Happy Valentine's Day to me...

I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day, really....at least not for the past seven.  But yesterday wasn't all that bad, I suppose, as far as my history of Valentine's Days in recent years go.  I was supposed to run three miles, but that didn't happen....instead, Emilee and I got much-needed (at least for me) and much-deserved (at least we think so!) pedicures.  I went with my signature color of late, OPI's "William Tell Me About OPI", which you'll see here in a little bit.

After our pedicures, I had somewhere to be (NOT Valentine's Day-related, mind you), and didn't get home until late.  But when I did, look what had arrived in the mail - Happy Valentine's Day to me! (I bet you can't tell I like pink :-) )

These are the items I had ordered off of Road ID that I mentioned in my February 9th post.  If you look closely at my ID bracelet, you may be able to see the last line has one of my "mottos", which is also the title of this blog - Rise Up and Run.  Along with my order, I received a coupon code I can pass along which is good for up to 20 (or some ridiculous number like that) uses.  The coupon is good for $1 off any Road ID order placed by 03/13/2011.  If you'd like to use it (and please do take advantage of it), the coupon number is: ThanksJulie4193882 -at the on-line checkout there is a place you can enter it.

Tonight I used all of my new products on my chilly night run in the dark.  I'm pretty sure the Firefly Supernova can be spotted from FAR, FAR away because cars gave me quite a wide berth.  My house key fit nicely in my new shoe pouch, and I'm looking forward to keeping my hotel room card in it while running 26.2 miles in San Diego (although in reality I'm sure there will be a bag drop there so I probably won't actually keep my room card in it, but you never know....it is too small to fit my BB in, though.  Oh well.). 

I had a pretty good 4 mile run.  I actually ran it at one of my fastest paces lately - 10:14min/mi (despite having to stop and tie my right shoe THREE TIMES, with gloves on, no less).  I contribute that to the playlist I was listening to - the BEPs (Black-Eyed Peas) "Imma Be" always makes me run faster :-) ....at least I was listening to some good music for running until my iPod battery ran out around mile 3 because it has been getting quite the workout lately as well, and I forgot to charge it.  Here is tonight's run from MapMyRun, which I still think is pretty cool and I'm a little too obsessed with it, I think.  I ran in an area that is a bit special to me, and at one point I just enjoyed the cool night air and looked up at the winter night sky and saw the constellation Orion, especially his belt (I couldn't see all of him through the trees), and as I was running looking up into the sky, an airplane flew right through his belt, leaving its trail behind it...remined me of another song on my running playlist - "Airplanes" by B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams (which is actually the song that was playing when my iPod battery ran out - coincidence?)..."can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars 'cause I could really use a wish right now"...

So, here is one of my exciting revelations that I mentioned in a previous post - well, at least I think it is exciting.  The last couple of years or so I've wanted a tattoo, and particularly on my foot...I won't go into details as to why I haven't gotten one until now, but, three and a half weeks ago on January 20th, I finally did.  The saying is very personal to me...in more ways than one.  Please do not judge it, or me, unless you know the entire story and reasons behind it (and few do)...and even then, this story is not complete.  However, I will share that it partly does have to do with running, obviously.  In October 2009 while reading Redbook, I saw an ad for the annual Disney Princess Half-Marathon to be held in March 2010; when I mentioned that a dream of mine was to run that race, I was told that I "couldn't even run a 5K"....well, guess what?  I have since run THREE 5K's and a mini-tri (sort of), and am on my way to running another 5K, a half-marathon, and a full marathon within the next four months...and I'm not going to stop there - my next feat will either be a full triathalon or a trail run of some sort.  I may get "26.2" and "6.5.11" (the date of the Rock-n-Roll San Diego marathon) added to the "wisps" after I complete my first marathon.  You can also see my Valentine's Day pedicure in this picture...and my dark polish for this "dark time in my life", as I was once told :-)

And, my post wouldn't be complete without thanking Malinda for her on-line contribution to my LLS Team in Training fundraising efforts - which was actually her second donation as she first donated while I was training for the Disney Marathon with TNT this past fall.  Malinda is a TNT alumnus (and Disney Princess Half-Marathon completer) herself!  As always, thank you all for considering joining with me in support of the works of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

They will tell you "No"....and you will tell them "YES"

I wasn't able to run the weekly long run with my team today because I had somewhere else I had to be by 8:30am...and I'll tell you, after going through what I did this morning for four-and-a-half hours, I don't want to have to do it again (and hopefully I won't)!  I don't want to say too much now, but it is one of the things I mentioned in my last blog that I may have exciting news about in the next few months....

