Week Two!!

Ok so we are now up to $427!!!! and Counting!!! That is awesome!!!! Thank you all so much for the continued support.



Saturday I met with the team, for my first practice and the team's second. We met outside Lloyd Hall on Kelly Drive. I wanted to sleep longer so I rode my bike there. There were about 20 people there, I am no good with guesstimates and actually now that I think about the sign in sheet I think it was closer to 30-35. It turns out that I won a prize at the Kick-off for getting the most signatures in Bingo, so I got a TNT purple tote and inside there was a long sleeve shirt, a cellphone holder for running, and a plastic water bottle. Sweet! I recognized a few people from the kick-off but everyone was smiling anyway. There was a woman who spoke, A mission moment, I think they called it. She told her hero story. Each week they are going to have someone speak about their hero (who they are running for) before we run, so that we remember who it is we are doing this for. It was such a sad, but motivating story.

There were three different running groups, the half marathoners, the full marathoners, and the Full PARIS Marathoners.. The Half group ran 3 miles, we ran 4, and the Paris group ran 5. It was a nice morning. I really understand the difference it makes running with a team opposed to by yourself. I am pretty lenient with myself, so during the week when I am running, it is really easy for me to slow my pace. Saturday I was kind of pushing myself. I went with the 10-11 minute pace group and it felt good. I ran with a girl that is doing Paris on the way up the path and a mentor on the way back. The girl I ran with on the way back, has been in three half marathons. I asked her why she joined Team in Training and she told me her dad passed away due to Lymphoma. She ran her first race ever with her dad and does Team in Training in honor of him. I got goosebumps listening to her while I was running. I told her about my mom being a Cancer Survivor and a smile spread across her face, ear to ear. "That's awesome!" She said and I felt so incredibly lucky. It's weird how I only ran with her for 2 miles and we were able to share such a personal moment.
When we finished our run we did 'sliders' which reminded me off 'high-knees' from Field Hockey. It was a really cool morning and I felt like I got a run in.

I took Sunday off and went to watch the Philadelphia Marathon. My friend Maggie ran, and she is a machine!! She did awesome!!! The whole race I saw purple Team in Training Jerseys and it was cool to see the members, most of which were running together. I stopped to ask someone in a Purple jersey, what mile we were at and she told me. Then she excused herself and jumped in the race to join another TNT runner. She was a mentor, so not an official registrant, but that was awesome!

My runs during the week are 2-3 miles, so I am not hurting too bad just yet. I had a long night last night, so I slept in and have to run when I get home from work tonight. I like running in the morning but I also love sleeping so I am working on the time management. Experimenting with the different times. I won't have such flexibility in a couple months, when I will NEED to run a couple hours a day!! But for today..I'll run after work and still be in bed in a timely manner :)