good news!

great news!! keeping this one short and sweet, but i heard a few days ago from my company's HR manager and her friend shelsea is ok! the doctors were wrong and it's not lymphoma. whoohoo! such great news :)

chugging along for shelsea

i've been participating in team in training and raising money for the leukemia and lymphoma society for over a year now, and recently i had one of the most touching experiences that brought me closer to the cause than ever before.

i got in touch with my company's human resources manager last week to find out if we have matching gifts or corporate sponsorship opportunities, and am so glad i did so. not only did she help bring my fundraising goal to the attention of the co-ceos and president of our company, but she even more importantly told me the story of a close friend of hers who is battling lymphoma.

her close friend shelsea was recently diagnosed with lymphoma and is currently fighting a tough battle against the disease. just last week, she was in the hospital having surgery on her lymph nodes to help battle the cancer. while i have never met shelsea, her story is so powerful and i will be so proud to run in her honor on race day, wearing her name on my jersey (yes, that is a picture of me from behind on race day in alaska...hot). these are the people that we're out there running for. no, hill repeats are not enjoyable and sore quads are not exactly a cup of tea, but they are nothing compared to the fight she is fighting. if one more day of sore legs means one more year of shelsea staying out of the hospital, i'll take sore legs every day.

i hope one day i'm able to meet shelsea and tell her in person how moving her story is and how touched i am to have been able to hear it. in the meantime, i will keep chugging along - slowly but surely - until one day we find a cure.

when in rome...

...run like the romans! ok that might not have worked but you see where i'm going with this.

like any good marathoner, i've planned out the next year of my life in terms of races to run, miles to cover, vacations to take while icing my shins and applying body glide like it's my job. which is why lana and i are already getting the wheels turning on participating in the rome marathon in march 2009 (lana, i'm dragging you into this whether you like it or not)! originally i was hoping TNT would participate in the paris marathon (um, awesome) but the latest news is that rome it is. i actually found myself thinking for a second "that sucks, i don't want to go to rome, i'd rather run paris" and then i realized "holy crap katherine you're an idiot, you could run a marathon in ROME."

but then again, four consecutive marathons for a former track team manager who watched her high school friends puke after mile repeats from the comfort of her air conditioned jetta and swore never to voluntarily sweat excessively... that seems like a little much. so to re-convince myself why i'm doing this thing, i read back through this blog and stumpled upon lana's post about the email i sent when i got into the nike women's marathon and realized that running marathons has this crazy way of making people happy despite sore quads and blistered feet, so why should we ever think twice about running one in italy?! plus we're helping fund cancer research and potentially save lives, so that's pretty awesome too.

stepping up my game

i'm back! and this time hopefully it won't be another month before you see another post from me...

last night was the oh-so-nauseating but somehow empowering cat hill repeats workout, through which lana and i successfully managed to kick each others butts for seven high effort repeats up one of central park's beloved hills. as much as my glutes were not a fan (and the 90 degree heat didn't help with the nausea), it was so nice to finally make it to practice!! and to have access to lana's wonderful life advice (lana - just go be a life coach already, it's your calling)

in other news, after two weeks of being a complete waste of space and working far more hours that i signed up for, i'm finally up and RUNNING again! i managed to run saturday, twice sunday, monday and tuesday of this past week and am actually feeling like i can potentially run this marathon in october... eep. sunday i went up to rockefeller state park in westchester and had the pleasure of running next to the entire columbia track team! it's always fun to see someone's cool down look like a 100-meter sprint... guess i have a lot more progress to make in this whole running thing...

