Surprise!

Monday morning brought another fairly early wake up call for our shuttle to the airport. Many people checking in to their flights were wearing their RNR Marathon shirts. We were all moving fairly well, albeit a bit slow.

We arrived in Minneapolis a bit early and had time to grab some lunch. As we were heading back to our gate, they announced our flight overhead. Andrea said, "That's us ladies." The next thing we heard was "Passengers C., S., S., and W. please report to the gate for final boarding." OH DEAR!!! We moved faster than we actually thought we were able to and made it to the plane to head home.

Back in Memphis. The end of our marathon journey. We were all walking together, proudly wearing our medals, heading toward baggage claim. Laughing and talking about our experience - and how Nicole had RUN to claim an exit seat in the airport in San Diego! And then I had a great SURPRISE!!!

It was Jordan and Cooper!! With signs and balloons and flowers!!! My welcome home party!!! My mother-in-law had brought them to meet me at the airport. What a great surprise that was!! More tears from me.....

Cooper's sign says "MOMMY GO GO" and Jordan's says "Welcome home Mom. Thanks for runnin' with TNT and making us proud"

We definitely caused quite the commotion. I'm sure some travellers thought we were Olympiads what with our medals and all......

When the kids and I got home, Mom's car was in the driveway. "How sweet of her to come and fix my dinner," I thought. Well, she did come and fix my dinner. But they had invited tons of others to come eat too.

SURPRISE!!!!!!

It was a SURPRISE PARTY!!!! My kitchen was full of family and friends. I was so totally surprised I would just cover my eyes and scream. Then I would open my eyes and see somebody else and scream. And I would open my eyes and see somebody else. And scream. Some major emotion when I finally got to see and hug Jodi and Mom and Connie. And then again when I saw my uncle, Dad's brother. Here we are having a little moment and he's telling me that he knows Daddy was watching me and was so proud of me. It really just choked me up.

I think what started as a "let's meet her at the airport" turned into a "let's have a cake at home" which turned into "let's have a full blown surprise party"!!!! They had decorated the kitchen with balloons and streamers and posters. Connie and Anne were very sneaky and pulled all this together along with the help of my mom and my aunt. So, thanks to EVERYBODY for making this happen. It was so special. I had already told Sherrill and the kids at the airport that I would need to get everybody together soon so I could tell my whole marathon story. Jordan just said "Good idea Mom".

Look, I even had a congratulations cake!

So, I got to tell everybody all my stories about my marathon weekend. It was just a special, special, special night.

Happy Feet

I just saw Dr. M. in the hallway -- he's one of our foot surgeons. I told him I had run the marathon and I had hurt my toe. He said "Congratulations. I told you so." (He had told me in December that I would be 'seeking him out' when it was all over.) Anyway, he looked at Big Toe and said it didn't look like I was going to lose the toenail! HOORAY!!! He said it was just 'major bruising from a traumatic injury' and I should rest it. Yea for that. He also couldn't understand why I was upset over the possibility of losing a toenail. Anne & I were high-fiving the salvation of the toenail and he kept saying "It's just a toenail. Why were you upset about that?" BECAUSE IT'S SANDAL SEASON!!! AND I'M A GIRL!!!!! I had taken the polish off Big Toe last night to see if it was discolored and now am sporting 9 toes featuring OPI Cajun Shrimp and 1 plain toe. I will have to remedy that tonight. Anyway, Mr. Went To Market Toe, I'm glad you decided to stick with the other piggies.

Today, I'm still moving a little slow, but much improved from yesterday. I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait.

More to come real soon about my marathon weekend.

It was a party!!

Last night's "Know Before You Go" party at Lindy's house was just so much fun. It was such a change to see all of us cleaned up, wearing 'real' clothes, with hair done and make up on. We didn't look like our normal Saturday morning no make up, sweaty, ball cap-wearing selves. We are actually quite a lovely group of ladies!

