Best Boston Ever!

Marathon Monday was absolutely perfect! I seriously don’t think I would have changed anything. I met my parents down on the common where I had to catch the buses around 7AM Monday morning. The line was very long but it moved pretty quickly. The bus ride to Hopkinton always seems a bit long and this year was no exception. We were stuck in traffic to get off the exit for soo long!! People kept jumping off the buses to go pee on the side of the road!! There were butts everywhere! Even our bus drive stopped the bus so he could get out and go!! By the time I got to Hopkinton it was almost 9:30 so I rushed around got my act together put my bag on the bus and headed to the starting line.

The actual race was fantastic. I had such a blast I think I was smiling the entire time! I started off a little slower than I had hope but still was doing pretty good. The weather was gorgeous, which meant tons of spectators!! At mile 12, I stopped for a quick pee break. At 14, I saw my BFFs! At mile 17 I stopped to see my parents and got some much needed sunscreen! After that I kicked up Heartbreak Hill! When I got to the top (mile 21), I picked up the pace a little bit. At 25 I high-fived every single Dana-Farber supports and the patient partners. I saw my again at the corner of Boylston and Hereford and then sprinted (well I felt like I was sprinting) to the finish line. I ended up with my best time ever, 4 hours and 17 minutes! Yay!! The best part is that the next day I was barely even sore at all! I guess all those dark snowy freezing morning really did pay off! And to top it off, I have raised over $5,000 so far!!!

Tomorrow's the day!

So tomorrow is the big day!! I am very excited!! I have carefully gathered everything I need for tomorrow throughout the weekend: a new pair of running pants, my number, my Dana-Farber packet and bracelet, 2 bottles of Gatorade Rain, 2 peanut butter Powerbars, one balance bar, some t shirts to cut fabric out to write on and pin to my shirt, an armband for my cellphone (thanks Dad!), and a pretty new good luck necklace (thanks Mom!). So now I think I am ready to go! I just have to eat some pancakes for dinner and pick up a sesame bagel with cream cheese on the way to the bus.

Tomorrow I will get on the bus around 7 and head out to Hopkinton. The race starts at 10:30AM. After that, you can check on me throughout the day online at bostonmarathon.org using my name or bib number 22314!!

Weather and Numbers

2 of my favorite things!





Number


I have been assigned my bib number. It is 22314. I have decided that is a very good number because 2 + 2 is 4 and 3 + 1 is 4 and the last number is 4 haha. So now I am extra pumped! You can use this number to track me on Monday on http://www.bostonmarathon.org/ . (I think you could probably track me with just my name too, but its much more fun to type in that super awesome number.) Ok I'm done raving about what a great bib number I have haha what do you expect? I look at numbers all day.

Weather


On Monday there were 15 days until the marathon. Do you know what that means?? You can check the weather on http://www.accuweather.com/ and find out what the weather is going to be on the marathon day!! Weather.com only goes 10 days into the future but accuweather goes 15. Yes I know that the probability of the weather being predicted 15 days in advance has almost zero chance of actually occurring, but its still fun to check. As of Monday it was going to be partly cloudy and 50 degress. Perfect! Oh wait, not perfect because there is no way they can guess the weather so early!! So I checked every day through yesterday and it was saying rainy, boo. I just checked right now though and its supposed to be 70 degrees and partly sunny!! Hopefully it keeps at that because that is my perfect race weather. Most people probably like it a little cooler, like around 50. I have come to terms with the fact that I am terrible about what to wear. If its 50, I get confused. I think I may be chilly and then put too many clothes on and that's bad. If its going to be 70 then its perfect! I get to wear my DFMC shirt (see above for this years shirt) and shorts and there is no question!

Playing Catch-up

Ok I knew it was just a matter of time before that happened. All of a sudden a month has passed and I have not written one thing!!! So I'll just give a quick recap of the weeks I missed:

March 10 - March 16: I ran 10.5 miles on Tuesday and 6 miles on Friday and I think I might have worked every other minute of the week.

March 16 - 23: Glenn and I went to Costa Rica for a well deserved break. We walked a lot every day however I did not run at all the whole week. My excuse is that my running clothes were in the suitcase that we checked and did not receive until we were back at the airport to come home. Costa Rica was amazing! We went on zip lines through the rainforests and everything.

