Running Isn't Cheap...

Aside from all your running gear - dryfit clothes, running shoes, fleece and gloves for winter, hats/visors, etc...and other necessitites - bars/gels, body glide, fuel/hydration belts, electrolyte tablets, gatorade, bandaids, blister protection, and the million other things I'm forgetting...there's the never-ending string of race fees.

In the past 2 days, I've spent more on race fees than I care to even think about. And honestly, I got by with some pretty CHEAP races....but they all add up. Randy, Rylie, and I are doing a 5k next weekend as a family. I couldn't pass this one up as it was founded by a former tri teammate of mine who lost his son to leukemia and his wife to breast cancer. This race brings in about $40k a year and the proceeds go to organizations that support cancer patients and their families. **If anyone in the KC area is interested, please go check out The Jared Coones Memorial 5K Pumpkin Run website.** Since we are doing this one as a family, we got a family rate. I also registered for the Gobbler Grind 1/2 Marathon today as well, since today is the last day to get the $35 entry fee - yes, super cheap for a 1/2 marathon! But after today, it goes up to $45, so I had to save the extra $10. So...in the last 2 days:

$14 race fee + $3 processing fee - Randy, Pumpkin Run
$14 race fee + $3 processing fee - Rylie, Pumpkin Run
$14 race fee + $3 processing fee - Me, Pumpkin Run
$35 race fee - Me, Gobbler Grind
$45 gymnastics fee - Rylie (threw this one in since it's yet another fee I've had to pay this week)
-------------------------------------------------------
$131, not to mention that I still need to register for the Turkey Trot 10 Mile race....if all these entry fees don't break me before Christmas, I may have enough to buy everyone on my list a lump of coal....

It's all for a good cause, tho. And it's all for the love of running. Definitely justifiable.

If you haven't checked it out yet, Amanda at Run To The Finish has ANOTHER great giveaway!!! Be sure to check it out! Have a great day, friends!

Nations Triathlon Weekend: Day 2 (The Day Before The Race)

Okay bloggies, get ready for some PicturePalooza, as The Running Dork puts it. The day before the race was filled with all kinds of activities, from bike assembly, test rides, bike racking, and swim practice, to the race expo and our Inspiration Dinner. My mom and I had the breakfast buffet at our hotel and then met up with the team to get shuttled over to the race/transition area. Below is one of the ONLY team photos I have where ALL team members are present:

Back Row: Jon & Jeff, Middle Row: Amy, Coach Jen, & J.Ro, Front Row: Ann, Jodi, Me (yes, everyone on the team's name began with J or A...and then it seemed like all our guests/family/staff began with S: Stacy, Steve, Steve (there were 2), Sheila, Shelley....)

Here's a pic of Ann & Me in our bike area, as our team mates put air in their tires in the background:

And here I am with my bike:

After we got our pedals securely in place and air in our tires, Ann and I took our bikes out for a test spin. Here are a couple of pics of us during and after the test ride:

After our test ride, we went to rack our bikes in the transition area...and stopped to get body marked on the way over. This next pic is for TeacherWoman at Dare To Tri cuz I thought of her when I was getting body marked and requested a smilie face on my right calf. ;)

(Notice the Washington Monument in the background)

Ann liked my smilie face, so she got one too:


We then headed to our respective rows and racked our bikes. I was in row 29, right by the Run In/Out side of transition. The sucky part was that I was about as far away from the Bike In/Out side of transition, so I had pretty much the longest distance to run with my bike of any person in the race. :/

Once our bikes were racked, we headed over to swim practice in the chilly Potomac River. (Side note, we found out that night at our Inspiration Dinner that THIS RACE is the only time anyone can LEGALLY swim in the Potomac. Interesting...)

The water temp that day was 74 degrees. I did not take my wetsuit with me...and probably should have. The cold totally took my breath away and I had a HORRIBLE swim. Just couldn't find my groove and I think the cold water freaked me out. Funny, the water was even colder on race day and I ended up rocking my swim...but more on that later.