Anyway, afterwards I went to City Island for my scheduled 7 miles.  I ran around the island, then north on Front Street to Graham Street and back to my starting point on City Island, which ended up being 7.24 miles.  It was VERY windy and blowing straight into me the first part of my run, which I am thinking affected my time tremendously since I ran it in 1:23:49 (11:30 min/mi - I haven't been that slow in a very long time).  I am now using iMapMyRun almost exclusively, and I really like it.

Also - don't forget to check out my Team in Training Fundraising Page - I'm still at 51% and $1413.50 shy of reaching my goal of $2900.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this quote, which was just e-mailed to me by the Central PA Team in Training Campaign Coordinator for the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon (she also shared that it was 74 degrees F in San Diego today).

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly.  AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." ~Nike Ad

Training Officially Begins (again)....and....THE BLACK DEATH!!

Just got back from a mid-week run (in the dark, in 29 degree F weather) and composed this blog in my head while running the three miles, so, after a nice warm shower I am sitting down and catching up the last month or so (and, going back five months to something I forgot about in my last post, although I'm not sure how I didn't remember it!).

The 2011 LLS Team in Training Spring Season officially kicked off at "Kick-off" on January 27 - it was nice to see some of the people I ran with while I was beginning to train for Disney and catch up with some of them.  On Saturday the 29th, the Team held a long run at HACC at 8am, but I wasn't able to attend because I had to work that morning.  However, since I work close to HACC, after I was finished I went and ran the course by myself - I was to do 5 miles as the last long run of "pre-training", and I'm pretty sure I got close to that mileage, but since I was doing the course alone and trying to follow directions (something I am not good at), I may have not done quite 5 miles because I'm pretty sure I got a bit turned around on the State Hospital Grounds...I especially think this because my time was just slightly faster than what I know I used to run 5 miles in last fall. 

The beginning of February brought the beginning of the 18-week training for the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon.  My mid-week 3 mile runs mostly consist of running 1.5 miles out and back - one of the routes I take takes me through State Game Lands, and the road I run on has no "winter maintenance", so it's quite different running on snow.  The one day, I was lucky enough to be the only tracks on the freshly fallen snow, and that was a very peaceful, iPod-free run.  However, it's not a PGC State Game Lands without some elevation! :-)  Because of my schedule, I've been running in the dark a lot - either before work, or after work.  I'm not sure which I prefer - running early in the morning has it's advantages - it definitely wakes me up and gets me ready for the day - but that means I have to get up earlier, and running in 9 degree F temperature is an experience in itself.  Even though I wear gloves, carrying a metal mini-mag light isn't exactly conducive to warm hands.  I also tend to carry mace, and I never leave without my BlackBerry (safely enclosed in a ziplock bag, of course) - I downloaded MapMyRun onto my BB and I LOVE it, especially because it has GPS capabilities (including elevation) so I can see exactly how far I am going (and how slow - haha) on new routes.  So, I still have to figure out how to best run in the dark (on ice and snow) and carrying random things; I did splurge and just ordered some items off Road ID - an ID bracelet (something my TNT Coach recommended to us all - and I can see why, especially since I run random routes, often alone in the dark with no one knowing what I am doing and where I am), a Firefly Supernova safety light, and a shoe pouch.

This past Sunday, I went out and met my Central PA TNT team members for our weekly long run.  Running the San Diego full marathon, I was scheduled to run 6 miles, which consisted of starting at City Island and running around the island, across the Walnut Street bridge, up Front Street to Division Street, and back to City Island.  I have learned, however, that when running any distance Coach Larry indicates, it is "at least" that distance - as in, I ran "at least 6 miles"....which turned out to be 6.61 miles! (I completed it in 1 hour, 10 minutes, and 12 seconds, but that included a short water break and having to stop for some traffic lights).  Here is the group of us just before we set out (notice the snow in the background - we had to wait until Sunday afternoon for our weekly long run rather than Saturday morning because the weather Saturday wasn't conducive to safe running).

