Pocket Aces

Lehigh Valley Half Marathon Recap!

2010-05-02T20:56:00.000-04:00

Sorry it took me so long! I was waiting for some race pictures so hopefully it was worth the wait! Here we go...this is going to be a long one! (So long that I won't blame you if you don't read it!)

Let's start from Saturday morning (the morning before the race). I woke up at 7 hoping that an early-ish wake up would help me fall asleep on Saturday night. I finished packing and anxiously awaited Mom and Vic's arrival to the Lehigh Valley. We went out to a nice lunch on the North Side and got all caught up with one another. Then we headed to Allentown for packet pick-up for the race and to check in to the hotel.

Vic and Me at the race expo

We walked around the race expo, and got our bibs and shoe tags. Then we got fleece vests that said St. Luke's Lehigh Valley Half Marathon on them. They were really poor quality (like felt), so Vic and I decided to use them as our throw away clothes instead of something that we sort of liked. FYI throw away clothes are clothes that you wear at the beginning of the race and then toss them once you start running. Usually races will donate the discarded clothing. I had looked earlier in the week at Target for a hoodie or something, but they mostly only had summer clothes or they cost more money that I wanted to spend for something I was just going to throw away. So the crappy fleece vest was the perfect choice.

Next, we spotted Christopher McDougall, the author of Born to Run. I went over and said hi and told him that I was a fan of the book. I was going to run back to the car to get my book but he said he had to leave soon to go over to the kid's race that was going on across the street so I didn't bother. But it was still cool to meet him! Then mom bought me a fuel belt because we didn't think Vic's would be big enough for all of our stuff for race day. We ended up not using it for the race because you aren't supposed to do anything new on race day, but I'm excited to use it later! Mom also got us 13.1 stickers and magnets that we made her hold hostage until after the race...when we really deserved them haha!

The sticker

After, we checked into the hotel and we went on the hunt for a grocery store to buy some instant oatmeal to make for breakfast in the hotel room pre-race. Then Mom left us and Vic and I chilled in the hotel room until our Team in Training dinner. While we were in the room I remembered that I had a little something for Vic and I asked her if she wanted her present before or after the race. She said before so I decided to give it to her then. I bought us each a bracelet with a charm on it that has 13.1 on one side and Courage Strength Resolve on the other side. I think she really liked it!

Blurry shot of the charm

Around 6:00 we headed down the street to Allentown Brewworks. When we got there we headed up to the second floor (which is where Vic had her senior formal for Lehigh a couple years ago!). On our way up the stairs the coaches and mentors were cheering and using noise makers, etc. It really pumped us up! Then we got dinner (crappy pasta and chicken..I would have rather cooked myself...oh well) and watched a slide show of pictures of the people that everyone was running in honor/memory of. Then, we listened to some speakers. To be totally honest, a lot of times when there are speakers at TNT events I zone out. Listening to people tell survivor stories just makes me think...well that's not fair. Don't get me wrong, survivor stories are awesome and great for the survivor (duh), but it can be kind of hard to listen to such "happy" stories.

<3 Dad's birthday party April, 2009

Then they announced the top 3 fundraisers from both Philly and Lehigh Valley (there were about 50 runners from these regions). Vic and I were the top 2 from Philly (and overall) woo! So again thanks for all of your support!! Anyone who raised more than $1,000 above the fundraising minimum (which we shattered) is considered a "rockstar" and we got lots of cool rockstar stuff! We go PA Rock Star stickers to put on our race singlets, Rock Star hats, Rock Star energy drinks (ew), and Rock Star certificates. It was fun and I Vic and I referred to ourselves as rock stars for the whole weekend!

Vic with her sticker

Some of our TNT teammates and us

After the dinner we had a team meeting where the coaches gave tips for the race in the morning. They told us to enjoy the moment, they told us when to fuel, and what to wear, etc, etc, etc. Then we got to decorate our race singlets! They suggested that we write our names on them so that coaches and spectators could yell out our names when cheering us on during the race. Even though our bib's had our names on them already it was still fun to make our singlets our own. We wrote our names on tape across the tops of our shirts and then put our rock star stickers at the end of our names. On the back we pinned a picture of Daddy and wrote <3 Running for Daddy <3

The front of my singlet

The front of Vic's singlet

and our sign on the back

After decorating, we went back to the hotel and got in bed. It was ridiculously early but we wanted to get a good night's sleep. We watched part of a movie and chatted for a while. Then we truned the TV off and were just falling asleep when it sounded like someone was trying to come into our room! We kind of freaked out and that didn't help with falling asleep, so we watched some more of our movie and eventually fell asleep. I woke up a few times during the night, but slept much better than I thought I would. My alarm was set for 5:30 am (aka insanely early) but I woke up at 5 and never ended up falling asleep again.

Race Day!
At 5:30 we got up and got dressed. We made our coffee pot oatmeal and snapped a few pre-race pictures.

Vic pre-race

Blurry mirror picture

Before we knew it, it was time to go downstairs to meet the team in the lobby. When we opened the door there were signs on our door that said "a hero sleeps behind this door" and there were letters from TNT. That was what had scared us the night before haha! It was a fun last minute thing to see before heading to the race.

Waiting in the lobby

It looked like it was pretty rainy out but luckily Vic had picked up 2 ponchos from Target for us to wear. After waiting around in the lobby, we headed out to the shuttle bus which would bring us to William Allen High School, which was right near the race start. We went in the high school gym, found the bathroom, and hung around for a while before heading out into the rain to the starting line.

While we were waiting we saw one of Vic's friends from college who was also running the race! It was fun to see a familiar face. Once again, time flew and it was time to head out to the starting line. Vic and I had our ponchos and fleece vests over our race singlets, but I really wanted to show off my singlet and ditched my fleece before the race even started.Someone sang the national anthem and we were off!!! It was a little bit slow getting to the start line, but once we crossed it we were moving! After about a tenth of a mile we decided to toss our ponchos because it wasn't raining very hard at all. I had my iPod on really, really loud, I had mentioned not using my iPod for the race so I could take everything in, but I think the music helped to keep me motivated throughout the race and get in my zone...even if it did mean hearing damage :-/

At first the miles flew by, we were definitely moving slower than my usual pace, but I was sticking with Vic no matter what! There were about 5 or 6 water stations on the course and at each one I grabbed a cup of water. I would pinch the top to help sip it and not spill it all over myself while still running. But, somehow, at each stop I still ended up covered in water! Whoops! We saw 2 of the coaches, Aram and Brooke, at one point but we were feeling good and not that chatty, so they left us to go see if any other TNT runners needed help. The next picture I stole from the website...I know it's copyright infringement, but I wasn't paying 50 bucks for 3 mediocre pictures...so sorry to any super law abiding readers, and sorry for the poor quality.

Running!

Around mile 5, Vic says she started to fade, and I did everything I could to keep her pumped up. Just after that we saw Mom and Aunt Nancy!!! I was so happy to see them!

Hard to see, but we are in the middle of the picture waving!

Around mile 6, they had Gu (icky fuel for runners that skeeves me out) but I thought it was a little too early in the race (which others probably strongly disagree with but I didn't want to upset my tummy) so I didn't even think to mention to Vic that we should take our home-packed fuel out of her Spi Belt. I brought grapes and Vic brought pretzels. Soon after, we hit the half way point! We were on a trail for a bit here, and it was a nice change from the pavement, especially since I was so used to training on the trail around here. Vic was struggling and I kept trying to keep her spirits up. I even tried singing to her (Hey, Soul Sister by Train) but I'm not sure the other runners liked that too much even though I have such a lovely voice. Then, we ran into one of the TNT coaches, Linda, and she ran with us for a little bit before stopping to wait for other runners.

As we continued on, I was trying to help Vic but I was also beginning to get frustrated about the slower than usual (for me) pace. We ended up bickering a little bit and I would run ahead a little and then wait for Vic. We ran through a covered bridge around mile 8, which I had noted on the map as being late-ish in the race, so that was exciting to have hit that point. We ran into Linda again and Vic mentioned that we hadn't fueled at all (other than water). I had completely forgotten about it!! Oops! Linda told us to eat now so it would hit us by mile 10. Usually I would stop to eat a little something, but I wanted to keep moving, so I ate my grapes while running. Vic felt like she was going to choke on her pretzels, so we slowed to a walk for about a minute.

Throughout the race there were rolling hills, but it was around this point that we hit some SUPER steep hills. I'm talking...vertical inclines. Surprisingly I felt amazing going up them. I didn't train much on hills (aside from some hills on my shorter runs, or if I ever ran back from the trail on long runs), so it was cool that I could tackle the hills without much effort. On one of the hills, just after Vic and I had been arguing about pace, a woman passed us. She had read the signs on our backs and said, "You're making Daddy proud". It was so amazing to hear that, and may or may not have made me tear up a bit. Then we crossed the same point where we had seen Mom and Nancy before and they were still there cheering for us. While Mom took pictures I ran up and gave Nancy a high five while cheering my head off!

High five!

Soon we hit mile 10! Only 3 more miles! These were harder miles because you could see the stadium (where the race ended), but we knew we still had to go out and back for a stretch before we would do our last turn around and be on the home stretch. And it was kind of windy, so every time you thought you were at the end, the course would curve and you would see that you actually had a ways more to go.

More running!

After that point though, we saw Aram again, and he helped Vic power through. Aram left us for a little bit to go help some other runners, but then he found us again around mile 12 and he ran with Vic for almost the rest of the way. Then Brooke found me and she ran with me even though I was feeling amazing. She even said to me she had never seen anyone with such a big smile on their face at mile 12! I told her I was ready for a full marathon! It might have been all of the endorphins talking...but we'll see!

Just before the stadium there was a huge incline, which we had been warned about, and even though I was feeling great, how evil is it to put a huge hill at mile 13?!?! As we were powering up that hill Vic saw 2 of her co-workers and I saw my best friend Danielle and her boyfriend Bob holding up an "I <3 Team Berenholz" sign. I jumped up and down and cheered when I saw them! Then we were in the stadium and I grabbed Vic's hand. We had less than a lap around the track to go and we picked up our pace slightly. We saw our family cheering us on which was just the motivation we needed to finish that last little stretch.

Here we come!!

Then we crossed the finish line hand-in-hand. We had finished!!!! Our chip time was 2:22:20. My Garmin was messed up the whole race so I don't know our splits, but our average pace was 11:06. While that is slower than I trained I am so proud that Vic and I did this together!!

Another stolen picture. Us crossing the finish line!!!!!

They wrapped us in the space blanket thingys (I don't know the real term) to lock the heat in and then we got our finisher's medals! I was so excited!

So happy!

Then I found Danielle and Bob and as we were looking for our family we saw one of the the old instructors from my gym and he told us he thought our hand holding finish was awesome. We took some more pictures and drank a little water.

Holding our sign

We did it!!

We signed in at the TNT booth and got some race pins and then we headed to the car. It was kind of crazy how quickly everything ended! Vic and I went back to the hotel to shower and pack up. Then we headed back up towards school for a post-race lunch. I was ready to crash the whole time, and basically as soon as we were done we left and Mom dropped me back off at my house. When I went into my room I saw that Danielle had propped up the sign she had held up for me at the race. I gave her the play-by-play of my race and I lounged around and relaxed for the rest of the day. I tried to fight off napping because I didn't want to screw up my sleep schedule too much. When I finally let myself go sleep I passed out as soon as I hit the pillow and slept for 10.5 hours!

Since I had such an incredible time at the race, it gave me a clearer answer to the "what's next?" question. I will definitely be doing distance runs again in the future. For the days following the race (this past week), I took it easy and made sure my legs fully recovered from the race. I ended up taking 2 days off from working out and then did some easy stuff the rest of the week. I haven't done any real running since the race and I don't want to lose any of my endurance so I plan to get back to it this week. As fun as I think it would be to do a triathlon, I think for now I'll be sticking to just running. I want to do a half marathon for time, and I'd like to try doing some training runs longer than 13 miles to see if a full is in the cards. It might not be, and I'm okay with that, but if there was a ever a time to find out/do a full marathon, I think now is it! As long as I'm still having fun training and if I like doing even longer long runs, then I think I'll go for it.

I have also gotten a ton of requests to keep blogging. There is definitely a negative connotation associated with blogging.

But, I have really enjoyed keeping track of my training and telling Daddy stories, and why not do what you enjoy?! So, for those of you who have liked reading this blog...you're in luck! Check out my new blog http://runningintherealworld.wordpress.com/ I will be writing about training for my next race (whenever and whatever that is) and about moving into Philly post-graduation (hopefully sometime soon). Of course my posts will still have Dad-isms in them because he is always with me. Whatever comes next, Dad is in my heart <3

Thanks for reading thanks for donating, and thanks for your support.

--Melissa

Race Recap Teaser

2010-04-26T09:39:00.000-04:00

We did it!!! Vic and I ran the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon yesterday and it was amazing!!! Race recap to come once I get all of the pictures back and our chip times, etc. But it was such an incredible day.

Finishers medal!!!!

--Melissa

Birthday

2010-04-23T09:48:00.000-04:00

Today Dad would have been 51 years old. It's a weird day for all of us. Weird to think that a year ago we were celebrating Dad's 50th birthday with a big, fun party at our house.

The 4 of us at Dad's 50th birthday party, April, 2009 <3

Today would be an excellent day to go for a head-clearing run. Too bad we're in rest mode. Tomorrow we have the race expo and some other race related events. Then Sunday is the big day!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

--Melissa

So Close

2010-04-22T08:57:00.000-04:00

It's official. I am DONE with training for the half marathon which is THIS Sunday!!! So crazy. I woke up this morning not really feeling like getting up. I knew I could have technically skipped this run and it wouldn't have mattered, but I have this irrational fear that every time I go out for a run I won't be able to do it. I have no idea why I think this, because I have run regularly for quite some time now. Whatever the reason for my irrationality, I still wanted to prove to myself that I could do these last 4 training miles.

I got up and decided to head down to the trail because it's easier to run on and today was not supposed to be a difficult run or anything. As I headed out I kept repeating in my head "nice, easy 4 miles, that's it" because I didn't want to over do it today. My first mile was slow and steady, the next one was a little faster, and the third mile was slightly faster than the second. Since I knew I had negative splits for the first 3 miles I couldn't let that slip away and I just let my legs do their thing for the last mile. So much for nice and easy. Here are the splits:

Mile 1: 10:30
Mile 2: 10:07
Mile 3: 9:59
Mile 4: 9:06
Mile 5: 18:02 (cool down)
.04: 44 seconds (cool down)

I've said it a zillion times, but this race is not about time, and so I'm trying to relax about that for Sunday. But, when it comes to running, I am pretty competitive against myself (not really against other people) and I do have a goal in mind for Sunday. I would like to run the race exactly how I ran today, with the first 5 miles at a steady pace, the second 5 at a medium pace, the last ~3 at a fast-ish pace and the last half or quarter of a mile as fast as my legs are willing to go. We'll see how things go this weekend, but this race is about so much more than just time and I'm really excited about running with my sister. That being said...I have my eye on another half marathon in September...but let's get through Sunday first!

13.1 here I come!!!

Happy Earth Day!

--Melissa

What's next?