Andrea gave us the low down on the weekend's events. Wowie - there was a lot of info there. I was trying not to get overwhelmed. I went back and forth between being excited and being nervous and being so emotional about it that I thought I just might cry.

Here are some of the highlights:

There will be about 30,000 running the marathon. And about 4,000 of those people will be TNT'ers! She said that every Leukemia Chapter in America has someone participating in the RNR Marathon. (I think she said there were 68 chapters.) I think that's just neat. She said there will be purple TNT jerseys EVERYWHERE! The TNT'ers are very well taken care of by the Elite Racing staff (company that puts the race together) all weekend.

All of us on the San Diego team met -- and exceeded -- our fundraising goal! YIPPEE FOR US!!! We are already winners!!!

The rough schedule for the weekend goes something like this:

Friday - Arrive San Diego. Our flight gets in about 11am. Andrea & George recommended going to the Expo that afternoon to get our packets and to visit the booths since it will be uber crowded on Saturday. This will probably be our last good night of sleep since we'll be too keyed up on Saturday night to sleep much. Should not be a problem since our flight out of Memphis is at 6am. So Friday is a long day to begin with. Sleep should come easy.

Saturday - Pasta Party at 1pm. Followed by a team meeting where we will get last minute instructions. Probably a group dinner after that and then early bedtime for an attempt at sleeping.

There are lots of things to see and do in that area. And, did you know, San Diego is only 23 miles from Tijuana!? (OK, so geography isn't my strong suit...) But it is *right* on the Mexico border. Not really sure how I will spend my free time. Maybe just laying low for a little R&R and enjoying the "away from home quietness". I definitely don't want to do a lot of walking (and risk blisters and sore legs) or do something to get sunburned (like go to the beach) or get arrested in Mexico (just kidding!) I'm always good with a book and a chair by the pool.....

Sunday - RACE DAY! Shuttles will leave the hotel about 4:00 am. The race is scheduled to begin at 6:30 am, but it is a 'wave start' which means they start the fastest runners first and go in order down the corrals. We are all in corral #19. George says it could be about 15 minutes or so before we cross the start line. The long and the short of it for Sunday morning is a lot of sitting around waiting. It will be hard to manage that with the nerves and excitement....

Weather that early could be cool and ground could be damp. George said to bring garbage bags to sit on and/or wear. It was also suggested that we wear an old, inexpensive long sleeved t-shirt to wear early that morning before and during the early part of the race. Then you can throw it along the side of the road. These are usually sent to a local shelter. Which I think is just a neato thing.

Andrea suggested when we get there to go straight for the porta-pottie line and then come out and get *back* in the line and then do that about three more times.

Sunday night there is a victory party somewhere (I missed wherever that will be and really what it is.) and then the post race concert (Pat Benatar). I guess all that post-race hoopla is just tentative for me depending on how I am feeling. Wherever I choose to be will be my own victory party!

Monday - Return to Memphis. Flight is at 8:30 am or something like that. Long day of travel since we are flying back against the clock. Get in at 6:00 pm. Maybe I'll wear my medal on the plane.....

We all got our purple race jerseys! HOORAY for us!!! We have two honored teammates that are included on the jersey. Jordi (It says "I'm doing this for Jordi") is a young girl fighting leukemia. And the Memphis Grizzlies mascot ("Friends of Grizz") is battling lymphoma. Here are some pics of Jessica (brown shirt) and George (easy to identify) and Nicole (red shirt) ironing their names on their jerseys. (If your name is on your jersey, the crowd will cheer for you by name! That will be cool.) It was getting a bit late, so I had to head on home, but I ironed my name on this morning and added Daddy's picture (that says "For My Dad" on it). Turned out pretty nice I think. Take a look.

It was really just a fun night. It was exciting to talk about what we will be doing that weekend -- what to expect and how it will all play out. We've been working towards this major goal for almost 6 months now. And here we are getting ready to do it! I still can't believe it. It was nice to be together - as a team - to visit and laugh and just have fun being together NOT RUNNING!

