(Last Years Marathon)Well... sorry for the delayed blog. My intention with this blog is to at least write once a week if not more, because I know my life is sooooo exciting that everyone wants to read about it... (sense my sarcasm:-). However, you may have noticed that it has been 2 weeks since I've last blogged. Oops! I will try not to do this again. I had a CRAZY busy week, and that's my excuse! Seriously busy! But, busy is excellent! I'll take busy all day long over "boring", "slow", "monotonous" etc.
So, many of you already know this, but for those of you who don't, I have two businesses. I am a Financial Representative for a firm called Northern Rockies Financial Group, and I own retail store called Helly Hansen. It's a lot sometimes... but like I said, I love being busy. Soooo when my lovely friend Christina told me about a huge commitment call Team in Training I thought, "What the heck!" Actually, I didn't think that at all. I thought "Should I do this? Am I over committing myself? Train 6 months diligently for a full marathon AND raise a minimum of $3200 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society???" But after about 2 weeks of thinking about it, I just felt that this was something I really wanted to do. And I am soooooo glad that I have made this decision! It has been so rewarding!
As I have said in an earlier blog, the running has so far not been the intimidating part to me as much as the fundraising. But the fundraising has turned out to be... fun! I can't believe I'm saying this, but it is true! I am currently at $1905.00 in my fundraising!!! I want to take a second to say thank all of you who have donated so far. It is seriously like a Christmas present everytime I open my mailbox and see the little "Team in Training" return letters, or open my email to see a "Someone has Donated" email for those who have donated online. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are truly saving lives with your donations. You are all heroes...
So, let's talk about my last 2 weeks. Last Saturday (July 2nd), we ran 5 miles. It was actually harder than you would think as half of it was climbing a demonstrous hill (is that a word??? If not, it should be, and either way, you get the point!) I think that 5 miles was actually harder than the 8 miles the previous week. I was also a little tired from my workouts that week. I was pretty intense... running, mountain biking, tennis. I think I was just tired. I have to say though, this has been such a good thing in my life. This marathon is forcing me to get out and DO. Otherwise, I'd probably just go home and watch some cable thinking I'm too tired to work out, but the thought of not being prepared for a marathon scares me too much. So, I have been getting in shape!
Yesterday was crazy! We did 10 miles! Woo hoo! 10 miles!!! You know, I like to think of myself as hardcore, but if I'm going to be honest, I can probably count on one hand the number of times in my life that I have run 10 miles or more. It is a loooooong way! But I did it, and I am proud of myself. Go Me!!!
I can't do this alone though. As I was finishing the 10 miles, I thought, "Holy Moley... a full marathon is 10 times 2 plus 6..." Say what?!!? I can't even imagine that yet... I need your help. All your words of encouragement have been unreal. But more importantly are your donations... This race is not about me. I am healthy, I am strong, I am lucky.
After our 10 miler, we had a potluck, and at that potluck we had 5 survivors and 1 spouse of a non survivor speak to all of us runners. I wish everyone could hear what these amazing people had to say, but the best I can do is tell you from my perspective. These 5 people are alive because of Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I'm not stretching the truth here. Every survivor is alive because of the treatments and medication that has been discovered through the money that has been donated through LLS! For instance, there is a medication called Rituxan which is used along with chemo-therapy to treat Leukemia and Lymphoma cancers. It is used when the cancer is resistant to normal types of chemo. It has saved many lives, including all of the survivors that spoke, and was discovered through the funds of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society! Here we are, listening to these amazing people, telling us "Thank you for trees... and butterflies... and chores!" That was the actual quote of one of the survivors who wanted us to know that without LLS and people raising money for it, she would not be alive to enjoy the simplest of life's pleasures...
Okay! I hope you enjoyed this loooong blog! I want to once again thank all those who have donated so far, and if you haven't, I hope that this blog makes you re-consider. Every dollar helps!!! You can donate on my website at http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/nikesf11/rlink7
Till next time!
Rachel
I never really thought about running in terms of distance so much as I thought about it in terms of time. I like knowing I'm going to run for a set amount of time for pacing myself.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I've never run more than 45 minutes and about 4-5 miles. I'm guessing it's mostly in your head (I learned that when I finally broke the 1-mile barrier).
Keep it up! Keep blogging! Keep running!