2010-04-20T14:53:00.000-04:00

This morning I did a "trial run" of what I'll wear for race day. I had pants on the bottom, even though I love my shorts, the weather has been a bit more chilly lately. On top I wore a long sleeved UnderArmor top, with my purple TNT race singlet on top. If it's not too cold on race day I will ditch the UnderArmor, but this morning it was cold-- I even wore my gloves! I was only supposed to run 4 miles today, but when I hit mile 4 I wanted to keep going. So I did 4.5...shh don't tell. I was excited to do that last half mile because I finally figured out how to work the lap button on my Garmin, so I didn't have to do any mental math to figure out that split! Then I cooled down with a mile of walking. The splits:

Mile 1: 9:47
Mile 2: 9:56
Mile 3: 9:31
Mile 4: 9:43
4.5: 4:53
Cool down mile: 17:27

This run felt really great. I can definitely see myself continuing to do 4-5 mile runs in the morning before class (for the next week)/work (once I start). Which brings me to..."what's next?!" I wasn't going to talk about this until after the race, to see how that went, but I'm sure I will have a lot to say after the race, and I'd rather cover this now...

People have been asking me what I plan to do after the race in terms of running. I will definitely, 100% keep running. I'll probably take a week or 2 off to let myself recover, but then I plan to get back at it. I probably won't run on consecutive days like I used to do in the fall, but I can see myself running 3-4 times per week (every other day).

I'm assuming I'm going to love the racing atmosphere and unless I'm wrong, I would like to sign up for another race at some point. Since I'm not doing this race for time, and I plan on crossing the finish line hand-in-hand with Vic, I think I would like to do a half marathon for time at some point. I'm pretty burnt out from training, but it's also been a lot of fun, so I would do it again.

While I'll never say never, I just don't think a full marathon is in the future for me. Doing training runs of 10, 11, and 12 miles was time consuming enough...imagine the time commitment for 18, 20, 22 mile training runs!! Ah! I think I'd enjoy doing shorter distances...like 5k and 10k...for fun or for time.

The big one, that I can't believe I'm even going to mention, is that I've had in the back of my mind...trying a triathlon. I know I could handle the run, I think I could handle the bike, and with a little practice/ getting over my fear of open water (or the Schuykill River) I could probably, maybe do the swim? Again, I never say never, and this may or may not happen at some point in the future.

Obviously, I still have to get through this Sunday, and then we'll see from there! Whatever it is I end up doing though I know Dad will be with me through every mile!

Dad and Me before my prom, April, 2006

--Melissa

Poker Face

2010-04-18T13:57:00.000-04:00

This weekend one of Daddy's doctors, Dr. Weber, and Vic planned the Robert Berenholz Memorial Poker Tournament. Dr. Weber and Daddy bonded over their love of poker and Dad had planned on going to Atlantic City to kick his butt haha. Friends of Dad, some of Vic's friends from Puerto Rico, and some family came together to play in a poker tournament with the money going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The tournament was a huge success! We had 27 players, and we ended up raising over $3,600 for LLS!! And...as if we didn't know it before, the tournament kind of showed that I am my father's daughter. Dad taught me everything he knew about poker, and I guess it payed off because I WON! Daddy would have been proud :)

That chip is worth $500! I'm wearing Dad's "I knocked out a pro" tee shirt

After the tournament, Vic, her friends who were in town, and I went out in Philly sporting our awesome new tee-shirts!

This morning, Vic and I went for our last team run. Since we were staying in a hotel in Philly we got to have a "practice run" for race day. We got dressed and made some hot water in the coffee pot in the hotel room to make pre-run oatmeal. Then we headed down to Kelly Drive for an easy 6 miles. Before we set out, one of the guys who works for TNT, Andy, announced the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon fundraising total-- I think it was about $40,000! Since other TNT team members are running in different races later in the season Andy wanted to get them jazzed about fundraising and he gave Vic and Me a shout out for having the highest fundraising total on the team! So thanks to everyone who helped us get to our fundraising goal and more!!

After that, we set out for our run. My iPod battery died so I ran part way without music, which was actually kind of nice and since there are going to be 14 bands on the course for the race I might run without it next Sunday. My Garmin memory was also full, so I turned it off because it makes a really annoying beeping sound every tenth of a mile when the memory is low. I'm glad I had these 2 tech glitches this week rather than next week. I will definitely charge my iPod if I decide I want it for next week and I already cleared my Garmin's memory.

Since this was a taper week, the TNT coaches instructed us to just take it easy and not try to PR or anything today. There was one point around mile 4 where I was itching to pick up the pace but I held back because I know it will be worth it come Sunday.

Since I ran without my Garmin and Vic left her's in the car I'm not quite sure what our splits were. But that's ok, because next week we are definitely going to go slow and steady, and I'm trying not to get caught up with time.

After the run, Vic and I got a bunch of info about the race for next weekend, our race day shirts, and lots of other cool TNT stuff. Then we chatted with the coaches for a while about this upcoming week. I told one of the coaches that I was planning on doing 5 miles both Tuesday and Thursday (as usual). The coach told me to only do 3, but I negotiated and she said 4 would be fine. So just 8 miles stand between me and the starting line! I can't believe that the race is finally upon us!

--Melissa

No run

2010-04-15T23:17:00.000-04:00

Ok, ok I know I said I wanted a break from running...but I swear I didn't mean it (although a no-pressure-3-mile-run does sound pretty fabulous). The running gods are punishing me for saying I was burnt out. I also know that I probably sound like the biggest hypochondriac in the world...

ha.

First my IT band, my ankle (which now feels fine), my toe (which I've never mentioned on the blog...but I have "runners toe"...it's gross, believe me, you're glad I haven't talked about it), and now this...

On Tuesday night I was at work when my left knee started to feel funny. I thought nothing of it...I may have been sitting with my knee locked out and my laptop on my lap? Or maybe it was from Tuesday morning's run? Anyway, I woke up Wednesday morning and it hurt to even walk. I took some Advil and it ended up feeling good enough to go to Spinning class. I felt completely fine throughout my spin, but then last night my knee started to hurt again. A lot. I'm guilty of "running through pain" which ALWAYS is bad news. Last night I decided to make absolutely sure my knee felt okay before going on a run this morning. When my alarm went off I knew I wasn't going anywhere. I went back to bed (poor me! haha) and when I woke up an hour and a half later my knee was still hurting...so I popped some more Advil. I headed off to class and again my knee felt fine. I didn't feel much pain for most of the day, and after work as I was driving home to Philly I thought I saw a run in my future!

When I got home, I was mentally plotting a 5 mile route for myself when I felt a twinge of pain in my knee. "It's not there, nothing's wrong, I'm fine, etc, etc, etc" were the thoughts that flew through my head....but I couldn't ignore it. No run :( Since the team run isn't until Sunday I can technically go for a run tomorrow and still get a rest day on Saturday, but I'm only going if my knee feels 100%. The "old" me would have pushed through the pain, but with the race just days away I'm trying to do anything and everything to make sure nothing happens to me before April 25. I know skipping one 5 mile run will not make or break the race, so I'm okay with skipping one of this week's runs, but I really hope giving myself the extra rest is worth it!

In class today I swear every single person around me was hacking up a lung coughing or sneezing. My professor even claimed that she had some weird stomach bug on Tuesday and asked us not to leave if she had to uh...toss her cookies. I can get sick on April 26, but until then...keep your germs to yourself!!

Ok, rant over. Send good knee and germ free vibes my way!

--Melissa

Pushing through

2010-04-13T11:51:00.000-04:00

I'm choosing a pretty bad time to want a break from running. With just TWELVE days til the race I'm starting to feel a little burnt out from training. I know I can push through and I'll make it to race day, but today's run was a challenge for me. First, I overslept....again...it's a good thing my roommate goes to work early because I would have kept sleeping had she not opened our front door (which beeps) when she left for work. It was after 7 which is over a half hour later than I usually wake up for my early morning runs, and I almost talked myself out of going. But I knew I would feel a lot better if I went for my run than if I didn't. Even if I didn't have enough time for my full 5 miles, I knew a short run would be worth it. I got ready really quickly and ended up having enough time for my full run.

Today's run showed me the perks of blogging about my training. I felt like quitting a few times (see above...burnt out...) but then I knew I would have to write about how I only ran X number of miles instead of the 5 miles I had planned. I would have to write about how I was a quitter...which I certainly am not! I powered through my run as best I could and even though it was a really tough run, my splits were respectable (for me):

Mile 1: 9:47
Mile 2: 10:03
Mile 3: 9:51
Mile 4: 10:00
Mile 5: 10:02
.4: 7:15 (cool down, cut short in the interest of time)
Total time: 57:01, 5 mile run time: 49:46

My ankle felt funny around mile 3 (it started hurting Sunday morning but then felt okay on Monday). This concerns me, since I haven't had any ankle pain throughout training, and I will be keeping a close watch on it and stretching (my favorite is the spider walk...but the images you get when you google image search that are kind of scary haha).

On Sunday my roommate and I both had the thought to go take pictures around campus. We did this when it was snowy out, and wanted to get some good spring shots.

Pretty flower

Walkway through campus

The UC

After my run this morning I quickly got ready and went to class where I found out that I rocked the test I had last week. It was just what I needed to turn my mood around after my lackluster run! I also don't have to go into work until an hour and a half later than I usually do! I'm off to stretch and relax a little since this morning was so rushed.

--Melissa

Last Long Run

2010-04-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

Today was my LAST double digits run until the race! I'm officially tapering! Next weekend I'll be home to do a final run with TNT, it'll be 6 miles and since I'll get to do it with Vic I think it will just be a fun, relaxing run. Then, the weekend after that it's race day--I can't believe it's SO soon! I decided a little while back, to cut back my mileage, so even though TNT's schedule for the week said to do 12 miles, I just did 10 miles of running plus 2 miles of walking with the warm up and the cool down. I felt great during the run, and I definitely could have pushed through and done a couple more miles, but right now my goal is to make it to the start line (and then hopefully the finish line)! Today's run felt unbelievably natural. It's so strange to me how 10 miles can feel so normal! I tried not to focus on time too much because, again, I just wanted to finish uninjured. I always aim for negative splits, which I definitely didn't hit today, but that's okay. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 17:13 (warm up)
Mile 2: 9:30
Mile 3: 9:56
Mile 4: 10:04
Mile 5: 10:11
Mile 6: 10:07
Mile 7: 9:51
Mile 8: 10:35 (I walked the stairs from the trail back up to the bridge to prevent killing myself)
Mile 9: 10:13
Mile 10: 10:16
Mile 11: 9:16
Mile 12: 17:41 (cool down)
Total time: 2:14:59, 10 miles of running 1:40:05

I was glad this morning to find that it wasn't 90 degree outside, but it was SO windy today. I know I've said that before, but I think this might have been the windiest! After mile 8 (7 miles of running, plus the warm up), I stopped home for some water and 4 grapes. The grapes didn't upset my stomach at all, so maybe that will be my fuel of choice on race day? I really didn't want to stop because when I did 11 miles a few weeks ago it was pretty difficult for me to start running again after my water break. But, I know hydration and proper fueling is really important, so I stopped anyway. When I headed back out after my ~2 minute water break my legs felt completely fine! It was nice to know I only had 3 more miles to go after the water break too. For my last mile I tried to really pick up my pace, I ran mile 10 a whole minute faster than mile 9, I'd say that was success!

Time for some R&R (which Daddy was a pro at)!

Hanging out in Puerto Rico, May, 2009

Getting a massage in Puerto Rico, May, 2009

--Melissa

Sleep Running

2010-04-08T11:06:00.000-04:00

I have 2 "Dad stories" to tell today:

Story #1: Yesterday in my spinning class the warm up song was All I Wanna Do by Sheryl Crow. If I had to choose one song that I grew up on, it would be that one (with Melissa Ethridge's Come to my Window as a close second). I distinctly remember car rides where Dad would play All I Wanna Do over and over at Vic and my request. This past 4th of July Daddy drove me and some of my girlfriend's downtown for a free Sheryl Crow concert and fireworks. I don't have any pictures of Dad from that night, and the pictures of Sheryl are pretty weak, but here's a shot of the fireworks!

oooh aaah

Story #2: Dad had this crazy ability where he could sleep anytime, anywhere. My cousin Jamie used to call him "the man who sleeps with his shoes on" because he would nap with his shoes on (but no socks of course). When I was little and couldn't fall asleep he used to say "just close your eyes, it's easy!". The past few days, I've been lacking in the sleep department. I've been playing catch-up because of my exam on Tuesday, so I've stayed up later than usual.

This morning I almost overslept too! I always give myself a ton of time in the morning so even though I slept 23 minutes later than normal I knew I could still fit in my planned 5 miles. I hustled to get ready and was out the door! Since I got outside mere minutes after waking up I think I was still half asleep. My leg were moving but I hardly even knew I was running! It was kind of nice to just totally zone out. I started with my usual route on the roads but at mile 4.67 when I got to the stairs on the bridge that lead to the trail I decided I wanted to go for an extra mile today. I made it to the trail right when I hit 5 miles, by this point I was aware that I was running and not zoned out anymore, but I only had to push through 1 mile...nothing to it!

I went out half a mile and back half a mile. But then I thought..."why not go for a 10k?!" As I was running the last little bit I couldn't remember whether a 10k was 6.2 or 6.4 miles, so I decided to run 6.5 :) (I just googled it...it's 6.2 miles) I did the 6.5 miles in 1 hour 3 minutes and 3 seconds. Then I walked a mile home. I made it back with just enough time to get ready for class--perfect! Since I was zoned out during my run, I barely glanced at my watch, which was sort of refreshing. When I got home and plugged my Garmin in I was pretty happy with my splits:

Mile 1: 10:09

Mile 2: 10:16

Mile 3: 9:39

Mile 4: 9:27

Mile 5: 9:55

Mile 6: 9:06 (!!!)

Mile 7: 13:52 (half of this mile was running, half was cool down)

.53: 10:08 (cool down)

Pretty good considering I almost slept through it! After class I had a nice phone chat with Mom who had lunch with Carol, a family friend, yesterday. I heard that she reads the blog...so Hi Carol!

This weekend is my last double digits run before the race!!

--Melissa

March Madness

2010-04-06T23:58:00.000-04:00

Saying Dad was a sports fan is a gross understatement. Daddy loved to watch football and baseball and play golf but he didn't discriminate against other sports too. He was a hard core Eagles and Phillies fan. He passed at least an interest in sports onto me. Every year when March Madness rolled around, I would fill out a bracket haphazardly and convince Dad to pay my way into his office pool. I really didn't pay much attention to who was the best, and I usually picked my teams based on which name I liked better--with one exception. Every single year, for as long as I can remember, I would have Duke winning it all. Once when I was little Duke won, and ever since I have always picked them as the champs regardless of their standing.

This year I got an email about Dad's office pool, but it just wasn't the same without Dad (and his buy in), so I didn't fill out a bracket. Of course, Duke had to go and win this year!!!

Oh well! Anyway, this morning I woke up even earlier than usual to get a run in before my exam. It was definitely a mental game over a physical one today. My legs felt pretty good (hopefully I don't jinx myself), but I was preoccupied with getting in some last minute studying before my test. I still managed to do a 5 mile run and a mini cool down all before 7:35. Today's splits:

Mile 1: 9:55
Mile 2: 10:03
Mile 3:10:03
Mile 4: 10:01
Mile 5: 9:46
.48: 8:42 (cool down)

When I saw that I was 2 seconds over a ten minute pace at the end of mile 4 I was determined to finish mile 5 in 9:58 or less. The last half mile was across the bridge though and so it was really windy, but I finished strong and managed to keep my total time less than a 10 minute pace. I love giving myself little goals like that and then beating them! Then I cut my cool down a little short so I could study a bit before my exam. Which thankfully is over!

--Melissa

Blood, Sweat, and Dirt

2010-04-04T15:12:00.000-04:00

I have to try to make this post quick because I should be studying for my exam this Tuesday, but I had a pretty extreme run today, and would rather procrastinate and write about that instead. This morning I laced up the sneakers, slathered myself with sun screen and headed down to the trail. I decided to bring a water bottle today because I try not go more than 6 miles without hydrating and I had 8 miles planned for today. I also I don't like stopping back at my house for anything less than 9 miles. I wanted to experiment with steady hydration throughout my run, because that will probably be more what the race will be like with more frequent water stations. I was surprisingly not annoyed by holding the water bottle the whole time.

