6 miles in Pittsburgh with my buds:)

The crew post run.  My water belt was the biggest hit.  Even the locals gave it a shout out; may be the next trend.    

 My first 6 miler this weekend in Pittsburgh was a success.  I was in town for a wedding and mapped out a great route along the river beforehand.  I was so surprised and happy that three of my friends (Matt, Cindy, and Ellen) joined me for the run early in the morning prior to our fun filled U of M wedding extravaganza!  We had a slight detour when we ran into a bluff, but powered through and saw everything there was to see and had a great tour of the city.  A huge shout out to you guys for supporting me.  I'm not sure if I could have made it through that run on my own.   This weekend I'll be running over half of my distance, 7 miles!

4 miles in Vienna, now off to Pittsburgh!

Sorry I've been a little behind in my blogging this week.  My life has been a little crazy now that Congress is back in session. 

Last week TNT headed to Vienna for our training.  Like many of the places we train, I had never been to Vienna before.  It was merely the end of the orange line train to me.  Vienna was cute and the trail was very nice.  It was a train track they made into a trail and it was busy with runners and bikers.  I sped through the 4 miles (even met a teammate from St. Joe, MI in the process) and made it back to the start for our honored team members picnic. 

At picnic we listened to our own honored team mate, who is training for the Disney Marathon, talk about his cancer journey.  Others also shared the stories of those who they were running to honor.  It was very inspirational and was a reminder of why we were all there training and fundraising. 

This weekend I am off to Pittsburgh to celebrate Lauren and Derek's wedding, but I already have a great 6 mile run planned for tomorrow morning with Ellen and Cindy.  Love you girls!

Thank you to all who have helped me reach 70% of my fundraising goal!  Help me reach 100%!

5 miles in Alexandria with the team!

This Saturday was my first practice with the team.  I was a little nervous about my first 5 mile run at the early hour of 7:45 am, but I was pleasantly surprised!  As a Washingtonian it is a rare for me to cross the river to Virginia, so heading to Alexandria was a bit of a field trip.

Old Town Alexandria

Our 5 miler began in Old Town at a running store called Pacers.   We started out on the brick streets of the downtown (a little tricky) and then made our way to the Mount Vernon Trail.  The Mount Vernon Trail is one of the most popular trails in the DC area and is usually swarming with cyclists and runners, thankfully we started so early we beat most of them to the trail.

After starting with the group I found my pace with some of the girls who are training for the marathon.  It was nice to chat and get to know more or my team mates.  After the turn around point I enjoyed the views of the Potomac and was back in Old Town and was finished before I knew it!  I had an awesome run and felt great!   I was pumped to finish my first 5 miler and realized how excited I am to be a part of TNT.

A big thank you goes out to everyone who has helped me make it to 64% of my fundraising goal!  I'm getting closer and closer to the finish line:)

Pure Michigan!

I was thrilled to be in Michigan for a week of training!  It was a nice change from DC trail running where I seem to be constantly dodging pedestrians and cyclists in the 90+ degree heat.  After a few runs around the neighborhood I decided it would be a nice change to cross train with my dad and join him on his weekly 15 mile ride on the Kal-Haven Trail.  The Kal-Haven is a 34 mile trail from Kalamazoo to South Haven.  What a great decision!  The air was fresh and crisp and it was a beautiful evening for a ride in the country under a canopy of trees.

Kal-Haven Trail

I am happy to say I successfully completed my first 4 mile run last week.  To be honest, the hardest thing about it was getting used to running with my new water belt.  My second try with the belt went much better and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.  Thankfully, I had some expert advice from the pros at Gazelle Sports on which belt to purchase because I was completely clueless. 

My Labor Day run was by far the best.  Portage has running and biking trails all throughout the city, so I decided to head over to Portage Creek Bicentennial Park and run the trails over there to get my last taste of Pure Michigan.  It was a cool morning and perfect for a run outdoors.  P-towners, you need to take advantage of these trails!  Although I may be a gym rat, I must confess they are way much better than running on a treadmill while watching TV.  I pounded out the 4 miles with no problem and then claimed my reward...breakfast at Colonial Kitchen with the fam. 

This weekend I run my first 5 miler in Alexandria, VA...wish me luck! 

Surpassed My September 1st Goal!

A HUGE thank you goes out to all my amazing family and friends who have donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and are supporting me in my first half marathon in honor of my friend Nick and all those battling blood cancers.  I never expected to reach 41% of my fundraising goal in less than one week and I have all of you to thank.  Thanks to your outpouring of support we are getting closer and closer to the ultimate finish line- a cure! 

Thank You! 

                                        Lauren Madden                                         

Kristin Elbert

Janet D. McGraw

Andrew Novaria

Paul Seales

Elise Andrews

Dan Leader

Dan McGraw

Jim & Terri Novaria

Craig and Jayne VanderMolen

Metaxo Vlahantones

 The Cheolas Family

The Messinger Family

Rick Searing

Ellen Bankert

Laura Vigiletti

Nick Milonas

Kenyon Fox

Kathryn Phinney

Sam Huang

Eric Brown

Danielle Frottier

Attack That Hill!

My first hill workout for my half marathon training was yesterday.  I haven't done a hill workout since my middle school days for a reason and I was not thrilled to start now.  Our coaches asked us to complete 3 miles followed by running up 6 hills.  After some contemplating of where to do my hill drills I choose to take on the Angling Road Hill.

 This hill is down the street from my parents house.  It may not be too long or too steep, but I have a beef with this hill.   As a kid I always had to stop and walk my bike up this hill when coming home from my friends house. It is the hill I wiped out on when I was 13 and still have the scars to prove it.   This hill and I are not friends! 

Standing at the bottom the Angling Road Hill it was as steep as I remembered.  I turned my ipod to a pump up song and went for it.  I was not going to let this hill defeat me as it had in the past.  I attacked the hill on the way up and caught my breath on the way down over and over again.  I conquered that hill and before I knew it I was finished and enjoying an easy jog home.  I'm happy my first hill workout was not as horrible as I remember them being, but boy am I sore today! 

Lake Michigan: The Perfect Distraction

After running in hot and humid DC last week, I was excited to run in Chicago on Saturday.   I was in town for my friend Lauren's Bachelorette Party, so I was pretty impressed with myself for fitting in my morning run.  The decision of where to run was any easy one since my girlfriends don't live far from the lakefront.  I ran down Division Street, took the tunnel under Lakeshore Drive, and off I went. 

Running by lake was so much fun and the perfect distraction for me.  I think I had a toothy grin plastered on my face all 3 miles.   There were tons of people out and about for a Saturday morning.  Groups were walking, running and biking on the trail (I even saw a few people in Team in Training jerseys!).   If I lived in Chicago that would definitely be my standard running route, although I'm sure once the Chicago winter hit I would stick to the treadmill.

This week the hill workouts begin!  As a person who likes my running routes to be nice and flat, I'm having a hard time pumping myself up for hills.  I will be in at my parent's house in Portage for my first hill workout, so I have a couple good hills in mind.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes!