Running for a cause!

Ramsey, our honored teammate. Diagnosed with ALL, he turned 3 in February.

Most of you know that I am training for the Walt Disney World Marathon in January. I am also fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. It is a charitable organization that helps fund research to treat and find a cure for blood-related cancers, such as ALL (Acute Lymphocytic Lymphoma), and Non-Hodgkins and Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, I have raised a total of $835. I have to raise $2200, so still need a lot of help. You can donate directly to my website or if you want to write a check, just contact me and I can give you that information.

Thank you for your support of this wonderful organization and my running to reach my goal.

7 miles!

This afternoon I went for a 7 miler. My plan was to run a 4-mile loop then a 3-mile loop. I started strong, and the day was beautiful, sunny and crisp. I was feeling good, happy to be out of the house and out in the beautiful fresh air. I finished my first loop, and there is a hill that you run up just before the end of 4 miles. It always kills me. I know it's coming and it never gets better. So I run the hill, then take a walk break. At this point, I am within 5 minutes of my house. I feel some tightness in my right hip flexor, and some tightness in my calf. I begin a conversation with myself that goes something like this:
Man, that hill was hard! I am so tired. I just ran 4 miles. My hip flexor is tight...my calf is tight...maybe I should just go home...I am so close. I really want to go home. 4 miles is good, right? I should work on my base fitness. I don't want to get an injury. I really should stop. I'll tell Andy I was having a pain....and on and on.
It's really amazing how fast your mind goes through this conversation! But finally, I decided that I could do another 3 miles. I would take a small shortcut, mostly for mental peace of mind, and do it. And guess what? I did! Woo hoo! About 60 minutes into the run I got a terrible stitch in my side, but I ran it out. I ended up averaging about 10 minutes a mile, including my walk breaks. While I certainly won't win any awards for speed, I felt good and felt even better that I persevered even when I really wanted to quit. For me, that is huge. I am not good at pushing myself. But this run just shows me what I can do, and I need to keep that in mind for my future runs. I am strong! I can do it! Yeah!!
ps. just an FYI, the route around my house is hilly! Shouldn't I get extra points for all those hills???
pps. When I got home my coach (aka husband) sent me the running schedule for the next two months. Boy am I glad I did the 7. I am nervous about the 9, 10, 11, and 12 mile runs coming up! I am not sure how I am going to finish all those long runs. I will definitely need a partner! And walk breaks.
Wish me luck!

Play Poker for a Good Cause!

Hello everyone,
My fellow TNT trainer/fundraiser Cindy Jacobson and I have teamed up to bring you a VERY FUN EVENT! It is a Texas Hold Em poker night at the Reserve Vineyards and Golf. Just $50 + $5 door fee gets you $1500 in poker chips, with opportunities later to buy more chips. Your donation is 100% tax deductible, and you are helping raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The date is Friday, October 16th from 5:30 - 10:30. There will be appetizers provided, plus prizes awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place!

Please go to my website to RSVP and donate directly online. If you would prefer to write a check, just contact me and I will get you the information.

If you are a far away friend and can't attend the tournament, you can still make a donate directly to my website.

Thank you all in advance. I hope to get a lot of RSVP's because this is going to be a very fun evening!

Latest long run

Hi all, well I have been sidelined a bit with a cough and cold. No running at all for me last week, and this week I only ran on Tuesday. Saturday my wonderful gracious babysitter donated her time so I could go to practice. (Thanks Jenna!!) So up until Saturday, I have ran 1 day in the last two weeks. They were handing out the routes and my choices were: 5 miles or 7 miles. 5 or 7??? The longest I have done so far since I started running agin was 4, and that was weeks ago! *gulp*...I guess I'll take the 5 miler. And guess what? I killed that 5 miles! Ok, well maybe not really, but I did run/walk the whole way (run 4 minutes walk 1 minute) and I made it without too much pain or coughing. And I am not sore today. I know 5 miles doesn't sound like much, but for me it was a big accomplishment. Tomorrow I will do 4, and then I leave for AK for a week so will be continuing my running up there.

I also wanted to give you an update on my honored teammate, Ramsey. He is well enough to be on what they call maintenance. That means that he does most of his chemo at home, in pill form I believe, and only has to go to the doctor once a month. Yay! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. Your donations really make a difference in the lives of these patients and their families. If you haven't yet donated, please go to my website and you can donate directly online. Remember, all donations are tax-deductible!

Thank you again, for your ongoing support.

Training and Fundraising update

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to give you an update on my training and fundraising progress. First off, training! I am managing about 3 days of running a week. Between Andy, my neighbor, and our wonderful babysitter I have managed to squeeze in the runs. Jenna, our babysitter, who my kids love to death, graciously offered to donate her time on Saturday so I could go to practice with the team. Saturday was the day I did my first 4.5 mile run, the longest I have run since I got pregnant with Charlie! It felt great too, except that I am nursing a little cold. I am looking forward to this week and more 3 and 4 mile runs to help build my fitness base.

Thank you to everyone who has donated so far. If you haven't yet, you can donate directly on my website HERE. For my local peeps, my friend and I are organizing a FUN-draiser in October. It is going to be a poker tournament at the Reserve. It promises to be a night of fun! I will post more details as we have them.

Cheers and Happy Monday to everyone!

It's official, I am doing it again!

and I don't mean having another baby.

I mean that I have signed up and committed to run the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in January, 2010, with Team in Training. It has been 10 years since my last stint with TNT. I did the Anchorage half marathon in June of 1999. Team in Training has literally changed my life. Because of TNT I met my husband, and we now have 3 beautiful children. I met some very dear friends, one of whom married my husband's brother, and now they have two beautiful children. My husband has been a coach for TNT for nearly 10 years now, first as a cycle coach and then a run coach. When he told me that he was going to coach Disney, we decided to make it a family trip and take the kids for some Disney World fun. I hadn't really been running or done any races since getting pregnant with Charlie, nearly 2 and a half years ago. I needed a goal. I decided that the Disney half was the perfect opportunity for me to get back into training again, and it's for such a good cause I just couldn't say no.

Team in Training, a part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, is an organization that supports and funds blood-related cancer research and also offers patient services, such as support groups and actually financial support. Since 1949 LLS has invested more than $600 million in research, $71 million in fiscal year 2008 alone. Society-funded research has directly contributed to many breakthrough cancer treatments, such as Gleevec. Gleevec saved the life of a woman I used to nanny for. She was diagnosed with CML (Chronic myelogenous leukemia) just a year and a half after Gleevec was developed. Were it not for that important drug, developed by doctors funded by TNT fundraising dollars, she would probably not be here today.


For this race I am running in honor of my honored patient, Ramsey. Ramsey is just 3 years old today, and was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) in February of this year. He is responding well to treatment, but still visits Doernbecher Children's Hospital here in Portland once a week for chemo treatments. Thanks to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, children with cancers like Ramseys have a 91.2% survival rate, vs. just 4% in 1960.

Here is a little about what your donation dollars can do:
-A gift of $150 will fund a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society researcher for one day.
-A gift of $500 will allow The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to reimburse one patient for medical expenses for a year through our Patient Financial Assistance program.
-A gift of $1,000 will fund a patient education program on topics such as coping with chemotherapy and healthy cancer survivorship

All donations are 100% tax deductible, and nearly 75 cents of every dollar donated goes DIRECTLY to mission-related activities. Please visit my website to donate directly on line. Check back often for updates on my training and my fundraising progress. I am excited to be a part of something so wonderful again!

For my FB friends: I have 114 friends on FB. If everyone donated just $25, that would be $2800! Lets try and make that happen!

Thank you in advance for your generous donations and support of this worthy cause.

I'm baaaaaaack!!

Ok, ok. I have been terrible about updating this blog. Facebook is where all the action is at now! But blogging is nice since I can go into more depth than I can with my FB updates.

I'll not try to catch up, but just get started again. First thing is first: Lasik. Didn't do it. In the end I couldn't justify spending $4k on my eyes when contacts work nicely. I still want to do it, so maybe sometime in the future.

Second: I am going back to school. Well, hopefully. I haven't finished my application, but I am working on it. Classes start July 6th. It is a distance learning Masters Health and Nutrition Education program. I am VERY excited! With my new macbook in hand, all should go swimmingly... (note: head in clouds, ignoring until necessary how difficult it will be to study and be a full-time mom). I will keep you all posted as it progresses.

Third: Macbook. YES!! Finally! Our home PC crashed and this time I said we are getting a mac. I have been wanting one FOREVER and am totally in love with this machine. Is it wrong to love a machine? I don't know. I don't care. I do love it. The kids are not allowed to touch it. Andy barely even gets to use it. He is so jealous.. ;)

Fourth: The kids. Riley has her last day of preschool for the year on Thursday, and Liam is finishing up Kindergarten in June. This year has flown! Sort of...actually it's been pretty difficult with the preschool schedule, parent teaching, kindy schedule and volunteering. I will be very happy next year when Liam is in school all day and Riley has preschool 3 mornings a week. Charlie is growing so fast. He is walking everywhere and working hard to communicate. When he wants to eat he says "Yummy?" "yu-mee!" So darn cute! I am going to try and get a video of him saying it. He also days "dit-ty" which means kitty, doggy, monkey, etc. Basically anything that he thinks needs the two syllables.

Fifth: Summer. Andy and I are going to Bend for a few days at the end of June. Sans kids. Wow! Lynda and Larry have graciously offered to come down and watch the kids while we are away and playing. The kids are looking forward to a long visit from Grandma Lynda and Grandpa Larry - I hope they (the kids) go easy on grandma and grandpa. They can certainly be a handful.

LASIK - I'm doing it!

Well, I finally decided it was time to ditch the contacts and get LASIK. I scheduled my appt. for Friday, Feb. 13th. I have to wear my glasses round the clock starting Feb. 5th. (yuck!)

I am mostly excited - I really can't imagine waking up in the morning (or in the middle of the night for that matter) and having things be clear. I can't imagine not having to worry about packing my contacts, contact solution - but mostly it's just the seeing part. Those of you who know me well know that I have terrible vision. 20/-6.5 to be exact. My glasses prescription is worse, 20/-7.25. I have met a few people with worse vision than me. A very few. I am completely dependant on my glasses/contacts to see, which oddly enough is what has made me hesitant to have the surgery. Right now, my vision is correctable. I don't take clear vision lightly, and I thought that if anything were to go wrong, I might not be able to see at all. Scary thought! But, it seems that the technology they have now is extremely safe. The dr. yesterday said that there was not 1 recorded case of someone going blind from LASIK. Seems safer than the 3 epidurals I had during childbirth! I vaguely remember signing something while in labor to the effect of the possibility of paralysis from the epidural...

So that's it. I found a place, the 20/20 Institute. They are having a "sale" right now. I know, I shouldn't go cheap on my eyes. Well, this ain't cheap. But I feel like it's worth it. I have already been wearing glasses or contacts for 26 years now, it would be nice to have a few years of non dependance before I go the other way and need reading glasses. (Oh the irony!!) This place guarantees 20/20 vision or the procedure is free.

So, please be thinking of me on Feb. 13th (and yes, it's a FRIDAY.) Oh, and if you have any sucess stories to share, that would be great to boost my confidence. Thanks!