those two sets of stairs again. Walk break... catch my breath :D And then I ran back to the start of the trail and the first overpass. I skipped the stairs on that one since I need to get back, shower and get ready for work! Even though I started super early, I was still a sweaty mess when I got back-- I don't think I really cooled down until the drive to work with the air blasting! (I know you all really wanted to know that!) Final time: 25.29 minutes.

Quickie update

A lot has happened during the 5 months of my blogging sabbatical-- Here's a quickie update for you all! I running update for the week will come tomorrow!

I'll do the sad stuff first. Many of you knew Brenda personally, but many of you may only have know about her through my blog. Last time I wrote in January, Brenda had undergone a stem cell transplant and we were all very optimistic about her recovery. Unfortunately, 110 days after her transplant, she developed graft vs. host disease in her lungs. Despite numerous efforts on the part of her doctors to get rid of it, and after many months of bravely battling it, Brenda passed away on April 14, 2007. Brenda was an incredible person-- I've never seen someone who smiled so much, even when life wasn't treating her so well. She was an amazing inspiration to so many of us that knew her, and countless others who didn't, and she continues to inspire us to get out and do the damn thing! This is my favorite picture of her...

The other semi sad news was that my roomy and bff Claudia left me to move in with a BOY!! :( BUT, that leads me to the good news ... they got hitched :D They had a beautiful, private wedding ceremony in gorgeous Maui and are now very much the happily married couple! I couldn't be more excited for them! So I did lose a wonderful roomie, but in the process gained an equally wonderful BFF-in-law! :D Just look how cute they are...

Well, I think that covers the major things that have happened in the last few months... check back tomorrow to hear all about how the running is going (that is if I survive tonight's run in the 95+ degree heat!)!

New York here I come!!

Woo hoo!! I just found out yesterday that I got into the New York Marathon! Yeah! Oh wait, that means I need to start training again... CRAP :( Is there such thing as a pinch runner for marathoners? If so, where could I find myself one of those? :D

After swearing off marathons for a year and a half, I was finally ready to tackle another one. A few of my friends had gotten into the New York marathon over the past few years and had rolled over until this year, so they'd all be able to run it together. I was all set to head out there and put my marathon cheering skills to good use when I figured "What the hell... I might as well see if I can get in too". It's not like I'm going to go back years from now, take my chances with the lottery and make the trek out there by my lonesome. So I entered the lottery and spent months fretting over it. I decided that even if I didn't get into NY, I needed to get my jiggly butt back in shape and train for a marathon. My 2nd choice was the Nike Full Marathon... hills, EEEKK!

LUCKILY, I got into the New York Marathon, as did good friends Jeanette and Raji! The girls seemed to have good luck, not so much the boys... Rocky and Phil didn't get in :( Sad Pandas :( They will be out there cheering for us though and it will be a wonderful treat to see their smiling faces (along with Karen) along the course!

So this means I've got to start running again. SIGH... I haven't run since the Arizona Rock N'Roll Half Marathon in January. I think my running shoes are filled with cobwebs at this point :( Our unofficial coach Claudia put together a training schedule for us all and darn it, I'm going to stick with it. I have a couple more weeks until that training calender starts so I'm going to spend that time getting back into running. Wish me good luck... I'll need it!

Running is a mental sport and we're all insane!

That was a caption that I saw on the t-shirt of a girl running the Rock N'Roll Arizona Half Marathon. When I saw it I had to crack up... it's funny because it's true :D Here's a recap of my Half Marathon weekend in frigid Arizona:

Saturday Jan. 13:
Up and out of the house before the sun was up-- off to the SF airport to catch the team flight to Phoenix. It's funny how runners will tend to find eachother-- while waiting for our flight to board, Mama Lisa and I ran into a guy who was making a detour on the way home from a work conference to run the marathon in AZ. He and Mama Lisa chatted about ultra-marathons, I headed to the bathroom to pee for the gazillionth time.

