“The first rule in teaching is: put your phone on vibrate, stick it between your legs and enjoy the lesson.”
This woman also told her two maybe three year old kid that he was manipulative and then she was bragging about the short, tight shorts she bought at wet seal. Seriously if you have several children, you’re too old to be shopping at wet seal.
Yesterday H and I did our long run. It was exhausting. Imagine running in a sauna for two hours. That’s what it was like. Originally we woke up at 5:45 to go running before dawn, but as we were walking to the end of the street we kept seeing flashes of lighting and claps of thunder. We decided that running towards the storm and being potentially stranded on the beach in the middle of a storm might not be a wise idea. We headed back home, only to realize that we had locked ourselves out of the house. I felt bad, we had to wake my parents to let us back inside. Anyway, we got to sleep in, which was enjoyable.
Since we couldn’t go out in the morning we decided to be dedicated runners and go out in the evening. UGH. It was so awful. It took everything in me too keep running through the whole 10 miles and I was so ready to give up. Honestly, it was the heat. I think I would have felt much much better had we been running in the morning, but the heat just sucks everything out of me. Everytime I saw a 7-11 it was like seeing heaven, especially when I had to pee… and sprinklers, oh man, those are like a gift from god.
I need to focus on running more frequently. Forcing myself to go out and do a couple of miles every day, or every other day.
I forgot to mention, but I received a couple of really generous donations recently. It’s so thrilling to see the “donation notification” e-mail. We did our gas card raffle and announced our winner via a youtube video. We also held four fundraisers. A long run, Art Walk, Physical night at SPHS and most recently our yard sale. The yard sale we only did $300 this time, compared to nearly $500 last one. It mostly had to do with the rain I think. We only had really hardcore yardsalers coming out this time. And scarily enough, some repeat strangers.
We’ve definitely saturated all of our markets. All H’s friends. All of the art walk people. All of my friends. I’m not sure how exactly we’re going to do this. My mom suggests begging. I think it’s come down to that. I’m going to send out a gimme 5 letter this week I think.
I’ve decided that I want to spend New Years Eve in Nashville. Now I gotta figure out how to make that happen.
Going on adventures is my favorite. The long run I did on Sunday fell under the category of an adventure. H and I ran 10 miles and through seven different cities: St. Petersburg, Treasure Island, Madiera Beach, Redington Beach, North Redington Beach, Redington Shores and Indian Shores. We left our house around 6:15am, armed with a cell phone, mace, money, gels and water and just decided to run until we hit 10 miles. It was really neat to just run up gulf boulevard and explore the beach communities. We didn’t see a whole lot of other people, but at some point in one of the Redington’s we saw a huge group of cyclists. H said that it was mandatory to cheer them on, so she shouted out to them and they shouted a reply. For some reason, the acknowledgement and commradiere of being runners/cyclists and cheering for each other gave me goose bumps. Or perhaps it was the dehydration and delirium, but ya know, either way it was a cool experience.
It turned out to be a really good run. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I DIDN’T want to run 10 miles when we set out and even by mile 4/5 I was not really feeling things, but as we kept going and started running places I’d never been before, my mind was so focused on the interesting surroundings that I was enjoying myself. As far as energy and hydration, I think our plan worked well. We had water bottles with us for the first half and finished them off when we took our gels. Then around 6 1/2 miles we stopped at a gas station and bought some gatorade and drank that for the last few miles. Depending on what our plan is for this upcoming Sunday (11 miles!) I might want to try the same strategy. We called home around mile 8 and told dad where we thought we would be at for mile 10 so he could pick us up. It worked out perfectly. Such brilliance!
After the run I came home, showered, took a quick nap and went to Orlando to say goodbye to A. I’m very glad I went, but it wasn’t all that sad. I guess I just know that somehow or another we’re going to figure out ways of keeping in touch and seeing each other. I’m glad that I’ve been closer to her for these past few months though. I definitely was able to see her a ton recently and that’ll help satisfy my need to see her for a while.
Other weekend events included a long run for H’s cross country team on Saturday morning, Saturday work, and Art Walk. The long run only about 8 or so people came, but we made around $80 and then Art Walk was fun and we made another $100ish. The Art Walk’s don’t require a whole lot from us and we are making friends as we do them, so that’s fun.
Tomorrow night we’re going to SPHS for physical night and asking for donations. I’m not really sure we’ll get a whole lot out of it, but it’s worth a shot.
At work today someone gave me the calendar page with August 19th on it and said to me, “here do you want this, it has your age on it.” I just looked at her confused because 19 means nothing to me… I’m not 19, I’m 23. She went on to say that I should have taken it as a compliment and implied that anyone would want to be 19 again, but I just didn’t understand the whole conversation. It was unnecessary and she just made things awkward. I don’t think I act 19. I’ve come a long way maturity wise and just life knowledge wise since then as well, and I’m sure I have a long way to go. But a 19 year old is vastly different than a 23 year old. It’s the difference between being a young college student and being graduated and working in the real world. Oh well, this whole paragraph is pretty pointless. I apologize.
