Twenty miler

TWENTY MILES!

20 miles. That is the distance that I ran Sunday night, my longest in training, not to mention, ever. It was definitely awesome, painful, thought-provoking, sickening, and amazing all wrapped at once.

The past few weeks have been crazy with work and life. My Team in Training duties with the Nation's Triathlon consumed most weekends, race weekend (September 12-13) in particular. Work was busy with a last-minute trip to Cleveland and then a personal trip to Ohio for work...all in the span of 4 days. I definitely had low expectations for a long, long run the night after a wedding and 6 separate airplane trips. Did I mention that I am a nervous flyer too?

Anyways, my fantastic friends organized a 20-miler for me from course to race/running support and post-race food. SB mapped out the route and then she, NL and TE took turns relaying me through the course. All in all I completed the distance in just over four hours. The last 2 were absolutely rough..I was wondering if I would actually be able to do it as I dragged myself and my sickened stomach up North Capitol street to the endpoint. Ugh! But....TWENTY MILES!

EE was amazing and cooked a fantastic dinner, leant he her shower and even a clean change of clothes! I am grateful to all of them and humbled by the experience.

Everyone claims that if you can do 20 you can do 26.2. Here's to hoping that is true!

Mile 23 of the Marathon dedicated to breast cancer

For anyone planning to watch the race in Chicago, Mile 23 might be a great place!

“Join Bank of America and Susan G. Komen for the Cure at Mile 23 as they salute the strength of breast cancer survivors everywhere and remember those we have lost. Dedicated to breast cancer survivors, their families and those running on behalf of finding the cures, this stretch serves as a race day tribute. Show your support with Komen for the Cure and breast cancer survivors everywhere by lining the streets dressed in signature pink or just by lending your voice to the cheers of the masses.”

Nation's Tri : done and done

Last weekend was the TEAM in Training Nation's Triathlon. For four months I have been a part of a coaching staff of 7 for this great event to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. All together we helped coach 160 DC Triathletes from the DC Area across the finish line and were part of a collective group of 560 that raised 2.4 MILLION dollars for LLS. It was an inspiring weekend!

Here are some of the photos:

Fundraising Total $3445 and counting!

thanks to the generous support of my friends and family I have raised more money that I could have ever hoped! Although the online total says $2755 offline donations brings the actual current total to:

$3,445!

This is absolutely amazing but I am not done yet! There are still THREE WEEKS to go until race day and I hope to keep going.

thanks to everyone who has donated so far!

Once again, my online fundraising site: http://www.active.com/donate/komenvirtualteam/Cina

It's Official!

My Chicago Marathon runner packet came in the mail last night.

I will be RUNNER #23332

I will take the palindrome as a good luck sign.


At  this year's race, Spectators can electronically track runners along the race course by receiving real-time updates via e-mail or text message throughout the race. Updates will be received as runners cross the 10K, halfway (13.1 miles) and 30K checkpoints, as well as the finish line.

To register for Runner Tracking, please go HERE.

A three hour tour, a three hour tour...

Ever since my failed attempt at eighteen miles I have been stressing about it. This weekend is going to be VERY busy with the Nation's Triathlon from pretty much start to end with no time to run. I knew I only had one chace to get it done.

 I decided to set out for a three hour run since I have no real way to measure 18 miles other than google maps. Three hours means ten minute miles...probably pretty generous for a long run. I feel like I run really slow for anything over two hours but who cares. Three hours is a serious run!

I am still in desbelief that I actually made it. Sure, I had to walk a few times. Yes, my stomach did it's usual crampy dance...but I still clocked in a solid three hours. Amazing! Maybe this marathon thing really is happening!

The true test will be 20 miles on the Sunday evening after a wedding in Ohio. If I can do that I can do anything! i am already recruiting friends to run parts of it with me. 18 miles alone was a lot. 20 might put me over the edge!

Altitude training

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to spend time in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The family of one of my best friends from college has a place there so five of us took it over for the long weekend. It was a great few days of catching-up, laughter, dancing, food, drinks, pool-time relaxing and running. Yes. Running!

Since graduation from Denison all of my closest friends have taken up endurance sports to some degree. It is hard to count the number of 5ks, 10ks, marathons, half marathons, etc. that everyone has signed up for. It is fantastic as it always means that someone will be up for a run on rare weekend getaways.

LC and I had the ambitious plan to run Eighteen miles last Saturday in the heat and altitude. KL mapped out a great ten-mile loop and everyone signed on to run or bike at least a portion of it. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking, as were the hills! A combination of heat, altitude and stomach cramping left me at just about eleven miles. Although disappointed I have to remember that ten miles is still no small feat. I even decided to AWARD myself extra points for the extreme conditions. I also decided to REWARD myself with a margarita, or three.