So 3 years later I have been inspired to add to my Blog. I know, its very bad form to ignore your own blog, but with the advent of Facebook and a crazy schedule, my blogging has been a series of short status updates and texts.

I was recently promoted at work to Director of Marketing Acquisition, and am loving the new challenges that brings.

My kids are getting OLD! Sammy will be 13 in October, and Melly is 9 - how the heck did that happen? I just reread my last posts, and Sammy was only Melly's age then!

My training has not faltered - I have been focusing more on tri the past 2 years, still running, but really trying to improve my swim and bike! I did my first Half Ironman last year, Amica 70.3 in Providence...wow! I finished, and I felt great - but that swim was brutal. For the few days leading up to it, anyone who would listen heard me say "I will NEVER do this again"....but after I finished. and called Chris to tell him how I did, the first thing he said was "And when is your next one?" He knows me so well :-) So, I signed up for Musselman this year, and competed in July (took 22 minutes off my time, 16 of that on the swim!), and I have the Beach 2 Battleship Half in October. I'm happy to report that my swim has gotten better (Still very slow!), but my panic has begun to subside, or at least, I am able to manage it a bit.

I have met some great people through all of this, and I love being able to train with them, travel to races, and share in the pre-race jitters and post race celebrations. And of course, Chris - without him I could never do any of this, and his support is tremendous. I asked him th eother day if he and the girls will come to my Ironman! ACK, yes my Ironman - October 2012!!

Is 2008 really half over?

It's been so long, I don't even know where to begin!
First, work: Started a new job at same company this month, and I am really excited about it. I am really looking forward to the challenge of something new!

Next, family: We just came back from a week in Club Med Punta Cana. Had an awesome time, but my family seems to be paying for such fun! Melly got sick on flight home and was home with fever for a couple of days. Chris hurt his back day before we left to come home, and spent the last week at chiro and working from home. Now he is battling a staph infection which they think he got while snorkeling! And Sammy had some evil virus thing that had her doubled over in pain and tears and 101 fever for a day. And my stomach has not been right since we left Punta Cana! Such a shame that we have been beaten up so! But we truly did have a great time, and it was wonderful to spend so much time with Chris' family, and for the kids to get to see their aunts/uncles and cousins who all live so far away.

I fell in love with the trapeze, and did it as much as I could. In the end, I was FINALLY able to do the knee hang, and then the catch, Here is a video of my knee hang:

The kids had a great time at Mini Club Med, and they had such great counselors! We were totally impressed with the GOs there, and highly recommend the resort as a family destination. Chris and I were able to do some things on our own, and our kids had a blast.

And now...training! Wow, so much has been going on! I trained for and competed in my first triathlon, an Olympic Distance.... 1.5K swim, 40K bike and 10K run. The swim was very hard for me, my head really got in the way, but I LOVED the bike, and I tolerated the run ;-) Although I am a runner...it was so hot by the time I got on the run course, that my first mile was more of a walk run. Once I got into the groove though, I felt great, and I finished the event in 3:13, a full 17 minutes better than I had expected. I have done a sprint tri since then, and will be doing another next month as well. I have been thinking about signing up for a Half Iron Man next season...

I am now also a Training Captain for Team in Training, and I'm loving every minute of it. I am working with the coaches to get the Fall run teams ready for their events, which include NYC, Dublin, Nike San Fran and Hamptons. I will be racing the Hamptons Half in Sept. I also will be TC'ing the Winter season to get them ready for Disney, and this year, I will be doing the Goofy Challenge....Half on Sat and Full on Sun. I did the Disney Full again this past January, and finished in 4:32. I guess I lost my marbles when I got home, and I found myself signing up for the Goofy. They call it Goofy for a reason!

I need to get better about posting regularly!! Maybe if I knew people were reading... ;-)

Slow it down a little...

Well, its the day after Thanksgiving, and it's freaking me out...Christmas is almost here, and I am just not ready at all. I say that every year, but this time its really bad. I am clueless as to what to get the kids, and time is going by faster than I can hold on. Work has gotten insane, my kids' are growing overnight, winter is fast approaching, and while it is all good...I would really like it if someone could just make it stop, for just a little while, so I can really absorb all the little changes, and enjoy.