Once we got to AZ we were shuttled to the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix, our hotel for the weekend. The hotel was really nice, but even nicer was that I got my own room! After putting my stuff in the room I headed downstairs to grab a sandwich and MORE water and then it was off to the Expo. The Expo was HUGE, which I expected, and CROWDED, which I expected too. After grabbing my packet, t-shirt and making a lap around the Expo, I headed back to the hotel to lay out all my gear for the next day.

Our pasta party that night was at the Convention Center which was thankfully right across the street from the hotel. After going through the "gauntlet" of cheering TNT staff and coaches, I sat at a table with Chris, our other EB runner, and some SF run people. Is was your typical Pasta Party... not-too-great pasta, too many speakers, and of course tears and laughter. The laughter came during a pep talk given by the Penguin, aka John Bingham. Even though I've heard John talk many time before, and even though he covers some of the same topics, he always cracks me up. He like a runner's comic... no one gets the jokes but us :D He did a shout out to Mama Lisa-- I wish the whole team could have been there to show her the love, instead of the cheers coming from just Chris and I! The tears came from our Honoree speaker. Her daughter had cancer and passed away not too long ago. She talked a lot about how all of us in the room were Heroes for doing what we were doing-- for making the choice to train on behalf of and raise money for people like her daughter. Man, where were the Kleenexes when I need them!

Sunday Jan. 14:
Ahhh, race day :D I didn't sleep well the night before... the room was too hot and I was too paranoid about not getting up on time. I got up at about 5:00 AM, did all my pre-race prep, put on the warmest running clothes I brought since I knew it was going to be a cool day, opened the door to head downstairs and found this outside my door:

Thanks Abby :D I met up with Mama Lisa, Chris and the SF team down in the lobby at 6:00 AM. Mama Lisa, Chris and I decided to write CANCER on the bottom of our shoes so that with each step, we would know we were doing what we could to stamp out Cancer (I wish we could take credit for that idea but we stole it from our Honoree speaker the night before). Because the bottom of our shoes aren't smooth you couldn't really read it, but we knew it was there. At about 6:30 we decided to head over to the shuttle that was going to take us to the start. Standing in line, we got the first feel of what the temperature outside was... downright arctic. It was FREEZING, well technically it was BELOW freezing, 27 degrees to be exact. And here I am in my running capris, singlet, long sleeve shirt and another thin shirt on top of that. No gloves, no long pants, no ear warmers. I was in big trouble.

We got to the start around 7:00, a good half hour before the marathon was set to start and and hour and a half before my race, the half marathon, would start. Anyone who knows me well know that coffee doesn't always agree with my tummy or my digestive system. And on race day, you don't want to mess with anything that's going to wreak havoc on your system. Well I was so freezing cold, I actually got a hot, steaming cup of heaven (aka Coffee) to hold in my hands... I even drank the whole cup hoping that a warm tummy would mean warm fingers and toes :D I watched the marathon start and then walked around a little trying to keep the blood circulating before I checked my bag about 15 minutes before the half marathon start. By the time I made it to my corral (#14 of 27) the sun was starting to come out and when you stood in a the sun it wasn't quite as cold. My back was already starting to tighten up though from all the shivering. 8:30 rolls around, no starting gun. 8:35, no starting gun. 8:40, no starting gun. OH COME ON PEOPLE, I'm freezing my hiney off! FINALLY at 8:45 the gun goes off and by 9:00 I'm across the starting line!!

My game plan going into the race is to keep it nice and slow for the first 10 miles and after that, depending on how I feel, I can speed up. I know that I won't be PRing here so my goal is to finish feeling less crappy than I did after San Jose and Nike. Thanks to my awesome Garmin 205 GPS watch, I can see my current pace and try to stay around a 12 minute mile. (I know, a snail's pace but I've embraced my slowness :D) Within the first mile I see some portapotties lined up along the street... even though I don't really have to pee, I can't pass up a line of porta potties with no lines! For the first mile and a half, I literally can not feel my feet. At first I'm afraid that something is seriously wrong but then it sinks in that they're just very, very cold. I start to see gloves, sweatshirts and sweatpants strewn across the road as people start to warm up and strip off their extra layers. Two things come to mind: 1) I could have used these cast offs a mile and a half ago and 2) Mama Lisa's going to have a field day with all these discarded gloves-- they'll be great additions to her collection :D

Around mile 3 a bead of sweat actually breaks out on my face. I must be starting to warm up a little-- YIPEE!! I'm feeling pretty good so I run through the first water stop and just drink a little gatorade. I think the problem I've had with my last races is that I drink too much water and not enough gatorade, leaving me feeling nauseous and light headed. So this time I've decided to drink all gatorday and save the water for when I take a Gu.

