Week 5... of 24

I'm going to try to get better about posting the same day, but it's tough.  With training and fundraising, I feel like I have no time left.  For example, I got off work at 6pm today, went to a group run, came home, made dinner, ate, cleaned up and by then it was 9:30.  Sheesh, so much for doing anything else.  I think I'm going to try to run in the mornings.  As I've discussed before, I am Not a morning person. However, I would really like to have a little free time in the evenings, so it might be worth the trade.

Today was my first run in over a week, due to my foot 'injury'.  I also spent 5 of those days in Chicago and didn't run there either.  I was really looking forward to running in a new city, but I wanted to save money on luggage so I packed a small backpack for 5 days of travel and I didn't want to give up precious cargo space for my running shoes.  Or so the excuse goes.

It was a hot one out today!  95 degrees and really really humid.  Not a good sign for the future, counting it's only May!!  We met the team around 6:30.  The girls and I decided to run down to the lake and back as our 2 miles, rather than the circular laps the rest of our team completed.  I'm so glad Kate brought water!!  I tried to drink more water today than usual, but after the first mile I thought I was going to pass out.  We had to stop once or twice, but I'm not sure I would've made it without that water.  There were more people than usual out with the team today.  Everyone was friendly and encouraging.  I'm interested to see how relationships change through this training season - making friends, people dropping out, people you didn't like at first, but end up getting close to... all the things that come with pushing yourself through this type of training.

For dinner, I made brown rice with chicken.  It was delish.  I cooked garlic, onions, chicken, and zuccini in a pan, then covered it with onion/garlic flavored diced tomatoes, some tomato sauce and Mrs. Dash seasoning.  Yum!  I also cooked salmon for tomorrow's dinner and made salad with crab meat for tomorrow's lunch.  I've been reading that we're supposed to increase carbohydrate intake.  As someone who tries to stick to low carbs, this is going to be 'different'.  Tonights meal was a success, I'm now very satisfiedly full and have leftovers for Friday.  I've also added a banana, apple, oatmeal, and nuts to tomorrows snack pack.  Oh and Kate and I swallowed whole garlic tonight.  She said it's supposed to help our immune system.  I'm not so sure, but I love garlic, so I didn't mind.

Now it's 11pm and I feel like all I've accomplished for the day is work, running, eating and this blog.  I still need to work on the flyers for our Bowl-a-Thon and write a fundraising letter to put in the mail, both of which are supposed to be out by Friday.  How to people handle it as the distances get longer????  It will all have to wait... I'm going to sleep.

This is going to be me at our fundraising event...

Watch out guys, I'm in it to win it! 

(Ok, in all reality, I'm Terrible at bowling, but it's much more fun to talk trash and make it competitve haha)

Group Fundraiser and Training Update

May 24, 2012

Well this has been an interesting week, I feel like I have so much to write.

First off, I went to a fundraising meeting on Monday.  Our “team bowl-a-thon” is going to be Sunday, July 22 in Altamonte.  I don’t know if they are intentionally planning everything on bad weekends for me or if this is truly a coincidence.  The actual run is on the Sunday of my high school reunion, which I’ve been looking forward to for Years.  Everyone else is flying to San Fran on Friday, but I’m going to fly out Sat morning so I can at least attend the Friday’s “family event”.  Being unmarried and without children, this is not the most appealing event to me, but you do what you have to, right?  Anyways, July 22 is Also a horrible weekend for me.  My birthday is Friday, I have a bachelorette party in out of town Saturday, and Sunday is my boyfriend’s birthday.  Similar to October, I have Nothing Else planned any other weekend in July except for This weekend.  >>sigh<<

