There Ain't No Holidays in Marathon Training

Christmas Morning!  A time for a big greasy breakfast, opening gifts, time with family, oh yeah, and an 8 mile run.  Now, the schedule is supposed to be a guide designed to allow you to move things things around if they conflict with your schedule.  I decided to ignore this since I'm clearly a masochist  and I knew I would be eating probably about an extra 1000 calories for the rest of the day.

I fueled up with my favorite pre-run breakfast of french toast with bananas.  Carbs and protein all covered in syrup.  Is there anything better?  I donned my new Nike thermal pullover that I got from my brother (that's the plus side of having a brother who's also run a marathon, he knows warm running clothes).  My father snapped this pic right before I left although I ended up letting down Christmas fanatics everywhere and leaving the Santa hat behind for fear of overheating.

The route I took was a short 3/4 mile to a running trail that borders the Tarrytown Lakes Reservoir (running near water is my favorite as I'm sure you'll see in the months to come).  This trail is about a mile long and connects with the North County Trail which is about 20 miles long.  I went out and back on the trail which is pretty flat.  Unfortunately, my parents live in the Hudson River Valley which means that the roads are almost all hills so getting to and from the trail was a little more challenging and I could definitely feel pain creeping up my legs by the time I got back to my parents house, a clear recipe for a sore ass the next day.

The run took me about an hour and 25 minutes which equated to around a 10 minute mile pace taking into account that I probably went a little farther than 8 miles.  I made sure to keep at a conversational pace so I didn't overexert myself.  Having not been able to entice anyone in the immediate area to run the full 8 miles with me (surprising I know), I had to monitor my pace by myself.  I imagine if anyone had actually been out on the trail to see me, it would have been very entertaining to see me muttering nonsense to myself to make sure I could still say full sentences.

I finished the run strong and feeling good but I think because I rushed to get ready for Christmas dinner at my grandparents' house and therefore did not eat or drink  a while after after the run took it's toll on me.  I ended up feeling really light headed and exhausted all through dinner.  I finally recovered after rehydrating, eating, and taking a long nap under my new sheep blanket my Grandmother gave me for Christmas.  Though maybe not an endorsed recovery method, I felt some tea and sugar cookies were the perfect panacea at the end of the night.  Lesson learned though...make sure to eat and drink water within 30 minutes after a long run.

My Reward

Let It Snow!

 What better way is there to lead into Christmas than with a little snow?  Aside from the hour it took me to get home from work on Monday night, I love the snow.  There's nothing better than that silent moment when you go outside and everything is completely white and still before angry Bostonians come out to shovel and ruin it.

Since I was just starting to run last year, I only really ran inside on a treadmill, warm and out of the elements.  Because I now run longer distances and the treadmill doesn't really simulate the rolling hills of a road race (and trust me I wouldn't want to experience a treadmill marathon anyway), I try to run outside as often as possible to build strength in my legs from running hills but mainly for my sanity to have some change in scenery.  Sometimes that means running in the cold, rain, or in the case of Thursday morning, the snow.  When I stepped out my front door at 7am, it was still flurrying and not many of my neighbors had shoveled the sidewalk in front of their houses yet.  For the first 10 minutes or so of my run I had to deal with an occasional snowflake stinging my eyes, but the real challenge was that my normal running shoes, which I think are on their last leg anyway, don't get quite the same traction as they do on dry pavement...big surprise.  I felt like I have to take one and a half steps for every step I would normally take to do the same distance.

This was the sidewalk immediately outside of my front door and my struggling footprints in the snow.  Luckily, when I got out to Beacon St., the main road, a greater proportion of the sidewalk was not only shoveled but also salted in some places.  I'm not sure I would have made the full four miles if the entire route had been snow covered as it felt like I had to work twice as hard as I normally would.  As the snow started to subside I even saw a few other runners and despite a slower minute/mile the run went pretty well.  All in all I had a great morning:  had a successful run, worked from home, got some Chipolte for lunch and then left for Christmas vacation in at my parents' house in New York...all sans pain and injury.

The Real Challenge: Fundraising

As I mentioned before, the Boston Athletic Association sets a fundraising minimum for charity runners because the race is so popular. While this is great for the charities as it ensures that they will raise a certain amount based on the total spots the BAA allocates to them, it can be overwhelming for the actual participants. This year the fundraising minimum was set at $3,250.

Initially I wasn't really too worried about raising this much money. The final deadline is May 18th, 2011, a full month after the marathon and five months from now. That's $650 per month or about $150 per week. Piece of cake! Then I reread my signed agreement...

January 31, 2011 at 5pm marks the recommitment deadline. Up until this point I can donate what I've raised for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and still walk away from the marathon and my fundraising minimum. After this date, I supply the balance of the minimum and am reimbursed as I raise the money. Now don't get me wrong, I'm happy to donate my time and money to LLS, BUT I'm not sure my credit card can quite afford one large $3000+ hit. So that leaves me with really focusing on fundraising. Having never raised this amount of money in my life I was a little worried. My parents raised me in the traditional "we don't talk about money let alone ask for it" way so it's a bit of a challenge for me to solicit donations, even if it is for a good cause.

Despite my reservations, I've come up with a few different fundraising event ideas and I'm sure many of you have already received emails from me. I'm happy to announce that I have blasted through my first goal of $500 in just my first week. To-date I've raised $840 which is 26% of the way to my goal!

Thank you so much to all of you who have contributed thus far. I'm not really one to get emotional or sappy but I  have been really inspired and motivated by your words of encouragement and even more so by your stories of loved ones who have battled leukemia or lymphoma.  In fact, to show my gratitude, if you've donated to me and have someone close who has battled one of the blood cancers, I'd like to run in honor of them by writing their name on the TNT singlet I'll be wearing on race day.  If you'd like to donate, here's the link to my TNT website: Team In Training: Kate Lauro

Finally, this is my official announcement of my first fundraising event.  I will be hosting a Bowling Tournament at Jillian's (aka Lucky Strike) on January 6, 2011 from 6-8pm.  We will have four teams of five and the donation to enter a team is $75 ($15pp).  There will be a two game guarantee and a prize TBD for the winning team.  The Facebook event will follow shortly but you can let me know now if you would already like to reserve a spot!

Ok, I promise that's enough plugs for now...back to training!

Kick-off!

Bang! Was that the starting gun? Yes it was ladies and gentlemen and it was signaling the start of training! I dragged myself out of bed at 7am on Saturday and to The Wellesley Community Center (picture right), our training headquarters, for the Team In Training Kick-off party and first group training run of the season.

At the party, my weekend breakfast staple and our sponsor, Dunkin Donuts, treated us to some coffee and bagels as we were introduced to the Team In Training program and the people supporting us over the next four months. Jillian, the Campaign Coordinator announced that even before we had run our first training run, the Massachusetts chapter had raised over $109K! Over 10% of the way to our $1 million goal! Along with that announcement, she recognized the top 6 fundraisers to date who had already raised from $2K to $18K. We also heard from two of our inspired heroes who were both cancer survivors, one of whom was first diagnosed at age 6 and proudly bragged about recently getting her learner's permit. By the end of all these's speeches, I was shocked, inspired, and a little tiny bit shamed into committing to stop procrastinating and get fundraising!

Finally, our coaches, Kelly and Sarad came up to the stage to introduce themselves and get training started. Sarad really got to the heart of how we will probably all feel about our coaches by the end of training by leading off with, "Someone came up to Kelly earlier and asked if they could call her 'Mom.' So feel free to consider Kelly 'Mom' and me 'Dad.'" Already I'm thinking this is going to be a fun and interesting season and if my 18+ mile runs go the way I think they will, I may even end up calling them Mom, Dad, or whatever else is in my delusional mind at that point. Kelly and Sarad went over some basic training rules the most unfortunate of which is that we are not allowed to run with iPods. We're not allowed to listen to music during the marathon so we have to get use to running long distances without them now. That leaves a

lot of time for bonding with our teammates during runs. Will there be close heart-to-hearts? Heated fights? Awkward revelations? Only time will tell...

Finally, we took off on our first training run, going 1.5 miles out towards Hopkinton (the beginning of the race) and back right on the actual marathon route (picture left). The run went really well as it is shorter than most of the long runs I've been doing. I left Kick-off feeling really excited about our group runs and the entire program in general. For now I've got a very optimistic view of the entire journey and I can't wait to dive right it!