It was really nice outside, except once I started running I realized just how HOT it was. I was sweating after one mile. I was glad I had the water because it helped me get through the heat! Then after I had been running for a mere 2 miles, I ran passed 2 women on bikes, I waved as I usually do when I pass people and so I wasn't look at the trail in front of me. Suddenly, I went flying forward and skidded across the ground. I had tripped over the tiniest little rock sticking out of the ground :( My legs were all scratched up. I was covered in blood, dirt and sweat. After I stood up, I poured some of the water from my water bottle on my legs to try and clean them off but it didn't really help much and I wanted to save the water to drink. A man came over to ask if I was okay, and I said "yeah I'm fine, only 6 more miles to go!" he looked at me like I was insane and then I started to run again, I wasn't going to let one little fall stop me! There were a ton of people on the trail today and everyone kept looking at my shins as I ran by. I must have looked so hard core :)

My hand after the run, and Daddy's wedding ring

My legs after the run

I ran 4 miles out and 4 miles back on the trail, which is further than I've ever run on the trail because when it was snowy I usually only made it out 2 miles before the trail ended. It was fun to see more of the trail and it was really beautiful. My only complaint about today is that there were a ton of people fishing (that part doesn't bother me...to each their own) but they were all smoking!

When I hit the 4 mile turn around, I was in for a rude awakening, it was SO windy going in the other direction. It slowed me down a ton, but I powered through. Then at mile 6.18 (1 of which was the walking warm up), I got such a bad stomach cramp that I had to stop. I waited about a minute, and then started running again. I think stopping was key here rather than running through it. I get stomach cramps fairly often when I'm running, and usually can run through it, but this one was really bad-- I was practically doubled over. Let's hope that doesn't happen on race day! I think drinking the water might have had something to do with it (but maybe not). So for the rest of the run, every time I took a sip of water, I spit it out. I was pretty thirsty from the heat today that I needed to take little sips, but I didn't want to aggravate my stomach, this helped me get through the rest of the run just fine.

I thought about going running for an extra mile, but I was so hot, and I figured I'd had enough with my fall and everything. I also didn't want to overdo it, so I called it quits when I got to 8 miles running. Then I walked 1.08 miles home for a cool down. On my walk my stomach started hurting again...ugh! When I got home I took pictures of my legs haha, and then I finally showered and cleaned myself up. The shower hurt so so so much! The water hitting my cuts was super painful. But I feel better now that I am nice and clean!

Today's splits:
Mile 1: 17:45 (warm up)
Mile 2: 9:26
Mile 3: 9:49 (I fell at 3.03)
Mile 4: 9:42
Mile 5: 9:41
Mile 6: 10:06 (hello wind!)
Mile 7: 10:25
Mile 8: 10:18
Mile 9: 9:55
Mile 10: 18:23 (cool down)
.08: 1:33
Total time: 1:57:09, run time 1:19:28

Yay sub 10 minute pace! I looked back at my blog post from when I ran 8 miles back in February and even though that run was very snowy, I beat my run time by more than 4 minutes! It's pretty cool that I can look back and see how I've improved.

Time to study!

--Melissa

I'm back!

2010-04-01T16:59:00.000-04:00

The past few days, I have been seriously freaking out about whether or not I would even be able to do the race. Sunday's run went horribly and I was really worried that I was going to be out of commission. But, I spoke with my best friend from home, who is a seasoned half-marathoner, and she said to just take a couple rest days and to see how I felt after that. She also said that when she trained for her half, she never ran more than 10 miles. So I took Monday and Tuesday off from any form of exercise and I've decided to eliminate my 13 mile training run that I had planned for this weekend and run 8 miles instead.

Taking 2 days off was not easy, I was pretty antsy and really wanted to move! But, it was worth it. I realized that while I thought I was okay after the 12 mile run, my IT band was really acting up. It was just a different kind of pain than before. Before, it was sharp and kind of felt like it was on the "surface". The pain I felt after the 12 mile run was deeper and duller, but still constant. I think that's why I thought I was fine. I'm sure those descriptions don't make a ton of sense, but instead of pain, it's more like an intense tightness now.

The 2 day rest definitely helped though, because my legs felt fresh and ready to run this morning! I decided to take it easy and planned on only running 4 miles. When I got up this morning the sun was shining and I knew it was going to be a beautiful day for a run!

Since it was so nice out I decided to take my new running shorts and singlet for a spin. When I was home before my trip to DC, I went to Target to get some running clothes for warm weather since I only have cold weather gear. I got 1 pair of shorts and 1 singlet (tank top). I actually prefer wearing Target work out clothes compared to my Underarmor or Nike stuff for some reason. And it's much cheaper, so that's kind of awesome. When I put on my new shorts this morning I almost screamed with delight...my shorts have a little pocket for a key!!! It's the little things in life, right?!

I left for my run, (with my key in the little pocket!) and decided to start with a warm up mile just to loosen up my legs a bit. I headed down to the trail and set out to do my 4 miles. I could tell as soon as I started running that this would be different than Sunday's sucky six (I have a thing for alliterations...) It felt SO good to run! I think those days off really, really helped. Which, when you think about it makes perfect sense. I mean I ran 10, 11, and 12 miles in consecutive weeks with only 1 day of rest BEFORE the long run, not after. What was I thinking?! Sometimes I need some sense knocked into me, unfortunately it's usually after I suffer some sort of injury.

I need to do more of this

As I was running, and hitting fantastic splits (for me), I thought why not push for 5 miles? I know I should be taking it easy, but I felt so good and it was so nice outside I just couldn't help it! So 5 miles it was! And then I cooled down with a 1 mile walk home. Here are today's splits:

Mile 1: 16:38 (warm up)
Mile 2: 9:09
Mile 3: 9:08
Mile 4: 9:25
Mile 5: 9:11
Mile 6: 9:07
Mile 7: 18:07 (cool down)
.09: 1:40 (cool down)
Total time: 1:22:30

I ended up doing the exact same distance as my run on Sunday (by accident, because I took a different route). Only on Sunday I ran 6 and walked 1.09, whereas today I ran 5 and walked 2.09, but the crazy thing is that I finished today's run FASTER than Sunday's! I don't know if there was ever a bigger sign that I needed those rest days! When I got home I had to hustle off to work because I was running late, so I didn't have time to stretch or ice. But I think I also really need to step that up in the last few weeks of training, in addition to maybe taking it slightly easier on myself.

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful spring day!

--Melissa

Hitting the Pavement

2010-03-31T19:33:00.000-04:00

After a long hiatus from blogging, and a short hiatus from running, I was back on the road this gorgeous spring evening for a mid-week shortie.

Apologies for the abrupt disappearance from the "blogosphere," I promise I've been doing MUCH better at adhering to the training plan (thanks to my slave driver - I mean sister). I even hit 11 miles down at Kelly Drive on Sunday! I just haven't been able to find the words to match the work my legs and feet are putting into this journey.

Now that I'm back (hopefully for good!) I had two newsworthy items I wanted to share with you:

--Last Thursday Melissa and I got our bib numbers! I'm apparently the only one who's excited about this, but it just seems to make the race that much more official! My bib number is 1808 and Melissa's is 1809.

--Last Thursday was also a big milestone because we hit the ONE MONTH till race day mark! April 25 is just around the corner - so exciting! Melissa mapped out my training plan for the rest of the month - so I have no excuses for not being ready mentally and physically come race day. (thanks sis!)

Here's a quick recap of my recent runs since the last post by me:
3/20 - 6 miles in Providence, RI - running in a new city definitely taught me that I want to know the course and landmarks prior to race day. I will definitely be driving the course ahead of time so I know what to expect!

3/24 - 6 miles in Lower Merion - amazing run! beautiful night! I love daylight savings time.

3/28 - 11 miles at Kelly Drive - my legs are STILL reeling from that one...

3/31 (tonight) 5 miles in Lower Merion - a quick little run on a lovely evening

To celebrate another great run, I'm heading to Rita's tonight for my first water ice of the season. Dad loved water ice (pronounced wooder ice for all of you non-philadelphians) - he would always get a combo of chocolate cherry. After Phillies games we'd head to Pop's in South Philly for water ice, down the shore we'd go to Lucy's, and any random evening we'd hit up Rita's or Lix in the neighborhood. Dad had his favorite water ice hot spots in any neighborhood! In celebration of Dad tonight - I think I'll get a chocolate cherry myself!

Happy Spring!
Victoria

Rest & Reading

2010-03-28T12:48:00.000-04:00

Last night when I got back from DC (which was tons of fun!) I was talking to my roommate about how I didn't even feel like I had ran 12 miles the day before. Well, I jinxed myself. This morning my legs would NOT listen to me. I was running so slowly and even though my head was in it, I just could not run faster. I think I saw a snail pass me. Since I wanted to push harder, I don't think it had anything to do with laziness or lacking heart. I think after the past couple runs, I'm just physically exhausted.

I'm considering cutting a run out this week or cutting my mileage on my long run this week. This is the last week I had planned on increasing my mileage before race day anyway. I really wanted to run 13 miles before race day, but I'm not sure if it's the smartest idea to push myself past my limits. I know that I can finish the half marathon, even if it's not as fast as I would like it to be, so maybe easing up a bit would be beneficial. I need to think about it some more.

Here are my not-so-hot splits:

Mile 1: 10:34
Mile 2: 9:59
Mile 3: 10:38
Mile 4: 11:19
Mile 5: 11:32
Mile 6: 11:05
Mile 7: 20:04 (cool down)
.09: 1:45

The first 3 miles went well and then my legs were like "no way, we're not doing this anymore!" Frustrating.

Anyway, I finally finished the book Born to Run that Vic sent to me!

I really enjoyed reading it. Parts of it were really slow but for the most part it was a really interesting book. Some passages were so inspiring and made me want to throw my book aside and lace up my shoes! Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

"Ask nothing from your running, in other words, and you'll get more than you ever imagined."
"If there's any magic bullet to make human beings healthy, it's to run."

"Running was the superpower that made us human--which means it's a superpower all humans possess."

"Just move your legs. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You're denying who you are."

I think that last one is so powerful! Over the weekend Vic and I were talking about how we have the ability to relate virtually any situation to Dad. Vic said, "I can make everything about Dad...even........socks" and then she said, "actually socks are an easy one, but you know what I mean." Obviously socks are an easy one...because of his hatred for them haha. Anyway, Dad was the fastest reader I've ever seen. He could pick up a book and wouldn't put it down until he was done (usually later that same day). Here is a picture of Daddy caught in the act of reading Cosmo, and you can see that he isn't wearing socks :)

Fall 2008

I'm off to rest these legs!

--Melissa

Ouch.

2010-03-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

That was hands down the hardest run I've ever been on. The ENTIRE time I was just thinking about how bad it hurt. From mile 1 all the way to mile 12, I struggled. After my rough run earlier this week, I had high hopes for today. However, I just felt off this morning. I think it might have been a combination of just being tired and slightly dehydrated (despite a good nights sleep and trying to drink lots of water). Either way, my heart was just not in it today. I'm going to write my splits now and just get it over with. They are kind of embarrassing, but oh well, I'm still proud of myself for finishing the hardest 12 miles ever. Also, I'm not going to write any notes like I did last week, because basically my thoughts the whole time were "this sucks! X miles to go! Don't quit!!!!"

Mile 1: 10:25
Mile 2: 10:29
Mile 3: 10:38
Mile 4: 10:38
Mile 5: 10:40
Mile 6: 10:57
Mile 7: 11:02
Mile 8: 11:09
Mile 9: 11:13
Mile 10: 11:10
Mile 11: 11:20
Mile 12: 11:01
Mile 13: 16:56 (.11 was still running, the rest was cool down)
.06: .57
I ran 12.11 miles in roughly 2 hours and 12 minutes. With the cool down the total time was 2 hours, 28 minutes, 43 seconds

As you can see, this was much slower than I've been running on my other runs (both long and short). I was a little discouraged at first, but my main purpose for running this race is to remember Daddy and hopefully help accelerate finding a cure for blood cancers. With that being said, as nice as it would be to meet my speed goals, I don't really care about anything except for finishing the race.

I had planned on writing about more than just my run in this post, but I think a nap is in order...right now! Then I'm off for a trip to DC with Mom and Vic. My cousin Jon is giving us a tour of the White House. So excited!

Daddy and Jon

--Melissa

Squashing negativity

2010-03-23T13:45:00.001-04:00

I read a quote a few days ago it was "if it were easy, everyone would do it". I forget where I saw it, but it was in reference to running either a half or a whole marathon. But I suppose you could apply this quote to running any distance, or any situation really. Anyway, while Friday's and Sunday's runs weren't necessarily easy, they weren't exactly hard either. I was beginning to think my attitude towards running was crazy! However, today that was not the case.

I woke up and did not want to get out of bed at all. I thought about skipping my run, I thought up every imaginable excuse:
"I'm still tired"...but I knew once I got up I'd feel fine.
"It rained yesterday and it's supposed to rain again today"...but it wasn't raining when I woke up.
"I don't feel like it"...but my IT band has been feeling fine (knock on wood) and I know that when I couldn't run before I wished that I could.
After hitting snooze a few times, I finally got up.

I headed outside to do my usual early morning run on the roads. My legs did not want to move. I had to push through every single step. I almost quit several times, but then I imagined how I would feel if I quit, and how I would feel if I finished my 5 miles and kept chugging along. I kept playing mental games with myself (only X more miles) to try and squash the negative thoughts I was having. Around mile 4.5 I almost stopped but then forced myself to run the last half mile. When I hit the planned 5 miles, I forced myself to run a quarter mile more as a "punishment" for all my negativity. In retrospect, that was kind of a dumb idea, because even though it might not be easy, running shouldn't be a punishment! One bad run doesn't mean that I hate running, but I'm looking forward to the runs I have planned for later this week so I can redeem myself from today's bad run. Despite the fact that I was mentally not in it today, my splits were decent! I managed to hit negative splits...maybe to match my mood ;)

Mile 1: 10:30
Mile 2: 10:20
Mile 3: 10:07
Mile 4: 10:07
Mile 5: 10:01
.79: 12:25 (.25 was still running, .54 was cool down walking)

After my run, my cool down was extremely slow and I took a super long shower. Then I took a long time getting ready. Before I knew it, I only had a few minutes to get to class. I caught myself thinking "let's boogie" which is something Dad always said :)

I have a lot of fun things planned for later this week, which I'm really excited about! Included in that is this week's long run...TWELVE miles!! I'll post a recap after!

--Melissa

Spring has sprung!

2010-03-21T13:44:00.002-04:00

Ok I'm going to make this a very speedy post, because I spent all day outside yesterday instead of doing work. Even though I have a ton to do today, it was such a great weekend! My roommate and I laid out on our roof and sipped some drinks for a few hours. Though the trees were still bare, it was a beautiful day:

Before laying out yesterday, I hit the gym to bike for a little while. I'm convinced that biking after my long runs is what keeps my legs from feeling stiff and sore. After, I didn't even feel like I had ran 11 miles the day before!