Here's a picture of the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which we swam under during our race.

And here's a pic of the water cops. ;)


Here's a pic of us girls posing like the sillies we are before our swim:

Keepin in real like thugs on the swim dock: ;)

This is probably one of my favorite pics from the whole weekend right here - my mom took a pic of us jumping in the river and caught us mid-air!!

Here I am during my horrible swim - yuck.

Here's J.Ro, Me, and Jodi, sporting our "fishie faces" after our swim:

Here's a pic of Jodi, Me, and Ann before we headed over to the expo for a little shopping:

After we got all cleaned up after practice, we headed over to our Inspirational Dinner. To say that the dinner was amazing is pretty much an understatement. The meal, the company, the guest speakers - all phenominal!!! The top 3 fundraisers for the event were awarded with brand new bikes!!! One of the guest speakers was none other than the LEGENDARY Dave Scott, 6 time Ironman World Champion and first person to ever be inducted in the Ironman Hall of Fame!! We also got to hear from an AMAZING young man, just 16-years-old, that is a cancer survivor. He gave the most amazing speech ever - I bet he grows up to be an inspirational speaker of some sorts - absolutely phenominal! His speech made me laugh hystericaly, cry uncontrollably, and truly reminded me why I was there. It was so touching...no words can even describe. And THEN, bless his heart, he went around to all the TNT members in the hotel and signed a sign on our hotel doors wishing us good luck - what a great kid!!

Here's a pic of Ann & Me at dinner:

Here's a pic of the team (minus Jeff) after dinner:

And a pic of Me & Ann:

Well, this is it for Day 2. Next up - RACE DAY!!!! :) Stay tuned!

Nations Triathlon: Day 1

I've made promises, bloggie friends. Now it's time to uphold them. I've decided to split up my DC/Nations Triathlon posts into segments by days of the trip. I have waaaay too many pics to post and if I make it all one giant post, I doubt I'll be able to keep anyone's attention for very long. I'll try to make this entertaining, though. The trip was a blast, so hopefully I can portray that in my posts.

We arrived in DC on Friday (yes, 9/11 - I have to admit I was a little nervous about flying into DC on 9/11). Not to mention that there were tons of military helecoptors flying all over the place that day. Slightly unnerving... There were snipers on the White House, which I'm sure is normal, but my mom sure seemed to get a kick out of this. She's not much of a city girl. She thinks Kansas City (where I live) is HUGE (it's not) and gets a little overwhelmed driving here.

Here's a pic of my mom and me at the White House (you can see it in the upper right corner of the pic). Yep, took this myself. ;)

Mom & I did quite a bit of sight seeing that afternoon. We got into DC a few hours before the rest of my team and I was really glad we were able to squeeze in some sight seeing that day because Saturday and Sunday were completely booked with race-related activities. Monday was the only full day of sight seeing we got, which was unfortunate since there is so much to see and do in DC.

Here's a pic of the White House up close:

And here's a pretty cool pic of the Washington Monument with some storm clouds all around. I thought it turned out pretty cool:

Here I am at the World War II Memorial. It was a really windy day and we actually got sprinkled on a bit near the end.

Me with the Lincoln Memorial in the background:

Another nice shot of the Washington Monument:

A pic of Honest Abe, up close and personal. When I talked to Rylie on the phone that night, she wanted to know all the places I had been too and she specifically asked if I had seen the Lincoln Memorial. She then proceeded to ask me if I climbed up in his lap and got a pic taken with him. LOL. Yes Rylie, and I told him what I wanted for Christmas while I was up there. ;)

All day long, my mom was having issues with her contacts. She couldn't see or read anything, so I found great humor in taking a pic of her in front of this Eye Exams sign. ;)

We saw this random bike on the street and joked that I should use it during the race. So my mom took a pic of me with it. We later found out that the white bikes were memorials to people that had been killed on bikes at that intersection. Not so funny after that...

My mom and I did so much walking that day. We guessed between 8 - 10 miles! Yeah...I was sore the next day. Luckily I had that day to recover before the race on Sunday. ;) That night we went to dinner with the team. We had a pretty large group, so we were spread out over 3 tables. But here's a pic of my table:

Jeff & Jodi are on the right. On the left from front to back: Me, Coach Jen, and Ann.

Okay, that's it for day 1. I'll get more posts up soon. I'm working on them now! ;)

Ugh...

The Running Worm did NOT have a good run last night. :\

I met up with a girls running group and had one of the worst runs of my life. For the record, the group itself was a blast. I finally got to meet Amanda from Run To The Finish (who, by the way, has a great Salsa giveaway right now - check it out!!), along with many other girls. Also got to go have dinner & drinks afterwards, so that part was awesome.

But back to the run... My legs felt like lead - wouldn't move, felt like I was shuffling along, and I was in pain. My body is not trained to run 2 days in a row, let alone 3! Every training schedule I have followed for 1/2 marathons or triathlons involves running no more than 3 times a week and always with a day of rest (from running, but used to cross train) inbetween. I hurt so bad afterwards, I was fighting tears. Shins & calves - ouch. Went into Gary Gribbles where I found compression socks. They were $40 - yikes! I mean, I knew they weren't cheap...but at this point, a necessary evil. Anyway, called Randy to see if I could get them. And no, not like asking "permission," cuz that's not how we roll with our relationship. But to see if we had enough money in our account (since payday isn't until tomorrow). He said no. Tears. I literally limped over to the brewery and to spite him, spent more on my dinner and drinks than I would have on the stupid compression socks. That was stupid. But I was mad. And did I mention, in pain?

So yeah, I'm taking at least the next 2 days off from running. Maybe more. I was thinking about the Giblet Jog last night as I shuffled through my 3 miles and was wondering how the H my body is going to tolerate 10 + 13.1 in one weekend. Hope I'm not making a mistake.... Oh, and to top it off, I did yoga yesterday too for the first time in at least a month and every muscle in my body is pretty much hating me today.

Also (warning: more whining), my Garmin must not have been getting a very strong signal on the trail last night. Every time I looked down at it, my pace was reading 13:00 - 14:00 (which felt about accurate, trust me...I felt slow as a snail last night). But when I checked my splits this morning, they were 10:44, 11:03, and 12:11...can you tell I was hurting more and more with each step?? LOL. But yeah, what was up with the 13 - 14 pace?? Jacked, I tell you. Also, I must not have turned it off cuz it went on to clock for an hour and five minutes with 33 - yes, 33 laps. They all lasted about a min with a pace of anywhere from 2:00 - :56...so clearly I was driving, lol. Oh lord.

Today I am definitely not running. I'll probably go do a muscle conditioning class over my lunch break. Next week the girls riding group at my bike shop starts and goes every Tuesday in October - fun! Hope everyone is having a great week.

Monday, September 28, 2009: 3 mi run, yoga

And Now....The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!!!

Okay, well just the moment that Beka the Running Dork, Kristen the Running Lawyer, and I have been waiting for. ;) We are pleased to announce the:

GIBLET JOG (soft j) CHALLENGE 2009!!!

That's right! 3 girls, 2 races, 1 weekend. These crazy-bloggie-running-girls have got GAME (yes, pun intended)!!!

Run. For the Kids. 10k

I ran a small little 10K Saturday with my friend Val. It was a beautiful day for a run - upper 50's, sunny, and a nice little course. It was actually slightly longer than a 10k, more like 6.4 miles. Miles 3 and 4 were my slowest, since that's where a bulk of the hills were. But my overall pace was 10:51. It helped to run with someone that runs faster than I do - made me push myself. I don't think I've ever ran more than 3 miles with a pace under 11:16 or so. So that was pretty cool. It also went by so quickly and painlessly...makes me ready for another long race. Oh, and since it was damp out, there were like BILLIONS of earth worms on the road that day. That made The Running Worm giggle a little bit. ;)

Yesterday we took the girls to the park, so I thought I'd run a little on the trail over there. I ran my first mile (9:47!!) and then stopped to talk to Randy and suddenly felt some major soreness in my shins and calves. I was having a tough time even walking...so I called it a day. I generally don't run 2 days in a row, so I think my body was trying to remind me why.