Sammy is 9 now, and she is presenting me with new challenges every day. She is quite a bright young lady, and very much like me...which means that she does not just accept what you say as fact, she needs proof. Sorry Mom and Dad, I get it now! Melly is 5 1/2, and has a sharp wit and challenges me in her own ways. I love them to death, and just want to hold them close and stop time so I can enjoy them being little kids a little longer.

It's funny in a way...I have been training so hard to increase my speed and improve my pace, and now that I have done that...I am sitting here wishing life would slow down. In the words of Alannis Morisette, isn't it ironic? Why does it all have to be so fast? It seems that life is going by at 5K pace, when I want it to be at marathon pace.

Speaking of pace...I mentioned a few posts ago that I was shooting for a sub 2 finish in the Philly Half, and I am happy to report I did it! 1:58:44 ! That is a 9:00 pace, I PR'd, taking 13 minutes of my last half. And yesterday, Chris and I ran the Huntington Townwide Fund 4 miler, and we both made it in under 35, me at 34:56 and he at 34:50 (PRs for both of us by over 2 minutes!). We did great, 8:45 pace, including 2 uphill miles. I had breathing trouble again, my allergies are causing asthmatic spasms, totally sux and I have got to do something about this. But what a great way to get ready for some Thanksgiving feasting.

I'm not sure what this means for my next marathon, Disney 2008. But, I will definitely shoot for sub 4:45, but I'm not ready to commit to a time yet. I have a few nasty long runs coming up, once I get through those I will have a better idea, although it is cold here, and that will improve my pace. If its hot like last year for the event, I may just decide to bring my camera and take advantag eof the photo opps with the Disney characters!Now i

But now its time to go enjoy my day off with the kids, I think we may go see a movie. I am looking forward to this, a little time for us to slow it all down and enjoy each other, while we eat crappy food and laugh. The good life.

Road to Philly

So I mentioned that I am running the Philly Half Marathon in November...I have been cautiously considering shooting for a sub 2:00 finish time, and up until this past Saturday, I wasn't ready to fully commit. But...here goes, with all of you as my witness: I am shooting for sub 2:00 (9:09 pace) on November 18! I ran with 13.1 with the team on saturday, and managed to finish in 2:02 (9:15 pace). I felt great, not sore at all, and this has given me the confidence to go for it!

I also called my PT to schedule a "tune-up". I'm not hurt, but I want to keep it that way. My body tends to go out of alignment from the hips up, and I can sort of feel that my gait is off a bit. I figure I'll let Kathleen work on me a bit, which will hopefully allow me to continue on injury-free.

Just got an email from one of my training buddies...an x-ray shows that she has a slight stress fracture in her 5th metatarsal, ugh! Please join me in hoping the MRI shows nothing more severe!

Musings from an obsessed runner

It is finally Fall here in NY! Yipee yi yay! According to the calendar, we are almost 4 full weeks into fall, however, temps here soared to almost 90 only 2 days ago. Can you say yuk? Today it's a bit rainy and gloomy overall, but at least it's under 70, and the weekend looks glorious! Which is so important, because I have a 13 mile run with Team in Training on Saturday. I am looking forward to this, as I do all of my team runs. It's just so much fun to see everyone and catch up, and get those miles in. This is the first time the Disney team is running more than 10, and I know so many of the participants must be so anxious. I love mentoring, I feel like I have gotten so much out of this experience, and I want everyone to benefit as I have. Training begins to get more intense soon...I am a bit nervous about the 18 and 20 milers. My injury began after the 18 miler, and I never got to the 20-miler because I was sidelined. It's funny...because I always lose sleep the night before, I am just so nervous. But once I actually get out there, and run with the team, I'm ok. And it goes by pretty quickly. Not like its effortless or anything, because trust me, it's HARD. But it's not anywhere near as bad as I imagine...which is crazy...because this is my 3rd full marathon, I know what to expect. Although, maybe that is the problem ;-)

We finalized our hotel arrangements for Philly, so now it really feels like I am going. I will be running just the half though, after my injury last season, I was afraid to try and run 2 marathons so close to each other, and Disney is around the corner. This will be great though, I am well trainied for the distance, and it's a totally flat course.