The half marathon course isn't all that exciting. It's flat, which is good, but not particularly pretty. A lot of businesses, some apartment complexes, and flat, barren land, with the occasional cactus, for miles. I see a lot of interesting people along the course, one man singing to himself quite loudly, people with very clever t-shirts, a LOT of Team In Training people and of course lots of live music! The TNT support was great... lots of people yelling "Go Olivia", and "Go Team"! Once we got into Scottsdale it was a little prettier-- we passed by the field where the A's play during Spring Training. It was funny to be all the way in Arizona and run by a place that is actually familiar!

By mile 11 I was feeling really good and felt like I had plenty of energy left for the last two miles so I increased my pace a little bit. After mile 12, I reached THE ZONE, that point where everything feels right. You get chills and this euphoric feeling. You feel like you could run forever and never get tired. You feel like a rockstar! Thanks to my handy dandy watch I knew that I had only .5 miles until the start so I kicked it into high gear. I was passing all these walkers and people who just looked beat-- didn't they know the finish line was so close?! I crossed the finish line, remembered to smile and NOT look at my watch (so my head wouldn't be down in my picture :D) Final time: 2:41:49. Not my best but damn I felt good :D I picked up my medal, got my picture taken, picked up my bag and headed to the TNT tent to check out. They had some PT people there stretching people so I waited in line (chowing down on peanut butter crackers and guzzling my past race electrolyte drink-- no water yet for me!) to have my back stretched.

Back at the hotel I took a cold water bath, ate the chips I took from the TNT tent and took a well deserved nap. I got up in time to make it to the Victory party but I didn't stay long after I finished eating. I just wanted to veg out, knit and watch some TV.

Monday Jan. 15:
I woke up the next morning with no muscle soreness and just a few stiff joints :D I slept MUCH better than I did on Saturday night! Sunday night I had decided that I was going to treat myself to room service for breakfast so I filled out the form, hung it on my door and then just like magic, my cinnamon Bun French Toast appeared at door at 9:30 :D Yummmm

After a morning of relaxing, it was time to pack up and head to the airport for the plane ride home! So long Arizona! I'm just so happy that my last race of the season is finished... Arizona turned out to be a great race for me but the idea of training for another run just doesn't appeal to me at all. We just started a new season and although I'm captaining again, I'm not training for any races right now. Who knows what my next race will be!

Finally... my last race of the season!

In the future, if anyone hears me say that I'm going to sign up for 4 races in one season, please stop me. Tie my hands behind my back, sit on me, what ever it takes. My initial feeling that 4 races in one season would motivate me to keep running was wrong. Instead, I stayed completely unmotivated in the running department and have three crappy races so far to show for it. Ok, Disneyland wasn't that crappy... It went much better than I anticipated only because I expected to be debilitated by the heat. Since then, everything went downhill. San Jose was very hard for me, Nike was tough (as usual) and now I have Arizona coming up this weekend! ACKK!!! Funny thing is, even though I've felt progresively worse in each race (and especially AFTER each race) my times are all fairly close.

Since Thanksgiving my training has been really lax. I've made it out to a couple of Buddy Runs and no track workouts. We've only had a few Coached Runs because of the holidays and on the off weekends I really haven't run. I did get in one run over the Christmas break, mainly because 1) Since I hauled all my running crap out there I had to run at least once and 2) I wanted to try out my fun new Xmas present, the Garmin Forerunner 205 :D This watch is awesome... it pretty much does everything but run for you!


