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