Peer pressure is good.

I’m about to leave to go see Ultra-Marathon Man, over at Baywalk. I’m pretty excited. I didn’t know anything about it till tonight when my TNT coach sent us an e-mail, but H and I are going to go check it out. I have like a million and half things to do, like get my money sent out for TNT, prepare our table for ArtWalk, clean my room, iron my clothes, but screw all that. Okay, not really, I’m going to have to do those when I get home. C’est la vie.

I’ve had two fairly decent runs this week. Tuesday I went to training, despite H not being able to go. It was good and I’m glad I went. I ran at a faster pace than usual and it was a good kick in the seat. Peer preesure can be a good thing. No one else talks about the positive side of not wanting to let people down and forcing yourself to do (good) things… like go to training, or running 4 miles instead of 3, or running 2 min/mile faster than usual… all of which I accomplished because of peer pressure. Then yesterday we went running at home and did another 4 miles. It was nice weather since it was cloudy/overcast and had been raining all day, but to be honest, I was disappointed that it wasn’t STILL raining. I REALLY want to go running in the rain. Next time I guess…

In the realm of fundraising, things have been looking up. A couple people pulled through for H and she’s now at about the same spot as I am, which is $150 away from her recommitment goal. She spoke with our family friend who has a store in Gulfport and we’re going to set up a table there tomorrow night. They have this thing called ArtWalk and all the stores open up and there are street vendors, so hopefully a lot of good foot traffic and generous people. Then Saturday morning is the triathalon, so that’ll be fun, hopefully. The shirts are neat looking and I really want to know what it feels like to be on the other side of a race. I also talked to Chickfila and we’re gonna have Spirit night in September and host our balloon pop raffle there. We also have our yard sale, long run and a few other events planned. So things are definitely looking up. yay!

Off to the movie!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/kpierson <— donate $5.00 and win a gas card!

Win a $50 Gas Card!

If you’ve been waiting to donate, here’s one more great reason to: Sisters-in-Training is raffling off a $50 gas card! We know that gas prices are high, and it might be hard to donate, but now your donation will get you entered in a raffle to win our $50 gas card!

Here’s how it works:
* $5 donation = 1 raffle ticket
*$20 donation = 5 raffle tickets
For example, $40 = 10 raffle tickets.

So the more you donate, the higher your chances of getting the prize!

It only takes a minute and it’s totally secure, so start increasing your chances to win! The winner will be drawn the day of our yard sale (August 23rd) and notified by email/phone call, so no need to be present.

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/hpierson

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/kpierson

From our Honored Teammate.

One of our honored teammates is Bob Davis and he sent us this letter as a source of motivation. I wanted to pass it along to everyone else.

WOW!! Welcome back from Alaska – those of you who went.  At least you could be cool for a little while.  Now we are all preparing for the next marathon in San Antonio and San Francisco.

I know it is hot and it doesn’t look like we will get relief soon unless we get a hurricane.  We have to keep training to get ready for our next great adventure. I know it’s easy for me to say because I’m not out walking or running, but I’ll trade you all for my next chemo session.

I’m doing biotherapy by taking an IV drug call Rituxan every six months and it’s working so far.  Thanks to great research and testing -  We need to keep raising money.  There are a lot of people behind me that are alot ’sicker’ than I am.  The children is who we want to cure and save.  They are our future.

GO TEAM!!!

BOB DAVIS

Summary.

Here’s the letter that I sent to people who have joined our facebook group. It’s an update on how far we’ve come and what we need to get to the finish line, but it’s a good summary of things…

We wanted to give you a quick update on our Team in Training progress.

As of July 27th we have raised $1569. We’re nearing our first big milestone, which means we need to have $2100 jointly raised by August 8th, which is just two weeks away! After that we have to have the full amount ($8400) by the beginning of October. We’ve had two fundraisers so far with both of them being successful. Next weekend we are  volunteering at a triathlon and also kicking off a raffle for $50 gas card. This weekend was spent planning future fundraisers for August/September, such as a balloon pop raffle at Chick-Fil-A and another yard sale.

Together we’ve also run about 200 miles in our training efforts with our longest run being around 8 miles this past weekend. It was quite the adventure since we were running in an unfamiliar setting and had to ask some other runners for directions. Then next weekend we are scheduled to run our first 10 mile long run, the first time with double digit mileage! This whole experience has already been extremely challenging and rewarding and we both cannot wait to see what the future holds for the next couple of months.

If you know of anyone else who might be interested in helping us reach our goal, please pass along our information. Making online donations is quick and easy, and totally secure. If you’d rather mail a check, comment me for our address.
Checks can be made out to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Thank you so much!

Katie and Hilary Pierson

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/kpierson

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/hpierson

Upcoming Events!

I swiped this from H’s blog, but here is a list of our upcoming events that we’re working on organizing! 

Fundraiser tables set up at First Night- in Gulfport, August 1st

We’re also helping at the Top Dog Triathalon at Ft. DeSoto- August 2nd, 5:45-10 AM

Host a long run at my house (directed at cross country team, but everyone welcome)- August 16th

Donation table set up at Physical Night at St. Pete High School on August 21st

Another yard sale (in St. Pete if you’d like to donate your things/money) and drawing of the gas card winner- August 23rd

Balloon pop raffle at Chick-fil-A Spirit Night- TBD

Rays game (selling snacks with other Team in Training people)- TBD

Mental toughness.

I have exactly 13 days till recommitment. That is slightly scary. Although it’s really not as scary as it felt a month ago. So far I have raised $862 and I need only $188 by next Friday. I can do it. Totally. 

 

H and I have made a lot of plans for making it to recommitment. I’m going to post official details on a gas card raffle we’re going to do later today. I think the plan will be for every $5 donation made to either H’s or my website (or in person/the mail) will be an entry into a raffle to win a $50 gas card. And if people donate $20, it’ll count as 5 entries. We’re planning ANOTHER yard sale, but this time in St. Pete and hopefully done completely with donations. I know the Orlando one wasn’t as successful as I hoped, but I’m going to put an ad in the paper again and maybe do the sale at Hospice or a flea market. Anyway, we’ll have the gas card raffle going on till the day of the yard sale and when the yard sale is over, we’ll draw the winner for the card.  

The idea behind the gas card is that it’ll be a way to help get us past recommitment and then once we make it past that hurdle we can focus on the bigger picture. 

 

H and I also volunteered to help at the Top Dog Triathlon next Saturday morning. We’ll each get $75 towards our accounts for helping but we have to miss training. I’m excited about it though. I’ve never been on the other side of a race. I’m always racing, so it’ll be neat to see all the work that goes into making an event like this happen. 

We are supposed to run 10 miles next week and I think H and I are going to have to wake up on Sunday morning and do our long run because there’s no way that we can not do training. 

 

Yesterday we actually ran the longest distance in a non-race setting that we’ve ever done. 8.23 miles. We were supposed to run 9 miles, but opted to only do 8 since we weren’t able to run 8 last weekend and didn’t want to put our bodies into too much shock. Regardless the run was amazing. I can’t describe the feeling of accomplishment when you push your body past what you think you’re capable of and what your body wants to do. Running any sort of long distance, especially one you’ve never covered before is all about mental strength. If you can muster the (mental) strength to do those first 1-2 miles, you find yourself in a sort of cruise control mode. Enjoying the scenery and surroundings and just taking in the run itself. Then the last mile is pretty difficult as well. You know the end is within reach and it’s hard not to give in to the desire to just walk the rest of the way. I know that San Francisco is going to be completely about mental strength, especially tackling those crazy hills. But I can do it.  

 

In totally unrelated news: Charlie continues to adjust to his new life. The other animals haven’t quite accepted him and I’m still separating him from them at night, since I can’t supervise their interactions. I’m hoping that given a little more time they can all co-exist peacefully. Or at least not worry that Rickie will attack Charlie in the middle of the night. If one thing is for sure, I don’t want any real children any time soon. Ugh. The responsibility of watching out for Charlie is more than enough for right now.

baby steps

The Orlando yard/bake sale was this past weekend. The total profit was only $160. I have to admit that I’m disappointed. The turn out was not nearly as good as the St. Pete one, and the people were much stingier. I think it was a combination of factors. It was a different city with a different type of people. It was having the sale underneath the house and therefore, those who scope sales out from the car were more likely to drive past. It was also that we didn’t run an ad in the newspaper. With the St. Pete sale, we also fliered the neighborhood and had more people coming out to support US rather than caring about what was for sale.

Regardless, I am getting much closer to my first deadline. I only have $210 left to raise before August 8th. I definitely think that I can make that happen.

DONATE: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/kpierson

The other day H and I went to Moe’s and they donated $25 in Moe’s bucks. So now we need to get a few more things together and have ourselves a raffle.

I was supposed to run 8 miles this weekend, but with yard sale shennigans and suprise party preparations, I didn’t have a chance. I feel bad about it, and figure that I’ll run a little longer than usual tomorrow. Maybe 7 miles after work?

I need to decide if I’m going to Tallahassee this weekend or not. I’d really like to, but there has been so much traveling in my life and will continue to be… and I really need to do another fundraiser. Ugh. We’ll see.

I think I forgot to mention. I got a cat. Charlie. Charlie the cat is now a reality. He’s an adorable bundle of energy. He’s a little sick though, a cat cold, so I hope he gets better soon. I also hope the other animals get used to his presense. Pixy is pissed at us and Rickie doesn’t mind as long as Charlie doesn’t sneak up on him.

More later… http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/nikesf08/kpierson

Moving site…

Go to this site. It’s a mosaic of people’s pictures and stories about how blood cancers have affected them and how the Leukemia and Lymphoma society along with Team in Training have helped.

http://www.llslifemosaic.com/lifemosaic/mosaic.jsp

Big storm!

I’ve truely come to enjoy our tuesday night training runs. I’ve even gotten over the half hour of travel time to get to them. It was a really good run. I could have pushed myself a little harder and I probably should focus on doing that, but I maintained a steady 11 minute per mile pace and when we heard this HUGE crack of lightening/thunder towards the end, sprinted at full force towards the car. It added a little bit of excitement to the run.

I came up with an idea for the yard sale/bake sale. If I have left over poster board I think I’m going to write out a sign up what $5, $10, $25 will help buy for patients. I’m waiting on N to send me an email with that print out.

Today I have accomplished:

- getting money in the mail.

- sending out facebook messages about the yard sale.

- thank you notes to those awesome people who have donated.

- updating my fundraising page

- ran 4 miles.

Sweet.

Tomorrow night post birthday dinner I should probably make the yard sale signs. I need to remember to mount them on cardboard. Hrm.

Speaking of birthday, the three things I want all start with the letter C.

Cat. Computer. Camera. Although I doubt I’ll get any of them. It’s nice to dream. Oooh and going to Carmelita’s. That starts with a C… I can’t wait, so exciting. I’ve been wanting it for weeks now. And funfetti cake. Yummy!!!

Early mornings

I actually really love saturday morning runs. Once I overcome the horrible realization that I’m voluntarily waking up at 6am on a saturday to run, it’s a glorious experience. Being awake and running while the rest of the world is still sleeping peacefully is rather neat. Then of course you have the benefit of the sun not being up to assult you yet either.

Our 6 mile training run went surprisingly well. It wasn’t too too painful and despite waking up feeling dehydrated, I didn’t get any cramps or yucky tastes in my mouth. Since it was a TNT run, we had water stops all through the course, which is also a huge plus. Yummy gatorade.

This upcoming weekend we’re supposed to run 8 miles, but I have our yard sale which is in Orlando, so I don’t know when I’m going to be running. Probably Sunday night, but that’s not really an ideal time to run 8 miles.

After the run I came home, ate breakfast and then had a glorious glorious nap. I think this is the other primary reason why I love saturday morning runs… being able to crawl back into bed exhausted but having earned the nap.