Week 10: Fundraisers, mud and 14 miles, oh my!

First of all, I want to send a huge thank you to everyone who came out to Tastes N' Toasts last Wednesday! The weather was perfect, the music was great, and we raised $374 to help cure blood cancers! If you couldn't make it but wished you could have, consider making a donation through the "donate now" link to the right!

This past week has been crazy! I ended up skipping all of my training runs last week to try to rest and heal. I attempted my run on Wednesday and felt shin pain nearly immediately. I knew that if I had any chance at making it through the weekend, I had to listen to my body, so I stopped. I'm glad I did!

On Saturday, I completed the 3.2 mile Warrior Dash in Windham, NY. It's a challenging course involving extreme terrain and lots of obstacles (with plenty of mud)! The first 1.5 miles or so went straight up an advanced ski slope, and I have to say, that was by far the hardest part! The sun was beating down on us at that point, and I had no choice but to walk much of it.

I was really scared of the obstacles before the start. I'd wanted to do more strength training, but once I got into all this marathon training I just didn't have time! But when I got to the obstacles, I was pretty impressed with how well I was able to tackle them. The toughest part was being concerned about possible injury. I knew that if I injured myself, the chances of me completing the marathon would be slim! Thankfully, I managed to keep myself from falling or slipping in the mud for the entire race, and left with just a few scrapes and bruises. I also finished in under an hour, so I'm happy with myself! The official photos should be released soon; I'm hoping that at least one of them came out well so I can share. I ran with my friend Mike, who was in costume as Mr. T. Overall, it was an amazing experience!

After an epic Warrior day, I was concerned about completing my 14-mile training run yesterday. The ski slope course had been tough on my shins and I got to bed late. My dinner Saturday night was a giant Turkey leg and a beer -- not exactly full of carbs -- and I feared being slightly dehydrated. Dragging myself out of bed was hell, especially because it was rainy outside. I just wanted to sleep!

Somehow, my body managed to hold itself together for the entire 14 miles. It wasn't particularly fun -- the rain gradually fell harder throughout the morning, and by mile 10, my body woke up and realized that I'd been punishing it for two days straight. Toward the end, the entire lower half of my body just ached! I stayed strong though, and pushed myself to the end.

After forcing myself to a gentle yoga class today, I think I'm recovering well, though I just realized I'm supposed to run 5 miles tomorrow morning -- I thought it was only 3! The mid-week runs are really starting to scale up. I hope I can keep up!

Thanks so much to my week 10 sponsors:
Rebecca Meddick
Theresa Santa

After Wednesday's fundraising check goes through, the total will be $1945.52! With your help, we could be over $2000 soon!