A Summer of PR's!

Can you believe that Labor Day Weekend is here and summer is coming to an end? I can't believe how fast it has gone! Time for a little stroll down Summer Memory Lane.....

My memories of this summer mainly consist of running, running, and more running! Every weekend the highlight was running further than I ever have in my life, and running faster in many races than I ever have!! That means that I set roughly 10 PR's this summer....Here they are:

1 - First time running 6 miles
2 - First time doing a 10K
3 - First time running 8 miles
4,5,6 and 7 All in one day! - First time running 10 miles (4), which also means that it was my first time running 9 miles (5)and it was in the Baltimore 10 Mile Race (6) and I set a PR for time by doing it in 1:46 (7) (I guess any time would have been a PR, but hey, I'm counting it!)
8 - First time running 11 miles
9 - Setting my 5K PR of 28:34
10 - First time running 13 miles


How exciting is that???? I can actually look back at this summer and DAMN!!!!! I accomplished more this summer that I would have ever thought I could! And just think, this weekend I am on track to run my FIRST 15 MILER!


It is now official.....

This is my MOST favorite saying in the world, it is now my goal to be the Bees Knees every day of my life, cause DAMN it feels good!


**This is my friend's son, Asher, on the phone with me - he just confirmed that it's true, I AM THE BEES KNEES!!!

So, tell me about your summer high lights! Were you "The Cat's Pajamas"?

Pics From the Happy Hour!

Here are a few pictures from the Happy Hour Fundraiser! Thank goodness Chrisie's parents took pictures, I totally forgot to!

Here is a picture of Chrisie and me!

Another one of us, this time trying to figure out how we should go about selling the raffle tickets.

Me in front of the food table (sooooooo goooooood!!!!)
A picture of one of the raffle tables.

Yippppeeee for raising money!

Tuesday Morning Ten - CHECK!

Wow, I have to say that I had the most beautiful weather to run in this morning! I only wish that my mornings were free like this everyday! Our catalog (for work) is on press and today we had a "late start" so that allowed me to get my 10 miles this morning without stressing about time. Speaking of time, it was pretty freaking good! I did it in 1:41:23! However, I ran into a good friend of mine that I never see (her husband has been very ill, and she was able to get to the trail for a quick walk) so I stopped to talk to her at mile 7 (of course stopped the G) for about 20 minutes. Definitely NOT what I would normally do, but I was so happy to see her!

Other good news....I think I have found my "new sneakers"!!!! I listened to everyones advice (thank you!!!) and talked to some of the running peeps, then called Road Runners and talked to one of their sales people (who was totally awesome!!). I ended up going with the Saucony Pro Grid Hurricane in a size 9. I also got the Wright Socks (that are double layered), and after my 10 miler this morning.....NO ISSUES!!!! I am keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't been "duped" into falling in love again....time will tell!
Question: According to my training schedule I will run 260 miles between now and my marathon, will these current shoes (which right now have 13 miles on them) be "OK" for the marathon??? Any input on this would be great!! Thanks in advance!

On the "love" front, I'm feeling much better today after yesterdays aftershocks. I know there is still some more to come until this is all resolved, but I will get through it all!

Fundraiser - Success!

The Happy Hour Fundraiser was AWESOME! My Teammate Chrisie and I each walked away with $468! Yippppeeee! I'm getting close to my goal!!!!
It was so great to see all of my friends, family and neighbors in one place having so much fun! The raffles were a HUGE hit, especially the Mario Lemieux autographed hockey stick!!!
As for the "Pepsi Guy".....he was a no show, however, the funniest thing happened....So, I'm walking around selling the raffle tickets and I think I spot him...I got all nervous and headed directly to my group of friends. As soon as they saw me coming they were like "Is he here? Is he here?" And I said yep...and they all guessed that he was the guy at the bar that I saw and thought was him! So, I walked right up to the guy (the WRONG GUY!!!) and was all "Hey, how are you?"--------then I realize it's NOT PEPSI GUY!!!!! How freaking funny!!!! Anyway, he ended up buying some raffle tickets, so it's all good!!!
On the training front, I have many, many, many miles to run this week! Although I've been having fun with the happy hour, the pepsi guy, and all that stuff, I've had a little "strain" going on from the "Original Guy" , and my energy level is low. Nothing major has happened, sometimes I just think that relatioships ending are a lot like earthquakes....you have the major earthquake that just about does you in, then every so often there are the "aftershocks", sometimes they are for no apparent reason, none the less they wipe you out a little.
My schedule for this week is as follows:
Mon - 5
Tues - 8
Thurs - 10
Sat - 15 (longest run EVER)