So, check out this cool website, Athlinks. It's so cool, I entered my name, and many of my races and times came up, and I was able to claim them, and now I have the majority of them all stored in one place!

Catching up

It's been way tooooo long, and I have put off writing because I just don't know where to start...so I'm just gonna dive in!

First...I am still with Team in Training, this is my 3rd season, and I am still loving what I do. This season has taken on a whole new meaning for me as my dad's sister, my Aunt, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia the same day I ran the San Diego marathon. I have dedicated this season to her and her recovery, and will be carrying her picture with me across that finish line in Disney. Her diagnosis has hit me like a ton of bricks, sort of like now I know why I got so involved with TNT and and why I am so drawn to the organization and the people. I only hope that everything we are doing will help my Aunt and all others who are or will be dealing with blood cancer.

As I said above, I did run San Diego back in June, and it was a very emotional experience. I got injured during the Long Island Half about a month before SD, and honestly didn't know if I'd be able to walk, let alone run! But after weeks of intense PT (thank you Kathleen!), I was able to not only run SD, but I shaved 32 minutes off my Disney time.

Here are some pics:

If you look closely at my finisher photo, you will see that I am holding up a medal and a dogtag. I was awarded this dogtag by my coaches. I mentored last season, and really gave it my all, and for that, as well as overcoming my injury, I was honored by the team, and presented with the honorary dogtag of one of Long Island's most honored patient heroes. I truly believe this helped me get thru those grueling 26.2 miles with a Cho-Pat strap on my right knee, wincing through the pain whenever my kneecap decided it wanted to move to a different spot. I held the tag proudly as I crossed the finish line, and cried real tears of pride, joy and relief. I never thought I could be more overwhelmed than I was after Disney, but San Diego showed me that I was wrong. It was amazing. I would be remiss if I didn't mention what Chris did for me that day as well. He met me at mile 6 with a bottle of Gatorade Rain (they had Accelearde on the course, blech!) and ran all the way to mile 13.1 with me. I kicked him off at that point because I knew at that time that I would finish, and I wanted him to get some food. He met me again at mile 24, and ran with me until he was forced off the course by the military. His support was priceless, and his pride in me was clear in his eyes. It meant everything to me.

I have run several races since SD, and all of them have been fantastic. My times are improving, and I am now training for the Philly Half next month, and am going for a very aggressive 2 hour goal. The course is flat, and if we have cool fall temps I think I can do it. A TNT friend of mine has offered to pace me, so with his help....ICANDUIT!

I will run Disney again in January, with Chris. It will also be our 14th wedding anniversary! Unreal!

And next in my TNT future...an Olympic Distance triathlon. Right now I am trying to decide between St Anthony's and Memphis in May. Hmmmm.... By the way, the swim scares the bejesus out of me, but I love the challenge! And I am in the best physical shape I have ever been in, and I know I can do this! Forty schmorty :-)

I have so much more to write about, but this will haveto be it for today.

It's been many many months since my last post, and so much has happened since November. First, I completed my first marathon on January 7 in Disney world. It was a balmy 70 degrees at the 6am start, and close to 90 by the time I finished. Sweaty, tired, and elated...here is me with my medal:



It was an amazing weekend, and something I will never forget! In fact, I recommitted to TNT, and am now mentoring and training for the San Diego Marathon in June. Part of the training for this includes the Long Island Half, which will be May 6.

And if this wasn't enough, I was asked to mentor again, and I think I will. I think I will do Disney again! I just got the Disney recap CD they send to all participants, and watching it was so exciting, and then...at the very end of the marathon footage...there I am, with my running partner, hugging each other at the finish line. That moment was captured for us, and has cemented my decision to do it again, and hope for some cooler temps!