Last long miles before the marathon!

Saturday February 2 was Ground Hog Day! We were at practice before the Ground Hog saw his shadow. The weather was great - a bit cold at the beginning but the sun came out and we had a fantastic day!

Saturday was also our long mileage day. Ten miles for the half-marathoners (me) and 20 for the full marathoners. I am proud to report that everyone finished their mileage. I think a lot of that had to do with our surprise cheerleader (photo below)coming by to encourage us up those long hills! What a great kid to come out that early on a Saturday morning - oh, his Mom is pretty great too for driving him! Thank you Andrew and Mellie!

Next week is our roll back mileage

again (5 and 10 miles) and then we are off to Austin on Feburary 16. So, keep us in your thoughts and prayers on February 17th.

Oh, and by the way, this fantastic group of people have raised over $135,000 for the Lukemia Lymphomia Society - Awesome and thanks to everyone who have supported them.

WOW - What a Season!! (so far)

I can’t believe that our AT&T Austin Marathon is right around the corner. I had planned to update my blog on a regular basis – but as you can see – that didn’t happen. So I thought I’d give you all a quick overview.

My team, the “Hot Pink Ladies” are AWESOME!!! There are ten ladies on our team and they all have done a fantastic job so far. Andrew Post (pictured with Coach Bobbi and Jennifer our Team Manager) is our Honored Hero and his mother is a member of our team. Andrew is still undergoing treatment and should be done by this time - next year! This young man is a brave kid. He has been to several of our practices to cheer us on and give us great hugs!

I’ll spare you our long grueling (but fun) practice sessions over the past few months but will tell you that our practice this past Saturday was really great. The half marathoners (me) did 9.5 miles and the full marathoners completed 18 miles!!! It was cold (32◦), windy and finally a bit sunny!! I can’t say it warmed up much before we finished but it was a beautiful day. Everyone did a fantastic job. Three members of our team have already completed their marathon last week at the PK Chang’s Rock N Roll Marathon in Phoenix (send-off party photo). They all finished the full marathon with great times! I am totally proud of them.

We only have three more Saturday practices before the Marathon!! By the way – our practices begin at 7:00 A.M. – now that’s dedication!! So far our entire team of 54 people have raised almost $130,000 for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society – that is phenomenal! And we are still fundraising!

I promise I’ll update this again – at least let you know how everyone has done! Thanks for your support and prayers! GO TEAM!!!

I'm BACK!!!

Well after finishing my first half-marathon I woke up a week later and realized that I missed everything about it! I missed the Saturday morning practices, seeing new friends.... just the whole routine of training. So, I've signed up to do another one!!! This one is in February and it's in Austin this time. Best part about it is I'm a Mentor!! I have eight ladies on my team and Kick-off is on Saturday!

Keep checking my blog and I'll update it to let you know how we are doing! Our honored hero is a little second grade boy who has been fighting blood disease for almost two years. He's darling and a big sports enthusiast. He plans to play soccer and another sport this fall. I'll put up a photo of him soon.

In the meantime, here is a photo of our newest family member!! His name is Scraps, he weighs about 2 pounds and he's nine weeks old. A real cutie!!

WE DID IT!

What a blast! Amy and I had a wonderful weekend. The day started out cool (at 4:00 A.M.) and was overcast, staying that way until we reached about mile 10. Then the sun started peeking through the clouds and warming things up. Nothing like San Antonio heat - thank heavens. There were over 17, 000 participants. I never saw so many port-a-potties in one place in my life!! The US Marine Marching Band started off the race. People were cheering all along the course and bands were playing every mile or so. At mile 10 there was a steel drum high school band and right next to them were the Mariachi's (not sure of the spelling). Quite a mix! I watched a guy juggling 7 balls at a time while he was walking. There were plenty of "Elvis's" complete with full white jumpsuit, huge wigs, plenty of bling, and sunglasses.

There were some stretches of the highway were there weren't any bands or cheerleaders but when you looked around at the other walker/runners you saw the signs, pictures, ribbons, streamers with names of loved ones lost to this disease. So sad. But you also saw people with survivor signs on them stating how many years they have been in remission. Very emotional.

I don't know my actual time yet - but I did finish in under 4 hours, might have even been 3 hr 45 minutes ( long lines at the portables). I am proud of myself and the fact that I actually finished. How could you not with all the wonderful people calling out your name and telling you what a good job you were doing.

The best part of the entire thing was spending the weekend with my daughter and finishing the race together.

God Bless all of you and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the support, prayers, notes, and card of encouragement - not to mention the donations. Together we have done something to help the families and victims of this dreaded disease.

I'll keep you posted when I plan to do this again!!!!!!

Love,

Kathy

Finally here!

Well, only ONE DAY LEFT before I go to San Diego! Our group is leaving on Friday morning. Luckily I am in Group 2 that has to be at the airport at 6:15 a.m. - NOT Group 1 that needs to be there by 4:15 AM!! YIKES!

We had our send-off party last night at Johnny Carinos - great food - lots of fun! We received our purple Team-n- Training jersey, tickets to events and lots of good advise on how to take care of yourself until the race. We were also encouraged to take lots of money to go the the Health Expo? Can't wait to check that out!

I'm excited and nervous about the race. I know that we have received good training and I've been pretty good about doing what I'm supposed to. Coach Richard told us last night to wait until next Sunday - June 12 - before we say "never again." Hopefully I will continue with my walking - depending on our lovely humid south Texas weather!

Well, wish me luck and say a prayer that I finish what I have started! Amy (photo from her last marathon) is meeting me in San Diego on Saturday and she will be walking with me and we will have a great "girls" weekend! THAT I'm really looking forward to!!! I'll fill you in when I return on Tuesday.

Thanks again for all of your wonderful support.

Piece a Cake!

5:30 a.m. - Saturday morning - time to get up and get going! Well I'm on the down hill slide. Only two more Saturdays until the BIG EVENT! YEA!!!! I learned my lesson last week and made sure I had a good meal on Friday night. Plenty of carbs! The weather was fairly cool but the humidity is starting to become a problem!

Today was the starting date for those who have signed up to do the Niki in San Francisco in October. I saw a lady coming up her first hill - all out of breath and red in the face. Yes, that was me just a few short months ago. I told her it will get lots better and I know she was thinking - yeah .. right!

But today I finished my SIX miles in under 90 minutes.... Piece a Cake!!!!

TEN - TEN - TEN - TEN!!!!!!

I DID IT!!! I completed my TEN MILES in 3 hours and 10 minutes!!! I can honestly tell you that I almost didn't make it. Started out just fine but at about mile six I started to fade. So did my ipod! It gave out on me and I was out there - all alone - without my inspirational music and the sun started beating down on my head! What a bummer! My walking partner didn't show up today.

I did see some interesting sights at the Trinity University. A HUGE long line of people and kids waiting their turn to register for the kids summer program. There are only so many slots for the kids program and it's first come - first served. I know my friend Silvia was there - somewhere! They came prepared with lawn chairs, umbrellas, food, drinks, toys for the kids, and someone to hold their place if they had to make a "potty run" with one of the kids. The line must have been a quarter of a mile long. I sure hope they all got in.

Well this was my "long run" for the marathon. Next week the miles decrease a bit until the event in June. Wish me luck and keep those good thoughts and prayers coming my way. AND thank you all again for your great support - I couldn't have gone this far without it.
Love,
Kathy