Best Day Ever!

Miles to OFFICIALLY CANCER FREE!!: 396
Miles to Date: 424

Thursday, November 1, 2012 - will officially be one of the best days of my life.  Jen texted me to tell me that her PET Scan results had come back completely clean making her officially 100% CANCER FREE.  I have never been so happy.  Then I realized that her one year cancer free anniversary would fall during next year's NYC Marathon weekend.  We are already planning a trip and Jen's on board to come along.  I cannot think of a better way to celebrate than to be in the city, crossing the finish line and seeing her there!  I'm selfishly hoping that the cancellation of this year's race doesn't put too big of a kink in getting a spot on a Breast Cancer charity team for the 2013 NYC Marathon.  Jen still has radiation on the books and starts that process tomorrow, but it feels great to know that she is cancer free and on the mend!

This week I took a break from my weekday morning runs a) because I was sore from my half marathon last weekend and b) because I knew I had a full weekend of running on the books this weekend.  This was another double run weekend for our Goofy Training.  Saturday we met early 10 run 10, which we took easy.  Then I went to the Fight for Air Stair Climb to benefit the American Lung Association.  Kathleen is a 14 year Lung Cancer survivor and I offered to take to the stairs for her team several months ago.  The stair climb is a timed event where you make your way up 25 floors in the Bank of America Building in downtown Orlando.  According to my packet paperwork this is 512 stairs! Thank goodness you get to take the elevator down!  I probably should have trained for this event, but I survived the climb and found my way to the top in 6 minutes and 42 seconds.

Our Stair Climb Team

 

Kathleen speaking before the event

The Bank of America Building - you mean I'm climbing up that?

 

Powered by Lungs - climbing for Kathleen and Heff

 

Today, we met to run 18 miles.  I was running late (iphones apparently don't update the way they should for daylight savings time) which is not at all how I operate.  I drove like Mario Andriette and we started about 40 minutes late.  6 of us ran 6 miles, before meeting up with 3 more for the last 12.  Running 10 miles and doing the stair climb the day before did not make this 18 easy, but in the end Leah and I finished together in an average 13:20 min/mile moving pace - right on track for a 6 hour marathon!  It was daylight for much of the run and we passed a peacock and 2 Boston Terriers (which I stopped and gave kisses to).  Now I'm resting and icing and getting ready for another week and more miles.

After 18 miles looking fly in my Nike outfit

Peacock we passed by

Viola - a rescue I met on Pennsylvania Avenue.

CoCo - a springy girl on Park Avenue

PR's on the horizon

Miles to Date: 396

Today was the Inaugural Lighthouse Loop Half Marathon in Daytona Beach.  Leah and I went over yesterday and spent the night since it was a 6 am start time!  It was super windy and chilly at the start but we didn't take long to warm up!  You start at the base of the bridge and run around the Lighthouse at the Ponce Inlet.  I made us 2:42 pace bracelets to try and keep us on pace but I'm not sure we needed them.  For most of the race we knew we were a good 5-7 minutes ahead of the virtual pacer on our Garmins.  Around mile 10 Jill caught up with us.  About that point we were running against the wind, so switched up our intervals to 1:1's to try and save our legs for... THE BRIDGE.  Did I forget to mention that there is a large bridge on the course at mile 12?  Seems pretty cruel to me.  Jill and Leah were a little ways ahead of me, but it's all good in the wind and on a bridge.  We all finished with PR's today!  I took 17 minutes off of my previous best time and a whopping 44 and a half minutes off of my first half time from exactly a year ago!  I am overwhelmed at the progress that I have made in the past 17 months since I first started on this crazy running career!

The Bling and the Beach!

At the finish - What? Oh yes, we do match!

Cold breezy start

Bracelets, time, and Bling

The Lighthouse

Ring That Bell

Miles to Date: 383

This week is important for WAY more than just running races.  Today was Jen's LAST CHEMO!!!! I drove down after work last night so I could go with her today and support and celebrate this milestone with her.  I wore my new pink dedicated to Jen shirt instead of purple though - I have to be a little bit of a rebel.  We sat, talked, napped, ate lunch, and hung out in the chemo lounge.  Finally at about 2:30 this afternoon her chemo dripped beeped and she was done!  Jen's husband, mother, father, mother-in-law and I were all there to watch her ring the bell and there wasn't a dry eye amongst us (or among about half of the patients in the lounge).  I continue to be so proud and amazed by her ability to smile and laugh through all of this.  She really is one of the most inspiring people I know and I am so fortunate to get to call her my best friend!  Now it's on to radiation and then we can all move past this cancer nonsense!

Last Round Me and Jen!

