20 miles - and still running strong!

Hello and Merry Christmas! It's hard to believe I've been at this running thing for six months now. Whew - how the time has flown! I have done quite a bit of running since I returned from Italy. On Thanksgiving morning I ran the "10K Turkey Chase" in Edgewater, MD. What a blast it was ... we ran on nature trails, up gravel hills (lotsmore than we have in Florida), down grassy knolls, around the water and by a small cheering section. What a way to start off the biggest eating day of the year.

We also had our big Girls on the Run 5K Jingle Jog. What an amazing time that was ... the girls did great! They all wore their personalized jingle bell bracelets (which we put together at the end of each lesson) and we laughed and ran the entire 3.1 miles. Their parents were so proud of them ... and so was I.

Then the following night my running friends and I ran the "Festival of Lights" 5K in San Marco. It was just gorgeous. There were carolers, spectators, a candle-lit course and Santa even stopped by to say hello. Despite the dogs, strollers, children and walkers we did fairly well and crossed the finish line uninjured!

And just a few days ago we had our longest run yet ... a 20 miler. Surprisingly, that run felt better and was easier than the 16 or 18 miler. We chatted the entire time, laughed a lot and ate an amazing breakfast at Metro Diner afterwards. I swear I do all this running for the breakfast. In fact, I began talking about what I was going to eat at mile seven. For the next two weekends we have shorter runs (5 and 7 miles respectively) ... then right after Christmas we run 23. Deck the halls with lots of running, fa la la la la, la lala la!

Below are some pictures from the Festival of Lights 5k ... enjoy!

From left to right: Kristie, me and Val

Kristie's family - Mike, her husband and their two twins - Connor and Hannah

Val and her husband Marc - so cute!

Back from Italy

Ciao! I'm back from Italy ... did you miss me? I had a phenomenal trip with my mom (and eight other mothers and daughters). We ate, drank, drove through the mountains, cooked with a professional chef and took more pictures than we know what to do with. I even got three runs in - hooray! Check out my pictures below ...

Here I am in Cortona - the town in which the book/movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" actually took place. The woman still lives there with her Italian husband.

Here's a picture of my mom making cheese with a man who I swear looks exactly like "Mario" from Super Mario Brothers.

Here I am poking the fire ... later that evening we grilled our pork chops over it. Yummmmmmm!

Now that I'm home, it's time to get back to business ... with an 18 mile run. Since it's been over a week since I last ran (due to traveling and a nasty cold) this one was particularly difficult. According to our group leader, I have lost approximately 10% of my running ability - which I could certainly feel. But thanks to my friends and their encouragement, I was able to get through it! Next week I will be home in Maryland for Thanksgiving and will be sure to get my runs in. Maybe I'll even convince my boyfriend to join me ... although I think that might be wishful thinking!! Gobble Gobble.

16 tough miles

So I guess it's fair to say we all have off days. Unfortunately for me, that day was yesterday. My 16 mile run was very difficult.

A few of us decided not to run with our Galloway group because the location was over 45 minutes away. Instead, we mapped out a route at the beach. Val, Hillary, Tracy, Sonya and I met at 6am and began our 3 hour 40 minute journey ... over the Atlantic Blvd. bridge (twice) and through the rain. To make the run fun, everyone was given a "role" ... assigned of course by me. I played the role of mascot/jester, Hillary was our guest speaker (topic of the day: interesting running health/fitness facts), Val was our inspiration, Sonya kept the perps away and Tracey was our cheerleader. But despite my role, which could have been a ton of fun, I turned into the resident old man ... I couldn't stop talking about my aches and pains. From the get-go, my body didn't feel right. At mile 3 my feet were already hurting and by mile 9, I had terrible pain in my left shin - which only got worse with every step. Needless to say, I was thrilled when the run was behind us! No worries though, I'm feeling better today and will run again on Tuesday. Hopefully the old man syndrome will be gone ... otherwise my friends may just kick me out of the group!

Look for some exciting updates in mid-November when I get back from Italy. I will be sure to include pictures from the trip, delicious recipes and also tell you what it was like running there ... which I'm sure will be amazing. Until then, ciao!

Race for the Cure

Yesterday I participated in my second official race ... the Race for the Cure. And so did my mom, dad, hundreds of my co-workers, Donna Hicken's marathon training team and thousands of other people from around Jacksonville. What a great day and great race it was! I began in the middle of the pack with my running partners Hillary, Kristie and Val. Then about ten minutes later I asked the girls a question and realized I was no longer with them. Guess I got in the zone and took off! I finished with a great time (nearly a five minute improvement from my first race, in fact).

Here are my stats
Class place: 37 out of 159
Overall place: 273 out of 1040
Chip time: 27:16
Average pace: 9:18

Below are some pictures from our fun day ... enjoy!

Here I am at mile 1.5 ... still running strong!

This picture is from after the race. From left to right - Kristie, Hillary, Val and me (what's going on with my face?!?)

This is my Blue Cross team ... my mom is on the far left in the pink shirt and my dad is behind the camera lens.

Okay - this is obviously not from the race. It's from a few nights before at a casino night for a non-profit I sit on the board of. My friend Sheila is on the far left, I'm on the far right and Reggie Hayward, a Defensive End for the Jaguars is in the middle. Wish you could have seen the bling he was wearing!

14 miles later

4:25 am Saturday my alarm went off. I was semi-asleep but knew it was time to eat breakfast in preparation for my long run. So, I ventured downstairs. However, I must have though there were two less stairs than the day before, because I fell. Landing on my knees was an interesting way to start the day. Fortunately I was okay (although today I see some funky looking bruises forming!)

An english muffin and PowerBar later I was ready to go. I was out the door by 5:25 am with water, chocolate milk and my fanny pack in hand (how nerdy for me to actually admit that I run with a fanny pack!) Because of my Magic Mile time, I graduated to a faster running group ... actually, the third fastest running group - scary! However, I didn't want to test out a whole new group leader and pace for my longest run ever. So I stuck with the Renegades (my group's name). I felt good for most of the run. It wasn't until mile 11ish that my legs started getting fairly tired and sore. By the end of the run my body had enough ... but I completed the run (and only complained a little bit) which is all that matters! 14 very long miles. As for next week, we are running the Race for the Cure. My mom and dad will be in town visiting and will also be participating. My mom is a breast cancer survivor, which makes this event even more special.

Still running, and running and running ...

Last Saturday I ran 12 miles - can you believe it?!?! I was nervous the week leading up to the run, but once we took off I felt good, strong and up for the challenge. The only problem was that I was familiar with the route, so I knew how much further we had to go. I prefer ignorance ... it makes the runs (mentally) easier! This week we only had a six mile run with our magic mile in the middle. The magic mile is a timed mile that allows our leaders to place us in the appropriate pace group. I did well - very well. Below are my three magic mile times:

August 4 - 9:20
August 25 - 8:57 (23 second improvement)
October 6 - 8:25 (32 second improvement)

Not to bad for a wanna-be runner, is it. This Saturday we will be running 14 miles ... wish me luck, I may need it!

Yet another good run

We only ran five miles today. That's right, I used the word "only." Compared to last weeks run, today's was a piece of cake! We even ran over two bridges - the Acosta and the Main Street. Unfortunately, my Ipod froze the moment we began our run - so I wasn't able to capture my data. I suppose it's better that it happened this week and not next week, when we run 12 miles. No worries though, I went to the Apple store at the mall and one of their resident geeks (oh - BTW - I heart geeks) fixed it. Woo hoo!