Test 3 - 2 Mile Repeats

Not too much to say here except that I miss Kat (maybe we can all petition her boss to let her out at a reasonable time on Tuesdays)! I went to practice and did my 2-mile repeats by myself and was the last one. Sandy ran with me on the last one but I ended up chatting with her and it probably cost me a few seconds. It was probably the fastest I've run for a longer than 1 mile. I averaged about 9:34 per mile. Let's see if I can sustain that for 6.2 miles in this weekend's Nike Human Race. There's a concert after (All American Rejects) and I can get a few companion tickets for $20 so let me know if you're interested asap :)

Trailing Behind Thomas

Since my last night run, I decided it might be wise to find a running partner. The problem is that almost everyone I know is faster than me :( . I got Thomas to agree to a short 4 mile run around the inner loop of CP with a warm up from Columbus Circle to 72nd and then cool down (walk) back from 72nd to Columbus Circle. I didn't time it right but I think I was going super fast because:

1-I couldn't really talk
2-I had to stop at every fountain
3-We actually did pass some people (even if they were senior citizens walking their dogs ;) )
4-My heart rate was around 200 :(
5-I was about 1/2 foot behind Thomas the whole way and he was trying to slow down from his usual pace :P (but I guess that's how you get faster right?)

I had fun though and ran past (they were travelling the opposite way so I definitely didn't pass them) Coaches Kelly and Steve from last season's TNT session. I also saw Ramon but of course it was on my WALK back to Columbus Circle. I swear he's going to think I'm a walker and not a runner because he always catches me walking...

Pier Side Paranoia

So normally long runs are on Saturdays but there are so many non-profits and so little time that this Saturday, I had to skip group training. I got to play on the playground with a bunch of the kids from the mentor program I'm a part of through NY Youth At Risk. Their moms are the mentees and it's really amazing so please check it out if you're interested in learning about yourself and helping to shape a younger person's life.

Anyway, since I missed training on Saturday and was dead tired after playing with kids all day, I decided I would run on Sunday night. The run was only for 10 miles so it shouldn't take me too long and I figured it didn't get dark that early, right? Well, sort of right.

I mapped the run out so I knew I would run from my apartment west to Riverside, up to 91st and back down to 14th street. I started at about 8pm and the sun was still up. I got to about 21st when it really started to set and I began to question if I would complete my run. I decided that I was determined (though not very smart) and that I would be able to finish the run in no time. After all, there were plenty of people around, even though it was dark. I get to the 60's or 70's and I realize it's not just a little dark, it's very dark and there are no lights. I'm under the west side highway and it's just me and one other runner on the trail. I pass this other runner and realize it's probably not smart to run in front of some strange guy at night with my headphones on so I take them off. That scares the hell out of me though because now I can hear him breathing and running behind me. NOT GOOD>I should tell you that I'm a Law & Order addict and was raised by an extremely paranoid mother and grandmother so I'm basically freaking out at this point. I find an escape down a better lit path and realize that there's a concert going on up ahead. At this point I'm out of breath because I've picked up the pace quite a bit.

A few blocks later, my phone rings (I sometimes run with my iphone/ipod) and it's my grandmother. Why I answer, I'm not sure because I'm sure she'll rattle off all of the news stories about females found dead or raped in the park and I begin to have visions of some kayaker finding my floating corpse during their free lesson. (Again a very "Law & Order" opening scene). I hang up w/ her and continue my run...is that Police tape I see? My imagination is running pretty wild by the time I'm finished and at 14th street at 10PM! At least I'm back to civilization by the time I hit 10th Ave. Oh yeah and I'm alive. From now on, I think I'll stick to running with the group :)

What's Your Twinkie?

I had to miss group practice today so I could travel from Chicago to DC for work. :( One of the reasons I joined TNT was for the "T"eam part of the training but sometimes duty calls and so I was off to DC when I could have been off to CP (Central Park). In order to not fall behind, I ran my workout on the treadmill in the hotel gym. Fortunately for me, it was equipped with an individual television so I could at least be entertained while I ran on a revolving wheel like a hamster.

My channel of choice was playing back to back "Family Guy" episodes. In case, you've never heard of it, it's one of the funniest animated shows on television. I'm into my second mile when I realize that I've seen the episode already and it's oddly appropriate. Peter tries to get Chris to lose weight by running but Chris doesn't want to run, nor can he really. Peter being the genius he is sticks a plunger on his forehead with a twinkie tied to the other end and you watch Chris try to "catch" the twinkie for the remainder of the episode (other things happen too but they're not relevant here). This got me thinking about motivation and what my "twinkie" was or is. Here is my list.

