NYRR 8000 Meter and our Super Cool Fundraiser!

This weekend was fantastic. On Friday, Grande and I had our co-fundraiser at the Gin Mill! I would have loved to have seen all of you there, partaking in the open bar and general festivities. It was wildly successful. We were able to raise about $200 each, which is fantabulous, and puts us both so much closer to our respective fundraising goals! Thanks to everyone who come out and played with us!

Saturday morning, I was almost surprised to see Grande at the start, as she has never quite made it to a race before people have already started running. Add this to the fact that she was not quite herself the night before led me to utter shock when she arrived!

Grande had a FABULOUS race day, bringing her mile average under 10 minutes! Hooray!

I had a decent race day, maintaining my average and enjoying running my very first race in shorts!

For the most part, training is going well, although I kind of fell off the horse when my dad was in the hospital! Although I've mostly maintained my running, I've still got a long way to go before race day. I'd like to bring my time down to a Grande like average, but I'm glad I'm just running at all!

Hooray for my roomie, R, who raised the $500 she needed to for her Team in Training race, the Scotland 10k on April 11th! She raised all of her money in about 3 weeks! Hooray!

I have LESS THAN A MONTH until my fundraising is due! We have come a REALLY long way, but we're still about $1500 away! Thanks to all of you who have helped with my battle against blood cancers! Encourage your friends and loved ones, and well, even hated ones, to contribute to my battle as well! Remember that ANY amount helps at all!

P.S. Check out my friend Liz -- her race day is this SUNDAY!

...and then I fell down!

I think the universe is plotting against me. No. Really.

I was up and ready to go on Saturday morning to Team in Training group practice. I stroll leisurely over to the train, only to find out that N trains aren't stopping at my station, and I have to go deeper into Queens to get onto a Manhattan bound train. And then that Manhattan bound train would only take me to Queensborough Plaza, where I would have to switch to the 7 train. And then take that to Times Square, where I would need to switch for the uptown 1. And then go to Central Park.

Needless to say, despite my best intentions, I wasn't able to go to group practice. Although I hated letting Grande down, I decided to take advantage of the MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY EVER to go running in my neighborhood.

I took a nice run down by Astoria Park. I was about half way through my planned 15 miles when I fell down. I knew I was going to fall. The whole thing happened in slow motion. I think I may have yelled, "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Alas, I fell down. I skinned my knees. I skinned my elbows. I was covered in dirt. So I went home. Except I was 2.5 miles from home, so I had to run there. Bleeding. Looking like a moron. Yeah, it was cool.

I got some new yesterday, which you can check out here.

Also, CLEAR your calendars kids, because we're having a fundraiser at the Gin Mill on Friday, March 13th, from 4-7. $25.00 will get you a bracelet and an open bar!!! Come out and play and invite your friends!

Coogan's Salsa, Shamrocks, and Blues 5K! (AKA most fun race ever!)

Salsa, Shamrocks, and Blues are the recipe for the most fun race ever. The New York Road Runners sponsors this race every March, and it is supposedly the most fun race of the year. It's a short race (5K aka 3 miles) albeit a difficult one, but you don't notice how difficult it is because of the fun live music and the high excitement. Because the race is so short, there are a lot of people running, and there's kids races, which are adorable. Then, because it's the "Salsa, Shamrocks, and blues' race, there's LIVE MUSIC along the course. Bag Pipers, Steel Drums, Mariachi, Guitar Players -- you name it, it's there! And it's exciting.

It also takes place in Washington Heights. Yes, Heights, as in hills. As in monstrous nasty gnarly hills that make you wish for your own death. But you don't notice the hills. Because you're so excited about the live music and how short the race is! And it's beautiful! You run into Fort Tryon park, and around the Cloisters. It's so beautiful and quiet (aside from all the lie music0 that you barely notice that nasty inclines. (Obviously, I noticed the inclines, as I keep talking about them!)

Although it was supposed to be a "spring race" it was nastily cold and snowing throughout the race, and the ever tardy Grande was, yet again, tardy. Still, it was the first race that Grande and I ran together, and we finished at the same time. (Well, ok, she runs a we bit faster than I do, but she has gazelle legs!She's 5'10, I'm barely 5'3 people!)

I think my overall mile time was kind of awesome (like, 10 minutes! Woo Woo!) but we're waiting to see from NYRR!!

Thanks so much for all the donations and support so far! Grande and I have set up a weekly running date in Central Park with one of our coworkers, and we're running NYRR 8000 meter (about 5 mile) next Saturday!

To donate, head here! Remember that any and all donations make a huge step in fighting blood cancers!

P.S. Speaking of shamrocks, my friend Liz is running the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Later this month! Check out her battle against Cystic Fibrosis and hear her personal stories here!