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