February 28, 2009

$1,000 Milestone!!

Hello everyone! This past week has been pretty amazing and I wanted to update you all on my progress. Last weekend I went home to Sacramento to visit my family so I got to do a great 5 mile run along the American River with my puppy. It was great being home and the route was a great change of scenery! While at home I also stocked up on non-cotton running clothes (because cotton is rotten!) and some other cool gear.

In more exciting news, I reached my first milestone of $1,000 and then surpassed it! Everyone has been extremely generous and supportive, and I can't thank you all enough. I just want you all to know what an incredible, life-saving cause you are supporting. We're changing lives one dollar at a time! Special thanks go to the following amazing donors:

Vic & Adele Stefani
Mavis Sjogren
Rick & Terri Brunson
The Sprinkle Family
Jimmy & Kathy Halstead
Lena DaVia
Grandma & Grandpa Jornlin
Doug Jornlin
Andrea Holland
Michelle Khayat

This morning at training we reached another milestone: our first hour-long team run! We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful morning to be running either. The route was a lot better than I expected, starting along the ocean at East Beach, rounding a lagoon, then heading into the Montecito area, so the scenery was constantly changing! It was a bit hillier than I'm used too, but other than that it wasn't too bad since I've been doing hour runs on my own for a while. The run today reminded me how great the team aspect of training is for longer runs! Afterward our head coach Dr. Neal held an awesome injury prevention clinic and gave us some great tips to make sure we make it to race day in one piece : )

Waiting in the cold to start our run!

I was moving right along!

Such a great route!

In other news, the official website for the Seattle Rock 'N' Roll Marathon recently posted the course route, elevation, and other info, so feel free to check that out here and see where I'll be running come June 27th! It looks like it'll be a great course, I can't wait!!

February 12, 2009

Shiny New Shoes : )

Tuesday night TNT held a special shoe clinic for the team at the Santa Barbara Running store. I was about 2 years overdue for a new pair of running shoes, so this was a perfect opportunity. The staff there are all really great and knowledgeable. They analyzed how I walked and ran, then had me try on half a dozen pairs of shoes and run on a treadmill to see how they felt. I ended up with a really nice and comfy pair of shiny white Adidas, so I'm pretty siked! I ran in them the next day and they felt great, so I'm pretty pleased with my choice.
Donations have continued to trickle in over the last week, both online and in the mail, so once again, thank you all for your support, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it! I'm currently up to $760, and well on my way to my ultimate goal of $3,900! I want to give a special thank-you to my mom who made an extra last-minute donation which helped me reach an online incentive goal and earn me a cool TNT hat! Thank-yous for this week go to:

Nancy Gorman
Deb Watkins
Debbie Dinelli
Kris Hanson
The Wetklow Family
Maureen Russell

Thank you all so much, your support means a lot!!

As far as training goes, I've still been running 5 days a week, varying the distance by doing 3.2 miles three times a week and doing longer runs of 6 miles to the pier twice a week. Officially we're supposed to be doing 30 minute runs on our own, so I feel like I'm doing pretty well!

February 7, 2009

First Training

Hello! So this morning Sarah and I headed downtown to East Beach bright and early for our first official TNT run! Unfortunately the rainy weather we've had the past few days didn't clear up, so we ended up running in the pouring rain...but maybe it will make good practice for Seattle? : ) The run itself was pretty easy, just 30 minutes along the beach. Although distance wasn't measured, judging by my pace I think it was probably about 3 miles for me. The team aspect of the training is pretty fun. There's just a huge group of us running at all different paces, chatting and getting to know each other. And everyone is so supportive and encouraging! My only worry is that my competitive streak will make me run faster than I should and mess up my pacing on the longer runs in the future...but we'll see! By the end of the training we were absolutely soaked and a little miserable so we quickly changed into the dry clothes we brought with. By 8am we were ready to leave, so we headed home and I went right back to bed!!

Sad because we're so wet...

But happy that we finished our first training!!

February 6, 2009

Thank Yous & Running to the Pier

Hello everyone!

My fundraising is now officially underway as most of my letters have been delivered and already I’ve gotten an amazing response! I’ve decided that each week I’m going to post an entry to recognize all the wonderful people who’ve made donations that week. So here’s a list of all the donors for this week:

Deb Watkins
Adam Ghinazzi
Lois Abbott
Sheila Caruthers
Dora Watkins
Barb & Dan Ghinazzi
Bill & Annie Jornlin
Lena Perrot

Thank you all so much for your support, I really appreciate it!!

I also have some other running updates. This past Saturday Sarah and I went to the Summer Season ‘09 Kickoff downtown where we were basically just given a lot more information, especially about our upcoming trainings (ahhh!). Basically official trainings will be twice a week (Wednesday evenings and early Saturday mornings – 7am!!). What I found interesting is that instead of using distance as a measure for training, they use time – so for example at our first Saturday training we will be running for 30 minutes, and every subsequent Saturday run will increase by about 10 minutes, until we get up to 60 minutes by the end of February. So far all the Saturday practices for this month are at various beach locals around Santa Barbara, which should make for some lovely scenic runs. Also, after each Saturday practice there will be clinics on various aspects of running like stretching, nutrition, and injury prevention. Cool, right? Wednesday trainings are at the Santa Barbara Community College track and are focused on speed and technique rather than endurance. Unfortunately I’m going to miss these for the next 4 weeks since I have class Wednesday evenings, but I’ll be able to make them up on my own and once Spring quarter starts I’ll be able to participate. On the other days of the week we’re left on our own to run, but with the instructions of our coaches of course : ) I’ve been doing my 3.2 mile route for a week and a half now and it’s become quite comfortable, and I actually find myself looking forward to it! And I just have to say how lucky I am to be training in beautiful Santa Barbara – I run in the evenings just before sundown so by the time I get to the coast I’m rewarded with a postcard-perfect, gorgeous sunset! Definitely worth the effort : )

Sarah and I mapped out an even longer run that we wanted to try, running along the coast to the end of the pier at Goleta Beach - it was about 5 miles according to the website! Well today we did it and were able to finish it!! Granted we did go at a very slow pace and took a stretch break halfway at the end of the pier : ) Regardless, we ran for close to an hour and a half, which is way past where we are supposed to be right now, and the best part was how good we both felt after! I was tired but not exhausted, and probably could have just kept going! We actually took two slightly different routes there and then back, so when we got home we decided to map out exactly what we ran to get the exact diastance. Surprisingly, we did more than we expected - our run was a total of 5.7!! So anyway, this was very exciting for both of us and has made us eager to eventually go even further in the near future! Yay!