My work schedule this week won't work with the 10 on Thursday, but I don't have to go into work until 10:30 tomorrow morning, so I'm going to do my 10 on Tuesday morning. Not sure what will happen this evening, I've got a lot of work to do, and as mentioned above I'm feeling wiped out. Now I'm feeling like a wimp....but hey, I'm just being honest.
Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy Hour Tonight!

Once again, I wish you all lived closer! Tonight I will be "hostessing" a Happy Hour Fundraiser to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! It will be held at this great bar in Pittsburgh called "Town Tavern".
I just got exciting news last night about one of the raffle items I've been waiting on.....I will have a Hockey Stick signed by Mario Lemieux to raffle off!!! I am super excited about this!!!
I will post pictures from the event tomorrow!

Hey Pepsi Guy....

Ok, so we have a Pepsi machine at work, and today a new Pepsi Guy brought our delivery...he was quite cute! Sooooooo I just happened to be on my break with my co-workers and they were giving me "the eye" and spurring on the conversation.

Anyway, we all talked a little, then he was leaving and my co-workers were like "COME ON!!! What are you doing? You should have made a little more of a move!!!" So, I got brave and grabbed an invitation to the Happy Hour that I'm hosting for my fundraising this Friday and ran it out to him! He was VERY receptive and said he would definitely be there! We'll see...either way it was very funny! Oh and remember last week when I was talking about putting in some effort to get ready for work...yeah that didn't happen this morning because I had to leave my house at 6am for PT! So here I am in a plain tank top, no makeup, hair in a ponytail and these random sweat shorts from Target! Hahaha!

Good news at PT today, I can start to get back "on schedule" with my training! So this weekend I will do 11 miles, next weekend 15, the following will be the 1/2 marathon and so on!

Thank you everyone for your input on the shoes, I am going to head to the running store and see what their thoughts are and I'll let you know the outcome!

Sunday's Run

So, Sunday's run went pretty well! I was able to run pretty much the whole time (10.5 miles) with just a few stops for stretching. I went slower than I had been going, and I am fine with accepting that that might be what I need to do.
Afterwards I had the MOST AMAZING french toast....so yummy!!!!
The rest of the day I still felt pretty good, so much better than that run a couple weeks ago where I was sure that my legs were going to snap off!

However, I need some help/input with the shoe situation. Here's the deal -
I have Asics (keyanos) and Sauconys (forget their name..pro-grid something, maybe hurricane?). I bought both at the same time, here is the story -
*Started in the Asics for a couple runs, thought I was in love.
*Tried out the Sauconys, also loved them, but then got blister on the Left Foot.
*Went back to the Asics - No blister problems, as the miles got highter and higher they made my left foot (the "bad" one) hurt...kind of bad. I ran in them up to a point, started having definite foot pain around 4th of July, switched back to the Sauconys.
*Ran in the Sauconys some more, blister came back. Got insoles, I hated them but didn't get a blister and figured I'd get used to the insoles.
*Ran in the Sauconys on Sunday with the insoles, got the FREAKING blister again!!!!

I am starting to get really anxious, I want to know what my Marathon shoes will be and start breaking them in!

The blister area is on the side of my where the GREEN MARK is (don't mind the red mark on the diagram by the heel). It ends up being a long sort of thin blister.

My "normal" shoe size is an 8.5, my Asics are a 9, and the Sauconys are 9.5.
Do you think it's possible that my Sauconys might just be a little too big (and I should try a 9)? At this point I'm thinking that the Asics are definitely out. I have tried about 4 different types of socks and I put body glide all over that spot, and it still happens. Any input would be great!