This morning I had a short 5 mile run planned. It's funny how just a few weeks ago that was my "long run" and now I consider 5 to be short! It was so nice outside on my run today! I went down to the trail, and it was packed with runners, walkers, and bikers. I ran a mile to the trail, then I had planned to do 2 out and 2 back, and then do a cool down walk home. When I hit my turn around point I decided to go a little further. It was just too nice outside and I didn't want my run to end because I'm going to be inside for the rest of the day trying to finish (and start) 2 projects :( So I ended up running 6 miles, and then I had to force myself to stop and walk home 1.11 miles. The splits:

Mile 1: 9:50
Mile 2: 9:37
Mile 3: 9:58
Mile 4: 10:31
Mile 5: 10:21
Mile 6: 9:34
Total run time: 59 minutes, 55 seconds
Mile 7: 18:13 (cool down, I got stopped at every. single. light.)
.11: I forgot to stop my watch, so let's just say 2 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 20 minutes (ish)

I was so hot during this run! I came home and chugged some ice water. I will definitely have to adjust when/how much I hydrate with the temperatures getting warmer. Okay, time to tackle that homework!

--Melissa

Epic Eleven

2010-03-19T11:50:00.000-04:00

As I write this post, I am on a serious runner's high. This morning I went for an 11 mile run, and it was FANTASTIC! As terrible as the weather was last week, that's how unbelievably perfect the weather was today. I wore pants and my Team in Training practice tech tee. This outfit left me without pockets, so I had to get creative with where to put my key. I used to just loop it through my shoe laces, but when I did that I found myself constantly looking down to make sure it was still attached, which was very annoying. Instead, I thought up a little key contraption:

I threaded my headphones through the top of the key and then kept it flat by wrapping a hair tie around the key and my shuffle. Brilliant, or so I thought. The key ended up flying out of the hair tie and bobbing around on my headphones after running for about 5 seconds. I ended up just wrapping the hair tie through the key and wearing it around my wrist. Not perfect, but it worked, maybe I'll buy myself a super cool Spi Belt (essentially a fanny pack for runners).

Before I left I set up a little fuel station in my living room:

A clemintine and water

My plan was to run a mile to the trail, run out 2.5 miles, run back 2.5 miles, and then run the 1 mile back from the trail. This would get me to 7 miles, and then I would stop for some water and a couple sections of clemintine. Then I planned to do a 2 mile loop around campus, stop for more water, and then finally do 2 more miles. I stuck to the original 7 mile plan, but I ended up doing the whole 4 miles at once. My legs felt really tired after my quick pit stop at home. After ~1.5 miles though my legs felt better and so I didn't want to stop for another break. After the 11 miles, I did a one mile cool down walk. Here are the splits with some notes:

Mile 1: 10:18 (waited at a light for a while, walked slowly down the steps leading from the bridge down to the trail)

Mile 2: 9:48 (on the trail, feeling great!)

Mile 3: 9:58 (on the trail)

Mile 4: 10:10 (around the 3/4 mile mark I was starting to feel a little tired, wishing water wasn't ~2 miles away)

Mile 5: 9:59 (feeling better, still on the trail)

Mile 6: 9:39 (back to the part of the trail I feel most familiar with, feeling great!)

Mile 7: 10:26 (walked very slowly up the stairs leading from the trail to the bridge, got stuck at a light)

Water break with 2 sections of clemintine for some fuel. I probably should have had more but my stomach didn't like it.

Mile 8: 9:50 (on campus, feeling a little icky)

Mile 9: 10:25 (on campus, legs feeling really weak, 2 hills)

Mile 10: 9:55 (feeling much, much better, ready to rock out these last 2 miles)

Mile 11: 9:21 (!!!!! I sprinted at the end pretending it was the end of the race)

Total run time: 1 hour, 49 minutes, 54 seconds!!!!

Mile 12(.01): 17:18 (cool down)

Total time: 2:06:54

I definitely could have ran 2 more miles and completed a half! It was awesome! Maybe it was because of the weather, or that I ran over half on the trail (which I generally find slightly easier than on the road), or that I got a really good night's sleep, but whatever the reason I feel like I completely rocked those 11 miles!!!!

As I was running, on this gorgeous day, I thought about Dad. Not only was it perfect running weather, but it was also perfect golf weather. And we all know Dad loved a good golf day :)

Antigua, 2007

I see stretching and a nap in my future!

--Melissa

Adventures in Puerto Rico

2010-03-16T14:02:00.000-04:00

My calves have been really stiff since our 10 mile run on Saturday. I think because of all the rain it affected my stride and I was running slightly differently than usual. I also blame the stiffness on the fact that on Sunday Vic and I sat on a train home from NYC for hours. Usually the day after a long run I bike for a while to flush out my legs. But, NYC was fun, I got to meet Vic's friends from Puerto Rico (Hi Hilary!)

Me and Vic in NYC

I'm now back at school and even though I was still stiff when I woke up this morning I wanted to get back into my routine and I went for an early morning run. It seemed especially early since I forgot to switch my Garmin on day light savings time! I took it nice and easy today doing my usual 5 mile route. When I got to the 5 mile turn around point, my watch said that it wasn't quite 5 miles yet and I ran a bit further. So either the past few weeks I was doing less than 5, or today I did more than 5. I am annoyed with my watch and I kind of wish I had splurged and got the more expensive Garmin which you don't need to calibrate, but I also don't really care about a tenth of mile. For the rest of training I'm just going to go by my watch, and if it's a little more or less...oh well! Today's splits:

Mile 1: 10:29

Mile 2: 10:38

Mile 3: 10:18

Mile 4: 10:14

Mile 5: 10:20

.87: 14:33 (cool down)

I'm going to do a lot of stretching later today (I didn't have time this morning because I had to get to class) so hopefully that will loosen me up a bit!

Anyway, a lot of people have been saying that we are crazy/nuts/other adjectives for doing this race. This got me thinking about other crazy things I've done. Last May, Mom, Dad and I went down to Puerto Rico to visit Vic. Dad wasn't feeling to great, but he still made an effort to have a great time and try new things. One in particular was when the 2 of us rented a jet ski and went out on the gorgeous ocean. I was scared out of my mind and screaming at him to slow down the entire time. But it was a ton of fun and something that I will never forget doing with Dad!

Us in the pool, May 2009

Dad and Me, May 2009

--Melissa

Soapy Knees

2010-03-13T12:43:00.000-05:00

We officially joined the double digits club!!!

For those of you not in the northeast, it is monsooning today. But, when you have a 10 mile run planned a little (or a lot) rain isn't going to stop you! It wasn't easy running with soaking wet clothes, but we did it! And we did it with a lot of laughs! Here are some of the funny highlights (some of which we're sure you had to be there for, but we'll share them anyway):

1. When we were getting our gear together for the run this morning Vic was filling up her water bottle. She filled it up a little too high and it spilled onto the floor, she said sarcastically "oh no, my shoe got wet". We were both hysterically laughing before we even left the house because we both knew we were going to be more than a little wet once we were at Kelly Drive.

2. We decided to run out 3 miles and then back 3 miles to stop for water and an orange slice at the car and then out and back for 2 more miles for our total 10. At just about 3 miles we were getting excited for our first turn around, but little did we know that the running path was very, very close to the road at this part. We learned this the hard way when a car came speeding by us right through a gigantic puddle. A tidal wave of disgusting Philadelphia street water flew up and splattered ALL OVER us. If we had seen it happen to anyone else it would have been funny and we couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous we were for running through the torrential downpour.

3. After our water break, we were around mile 7 when Melissa glanced down and noticed something on her knees. She stopped running because she thought something was wrong with her, Vic stopped too. Then Melissa realized that it was SOAP! There must have been detergent still on her pants, and because of the rain her knees were actually bubbly with soap! We were cracking up as we started to run again.

4. There were geese everywhere on this run. Not gigantic geese like the one's Melissa saw on her run up at Lehigh, but they made up for it in quantity. On our water break one even went right up to Vic!

5. When we were at about mile 6.5 we saw some familiar faces! Two of the other TNT members were running in the opposite direction and yelled out to us "I guess we weren't the only crazy ones today!" Well, that or all 4 of us are crazy!

6. At mile 8.5 we were pretty excited that we were nearing the end and we started to go a little crazy and we busted out some dance moves (believe us, they were awesome...nearly as awesome as our singing voices). Just then another runner going in the other direction passed us and laughed at us a little. Hey, it's not worth it if you're not having fun! :)

7. Also around mile 8.5 we were convinced that it had stopped raining. In reality it had just slowed a little bit, but by mile 9 it was a monsoon again. We thought it was pretty funny that we were convinced it had stopped.

Then before we knew it we were done 10 miles in 1 hour and 46ish minutes! Not too shabby considering we were literally soaking wet! Now we are off to take a little nap and then head up to New York City in this gorgeous weather :)

--Victoria and Melissa

High School

2010-03-10T13:58:00.001-05:00

Today I headed out to the high school track again. I ran 1 mile and it was off by .01, then I ran a second mile to calibrate it again and it was off by .07. The first mile didn't bother me, being .01 off is not a huge deal, but .07 would definitely add up. I asked a woman who was walking around the track if she knew whether the track was 400 or 440 meters (sometimes tracks are 440 for some reason). She said she had no idea but she thought 400 and she asked why. I told her I was trying to calibrate my watch and that it was giving me the wrong distance. She said "oh well that's a good thing!" I thought to myself...yeah...if you hate accuracy?! Clearly this lady had no clue what she was talking about.

I decided to do another mile on the track even though I really did not want to run around in circles anymore. In the middle of my third mile, a gym class from the high school came outside. I have never seen girls more overdressed for gym class in my life. I am SO glad I'm not in high school anymore! It reminded me of the movie Mean Girls:

You would think people would learn after seeing Regina George get hit by a bus in the movie! Anyway I asked one of the gym teachers about the length of the track and he said he was almost positive it was 400. I calibrated my watch for miles 3, 4, and 5 and they were all off by .04-.07. Each of the 5 miles was also off in different directions. By this point I had ran 20 laps around the track and I was ready to go. So for future reference, I know that my watch will not be 100% accurate. I was more concerned with my pacing though because on Monday night's run, it was saying I was running 12 minute miles when I was obviously running faster than that. Today at least my pacing was more accurate (give or take about 15-45 seconds in either direction depending on the mile):

Mile 1: 9:45
Mile 2: 10:19
Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 9:09
Mile 5: 9:19

While mile 3 seems fast for me for a 5 mile run, it is possible because for the first half of the last lap I picked up my speed and for the second half I all out sprinted. But since that lap was off by about .05 it's also possible that mile was more like 9:33...who knows! I really wanted to run a little on the streets because that's where my pacing was all screwed up the other night, but I figured 5 miles was enough for one day. So we'll have to see how the watch holds up on Saturday morning at Kelly Drive again when Vic and I take on TEN MILES! Then we are off to NYC for the weekend!

--Melissa

Too much technology

2010-03-09T17:56:00.000-05:00

My Garmin has been giving me nothing but a headache! After Saturday's run I knew I had to recalibrate my watch. Last night, Vic and I headed to the high school track to do both our watches to make sure it was 100% accurate. However, it made my watch worse! After recalibrating, we hit the road for 4 more miles of running. I ran slightly further than Vic and it said that I was running a shorter distance (?!) it also said I was running a really, really slow pace. It was really frustrating! I called Garmin to see what's up today and the guy on the phone told me to try and manually calibrate my watch. It's based on a percentage and will take a lot of trial and error...ugh! But I'd rather it be accurate so tomorrow I'm going to head back to the track. I hope I don't feel too much like this:

Anyway, on a much brighter note the weather was so gorgeous last night that I got to run in my TNT training tee! It was so great running in short sleeves. The only problem was that I had no pockets for my iPod. So, today I went to the apple store and bought more technology! Hopefully this little guy won't give me any issues:

I love it already!

Today I went to the gym for a cross training workout. I planned on biking and strength training but my legs were feeling really tired and I decided to skip the biking. As I was leaving, I got a little freebie trial session on this new thing they have at the gym called a power plate.

At first glance I was skeptical, but since it was free (usually I think it costs like $30+) I decided to give it a shot. It's this vibrating plate thingy and you do regular moves on it. I started with squats, and for 30 seconds you do squats while the plate vibrates. The only difference between this and a regular squat (other than the vibrating) is that you lift your heels too. The power plate is used a lot for sports injuries...hello IT band! I told the demo guy about my injury and he had me do some hip moves next. Then just to check it out I did push ups and tricep dips on it. Oh my goodness...insane!

The whole shtick of the power plate is that it's supposed to give you a 2 hour work out in 30 minutes. I could definitely see how because it was really tough! Afterward, my hips felt SO loose! I don't think the guy was too psyched about giving a free session, otherwise I would have asked to stay on it longer!! It was awesome!

--Melissa

Impulse Shopping...

2010-03-07T15:24:00.002-05:00

After a FABULOUS first run with my sister yesterday, I didn't think our running life could get more perfect.

Each week we're getting less and less sore after our increasing-mileage runs, and each week the thought of 13.1 miles (or 13.2 as Melissa recently pointed out to me as the actual length of our course) is becoming less and less overwhelming. We did NINE MILES YESTERDAY, made really good time, and had a blast doing it. I'm so excited and proud of us for embarking on this journey!

So, as I was saying, I didn't think our running life could possibly get any better, until today's trip to - where else - Bryn Mawr Running Company. If you haven't been there and you're a main liner/runner/running wanna-be, you absolutely must check it out. After all of our raving about it, Melissa and I took Mom there today in search of new running shoes for her.

Since I tend to be *slightly* impulsive in my shopping (I like to call it doing my part to support the economy), I said to Mom and Melissa when we walked in, that under no circumstances was I allowed to buy anything. Shockingly enough, that didn't last very long, as Melissa pointed out that my running shoes - which I absolutely adore - are sold in HOT PINK! Clearly I could not pass this opportunity up.

So I'm now the proud owner of PINK Nike LunarGlide+, but I'm not sure if I'm going to save them for after the race, or start to break them in soon. I'll have to make the judgement call in the next couple days - but now I'm just super excited.

Think Pink!
Victoria

PS - Mom also got new running shoes today so we at least accomplished that as well.

Nice, Easy Nine!

2010-03-06T19:30:00.001-05:00

This morning Vic and I woke up at the crack of dawn to go down to Kelly Drive for my first ever Team in Training group run. I was nervous beforehand because would you believe I have NEVER run with people! Running has always been my solo thing, but as it turns out I absolutely loved running with the team and my sister today!! When we arrived at Kelly Drive it was pretty cold, but it was a gorgeous day and once we got moving it was the perfect day for a 9 mile run! Before we started Vic's TNT mentor showed me some new IT band stretches which I will definitely be doing again.

For the first 5 miles Vic and I ran with 3 other TNT team members and were rocking a nice steady pace. We were running behind the others and it was a really comfortable few miles. After the water station, Vic and I ended up in front and we were even faster! We ended up losing the other team members which was a shame but we were on a roll and nothing could stop us! As we were about to complete "the loop" at Kelly Drive, Vic and I doubled back for a 1/4 mile in order to hit the 9 mile mark for the day! We completed the 9 miles in 92 minutes and 45 seconds!

This morning when we started our run my watch was acting weird, and I kept gaining mileage compared to Vic's watch. When we finished mine said 9.52 and Vic's said 9 miles. It was so strange! And annoying! I'm going to recalibrate my watch on my next run, so hopefully that will fix it.

Anyway, as we were running I had a funny Daddy memory. When we were little we would occasionally go biking at Kelly Drive. One time, Dad loaded up the car with our bikes and we headed off to the Drive. When we got there and Dad took the bikes out, he found that all of the bike tires were flat! I forget what happened, but I think he ended up going home again to get an air pump or something and we still went on our family bike ride! Dad to the rescue :)

After toady's run I took a great nap, but I'm still pretty sleepy! I'm off to relax!