One more funny thing… someone apparently was searching “smiling dog enterprises” and came across my blog. I’m not sure what “smiling dog enterprises” might be and how it links back to my blog, but I thought that was amusing.
My whole body clock has been off this weekend because I work on Saturday, so I had a half day yesterday and have gotten off work early on Tuesday and Thursday… It doesn’t feel like tomorrow is Friday, but I’m not sure what day it does feel like.
I really don’t want to work on Saturday. I hope it’s slow, because I’m exhausted. And there’s no rest for the weary, I have two fundraisers on Saturday, a long run Sunday and maybe a trip to Orlando. Yikes.
I’ve been surprisingly productive this week. I contacted people, got my stuff organized, sent out some thank you notes and other stuff.
Hrm. This post is pretty pointless. I just felt I needed to stay in contact. I will say I got another donation. $50 to boot! It’s the best feeling in the world seeing the donation notification pop up in my e-mail. Only $3100 to go!
Wow. How does the weekend always seem to fly? I still have a ton of things that I meant to accomplish and didn’t, but on the other hand, I did get a lot taken care of, so it’s all good.
Two big things happened in regard to my fundraising progress. On Thursday I put up a status on facebook about how I was only $53 away from my first (recommitment) goal and within 15 minutes someone had gone and donated the $53 I needed! Seeing the donation notification in my email gave me goosebumps all over. Just knowing that someone cared enough about my success and passion for doing to TNT to help me make my goal was awesome and totally unexpected. Even more so, it was someone that I didn’t expect. It was a girl I had gone to high school with and have seen only a few times since graduation, which made it even more special to me. I’m STILL on a high from the random donation.
Then today I checked my fundraising page and my checks finally posted to my account. I’ve been anxiously waiting for them to appear in my account and they are there now! Now my page reflects the actual amount that we’ve raised. So exciting.
Having mailed in all of our recommitment papers this week, I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I have been worried about “failing” and letting people down if for some reason I wasn’t able to recommit, but now I’m locked in and will being going to SanFran one way or another. I guess it should almost stress me out more, since I am commited to the remaining $3150, but I’ll figure something out. Plus, all of our time and effort in fundraising and training leading up to this, hasn’t been a waste. I’m really glad I won’t be letting anyone down, however much I shouldn’t worry about that.
Our training run on Saturday was only six miles. Haha, I say only six miles, because after 10 miles last weekend, six feels so much easier. Sometimes I really need to step back and remind myself that a year ago I would never have had the ability push myself to keep going for six miles. I was happy if I made it to three miles. So I’ve come a long way. ANYWAY, it was storming as we drove up to Clearwater at 5:30 in the morning, but by the time we got to training it wasn’t raining and we didn’t see any lightning. We modified our intended route to make sure that we kept close to our cars, in case the storm ended up coming back. It turned out to be a nice day and mostly rain free, so our run was enjoyable. I think the only issue was that we were running a bit faster than usual and so it wasn’t really a relaxing long run.
Today we did a kind of easy recovery run of 3.5 miles. We ran from home to the beach and ended up meeting the parents and taking some pictures of them and they drove us home. We never really run on the beach itself, but I think it was a good challenge. It’s slightly harder and I think the change of terrain is important to keep us on our toes. Maybe we’ll try and aim to run on the beach a bit more frequently.
I’m still working my way through Breaking Dawn. I kind of like that I’m drawing it out, because I hate finishing books. I’m never ready to let go of the characters and then feel a little bit lost. Not to mention, getting into a book can be tough, so when I’m already attached to characters or a story, I want to savor every bit of it. I have maybe 150-200 pages left, so I’ll probably use my free afternoon this week to finish it and get some TNT stuff taken care of.
I also love when the Ray’s win. Dunkin’ Donuts has this deal that if you go to Dunkin’ Donuts and announce that the Ray’s won the night/day after the game, you get a free donut of your choice. It’s a bit dangerous for my waistline, but a nice treat every now and again.
If you haven’t done so yet, just check it out. If you already have, take another look. I’ve updated the information and added some great stuff about how Team in Training money is being use to develop a drug called Gleevec which is sort of like chemo in pill form.
Just 5 minutes to look at the website. If you are inspired or compelled by what you see on the site, make a $5 donation. You’ll be entered to win a $50 gas card and will also be helping save lives.
I’m only $53 away from my recommitment goal and I really think that if just a few people donated tomorrow I could do it. Maybe some of the people who have said they’d donate will come through.
Tonight was the St. Pete High XC Alumni run. I didn’t run with the group, but I went and did my own run as H did it. I was so shocked. I was running about a minute to a minute and half faster than usual. It was awesome. I couldn’t slow myself down either, which has NEVER been a problem in the past. Maybe I’m finally getting a little faster or building my endurance level.
I just signed and dated (and supplied my credit card information) to Team in Training for our recommitment. What this means is that there’s no backing out now. We’re going to SanFran and running the half marathon regardless of whether or not we finish our fundraising. The fundraising is the really scary part. We didn’t technically raise everything for recommitment, but I’m only $58 dollars away and H is less than $100. I’m hoping that with all the fundraisers we have planned and people who have said they’d donate and still haven’t *hint hint nudge nudge* that we will ultimately make our goal. I’m really just diving into this head first and hoping I come up with a miracle. In the hopefully remote chance that we don’t complete our fundraising, I do have a plan B, which while not desireable, should work as a good backup plan.
Tonight I really didn’t want to go to training. I was looking for every excuse not to go, but finally decided that I really SHOULD go and I’m definitely happy that I did. I always push myself a little harder and run a little faster when I’m running with TNT people. I think it’s that I don’t want to slow their pace down and I am capable of running faster, but I tend to be lazy when I’m on my own. Either way, I’m glad I went and was happy with the run. I was literally dripping with sweat by the time we stopped. As disgusting as that sounds, it was quite satisfying.
H and I also checked out a triathlon swimming class at the YMCA yesterday. I’m not sure I’m ready to take on training for a triathlon just yet, but the swimming class might be a good way to start cross training. Although ideally, I’d like to just swim at the Y and have H coach me on different strokes and techniques before I displayed my lack of swimming talents to the public.
I’m still moseying my way through Breaking Dawn… so as usual, now that I’ve accomplished some stuff for today, I’m going to go crash in bed and read my book.
I have to say, I am so stinkin’ proud of both H and I. This weekend we were scheduled to run 10 miles but because of volunteering at the Top Gun Triathlon, we missed our group training. We made plans to go over to North Shore, where the training was supposed to be held and run the 10 miles on our own. Well you know what? We actually did it. We got up at 5:30am, drove over to North Shore, stashed some water bottles in the bushes and ran our pretty little hearts out for two hours. It felt great. Actually, it was exhausting. My legs and hip flexors hurt from doing two hours worth of squats at the triathlon (taking the timing chips off the participants ankles), so I was sore going into the run. Now, I’m really sore, like to the point of climbing stairs and any sort of bending of my legs is a very uncomfortable feeling. But the point is, we did it. We motivated ourselves out of our comfortable beds to go run a distance we had never before covered. We have officially taken our long run into the double digits. That itself is totally exciting. I’m a little scared about 12 or 13 miles, but I think we can do it. Althought if we go running on our own, we need to stash some gatorade in a cooler instead of water. We also need to figure out what kind of GU/supplement to take. This was our first run using anything of that sort. I think it did help, but I’m not 100% certain.
I really liked running at North Shore. There were SO MANY runners (and bikers) out in the Bright Waters neighborhood. I seriously think we saw at least 30 runners and everyone was friendly and wishing each other good morning. It’s cool. Running is both a solitary and community sport and I love that aspect. There was also a dog who scared at a first, but we saw him later, twice actually, running with different people. I think he probably looks forward to joining other runners and walkers and doing on adventures with them, haha.
So much has happened this past weekend, but I don’t have time to elaborate now. Our fundraiser in Gulfport was rather successful. We made about $150 and all we were doing was asking for donations. We planning on going to the future Art Walks till we raise our money because it was a easy and enjoyable fundraiser. I think if we get a better table cloth and make a couple stand up signs we’ll be able to get even more money. We also met some really awesome people. I think we’re going to try and team up with this other family who was raising money for their daughter by selling dog biscuits, but more information on that later. We have so many fundraising ideas rattling around in our heads, I don’t see how we CAN’T make our goal, but Team in Training is definitely going to be consuming my life until the end of October.
I think I’ve decided what my next atheletic goal is going to be after the half-marathon. I want to try and tackle a triathlon. Or at least do some training for one and see how I can handle the swimming portion of it. My heart is definitely with running, but I think it might be fun to branch out, cross train and become a little more fit.
Okay, I really want to crawl into bed with Breaking Dawn. I’m only 100 pages into it and I need to change that, haha.
My weekend thus far has consisted of: a fundraiser in gulfport at their Art Walk event, a get together at M’s “bachelor pad”, seeing N who I haven’t seen in weeks, getting 2 hours sleep, volunteering at the Top Gun Triathalon, meeting some really cool people, buying the new Twilight book, watching Hackers are People Too and now sleep… because tomorrow I’m waking up at 5:30am to go run 10 miles.
I totally have a lot more to write about but I’m too exhausted to think straight.