Tomorrow I am off to Arizona with the team (me, one participant who I don't know, Chris, who isn't officially on the team, and Mama Lisa). Our flight leaves early so when we get to Arizona there will be time to check in, hit the Expo, relax and get everything laid out for the race before we head off to the Pasta Party. Sunday is race day. It should be a very interesting experience because this will be the first time where I don't know anyone out of the course with me! I know a few poeple doing the full marathon, but no one doing the half. I'll be all alone :( well, me plus the thousands of other people out there pounding the pavement in the dry Arizona air! This is also the first time that I've traveled with the team for a race too. Usually I stick with local races so it's just a matter of driving to where the race is.

I'll post an update and some pictures once I'm back!

Welcome to 2007!

Wow, I can't believe how quickly 2006 came and went! Especially December, which was a blur of activities! First there was the big 3-0 which I survived :D

Yummm... chocolate fondue :D

Then it was off to Hawaii with the family. As usual, we had an incredible time. The weather was gorgeous and I managed to not get a sunburn, just more freckles :D We did a few more activities this trip than we usually do... we went on a couple of boat trips (my fave thing to do since I can enjoy the water without getting IN it with the fishies), drove through the upcountry and to the top of Haleakala, hit a few beaches and of course, ATE ourselves silly. Basically every activity we did was planned around which of our favorite restaurants we wanted to hit!

My brother and I, making breakfast for our parents... we do get along, really.

Where we spent Christmas Day... Call Box Beach (so named by us because it's the only landmark we could find to mark the location)

Family Christmas portrait

Me and my brother on one of our boat trips, before I pushed him overboard ;P

Sun going down, or coming up... I can't remember

On our Sunset cruise... free cocktails make for a happy family!

Then it was on to New Year's Eve and our 007 themed party at the Gift Center in SF. SO much fun, especially because we got to hang out with all the cool peeps in the BIP section (thanks to Claudia's hookup!). We had our own seating area with bottle service and appetizers! Everyone was totally dressed up and looked great and it was a very fun evening... even the BART ride back home at 2:30 AM wasn't so bad... there were plenty of crazy people on the train to keep me entertained :D HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

Getting ready to head out... and yes, I am crouching down so that I don't look like the tall amazon I usually do in pictures!

Tis the Season...

Merry Christmas everyone!!! For some reason it doesn't really feel that Christmas is just 3 days away. Maybe it's because for the last few days, I've been packing up tank tops, shorts and flip flops. :D I also haven't seen a huge number of decorations or heard a lot of Christmas carols. Maybe it'll feel more like Christmas when I start wrapping gifts while listening to Mele Kalikimaka being played over and over again on the radio :D

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!!!

OH MY GOD I'M 30!

Yes it's true... I'm 30 :( But although I was completely dreading turning the big 3-0, I had a fantastic birthday! Saturday I did my 10 miler with Phil, a true trooper who, even though he hasn't run more than 5 miles since our last race, came out to do 10 miles with me! Even though it was literally freezing and I never completely warmed up, I felt great. We started in Danville and ran 2.5 miles out and back towards Walnut Creek and then 2.5 out and back towards San Ramon. While we were out there we ran into two TNT alums who are training for the Arizona full and were doing their 20 miler. I was never happier to "only" be doing 10 miles :D

Saturday night it was off to Fondue Fred's in Berkeley for my birthday dinner. The food wasn't bad, the wine wasn't great but the best thing about them both was that they were unlimited! After dinner, with a cheese child growing in my full belly and my cheecks sore from laughing so much we headed out for some more fun in Walnut Creek. Sunday, my actual birthday, it was off to Phil's for a housewarming party, YUMMY food and trashy tv :D Some lumpia and carrot cake was all I needed to make my birthday complete :D Thank you to everyone for making my 30th so much fun!!

Now this week it's back to business-- I've got a lot to do at work and home before I leave on Sat. for Hawaii!!

ACHOOO!

Has anyone heard of having allergies in the winter? I never had until this winter. Ever since Thanksgiving I've been sneezing up a storm. I initially thought it was from my parents new little doggie but when I kept sneezing long after I left after Thanksgiving, I had to abandon that theory :( So last week I got this awful, couldn't-sleep-because-I-kept-dreaming-I-was-choking sore throat :( At Stitch N' Bitch last Wed. night Amy told me that yes, people do get allergies in the winter from all the particle matter in the air. GREAT :( After that things went from bad to worse-- sore glands, runny nose, sneezing, coughing and then on Sunday I started losing my voice :( Today I'm feeling much better although I'm still congested and producing more snot than I thought humanly possible.