Well, happy Monday to everyone! Stay tuned for a special announcement later today. ;)

Saturday, September 26, 2009: 6.4 mi run

Sunday, September 27, 2009: 1 mi run

Check it - FWR Giveaway!!!

Okay, bloggies, Beka the Running Dork has a giveaway!!! Here's my haiku-style plug:

Fair Weather Runner

Has a bad ass give-away

I hope I win it!

Go check it out!!!!! DO IT, I SAY!

So Much To Blog About....So Little Time!!!

**I still need to get a little something called a RACE REPORT out about the Nation's Triathlon. It's coming, my friends.

**I also have a -hold your applause- GIVEAWAY coming up!

**But today, I'll start with a little tag, given by none other than Beka the Running Dork! And I suck, cuz I was also tagged by sneakersister clear back in July and totally forgot about it until now!

The rules are to link back to the presenter, share 10 things about yourself that your readers may not know that are true, and then pass it on and notify the people you pass the award on to!! So, here goes:

1) My favorite color is PINK!!! I'm actually a little obsessed with it. Pretty much all my running gear/workout clothes are pink and/or black (I probably need to branch out a bit...). And not just my clothes, but my fuel belt, visor, MP3 player (and case and headphones), water bottles, gym bag, etc. In addition, I also have a pink cell phone, camera, purse, make-up bag, keychain, flat iron, you name it - I have it in pink! Oh yeah, my winter gloves, scarves, hats, etc are all pink....right down to the pink hair extensions I recently had. And a large portion of my wardrobe is pink as well. Oh, it's such a fun color! ;)

2) I totally have a girl-crush on Chelsea Handler. I like to think I'm her biggest fan, but I'm sure there's someone out there a little more obsessed than I am. But I will say that I've been following her since she was on Girls Behaving Badly. I then watched her on The Chelsea Handler show, and now follow her on Chelsea Lately. I adore her and think she is soooo efing hilarious. I've read both her books - My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands and Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. Her bday is just 2 days before mine, so she's a pisces like me, and I even submitted the following photo of Harper to her "Big Fat Baby" segment of her show:

And yes, I had that onsie specially made. ;) I totally heart Chelsea and hope to see her live one day and maybe even get to meet her!

3) I have been parasailing, bungee jumping (at age 13), and skydiving. Parasailing isn't really much of a dare-devil activity, but people seem to think it is. I grew up with an adventurous father (who took me bungee jumping) that always talked about taking me skydiving and I always wanted to do it. When I was 21, I took my boyfriend at the time for his birthday outside of Tucson (where we lived). I felt guilty about not going with my dad, but I called him immediately afterwards to share the news. What a rush!

4) My kids each have a "special number" related to them and the day they were born. Rylie's number is 7 - she was born at 4:47am weighing 7 lb 7 oz. My lucky number has always been 7, so that was pretty cool. Harper's number is 8 - she was born on 08/18/08, weighing 8 lb 3 oz. Just kinda cool...

5) I've never known what I wanted to be when I "grow up." Still don't. Actually, as a child, I always wanted to be a singer (can't carry a tune) or an ice skater. You know, some kind of performer that's actually unrealistic. But never really had a specific dream of being a teacher or a vet or a nurse like so many people do. I changed my major 3 times in college. And I now do something that has absolutely nothing to do with my degree. And I still would like to go back to school so I can do something different, but I haven't a clue what that is. Some things I have in mind are: chiropractor, respiratory therapist, or something in health promotions.