March 24 - March 28: So our flight home was delayed and ended up getting back to Boston around 3:30 and I had to be to work for 8AM. There's nothing like jumping right back into it. I put in a solid 3 super long days at work and all of a sudden it was 12 days since my last run!! I start to panic so Michelle and I run 6 miles that Thursday.

March 30: I had to borrow my dad's car because my was at the shop so I decided that I would run on the bike path from my house in Harwich to my parent's house in Eastham, 18.5 miles. I was a little nervous because it had been so long since I had done any distance but the weather was pretty nice and my mom told me she had baked me cookies so I just tried to run as fast as I could! The run went absolutely amazing!! I could not believe how fast I was able to run. I got there in a shade under 3 hours (which is fast for me.) I was instantly super pumped up about the marathon again.

March 31 - April 5: Another whole week of not running. I'm not really sure why I didn't go at all but I didn't and there is nothing I can do about it now.

April 6: I ran 13 miles and it was cold and windy and dark and terrible outside and for some reason I hated every second of my run. It was totally boring!! I did however run really fast again so that it would be over sooner.

Yesterday: Yesterday Michelle and I got up and ran 6 miles. It was good to get back into it again. I feel much better when I get my legs moving!!

So there! Now you are up to date!! I will try to be a better poster in the future!!!

This is not a joke.

Ok so I haven’t written in awhile and I haven’t run since Thursday I ran 6 miles. Instead since Thursday I have been having a bit of an unlucky streak. So now I am going to get it all out! It started Thursday morning…. I was up at 5:45 for the morning run and then by the time I left the house to go to work is was about 8:00AM. I walk down the street to where I parked my car last night. Well its not there anymore. Obviously I parked in the one place in all of Beacon Hill that is resident parking from 6PM to 7AM and my car got towed. Every other sign says 6PM to 8AM, but I guess that’s beside the point. Anyway, I call Michelle who thank goodness, finds my car for me. What would I do without her! It’s in South Boston so I hop in a cab. I end up at work around 9:30. It was actually pretty painless except for the $93 I had to pay to get my car out and the $75 ticket that was on my car when I picked it up. I think they must have put the ticket on my car as they were towing it away because really, there wasn’t enough time for all that to happen.

Ok so we worked really late on Thursday too (almost midnight again) and I just parked in a meter spot when I got home because it was all I could find. I knew I just had to get there by 8AM…of course I am maybe 10 minutes late in the morning and I get down there to find a $25 ticket on my car already!! Seriously the meter person must have all the tickets made up beforehand and then just run down the street putting them on the cars as fast as they can…..so in the past 2 days I have spent $200 on my car….awesome…one of the perks of working nonstop is that you are supposed to be able to save a lot of money but no not me, I find a way. Then on Friday I leave one assignment to go to the office to finish another assignment and I end up working until 4AM on a Friday night!! I got a lot of stuff done that urgently needed to be done but it was still pretty terrible……

Saturday I have a breakdown haha…I am so tired from weeks of 14 hour days and I have this whole assignment on top of the one I am working on that needs to be done by Monday and I just lose it….I go into work on Saturday and just start working hoping for a small miracle and I get one. My super BFFs (the best BFFs in the whole world totally bail me out. They spent 7 hours on Saturday night helping me finish up all of my work. It was really the greatest thing that could have ever happened. I am forever grateful to them!!

Sunday I head back into the office to finish up some more work. I’ve got coffees for me and Michelle and I hop into the elevator like normal but when I get to the 24th floor, the doors don’t open. I push a few buttons and wait another minute or two and nothing…..so now its 3:30 on Sunday and I am trying to finish up my work and I am stuck in the elevator!! I push the call button and they have to have someone come in to help me. I end up stuck in the elevator for half an hour!! Then it just bounced and the doors opened... I grabbed my stuff and got out of there as fast as I could!! I end up working until about 9 and made sure that I did not take that elevator down!

Now it’s Monday and so far nothing bad has happened. I really disappointed that I didn’t have any time to run this weekend since I had to spend the whole weekend doing work. Oh and now I am getting sick again!! I decided though that starting to day I was going to start being really positive and optimistic about everything and hope that it will turn my luck around! I just have to make it until Sunday and then Glenn and I will be on a plane to Costa Rica!!