Because of this, I haven't run since the 2nd of Dec. I had a great run at Heather Farms in the freezing cold. I did 8 miles all by myself (I was out doing a water stop and snuck my run in before the long runners came through) and felt really good! After the run, the Winter Team had their honoree potluck so I got to see Brenda too! She came out with her son and a couple of friends. It was so nice to see her out there with the team again!

Tuesday we had the Send Off for all the Honolulu Marathoners so I didn't go to the Buddy Run. Sat. I was out of town and not feeling well so now he were are again at Tuesday and I'm not going to the run. :( I figure I'll wait until I can breathe properly before I go out there to run in the cold :) I will definitely be running this weekend though at our Coached Run since it's my only chance to get in my 10 miler-- the next two weekends I will be away in Hawaii... WOO HOO!

Back in the saddle!

I've been feeling a little burnt out of the running lately, and therefore my blog has suffered :( But now it's time to get back into things-- after all, I do have another half marathon coming up in a little over a month. I seriously need to get my butt in gear!

Here's a quick update:
Sat. Nov. 18 we had a coached run at the Berkeley Marina. After getting the water stop people off I headed out with a few girls. They were all doing longer mileages so I turned around at the water stop at mile 3.5. I felt good although got a little lonely on the way back with no one to run with :(

Skip to the Tuesday Nov. 28 Buddy Run. I know, 10 days without running isn't good but the holiday through everything a little off. I had good intentions when I went home to YC but of course good intentions didn't get my butt out of bed and out for a run! I felt really good at the Buddy Run, even though it was literally freezing (well, at least it felt like it!). I started out with a faster girl and Gary (man they kicked my butt... and I'm sure they were holding back too!) but they wanted to keep going so I turned around and ran back with one of the Winter team participants.

I have doggie duty until Mommy Claudia comes back from New York so instead of being out in the cold at track on Thursday, I'll be with Patch at his doggie class :D This weekend we have another coached run at Heather Farms and my goal is to run about 8 miles. We'll see how I do :D

It feels like winter

I woke up VERY early Saturday morning to the sound of pouring rain. After about three weeks off after Nike, I had decided that Saturday I needed to start running again and training for my next half marathon in Arizona. I admit... when I heard that rain I was more than a little happy that I may have an excuse to miss the Mentor Led Run that morning. No such luck. The rain died down so off I went to Lafayette/Moraga trail for a run.

We had a good number of people there-- the Winter team just started and some of the local participants came out for their first run with us. Since I haven't done anything since Nike and had been eating like a pig, I decided that I'd run about 4 miles or so. I love the Lafayette/Moraga trail but I hate the slight incline on the way out. On the first two miles out I was definately feeling the Chinese food I ate the night before, the incline and my lack of training. No fun. The way back was much easier and I felt better by the time I got back to the start. :D

Tonight I'm off to the Buddy Run... I'm just hoping it doesn't start raining on us! :D

Bad, bad blogger

I've been such a lazy blogger... Here it is the beginning of November and I am just now writing about Nike! I guess after three half marathons in a row I just wanted to forget about running for a few weeks. Thankfully I only have one more to go!!!

Wow, Nike is one of the most beautiful courses but it kicks my butt every year! I get so used to what San Francisco looks like that I forget what an amazing city it is. Running through the streets of SF with people from all over the US made me look at the city through their eyes and realize how lucky we are to be able to run in the Bay Area on a regular basis! Nike takes you through so many picturesque areas: Union Square, the Embarcadero, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Fort Mason, Marina Green and Chrissy Field with gorgeous views of the Golden Gate Bridge smothered in fog. Then we leave the flat part of the course behind and we climb into the foggy hills of the Presidio, run above Baker Beach where I can hear the ocean but not see it, by the palatial homes of Sea Cliff (Robin Williams' included), down by the Cliff House and along Ocean Beach, up into Golden Gate Park with the Bison, "Chocolate Mile" and then finally to the finish line along the Ocean.