 

Chillin in the Cancer Lounge

 

RING THAT BELL!!!!!!!!

I haven't run since our race on Sunday, so my miles are the same. That's ok with me though - I'm looking at this as a mini-taper before our half marathon on Sunday. I started this week off with a sore throat and start of a sinus infection, but now with half a Z-pack consumed I'm ready to race and get another PR this week!

Race for the Cure

Miles to Date: 383

This morning was cool one here in Central Florida!  I knew waking up this morning that a PR was on the horizon, the weather was right, my legs felt good, and I just knew that we'd do well!  Today was the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure at the University of Central Florida. Leah, Amy and I met up with one of my favorite survivors, Gloria.  We walked around, looked at the tents, and Gloria brought me in to the survivor tent as her guest for breakfast.

Fueled by a red velvet cupcake, we started the race.  Amy (and Bella in the stroller) took off for an eventual PR of 27:51.  Leah and I paced together and ran pretty fast.  I'd warned her that I felt a PR coming so we'd have to run hard.  At the first water stop I saw one of my former students, gave her a hug and kept going.  We kept up with our intervals and only needed an extra minute of walking about halfway through.  This was about the time I ran past the dorm where Jen and I met and became friends 13 years ago.  I choked back the tears and just tried to keep running.  Towards the end of the race, I spotted another student, heckled her a bit and headed towards the finish (she finished about 10 seconds before me).  Leah and I finished in a PR of 33:37 which was almost a minute faster than my previous PR.  I guess when it really feels right you can do anything.  I'm not sure if it was the weather, the cause, running through my Alma Matter, or a combination of these that made me run so well today, but I'm happy I did and hope I made Jen and Gloria proud!

I run in CELEBRATION of Jen & Gloria

 

Gloria!

 

Gloria, Leah, Me, and Amy before the race

PR proof!

 

Mammo-No-Go

Miles to Date: 380

This week we decided to rest on Tuesday after our long weekend.  Thursday we got up and were back at it.   Leah and I took off on our warm up to see if we could maintain and figure out the right pacing to get a 2:42 in a half marathon we are running next weekend.  After that we walked 3 miles at a really fast pace to try and practice keeping our 1 minute walking pace up.  This morning we got up to do as we like to say now "just 10 miles."  We took off again and assuming I can do the math correctly we ran the entire 10 miles right at the pace we are going to need to in order to achieve our time goal, which will also insure us a better starting corral placement for the Disney races we have on the horizon.  Also, right at the end of the 10 miles I hit a milestone, I've officially logged 1,000 miles since I started running 16 1/2 months ago!  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would run 1,00 miles in my lifetime!

Today was my appointment to go get a mammogram done at one of Florida Hospital's Mobile Mammogram locations at the Track Shack.  However, they wouldn't let me get one today.  First, I was in the waiting room and could hear the tech talking to the check-in girl about me "she's 31", then on the phone "I  should be caught up because I probably won't be doing this next one." She came to talk to me and I was most likely a little snappy with her - I explained that while yes, I am under 40, my best friend was just diagnosed, I'm trying to be proactive, etc.  She explained that my insurance was likely not to cover it because I was too young, so I asked about their $35 self pay program.  I was willing to pay the $35, but apparently even that I had to be approved to do as well.  So as far as they were concerned, I could go to my doctor, get a script and then go to one of their non-mobile locations - so much for the convenience of a mobile location and a good hour of my Saturday morning.  Florida Hospital has a "healthy 100"initiative, but apparently I can't work on being/keeping healthy until I'm 35.

The most frustrating experience of this whole process is being told things like "you're too young."  Sadly, I am not in fact too young.  Women are getting diagnosed younger and younger these days - which amazes me since you have to jump through fiery hurdles to get appointments that can diagnose you, imagine what the statistics would look like if they didn't give those of us in the 30-39 bracket so much static when it comes to mammograms and other diagnostic tools, I bet they'd be surprised at just how many more women weren't "too young."

Tomorrow I am doing the Susan G. Komen race for the cure at UCF with some of the girls - so expect another post after that!

New Nike Breast Cancer Shirt

1,000 miles?!?!?!

Taking a Bite out of Cancer and Getting Back to Work!

Miles to Date: 366

This weekend included a double run as part of our Goofy Training.  We started Saturday with a 16 mile run at a pretty easy pace.  I ran with Jenny for most of the mileage for her last weekend before the Runner's World Half Festival this weekend.  While we were waiting for the holy grail of a porta potty - Bart Yasso tweeted her back from a tweet she'd sent him!  She's gonna do great this weekend at the race!  After our 16 miles we went to eat a much deserved breakfast and stopped by the Track Shack for the special debut of the Asics GT-2000 series and Leah and I picked up a matching pair.

Thanks Bart! We love you too!

Sunday we met for 8 miles which we ran at a 13:11 pace, not bad seeing as how we put in 16 the day before.  Our Sunday runs always start at Panera so I made sure to grab another Breast Cancer bagel.  We're trucking along in our miles and getting ready for the Goofy.  I spent the rest of the day with the pups relaxing in bed and napping!

Delish!

Notice the paint job and Piper's feelings towards Breast Cancer?

Today is Jen's first day back to work and she's already said how glad her students are to see her and some even brought flowers and balloons.  I can't wait to see her ring the bell next week at her last chemo treatment.  Today in honor of her heading back to work I wore an understated breast cancer shirt and slightly less understated hot pink Nike's with it!  This week I should be hitting 1,000 miles run total since I started running in June 2011, and the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure!

Sweet kicks!

Healthy 100, Pink Army, and Long Runs Ahead

Miles to Date: 342

This week I was able to wake up and make it to running both Tuesday and Thursday morning!  We've been slacking a lot on the weekdays so it felt pretty good to make it this week.  Yesterday was a chemo day for Jen so I threw on some purple running gear for our run.  We decided to do some "easy" 1:1's with Kathleen because we are running a lot of mileage this weekend.  Even at that interval we were averaging 13 minute miles when I checked my watch.  This weekend we'll be adding another 24 miles to the toal with a 16 mile run tomorrow, and 8 on Sunday.

Today I recieved an email from the Track Shack promoting mobile mamograms at their store next Saturday.  This is done through Florida Hospital's Healthy 100 campaign.  For those of you who don't know me, I avoid the doctor at all costs. Unless I feel like I am so sick I'm gonna die, I don't tend to go in to the office.  I'm very much a "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" kind of girl, so preventitive medicine is not really in my vocabulary.  But, I decided that I should go ahead and sign up for this just to be safe.  Jen never thought that she would be going through this at her age and was adamant with her doctors about getting checked out, so I feel pretty inspired to take care of myself and get checked out too!  They say about 1 in every 8 women get breast cancer and that's a pretty scary statistic, so better safe than sorry!  While I was doing that I also signed up for Florida Hospital's Pink Army.  You should go join too!  My recruiter ID is 23406.

On a "Celebrity" High

Miles to date: 331

After Ladies Night on Wednesday I decided to sleep in and skip running on Thursday.  Normally our group would run on Saturday, but I had to go to the State Special Olympics Swim Meet with 5 of the athletes that I coach.  It was an early morning and a long day out in the sun and the heat.  I came home, took a quick nap and then went to go see one of my childhood idols perform.  Debbie Gibson played at one of our local gay clubs, and I was not about to pass up the chance to see her in person!  I was the biggest Debbie fan circa 1989 and the 8 year old in me is still squealing with joy,! The show was awesome and it was totally worth staying up so late even though I knew I'd have to get in a 14 mile run this morning!

 

So with only two hours of sleep, I drug myself out of bed and headed to go meet up with the group for 14 miles.  Today was still pretty hot with 90% humidity so it didn't feel too promising!  Pair that with no sleep and I thought for sure that I wouldn't make it and would bail out at 10 mile mark.  Somehow we made it through 13.22 miles at a 13:26 average moving pace which is pretty amazing all thing considering!

 

Somewhere in the last few miles I got an email response back from the one and only Bart Yasso saying that he was interested in running the Mickey Marathon with us and he'd get back to me later when it gets closer - you'd better believe I'll be following up on that one! I was reading his email (where he also mentions my blog and running for Jen) at Panera with my Breast Cancer Bagel - hey a girl can run and eat for a cure can't she?



Track Shack-O-Holic!

Miles to Date: 318

This week has already been a busy one!  Monday Night I went to The Track Shack for a Meet and Greet with Bart Yasso.  I met him at the Pittsburgh expo, and I have to say in terms of the Running World he is one of my favorite people.  He tells the best stories and is really entertaining, but also is laid back and down to earth and seems like a guy you could go grab a beer with.  I offered him the highly thrilling chance to pace 4 girls who run real slow and swear alot while doing it in the Mickey Marathon.  Not sure if I convinced him - but hey it's worth a shot!