Quality Family Time

We all went on a little walky walk this afternoon down the Germantown Greenway. Guess a 4 mile walk will do some sore muscles good. I'll let you know tomorrow. Anyway, thought I'd share some pictures from along the way.





This is on the east side of Germantown Road. Just a beautiful lake.





Jordan and Cooper. They took turns fighting over -- I mean sweetly sharing the scooter. This is early on in the walk when they were not hot, thirsty, tired and were still having fun.








My sweet peeps... (Yes, Cooper *constantly* has some kind of stick or rock or leaf or....)

Pretty little flower garden. Check out who has the scooter now....

One little pond is called "Turtle Bayou" and there are these steel turtles on logs in all around the pond. I love these little turtles (I can relate). But the water is totally nasty.

Some wild rose bush maybe? Look like roses. Pretty whatever they are. By Turtle Bayou.

Some pretty turns along the way.

Cooper wins out for the best seat in the house. Look at Jordan carrying the scooter that *nobody* wanted to ride anymore.

We had a nice afternoon enjoying the pretty day....together!

A funny for the day

I'm afraid this is going to be too small to read, but I think it's too funny not to share.


AT THE MOLE CONVENTION


Mole #3: Gentlemen, we're meeting in my hotel room because there are some crocs in the hotel trying to eat us. How they got word we were staying at this hotel, I don't know.


Mole #1: Perhaps we have a mole.


Mole #1: I've waited ten years to use that joke.

You've come a long way baby!

My 'biggest baby' turns 11 today...hard to believe. Happy Birthday Jordan!

On the ITB front, I am still noticing some slight pain. Nothing compared to last week. So there is improvement there. I read a bit about it over the weekend. I felt slightly justified to find that this problem affects ALL runners, not just newbies. (The shin splints most often hits newer runners.) And, like any overuse injury, the best way to allow this to heal is REST. Obviously the time off this weekend helped. I had contemplated giving it a shot this morning - with maybe a little walking. But thought one more day would do me good. We'll see how tomorrow goes. In the meantime more stretching and foam rolling. Advil and ice. In case you are wondering, this stretch is one of the best ones for the IT Band. Cross your good leg over your bad leg, then lean toward your good side. You can feel the stretch all the way up your thigh into your hip. I've been doing it a lot. Thought I'd better share a picture of it so everybody knows why I've been tilting. I'm not singing I'm a Little Teapot.....

New day...New week

The good news is that I am walking today with only a twinge of pain. Almost no (noticeable) limp. So, I feel I am on the road to better knees. I have iced and stretched and used the foam roller all weekend. The rest yesterday did me good. I even took at nap. Yes, a nap. In the middle of the day. In. The. Bed.

Thanks to Tom who sent me the info on this cool show on PBS. "NOVA: Marathon Challenge" . A brief description on the show: How do you run 26.2 miles if you have trouble making it around theblock? With good coaching, discipline, and lots of group support, asNOVA shows when it follows 13 normally sedentary people through atraining regimen designed to prepare them for an ultimate test of stamina and endurance..."MarathonChallenge" takes viewers on a unique adventure inside the human body,tracking the physiological changes that exercise can bring about.

The show is scheduled to run a few times locally next week, but you can watch the segments on line. I did that yesterday and really enjoyed it. I can totally relate to these people. They, however, are training for 40 weeks (vs. my 20). And, they are running the Boston Marathon which they say is one of the toughest courses around. Anyway, if you are interested, I recommend taking a look at it. (They actually have it broken down in chapters that are about 10 minutes each so you could watch as time permits.)

I am anxious to see what the week brings for me in terms of running...walking....just moving!

Fifteen Miles - WOW!

FIFTEEN MILES!!! And I did it! And actually, except for the first 2 and the last 2, it really wasn't that bad.