Heat wave

I still just can’t get it right! I am getting ready to go running this morning and its still winter and it’s still dark out so of course I assume it must cold out. I mean it almost always is these days. So I put on my warm tights, my polar fleece winter hat, my gloves, a long sleeve shirt, and a jacket…..a little excessive I see now looking back and knowing that it was actually 50 degrees out and I probably could have worn a tee shirt and shorts, but by the time I got outside it was too late (plus I was still in disbelief that it could be so warm out), but it was that warm out. Shell and I were already overheating I think by the time we got to the end of the street, but it was like 5:20 in the morning and we were awake and outside already so you just keep running. We ended up doing 8 miles! And I realized when we were done that I was so distracted by how warm it was I didn’t start my watch timer or my ipod thing!! Such a bummer for the dork that has all of her runs documented in like 6 different places!!

Too much going on!

Ok so now that my blog has gone out to everyone at work and more I have become so busy that I am struggling to find time to write about my runs!! So here is a quick recap of what I can remember from out 6 mile run on Thursday – SNOW! Yeah that about sums it up!

Yesterday I didn’t get my act together early enough to run as much as I should have. I know….naughty Heather!! It was about 4PM when I was heading out to the door. With sunset at 5:36PM I decided that I would try to run about 9 miles as fast as I could so that I would be back before dark. It was pretty windy out but nice and sunny. I had some new running kicks too so that was extra exciting! Haha…..other than that the run was pretty uneventful as it usually is when I run by myself. And the super fun part about running in the city is that I get to run up a really big hill to get home! Its good practice. I keep saying that some day I am going to do a hill workout on the hill to my house, just up and down for a few miles, but I think I might not make it up the second time. Seriously when I get to the top of the hill I am sooo out of breath and I think my legs might give out! But like they say I guess, if it doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger. I’m hoping that my hill will make heartbreak seem like a speed bump!

Right back into it!

Yes I know two days ago we just ran a marathon, but now is not the time to be taking days off! We have the routine down so well! Tuesdays 10.5 miles before work, Thursdays 6.2 miles before work, and Sunday anywhere from 13 – 22 miles. Maybe if work gets less busy I would throw in an extra day of hills or something, but right now that is all I can muster up the energy for. We can’t stop now! There is 1 month and 22 days and 22 hours until Boston and I don’t want to throw away all the hard work I did through the cold busy winter! So we did it. We got up this morning and ran 4 miles. It felt no different than any other run. There is almost no lingering soreness. The legs just want to keep on moving!!

Fundraising news – I haven’t been able to envelope my letters and send them out yet. I tend to spend the 8 or 9 hours a day that I am not at work running and sleeping, so everything is all set and ready for action. I have the letters, the envelopes, stamps, pretty pens, address labels, printer to make them, and my list of who gets them. I’m hoping to carve out some time this weekend to do at least some if not all. In the meantime, I’ll just use the good old internet to spread the word through email.

A beautiful day for a marathon!

You couldn’t have asked for a better day! Actually the perfectness began the night before when Glenn made the most delicious eggplant parm for Michelle and my pre-race dinner. After sufficient carbo loading, we woke up Sunday morning and we ready to go! We each had our own little pre race rituals……Michelle needed blueberries and a banana and I needed a bagel with cream cheese from Dunkie’s. Once that was taken care of we were off to Hyannis to get our numbers and run 26.2 miles. We had good timing and were able to park right across from the hotel where it was starting. It was absolutely gorgeous outside! That is until we got out of the car. It was so cold and windy! We were a bit concerned, but didn’t really have time to worry about it as we had to get our numbers and race goodies (t-shirt, snack bar, and some pamphlets) and get back to the car. We were numbers 85 and 86, obviously we had been pretty excited about signing up for the race (we signed up in November I think). So we dropped our stuff off at the car and got our timing chips securely on our shoes and our numbers securely on our outfits and were ready to race….

The race started probably around 10:10AM and the weather was absolutely gorgeous! We crossed the starting line and the countdown to mile 26.2 began. The marathon consisted of two 13 mile loops and the race was also a 10km and half marathon. The first few miles were pretty crowded but we managed to carve out a place for ourselves and stick to a pretty consistent pace. It took about 6 or so miles to finally get in the groove. You know…..the place where you legs just move and you feel like you could go forever. The first loop was pretty uneventful, consisting of basically an 8 mile warm up and then 5 more miles of running. It was funny coming to the end of the first loop. Everyone was yelling “you’re almost done” because about three quarters of the people were only running the half. Then the half marathon people turn into the parking lot of the hotel and us few marathoners just ran right by and started up loop number 2.

Loop number 2 was very different from loop 1. Shell and I thought it would be terrible, having to run the same loop over again. It ended up being fine because I’m pretty sure by the time we got to the second loop we had completely forgotten running the first loop haha…so much so that we were actually concerned that we had missed a turn or something! No worries though, we managed to stay on track for the whole time. The miles in the second loop seemed to go by much faster too amazingly! My parents were also out for the second loop! By then the roads had opened so the paparazzi (aka my parents) could follow the route and snap photos all along the route! It was like nice little surprises every few miles! Mile 14 photos, mile 15 advil, mile 17 more photos and some power gel, miles 18-23 just keep running, miles 23-25 music and sing-a-long, and before we knew it we were done!! Finishing time: 4 hours 44 minutes and 27 seconds! I think I even got a little sunburn on my nose! That’s what a perfect day for running it was! The post race meal consisted of a cup of chili, turkey club sandwich, French fries, and a big Miller Lite followed by another hearty helping of Glenn’s eggplant parm 4 hours later!

Almost Hyannis

Well my sickness dragged on through the weekend so I did not get any running done between Friday and today. It peaked on Saturday and Sunday and so I had to actually call in sick on Saturday. Yes it’s pretty pathetic that I had to call in sick on a Saturday but it is busy season and I just keep telling myself that everything will balance out when I don’t have to work very much over the summer.

We adjusted the running schedule a little this week due to the Hyannis Marathon being on Sunday and my still lingering sickness. So this morning we ran 6 miles. It was cold and Michelle and I were beat (of course we had both been working until around midnight last night), but with the morning run as the highlight of our days we couldn’t pass it up. The runs are like our little therapy sessions. I would say about three quarters of the time we complain about work and the last quarter we complain about other stuff and play catch up! It’s really good to get it all out in the morning and usually, it makes for a much more pleasant day. I was a little concerned about the run after taking 4 days off, but it was fine. And I am pleased to report I think we are both ready to knock out 26 miles on Sunday!! Yeah that’s it. I don’t really have too much to say today.

Fighting it....

So it happened. I got sick. It as inevitable really with all the sickness around me so as much as I was fighting it and doing everything I could to prevent it, it still happened. It started Wednesday. No coughing or stuffy nose or anything just really tired and achy body. I continued with my cold prevention strategy though hoping to stop it in its tracks…..lots of water, three a day doses of airborne, frequent hand washing, tea, etc. We left work a 9:30 and I went straight to bed when I got home. Michelle and I had decided earlier to push our Thursday run to Friday this week, which was perfect because there was no way I thought I could drag myself out of bed at 5:15. I woke up Thursday with a little bit of a sore throat, but other than that I felt fantastic! Oh I was so good! I was convinced that I was the only person in the world that could cure the common cold in one day haha. Not so much luck. Yesterday was runny nose day. I kept fighting though with the same remedies as Wednesday PLUS some cold ez and cold medicine that I found in the first aid kit outside our audit room. I felt pretty good all day and was ready to get back to running Friday.

The alarm goes off tis morning and I get up with the worst sore throat (I think the air is just extra dry in my apt.) but I wasn’t sleeping that well anyway so I figured I would go for my run anyway, you know, to get the blood flowing. The run went really well. We were one and half minutes faster than our next fastest time. Even though the breathing was a little tough and the throat was a little sore, I’m glad I went. We’ve got the Hyannis Marathon coming up next weekend and now is not the time to throw away all that hard work we have been doing!!

What to wear??

Today it was cold again like it was at the very beginning of January. Running in the cold isn’t so bad. Surprisingly, you warm up quite a bit when you start running. Unfortunately, I have yet to master dressing for the temperature. For some reason I just can’t seem to get it right. I had checked the weather before I left work last night and the forecast a 6AM was 20 degrees feels like 1 degree so at 5:15 I figured if anything it would be a little colder. This is what I ended up leaving the house in: a long sleeve shirt, a light fleece pullover, my reflective jacket, running tights, sweatpants, 2 pairs of gloves, a headband, and a hat…oh and a scarf for my face. A little excessive I now know, but I kept picturing how cold I was yesterday and I couldn’t help myself. The rule is that when you go outside you should feel cool. I felt comfortable so right away I knew I should have run back in a dropped off a layer, but I wasn’t ready to give up any warmth. By the time I met Michelle (who I think was wearing 3 times as less layers than me), I was pretty warm.

