Apologies for the silence as of late! I've been on the run...(ha ha ha)
So lets just dive right in the past couple weeks, shall we? I have been focusing on a seemingly multitude amount of things: training, fundraising, work, and education just to name a few. I'm happy to report all are going extremely well.
For the past three Saturdays I attended a Continuing Ed class at NYU; a Public Relations/Business Communications WRITING class. Every Saturday, I'd get up EARLIER than I normally do for work and truck it to the East Village to be couped up in a computer lab from 8:30a-4:30p. It was torture to see the sun shining and not be able to bask in it! I missed all 3 group runs with Team in Training those weeks, but I'm glad to report, I'll be rejoining the pack again this coming Saturday morning just in time for a 5 mile run.
Fundraising has been another focus these days, but maybe not too much longer as I'm getting very close to my goal. The support from all of you, my dearest fiends, family, and colleagues, has been so gracious and unyielding; your compliments, words of wisdom, and own stories have been incredibly humbling and yet also incredibly inspiring to me. To be completely honest, it just plain sucks that so many of our loved ones have had to battle cancer and it often time feels overwhelming to collectively embrace all your stories of struggle and sacrifice at once. I can only hope that we can advance treatments and find cures soon with the all the funds donated to the LLS on behalf of TNT participants.
Finally - the good stuff: the RUNNING! I'm still very focused and committed to my training after 5 weeks. I'm truly surprised its been so easy - I keep waiting for it to get hard :-) *knocks on wood* The heat still worries me though. Part of me wishes it would just get hot already so I can get acclimated to running in the hot, humid air, but before that ludicrous complaint can even begin to formulate on my lips, I'm reprimanding myself for even having thought it. I have no doubt it will get hot and stay hot soon enough. Until then, I'll take the cool rain that has marked the past 3 months in NYC.
One of my goals after having committed to training for the half-marathon was to ensure I got plenty of race experience prior to RACE DAY. To date, I've ran two races - the women's mini10K (6.2 miles/1:01:18 time/9:53 avg pace) and the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge (3.5 miles/33:24 time/9:50 ave pace). The 10K was AWESOME - such a great run! It was a race marked by firsts: first time running over 5 miles, first time running the daunting Harlem Hill, first time to complete an entire loop of Central Park. I felt good, really good, up until the last 800meters - then all of a sudden it was literally all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. Crazy how mental the end of a race is! The Corporate Challenge was just that: challenging. I trained with TNT the night before and was feeling worn the next day. Couple that with fighting 15 THOUSAND other runners and I wasn't surprised that I wasn't able to deliver a faster pace than the 10k. I'm actually guestimating my time as the Challenge is a not an officially timed event; each participant is responsible for their own time keeping and that's a bit hard to do when there's not even a clock at the starting line (grrr, poor planning JPMC!). I digress. I'll have some more chances to face the race-finishing mental block in the coming weeks as I'm running in a 5 miler at the end of the month followed by the Hoboken 5K for the Kids on July 14th.
It's getting late so I'll leave you with some pics from the Corporate Challenge...until next time!
So lets just dive right in the past couple weeks, shall we? I have been focusing on a seemingly multitude amount of things: training, fundraising, work, and education just to name a few. I'm happy to report all are going extremely well.
For the past three Saturdays I attended a Continuing Ed class at NYU; a Public Relations/Business Communications WRITING class. Every Saturday, I'd get up EARLIER than I normally do for work and truck it to the East Village to be couped up in a computer lab from 8:30a-4:30p. It was torture to see the sun shining and not be able to bask in it! I missed all 3 group runs with Team in Training those weeks, but I'm glad to report, I'll be rejoining the pack again this coming Saturday morning just in time for a 5 mile run.
Fundraising has been another focus these days, but maybe not too much longer as I'm getting very close to my goal. The support from all of you, my dearest fiends, family, and colleagues, has been so gracious and unyielding; your compliments, words of wisdom, and own stories have been incredibly humbling and yet also incredibly inspiring to me. To be completely honest, it just plain sucks that so many of our loved ones have had to battle cancer and it often time feels overwhelming to collectively embrace all your stories of struggle and sacrifice at once. I can only hope that we can advance treatments and find cures soon with the all the funds donated to the LLS on behalf of TNT participants.
Finally - the good stuff: the RUNNING! I'm still very focused and committed to my training after 5 weeks. I'm truly surprised its been so easy - I keep waiting for it to get hard :-) *knocks on wood* The heat still worries me though. Part of me wishes it would just get hot already so I can get acclimated to running in the hot, humid air, but before that ludicrous complaint can even begin to formulate on my lips, I'm reprimanding myself for even having thought it. I have no doubt it will get hot and stay hot soon enough. Until then, I'll take the cool rain that has marked the past 3 months in NYC.
One of my goals after having committed to training for the half-marathon was to ensure I got plenty of race experience prior to RACE DAY. To date, I've ran two races - the women's mini10K (6.2 miles/1:01:18 time/9:53 avg pace) and the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge (3.5 miles/33:24 time/9:50 ave pace). The 10K was AWESOME - such a great run! It was a race marked by firsts: first time running over 5 miles, first time running the daunting Harlem Hill, first time to complete an entire loop of Central Park. I felt good, really good, up until the last 800meters - then all of a sudden it was literally all I could do to put one foot in front of the other. Crazy how mental the end of a race is! The Corporate Challenge was just that: challenging. I trained with TNT the night before and was feeling worn the next day. Couple that with fighting 15 THOUSAND other runners and I wasn't surprised that I wasn't able to deliver a faster pace than the 10k. I'm actually guestimating my time as the Challenge is a not an officially timed event; each participant is responsible for their own time keeping and that's a bit hard to do when there's not even a clock at the starting line (grrr, poor planning JPMC!). I digress. I'll have some more chances to face the race-finishing mental block in the coming weeks as I'm running in a 5 miler at the end of the month followed by the Hoboken 5K for the Kids on July 14th.
It's getting late so I'll leave you with some pics from the Corporate Challenge...until next time!