6) This year - 2009 - has been, by far, one of the greatest years of my life! I have achieved so many goals, it blows my mind. Before this year, I had never ran a race before. I had never even ran more than 3 miles. Now I've completed 6 races (including a half marathon and an olympic triathlon) and have 4 more races on the horizon, including a 10k tomorrow. I feel like I can now dream big and actually make those dreams come true! I finally believe in myself and I absolutely cannot wait to see what I can accomplish in years to come! I finally feel like I'm doing something - and that's a great feeling!

7) I'm a very submissive person. I may "talk a lot of talk" when I'm frustrated, by venting to those around me. But when it comes down to it, I'm not very good with confrontation and addressing issues. So I usually end up being a huge wus and brush things off. It's not very healthy though, cuz then stuff builds up and just ends up being worse. But yeah...I let people walk all over me and take advantage of me and I rarely ever say anything. I've gotten a little better about confronting those close to me - mainly Randy. But I don't ever confront people that I work with or my friends. I just don't like conflict, so I end up avoiding it altogether. Sadly, I think a few of my friendships have ended because I never spoke up to address our issues...so instead, I just quit speaking to them. Also, I have a very hard time saying "no" to anyone. Even if I have no time or room on my plate, I pretty much do anything anyone asks of me simply because I don't want to let anyone down.

8) I know lots of useless trivia that I will never need to actually know (like that Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president and was from the 34th state to enter the union - Kansas, I can name all 7 girls from the 1996 Olympic US Women's Gymnastics team by first and last name [also known as the "Mag 7"], how magnet schools began as a result of the case Brown vs The Board of Education, and how Marilyn Monroe was born in 1926 and died in 1962), but I feel pretty much completely retarded in general news, politics, and everyday life. :\

9) I am a HUGE proponent for equal rights for everyone. This includes same-sex marriage and it angers me to my core that gays and lesbians do not have the same rights as heterosexuals. Are we not all human beings?? One of my biggest pet peeves is closed-minded people, especially when it comes to gay/lesbian issues. This country was founded on freedom - freedom of religion, freedom of speech....freedom of sexual preference, people! There was a time when women did not have rights - absurd! There was a time when black people did not have rights - preposterous! It is 2009 and gays and lesbians do not have rights - wtf?!?!

10) I heart chocolate. Like big time. I can be having the worst day ever and a simple Hershey's kiss will make me feel 10 times better. I love milk chocolate, dark chocolate, chocolate fudge, chocolate covered ANYTHING. You name it. I've eaten 3 Hershey's bars in one sitting before. True story. I also adore Dove Chocolate - so creamy! Sometimes Randy will randomly bring me home a chocolate bar from the store, and it truly makes my day. The way to my heart is through chocolate.

Okay, time for some taggy tags:

Erin, my little Dancing Sweet Pea
Mel, the Tall Mom on the Run
Aron at Runner's Rambles

I'm so behind....

Work has been kicking my @$$ lately and I haven't had time to blog or to even read any blogs...I'm sorry, my friends! I'll pay your bloggie blogs a visit soon, I promise! And I'll get some race photos (and a race REPORT) out soon. I can't believe my tri was 10 days ago and I still haven't written a race report yet - I suck! In addition, I never posted my August totals and it's almost the end of September. So I'll just combine August & September in 1 post. I don't really have much to post for September anyway. Aside from my tri, I have a couple runs (3 miles on Monday and 8 miles on Saturday - longest run since April!!!!) and I plan to go on a bike ride tonight with some friends. But yeah....I've not only slacked on my blog posts, but clearly on my workouts as well. :/ Oh yeah, and I've been tagged...so I need to add that to my list of posts I need to get out. I'll get to it, my friends. Just be patient with me. :)

Here are my workout for September so far (clearly my worst month of the year, aside from June when I was off my feet from my surgery):

Saturday, September 12, 2009: 4 mile bike (just to test it out to make sure the pedals got put back on properly when we got to DC), 200m swim

Sunday, September 13, 2009: 1500m (1.5k) swim, 25 mile (40k) bike, 6.2 mile (10k) run

Saturday, September 19, 2009: 8 mile run (YESSSS!!!) --not 100% sure on that distance b/c my Garmin batteries went dead...but I've ran that trail before and I'm pretty sure what I did was right around 8 miles. I'll verify in a couple weeks when I run out there again.

Monday, September 21, 2009: 3 mile run (on treadmill - yuck, 10:16 pace - pretty good for me)

Tuesday, September 22, 2009: 11 mile bike ride

K, I'll try to get caught up soon with the race report, race photos, tag, and the super-cool Running Lawyer, Running Dork, and Running Worm announcement! I know you're all on the edge of your seats! ;)

I Heart Presents!!!

Yes, I heart presents!!! So you can imagine my joy when I arrived home from work yesterday to find a gift awaiting me from my dear friend The Running Lawyer. It's a DARLING scarf from Disneyland and it's PINK (my fave color) and has mouse ears on it!!!! Too CUTE! I totally heart it!

Soooo....I went ahead and took a few photos in it. I mean, it totally matched my outfit and everything! ;) And I didn't take it off until I went to bed last night. And of course, I'm wearing it to work today! THANK YOU, Running Lawyer!!!

I'm still working on uploading pics from my tri, so I'll get those up this weekend and try to get a race report out to you all next week. Oooooh, and The Running Lawyer and The Running Dork and I have something we are plotting (or trotting...) for November. More on that later!

Check It Out!!!

NATION's TRIATHLON PICS!!! I can't decide if I want to order the "Double Thumbs Up" pic or the "Double Peace Signs" pic......but I'm leaning towards the peace signs! ;) Oh, and I must say I was pretty reluctant about wearing all spandex...but I think our tri suits ended up being a little slimming - SWEET (cuz I can totally use that!)!! ;)

Anyway, ENJOY!

I'M A TRIATHLETE - WOOT!!!!

First of all, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for all the bloggie love before my big day! I heart all of you and feel so blessed to receive so much support!!!!

Many of you have already seen my Facebook updates throughout the weekend, but for those of you that haven't - I finished my race, ROCKED the swim, and had a total BLAST!!!!! I just got back yesterday and had a sick baby to tend to all day - boo. :( So I haven't had a chance to upload pics yet. I'll get a full race report out soon, complete with pictures - I promise!!

Until then, thanks again to EVERYONE!!! You all are amazing and have made me feel like a total rockstar (especially Running Lawyer and Running Dork for all the kick ass texts throughout the weekend and emails awaiting me when I got back to work today) and also Erin, John, Mel, and Dave for the FB love and to Jamie for hooking me up on some amazing info about DC for the weekend. (If I left anyone out, I'm super sorry - you are ALL great friends and mean the world to me!!!!) I hope to get a race report out in the next week.

This Is It!!!

This will be my last post before I leave tomorrow. You may be wondering why I haven't posted much in the past week. Well, it's because I've pretty much had nothing to post about. No workouts, no training, nothing. That's right...my fear came true and I was hit with a BRUTAL case of bronchitis last week. I spent all of Labor Day weekend in bed. :( I'm feeling much better than I was, but I still have a pretty nasty cough that has me pretty nervous about the race....it's just 3 days away and I haven't been able to swim, bike, or run in 2 weeks!!!!!! I know that my goal time of 3.5 hours is out the window. At this point in time, I'll just be happy to finish with both of my lungs still in tact. But I WILL finish! It may not be pretty and I may be cursing my lungs the entire way....but I will cross that finish line!

I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for all the support along the way. This has been a long road for me. I signed up for my first TNT event over 2 years ago, yet this will be my first one to actually participate in. I had to drop out of the first race because I ended up pregnant with Harper that year. I had to drop out of another race earlier this year due to a stress fracture. So....third time's a charm, right? At this time tomorrow, I'll be on a plane to DC!!! Oh, and I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't nervous about flying to DC on 9/11. So any encouraging words on that topic would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I know that 9/11 is probably the SAFEST day to fly now, with added/extra security and all. But my nerves are definitely all over the place.