Since I've only run local 5K's previously, I decided to try to find a slightly larger event prior to the marathon just to get the "feel" of a larger race.  Eric (my "not-so-little" little brother who will be running San Diego with me) suggested the Bucks County Half-Marathon on April 3 at Tyler State Park, as he will also be running it, and we are both now registered for it.  On April 16, I've also signed up for the Lady White Rose 5K in York - this was my first 5K ever that I ran with my friend Katie.  Even though a 5K is now the lowest mileage I typically do during the week at this early stage of my marathon training, I decided to sign up for it for a few reasons.  First, I am trying to convince some lovely ladies to run it along with me - two of my friends both named Katie (including the one who I first ran it with, and also the Quarterback 5K), Pat (who also completed the event I will be describing in just a bit in this post, along with three other women from my church), and my cousin Courtney and her mom.  Secondly, it would be nice to PR from the Quarterback 5K (check out the link if you wish - you might see some pictures of someone you recognize :-) ) I ran Labor Day 2010 (also in York).  Thirdly, because it was the first race I ever ran, and it was a struggle for me at that point, I am running it to remind me how far I've come, but also as a reminder of how far I have yet to go....and not just in the realm of running.

And now, let me go back to September 11, 2010...I can't believe I forgot to blog about this in my last post!  On this date, I completed a mini-tri called the "Women in the Wild Adventure Challenge" held in Boswell, PA, around the Quemahoning Dam (do not believe, for one second, that this means the terrain was flat - just the opposite!).  It started with a 12-mile bike ride, complete with the "killer hill", then proceeded to a 5 mile run (also complete with it's very own "killer hill" - I'll admit I didn't run the whole thing....oh yeah, and we had to carry a blow-up sword for the run as the entire event had a medieval theme - we were all "Medieval Wenches" for the weekend), and from there participants had two options.  Option 1 included a fairly tame and fun obstacle course.  Option 2 consisted of "THE BLACK DEATH"....in order to qualify for The Black Death, you had to make it back from the 12-mile bike ride and 5-mile run within an hour of the first participant who chose to partake in The Black Death and head out.  All we knew was The Black Death was an obstacle course through the wildnerness that very much earned its name.  I was all for it - the only one in the group of ladies I went with who was willing to even consider it.  The trick was just getting back from the bike and run within an hour of the leader; luckily, I got back with 12 minutes to spare (and just enough time for a much-needed bathroom break!).  To get to the start of The Black Death, however, I had to bike 6 miles back around the reservoir the opposite way we came on the original bike ride.  The picture above is me headed out to The Black Death....still smiling, apparently (which I was NOT doing as I was trying to bike up the last mile or so up the hill to the start of The Black Death).

The start of the The Black Death included pushing my bike up a vertical incline (no lie) to the top of a hill where we met a toothless priest who gave us our first "token" (a gold coin) and small bag - there were various check-points we had to go through and things we had to collect - other than that I had no idea where I was going but only knew to follow the sporadic pink flags, and no idea how far I would be going.  Through the entire run/hike through the wilderness, I didn't come across another women, and at times I was a little worried I had gotten off-track...especially because it seemed like FOREVER before I found my first check-point, which was a fisherman....who gave me a piece of a dead fish (a real, dead, smelly fish) I had to carry to "the queen".  So, I added that to the bag the priest gave me along with my gold coin.  After awhile, I then found a miner, who instructed me to crawl through the "diamond mine" and collect a "diamond" (in reality, broken glass under a tarp).  After the miner, I was on my way to the "graveyard", where I had to climb through a mud pit until I found a bone with a ring on it (I really didn't get too muddy - I spied a bone (chicken, I'm pretty sure) with a nice pink ring on it pretty quickly).  From what I've been told, The Black Death was about 7 miles, and I did have battle wounds on my legs (mostly from briars and climbing over and through logs).  For your viewing pleasure is my "collection", dead fish pieces and all (and slightly muddy hands from digging around trying to get that bone with a ring on it).  All in all, that day I biked 12 miles, ran/walked 5 miles, biked another 6 miles, and then ran/hiked 7 miles.

The location of the Women in the Wild Adventure Challenge was very close to the Flight 93 memorial, and being September 11, we decided to go to the memorial after the mini-tri was complete.  We did miss First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush, as they were there earlier in the day for the memorial ceremony, but there was still a lot of people about.  Along a chain-link fence were memorial ribbons visitors posted; they were very difficult to read, as were the details of 9.11.01 in the visitor's center.

As I conclude this blog post, let's not forget the initial reason for my running this marathon - to help to raise money to support the LLS mission to "cure leukemia, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families".  I am personally committed to raising $2900 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and right now am still 51% towards my goal (as I was in my last post).  I encourage you to visit my Team in Training fundraising page and join me in this commitment by contributing as generously as you are able.  Whatever you give makes a difference and matters - it matters to me, to the The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and, above all else, to those suffering and to those recovered from blood-related cancers; with the generosity of people like you, there is every reason to believe that a cure for these cancers is in sight!

