Merry Christmas!

 I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and happy holiday weekend, and got to enjoy spending time with family and friends like I did. I also ran 6.3 miles on Christmas morning – my new longest Sunday run. I thought I had it good because it was about 40 when I left my parent's house (10-15 degrees warmer than my 6:15am run) but, of course, it started pouring about halfway through.

Since I committed to running the Eugene Marathon in November, I’ve already raised over $700! That is almost half of the minimum I have to raise to participate ($1,500) and over a third of the way toward my personal fundraising goal of $2,000. I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that if you’d like to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, now is a great time. If you know my dad, you know I can't help but point out that donations made before the first of the year are deductible from your 2011 tax returns. What can I say? Financial responsibility is genetic.

Season's Greetings from our family to yours.

Team Eugene Night Before Christmas

Twas the Night Before Christmas…

And all through the team…
All the Eugene Marathoners
Were having a dream.

Their race socks were hung
By the chimney with care
In hopes that Neal, Paul and Nina
Soon would be there.

The team was all nestled
All snug in their beds
When ideas for fundraising
Danced in their heads.

And the mentors sending emails
And I making calls
Learned from the coaches
We were training at the Mall.

When out in the street there arose
Such a Clatter
The Entire Team raced
To see what was the matter.

The moon in the sky
On the new falling snow
Meant Phil started early
Yelling Go Team Go!

When what to my wandering eyes
Should Appear…
A fantastic group fundraiser
And everyone Cheered!

With Robyn Varner
Leading the Charge.
We new in a minute it was
Going to be large.

More rapid than ever the teammates all came
Grateful and happy; they called them by name.

Now Allie, Now Jim, Now Sue and Now Kristi,
Now Phillip and Nina, Now Neal and Paul

On To the finish line and the fundraising goals
Dash Away Dash Away
Dash Away All

And I heard them exclaim as they ran out of sight
Merry Christmas to All and to All A Good Night!

From the creative mind of Charlene, our TNT Team Eugene Coordinator. I hope you all have a warm, safe, and joyous weekend celebrating however you like: with friends and family, with pizza and your dog, watching movies or going for a long run.

Shoes News (among other things)

Some exciting new things since last I wrote:

I have upped my morning mileage to about 4. That means 40(ish) whole minutes of running before work (therefore before the sun comes up) twice a week. I'm now running out (literally) of well-lit real estate for those early runs.

I ran/walked 6.15 miles last Sunday! And then celebrated my longest nonstop training session with some delicious pumpkin oatmeal á la Jen (who has an amazing food blog here). 

This might look familiar to some of my facebook friends.

My best bit of good news is about running shoes. Thanks to our coaches and staff, we had a shoe clinic at the Eugene Running Company after last week's training. I was dreading getting new shoes because my two (very) different sized feet means that getting new shoes means getting two pairs and paying for two pairs. Imagine my euphoria, then, when after I got my gait analyzed - slight pronator on my left foot, thanks for asking - and was ready to bite the bullet on upwards of $200 for some new kicks the owner tells me that one brand will sell you two different sized shoes for only $30 more than a normal pair costs. Now I will not have to endlessly ponder what to do with two mismatched mates. Hello brand loyalty forever.

Progress

• Progress is running 5.75 miles in an hour on Sunday - and not feeling like death today. That's the farthest I've ever gone in one go. Guess that 10k is closer than I thought.

• Progress is reaching over $400 towards my fundraising goal today. Thanks Luna and Alex for pushing me over that milestone!

• Progress is seeing the big picture and thinking about how far I've come in the past 10 years or so.  

This is where I started from. Except not really, because
a) I promise I do not have that much leg hair
and b) my compatriot here has all five toes.

Last night a friend and I were talking about my marathon plans and she said something that I hadn't really pondered: that she was proud of me because she remembers me as the girl rolling around Kelly Middle School in a wheelchair.  Now, amazingly, I'm training to run a marathon. I never really take the time to reflect on that progress - I chose to have my surgeries and I lived it, so it doesn't seem special to me. I am much more inspired by our Honored Teammate Katie, who was battling Hodgkin's Disease Lymphoma (twice!) while I was complaining about having to go to my Intro to International Relations lecture at 8am.

Katie - currently in remission!

Progress is progress.

December 10 update

Just a short update on our Saturday training session today: Our run started from Jamba Juice this morning bright and early (and cold!) and ran along the river bike path. I ran the 3-and-a-quarter or so miles with Kristi, who is one of our mentors and ran a half marathon - the whole thing - with TNT last season. One of the runners we passed going the opposite way had on his Boston Marathon jacket - makes me miss it, but if all goes well maybe I'll get back there someday and run (instead of drink) on Marathon Monday.

After the run, we had a potluck at Coach Neal's house and our fundraising clinic. It is pretty intimidating to have to think about running 26.2 miles AND raising at least $1,500 by April. We heard from the mentors, who were all successful in meeting their fundraising goals, about some of their great ideas for reaching out to people, business, and holding events. My mentor, Allie, suggesting looking into hosting a Trivia Night at Pegasus Pizza, which I am totally into - can you think of anything better than an evening of pizza, beer, and a little friendly competition?

I told you this update would be quick - not too much else to report. I have been slowly but surely extending my runs by a minute here or 30 seconds there, and my run this morning was my longest continuous run to date, I think, at 37 minutes. There's a long way to go to the 5 hours or so I'll probably need for the marathon, but each increase means I'm that much closer.

1st TNT Training Run

Today was our first TNT Eugene training run. It was the first time we all met the other members of the team, and our first time running with each other, the mentors, and the coaches. Before we started, Coach Neal showed us some of the gear we might want to learn more about - everything from belts to hold your water bottle to reflective lights to stick massager thingies that look more like weapons than something that will releive sore muscles. The run wasn't too special - fifteen minutes out from Alton Baker Park and then turn around and come back. Half hour runs are my bread and butter of sorts, but it was nice to be able to know that the first run was not going to kill me. Oh, and there was lots more encouragement than I am used to running alone.

We also got to meet our Honored Teammate today. Each TNT group has an honored teammate who is someone dealing with or that has dealt with a blood cancer, so that we as runners can put a face and a name to our fundraising and training efforts. Her name is Katie and when she told us she was 23, all I could think about is that she is my age, only a couple of weeks apart. She told us she was diagnosed at age 20, and I just thought about how at age 20 I was living in the HoJo with Michelle and Joann and watching BU win a National Championship in hockey - dealing with cancer was the furthest thing from my mind. Really makes you realize how lucky you are and how much we take for granted.

And, as if meeting Katie wasn't enough to inspire and motivate me, I also got a sweet shopping bag and pair of socks for being on top of my fundraising.

My loot!

So THANK YOU!!! To Sherri, Vickie, Sean, and Azra who have donated so far! I would not have gotten to 20% of my goal less than a month into this journey without you!