I started out running with Phil although he ditched me around mile 1 to pursue his PR. :( I felt really good until we got into the Presidio and the second, hilly section of the course. I ran up the short first hill but walked all the rest, which really feels more like a series of long, drawn out inclines. Karen and Rocky were out there providing support so seeing them gave me something to look forward to. I knew that Brenda was suppossed to be in Golden Gate Park somewhere so I spent those last miles looking for her and reminding myself that when I did see her, NOT to run up and give her a hug. :D Her Dr. gave her the okay to come out and cheer us on but since she recently had her stem cell transplant, hugs and other close contact was a no no. I never did see Brenda but I did run into a family friend, Deni, who was out there cheering on her daughter who was doing the marathon.

The last part of the course is slightly downhill and that gave me just enough of a boost to sprint into the finish line. Final time: 2:45:50. Not my personal best for a half but it was my personal best for the Nike course. After I crossed the finish line I look to my left and who do I see? Phil! It took me 12.1 miles but I caught back up to him! We picked up our "Ran Like a Girl" shirts (the boy's shirts say that too) and Tiffany necklaces and headed to the TNT tent where they had mounds of food waiting. The food looked good but my tummy was not feeling it-- I think I drank too much water and not enough electrolyte on the course. Same thing happened after Disney and San Jose but this time I felt much worse. For Arizona I really need to work on my hydration so I don't end up feeling so nauseous at the end :(

The sign outside Niketown, where we picked up our packets on Saturday afternoon.

They had the names of all the runners up on the windows outside Niketown.

Caroline (Lindsay's mom), Linds, Claudia, BK, me and Jeanette at the start.

View from the course of the runners and Golden Gate Bridge.

Water stop help from Karen, Rocky and Patch around mile 9.

I ran into Deni in Golden Gate Park around mile 12.5... that's the only reason I'm smiling!

TNT finisher's tent with Lael, Claudia and Lael's sister.

Walking back to the car with our space blankets and Tiffany's bags :D

More Disney pics

Here are some more Disney pics that I took with a disposable camera along the course. As you can see in some of them, I'm not too good at running and taking pictures at the same time!

Phil, Rocky, Claudia, Lindsay, Me, Julie and Sarah at the start.

Running into Angel Stadium.

Phil, showing Angel Stadium some Oakland love :D

Waiting at the finish.

Our "ice bath" after the race in the hotel pool... followed by some pizza and beer :D

Countdown to race #3

I'm getting a sense of deja vu... AND wondering if I haven't gone a little crazy! Why oh why did I decide to sign up for another half marathon?! Oh that's right... it was the pull of the Tiffany's finisher necklace!

Nike is coming up and just a few days and I have to admit that I'm excited about it. It's a beautiful course, although challenging, and the weather is always perfect for running. After feeling overheated during the last two races, I'm ready for the cooler weather! I'm also looking forward to beating my last two Nike times (knock on wood). The first year I did Nike, I hadn't trained at all and had only done a couple of very short runs since my previous half marathon 8 months before. I just did it to do it and really took it easy, walking on and off. Last year I was in the middle of training for my second marathon so I was in much better shape but since I got stuck in a potty line around mile 1, I spent the whole race trying to run through the walkers and catch up to where I was before. Needless to say, neither of my times were very good so this year I'm hoping to beat them both.

The other thing I love (but my bank account hates) is all the cool Nike Marathon gear! Claudia and I went to a girls night out party at Niketown last Thursday and got to check out a lot of the stuff for this year. I was happy for a chance to get there before race weekend since a lot of stuff usually sells out beforehand. I did pretty good though and came away with just a shirt and totally cute bag!! Oh that Nike is so evil!!

Saturday night we had the 2nd Annual Art for Charity! It was a lot of fun, even though not as many poeple showed up as we expected to. I think everyone had a good time though checking out the beautiful art, listening to great live music (THANKS ROCKY and OLLIE!!!) and enjoying yummy wine and food. Thanks to everyone who came and helped us raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!