Stay tuned for two exciting announcements (well, I think they are exciting, at least) - the one I will probably reveal in my next post....and the other (if it is even revealed at this time at all...and if it is it may not be for another two months or so until I let the cat out of the bag) all depends on something that will be occurring in my life this Saturday :-).

New Year, New Beginnings....New Marathon!

I'm not even sure where to start this post, which has been a long-time coming...it's been four months since my last post, and my life has changed more in those four months than I could ever have imagined. To begin with, you may have noticed from the header of this blog that I am no longer running the Disney Marathon, which is occurring in five days. Instead, I will be running the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon on Sunday, June 5, 2011. I am still running as a member of Team in Traning, but now I am even more excited because not only will my teammates be accompanying me on this journey, so will my "not-so-little" little brother, Eric! Eric already has a marathon (Lake Placid, June 2009) and a half-marathon (Philadelphia, November 2009) to his name (see my August 22, 2010 blog for a picture of Eric and I after his half-marathon). For Christmas, I got Eric a book which came highly recommended - "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen" by Christopher McDougall (I attempted to finish it before giving it to him, and despite trying to stay up Christmas Eve to do so, I wasn't very successful, so I am currently waiting for him to finish it so I can borrow it back and finish it myself). After he opened it, I asked if he wanted to run San Diego with me, and after some consideration, I think I have him talked in to it.

But anyway, back to where I left off the end of August....I'm not really sure where to start, so I guess I'll start from the beginning...

Pre-training was in full swing the first week of September, with training "officially" beginning on Monday the 6th. On Friday the 3rd, I had an "off" day, but decided to go for a hike on SGL (State Game Lands) 256 located on Route 274 between Duncannon and New Bloomfield, and pretty close to where I grew up. For the most part, I stayed on a dirt road, but did go off on a trail at one point and came upon a doe that snorted pretty loudly at me, clearly showing she did not appreciate me sneaking up on her. As I got closer to the top, clouds started to roll in and it got windy and dark pretty quickly. I was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and my trail running shoes, so I was in no way planning on running, however when the rain drops and thunder started as I was 2 miles away from my car, running I did! As I was running down the mountain, I SWORE that Sasquatch was paralelling me in the woods as falling acorns sounded mysteriously like Bigfoot's footsteps :-). Towards the bottom of the mountain, the road forks, and I mistakingly went to the right instead of to the left towards my car - and ended up on the opposite side of a cemetery from my car. I never ran more quickly in my life as I did through that cemetery through the thunder and rain. To make it even more interesting, after running through the cemetery I had to run through a patch of unmowed grass to finally make it to the shelter of the Santa Fe, and the entire time I prayed no rattlesnakes were lying in wait. I was never so relieved to get inside my car than I was that evening!

I decided to start official "training" with the Quarterback 5K in York on Labor Day with one of my best friends, Katie. It was a last-minute decision when Katie asked me, but I definitely jumped at the chance. If you recall, Katie ran my very first 5K with me, the Lady White Rose in York in April 2010, and is an accomplished runner. In fact, she won the female 24-29 division in the York Wellspan Running Series this past fall, of which the Quarterback 5K was one of the events that comprised the running series. It was a great day for both of us, as we each PR'd - her MUCH faster than me, finishing in 22:57, and me in 28:48. The picture was taken after the race.

I ran through the beginning of September trying to follow the training schedule as best I could. However, on September 18 I deviated from it a little bit. Rather than going for my scheduled 7 mile long run that day, somehow I got talked in to getting up before the sun did, and running 2.75 miles straight up a mountain on another local SGL. Apparently this is what the two others I ran it with consider "fun" for early on a Saturday morning (jk). Now, don't get me wrong, we didn't run full-tilt the whole way - the entire feat took us 44:35 as we ran "intervals", but apparently I slowed them down because the goal was to finish it in under 40 minutes (If I remember correctly). I guess since that didn't happen, the three of us will need to attempt it again soon, especially since we are each training for events in the upcoming months.

I turned 27 the end of September, and with it my life changed completely. I'm not ready to talk openly about my struggles yet, and I probably won't be for quite a long time. A select few of you reading this know some very initimate details of the past four months, and for those of you, I am thankful for your love and support through this difficult time - I'm not through the rough times completely by any means, but I do know that without you guys, I'm not sure I could have made it to the point I am now: a point where I am able to move on with my chin up and a stronger person than I was a few months ago, but not as strong as the woman I am becoming.