--Melissa

Hitting My Stride

2010-03-04T18:18:00.002-05:00

So I rediscovered the joy of running last night. We had a Team In Training special mid-week practice at Kelly Drive, so I left work early expecting a lot of traffic (as there usually is) on the Schuylkill Expressway. Shockingly, I got there 30 minutes ahead of the team, so I decided to go for a solo run instead of waiting. I ran five miles and my body was just humming. I can remember just a few short weeks ago when I could barely run 5K! I’m so excited that my body is finally succumbing to the torture I’ve been instilling on it, and accepting the fact that do or die, I’m going to finish this half marathon! I so enjoyed running outside, and the path on Kelly Drive was very well lit, so I think I will continue to head out there at least once a week for my mid-week trainings. It’s so much better than the treadmill!

Last night was also a special night at home because I got a message from one of Dad’s favorite nurses at Hahnemann (we love you Jami!) It’s so nice to hear from others about the relationships they had with Dad, and to be able to maintain connections with those people who were such a big part of our lives in 2009.

Perhaps the strangest part of this whole thing is that life does go on - whether you want it to or not. I’m still faced with all of life’s mundane tasks like grocery shopping and getting gas in my car. I still have to put one foot in front of the other everyday – whether it’s for the walk from my car to work – or to complete a slightly more daunting 13.1 miles. Whatever it is, I know my Dad’s with me every step of the journey.

--Victoria

zzz

2010-03-04T14:26:00.000-05:00

Just dropping in for a quick post. I had the worst night of sleep ever last night-- first I couldn't fall asleep and then I woke up just about every hour. Ugh! But when my alarm went off this morning I was ready to run! Since I was so tired I had a hard time moving fast, so I settled into a nice steady pace and ran the exact same route as Tuesday's run. Except I ran on the far side of the street for one block because of 2 scary dogs (I think they can smell my fear), so it was actually .02 miles longer than Tuesday :)

It was absolutely gorgeous out this morning. Fingers crossed that all this winter nonsense is finally over!!

Today's splits:

Mile 1: 9:59
Mile 2: 10:15
Mile 3: 10:07
Mile 4: 10:04
Mile 5: 10:12
.79: 13:12 (cool down)

It was a nice run, and now I'm officially on spring break! Woo! Tomorrow is a much needed rest day and then I'm off for my first team run on Saturday-- 9 miles!

--Melissa

Butt Kicking

2010-03-02T15:21:00.000-05:00

This morning sort of felt like SPRING!!! I hopped out of bed this morning to go for an outdoor run.

I haven't been able to do an early morning outdoor run in a while because of all the snow we've gotten, but today there was not a flurry in sight and the roads were dry! I was really happy because I fully blame the treadmill for my sore IT band last week. (Maybe it really is the dreadmill!!) I'm still not feeling 100%, but it is definitely somewhat better. I knew that I didn't want to do my run on the treadmill though, so it was either outside or not at all.

Instead of treking down to the trail, I decided to just run on the roads. I really like running on the trail, but it's been pretty muddy and I also think it's good to change it up occasionally. In the interest of time, I skipped my warm up mile this morning. I figured one time skipping it wouldn't be a terrible thing. There is a little loop that I thought was 2.2 miles from my house and back--turns out I was right! So I did that loop, and then just randomly ran up and down the streets and eventually across the bridge to the north side. I hit 5 miles just I reached the end of the bridge and then I turned around and walked the .77 miles home.

It was a gorgeous morning and perfect for an early morning run! My splits weren't great for a short-ish run, but I tackled several hills! I had been trying to avoid hills but I know that the race won't be completely flat so it's good to incorporate them sometimes. Anyway, here are the splits:

Mile 1: 9:38
Mile 2: 9:51
Mile 3: 9:49
Mile 4: 10:01
Mile 5: 10:08
.77: 12:55 (cool down)

Now my glutes are yelling at me. It could be from a number of things:
1) Sunday's 8 mile run
2) Falling down the stairs on Sunday night. :( Yup, on Sunday night my roommate was sitting downstairs watching TV and I ran to go tell her something. I was only wearing socks and I slipped on the stairs. I kind of flew over them and landed at the bottom.

Taken at the Vatican in Rome :)

3) Today's hills

One of these things totally kicked my butt!!

--Melissa

A List!

2010-02-28T19:03:00.000-05:00

I had an utterly amazing run this morning at Valley Forge. The ice patches were scarce - finally - and I ran with two teammates who really kept me going and motivated throughout the entire 7.84 miles!

I'm so excited to be able to say I've run (more than) half of a half marathon, and just felt like I could do anything after completing this morning's run.

Unfortunately, by 2 PM I really hit a wall. I had a splitting headache and my whole body was/is achy all over.

I've put together a list of my top 10 lessons learned and musings from today.

1. Hydrate hydrate hydrate - before, during, and after
2. Running with others is so motivating - my teammates and I kept one another going the few times we felt like quitting, and it was so nice to have others to help me keep my pace
3. Running while it's snowing is not so bad - at least you don't overheat...and it's so pretty!
4. Orange slices are a great mid-race snack - they really rejuvenated me for the 2nd half of the run. I think I was smiling from miles 3.5-5 from ear to ear thanks to that little orange at the TnT water stop :)
5. Stretch stretch stretch
6. <3 my iPod
7. I need to come up with a better, more specific meal plan for pre and post run
8. There are seriously seven people in the world - I keep running into people that are somehow connected to Dad and our family. It's unreal.
9. I could never in a million years be doing this without Melissa's support (and nagging) for me to stick with the training plan - apparently doing 20 minutes of Jillian Michaels' 30 Day Shred DVD doesn't count as half marathon training...

10. My sister and I really are going to accomplish this goal of finishing our first half marathon!

Next week Melissa will be home for spring break - so we get to run together! I am so excited to have my frister (friend + sister) back!

Till next time -

Victoria

Melissa-1, Weather-0

2010-02-28T13:50:00.000-05:00

...for today at least! I feel like the weather has won a lot over the last few weeks but today I beat any imminent bad weather! Let's back up to the beginning of the weekend first...

I was feeling pretty discouraged on Friday when my IT band started acting up, but I decided to try and not let it get me down. In the afternoon my roommate was driving to the gym (I usually walk) and I decided to hitch a ride and do some strength training since I couldn't run. I pumped some serious iron and felt much better after!

Yesterday my legs felt better, but not perfect...so I decided to take one more rest day. I stretched a bit and decided it was a good thing I was taking a break because the pain was definitely less constant. Instead of working out, I watched a movie with my roommate. Guess what we watched?

you know you love it!!!!

Last night I checked the weather and it said it was supposed to snow today, and I came to terms with the fact that I would probably be running my 8 miles inside. However, when I woke up it didn't look bad out at all. I checked the weather again and it said it wasn't going to start snowing until 2 or 3pm (now it says it's not going to start until 7pm!). I decided that I would try and beat the snow. Just before I left Vic called and said that she had just gotten back from her run with TNT and she said she had done about 8 miles and that it had gone great! I was so unbelievably proud and I knew that if she could tackle 8 miles so could I, so off I went!

It was a little bit "misty" out as I was doing my warm up mile, but I figured I'd suck it up for a little and by the time I started to run it was only partly cloudy and there was not a trace of rain or snow! I went down to the trail where I usually run, and it was incredibly snowy, icy and muddy all at the same time! I ran 4 miles there (2 miles out and 2 miles back) and I was going to do that one more time, but I was starting to get frustrated with slipping with every step and being ankle deep in snow at times. It also caused my time to be pretty slow, so I decided to get off the trail and hit the road.

this is what I felt like!

I ended up finding a stretch that was about 1.3 miles up and back that was snow-less, so I ran that 3 (plus a tiny bit) times for a total of 8 miles. It was an extremely hard run because of the first 4 miles and in the last 4 miles I tackled some mini hills, but I feel so accomplished now! Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 15:50 (warm up)

Mile 2: 10:18

Mile 3: 10:45 (I was ankle deep in snow for part of this one, which definitely slowed me down)

Mile 4: 10:43 (see above)

Mile 5: 10:38

Mile 6: 10:27

Mile 7: 10:09 (check out these negative splits!)

Mile 8: 10:18 (IT band started to hurt a little, see below)

Mile 9: 9:45

Mile 10: 17:06 (cool down)

.18: 3:03 (cool down)

For a total of 10.18 miles in 1:59:06. The running took 1:23:47.

Throughout my run I kept "checking in" with my hips and IT band to make sure I wasn't over doing it. They weren't in pain, just felt a little bit weak (if that makes sense) for the majority of the run. Once I'd been running for 7 miles (8 with the warm up) my IT band was nagging me a little bit, but I figured it was just because I'd been running for an hour at this point and not because of anything serious. When I got home I stretched, and I'm icing my legs now so hopefully that will help!

Not only was this run a little more physically challenging than usual (because of the first 4 miles through snow, and because of my hips/IT band) but it was also a mentally difficult one. I wasn't quite prepared to do an outdoor run today and didn't really give myself time to process that I was, in fact, doing a run outside today! When I was doing my pre-run stretch I was doing a calf stretch called the spider walk, where you lie on your back and I almost fell asleep again! Needless to say, I was kind of tired today and it caused me to almost quit running and walk a few times (but I didn't!!). As I was running if I started to think negative thoughts, I would say out loud "you can do it!". If anyone had been nearby, I probably sounded absolutely nuts, but it seriously helped! In my last mile I picked up my pace and I said out loud "come on!" several times, which helped me get a sub-10 min mile. These aren't my usual mantras (and I usually just pump myself up in my head) but they helped me get through a tough run today.

I'm off to relax for the rest of the day and I'll probably stretch and ice a few more times.

--Melissa

Frustrated

2010-02-26T09:44:00.000-05:00

I am frustrated!

Why? Because my IT band is really bothering me! On Wednesday it was a little tight, but I went to my spinning class because I actually thought it would help to get my legs moving. On Thursday I woke up to go for my run, but I knew I was in too much pain to do it, so I decided to take a rest day and stretch a lot. I did all sorts of stretches, from calf strengthening to hip strengthening to your basic IT band stretch (stand with one foot over the other and push your hips to the side until you feel it in your outer torso, hip and upper thigh). I thought that would help but when I woke up this morning it was still just as sore! Argh!

I had planned on doing my long run for the week today, but I think I need to wait. When I originally injured my IT band I ran through pain for at least a week (maybe even 2! So dumb!) and while it drives me crazy to take days off from training, I think it's what I need. I was going to do my 8 miles today and a shorter run on Sunday, instead I think I'll do the 8 miles on Sunday and cut the shorter run from my week. Hopefully my IT band is on board with this plan :-/ and hopefully I'll be posting on Sunday after a great, pain-free 8 miles!

--Melissa

Snurricane?!?!

2010-02-23T23:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I know I promised to stop talking about this awful wintry weather...but there is going to be a snurricane this weekend! What is a snurricane you ask?? A snurricane (I just really like saying that word) is essentially a snow hurricane:"a storm that will deliver near hurricane-force wind gusts [with] blinding snow falling at the rate of over an inch per hour". Um...what?! I'm not usually one to freak out about the weather, but in this case I'm freaking! Not because I'm nervous about it (well maybe I am a little...hurricane force winds?!) but because I'm going to be stuck doing my runs inside! (Mom, try not to panic!)

This morning I woke up to rain. I thought about doing my 5 miles outside, but decided to stick to the treadmill since at 6:30 am I was still half asleep and didn't want to have to worry about deciding where to run or pacing myself. I trekked to the gym in the rain and was kind of beating myself up for ditching my outdoor run (I couldn't just switch to an outdoor run because I didn't have the proper gear on) but then it started sleeting and it hurt! So I made a good call on the gym this morning! I changed up my speed pretty frequently and I wasn't wearing my Garmin, so I'm not sure what my splits were exactly. I had the treadmill on a slight incline and ran 5.25 miles in 49:37, then I walked for the last 10+ minutes for a total of 6 miles. Not too shabby before 8 am!

If the weather is as bad as they say it's going to be it looks like I'll be inside for the rest of the week :(

I'll leave you with this little cartoon that I thought was funny:

Come on Spring!!!

--Melissa

Running Music

2010-02-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

Today my training schedule had a 3-4 mile run. When I woke up I really didn't feel like going for a run. My legs were still kind of sore from my long run on Friday, and I was tired. I think that there are definitely times when you need to listen to your body and take a break. However, today was not that day! I was just feeling kind of lazy and I knew once I was out running I would feel better. I laced up my (still muddy) sneakers and headed out. I went back to the trail because I like running there but it was still pretty gross. Today's splits:

Mile 1: 16:01 (warm up)
Mile 2: 10:09 (.1 was still walking)
Mile 3: 9:18
Mile 4: 9:27
Mile 5: 9:08
Mile 6: 16:44 (cool down, .1 was still running)
.19: 3:18 (cool down)

The trail was snowy/icy where I usually start running so I walked through this part and then ran a little extra at the end. At about 2 and half miles I was running over what I thought was a snowy patch, but it turned out it was ice and I twisted my ankle a little. I kept running, but was freaking out because I was worried that I really hurt myself. After a minute though I felt fine. Phew!

When I hit 3 miles running I was about ready to quit. I was near the start of the trail (I was planning on doubling back for a half mile to finish the 4 mile run), and I was just ready to be done. Right when I was about to call it quits, the next song on my iPod came on. It was Rock & Roll by Eric Hutchinson. Now this song would probably pump anyone up, it's got a good beat and is just fun! But this song is extra motivational for me because Daddy loved it! He is actually the one who introduced it to me, which is rare in our house where I do most of the music recommendations. So instead of stopping I picked up my pace and finished those 4 miles! I love that just thinking about Dad can motivate me so much!

Here are a few more of my current favorite songs for running (in no particular order):
Everything's Magic- Angels and Airwaves
Hologram- Katie Herzig
How Fast- Rocco DeLuca (it's only about 2 minutes long, and one of lyrics is "how fast can you run"...so appropriate!)
Bulletproof- La Roux
Stripper- Soho Dolls
3- Britney Spears
Bad Romance- Lady GaGa
You Make My Dreams- Hall & Oates
Believe- The Bravery

Some of those are not songs I would usually admit to having on my iPod haha. But, they pump me up and are great for running! My cousin Jon sent me a mix recently (thanks Jon!) and I can't wait to add that music to my running mix too!

--Melissa

The Muddiest 7 Miles

2010-02-19T15:42:00.000-05:00

Hi! Sorry I've been MIA but it was just one of those crazy weeks where you barely have time to sleep...let alone blog about your half marathon training! To quickly recap, I did a shorty run on Sunday outside because we were supposed to get more snow and I was worried that I would never get to run outside again! I did a treadmill run on Tuesday because it was just looking a little too slippery out even though it only flurried here.

Vic wrote about how she conquered her fears last week, and today I conquered one of mine! For some reason, I was SO nervous about today's run. TNT's schedule said 7 miles, and even though I've run that on the treadmill many times, I was shakin' in my Nike's thinking about doing it outside. I think I was nervous because I had done my past few long runs inside and this run would be much further than any run I'd ever done outside before. I could have chickened out and done this run inside because it's still pretty snowy on the ground around here, but I know that if I want to tackle the half marathon in a few short months, then I need to do more runs outside.

Dad was always up for challenges. We were so proud of him with his awesome new office building. Now I'm pretty sure Dad wasn't "afraid" of this, but it was still something he went into head on and accomplished. I plan on taking this attitude for completing the half marathon, and for many other aspects of my life.

Dad in front of his office as it was being built, January, 2008

Anyway, the weather was gorgeous today, and before I left I even decided to ditch a layer of clothing. I walked down to the trail by the river, but when I got to the path that leads to the trail it was completely covered in snow! I decided to trek down a little further to where the actual trail is and saw that there were some snowy patches, but it looked okay. Well, I was wrong! On the spots where it was snowy it was really difficult to run because it was kind of slippery (not dangerous slippery, but annoying slippery). On the spots where it wasn't snowy it was SO muddy. I was ankle deep in mud and it was really tough to run on it! My beautiful white sneakers are now a lovely shade of dirt! :(

I decided to suck it up though and kept running. However, at about mile 1.25, the trail stopped and it was all snow. It was at this point that I also saw 2 of the biggest geese I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, they were huge. Anyway, I turned around and continued on the slippery/muddy path. When I got to my starting point I thought about hitting the streets, but decided to keep going on the trail (it goes for about a half mile in the other direction too) and then I did the whole trail again plus a little more to get to a total of 7 miles. I have no clue why I decided to stay on the path instead of going on the streets! Oh well.

Before my run I thought about possibly walking for some of it, but once I was going I was in the zone and I didn't stop once. When my Garmin finally said 8 miles (1 mile warm up plus the 7 running) my legs slowed to a walk and they felt like they weren't even attached to my body! It was so crazy, but it made me glad that I didn't stop to walk because I'm not sure I would have been able to start running again (after walking for about a half mile my legs felt normal again though).

Because of the conditions of the path, my pace was significantly slower than normal. In a way, this is a good thing, I've been trying to get better at pacing myself instead of going all out and not being able to finish the half. I would love to say that I could finish the half at my fastest pace, but I'm just not sure that's realistic, so my main focus is just finishing it! Here are today's splits:

Mile 1: 15:15 (warm up)
Mile 2: 10:12
Mile 3: 10:28
Mile 4: 9:59
Mile 5: 10:04
Mile 6: 10:19
Mile 7: 10:16
Mile 8: 10:02
Mile 9: 16:48 (cool down)
.11: 1:49 (cool down)
The 7 miles of running took 1 hour 11 minutes and 23 seconds with a total of 9.11 miles in 1 hour 45 minutes and 15 seconds.

I hope the next time I head down to the path it's less muddy, otherwise I'll have to find somewhere new to run! I'm off to stretch!

--Melissa

ICE ICE BABY

2010-02-13T11:38:00.000-05:00

This morning I got to go ice skating - oops I mean running - with the Philly summer team for Team In Training at Kelly Drive. Needless to say, it was a bit slippery out there!

We started the session off with an inspirational story of a Leukemia survivor, some tips from our coaches on pacing for a longer run (you should be able to hold a conversation), and most importantly - how to run through the slippery and icy conditions we were about to face.

The coaches told us to look a few feet out in front of you for any icy, or black ice patches, and walk where necessary. We were also warned of an unplowed section of the path around mile 1.

Running through the parking lot to get to the trail (about .2 miles) was just fine and completely clear, but by the time we made it onto the path I was already walking - or shuffling along. It was very icy and I was extremely nervous about falling.

After another .2 miles, I realized I was getting no where fast, and decided to face my fear and start a light jog. There were points where I had to walk, and I definitely was slipping a bunch, but fortunately there were no season-ending catastrophes.

Around mile 1.4, I reached the unplowed section. At this point I had caught up with a group of runners from another TnT team, and we were running/walking/stopping single file in a one foot wide section of packed down snow. After about .4 miles of that, we saw a plow at the end of the path ready to start cleaning the area up after we passed by!

I literally had to climb over the plow, hanging on to the tires and all, to get to the next icy section of the trail. This portion is where I really hit my stride, I wasn't even noticing how cold it was out!

At this point, a crazy fast runner sped by me, which really inspired me, and started me thinking about what else inspires me and keeps me going in the face of my fears.

My Mom was at the top of my list. In the face of our family's biggest fear - losing Dad - Mom is setting such a great example for Melissa and me. She's successful and motivated when it comes to work, getting things organized at home, and hitting the gym regularly. She was quite a champ shoveling our massive driveway through the blizzards this week too! (She and I did a WAY better job than the city folks over on East River Drive...)

Melissa as well is such an inspiration to me. She's kicking butt in her last semester of school, working 30+ hours a week, and would most likely be lapping me at the Lehigh Valley Half Marathon if we hadn't committed to racing together!

Of course, Daddy is our number one inspiration for racing this half marathon. He taught us how to seize life and make the most out of any situation. In the midst of his cancer treatments, he could be found working hard, and playing hard. He even had a Hole In One last summer - in between chemotherapy sessions. He never acted scared in front of us, and always seemed to just roll with the punches. Daddy was fearless.

By the time I got to the halfway point - around mile 2.6, I had harnessed that fearlessness of Dad's. I was truly invigorated and very proud of myself for making it to the halfway point. I trudged back through the snow and ice and finished the 5.3 mile loop in a little over an hour. I know that time isn't anything to write home about, but given the conditions I was still quite pleased!

What today's run taught me, along with my experiences grieving over the past weeks, is that sometimes you have no choice but to face your fears head on. You might slip every once in a while, and you may even fall. But that's okay! I'm fortunate to have a support system of my entire extended family, my Team in Training team, and my friends to help pick me up those times that I do fall.

Thanks for helping me conquer my fears!
Victoria

Half of a half!

2010-02-12T12:40:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Mommom sent me this picture of her, Grandpop Victor, Aunt Joyce, Aunt Helene, and Daddy. I don't know that I've ever seen a picture of the 5 of them, so it was pretty special!

Anyway, last night I was thinking about my workout schedule for the weekend, and realized that it made much more sense to do my long run today rather than tomorrow. My legs felt really fresh from taking 2 days of rest and it would be silly to waste that! I also figured that all this snow isn't going anywhere anytime soon, so regardless of whether I did my run today or tomorrow it was going to be inside. So I ended up doing my long run today, I'll do a light bike ride tomorrow with some strength training, and maybe I'll run a few miles on Sunday. Even though that wasn't my original plan, sometimes you just have to be flexible!

On my own training plan I had 5 miles scheduled, TNT's plan had 5-6 scheduled. I decided to shoot for 6 because I was doing my run on the treadmill. But I ended up running 6.5 and then walking to cool down a little for a total of 7 miles! I was worried that I would get bored, so I decided to do intervals and I played around with the incline. Splits:

0-.5 5:00 1.0 incline

.5-1 4:17 1.0 incline

1-1.5 5:00 1.5 incline

1.5-2 4:17 1.5 incline

2-2.5 5:00 2.0 incline

2.5-3 4:17 2.0 incline

3.-3.5 5:00 2.0 incline

3.5-4 4:17 2.0 incline

4-4.5 5:00 1.5 incline

4.5-5 4:17 1.5 incline

5-5.25 2:30 1.0 incline

5.25-5.5 2:09 1.0 incline

5.5-5.75 2:30 1.0 incline

5.75-6 2:09 1.0 incline

6-6.5 5:00 .5 incline

Running total time: 60:38

6.5-7 7:22 (cooldown) 0 incline

7 miles in 68 minutes

Phew! It was tough! I was a sweaty mess afterward. But it was half of a half marathon! So I just have to double that and I'll be ready for race day! I have a very fun weekend planned, hope you all have a good one too!

--Melissa

Planning

2010-02-11T13:33:00.002-05:00

I made a mental note to stop talking about snow on here, because I've written about it so many times. But after yesterday's insane snow storm, I feel like I can't just ignore it! I woke up yesterday to a sea of white. I knew that getting to the gym was out of the question so yesterday quickly became my rest day. I was kind of glad because even though I love waking up and hitting the gym, I could tell my legs needed a rest. The gym ended up being closed an hour or 2 later, so I definitely made a good call on that one. There was so much snow, around the corner from our house someone built a GIANT snowman:

Hard to see, but that's me standing next to it!

Today I had a 2 mile run scheduled. Obviously running outside wasn't going to happen. The gym also didn't open until 8am, but since I have class at 9 I knew that wouldn't be enough time to get there and back and shower, etc. So I decided just to nix my workout for the day.

At first, I was pretty bummed about this. I rarely take 2 days off in a week, but I've realized that you have to be flexible or else you are going to drive yourself crazy! I love to plan...whether it be my workout schedule, class schedule, a to do list or a shopping list. I live by my planner and write everything down. However, every once in a while things are beyond your control and they don't go according to plan and you just have to LET IT GO! I just adjusted my plan for the weekend instead of worrying. Instead of Friday rest, Saturday run, Sunday cross train. I'm going to do Friday spinning, Saturday run, Sunday cross train. I think my legs got plenty of rest these last 2 days and that I'll be fine. Of course if my legs tell me otherwise I'll just re-plan!

We also got an email from our Team in Training coach saying to be safe, and not to overcompensate for miles missed this week. It is much better to miss 1 or 2 workouts than to over train and end up getting injured and missing weeks of workouts.

I ended up kind of getting in a workout anyway today when I dug out my car! Woo! My arm muscles are screaming now!

Let's hope all this snow melts quickly and I can start talking about spring!

--Melissa

Snow Memories

2010-02-09T14:25:00.000-05:00

Due to the weather, I thought I'd start today's post with some snowy daddy memories. I have several, but I'll just tell a few stories. Here we go!

1. I remember one snow day we were sledding on a hill up the street from our house. There were 2 hills, one was much smaller than the other and I was perfectly content sledding down that hill over and over again. Dad, of course, was trying to convince me to go down the much bigger and scarier hill. I, of course, refused. Just before we were about to go inside, Dad somehow convinced me to conquer that giant hill. I ended up with my head in a huge pile of snow! ;)

2. One birthday when I was little (I think it was my 5th birthday), there was a huge snow storm. Our power went out late at night and our alarm was going crazy! Mom, Vic and I were all huddled under a blanket. Soon, it was Dad to the rescue! He got home from work (you know him...always working late) and took us to the Four Seasons hotel. In the morning there was a candle in my pancake!

3. This one isn't so much a story, but Dad LOVED a good snow day. He was just like a kid-- excited to go play in the snow!

I can't say that I share Dad's enthusiasm with the snow. Sure it's fun for about 5 seconds, but after the initial thrill wears off I'm ready for the snow to be gone!

Last night as I was walking back from my night class, which by the way is approximately a 47 second walk away from my house, I realized just how COLD it was! I checked the weather when I got home (47 seconds later) and it said that the "feels like" temperature for the morning was 5 degrees! No way was I running in that! The sidewalks were still a bit icy in spots too, so I figured it would be safer to run on the treadmill. Our training plan for the day said 2 miles, TNT's training plan said 4. Since this was an inside run, I decided to go for the 4 miles and run at 1.0 incline. Here are today's splits (by the way, I made a mistake when typing up Sunday's splits and they are fixed now):

Mile 1: 9:49

Mile 2: 9:40

Mile 3: 9:31

Mile 4: 9:13

Mile 4-4.5: 10:00

Then I cooled down with a .5 mile walk.

After my run, I bundled back up and started to walk home. I was pretty bummed that I had decided to run inside because it was really sunny and a lot of the snow had melted! With all the snow that we are about to get I'll probably have to do Thursday's run inside too. Oh well, hopefully this weekend's run will be outside!

--Melissa

Train Endure Achieve Matter

2010-02-07T17:22:00.001-05:00

This week, as Melissa mentioned, we had our Kick-Off Party for Team In Training at The Great American Pub in Conshohocken. While the event itself was underwhelming - it was mostly focused on fundraising and meeting teammates and coaches - it was very nice to see my sister, and we did get some cool paraphernalia including:

- A Team In Training Bag
- A Team In Training Training Shirt
- A Team In Training Bracelet

I've added the bracelet to my wardrobe to go along with my other anti-cancer (is there such a thing as pro-cancer???) jewelry:

Cancer Sucks Bracelet made by the Hahnemann Nurses for Dad (with a "P" for Phillies!)

TnT Bracelet

Whenever I'm feeling down I can just look down at my wrist to remind me of why I'm training so hard, and they also serve as a constant memory of Dad.

Today I ran another long run, this time on my own, and sadly in the gym because of the foot and a half of snow on the ground. Our Team In Training run at Kelly Drive was canceled due to the weather - which was a bit of surprise because they claimed to never ever cancel a practice no matter what! Anyway, it was nice to be able to sleep in. Unfortunately I forgot my iPod - but that's a much better mistake to make on week 4 of training than to make further down the line when we're running for hours at a time!

Hopefully next week we'll get a warmer, outdoor run with the team.
--Victoria

Ready for Spring

2010-02-07T11:53:00.001-05:00

So I'm going to pass on the recap of the kick off because it was just okay and I have other things I want to write about today! Here's the one picture that I took at the kick off though (so much for needing to charge my battery!):

the sign out front...very exciting I know...

Anyway, as I'm sure you all know it SNOWED this weekend! Danielle (my roommate) and I went on a little snow adventure on Saturday. It was nice to walk around campus and have a sort of "active" rest day. We took lots of pictures! Here are a few highlights:

the church

red!

Alumni Memorial Building

we built a snowman!

Snow buddies!

Now that our snow adventure is out of my system I am SO ready for spring! Last night I was debating about whether or not to do my run outside. I finally decided that it was better to put safety first and avoid the icy roads/paths and I did today's run on the treadmill. The plan that Vic and I designed for ourselves called for 4 miles today. The Team in Training plan that we got at the kick off called for 3-5. Since I was doing my run on the treadmill I felt like I was cheating just a bit and since technically the TNT plan said it was okay, I decided to run 5 miles today. I walked to the gym which is probably a little more than half a mile and I called that my warm up. Then I hopped on the treadmill, I put it at a 1.0 incline to simulate running on a road a bit more than running without an incline--the splits:

Mile 1: 10:00

Mile 2: 9:49

Mile 3: 9:40

Mile 4: 9:31

Mile 4-4.5: 9:22
Mile 4.5-5: 9:13

Those 5 miles took a little more than 48 minutes, and then I walked to finish off the hour for a grand total of 5.78 miles for the day.

It's definitely easier to get negative splits when you don't have to pace yourself! As I mentioned in my first post, I used to love, love, love running on the treadmill. I kind of see everyone's point now about how much better running is outside. At about mile 1.25 I was bored already and I wished I could have been outside. However, by the end I was in a groove and didn't mind it so much. Running on the treadmill is physically easier (in my opinion) than running outside. I hope that all this snow melts quickly so I can be back to running outside later this week!

--Melissa

Run pictures (finally!)

2010-02-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

This morning I decided to bring my camera out with me again so you could see what I see when I run! I started by taking pictures during my warm up walk across the bridge to the path that I run on.

Sunrise and the steel mill to my right

and this pretty view to my left!

Then I noticed that my camera battery was going to die :( at first I was bummed, but then I realized this was a blessing in disguise! If I hadn't brought my camera on my run I would have never charged it today and then I wouldn't be able to use it tonight at the Team in Training kick off!

Anyway, I had a short 1.5 mile run scheduled for this morning, it was actually really tough! I was huffing and puffing! Maybe because the path was so snowy!?!? (I managed to quickly snap a few more pictures before the battery died.)

I don't know if a snowy path would actually make running harder? Oh well. Here are my splits for the day (are they considered splits if you don't even do 2 miles??):

Mile 1: 17:21 (warm up)
Mile 2: 9:02
2-2.5: 4:23
2.5-3.5: 17:18 (cool down)
3.5-3.69: 3:30 (cool down)

On my cool down I saw these 2 guys:

I bet they were cold! Vic and I will post later about the kick off! Have a good one!

--Melissa

Double run

2010-02-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! I only have time to quickly recap this morning's run...here we go!

My Garmin still won't hook up to my computer (I got a computer virus over the weekend), so I set my watch up to tell me my splits at every half mile instead of every whole mile. I only had 1.5 miles scheduled for this morning and I wanted to know how fast I did the last .5 mile.

I ended up not needing to set up my watch like that though because as I was approaching 1.5 miles I decided I wasn't ready to stop. 1.5 miles quickly turned in to 2. But why stop there right?! Before I knew it I had done a 3 mile run! Oops! (at least it was a good oops!) Here are my splits, broken down by half miles:

0-.5: 7:43 (warm up)
.5-1: 8:07 (warm up)
Mile 1 Total: 15:50 (warm up)
1-1.5: 4:20
1.5-2: 4:21
Mile 2 Total: 8:41
2-2.5: 4:23
2.5-3: 4:34
Mile 3 Total: 8:57
3-3.5: 4:29
3.5:4: 4.24
Mile 4 Total: 8:53
4-4.5: 8:13 (cool down)
4.5-5: 7:52 (cool down)
Mile 5 Total: 16:05 (cool down)
5-5.09: 1:31
For a grand total of 5.09 miles in exactly 1 hour

My leg feels really sore now and I don't want to hurt myself so I will definitely be more careful in the coming weeks. Because of this run, I will be increasing my mileage by more than 10% this week. A lot of running experts say not to do this. I'm going to stick to my plan for the week anyway (1.5 miles on Thursday, 4 on Saturday or Sunday) but I'll be careful and listen to my legs.

See ya!

--Melissa

5k day

2010-01-31T16:26:00.000-05:00

I just got back from what I would consider my first "real" training run. I don't mean to say that the runs I've been going on haven't been "real" and I don't mean to insult anyone; but, in my head for ME it's not really a workout unless I run at least 3 miles. Today was that day!

Let's back up to earlier this weekend. Friday night I stayed in with my roommate, Danielle, and just watched a movie. Okay, okay we watched Titanic...no shame!

When the movie first came out I was in 4th grade and I went to see it with Mom and Dad in theaters. I thought it was the GREATEST movie ever (still kind of do haha) and Dad used to tease me and make fun of the scene at the end where they were all in the water. He would walk around going "bob, bob, bob" and imitate the people in the water. I would get SO mad!

Saturday morning would have been perfect to go for my run because I hadn't done the usual college student Friday night. However, it was so cold that I don't think I would have made it very long. I think the "feels like" temperature was about 8 degrees!!!! So I got some work done (kind of), went to my cousin Connor's basketball game (they won!) and decided that I would run on Sunday instead.

All of this seemed like a good plan, but then I decided to go out last night. We went to Looper's (a cute little bar with fancy martinis). I had a little too much fun. I might have had one of these:

2 of my roommates and me

Anyway, the point of all that was that I woke up this morning and was not feeling well at all. I wasn't sure I would be able to get my run in. After sleeping a little longer and drinking lots and lots of water I decided to suck it up and get going! I was motivated to go because of all of YOU who are supporting Vic and me in our adventure!

Not only was I dreading the run because I didn't feel so hot, but I thought it was going to be really cold again. This time I was pleasantly surprised when I went outside though. It was a beautiful day for running! I was even a little warm in all of my layers! I was also excited about this run because I had a new set of headphones! My old ones broke:

They still worked fine and since I'm a snob when it comes to my headphones (ipod ones only!) I didn't want to go shell out the cash for a new pair. But, my roommate, Mimi, happened to have a spare pair that she wasn't using and she was nice enough to give them to me!

With my new headphones in, I headed off for my run. I warmed up by walking to the trail, I had 3 miles scheduled for today but as I was running I decided to go for a 5k, and then I decided just to finish off that quarter mile so I ended up running 3.25 today. It felt great! It was fun getting to go further down the trail today too. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 14:54 (warm up)

Mile 2: 8:33

Mile 3: 8:55

Mile 4: 8:56

Mile 5: 14:06 (ran for .25, walked for .75 for cool down)

.51: 7:43

For a total of 5.51 miles in 1 hour, 3 minutes and 10 seconds

My Garmin is having issues connecting to my computer, so I can't analyze the miles and I'm not sure how fast I ran the .25 but I'm really happy with my stats for today. For ME that is an excellent time for a 5k! Now I only need to add 10 miles to today's run and I'll be ready for race day!

--Melissa

First Team Run

2010-01-31T15:54:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I had my first outdoor run with Team In Training...in sub-zero degree weather!

We met up at 7:50 AM at Valley Forge to do a 2-3 mile loop...which ended up being 2.54 miles according to my Garmin watch.

It was great to meet all of the coaches, and some of the teammates who will be racing at Lehigh Valley in April with my sister and me - including a nurse from Hahnemann who had worked with Dad, and a friend of one of my coworkers. It is such a small world. There are also teammates training for other races around the country that will take place in the Spring/Summer season of 2010.

The coaches said that this run would most likely be one of our most challenging: it was our first run, the coldest day of the year, and at our toughest course - as Valley Forge has more hills and is windier than any other training site.

The running part was fine - and I was able to stay at the front of the second fastest group of runners, and various coaches would come up and run with us for a segment of the run to keep us motivated and energized. This was nice - but I am definitely not used to talking while running - especially when my face is frozen from the cold!

As for temperature, I had taken an emergency trip to Bryn Mawr Running Company on Friday to stock up on gear. I got some lightweight but very toasty pants, and a nice jacket to wear over a thin under armor top. My body temperature was perfect for the run. My feet were fine too. My weakest point were my hands - which even a heated steering wheel couldn't help with on the drive home! It is COLD OUTSIDE!

It was much more entertaining to run with a group than on my own - and I'm so looking forward to training with the team! This Thursday we have our Kickoff Party in Conshohocken - so I'm looking forward to getting to know my teammates outside of running.

I want to send a quick shout out to all of our friends and supporters of our race. We've already raised over $14,000 - in only 2 weeks of having the website posted - which is $10,000 more than we had originally set as a goal. We can't thank you all enough for supporting our cause!

Happy February!
Victoria

Decisions, decisions

2010-01-28T11:15:00.000-05:00

This morning I had 2 goals for my one mile run that I had scheduled. Both of which I failed to accomplish (sort of)...however, the reasons were out of my control so I don't feel bad about it!

Goal 1: Take pictures on the trail I run. I figured that for a 1 mile run it wouldn't be annoying to carry my camera like it might be for a longer run.
Goal 2: Run FAST. I was just curious to see how fast I could do 1 mile, not that I would actually run this fast for the race or anything, just out of curiosity.

This morning I woke up late because I accidently left my phone on silent after my night class last night. Luckily I naturally woke up around 6:50, so I still had plenty of time. This morning was slightly different from Tuesday morning!!

Anyway, last night when I checked the weather it said it wasn't supposed to snow until 5 pm, but Weather.com is a liar! When I walked outside this morning I saw this:

Snow!!!

I almost went back inside, but I really wanted to run this morning. I thought about maybe just walking to the gym and running inside, but was honestly a little afraid because that's where I got my injury in the first place. I immediately decided not to run across the bridge and to the trail where it is not heavily populated. I had a vision of myself ending up like this:

I decided that I would run my route from the first few runs-- on the streets off campus. Then while I was doing my warm up walk, I decided that it would be nice to take pictures around campus, so I thought I would do my run through campus today.

Alumni Memorial Building

Then I changed my mind because I remembered that the ground through campus is mostly brick.

Brick+snow= slippery+running= disaster

So I went back to Plan A and decided to do the off campus streets. All this decision making was done in the time it took me to do my warm up walking mile! Talk about not being able to make up your mind!!!

Dad was always so good at making a decision and just sticking to it. He helped me make so many major decisions in my life (going to Lehigh, choosing to do my internship last summer at KPMG) and some minor decisions (like what to watch on TV).

Once I made up my mind to run off campus I stuck to it and headed off to run my 1 mile. Here are today's splits:

Mile 1: 17:34 (warm up, stopped to take pictures)

Mile 2: 8:13

Mile 3: 16:09 (cool down)

I definitely ran faster than usual today (goal 2), but because of the snow I had to tread carefully in some areas which definitely slowed me down. Once I got home, I checked out my pace for the whole mile, and at one point I was running at 6:42 pace! I thought that was pretty cool! If it's not snowing next week, I might try this again just to see what I can do, or I might just focus on getting my mileage up. We'll see! Happy Thursday!

--Melissa

What time is it?!

2010-01-26T14:18:00.001-05:00

So here's a good one...

I went to bed super early last night because I was tired and I knew I had to wake up early if I wanted to get my run in (which...duh...of course I wanted to get my run in!).

When I woke up I thought to myself: "hm, it doesn't feel like 6:30".
I squinted at my clock and only looked at the minutes it said something:28. "Oh I guess it is almost 6:30, time to get up!"
I hopped out of bed and went down the hall to the bathroom to brush my teeth. "Hm, that's weird, my roommate is up at 6:30".
As I'm brushing my teeth I remember that I never heard my alarm on my phone go off and I hustled back to my room to catch it before the annoying beeping started. But when I picked up my phone I saw that it was something:32 and my alarm hadn't gone off. "Well that's strange" I checked to make sure I had set my alarm. 6:30, still set.
Then I looked at my clock again...it was only 12:32!!!!!!!!

I got back in bed, slightly annoyed because I was ready to go for my run. Eventually I fell back to sleep and then I woke up again at 3:30 and was almost fooled again!!

Finally, I woke up at 6:30 and got ready to go for my run. My hips were really bothering me yesterday so I was little nervous about running today, but I stretched for a while before I headed out in hopes that would do the trick. I did the same route as Sunday's run (minus a little running because today was only 2 miles instead of 2.5). Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 16:00 (warm up)
Mile 2: 8:27
Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 17:02 (cool down)
.05: 00:47

I got stuck at a few lights, but my warm up and cool down were super slow today...I'll have to work on that! I didn't do as good of job at pacing today and my legs felt kind of weak. That combination made for a less-than-stellar run, but oh well...there's always Thursday!

--Melissa

ps I stretched a lot after my run and my hips are feeling much better

The Capacity To Love...Running

2010-01-24T17:32:00.000-05:00

Today was another "long" run day - which for week two of our training plan consists of a 2.5 mile run. It's so nice to not be running on a treadmill. I took a scenic tour around Bala Cynwyd for this run - just running around down to the library and through side streets till I hit the 2.5 mile mark and walked back home.

It started off a little rocky - I had a few technical glitches. For one thing, I had left my iPod connector at work, so I had a week-old playlist that was too short for this run, and had the same songs I had been listening to for last week's run, 5 hours on a plane, and 6 hours on a train over the weekend, so that was less than perfect, but at least I knew all the words to my 7 songs!

Also, I couldn't get a reading on my heart rate monitor, so I decided to forgo that metric for this week so I could get outside before the rain started here (Meliss - I guess I was luckier than you because it was just lightly drizzling for a few minutes during my run).

When I started to get bored with my playlist, and wondering yet again what the heck we have gotten ourselves into, I began to think about the book I just started "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall (Melissa - your copy's in the mail). I just downloaded this book on Friday, so I'm only 28% through it (Kindle-speak), but there are really some amazing stories of endurance athletes, that make our paltry 13.1 miles look like nothing. Overall, it's been really inspiring and I can't wait to read more!

Some of the parts that have really stuck with me are the commentary that there "must be some kind of connection between the capacity to love and the capacity to love running." This made a ton of sense to me - not that I'm quite at the level of claiming to love running - but I do love the fact that Melissa and I are training for this half marathon to show our love for our Dad.

The other part that I've enjoyed so far, was that those who truly excel at running are those who find joy in doing so - not those who use running as a means to a cuter rear end.

I hope that as I continue on this training journey I can find joy - if not love - in the running itself. Until then you can find me at least loving my bright yellow sneaks.
Victoria

Rainy Run

2010-01-24T14:53:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, it was beautiful, warm, and sunny. I should have gone for my run then! But I had a little too much fun on Friday night and decided that waiting til today for my run would be a better choice. Instead, yesterday I went to my cousin Connor's basketball game and got to spend a little time with my aunt Nancy. Then I ran some errands and did some homework. It's all about balance, remember!

This morning I took my time getting ready and checked the weather, I was happy to see that it said that the rain wouldn't start until 5pm. After stretching, I opened my front door to see that it was raining!!! I didn't even think twice, and headed out for my run. A little rain wasn't going to stop me!

I started with my usual warm up mile and discovered a fun fact: the walk from my house to MacGrady's (a bar, for you non-Bethlehem readers) is only .4 miles! I felt kind of silly for all those times when we whine about walking home (maybe it's because of our heels!).

Roomies' feet!

My plan for today was to find the running path across the bridge by the river. I was glad to find that if I walk a short route to the bridge and across, it's just under 1 mile. I finished off my warm up mile on the trail and then started to run!

Originally, I didn't really feel like going for my run today, maybe it was because I went out again last night...oops! Or maybe it was because of the rain. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I talked myself into actually going for my run because my legs felt great today! I was only scheduled for 2.5 miles today, but it's still the longest distance I've ran since my injury and boy did it feel good! So good in fact that I ran an extra tenth of a mile by accident. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 15:51 (warm up)

Mile 2: 8:55

Mile 3: 8:55

Mile 4: 12:09 (I'm not 100% sure but I think the .6 that I ran took about 5:32 and the .4 that I walked for cool down took about 6:37)

.53: 8:36 (cool down)

For a total of 4.53 miles in 54:28.

I was thrilled that miles 2 and 3 running were exactly the same pace! It felt comfortable too and I definitely could have kept going (maybe not for 13.1 miles, but for a little while at least). Despite the rain, I would say today's run was a success and I definitely liked running on the path and will be doing that again. I have a 2 miler scheduled for Tuesday, and a 1 miler on Thursday. I'll write back with recaps, have a great week!

--Melissa

Balance

2010-01-23T10:42:00.001-05:00

Wow! We've raised over $10,000 in a little more than 1 week! How incredible!! I can't thank you enough for all of your support!

Getting back to school the first week was tough. I had to try to figure out a good balance of all the new things I have going on: my Lehigh class, my CPA review class, work, training, and fun!

Study, study, study

Run, run, run

Play!

Dad taught me the importance of this balance. Anyone who knew Dad knew that he ALWAYS made time for fun! Even if it was the middle of busy season, he somehow found a way to fit in a game of poker. And when the weather got warmer, even though he was far from a morning person, Dad made time for a round of golf at the crack of dawn. Dad worked hard, but he also played hard. I like to think that I've got this balance down pretty well!

I also have found balance in my training program. I think that the reason I got injured in the fall in the first place is because I was running so much--both in distance and in frequency. I think it's good for me mentally and physically to not run on consecutive days. Mixing up my workouts with biking and strength training has been a great change of pace. Hopefully I can fit in a Pilates class too at some point!

Today is my rest day of the week, and then tomorrow I have a run scheduled. (Crossing my fingers for good weather.) With all this talk of balance, I should probably go study!

--Melissa

Brrr!!!!

2010-01-21T23:18:00.000-05:00

Hi! I went for another early morning run today and it went much better than Tuesday's run! I woke up 15 minutes earlier than Tuesday and made sure to stretch before my run. The only problem with today's run was that it was FREEZING! When I walked outside this morning there was frost on all the cars. (I almost went back in to get my camera but decided that I might not want to leave my house again if I did that!)

brrr!!!

It was so cold that by the end of my run my face was numb! When I went inside my lips felt swollen, it was so strange! Let's hope for some warmer weather!

Anyway, once I got over the shock of the cold I headed on my way across the bridge to the north side. I forgot that right across the bridge there is a huge hill. Right now, I'm trying to avoid hills because of my hip. So instead I just ran back and forth across the bridge. (Don't worry mom, there's a path!) It was a lot shorter than I thought it would be and I probably looked crazy running back and forth. When I finished my mile (that's all that was on the schedule for the day) I started to do my cool down mile. At mile 2.5 my hip was feeling good and my legs really wanted to run, so I decided to run again. I originally was going to do another half mile, but my hip started to hurt so I stopped after a quarter mile. Then I walked the rest of the way home and gave myself a decent (not great) stretch. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 16:01

Mile 2: 8:29

Mile 3: 13:43

.5: 7:47

I got stuck at some lights again today, but my walks still seemed slow. I have a 2.5 mile run scheduled for the weekend. I'll probably do it Sunday and I'm both nervous and excited for it! I'll write back with how that goes after. Tomorrow I'm going to a spinning class for my cross training day (it was canceled on Wednesday) so that should be fun too!