The scarf was off within the first mile. Other than that I did ok. I definitely would have been fine without the fleece pullover, but truthfully, I could have used another pair of gloves! I keep saying that I am going to start wearing big ski mittens when I run, but I always forget until I’m mid-run and my hands are freezing. I could have used them today. Even wrapping the scarf around my hands (which mind you were each inside 2 gloves) was not enough to warm them up. I’ve decided that my fingers just can’t keep themselves warm on their own. They need each other, so mittens it is! We knocked out our 10.5 mile run for the week almost 3 minutes faster than our next fastest time! And I managed to make a few mental notes about dressing appropriately for running in the winter. All in all I would say it was a pretty productive morning!

In fundraising news…..I sent my letter to staples to get copied yesterday. My plan tomorrow is to stop and get the letters, some pretty pens, and lots of envelopes. I already have the stamps and the address labels. Then hopefully by this weekend, I will start stuffing the envelopes!

Mother Nature and her funny jokes

Ok so yesterday (Sunday) was my big long run day. I was a little disappointed that once again I spent Saturday at work and then I had to spend 3 and a half hours of my one day off running, which then actually causes the remainder of my day to be a complete waste as I spend much of it sitting on the couch recovering and feeding. I got over it quickly though because the weather was absolutely gorgeous! It was 45 degrees out and sunny. I couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather.

I set off on the same path as last weekend, to the bike trail, this time running out 10 and a half miles before turning around and heading back. Yup 21 miles was the plan. I left around 11AM to find many people out walking and biking on the trail. In an unusual fashion I actually decided today to have my music playing on my ipod (very low of course so I could still heard everything around me, but just loud enough that I could make out what song was playing). I never ever listen to music while I’m running but due to the length of my run and the fact that I had just run the same place last week, I thought it might be necessary. I run along uneventfully until I get to about mile 8 where it seems that the sun is gone. Then I notice some rain drops, but nothing too concerning, so obviously I keep going and the sun comes back. I get to the turn around point (Seaview Ave. in Brewster) and head back noticing that the sun is going away again. Its getting eerily dark and I begin to wonder what I am in for just hoping with all hope that it is not thunder and lightning (yeah I’m terrified of it). I get back to the same spot as it was raining before (so I have about 8 miles left) and it just starts downpouring coupled with some nice wind gusts. I’m pretty sure I was not dressed appropriately for rain, but I stick my ipod in my back pocket, wrap my freezing hands in my shirt and keep going. The only way to get out of the rain is to get home and the fastest way to get home is to keep running. To my extreme delight about 2 miles later I can see the sun up ahead. Its still raining on me of course but there was hope so I try to pick up the pace (just a little because at this point my legs just plain hurt, not like muscle sore, just aching). I finally made it to the sun and it was awesome. It actually even stayed out until I finished 3 hours and 24 minutes after I had started. Boy was I happy to be finished with that run! And yes I did spend the rest of the day on the couch eating anything and everything that I could find!

It's an obsession...

Today’s run flew by! It is the one month anniversary of the kick off of marathon training 2008 and I am still completely motivated and not too exhausted yet! Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary to report. We got about 6 and a half miles in and I still managed to get to work by 8:15 all geared up for a solid 12 hours at least of work.

In other news, I am completely obsessed with tracking my training. I have this blog, various maps, a spreadsheet, the Nike+ iPod tracker thing, and I write it in my calendar. I am a huge fan of the Nike tracker thing except for the fact that it overstates my mileage by about 12% (that’s the average variance of all my runs which I also track on a different spreadsheet). I need to take it to a track a fix it, but for now Nike thinks I have run 128 miles since January 8th when I really have only run 114 miles. Yes I know that it is off because I am crazy and 1) there is no way I am running as fast as it says I am to complete all that extra fake miles and 2) I definitely go on the internet and map all my runs after I am done (even if I mapped it out before I ran and even if I have a map telling me how far it is). Back to the Nike thing, it’s really very cool. It keeps track of all my runs with pretty little charts and graphs and you can enter different challenges that people set up. Right now I’m in two challenges: the light beer challenge and one called bragging rights. In the light beer challenge you pick your favorite light beer and then all your miles and everyone else’s that picked that one go towards it and the first beer to 800 miles wins. I of course picked Nick Lacheys otherwise know as Miller Lite, the best light beer there is! Up until today, we were winning but somehow bud light just pulled ahead….The other one is an individual challenge where the person that runs the most miles in the month of February wins. Right now I’m in 4th place, which is pretty cool. Ok well now that you all think I am a total dork, I’m going to get back to work!