I quickly found it very difficult to get through a day at a time, and with that suffered my running. One of my main issues was I was unable to eat much at all, and without consuming calories, I had no energy to run. I remember trying to attempt a 5 mile run on a relatively unfamiliar road leading to another PeCo SGL, and I ended up going farther than I intended and completely couldn't run. It was miserable. Then, on October 8, I was rear-ended and was lucky enough to get to see the inside of Holy Spirit's ER; this also hindered running for a bit. October was a very difficult month for me. In some aspects, I can laugh about some of the events now - such as going through THREE rental cars while my Santa Fe was getting fixed (maybe someday I'll blog about them, especially the G6, but this blog is already getting long), but for the most part, October was one of the darkest times of my life, only followed by a darker November...BUT, before I get to November, I can't not mention my accomplishment on October 23!

So, I hadn't been running....or eating. I talked to both my TNT mentor, Ally, and coach, Linda, and both gave me great advice on how to try to get back on track. And so, in the FREEZING Saturday morning of October 23, I met my TNT co-horts at HACC for a long run. For Disney marathoners, we were scheduled to run 12 miles....I was going to see if I could MAYBE get to 8....especially seeing as how I had NEVER run more than six up to that point. At the turning point for the eight-milers, I was ready to turn around and head back with that group only for Coach Larry to simply say "You're coming with us", and off I went with him and two others who were completing 12 miles. And I did it!! I RAN 12 miles completely! Well, I'm told the secret is that that particularly route is actually a little bit more than 12 miles....at any rate, I felt like I could do another 1.1 miles, and wanted to just so I could say I ran a half-marathon, but I didn't. Afterwards, I was feeling great - so great, in fact, that I ended up going to Elk County with a friend, and Zoda, to look for elk. While we were hiking around, looking for elk, however, I came down off of my endorphin/runner's-high and crashed. Despite getting tired, it was a nice trip....we even came home with an extra "passenger" in the trunk (which I will include in the G6 blog if I ever write about it).

If October was a difficult month, November was even darker for me. On the first day of the month, I was at work, filling out my final forms to officially enter the Disney Marathon as a member of Team in Training, when I received a call that will forever impact my life. Within two hours of that call, I found myself at the LLS office handing in empty Disney marathon race forms which officially put my status as a TNT member and my fundraising on a "hold" until I decided which Spring 2011 event I wanted to register for. For right now, I am not willing to openly share the details surrounding my decision to not run Disney, however someday I may.

Central PA Team in Training has three Spring 2011 events - Pittsburgh Marathon, Lake Placid Marathon, and the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon. Pittsburgh wasn't an option for me, as I really have no desire to go there. I briefly thought about Lake Placid, but I've been to the state of New York enough, and I've heard that event is quite "hilly". This left me with San Diego - now, I have been to quite a few states, inlcuding California, but many I do not recall as I was eleven months old as my family moved across country back to Pennsylvania from Alaska; so, in order to "remember" CA, I decided that I would run the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon on June 5, 2011. I was assured that my fundraising efforts would simply "roll over" to my new event - so, to those of you who have already donated - THANK YOU! You can see my new fundraising page here (so far I've reached 51% of my goal of raising $2,900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society).

And so, I've found myself in "pre-training" once again, this time for the San Diego Marathon in five months. Since my 12 mile run, I had done a couple of hikes on SGLs, and a few 3-mile runs, but nothing consistent. However, on Christmas Eve, I did run 3 miles without stopping in 33:17; my calves, however, expressed their disapproval with my new running style (trying something I read about in "Born to Run") a few days later which lasted for two days! Tonight, instead of running the four miles I would have been tapering to had I still been running Disney, I ran half of that in 21:24 as to help me build my base to start officially training for the San Diego Marthon the week of January 30. I'm a little suprised I can just pick up and run 2 and 3 miles without really running for almost two months, but I attribute that to almost daily 1.5 to 2 mile walks with Zoda (it's helped him, too, as he has slimmed down quite a bit, even though we've taken to calling him "Big Z" recently....of course he still retains his loving nickname of "Snarky", which my dad dubbed him while I was in college).

My holidays were as good as I could have expected them to be, and I attribute that to my loving family (my immediate family is pictured below on Christmas Day) and friends (the family I get to choose). I am, however, looking forward to 2011 and the changes it will bring, most importantly me becoming the woman I was meant to be - someone who follows her dreams without anyone holding her back and telling her that she can't. From the lyrics of a Keith Urban song "It took her awhile to figure out she could run, but when she did she was long gone, long gone" - very relevant in so many aspects of my life right now.