                The meeting went well except I have a very short patience with side track conversations.  First off, we got there at 6:30, but waited around until everyone arrived a little after 7.  The location was 25 minutes from my house, so Michelle and I had to Rush out of work to get there on time… so we could stand around.  Once the meeting started, we were productive, but had to keep bringing everyone back to focus… stop arguing over stupid details, let’s keep it moving.  Michelle and I volunteered for the marketing and design team.  I’m excited for this, if I can find the time to get it done lol.  I’m making our flyers and Michelle is doing the tickets.  It will be $15 for shoes and 2 hours of unlimited bowling, $10 for kids under 11.  I think that’s a pretty sweet deal.  I might even try to make my “birthday party” at this event so I can force all of my friends to attend.  They want to do raffles though and we’re all supposed to get companies to donate items.  I really hate asking companies to donate, so if you know anyone who would, send em my way!  Around 8:30, I was tired and grouchy, so Michelle and I left.  I don’t know if she was ready to leave, but I was DONE-ZO, so we headed out.  Got home around 9.  What a long day!  We were out of town at a wedding Sat/Sun and I’m going out of town again on Thursday, so I’m feeling really crunched for time.  The bowling event sounds really fun, minus my sour attitude this Monday, and I’m pretty sure I can get a bunch of people to come.

The other major drawback this week was that I cut my foot on Saturday.  I’m not exactly sure what I cut it on.  We must have been having so much fun that I didn’t even notice a big chunk of my skin get ripped off… until I looked down and saw blood.  I tried my best to keep it clean.  Two friends held me down while they cut the hanging skin off (gross, right??), then we poured the only antiseptic we had on it… vodka.  OUCH!  The next day we went in the ocean.  Salt water also cleans, right??  Well, by Tuesday, I was hardly able to walk on it.  With my trip to Chicago getting very close, I decided it was best to go have my foot checked out and yes, it had gotten infected.  I got a tetanus shot, topical antibiotics and oral antibiotics.  So while sleeping, I can’t lay on my right side because my foot hurts and I can’t lay on my left side because it feels like someone is Ripping my arm off.  And needless to say, I have been unable to run since last Saturday.  Not cool.

Wednesday Morning Run

Wednesday, May 16

I had my first morning group run this morning – 6:30 am. If you know me, you know that of the many things I Am, I am NOT a morning person, so this was a bit of a struggle. I woke up, knowing that Kate and Michelle weren’t going to make it to the training. I laid in bed around 6am contemplating not going, but then this little voice in my head wouldn’t Shut Up – "I’m doing this to raise money for cancer, if people are going to donate to me, I’ve got to do my very best and push through. There are so many people who are in pain and struggling from cancer, how can I complain because I have to get up early?" And on and on until I pushed myself out of bed and walked out the door. Wisely, I slept in my workout clothes so that all I had to do is roll out of bed J Some may call that lazy, but I call it "preplanning".

No water, no breakfast, no coffee. Just me and my pajama workout clothes.

We met at the downtown YMCA at 6:30. Coach Dinah was early, as usual, and 4 other participants joined us. We walked to the downtown middle school to run 2 miles (8 laps) around the track. I was a little disappointed to run around a track. I thought we’d be running through neighborhoods, listening to birds in the crisp morning air, running by neighbors walking their dogs. It ended up being good though. While running in a circle can be very boring – same scenery, same noises, same track – it was nice to encourage and be encouraged by my teammates. Plus, I’m pretty competitive, so it helped me to try and keep pace with other people when I could see them on the other side of the track. To be honest, I’m really driven by the fact that I don’t want to be last. I don’t really care how fast I run, I just want to make sure it’s faster than Someone (and preferably two other people). I might have to trip someone during the actual marathon, but I’m willing to make that sacrifice. Michelle runs with me usually, so it might be her that has to take the tumble >:}

The fact that we can’t run with headphones or music felt like a big setback last week. I think we all planned on just zoning out to the music. Now I’ve got to zone out to myself…. which is a scary thought. It’s really nice having Michelle to run with usually, since we keep a similar pace and can keep conversation going. That made todays run a little tougher, but I still made it: 2 miles with only a quarter of a quarter where I walked (just around the curved part of the track). And I was able to put my thoughts somewhere else for most of it. It’s a lot like meditating, separating mind from body. I’m interested to see how that works as our distances get much longer. This summer is going to be Hot too. Dinah said that as our runs get longer, we’ll have to start running Earlier (aghhh) to avoid the heat. I was encouraged when Doug, another runner, mentioned that your body gets used to the mornings eventually. I have mixed feelings about that.

We took a little too long with this morning run. I didn’t get home until almost 8 and had to rush to get ready. I still made time to make some poached eggs (my Fav), coffee and whole wheat toast. All in all it was a good start to the morning.

Non - Matching

After sending out that email to my office and having my co-workers attempt to do the company matching, we realized the company does Not match for this type of cause.  They only match contributions for educational or community programs... even though LLS is an approved charity.  What does that really mean then??? 

Agh, how embarrassing.  I sent out that email to like 60 people, now I have to send out a second one to say "oops, I didn't read the fine print well enough."  Oh yeah and "please keep sending me client work, I promise I'm not a Complete tard".  lol  oh well.  That was exciting to think I only needed 26 people to donate $50! 
I sent out a second email saying "OOPS!  Guess that just means I need 52 people to donate $50!!"  :)

Fundraising at Work

This is the fundraising letter I sent to my co-workers.  Not the most professional, I know, but I thought it was hilarious.  After I wrote it, I realize that I'm a bit of a trouble maker.  Either way, they donated $600 today!!  So maybe being rotten is worth it so you have something to barter when you need to.  :) 

>>My co-workers are wonderful and I was Really impressed by their generosity and encouragement today.  Except for one who said he was only donating because he knew running 26 miles would be painful for me lol He MAY have been the one I did all of those rotten things to though<<

As some of you may already know, I signed up to run the Nike Women’s Marathon this October to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).  You may think (or say) that I’m crazy, but here’s why I signed up:

The dad of a close friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma.  She asked me to run this marathon with her to raise money for cancer research and I quickly accepted the challenge, knowing that this cause not only helps my friend, but millions of other families as well.  As part of that commitment, I’ve pledged to raise at least $3,200 over the next 5 months.  After learning that XYZ will match contributions of $50 or more, I realize that I only need 32 XYZ employees to donate $50!!  Think of what $50 means – not going out to dinner one night, setting aside some of your vacation gambling money (or winning an additional $50), not seeing a movie at the theater, skipping a pedicure or two, etc…

In return for your contributions – I promise to be a nicer person (generally), to buy a real gift at next year’s Christmas party, to not turn your family photo’s upside down, put tape under your mouse, move things on your desk to annoy you or steal the wheels off your chair…. Oh yeah, plus I’ll run 26.2 miles in a single day.  I think that’s a pretty fair trade.

Please use the link below to find our more information about my journey and to make a secure, tax-deductible contribution.  Then visit Matching and enter your information so that XYZ will match your contribution. 

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ncfl/nikesf12/dct

Thank you all very much,

  

Danielle

p.s. I’m putting a time limit on my above promises.  I’ll be good until the end of the year.  J

First Practice - May 9th

May 9th, 2012

Our first team practice!  6:30pm and a 20 minute drive from my house.  Our training schedule looks pretty easy thus far.  We do cross training two days a week (I plan to do yoga and kickboxing) and run 3 days a week, to total 6 miles this week.  After a long day at the office, I was not exactly excited to head out for my run today.  I ran home, grabbed clothes and went to meet Kate and Michelle at the park.  Good thing I was meeting them, because I May have been tempted to stay at home.

Everyone we met was very friendly and encouraging.  I like that I kept hearing, “run your own pace, you don’t need to worry about anyone else’s time.  do your best.”  I’m a pretty slow runner, so I’ve been nervous about that part.  It’s good to know that our trainers just want us to do our best.  For some reason that really touched my heart today.  Our mentor and coach are both great.  Dinah is very upbeat, personable… when she runs with me, it makes me Want to do my very best.  Maybe that or I just don’t want to look like a wuss, but either way, it encourages me J.  Jess is also great and cheered for us each time we finished a lap.  I feel bad for her though, she was going to run this marathon, but got in a terrible car accident a few weeks ago and now her foot is in a cast.  Hopefully, she’ll be all healed up in time to still train and run or at least walk.

I went into today thinking we were doing 1 mile.  That’s what the schedule said.  I wasn’t prepared for 3.  Notes for the future, I should drink a Lot more water before afternoon practices and eat less.  About halfway through mile 2, I thought I was going to vom and began questioning my sanity for signing up for this marathon.  However, coach Dinah wouldn’t let me quit and kept pushing me all the way through mile 3.  I did it!  Whoo hoo! 