Rock N Roll San Jose Half Marathon

Race #2 is now completed... thank GOD! At 2:00 on Saturday Phil, Karen, Rocky, Claudia, Patch and I met up at Karen's house to start our mini road trip down to San Jose. Even with a bunch of traffic, we got there fairly quickly and went straight to the hotel to check into our digs for the night. Next we were off to the EXPO to grab our race stuff. The EXPO was pretty cool... this being a Rock N Roll event, they had A LOT of RNR SJ merchandise, which we couldn't resist. It's cool to have something that says you were a part of the inaugural event! After the EXPO we headed around the corner for a pasta dinner at Ill Fornaio. Even though we found out that I had made the reservation for the wrong weekend (way to go!), the manager was able to fit us in :D

Sunday morning was got up around 5:45 to start getting ready. Claudia (our cheerleader for the day with Patch) drove us down to the start line. I had anticipated San Jose being a fairly cool race since it was the beginning of October and the weather had started cooling down. But already at 7:00 it was starting to warm up. Waiting around to get corralled, we ran into a bunch of other TNT people who were also doing the race. Around 7:45 we headed to our corral-- Rocky, Phil and I decided to stick together and all went to corral 10. The three of us planned to stick together for about a mile, then stop and stretch before Rocky took off. Once we started, I had to go pee (I need to stop bringing water with me to the start... I keep needing to pee after the race starts, now matter how much I go before!) so we decided to run to the next set of porta-potties (around mile 2) and pee/stretch there. Because we were running with speedy Rocky, Phil and I ran those first two miles a little too quickly-- I was drenched by the time we got to mile 2!

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. The course isn't ugly (we actually ran by some gorgeous houses) there just isn't really anything exciting to look at. The bands along the course were great but in between the bands we didn't see many spectators. We saw Claudia and Patch a couple of times along the course-- they were our cheerleaders and race support! They were a welcome sight, especially around mile 9 when I needed my bottles refilled! THANK YOU CLAUDIA!! The dreaded hydrant water that is used at all RNR races wasn't as bad as we had anticipated but our nice bottled water was much better!

Mentally this was such a hard race for me... even with the misters along the course the heat totally sapped my energy and it was so hard to keep running. Towards the end I was stopping more and more for short walking breaks. Phil was a champ and stuck with me, even though I kept telling him he could go ahead without me! And thankfully he did stay... I think I would have walked much more if I were by myself. The last mile was probably the hardest one I've ever run in a half marathon... I didn't even have enough juice in me to sprint the last .1 mile to the finish line! Our final time was 2:41:39... only 7 minutes more than Disney. When you factor in the potty stop and bottle refilling stops with Claudia, the times were about the same... SJ just seemed so much harder! Afterwards I felt ill-- nauseous, chilled and light headed... I think I just neede more sodium because once I had some gatorade I felt much better. :D

The medal we got at the end was nice... we also got a comfy pair of SPENCO sandals, and ice water drenched towels to cool us off. After we all showered and checked out, we rewarded ourselves with a yummy lunch at In N Out :D Next race is in two weeks... the weather should be much more runner-friendly so I'm hoping to beat my past two half marathon times!

Countdown to race #2

Wow... the passed three weeks have passed way too quickly! It feels like Disneyland was only a few days ago but here I am getting ready for the Rock N Roll San Jose Half Marathon on Sunday!

I don't feel too prepared for this race... With my grandmother passing away, being out of town, and me being the lazy bum I am, I haven't done much running at all since Disneyland. Even though this would technically be the taper period, I don't think that "taper" means "only run twice"! I managed to make it to the Buddy Run on Tuesday and I actually squeezed out 5 miles. I felt really good on the way out so I pushed it a little bit, on the way back I definitely slowed down a little bit.

The weather has cooled down quite a bit-- we even had some rain last night and today. On one hand I'm sad because that means it's almost time to put the flip flops away for good (I wore boots for the first time to work today and my feet were not happy about being squashed into them :(). On the other hand I'm glad because that means that our runs will be much nicer! I think the weather this weekend is supposed to stay cool so I'm hoping that compensates for my lack of training!

Check back next week for an update on how the race went!