The weather was nice. The sun never really came out, altho it sure wanted to. And it wasn't raining. Temps were pleasant. Cool at times, especially around the lake, but it felt nice.

I was cramping up in the beginning of the run. But eventually it all worked out. I bought a knee brace last night at Dick's and it seemed to do the trick with the bad knee. No pain at all other than the initial cramping. The first 7 miles or so I ran a 6/2 interval. It was ok. Made it to the Shell station which is halfway. Yea for that. Water and gel break. Someone was driving down Germantown Road and said "Go Team!" out the car window. (I had my TNT shirt on). Nice encouragement there.

Then the next 5 miles I just slowed my pace down a bit and only had to stop two times. Wow. Can you believe that? That really worked for me. I just trotted along and enjoyed the scenery and listened to my tunes. And it was really ok. And to think I went that whole way only stopping twice. OK, I really stopped three times, but the last time, it was to pet a dog, so that really doesn't count....It was a retired racing greyhound named Link. (He was kind of orange and black stripey looking - good Tiger karma there.) I told his owner I wasn't very greyhoundy today and he said "Let Link be your inspiration." Nice.

Made it back to the parking lot and the other RNRs were there. They were done. I had 3 more miles to go. Then some of the CMMs showed up. They were also done. They had just completed 20 miles. Whatever.... The little pitstop was very much needed, but it also gave my knees time to stiffen up. It was quite a bit harder to get rolling again for those last 3 miles. My 'good' knee was screaming, so I switched the brace to that knee.

The Multiple Sclerosis Walk was kicking off just as we headed to the last 3 miles on the Chickasaw Trail. That was their route too, so we planned to go the opposite way to meet them on the path rather than go along with them in the same direction. But first we had to wait for the National Anthem. "...and the home of the brave." Off we go.

At about mile 13, an elderly lady was coming toward me. She must have felt real sorry for me (can't imagine what I looked like) because she clapped and said "Good job. Go! You're doing great." I got teary with that encouragement.

Then we started seeing all the walkers coming toward us. All that people watching definitely helped pass the time and distance. I was thinking that all these people are walking to support a cure for this debilitating disease. And, even though I was truding along, I was trudging along. I can run (or whatever you want to call it.) - and I'm thankful for that.

Lots of Tiger shirts at the Farm today. I greeted them all with a breathless "Go Tigers!".

Almost finished, I'm whining. George said we had less than 1/4 of a mile to go and if I wasn't in complete agony, to push through it and finish. OK....

I made it back to the Visitor's Center and there were 3 CMM coaches there. They cheered. I got a little teary. I had done it. FIFTEEN MILES. I am beyond certain that I was the very last person to come in. But I really did not care. Some very encouraging words from them which was appreciated. I made some comment about "In case you didn't know it, I'm not a runner." and one girl said "Oh, but you *are* a runner. Look what you just did." More crying.

George ran along with me today. Most of the time, he would run ahead and then come back to get me. He probably put in 42 miles with all the 'up and back'. He's actually supposed to be 'tapering' because he's running the Boston Marathon in a few weeks. (Tapering is when you start decreasing your mileage as you approach race day.) So, thanks George for hanging with me and for running way more than you needed to.

I did the entire 15 miles in 3:54:46 which calculates to a 15:40 pace. Again, slow but steady.

Some tight knees this afternoon, but I really don't feel that bad. Kind of surprising. I'm sure I'll be dying tomorrow. But I don't feel as bad right now as I did after the half marathon. Yea for that.

Overall, I am very pleased with what I did today. I like the way I slowed my pace a bit so I didn't have to stop as much. That really worked. It was a good day. There was a lot of encouragement today from people I know and people I don't even know. Some emotional thoughts went on in my head this morning. But it was a very very good day!