 

 

Tuesday morning we met for a short run and skipped our usual 3 mile warm up.  Leah and I ran a fast for us 2 miles in the low 11 min mile pace and walked another mile and half.  Tonight was Ladies Night at the Track Shack.  Our entry fee went to the Florida Hospital Breast Cancer Care Fund which helps women afford to get mamograms.  With a raffle, snacks, fashion show, and a goody bag of Betsy's favorite things I knew it would be a great night!  I also won an entry to the Disney Princess Half Marathon and the Royal Family 5k in a silent auction.  I paid less than it was worth online and my money went to the cause, so I could truly feel great about running for a reason!  Leah also went and bought one of the flamingos that Florida Hospital was selling.  One goes home with her, and the other gets tagged and goes out in a flock to somewhere in Winter Park, so she let me stick Jen's name on that one.  We run past a flock of flamingos every weekend and it always makes me smile!  Up tomorrow is another easy morning run and then 14 miles this weekend!

 



Oh the Terror!

Miles to Date: 315

The past two weeks have been pretty overwhelming there has been a lot going on and I've been exhausted!  We bailed on yet another week of Tuesday and Thursday runs, but managed a pretty decent 10 mile run last Saturday.  This week our group faired a little better about getting up to go running during the week.  Becky and I decided to do mile repeats instead of the track workout which worked out pretty nicely especially because it was cool and not so humid.  On Thursday Kathleen and I wore some purple running gear and ran 6 miles for Jen's 6th Chemo treatment.  The nice weather on Tuesday was just a teaser and it was back to miserable humidity once again.  Yesterday I got up and met Janice for an easy 6 miles at a 1:1 interval, which was ok with me since I had a race last night.

One of my other best friends Amy, managed to get me a bib for the Innagural Tower of Terror 10 mile race at Disney World.  She even got us super cute villian shirts to wear for the race.  Amy, Amy, Leah and I started the race together but at about a mile and a half Leah and I lost track of both the Amy's!  She and I stuck together for the rest of the race, and my cute villian shirt came off at about mile 3 because it was so miserably hot and humid.  For those of you who don't know me, I've lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, so taking my shirt off in public in front of 10,000 of my closest friends is not my idea of a great Saturday night!  Despite the heat, humidity, hills on the highways, and our more than usual walking, Leah and I both clocked in at 2:13:57!   Not bad all things considered.

This week is another busy one!  Seeing Bart Yasso speak at the Track Shack tomorrow, running Tuesday, Ladies Night at the Track Shack on Wednesday, running on Thursday, and a trip to the Special Olympics State Swim Meet this weekend. 

 

 

 

Another Goofy Double

Miles to Date: 280

This week did not start out as one of the best running weeks.  On Tuesday I texted the girls at 3:15 that I was headed back to sleep and not going to meet them at 4 for our warm-up and track workout.  That was all the girls needed to hit snooze themselves!  Thursday didn't fare much better, I met Leah and Amy at 4, ran a mile and then walked 2 in.  We met Sarah and Kathleen in the parking lot and I bailed and hopped in my car headed back to my cozy bed without doing the hill loop.  Just wasn't feeling it.

Saturday was better though, after icing my tired old knees the night before I met the girls for an easy 8 miles.  I ran most of it with Jenny and we finished at a perfect 13:43 pace - right on target for a 6 hour marathon.  Then we met up with Sarah for the Greater Orlando Heart Walk, to celebrate her survivor status!  A very slow 3-4 miles were put on there.   I think our first mile (with a slurpee and taquitto stop) was a 45 min mile! 

This morning 4 of us met at 4:30 to do 4 miles before meeting up with the rest of the group for another 10.  I spent that 10 working hard to keep up with Dennis who had told me the day before not   to make him run too fast (yeah right).  Since I forgot my Garmin watch (NOOOO! The HORROR!) I will have to do a little math - our average pace for all 14 was a 13:40 - which includes 4 water stops and a bathroom break at my favorite 7-11 - so I would bet that we were averaging 12 something miles for those last 10.  We left Joe, Kathleen, Amy, and Leah in the dust but I did go back to get them at the end so we could have our Sunday Panera ritual.  All in all the weekend finished out an otherwise abismal running week on a high note.

I also talked to Jen this week and I have to say she sounded the best she has sounded in months!  She is recovering nicely from surgery and started this second set of chemo this week.  She is going to be up and running before she knows it!  Now to find time to sneak down there and visit for a weekend, I miss her and my favorite boys so much!

After Panera - Thanks for the witty shirt Nike

 

Getting our Heart On at the Heart Walk

 

116 Days Away!

 

215 miles to be Cancer Free!

Miles to Date: 242

As I mentioned in my last post we finally were allowed back on the track on Tuesday mornings.  I don't try and hide the fact that I love the track!  For some reason this running nonsense makes sense to me on the track.  I think it has something to do with being a swimmer in high school - the measured laps make it easy to visualize how far I have to go and gauge how much I can push myself.  Last week was 800's at 10k pace and this week was "the puker" as it is referred to in Marathonfest.  I did don my Nike "TRACK HEAD"shirt for my return to the track as promised.