Wild Weather

This morning started out like every other Tuesday morning. The alarm went off at five and I hit snooze, but then got up because I didn’t want to be late for meeting Michelle. I had heard it was supposed to rain today so I peeked out the window. Oh yay! There was no rain and it didn’t seem too cold out. This was especially good because I forgot my winter running hat on the Cape and the only other hat I could find in my apartment was a mesh camouflage Toyota trucker hat. (Of course I wore it!) Then I headed out the door to meet Michelle.

The first half of our 10.5 mile run went as usual. They did try to more securely close the section of our running path that was under construction, but we managed to squeeze our skinny little selves right though the gate and keep on course. We got to the half way still moving along……and then it started. The precipitation…..It started as hail. Getting pelted with little tiny pebbles wasn’t so bad. It could have been worse. Of course it didn’t hail for too long before turning to rain. The rain went back and forth between heavy and sprinkles basically for the rest of the run, which meant wet heavy feet and cold hands trying to stay warm in wet gloves. We managed to not let the rain get in our way (plus the faster we got home the faster we were out of the rain). Mother Nature was not yet impressed with our resilience though so she got us for the last few miles with some very strong wind in our faces. Nevertheless, we obviously kept running and made it home 3 minutes faster then our next fastest time. Take that Mother Nature!

So it was quite a morning. It was one of those days that makes you feel like a really hardcore runner, as you are running 10 and a half miles through puddles in the hail, rain, and wind before the sun has even come up. I’m pretty sure I loved every second of it though! (except for maybe the really cold hands…..next time I’ll wear my super mittens.)

Super Sunday

What a fantastic day for running! What a difference a week makes! The plan was for 15 miles and I even mapped it out ahead of time. When I am running out and back by myself, I tend to forget that I actually have to run home. I left around 11:40 after a fantastic breakfast made for me by my Glenn. I definitely wore too many clothes. I still have winter on my mind and left in 2 long sleeve shirts, a winter hat, and gloves. After about 10 minutes the gloves were off. I ran down to the bike path and then headed around the bike path rotary towards Brewster. It took me about 4 miles to warm up and after that I was running at a pretty good pace. I got to the turn around point 4 minutes after crossing Underpass Rd in Brewster at 1 hr. 13 minutes, thinking that I had 7.6 miles under my belt. I headed back keeping up my pace. I think my legs were excited about how nice out it was. With about 3 miles to go though, I think they (my legs) decided that they were done and were no longer interested in running. I didn't listen to them and kept on going. That's the fastest way to get home. I got home at 2 hours and 29 minutes. Not bad but I felt like I was running a bit faster than that so I hopped on the internet and mapped it out. It ended up being 16.2 miles! So pumped!! Here's a quick recap of things I saw on my run: lots of runners and bikers, 3 rollerbladers, 8 dogs, 2 groups of troublemaking kids, one creepy looking guy with a mustache smoking a cigar, 3 cranberry bogs, 5 ponds, and 2 Patriots shirts! What a day! Now I'm looking forward to stuffing my face and watching all the new funny super bowl commercials. Go PATS!

Early Mornings

Ok so it has been about 3 days since I started this blog and I am already behind! I've got to get it together!!