Possible "Twinkies" for running:
1- Losing weight (x - actually gained weight from training/eating for training so that's not going to work)
2-Being able to run for the subway, up the stairs, or out the door without getting winded (definitely exciting but I don't remember that when I have to go train)
3-Raising $$ for TNT (of course! but I could also do that through tri-athalons, century rides, or just plain fundraising...don't forget to visit the link to the donation page :) http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/nikesf08/round2fight)
4-Runners high - this has to be it but I'm going to need to run a lot more and a lot longer to sustain it :)

What's your twinkie? (post your comments) :)

the charity cases

well, first things first, i should admit that i am the worst co-blogger ever... but i'm working on it! and rather than attempt to catch up on the past few weeks when i should have been contributing, i'll just tackle the past 24 hours.

yesterday was one of those beautiful running days that you hope and hope and hope and hope for but typically get stuck with 85+ degrees, 90% humidity and sweat dripping off parts of your body you didn't know could actually sweat (inside your elbows anyone?). with our beirut tournament fundraiser scheduled for the afternoon, lana and i got up at the crack of dawn to get our miles in... 16.5 miles before 10am isn't too bad, though my legs are currently telling me otherwise.

anyway, the beirut tournament went great, except for the fact that i'm pretty sure we didn't make much of a profit (we'd hoped our team name, the "charity cases," would have helped people feel more generous). but i guess that happens. as i woke up inexplicably this morning at the crack of dawn, i attempted to do the math of how much we spent on the party and took in yesterday and realized that even though we might not have brought in a huge sum, this whole marathon-training and fundraising thing is about baby steps. you don't go from 2 miles to 26.2 miles overnight, just like you can't raise thousands in one event. so stay tuned for more fundraising ideas and events... and for lana and i to eventually make it to our goals :)

p.s. for three saturdays this summer (august 9, 16, 23) an almost 7-mile stretch of park avenue is closed to traffic, which is pretty cool. we ran up from 14th street to the upper east last night on the last leg of our long run. lana has some interesting pics of us in front of grand central on park ave... we both look like we just ran gajillions of miles so we'll see if she'll actually post them...

Secret Smiles

I knew today was going to be quite busy with the fundraiser running around and the running around for training so I tried to get an early start. I set my alarm for 5am and had everything set up for my run. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the alarm until 6am and didn't get up and ready and out the door until about 7:30 :( . The team was meeting at 8am at Riverside park and I'd planned on running from my apartment to meet them at 66th Street and Riverside. I realized I was never going to make it when it was 7:55 and I was only at Riverside and W. 10th. I was waiting for the light to change and felt pretty bummed about being late, being slow, etc when a woman came running toward me from the east side. I didn't know her and she didn't know me, we didn't have anything in common (if you can tell that by appearance) and I was wearing head phones (a sure sign I'm not that friendly) but she gave me this big wide smile anyway and I smiled back. It was a smile I'd seen before. It's a smile that says "This running thing is great, isn't it?" or "Great morning for a run!" or maybe it just says "hey, we're here, we're strangers, we're runners, we're connected". It doesn't seem to matter if you're fast or slow, man or woman, runners have a community of their own, a secret society if you will with secret smiles. The running community is not exclusive like most secret societies. In fact, I've found it to be extremely inclusive and the only thing that keeps people out is their own judgements about running or their own abilities. I encourage everyone I know to try it just once...I bet you'll be hooked and soon you'll have secret smiles of your own.