Is it weird that after I finish running, all I can think about is Food… yum yum yum.  Especially, Pizza.  That sounds Delish after a long hot run.  Haha, I’m a fat kid at heart.

One thing we heard today that caused our hearts to sink is that we can’t run with headphones during the marathon.  What?!?!?!  No loud booming music to zone out to?!?!  No Braveheart that I planned to download to my ipod because the battle scenes really pump me up and make me run faster – like a Scotsman on a mission to fight for my freedom?!?!  No tour guide audio that I was going to use to tell me all about San Fran while I run slowly past different sites?!?!  I could see on both their faces, they felt the same way I did.  I think I function well during these times.  When other people are down it makes me want to be annoyingly upbeat on their behalf, so I quickly snapped back into things.  I turned my whining and complaining into: “It’s ok, we don’t need music, we can talk or even better, I will learn 5 hours’ worth of music and sing to you both the whole time!”  They didn’t seem too excited about that last part… wait till they realize I’m serious J.  In all reality, we’ll be ok, it’s just going to take some getting used to.

Ahhh, practice number 1 – donezo

The Reason I Run

My roommate’s dad was recently diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma.  As is usually the case, this was very unexpected and heart wrenching news.  I tried to be supportive of Kate over the next few days as the situation became more and more real in her heart, but ultimately, I still felt helpless.  There’s not much you can do to ease someone’s pain in this situation, but just to listen and give lots of hugs.  When Kate asked me to run this marathon with her, my initial reaction was ‘no way! I can barely run 3 miles, let alone 26’.  After a few days, I realized this was an opportunity to not only help and support Kate, but to help the many other families facing the same situation.  This was my opportunity to get off the sidelines, stop feeling helpless and Do something. 

May 7^th, I signed up. 

The next several months are going to be tough and to be honest, I’m nervous.  At the same time, I am excited to take this journey – to discover strength inside myself I didn’t know existed, to accomplish a feat I never imagined I’d be able to do, to learn so much about myself/running/health, and everything else that comes with conquering your first marathon.  On top of all that, I’ll have two very good friends there with me to encourage, support, uplift and when we need it, even kick each other in the behind to get moving… until, on October 14^th, we cross the finish line at mile 26.2… together.

Crazy for a Cause

From my fundraising page:  http://pages.teamintraining.org/ncfl/nikesf12/dtorbert

On April 29th, a friend asked me to run the Nike Women’s Marathon with her to support cancer research through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). My initial thought was, “only crazy people run marathons”. During the next week, I continued to think about it and the millions of people who are affected by cancer. I realized what an amazing opportunity I have – to push body, mind and spirit, while raising money to help other people. Who hasn’t been affected by cancer? We all have friends, co-workers, or family who have suffered from this illness and I’m tired of feeling helpless on the sidelines, it’s time for me to help do something about it.

On Monday, May 7, 20012, I signed up to run the Nike Women’s Marathon with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training (TNT) program and I am very excited about this new challenge! What I once called crazy, I now realize is passion, drive and purpose. Thinking of all the families who have been and will be helped by LLS gives me motivation – on the hot days, the rainy ones, the 6am Saturday mornings when I’d rather stay in bed - to get up and go run.

Over the next 5 months I will be raising money to fund the mission of LLS: to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. I have committed myself to run and have agreed to raise a minimum of $3,200 to help in the fight against blood cancers.

I ask that you please join me in this fight against cancer- be a part of this journey. I need your support and encouragement, as well as your assistance in helping me reach my fundraising goal. Together, we can reach the finish line. Together, we can be crazy for a cause.

Danielle

Donations are tax-deductible. 75% of every dollar we raise will go directly to support research and financial assistance to the families in our country struggling with the financial burden of treatment.

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Tax ID# 13-5644916

My First Marathon

Two friends and I signed up to run the Nike Women's Marathon on October 14, 2012 to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  As part of that commitment, I’ve pledged to raise at least $3,200 for cancer research through LLS. 

This being my first marathon and the most money I've ever commited to raise, I thought it would be great to start a blog to share my journey over the next 5 months.   I hope you will join me!