GOTR Mock 5K = Success!

Over this past weekend I held a mock 5k run for my Girls on the Run girls. Considering it was a Saturday over fall break only about 10 girls showed up but they all came ready to run. We ran two segments on the highline canal trail, my favorite trail in Denver and conveniently near their school.

I have to admit that I was throughly impressed with how well and fast all of the girls ran. They were just awesome. We had everyone finish in 45 minutes! And maybe just as impressive was the number of parents that hung around and even ran with us (the majority of them being non-runners!), brought water and oranges for the end of the race and cheered each of the girls on. I find it amazing when parents get involved in their child's school activities and it helped to motivate the girls. I even had some parents ask me if they could register for our real race in November to run with their daughters. Score!

For those of you in the Denver area come run with us or cheer on some hard working girls and their exhausted coaches :)!

More information can be found here

You Just Can't Compare it to Anything Else

From Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, the course crosses the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn and takes a five-mile straight shot up Fourth Avenue through Bay Ridge and Sunset Park to the Brooklyn Academy of Music at eight miles. The course continues through the neighborhoods of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg and Greenpoint to the Pulaski Bridge at the halfway point. Runners cross into Queens, pass Silvercup Studios, and continue over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, where huge crowds cheer them up First Aveune (miles 16-20). The Willis Avenue Bridge takes runners into the Bronz from mile 20-21, and they return to Manhattan via the Madison Avenue Bridge, cruise down Fifth Avenue through Harlem and along "Museum Mile," and enter Central Park. The final miles include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park South, Columbus Circle, and the world-famous Central Park finish.

I want to send a quick thanks to everyone that responded to my last post via Google Buzz. Definitely some great advice, part of which led me to write this post. I'm going to run and finish this race and remember everything I love about New York and running.

Runners Dilemma

With less then 2 weeks until the NYC marathon I'm finding myself in a world of foot pain. What do I do?!

I went to the doctors after running just 6 miles and feeling like my foot was the size of Jupiter. She took some x-rays and said it's not showing up but most likely it's a stress fracture on the outside of my left foot and that I should 'sit on the couch for a while'. Although I like this doctor a lot she obviously doesn't know me to well.

I've decided to continue running as per my training schedule but to make the runs easier by slowing down or if needed shortening the route a smidgen. Denver seems to be conspiring with my dr. by putting a couple of inches of snow in my way.

Anyone else have any ideas? Since the NYC Marathon is only 11 days away it is mega recovery time anyways but I can't just stop running this close, right? Do I still do the planned 10 miles this Saturday? I suppose most of my runs from here on out will have to be determined by the amount of pain I have after each run. As a friend recently reminded me 'pain is only temporary'. In fact maybe I need a shirt to remind me of that!

Some inspiration at 6 weeks out

to all my fellow 2011 NYC Marathon runner friends:

On November 6, when you toe the line on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, think about how running has already improved your life, and go for broke!

Here is the Garmin tracked hike through volcanos

Untitled by completely at Garmin Connect - Details

ZombieHash!!!

http://zombiehash.com/

Can I move to New Zealand? Please?!

Back now for about 2 days from a tremendious trip to New Zealand for just under 2 weeks.  I took the trip with three friends one being my best friend from RPI.  The four of us all met up in Christchurch for the beginning of a road trip around the south island before we finished up in Auckland on the north island.

Our adventures took us to waterfalls, penguins, large spherical rocks on a beach, caving, skiing, hiking up mountains, glaciers and volcanos and sea kayaking with sea lions.  It was just fantastic, we also managed to meet some kiwis on the trip while in the cities of Queenstown, Wellington and Auckland, hopefully future couches to sleep on :)

Here are some of the highlight photos of the trip. More can be found here.

New Sony Walkman W Series

Most people are trying avoid the rain that we've been getting these past couple of days.  But today I took it as an opportunity to test out my new Sony Walkman!!! The walkman is water resistant and thus I figured the rain would be a great test.

and it was!

Sorry the photo is not the best quality. I was dripping wet and seemed to have gotten the camera wet.  The Walkman worked great on this ride!! It was easy enough to turn it up when I got out of the way of traffic and on the bike path and down when I was back with rush hour with a quick button press.  I'm still figuring out some of the controls as there's no screen to navigate through and you are adjusting the songs, volume etc while it's on your head.

Overall great experience with the walkman.  I look forward to running with it tomorrow!

Craft Night

What better way to spend a rainy afternoon then whipping up some headbands.  Thanks to my roommate who had some elastic laying around we were able to grab some scraps and making two headbands in under 30 minutes.

It's a really simple process.  Basically you cut two rectangle, 16inches x your desired width x2 + 1/2 inch and then 10 inches x 3 inches.  The second will be wrapped around your elastic.

Then fold and sew the two rectangles right sides together. Turn them right side out and iron them flat with the seam in the middle of the backside (against your head).

Attach a safety pin to your elastic and thread the elastic through the smaller 'tube' and anchor it to one end by sewing back and forth a couple of times.  Place the rightsides of the elastic tub (with the elastic anchored end) to the right side of one end of the larger tube and sew those ends together.  Now pull the other end of the elastic through the tube so that you srunch the fabric and again so this end to the other end of the headband rightsides together.  I didn't get enough process photos but there are plenty of tutorials out there if you're looking to make one and need more instructions.

These guys supervised:

A Race too Big for this Little Girl?

In order to keep myself motivated to keep training and training well I find that signing up for road races every so often throughout the summer and into fall really benefits me.  Well I might have bitten off more then I can chew with this one... a week or so ago I looked for half marathons in the July - August time frame.  I've reached 10 miles on my weekly long runs so I figured it's about time to get some races in here.  And one of the only CO half marathon's that I'll be available for is the Keystone Half Marathon.
the race starts at an elevation of just over 9,300 feet above sea level! Should be a fun race, see if I handle these Rocky Mountains :)

Fourth of July Shenanigans

It's already Wednesday and I'm still loving this past fourth of July weekend. The three day weekend was filled with lots of CO activities including, hiking, camping, 3 nights of fireworks!, tubing!, lots of good food and a great afternoon spent with friends picnicing in the park outside the capital. Check out some photos below of the adventures: