A little bit of everything

I stopped Shredding. I decided that after doing 2 days of butt kicks and then hearing my right knee cracking and popping while doing them, that's not a good thing. As kilax said they would, my quads started to hurt after the 2nd day. I didn't do it on Wednesday morning since I knew I had the 7 mile run scheduled. And I decided this morning (while struggling to get out of bed) that I'll start it after my marathon on the 19th.

I'm thinking of getting one of these for my first marathon.
My medals are hanging around the spare bedroom closet doorknob, next to the cat litter boxes. Not exactly in a spot worthy of medals. I'm thinking of getting this one, to hang on the wall, to show off my first marathon. Not that the time is great or that it's a good photo (my thigh fat is doing a weird wiggle thing), but just to have it hanging on my wall. What do you guys think? Good idea or waste of money?

I'm buying a lot of random things for my Garmin & bike. Cool stuff. Stuff that I don't need. Like a carrying case for my Garmin. And a seat pack for my bike. I did buy 2 white water bottle cages that I did need. But I also bought a blue cycling computer for way too much money when I could have bought a cheap generic one. I'm looking at a Forerunner Bicycle Mount Kit. But I'm not sure I would need that when I could just wear it right?? Gotta get new gloves too. Since I have white handlebars and my gloves are black, I know that they're gonna rub off and leave black marks.

Oh did you see that 2 new versions of Garmin Forerunner were released? (Yes, that's ME talked about in the article!!!!) One that will do heart-rate calorie count (remember when I thought mine would do that??) and the other that is water resistant for those triathletes out there (tempting!!). The 405CX comes in a pretty blue colour too! But it automatically comes with a heart-rate monitor so the price is a lot more than what I paid. Oh and it also comes with options for different wristbands for smaller wrists! How heavenly would that be?!
I also bought a Road ID. Well, a replacement for my current one. I put the same numbers on it; Dad (who changed his number), Brother (who also changed his number) and Work (which also changed) since the last one I bought. I changed my Motto tagline too. Last one was "Keep On Keeping On!" Which I thought was pretty neat. This time I put on "Run & Win Your Own Race." Talk about motivation and keeping it real. If you would like to buy a Road ID, here's a $1 off coupon: ThanksLindsay473840. Can be used 20 times in the next 30 days.

So Target, Wal*Mart, MC Sports, even Chilton's Sporting Goods (a local hometown store) all didn't carry my Clif Shot Bloks. I will be heading to Rockford tomorrow after work then. And will be buying many packages. They only carry the Black Cherry & Cran-Raz (which I tried and couldn't handle the taste. I also have some Cranberry Raspberry juice but don't like it.) Maybe they'll have some other flavours.

Categories: garmin, running accessories, Shred, St. Jude Marathon

Yay, professional photos!!

Yay, the professional photos are in! There's only 2 of me but Chicken Brent is in one of them!

Categories: Brent, pictures, St. Jude Marathon

Respect: St. Jude Memphis Marathon race report

What can I say but to sum it up like this: 26.2 miles is worth respect. Lots & lots of respect.

The whole 2 days of the weekend have been a blast. And here's the jest of it. Good luck with reading!


St. Jude Hospital Tour

2008-12-05 St. Jude Hospital Tour & Pasta Dinner

Walked in to the lobby of St. Jude Hospital to check in for the tour and immediately met someone from online. I'm really love social networking; blogs, Twitter, Bacebook. You can meet some awesome people that way. Anyway, I met Kevin from Run Dando Run!. I found his blog one day and made a comment about one of his training runs. We were both doing our first marathon and using the same training plan. I've been following his blog for a few weeks now.

Brent & I went on the tour, along with Kevin, we it was again, so moving to see. This time we went into the Chili's Care Center which I didn't get to into last year. Unfortunately, last year we were able to go into a wing where they do the treatment for the patients but they closed it off this year. So I'm glad I was able to go last year and see the patients getting their chemotherapy. Made it all that much more real. I must admit, the tour guide was not as great as the one I had this year. But he said that he doesn't give many tours at all.

St. Jude Expo
Then it was to the Expo where Brent & I picked up our packets and went through the booths. I did in fact buy something from OneMoreMile.net. Last year, my father bought a shirt that said 13.1 miles Been there, Run that. This year, I bought underwear that said 26.2 miles Been there, Run that. I dropped off my remaining money at the St. Jude Heroes section and then also picked up my tickets for the Pasta Dinner.

Brent & I then went to our hotel in Southaven and got all situated in that we laid out our clothes and put our chips on our shoes and our bibs on our shirts. I had 2 outfits to choose from (Outfit 1 and Outfit 2) and then what I was going to wear no matter what and then my St. Jude jersey.

St. Jude Heroes Pasta Dinner
We headed to the Peabody Hotel where the Pasta Dinner was held. We arrived a little early but there was still a line. Once we got our tickets checked and our table, we waited for Kevin & his wife. When they arrived, we all sat at a table together. It was so great to share this with someone. Dinner was severed in that it was a buffet and the best part it was ALL VEGETARIAN!! They had a speaker that was a father whose adopted daughter ("born of our hearts") developed cancer. He choked back tears the entire speech which made it hard for me to do the same. After the speech, they handed out the awards for top teams & individual fundraisers. It was pretty much the same team from last year except for one.

We went shopping at Wal-Mart to pick up last minute items and back to the hotel room to try to get some shut eye. I did in fact get some sleep but 5:45a came way too early. They had a St. Jude Heroes picture at the start of the 5k at 6:45a unfortunately we didn't make it there in time. Kevin told me at the dinner that he didn't get a St. Jude jersey but I had grabbed one from this year but I thought it was way too big for me so I used last years. I told Kevin that I could give him the one that I picked up. So he met up with us at the start of the 5k and he was very thankful for getting it. No problemo.

St. Jude Memphis Grizzlies House 5k

2008-12-06 St. Jude Gizzlies House 5k

Brent did in fact dress up as his chicken. He was very brave to do it! I got a few pics of his at the start of his 5k at 7:15a and he took off running. I went to the stadium to get a good place near his finish line and just waited for him to finish. Luckily, he arrived with 10 minutes before the start of my race. I got good pictures of him running across the finish line and then getting his medal. "Why did the chicken cross the St. Jude 5k finish line?" "To get his medal!"

St. Jude Memphis Marathon

2008-12-06 St. Jude Memphis Marathon

We made it over to my corral with 5 minutes to spare!! So Brent was still wearing chicken outfit. He was getting all sorts of pictures taken of him with other runners. Then a guy I recently met on Twitter came over. He was dressed as a parrot. He knew that Brent was dressed was dressed up as a chicken so he asked about me. We had a friend in common on Twitter and he asked if I've seen her but there was so many people and I just arrived that I hadn't. Then the gun went off. We all moved up and Brent stayed behind. I had told him where my family was at. Unfortunately, as I was moving up, my iPod crashed. :-( So I texted my brother John saying that I was going to give him the iPod and hopefully he can fix it before 3 miles. I dropped it off to my Dad and told him that it was broken and that John was going to fix it.

Then I went off running for 3 miles without music. There was enough people talking though that it wasn't too bad. I even heard that one lady was talking about running into her students at bars and it just weird. Then I remembered what my friend Rob said about being friended on MySpace & Facebook so I mentioned that to her. She said what Rob did, she pretends to ignore it until the end of the semester.

Along Riverside Dr. there was nothing but a bunch of clothes on the ground. I wore Brent's fleece and running pants. I knew that by mile 3 when I saw my family, I would take off my fleece so I waited. There was one tree that was growing clothes!!

2008-12-06 St. Jude Memphis Marathon (John)

John did in fact fix my iPod so I was able to get it on and gave my fleece to Dad. Brent or David and his family wasn't there at mile 3. And off I went on with my run.

10k mat and I was estimated to finish in 4:22 and I was very happy with that. Soon 8 miles just flew by. And I was still feeling fine. This is great! Soon I was entering in Overton Park. Then I saw a costume that I saw last year, the gorilla but this time he was joined by a banana.

Back out of the park and to the split area of the half & full marathon. It was lonely looking at the half marathoner's go one way and I go another. Especially when I looked in front of me and there were quite a few less than before (8,000 in half and only 3,000 in full).

Cross 13 miles. I knew that my family was waiting for me again at halfway. Then I saw 13.1 and the mat that I cross that tells my time and those who signed up for my tracking. I looked for my family and there was the big ole chicken! I stopped and changed out my orthotics for my regular insoles since the orthotics were starting to hurt my feet. And the ball of my foot was hurting anyway so my orthotics weren't doing anything to fix the problem. Good job doctors! Grrr >:-[

A few pictures were taken while this was happening. Then Brent said that he was going to run with me from 13 to 14 and he had on his chicken suit. Needless to say, he was getting all the attention as we were running down Beale Street and turned the corner to the other road. A professional photographer was on that road. They took a picture of us. A lot easier to take individual photos since there were less of us, so I'm sure that the photography team will have individual photos of me this year.

Then at mile 14, he was stopped off with my family and I was on my own from there on until the stadium finish. Also, after that I started to get passed now. But that's OK. At mile 15 I started to walk about every mile and I was perfectly fine with that.

There was a beer table. I stopped to have a shot of beer. Someone also was giving out cut bananas. Oh My Gosh, I was so thankful for that!! I needed something in my stomach besides gel or beans.

At mile 18, I FINALLY decided to stop off for the bathroom. After 3 minutes in there, I had stiff legs.

After that we turn and start heading back north and it got prettier but busier in terms of traffic. A lot more cars on the road, E. Parkway. In fact there was one point, in which I was coming up to these 2 older guys walking and one of them, without turning around, started to wave at a car holding up traffic (one lane was blocked off for us) wanting to turn left. He was telling them to go but the driver saw me coming up behind and wouldn't go. Then the guy started yelling at the driver to go and waving his arm frantically. I was yelling NO NO NO! And ended up cutting the driver off but i guess the car did go after I passed. Mind you I was still running and I knew that if I had to stop, I probably wouldn't get going again. About 8 minutes later the older guy came up to me and passed me and apologised to me about it. He said that he didn't know that anyone was behind him. Well, he didn't look.

Then I turned left and heading back to the river and west. This was again a very boring part. Hit Mile 21, then 22 and then 23. Up and back down over an interstate. Cold. Windy. Right before Mile 24, I started to see the Pyramid and St. Jude Hospital again. Turned left and headed south. Then I saw Mile 25. Then I saw Mile 26 and BRENT! He was standing at the turn around spot where the runners turn immediately 180 and head straight up a ramp to turn into the stadium. I stopped at that time and took off my bright blue jogging pants. I wanted to cross looking good and not hastily put together with last minute items that don't match (I'm a girl, I like to look nice even in a marathon!) I also was debating whether or not I should do the arms raise. I decided yes and as I crossed tears were starting to form. I'm not sure if they were from the pain or just from finally finishing.

The pizza was cold at the finishers area. I ate one slice and felt nauseous. Grabbed a couple packages of Oreos and a Coke. The massages were closed as they had reached the cutoff. So we found a secluded area inside the stadium and I stretched myself as best as I could. Brent was really worried about me as I looked like I was going to collapse at some point.

When I found my family, I was talking and coherent and kept on walking and moving my legs but my thighs were hurting so bad. At that time, tears were in my eyes and I was telling them that I'm never doing this again; I'm sticking with half marathons. I was saying the same thing on Sunday saying that I'm going to beat my time in a half marathon and go under 2 hours. On Monday I was saying maybe in 10 years I'll do another marathon. Then on Tuesday, when I stopped walking like an old lady and could stand up and sit down without saying "Ow!" I was thinking, heh, maybe I'll do the Honolulu Marathon after all next December (I'll be turning 30, figured it would be a good present to myself). Then today, I'm thinking, maybe I'll do the St. Louis Go! Marathon in April after all. I have until the end of this month to decide as that's when rates go up again.

Saturday night we went out to Beale Street and we shared a giant bucket of "fun."

I limped all weekend long. It was really bad on my thighs. Standing up or sitting down just hurt. Finally on Tuesday, I started to feel better but I still got a massage in St. Louis anyway. My first and totally worth it.

So yea, I think I will do the Go! St. Louis weekend. Either the half marathon or the full. I have to look at the route and see if it's all that hilly. Cause I don't want to do another hilly race after I did the half in St. Louis beginning of November, I may say screw it. I will also look at the marathonguide.com website and see what the reviews are.

Categories: pictures, races, St. Jude Marathon

St. Jude Marathon

Here's my stats. Full race report to come later, it'll take a couple days I'm sure. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 263 ft Location: Memphis, TN Elev. Gain: -20 ft Date: 12/06/08 Up/Downhill: [+990/-1010] Time: 08:12 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 47 F temp; 41% humidity 47 F heat index; winds SW 13 G 20 Performance Distance: 26.38 miles Time: 4:47:02 Speed: 5.5 mph Pace: 10' 53 /mi Calories: 2648 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 01 -0' 52 6.0 +0.5 +10 ft 2 9' 40 -1' 13 6.2 +0.7 -23 ft 3 9' 53 -1' 00 6.1 +0.6 +10 ft 4 10' 14 -0' 39 5.9 +0.3 +36 ft 5 9' 28 -1' 25 6.3 +0.8 -49 ft 6 9' 44 -1' 09 6.2 +0.6 +16 ft 7 9' 48 -1' 05 6.1 +0.6 +10 ft 8 9' 45 -1' 08 6.2 +0.6 0 ft 9 9' 48 -1' 05 6.1 +0.6 +3 ft 10 10' 06 -0' 47 5.9 +0.4 +26 ft 11 10' 59 +0' 06 5.5 -0.1 -26 ft 12 9' 58 -0' 55 6.0 +0.5 +10 ft 13 9' 49 -1' 04 6.1 +0.6 -17 ft 14 12' 44 +1' 51 4.7 -0.8 -13 ft 15 10' 15 -0' 38 5.8 +0.3 +23 ft 16 10' 58 +0' 05 5.5 -0.0 +33 ft 17 11' 19 +0' 26 5.3 -0.2 +6 ft 18 14' 09 +3' 16 4.2 -1.3 -7 ft 19 11' 19 +0' 26 5.3 -0.2 +16 ft 20 10' 45 -0' 08 5.6 +0.1 -30 ft 21 11' 20 +0' 27 5.3 -0.2 -13 ft 22 11' 24 +0' 31 5.3 -0.3 -17 ft 23 11' 04 +0' 11 5.4 -0.1 -16 ft 24 12' 33 +1' 40 4.8 -0.7 +10 ft 25 11' 40 +0' 47 5.1 -0.4 -27 ft 26 12' 30 +1' 37 4.8 -0.7 +13 ft end 12' 17 +1' 24 4.9 -0.6 -7 ft Versus average of 10' 53 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: races, St. Jude Marathon

Extra workout & the nephew

I don't know how I did it. I ran 8 miles on Saturday and then I hiked around Maquoketa Caves State Park and went spelunking. Holy cow!! I went through some really tiny places. Quite the workout that's for sure!!









Pictures from the day:


My nephew is now bald. Well, almost. His mother was giving him a hair cut today and apparently he moved and buzzz, a chunk was gone. This is going to be like last year. My nephew is very blonde. So last year at the St. Jude Half Marathon, his hair was shaved very closely like that and while we were going through the Expo, people were looking at him. He looked like he had cancer and had lost all his hair. So I'm sure that this is going to happen to him again this year. I'm sure going through the Expo, this will happen again. People sure were treating me differently when they saw him. I really like his hair longer! It's so cute and blonde!

Categories: Brent, nephew, pictures, St. Jude Marathon

Thanksgiving Day Run

Well, after my tough run on Tuesday at the YMCA on the treadmill, I wanted to run here in Iowa. So off I went on Thursday morning later than I had planned. I wore Under Armor leggins, a UA cold weather shirt and my jacket on top of that. Then my gloves, fleece hat and my fleece neck gaiter.

I took off to the bike path (a rails-to-trails project) and ran around a lake. It was 2.14 miles for one loop. Around 1.5 miles I took off my gloves. My neck gaiter I had to keep pulling up and down though. The fleece was making my breath stay in the gaiter and the moisture too, which was then hot and warm going into my lungs. It would also get too hot at times and hard to breath. So then I would pull it down and the air would be all cold and my face would get cold again. It was not fun. The sun was shining very brightly and I actually started to get quite warm out there but I kept my jacket on.

So today, dealing with the Black Friday madness, stopped off at a sporting goods store. I found a few moisture wicking face masks however when I pulled it down under my jaw, it would be tight and I think hard to run with it. Finally located the Under Armor mask and tried it on. It's made so that if you want to pull it down, you can just pull it down and there's enough loose fabric that it just sits under the chin. Very nice indeed!!

So tomorrow will be my 8 mile run. I think I'll wear my Warm Weather shirt under my jacket instead of the Cold Weather shirt. Last big run before the marathon! Then next week is just Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday at work. Here's my running schedule:
Monday: 3mi
Tuesday: 4mi
Thursday: 2mi
Friday: a lot of walking at the St. Jude Expo and St. Jude Hospital tour.
Saturday: 26.2

I'll write more about the events planned for that weekend next week. :-)

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 834 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 11/27/08 Up/Downhill: [+52/-52] Time: 09:20 AM Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:47:14 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 27 /mi Calories: 518 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 58 -0' 29 6.7 +0.3 -6 ft 2 9' 36 +0' 09 6.2 -0.1 +6 ft 3 9' 33 +0' 06 6.3 -0.1 -7 ft 4 9' 31 +0' 04 6.3 -0.0 +4 ft end 9' 37 +0' 10 6.2 -0.1 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 27 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 5 miles, accessories, Iowa, St. Jude Marathon

Countdown: 11 days

GREAT NEWS!!

You can now follow my times as I cross certain parts of the race. This is the first time that it's been offered for St. Jude Memphis Marathon AND only available to St. Jude Heroes. I used it this year to follow a few runners in the Chicago Marathon and it worked out great! You can do this via email OR text messages!

Split times are at 10k (6.2 miles), halfway (13.1 miles), 30k (between 18 & 19 miles) and finish 42.1k (26.2 miles).

This is awesome as it will help my supporters keep track of me! The races are sold out; 5k (3,000), half marathon (8.000) & marathon (3,000) so it'll be a bit busy out there.

YAY!!

Special invitation to sign up for runner tracking
We are pleased to announce a special service to St. Jude Heroes only - runner tracking! You can invite your friends and family to receive updates on your progress via text, e-mail or pager alerts on race day. At strategic places along the course your time, pace and predicted finish will be sent to friends and family signed up to receive the alerts. Best of all, this service is free.

Forward these instructions to friends and family interested in following you during the race:

1. Visit http://www.doitsports.com/results/MSG-signup.tcl?sub_event_id=1321.
2. In the middle of the form beneath the heading "You Must Login," enter your e-mail address and create a password.
   *This is so you can return to make changes or track other participants at a later time. Privacy Policy.
3. Search for the race participant by entering their name and clicking Search.
4. Click on the name of the participant in the search results.
5. Specify how you would like to receive alerts (at your e-mail address, mobile phone number or pager).
6. Select whether you want to receive an alert at all available points along the race or at the finish only.
7. Click Track Entrant(s) During Event.
8. Enter the confirmation code you received to the device that you specified for alerts. If tracking by phone, simply reply 'Y' to the text message received.

Categories: St. Jude Marathon

St. Jude Hero

About this time last year, I asked for help and support for my participation in the St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon as a St. Jude Hero. Because of your generosity and belief in St. Jude’s mission, I raised a total of $1,425, well over my goal of $550. I also ran the 13.1 mile race in 2:03:01, well below my goal of 2:30. Altogether last year, there were more than 1,600 Heroes and collectively we raised $1.2 million dollars!

This time, however, I’m stepping it up a notch. I’m running the full marathon, 26.2 miles through the city of Memphis and my fundraising goal is $1500! All to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and its research. So once again, I am asking for your help and support of St. Jude by sponsoring me in this year’s St. Jude Memphis Marathon on December 6, 2008.

The donations raised will support St. Jude in its mission of finding cures and saving children with cancer as well as providing first-class medical treatment, lodging, meals and transportation for families. This will help so many people in our own community and throughout the country.

It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make a donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. Whatever amount you can donate will help!

Thank you for supporting me always, but especially in this challenge. You really do make a difference.

http://www.stjudeheroes.com/users/lindsaycb

Categories: fundraising, St. Jude Marathon

St. Jude and my family

As a thank you to my family for supporting me in this race AND for travelling to Memphis to stand around and wait for me to finish, I wanted to give them something. Running related would be best so that they can look at and be reminded of the support they gave me. We're also going to spend all weekend together and even on Monday since it's my birthday. That means a lot to me that they're going to take the day off for that.

So I could not think of what to get them. I thought pictures were over done. I wrote to the LiveJournal community "runners" and asked for their help. A commenter had several good suggestions since I was running St. Jude why not give them St. Jude keychains. That got me thinking! St. Jude has a gift shop right online! And I'm a "fan" of St. Jude Memphis Marathon on Facebook and they had sent everyone a 15% coupon for anything they buy online. SCORE! Last year, I spent $90 on Thank-you cards for donators (that I never stupidly sent out, I will this year!) so it's like an extra donation to St. Jude. I don't know if you've noticed but I'm very into helping out St. Jude. :-)

So Friday night I spent trying to find stuff to give them. I have my Dad, brothers John and David, David's finanee Nikki and their son Devon. Along with Brent since he'll be coming down and he supported me throughout my running and is even doing the 5k that day.

Dad was easy. Coffee cup! Nikki was also easy, a candle and I added a lamp shade for a double bonus. Then I was glancing around the categories and saw food. David likes food! So I got him Snickerdoodles (once I looked up what they were). Devon was next which is easy since he's a kid (he's not going to want a kitchen dining set!). He wore my medal last year and loved it. So then I saw this medal like necklace with a ribbon, an initial on one side with the St. Jude logo on the other. PERFECT!

John was next. He's hard to shop for. So I kept texting him questions, do you use keychains. Do you wear hats? No to both. He asked what was up with the questions. So I called him and told him my dilemma. He said a shirt would be good. Really? So I sent him the link and he choose a long-sleeved green shirt.

Brent was the hardest. He's very picky about everything, even shirts. So I ended up getting him a Tree Ornament. Even though he doesn't have a tree. I figure he will one day and he can put it on there and remember me. And while I was at it, I grabbed one for myself. I chose the Red Penguin and the Blue Snowman.

I'm pretty happy with my choices. The Snickerdoodle and candle won't last forever. And I got Nikki the Snowflake lampshade so it doesn't say anything St. Jude related on it (I grabbed the inspirational one for myself :-) But David & Nikki are young and even though they have a kid, I don't think they quite realise what St. Jude is all about so is not quite into the whole thing. But John, Dad and Brent all says St. Jude or has the logo on it. Same with Devon's necklace.

There were other suggestions about food & snacks or Starbucks gift cards. I think I'm going to look to see if downtown Memphis has a Starbucks (update: HA! there's one right IN St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!) and then grab a couple gift cards for Dad & John & maybe Brent. I don't think Nikki or David will drink anything from Starbucks (update: David does drink coffee!). Maybe I should ask, just in case.

Today I'm going to get together an itinerary. Of places I want to take Brent (Graceland, Civil Rights Museum, a good Memphis BBQ place, etc) and what they could do while I'm out running my first marathon!

Do you realise I only have 3 Saturdays of running left before my big 26.2 miles? I thought of that last night in bed and I flipped! I also had a dream that my foot was broken and not only could I not run on it anymore but they put a cast on it and so I could even do any water running either!

Categories: family, St. Jude Marathon

Tomorrow Morning

Boy, it's going to be cold tomorrow morning.
Temperature tonight will be 36 and then by 7a, it should be 39. 7a is the time that I had hoped to start running.
Looks like I have to break out my cold weather tights and my long sleeved shirt!
I HIGHLY doubt that Brent will be joining me tomorrow morning after all! HA!
Might have to swing by Starbucks on the way out to the trail to pick up my hot cocoa!

I have finally uploaded my email address book to St. Jude's fundraising website.
I hope to send out emails on Sunday night after Brent leaves.
I don't think I saved an email from last year when I sent them out, so not sure what I said.
It was just a template which made it very easy.
They switched to a new fundraising site this year. It seems to be not as cool or easy. It took FOREVER for the address book upload window to show up.
So if anyone has my email from last year, I would appreciate it if you could send it back to me! :-)

My snail mail letter has increased from 1/2 page to 1.5 pages now!
That's because I talked about last years race and stuff.
I'm hoping to send that out this week.
I must go to Office Max and have everything printed out since my printer doesn't work.
Unless I buy a printer online or something.

Now I'm just waiting for Brent to show up. Should be in another 30 minutes or so!

Categories: Brent, cold weather, fundraising, St. Jude Marathon

St. Jude & Chili's!

Dine at Chili's today & 100% of your bill will be donated to St. Jude Hospital! How easy is that?! http://tinyurl.com/4bvpq8

Categories: St. Jude Marathon

St. Jude all over again

As of yesterday, I officially entered the realm of a Marathoner. I signed up for the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, TN on December 6, 2008. Pretty nifty. I ran 3.5 miles yesterday. I think I want to run again tonight. There's a group meeting at 7p but I think that's too late for me. Don't know. Last night I ran at 6:30p but I didn't eat anything beforehand or after. I need to eat sometime at night! I'll talk it over with Brent and sees what he wants to do for tonight. I need to get up to par for the 8k in a few weeks!

Categories: St. Jude Marathon

Finally shoes!

I was up in Rockford yesterday and went to Dick's Sporting Goods. I had a $20 gift card to use. And I wanted to look at shoes. So on the way to the back, we passed by a clearance table with a bunch of shoes on it. So we started rifling though the table and was looking for running shoes for me and Brent. They were mostly old shoes, like models no longer made and sizes that are odd (like 11 & 12 in women's). I saw a lot of my old shoes, the GT-2110 by Asics but they were size 6. I missed those shoes so much. They were nice to run in. Then he found them in size 11 but wide width. I tried them anyway on but alas they were in fact too wide.

After a few more searches through containers then Brent found a discovery of just size 11 of the GT-2110! I tried them on and they were decent width wise but a bit long. I'm now thinking I need like size 10.5. The special was buy one pair get the second half off. So after a few more searches Brent found another pair of GT-1110 (a much older model and part of the 1000 series). So after trying on that, I decided to get both. Then with my $20 discount, both pair were only $53! How excellent!

Sure the shoes were older model but that's OK. My Nimbus' aren't cutting it anymore. Problem is they are both size 11 and we'll see if I can run in them. Plus the problem is my Nike+ adapter. It's laced up in my shoe. So I don't know how that'll happen everytime I want to switch my shoes.

In running news: finally went running outside today. It was nice and sunny and then actually somewhat warm. It was awesome! Brent went with me and we ran 3 miles (I ran 3.1). At a slow pace too which was nice. We could actually talk a bit during the first part of the run! I just wish this weather would stay. With this much snow this winter, I think I'm done with winter. I want the nice weather to stay and spring to come!

In race news: I found a 5k in Bloomington, IL to participate in. It's going to be nice because it will be the weekend before I start my new job! The day before St. Patrick's, so it's a St. Patrick's Day run. And then we're going to go out the night before, stay the night with my friends down there and dinner after the race. Yay for celebration!

In other race news: I did not sign up for the Rockford Marathon/Half-Marathon. Yesterday was the deadline. A little too pricey for me now and I haven't been really training too well. So I decided that my first marathon will be the St. Jude Marathon on December 6th. I will be raising money for it again too. I'm excited. So I will start my Marathon training in August with still doing 5k & 10k this summer. I'm excited!!

Categories: marathon training, shoes, St. Jude Marathon