Speaking of nerves, I'm also worried that I'll struggle with this cough along the way. I'm scared that the water in the Potomac River (yes, that's where we swim!!!!) is going to be freezing, and thus turn my bronchitis into pneumonia. I'm concerned that my lack of training during the 3 weeks prior to the race is going to hurt my physical ability to do well. I'm worried I'll forget something important to pack, even though I have a very detailed list. I'm concerned that my carry on will be too big, yet we were told to put ALL of our race gear in our carry on JUST IN CASE - this includes wetsuit, bike helmet, running shoes, ear plugs, swim cap, tri suit, fuel belt, towels, water bottles, power bars, Gu, sunglasses, sunscreen, body glide, visor, bike pedals (bike was shipped sans pedals on Monday), saddle bag, goggles, ear plugs, spare tube, tools to change flat, etc..... That's a LOT of stuff to cram into a small carry on bag! I'm also worried I'll so something stupid and get DQed. I know, I really need to relax....but I probably won't relax until the minute I step out of the Potomac River and mount my bike...and even then, I'll still be a little high strung until I actually finish the race. But hey, what's a race without a little addrenaline and nerves?? ;)

Anyway, today is my last day of work. My mom is driving up this afternoon and staying the night since we have to be at the airport before dawn tomorrow. Wish me luck, friends - I'll need it!!!!!!!!! And once again, thanks for your continued support! I *heart* you all!

Giveaway WINNER, Bloggie Shout Outs, Success, and Thanks!

Okay, bloggies...I've been away for a few days. My kiddos have been sick (they are getting better) and I haven't been feeling the greatest either...which sucks cuz my tri is just 10 days away. I'm on an antibiotic...but I have a feeling that I'm either suffering from allergies or something viral...just because that would be my luck. I'm hoping/praying I'll be better by the time we leave for DC next Friday. We even cancelled our weekend trip to the lake for Labor Day so I can stay home and rest rather than exhaust myself further and probably push myself over the edge of getting sick. It's disappointing, but I'm sure it's the best decision in the end.

So, without further ado, the winner of my GNC Gift Card Giveaway is.....Kristen The Running Lawyer!!! Of course, she was the only entrant. But she earned herself a whopping 20 entries by not only donating $50 herself, but by also forwarding the link to her mother who also generously donated $50 as well! I am truly touched by their generosity and feel the need to tell everyone how amazing and special Kristen The Running Lawyer is to me. Not only is she motivational and inspirational (Have you read her blog?? She has time to be an attorney AND run marathons - now THAT is amazing!!!), but she has also become a good friend of mine over the past several months. We email daily, text each other randomly, and interestingly enough, we even went to the same high school, but never knew each other - what are the odds?! I know we'll meet face to face soon as we're from the same home town and only live 3 hours apart now. In fact, there's talk of doing a race together in November along with Beka the Running Dork. I am honored to be a friend of The Running Lawyer's and would like to give her an EXTRA SHOUT OUT today since she will be running the Disney Half Marathon on Sunday in Anaheim, CA! Please go to her blog STAT and leave her lots of encouraging comments and wish her luck this weekend!!!!!!!

To wrap it, I just want to add that my giveaway was directly related to my fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I received word today that I finally reached (and exceeded) my goal with a grand total of $4,060 in funds raised! The road to this race has been quite a long journey....but I'm sure it's nothing in comparison to what the families facing these diseases have had to endure. On September 13, 2009, when I cross that finish line, I will know that I have helped these families to progress towards the ultimate finish line - a cure! Additional shout outs go to everyone who has donated funds, everyone who has completed a TNT event, everyone who has offered support and motivation, all the families who have faced these diseases, all those who have lost loved ones, and all the survivors out there - including my bloggie buddy Art at Racing For A Cure. All of you are my inspiration, my motivation, and my reason for TRI-ing!