--Melissa

Solutions

2010-01-19T23:43:00.001-05:00

Last night I kept thinking to myself that I wanted to do more than 1 mile today. I was tempted to nix the warm up and cool down miles and run them instead. I know that for my hip doing short runs is important to ease back into running. After I talked myself out of extending today’s run, I checked the weather. It said snow—yuck! I went to bed and luckily it was not snowing or raining when I woke up. I laced up my shoes and was out the door for about 10 seconds when I realized that I forgot to stretch which was really not smart. Since I have class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings I felt rushed and decided to just forget it and continued on my way. I got stopped at several lights and was inhaling bus fumes from the millions of buses that drove by. Then I started to run and felt really nauseous. No fun at all! I just powered through my single mile because I wanted it to be over so badly (so much for wanting to run 3). Then I walked a mile back home again getting stuck at several lights. I felt rushed because of class, even though I had plenty of time and I skipped my post-run stretch too.

Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 15:37

Mile 2: 8:34

Mile 3: 16:07

During my run, I honestly doubted myself for the first time since the crazy idea of running a half marathon popped into my head. But, instead of letting this doubt get the best of me, I’ve decided to come up with some positive solutions:

1. Find a different route for my weekday runs. I ran the same route as Sunday, and over the weekend the streets of Bethlehem are definitely less crowded than on a Tuesday morning at 7:30 am when everyone is on their commute to work.

2. Remember to stretch!!! It may be a pain to do it, but I’ll be in more pain if I don’t stretch.

3. Don’t skip out on the mile warm up and cool down. For now. This is important while I’m getting back into the swing of things and even though I didn’t end up skipping it, I definitely considered it.
4. Wake up earlier. I like to give myself a ton of time in the morning and hopefully this will help me to feel less rushed.

5. Remember why I’m doing this. Dad <3

December 2007, Carmines for our annual NYC trip

Anyway, even though this morning didn’t go so great I’m just going to move forward and get excited for Thursday’s run. I think I’ll go over the bridge to the north side. Tomorrow’s cross training is Wonderful Wintry Women’s Workout Wednesday (or the 5 W’s) with one of my friends who just joined the gym!

--Melissa

POWER

2010-01-19T18:52:00.001-05:00

Since Dad passed away, one month ago today, I have felt myself propelled by an internal source of energy that I never knew I always had. I like to think of it as one more gift from Dad to me. This energy is what enabled me to get up and speak with Melissa at Dad’s funeral, and why I didn’t have to think twice about signing on for this running adventure. It’s the energy source that encourages me to live life to the fullest – to be happier, to love harder, and to always aim for success – which is something that Dad and Mom both always set as an example of for us girls.

Dad definitely had the “work hard-play hard” mantra down – and seemed to have an endless supply of energy, especially when it came to fitting in some fun time. He worked his butt off during tax season, but could always sneak in a trip to Atlantic City, Eagles games, a round of golf, or a quick trip up to Lehigh to have dinner with me while I was in school! Even when he was sick and going through treatments, he kept Mom, Melissa, and me propped up with his optimism. He never set up roadblocks for himself to getting what he wanted – he simply figured out what it was he wanted to do, and did what it took to get it.

As I go through this training, I can become a bit overwhelmed at the idea of running 13.1 miles at once – when the max of my life is probably shy of 5 miles. The memories of Dad’s strength to tackle any roadblock – real or imaginary – are what keep me going as those miles get longer.

I’m hoping this energy stays with me – at least long enough for me to cross the finish line!

Victoria

The Tortoise and the Hare

2010-01-17T11:44:00.000-05:00

We all know the story...slow and steady wins the race. I was so excited to go on my run this morning that I kind of forgot this rule.

Slow Down!

Once I get into my longer runs I doubt slowing down will be a problem, but I don't want to get in the habit of having 1 fast mile and then 1 slow mile. Ideally my mile splits will be somewhat uniform. Since my run today was only 2 miles pacing myself was kind of on the back burner, but I need to practice going at a steady pace. Here are my stats for today:

Mile 1: (warmup) 15:19

Mile 2: 8:36

Mile 3: 9:02

Mile 4: (cooldown) 15:50

I was shocked when I saw those splits because it was SO windy this morning and I certainly didn't feel like I was going fast. Even though it was just 2 miles, it was tough!

Last week I bought myself a pair of gloves for running. They even have a cool pocket on the palm for your house key!

These were on clearance and I was really excited to not spend a fortune on these that I forgot to try them on. Oops! They were a little big, but served their purpose and my fingers stayed toasty warm.

I'm off to go try and fix my computer so I can finally make myself a running mix!

--Melissa

LifeSaver!

2010-01-16T17:37:00.000-05:00

I'm back at school for my last semester! So crazy! It was so nice out and I would have liked to run today instead of our scheduled run for tomorrow, but I didn't have time because of unpacking, etc. It's supposed to rain later in the day tomorrow so I'll get up early and do my run. Anyway, Vic and I thought it would be nice to share some stories about dad, and Dad-isms. When we were little Dad always had Pep-O-Mint Life Savers!

But, Dad was also a real life saver--literally! Once when visiting family in Michigan, we were all hanging out by a hotel pool. There was a mother with several children and she didn't notice when one of her kids went out too far and couldn't swim. Dad jumped out of his chair and into the pool with his wallet and shoes on! He saved this little boy's life. Dad was truly a hero on that day and everyday.

I hope that by participating with Team in Training we can be life savers too!

--Melissa

I Think You're Crazy - Just Like Me

2010-01-16T17:14:00.001-05:00

Today I went on my first outdoor, long-run of our training program!

Yep - I know what you're thinking...I'm still not following the training schedule. The weather today was way too nice to pass up an outdoor run. So when Melissa left to head back to school, I got on all my gear - including heart rate monitor and Garmin FR60 - and hit the road!

I walked the first half mile up to our elementary school, and then ran down to the Staples on Montgomery Ave. in Narberth and back.

I had a new running playlist going - (song suggestions for working out always welcome!) - and literally started laughing out loud when Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" started playing. This was one of Dad's favorite songs, and I could picture him singing (and dancing to embarrass Melissa and me) "I think you're crazy - just like me." We all know that's what Dad would say to us taking on this challenge.

So - the first two miles of my outdoor training are done...only have to increase that by 655% in the next three months. That thought popped into my head when I was starting my second mile, and I started to get a little overwhelmed! I miss having my sister home to encourage me through these runs. I'm excited we'll get to run the race together so we can keep one another motivated. I'm also looking forward to running with Team In Training on the weekends starting at the end of January.

When I got back home I uploaded the stats from my Garmin watch to the computer - which was AWESOME. It told me my max and average speeds, heart rate, calories burned, etc.

Can't wait for my next outdoor run!
Victoria

Racing to Save Lives

2010-01-14T16:45:00.000-05:00

We officially have our fundraising page for Team in Training up and running! Please visit our page and make a donation to support our team and help advance the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's mission!

Thanks for your support!
- Victoria and Melissa

We <3 Team in Training

2010-01-12T23:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight, we went to the Team in Training information meeting. It was at the Bryn Mawr Running Co out in Media. The meeting was so inspirational, though it was hard to watch the informational video about racing in honor of survivors, and in memory of those who have lost their battle with leukemia and lymphoma. Team in Training seems like such an incredible organization and we are both so excited to be taking part in something so meaningful. It is truly special.

We found out about all the things Team in Training can do for us as well. They have a training plan which is slightly different than the one we had planned for ourselves, so we might alter ours a bit, or do a combination of the two. Every weekend there is a scheduled team run that we have the option of doing to help us prepare for race day. The best part is that they have water stations on these team runs! We also got mentors to help us through the process of preparing for a half marathon. We also have the benefit of fundraising together, which is nice because every dollar we earn we get to split 50/50. We'll have more information on that shortly. There are many events in the upcoming race season, and we were tempted to change our game plan. However, the Lehigh Valley half marathon is so perfect for us because of location and the date. While competing in any race raises money and awareness for such an important cause, ultimately we are doing this to honor Dad.

After the meeting, we went out for a back-to-school dinner. We brought our folder into dinner to read more about Team in Training because we are so excited about this!

Team in Training and wine!

Goodnight!

--Victoria and Melissa

Guess Who's Back?!

2010-01-12T13:44:00.001-05:00

This morning I went for my first run since my injury ~2 months ago! And it felt so good! Now I only ran a mile, but the fact that my right hip is not in excruciating pain right now is huge progress. I plan on slowly building my mileage back up to where it was...and then some...in preparation for the half marathon.

I layered up with tights on top and bottom, pants, a half-zip top, a windbreaker, ear warmers and gloves. Then I stretched for a little bit. When I left my house my FR60 seemed to be frozen (?!), after a minor panic attack it was working fine (I guess it just needed a minute). I walked for a mile, at first I was quite chilly, but once I got going I started to warm up. My legs were itching to run after about 5 minutes of walking, but I decided to walk the full mile. Then, my Garmin beeped and told me it was time to run!!! I intended on just doing a slow jog, but I got so excited and couldn't help but run a little faster than I probably should have. Oh well. After my mile was up, I walked another 1.3 miles back home. Here are my splits:

Mile 1- 15:43
Mile 2- 9:12
Mile 3- 15:22
.3- 6:36 (I forgot to stop my watch when I got home, so it was actually shorter than this)

Coolest thing ever

Now I know running a 5k in 47 minutes is far from impressive, but I'm quite happy with the mile that I did run. One area where I want to improve is with pacing myself. Since I only had 1 mile to run today this did not apply, but I also know that I can not sustain a 9 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles.

Overall, the run felt great, during my walk home I paid really close attention to my hip and it felt fine, around mile 3.15 I felt a twinge, but it went away within seconds. After uploading my stats to my computer (again, I love my Garmin), I stretched again and then iced my hip. When we were at Bryn Mawr Running Co. the other day I was flipping through an injury prevention book, and it said not to use the store bought ice packs because they regulate to your body temperature too quickly.

I used strawberries :)

Tonight Vic and I are going to our first Team in Training meeting. We'll let you know how it goes!

--Melissa

Rebel With A Cause

2010-01-11T21:03:00.001-05:00

Not even one week in and I'm already breaking our training schedule! I ran my first "run" of our routine tonight, even though it wasn't scheduled until tomorrow. With the Team In Training meeting tomorrow, and an always hectic work schedule, I wanted to make sure I'd get the run in this week. As we go through our training, I'm sure Melissa will be more diligent following the plan than I, but my primary goals will be to meet our weekly mileage targets - and never skimp on the long run!

Anyway, the run went well - and I got lots of compliments on my new kicks :)

sweet kicks

After the run, Melissa and I had a 1 hour personal training session with Terrence. It was awesome - kettle bells, squats, and all sorts of craziness.

Rebel With A Cause

Not bad for a Monday!
-Victoria

New Toys!

2010-01-11T16:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Vic and I went to Bryn Mawr Running Company (aka FAO Schwartz for runners). We spent such a long time there, we practically closed the store! The people who work there were so awesome and helped us find shoes that were best for us. We each ended up getting new running shoes. I wore mine this morning to physical therapy and I am in love! I can't wait to wear them on my run tomorrow (more on that in a bit).

You can see my old kicks in the background, and my spinning shoes

Vic's shoes are beyond cool too. Next, we looked at Garmin Forerunners for a while. We debated over a few different models, but ended up getting the more economical FR60 since we aren't exactly hardcore runners.

Ignore the poor quality, but isn't he beautiful!?!?!

I can NOT wait to use this baby tomorrow! Anyway, the plan for tomorrow's run (per my physical therapist's instructions) is to streeeeeetttttcccccchhhhhhhh a ridiculous amount first. Then I'm going to walk a mile. Then I'm going RUN a mile (and when I say run I really mean slow jog because this is just a "test run"). Next, I'll cool down with another mile walk and then once home again I'll stretch again. Even though I'm sure I'll be freezing, I'll ice my IT band. I am so so so excited to be running for the first time in almost 2 months! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow!

--Melissa

Here Goes Nothing!

2010-01-09T12:32:00.001-05:00

Well...unlike Melissa I have more of a hate/hate relationship with running...and until March 2009 when I was living in Puerto Rico for a rotation for work - and bathing suit season was *imminent and extended* - you couldn't pay me to get on a treadmill. Here I was - stranded on an island in the Caribbean, with no cardio equipment in sight - with the exception of a treadmill at the gym at work. Slowly I moved from a speed walker to a jogger, and I've kind of plateaued at that point.

I "ran" two races while living in PR - the 5K Race for the Cure in San Juan, and a Turkey Trot that was held at work - but nothing of the magnitude of adventure of which Melissa and I are about to embark!

I'm excited to chronicle our trials and tribulations with you. Our first "training" day kicks off this Tuesday! Melissa and I developed our own training plan, so that's more than a little scary. We'll post that up here as we progress.

I know this will be an uphill battle for my body to adjust to a regimented running routine...but I'm excited to be able to devote myself for the next four months to this cause and for Dad's memory.

--Victoria

Crazy idea!

2010-01-09T11:28:00.000-05:00

Hello blogworld! (or maybe just Vic…and I’m guessing aunt Joan will read this once we tell her about it)

I’m so excited to be starting this blog! I’m even more excited to say that my sister and I are officially training for a half marathon!!!!

A little background…

I started running “seriously” in August of 2009. I was logging about 25-30 miles a week, but on the treadmill only. I’m scared of road running! Eek! I dabbled with the idea of running a 5k. In October, I decided to try to go for a road run while I was home on fall break to prep for doing a race. It was hard, way harder than running on my beloved treadmill (unlike most people, I don’t think of it as the dreadmill). Dad was in the hospital, post bone marrow transplant, and I called him before my run to figure out where to go for about a 3 mile run. He was so impressed with my 30-ish miles a week. I decided road running wasn’t really for me and went back to my treadmill <3. I was running faster! I was running longer! My longest run to date is 8 and half miles, and I could have kept going (I had a really great playlist going and could have jammed out for another mile at least), but I had somewhere to be so decided 8.5 was enough for one day. Then one day about 2 weeks later I had a nagging pain in my leg during a run. But being my crazy self I ran through the pain for at least another week. Next thing I know it’s January and I haven’t ran in almost 2 months and I’ve been going to physical therapy for my IT band.

Daddy and Me, December 2008

Anyway, when Daddy died in December I knew I would be signing up for the first race I could find that supported the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (CANCER SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!). I just never, ever in a million years thought I would be crazy enough to make my first race be a HALF MARATHON! I mean sure I ran a lot all fall but I’m not a real runner! Seriously, this is crazy! But this race is perfect. It’s in Allentown (right by school), it’s on April 25^th which is far enough away that I can train and gradually build up my mileage, and it is 2 days after Daddy’s birthday. I spoke to my physical therapist and with his approval I am allowed to go for a run on Tuesday!

Daddy, Mom, Me and Vic at Buddakan, August 2007

I’m really nervous to try road running again, but it’s time I conquered my “fear”. I’m going to suck up any negative feelings I have about running on the road instead of the treadmill and do this for my Daddy. I know he would say anyone running for 13.1 miles is nuts, but I also know he would be so proud of Vic and me. So in 16 weeks, I will (hopefully) be crossing the finish line for him.