privilege

I just got back from a 6-mile jog and about halfway through, when my feet were falling asleep and my legs felt like sacks of concrete, I realized I was pretty tired and ready to stop. I slowed down a little and tried to let Mariah's voice drown out the thoughts of stopping and not finishing the run. While "doo doo doo dum, yeah, you'll always be my baby" are inspiring words, they weren't enough to take my mind off the fact that I couldn't feel my feet, and at that moment the word 'privilege' popped into my head.

For about the next 15 minutes of the run I thought about what a privilege it is to be able to go outside and run. I know that running isn't for everyone, and it wasn't for me for a while, but for some people, it will never even be an option. Sometimes it's that thought that manages to keep me running. I looked down at my legs and thought how amazing it is that they are able to run for an hour straight.

Somewhere in the midst of my reflection about the privilege it is to be able to run, it dawned on me that I should probably stop to loosen my shoelaces. You'd think this would have occurred to me sooner, but I figure that the exhaustion and weariness were blocking my ability to think clearly. The word 'privilege' got me over the hump today but common sense kept my feet from falling off. The end.

Almost halfway there

Well in mileage at least. On Saturday we ran our first long run of 10 miles and it was nice thinking when I finished that if I doubled what I ran then added 6.2 more miles then I would have run the marathon. Ok so I still have quite a ways to go with training but at least our long runs are over 5 miles now. I remember when we ran a 4-mile long run thinking, how in the world am I ever going to be able to run 10 miles? One thing I like about Team in Training is that the mileage increases pretty gradually so you don't notice a dramatic increase of miles. Now that I'm more confident about the training aspect of the challenge, I have to shift my attention to fundraising.

With fundraising, I am not almost half way there... a pretty good jump away from halfway actually. I've not done much in the way of asking people to donate because, well, that's the hard part. The only thing that makes it easier is the cause.

I was reading some statistics about leukemia and lymphona and the one that really caught my attention was how the survival rate has changed from 1960 to 2005: from 1960 to 1963 the five-year relative survival rate was 14%, and from 1999 to 2005 the five-year relative survival rate was 54%. I know that part of this increase is due to leukemia and lymphona research that is supported by the fundraising done by Team in Training participants. A couple of weeks ago at training one of the TNT staff members informed us that from all Team in Training participants the fundraising total had passed the $1 billion mark.

So, as I continue to train and make sure I'm physically capable of running a marathon, I'm going to turn my attention to asking people for money. If you read all the way to the end of this post I'm sure you are convinced that you too, should be a part of the TNT fundraising. So, I've conveniently posted the link to my fundraising page (it's also posted at the top of the blog) so you can clickety-click your way over to it and donate.

Just think:
if you give up your breakfast today you could donate $5.
if you give up your breakfast and fancy lunch today you could donate $20.
if you give up eating today :) you could donate $30.
(these are just some possibilities I came up with off the tippety-top of my head)

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/bigd10/kwinfreybr

Running in loops

Since Christmas day Ryan and I have been in Sundown spending time with my family. This reprieve from work and normal routine does not include a break from training. The first few days we ran four miles, a pretty good loop around town. Yesterday we ran six and I've realized that, although I prefer to run without repeating any part of the already run trail, Sundown's size forces a runner into looping; the track, the same one-mile loop several times, or a long loop just a few times. We have a long run coming up tomorrow, 8 miles and I'm thinking it might be best to just drive out of town 8 miles and run home. This would be better than looping in circles, right? When you run in circles it's so tempting to stop and not finish the run when you pass by your house with each loop and think, "dang, I'm already here. Why should I keep going?" I'm not sure I'll convince Jay and Ryan that running an 8-mile line would be better than running 8 loops around town, but I think I'd be better at running the 8 miles home instead of running by the house 8 times.

Oh and by the way, it's cold. I've included a picture my mom has taken to illustrate just how cold it has been.