 

On our weekend run we did an easy 8 miles which was a welcome break from all our usual double digit weekend runs.  This week we did our usual warm ups and had a timed 5k run on Thursday.  I almost went home instead of running it - but Leah and I toughed it up and started out running it at a pretty easy pace.  After the first mile I picked up our pace and by the time we were done (35:00!) we had run each mile faster and faster.  For a sweaty, hot, humid morning I'll take a time that is only 24 seconds slower than my PR.

 

Jen's surgery went pretty well with only a few minor hiccups.  By removing what was left of the tumor the doctors said that she is technically CANCER FREE! So if you are keeping track that would be right at the 215 miles run mark.  That sounds like an amazing donation amount  $215 or even $21.50 for 10 cents a mile.  Now she's at home resting and recuperating. She used words like machete, knife, and baseball bat to describe the pain she had to go through.  Makes me think my sore calves and knees are nothing and that I should put on my big girl panties and suck it up.  I am still constantly amazed by her strength and attitude through of all this - she is the most amazing and beautiful person I know.

 

Tomorrow morning is another 10 mile run which will put me over 250 miles already!

 

Passed by this on our weekend run

 



Track, Yasso, and a Double Mastectomy OH MY!

Miles to date: 209

This week brought me over 200 miles run! That number is only going to get a whole lot bigger in the upcoming months as we train for Disney's Goofy's Race and Half.  Last Sunday I did a pretty impressive ten miles after 3 straight days of running including my super fast for me 5k!  All the girls decided it was ok to take running on Tuesday morning off and get in some much needed rest.  We were back at it with 6 on Thursday and 12 not so pretty miles on Sunday.

Tomorrow is the first day we get to run on the track instead of running mile repeats on the road and I have to admit that I'm pretty excited!  I even have a track shirt I've been saving to wear to commemorate being back on the track.  On top of that it's also a work out of Yasso 800's - I was lucky enough to meet Bart Yasso at the expo for the Pittsburgh Marathon in May, so it seems fitting that my first track workout in months is his!

 

Tomorrow also is an important day for Jen, she goes in for surgery - a double mastectomy!  I love her attitude and outlook on this process she'll "do this once - but not again"!  I'm so proud and in awe of her bravery!  So after the run in my special track shirt I'll be sporting purple at work for her.  So put on some purple and send her positive thoughts, prayers, wishes whatever it is that you're in to, because I know that I will be!

Motivation and Inspiration

Miles to Date: 181

Even though it's been summer time - it's been pretty busy and hectic around here.  Training is no exception.  I've been cranking out the miles and running hard!  This week we had a lot of miles to put in: 6 on Tuesday, 6 on Thursday, 6 on Friday, a 5k today, and 10 tomorrow!

Sometimes it seems really tempting to take it easy in this heat and humidity, run a little slower, and not push myself near as hard.  When it comes down to that time I try and think about my friend, Jen, her battle is so much more than my last measly mile in the heat or pushing myself to run just a little bit faster.  After this last chemo treatment she hit a rough patch and had to spend almost a week in the hospital.  After a 7 mile run last Thursday morning I showered and hopped in the car to make the 2 hour drive to visit and surprise her in the hospital.  Her hospital shared a parking lot with a Starbucks so I played the "I was just in the neighborhood getting a latte" line.  We joked that true friends know each other's Starbucks orders.  She is going through and dealing with so much that when it comes to things like being sore running I try not to sweat the small stuff (just the humidity!)  She really is my hero and motivation to do well at running!

I went to the anniversary sale this week at the Track Shack where I was told that sadly I had to retire my Nike's and start wearing some Asics. Luckily they're purple and judging from my 5k time today they are my "magic shoes"(thank you Forrest Gump). Leah and I also got matching purple Nike visors to supplement our ever growing Nike apparel collection.

Today a bunch of us suited up in our Nike shirts to run the Track Shack's Celebration of Running 5k.  Gloria and Betty (both Breast Cancer Survivors themselves) joined us with the Abso-FREAKING-lutely Amazing Shirts.    Leah and I started the 5k together and she finished in an impressive 34:17 and I ran a 34:36 - a PR of 3 minutes!  Granted we both thought we were going to throw up but that's a small price to pay for running so fast!

For now it's just resting up for our 10 miles tomorrow and another week of running. That and crossing my fingers that Jen starts feeling better and can start running soon herself!

Me and Leah with our matching shirts and visors

After the race with my medal and "dedicated to Jen"shirt