The early bird gets 1/2 the worm

It's my first week back at training and of course, I have to fly for work and miss the group training session :(. To make up for it I decide to get up super early and go to the gym...super early is 5am but I'm such a spas at that hour of the day that I don't make it out the hotel room door until about 5:45am. I get to the gym and realize that I only have about 30 minutes to workout before I have to get ready to meet the clients. I'm supposed to run about 6 miles according to the schedule but I only get about 3 miles completed. I mean, how much earlier can an early bird be and who likes worms anyway. I think I might have to become a morning person to really committ to this running thing. :(

Cross Training Karma

Well I struck out with my gym attempt yesterday so I thought I would get up early and go to a yoga class. It would be a nice relaxing way to get back into working out. However, Monday morning came and I thought that the nicer and more relaxing thing to do would be to sleep and so I did just that. Before you snuff and say "of course, typical" and roll your eyes, know that I more than made up for my slacking this morning, this afternoon. I forced myself to leave work on time and head over to the 13th street gym for a much needed weight training class called Chisel.

I ran on the treadmill for about 10 minutes to warm up and then headed up the stairs to the class. When I got there, the instructor was still teaching bangra (I think that's how it's spelled). It's an Indian dance involving lots of shoulder movement and such. She seemed in good spirits and everyone looks like they were having fun. I stretched out while I waited for the class to end so that I and the 50 other people waiting to stampede in could get set up.

We finally get in and set up and there is almost no room to move, so what does the instructor do...she has us jack and lunge and kick and move about in a space that's already extremely crowded. I can't really concentrate on my form because I'm so nervous I will kick or be kicked by someone as eager and uncoordinated as myself. The class moves alone and so far so good, I'm even impressed that I can breathe and keep up on us because she's pretty tough on us. There is no stopping from jumping jacks to squats to lunges, to jump squats and back and back again. She starts yelling at us to hear her out and I'm thinking "I am hearing you but can't really answer as it's getting harder to breathe". All of a sudden there is a lot of heavy breathing and maybe it's my imagination but I think I hear her yell "Take It" in an angry and strange sort of way.

Now maybe it's just me but that's a phrase you typically don't hear a woman shouting at the top of her lungs while people grunt and breathe heavy. I ignore it and push on but she says it again. I soon realize that she must be a dominitrix on the weekends. She increases the repetitions and the weights and continues to instruct us to "Take It". I keep wondering if she's waiting for us to yell something back...several phrases come to mind (use your imagination because I don't feel I'm at liberty to share that here) but instead I simply remember to breathe through it and "take it" At the end of the hour I feel sufficiently worked out and I'm quite sure I'll be walking funny for the next week. What I'm not sure of is whether I was in a gym class or an adult film...gotta love Crunch.

The city that never sleeps except on Sunday after 10PM :(

I was all psyched about training again but you do need time to rest so I waited about two weeks after I signed up to start up. I promised my cousin that I would go skydiving with him after my marathon so I got up super early, popped a bunch of decongestants (I was fighting a bad cold) and drove down to South Jersey. By the time I got back it was pretty late and I was starving but fully intended to get a workout in to get back into the swing of things. I packed a gym bag and headed out to get a bite to eat first with Thomas. By the time we were done and I walked over from Spice on University to Crunch (the gym) on Lafayette, it was closed. I figured I'd walk up a bit to the Union Square Crunch but no luck. The workout would have to wait. :(

(I know I skipped the skydiving details but this is a running blog so for skydiving pics and commentary see myspace.com/lana_rose).

Why everyone loves re-runs

I ran my first marathon in Anchorage, Alaska. The training, the people, the charity, the event...everything was awesome and I was really proud to have completed what seemed like such an overwhelming task 4 months ago. I was also really pleased to have raised over $5,600 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I should have been ecstatic for weeks after (I mean I could finally sleep late on weekends!) but I found myself a bit sad. I pushed through my melancholy telling myself I could relax for the rest of my summer, no schedule to meet, no coaches yelling at me with foreign accents, and no racing to practice after work like most people race to watch Greys or American Idol. Wait! That's exactly it...what do people do when their shows take their seasonal break? I guess they find a new show but nothing else seemed interesting enough to me and that's when Kat sent this at the bottom of one of her e-mails...

P.S. I AM RUNNING THE NIKE WOMEN’S MARATHON IN SAN FRANCISCO IN OCTOBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's when it hit me :) I didn't need a new show...I could re-run and exactly 10 days after my 1st marathon, I signed up for my 2nd! Let the training and fundraising begin all over again.