Expo Day Two, and Race Day

Yesterday was Expo Day two. After an extended ride to Cape Elizabeth because of traffic, Paige and I arrived at the expo about an hour late. We had a much more successful day of "Expoing," running out of brochures and chapstick and even selling a few t-shirts. My work for the Steps Foundation sometimes seems insignificant, but simply creating awareness for this new organization is beneficial. After coming home from Cape Elizabeth through all the weekend traffic coming into Maine, it was late, even later considering I had to leave the house at 4am this morning for the race!

3:30 came early this morning, and on my drive down I vowed I would never get up that early to run a race before, I couldn't rationalize the value of it in that moment. Once I crossed the finish line after just over an hour of running, it was worth it getting up so early. The race course was beautiful for one, gorgeous houses and views of the cape, hundreds of cheering fans outside their homes, playing music and spraying water. The first mile was a blur of people weaving in and out of each other that it was over before I knew it. Around mile four I realized that there weren't any hills, something I had been anticipating the whole time, so I was able to pick up my pace to fly by multiple runners on my way to the finish.

It was a rewarding experience, to see how far I have come since I was cleared to run in March, and my first experimental 5k in April. I guess now the next step is signing up for that Princess Half Marathon in Disney! I looked up the information today, but total cost may end up being a bit more than a poor college student wants to spend for a half marathon, especially because it doesn't fall during my Spring Break time. I have a few more months to think about it, and look for other half marathons to adventure into, but someday, I'll be a princess running through Disney!

Expo Days with Steps Foundation

Yesterday was Day One of the Beach to Beacon Expo. It was interesting to say the least. The only running expo I have for comparison is the Boston Marathon Expo which is much larger than B2B. The Hall Steps Foundation was recognized by more people in Boston, but people in Cape Elizabeth yesterday were still excited to hear about the goals and progress of the foundation. Our t-shirt sales were a bit lower than I had expected, but Day Two starts in a few hours, and I'm optimistic for a larger crowd of enthusiastic supporters.

Being involved in the Expo has put my training on hold once again, meaning my legs haven't been moving in the last two days and it is unlikely that I will be out running this morning, considering the incredible heat that has already presented itself for the day. I was interviewed yesterday for a small article in the local newspaper about the Beach to Beacon race and although we talked about the Steps Foundation at length, he choose to quote me about my training for tomorrows race instead. I may have told him that I had been training, but I sure wasn't lying about embarrassing myself tomorrow!

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/sports/localseagerto-run_2010-08-05.html

running out of options

I must face the reality of this coming Saturday. I am going to be forced to run 6.2 miles, with thousands of other runners, most of whom run faster than I do. My recent way of dealing with this has been avoiding running all together and focusing on the 8000 other things I need to do, but today I finally gave in and put my sneakers on, pledging to run everyday this week.

Instead of running I've been focusing on my work for The Hall Steps Foundation. Kayla and I have each been given two races to publicize and recruit runners for, meaning that I've been collecting contact information from all things running in the San Antonio and Las Vegas areas. Soon we will be sending out hundreds of emails to gain runners and support for our upcoming races in these cities! In addition, in the upcoming week, Kayla and I are going to be at the Beach to Beacon Expo on Thursday and Friday, selling t-shirts and raising awareness, just like the Boston Marathon Expo. If you're in Cape Elizabeth this weekend, come check us out :)

my days are numbered

Beach to Beacon: 12 days
Leave for Clemson: 14 days


usually lists have a tendency to settle me,
but this is the most unsettling list ever.

i'm an emotional wreck, but hiding it quite well at the moment. Between running, Starbucks and eBay, i am coping.

happy tuesday.

ouch

According to Wikipedia, the source of all information, there are 640 muscles in the human body.

I am confident when I say that all 640 of my muscles are sore. Yesterday morning I practiced with my old gymnastics team and was able to do a considerable amount of the workout. It has been over a year and a half since I even touched the bars, and an hour of our workout was concentrated on this event. At the end of practice, I was dragging through the conditioning so I knew that today was not going to be pleasant. I woke up this morning feeling less that fabulous and struggled to lift my body out of bed. I knew that the only way to deal with all of my soreness, was to run it out.

This morning's run accomplished just that. My muscles are still as sore as they were before, but they are much less stiff than this morning. I know that being in gymnastics shape again will only mean good things for running, and I know that running will only make getting back into gymnastics shape again easier, now I just actually have to do it..

logging the miles

Today was the third day in a row that I was able to convince myself to run. I was pleasantly surprised when today there was no heel dragging, procrastination or lack of motivation to go running, and I even ended up doing somewhat of a trial run for next month's 10K. At the very least today's run proved that my body is capable of running 6.2 miles, although not very efficiently.

Accompanied by Eminem's new album, Recovery, I'm slowing starting to become comfortable being uncomfortable. Today's humidity, threat of rain, painful uphills, and long desolate stretches of road would usually have been enough to keep me inside with my usual snack of hummus and tortilla chips, but today, as depressing as the circumstances were, I was able to ignore all of the imperfections of the situation, and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

yesterday's run was much needed. The last two weekends have included 5k races, which even though they aren't lengthy, they tend to be mentally draining and leave me sucked of all motivation to run for days. I decided to skip baby stepping back into running, and pounded out a sixty minute run after my week long break. I am now less than one month away from Beach to Beacon, meaning if I want to finish it and not embarrass myself completely, I need to get my ass in gear. pronto.