Mom and Connie and her crew are coming over shortly to have dinner and watch the game. I'm very excited! Some interesting articles today about the Tigers. I think Cal is amazing and very intelligent. I can't wait to see the Tigers whip up on the UCLA Bruins. (We went to dinner at Rafferty's last night and there was a guy wearing a North Carolina jersey. I pointed to my Tiger shirt and shook my head and hollered at him across the restaurant 'What's wrong with you?!' Jodi told me to cut it out. Jordan said "Oooh Mom, you scared him." You bet I did! GO TIGERS!!!!!)

We are about an hour and a half away from tip off. I'm totally psyched! GO TIGERS!!!

It will all be OK

The day after.....

I think I can finally talk about the Tiger game without crying. Tough loss. I'm just sad they lost. At home. To Tennessee. I'm sure we'll plummet in the polls. The media loves to hate us. Guess the loss had to come sometime. Maybe I'm glad it came now during regular season than later during the tourny. I hope there's a #1 seed in our future. Although that does add much more pressure. Oh the stress of it all! Can't wait for March Madness to begin - truly the *best* time of the sports year. GO TIGERS!

Thanks to all who commented or emailed or called or just gave me some encouragement yesterday while I was D-O-W-N about not running. I think I did work through that disappointment and am seeing the importance of the decision. Just a small detour early on is better than a major derailment later. I do want to complete this training and FINISH THE MARATHON so bad. I realized just how bad yesterday. Plus, Daddy would really give me the what for if I continued to try to run while I'm messed up. I don't want to let anybody - especially him - down during this quest.

The good news is that I THINK my legs may be some better. I alternated ice with heat last night and again today. And I've switched over to Alleve. Maybe the combination of those things (along with the laying off) has given me some improvement. I am not feeling the constant burning and pain today. Only an occasional twinge of ouchness. That is a first for me in about a week. Maybe I'm turning a corner here... I hope so!

I'm thinking I'll need to alter my training schedule again this week. I'll have to take a look. I'll get some pilates in tomorrow and Tuesday. Maybe a little walking and then maybe by Wednesday or Thursday, I could put in a mile or so to see how I'm feeling. I think I'm scheduled for 10 on Saturday. Wonder how that will play out. I will just take it slow. And be ok with that.

On another note, I read a few blogs of other runners - most of them are a bit more seasoned than me. Some are TNT members too. But I get a lot of info and advice by just reading their stories. I found one blog belonging to Roxie in NY. She is devoted TNT runner who lost a dear friend to Lymphoma. She is now training for her third marathon. (She ran San Diego in 2007!) I made a comment on her blog Friday about how I had discovered her blog, was struggling with some injury, why I was doing TNT, etc. She, in turn, replied with a nice encouraging comment. I was reading her post today where she detailed her 16 mile run yesterday (WOW!). She listed the things that kept her going during the last stretch of her run. One thing was "a comment from a reader (thanks angie!)". That made me feel really good. Then I started thinking that while I was feeling all sorry for myself yesterday morning, I was actually encouraging somebody at that exact time. And that was a nice feeling and helped me check out of my pity party.

So see.....it will ALL be OK.

You search -- They give

Heard about a website on the radio yesterday and really wanted to share it with you. Here is the lowdown from their site:

GoodSearch.com is a search engine which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users. It's a simple and compelling concept. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine. Because it's powered by Yahoo!, you get proven search results. The money GoodSearch donates to your cause comes from its advertisers - the users and the organizations do not spend a dime!

They also have a shopping portal, GoodShop, and you just click on a partner retail site and start shopping. GoodSearch will donate a portion (from 3% to 20%) of your purchase to your designated cause. These are stores you probably already shop at online anyway - Amazon, Sephora, iTunes, Best Buy, Zappos, Target, Barnes and Noble etc. There are hundreds of stores that participate.

So, you will raise money for your favorite charity (Leukemia Society!) or school (Harding Academy!) by doing something you do every day - searching the internet. It's free money for your cause.

It will take awhile for me to break my Google habit. But this is an easy way to help raise some money for my favorite causes. Hope you'll give it a try.