18 miles and still going!

This past Saturday in San Francisco I ran with my Team In Training Group 18 miles. My last blog I posted how lonely I was and of course people read this and replied with "what ?? you should run with us" I felt so loved to have such a great team that not only cares about my training and fundraising but about my enjoyment too.

When I began my run Sue Funk said to join her and Lydia Sanchez since we all were running 5minutes and walking a minute. So I joined them and had a great run all the while talking about life and whatever came to mind. Sometime during the run Lydia had to make a bathroom break and was falling behind just a bit so told us to keep going since we were moving faster. We thought should we wait? we made the choice to go ahead not knowing Lydia would soon get lost on the trail. Off we went Sue and I and we did rather well but when we got to our turn around water station we checked to see if Lydia checked in and no she hadn't. We knew we had a lot of people out and our Team Manager was looking for her on her bike so we continued on our run.

At mile 16 Sue and I were feeling like crap and hating the run around Lake Merced. I wanted to be done with this run and was finding it hard to keep going. As soon as I was beginning to hate this run I ran past a shooting range. I heard the guns shooting and it triggered a memory of my sister Alex. I remembered when my dad took me and my sister to the shooting range and with every target that was put in front of my sister she was hitting them. We had a blast that day and the memory of it made me smile. I soon realized it was a reminder why I run and to keep going and finish strong and on target like my sister would want.

At Mile 17 Sue decided to walk the rest in and I said good bye and finished my 18 mile run. As I waved good bye I stepped up my pace so I could finish this run soon. As I got closer to 18 miles I realized the course was marked longer then it should be and in fact this 18 mile course is more then 18 miles it was more like 18.5 miles. Once my watch told me I completed 18 miles I slowed my run down and I started my cool down. I finished my run strong and with a smile and enjoyed a great accomplishment with some amazing friends.

By the way Lydia was later found by our Team Manager Simone and was escorted the rest of the way :)

Thanks again to all who have donated to my cause and just as a reminder to those who still plan to donate please do so soon so I can make my deadline of Sept. 20th and my goal of $3000. Click here to donate: http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/RoyalVic10/pon

Me and my friends enjoying our much deserved rest.

A Trail all to Myself

Today I ran 14 miles at Waddel Creek in Santa Cruz and it went pretty well. The only downer to this run was I was alone for most of it. My usual running buddies were ether away this weekend or started at a different time. I started my run with four people but fell behind them since they were speedies and I am well, not. I later came by a few other runners who were so kind to let me join them for their 9miler. we ran together very well but I had to say good bye to them to continue on to my 14mile turn around. I felt pretty good during my run and once I reached the water fall it was a well deserved treat!

after looking at the water fall for a few minutes I decided to make my run back down the mountain. While I was running I started to get lonely and pulled out the camera to take some pictures of myself and the trail. This lasted 5 minutes and then I was done and had to just run this alone. I started to look at the beauty around me and just take in the quiet of the trail and what I was doing, Running! when I finally finished I was ready to head home and enjoy some relaxing for my legs with a bag of ice ! Others who ran this trail today took nasty falls and hurt their ankles, thumbs, legs and a few others were stung by some crazy bugs! needless to say I got pretty lucky to not having any of these things happen to me.

Thanks again for all your support and if you would still like to contribute to my fundraising please do so at http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/RoyalVic10/pon

I am still short by $800 and hope to reach my goal by the end of August so please help if you can.