GOOD NEWS!

I am proud to say that as of last week I have actually surpassed my fundraising goal! Woohoo! I had originally set out to raise $2,500 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society—and have now raised $2,575, with another $50 in checks to be deposited soon. Thanks to everyone who contributed and helped support this amazing organization. I promise to train hard and make you proud on race day!

Speaking of training, I am now down to seven weeks till the marathon, and three weeks till the half-marathon. This weekend I had a 10K race, where I ran solid 8:00 miles. This time around, I tried really hard to stay on pace in the beginning. I tend to always start off too fast, and learned my lesson when I ran 7:30-min miles for the first few miles of my last marathon and crashed around mile 18.

Truth is, "pacing myself" didn’t quite work out like I had planned. I felt that I could have gone faster, and since I was ahead of most of the other runners (not trying to brag here, haha), I kept worrying that I was going to get lost, which slowed me down. When I finally saw the finish line, I sprinted. I finished strong and feeling good, too good, like I had much more to give... Which is not exactly how you want to finish a race! I wanted to finish feeling like I had nothing left to give. Instead, I was too conservative, and wasn’t even sore the next day! Bummer. Oh, well. At least now I know!

Sunday was a cold, rainy day—we even had a hail storm at night. I feel bad for the runners who did the US Half-Marathon, and relieved that I didn’t attempt to run it, even though the start line was less than 2 blocks from our place. I was deterred by the weather forecast and the $90 entry fee (is it me, or do these things keep getting more and more expensive every time?). And yes, I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to running in the freezing rain. So sue me.

Instead, I ran 10-miles on the treadmill at an “easy” pace, which took me around 84 minutes and was anything but fun. Knees felt stiff, so I ended up icing afterward while Jeff and I finished watching “25th Hour.” I’m paranoid about getting injured, so I bought myself a foam roller and plan on using until tears are streaming down my face, if that’s what it takes to prevent the much feared Illiotibial band friction syndrome that haunted me in college.

Alright, lunch time is over... back to work now. Thanks again for everyone who helped me reach my goal. I really appreciate your generosity!