Tuesday - Tuesday morning 5:00 happened way to fast. I was not ready to get out of bed at all. Maybe it would have been easier if I had not forgotten my house keys at work last night (not realizing this until I was nicely tucked into a parking spot) only to find that when I drove back to the office building I was working at, the outside door was locked. After 20 minutes of waiting and calling everyone to tell them (knowing there was nothing they could do) someone walked out of the building and I managed to get in, but I did get home about 2 hours after I left work the first time. Ok back to running......Luckily I am meeting Michelle so I subdue my urges to hit the snooze and drag myself out of bed. Once I get outside, I forget that I was tired and start get pumped for the run. Shelli and I are running 10.5 miles around the Charles, the standard Tuesday morning run. The run was going good, but it was dark and icey so extra caution was needed. Even with all the ice and snow and trail constuction I managed to only take one tumble and my gloves took the brunt of the fall. I think my legs were still a little tired from 18 miles on Sunday. I was glad though to get the longer run over on Tuesday.

Thursday - This morning was easy morning. I met Michelle at the bottom of the hill again. I swear if it were not for meeting Michelle, I would never be able to drag myself out of bed in the morning to run, even though as soon as I actually physically get out of bed I feel good to go. I'm just too good at hitting the snooze. Today we met at 5:30 and we did a short 6.7 mile run around the river haha. It still sounds funny to have the short day be almost 7 miles and it did really feel short when we were running! We were done in just over an hour! Now I just have a nice long day of work to look forward to.

Snow and hills!

So for all of last week, my plan was to run 16-18 miles one day this weekend. My preference is always Saturday because then it is over with but this weekend Saturday wasn't a good day because I spent most of the daylight at work. Yes its busy season so I spend almost all of my waking hours at work. As a result I was going to have to do my run on Sunday. I woke up at 9AM to find about an inch of snow on the ground and more coming down. Just enough to rid the sidewalks of all traction. I had to go though so I threw on my running gear, my hat, and my gloves and headed out the door. The plan was to head across the common and the garden, down Comm Ave to Fenway and then take the marathon route backwards to the bottom of "heartbreak hill" and then run back up the hill.



Things were going pretty well except for the snow blowing in my face and the slipping with every step and I just kept trucking on. I passed BC an hour in and then headed down the hills. For all of you that may think I am crazy for being out there running in that weather, I'd say I say about 30 other people running up and down the hill on my journey. In my head I was picturing running to the corner where the marathon turns onto comm ave, but I couldn't quite get a grasp on where I was. Usually when I am running there it is April and about 80 degrees. The snow was a good disguise.



I never did make it to the bottom. For once I listened to my watch instead of my brain and turned around when the watch 1 hr. 26 minutes. I didn't want run too far out because as I sometimes like to forget, I have to run back. The run back was pretty uneventful. The hills didn't seem too bad. There was one panic attack where I was removing ice from my eyelashes (yes it was that nice out) and it appeared that a large portion of my eyelashes had also come off with the ice (it ended up that wasn't the case). However I spent the last 5 miles of my run wondering just how in the world I was going to explain / disguise this problem. I ended the run 18 miles and 2 hours and 53 minutes from when I started, a bit tired, extremely hungry, and super pumped that I had done it!

Welcome to my blog!!

Hi Everyone!!

Welcome to my blog and thanks for visiting!! So this year I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to keep up with my training and so was born this blog. I'm thinking that if I know people are checking up on me and my progress then it will push me a little harder to get out of bed in the morning to go running.

For those of you that don't know, on April 21, 2008, I'm running the Boston Marathon for the 6th time as a member of the Dana Farber Marathon challange team! It is such a wonderful team and a fantastic cause that I can't stop! Last year a raised just under $6,000 and this year I'm shooting for $7,500! If you would like to donate visit https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=225656&lis=0&kntae225656=FB437D913D8D4E2D9D59DAFCB305F399&supId=11714731

A Quick Summary of my training thus far.....
I officially kicked off my training January 8th with 6.7 mile loop around the river with one of my BFFs Michelle at 5:45 AM. It went so well that we did it again on Thursday. After a long week at work (12+ hour days) and Saturday, I did not make it out to run on the weekend.

The next week I skipped Tuesday run and met Michelle at 5:15 on Thursday morning to do our 6.7 mile loop around the Charles. That Saturday I was on the Cape and ran about 13 miles down the bike trail to Chatham (My Nike+ run tracker said I ran 14.5 miles however I have found that it is over by about 10-15%). I was pretty wiped after that. I think it was the longest I had run since the marathon last year!

The week beginning 1/21, Shell and I picked it up a notch running 10.5 miles on Tuesday morning at 5:30AM. Let me tell you there is nothing better than getting that long run in and then working for 12+ hours....Thursday we ran a quick 4 miles.