Info on NYRR Programs

Again, thanks to everyone who has donated thus far. Here is some information about the programs which your generous donations help fund. These programs will serve 25,000 children a week in 200 schools and community centers during the 2006 - 2007 school year.

Mighty Milers
Mighty Milers is a physical education program for schools and youth organizations that instills the daily habit of running and/or walking for health, longevity, and well-being. Mighty Milers stimulates elementary school children of all fitness levels to run and/or walk 26.2 - 104.8 miles (one to four marathons) during the school year, by covering upward of half a mile, three to five times a week. Students earn incentives every five miles including a medal for every marathon of miles they complete. Mighty Milers can supplement or become a school/organization's physical education program; make recess time productive and orderly; provide classes with a fun, focused, fitness break; or serve as the warm-up session for an athletic team.

Young Runners
Young Runners is a more intensive program which motivates and trains elementary through high school students to run 1 mile to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) without stopping, through active participation on an after-school (or before school) running team. Participants learn to set and achieve challenging personal goals, and are awarded incentives for attendance and improvement. Young Runners, while intended to be physically challenging, is designed for children of all fitness and athletic levels. It uses the structure and popularity of the team to help kids reach their full human potential, not just their athletic potential.

More fundraising!

and so far the grand total I've raised for the NYRR Foundation is...

$1,557.21!!

I want to thank everyone who has contributed so far to my fundraising efforts, your support of my training and fundraising has been incredible!

Only $942.79 and 26.2 miles to go!

Thanks to Cousins Jennifer and Brandon, The McEvoy's, Dr. Piltch and Mrs. Greenberg, and Mr. Noel De La Rosa who have all donated!!

1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=

20.

Basically I was a complete wreck going into this run. I woke up at 5:15 AM without the aid of my alarm because I was so nervous. At that point I didn't even know if I was going to run at all, and if I did, I didn't know how far I'd make it or if I'd be able to walk home. I went through the long run morning routine (coffee, toast with pb and banana), packed up my stuff and headed out.

The NY transit system was not on my side. Getting from the East Village to 168th Street and Broadway is not the easiest task, let alone at 6 AM on a Sunday. The L was not running, and there was no 14th street bus in sight. I certainly wasn't going to pay for a cab all that way... Solution: cab to 14th and 8th Ave and C train (local) to 168th Street.

One mission accomplished. Now to decide if I was going to attempt the run. I walked around the meeting area a while, stretched, jogged in place... still not sure. Decision time is rapidly approaching. Confer with Coach Adam who advises me to run with a slower pace group, wrap my leg, and do a combo of running and walking if my hamstring starts to tighten up. As the time winds down and the 10:30 pace group is about to leave, I make the decision that I am at least going to attempt this 20 whether I run it, walk it, or have to call a cab from jersey.

Off I went with the 10:30's (I usually run with the 9:30's). To be completely honest, during the first few miles I was ready to turn around. Having not run in two weeks, I felt totally out of it, my leg was hurting a bit, and the wind on the GWB was not helping the situation. I was finding it very difficult to get my rhythm and the thought of having 19+ miles to go scared the sh*t out of me. I decided then and there to take it one mile at a time, focus on that mile only, and at the end of each mile re-evaluate the current situation.

As we descended the hill into the Palisades Park, I started to feel somewhat better and I was definitely more ready to face this challenge. Then the first climb knocked me back down. I remember thinking to myself "there is absolutely no way I can finish this." But then it leveled off, and I just kept going. Hill after hill, mile after mile, until suddenly we had reached the halfway point. Perhaps "suddenly" is too strong an adverb... at the time it seemed far from sudden. Now this was a great feeling, and the optimist in me was feeling totally awesome... but then the evil side started to creep in as we hit mile 11 and I realized that halfway was not as close to the finish as I'd imagined. By mile 14 I was definitely ready to go home; the hills just kept coming despite all my mental energy spent imagining they had magically flattened out.

15, 16 more of the same. As I hit mile 17, at which point we were supposed to speed up and RACE the last 3 miles, I felt more like I had hit a wall then a starting line. Thankfully Coach Adam had instructed me not to race the final 3, so I didn't feel quite as bad slowing down and finally walking that mile. The first part of mile 17 was a slow incline, and then it turned into a straight uphill shot. The people that passed me running deserve so much credit. I'm not sure if I could have done it with a completely healthy hamstring.

Jeremy and I walked up the hill together and as we were trudging along we made a plan to start running again as soon as we hit the GWB. We climbed the stairs and on the count of 3 we were off. At this point I had changed my strategy to taking it one mile at a time to taking it one step at a time, literally counting my strides up to 10 and then back down to avoid the looming bridge ahead. Funny thing about the GWB is how it can seem so short when I'm driving and so painfully long when I'm running.

I don't really recall how I made it over that bridge or how I managed those last two miles. I do remember as I was climbing down the stairs hearing words of encouragement from a fellow TFK-er, can't remember who exactly, it's all kind of a blur at this point. But thanks whoever that was. Down the stairs, across the road and to the final blocks. And I was done. I don't really know how, but there I was back where we'd started a few hours before.

And that's that. It's still kind of a surreal, out of body experience (although the soreness is very much in-body right now).

Fundraising... over halfway there!!

While my training may be stalled due to my silly left hamstring, my fundraising is going strong! As of today, I have surpassed the halfway mark in my fundraising efforts... grand total as of 9/20/06... wait for it...

$1,282 dollars and 21 cents!

I'd like to thank the following people who have contributed so generously so far: Mom and Dad, Miss Emily Geiger, Mr. Blake Redding, Mr. Grant Long, Miss Paige Fitzgerald, Ms. Valerie Wunder, Miss Harini Chundu, Miss Rickie Golden, Miss Melissa Aylor, my little bro, Aunt Marianne, Mr. Edwin Mill, Uncle Earl, Mr. and Mrs. Greg and Marcia Coleman, Ms. Janet Kobosky, Mrs. Ingrid, Mrs. Christine Sweetman, Ms. June Stack, and Miss Alex Zarrilli!

Only $1,271.79 to go!

If you haven't donated, please do so soon, time is running out! Just click on the DONATE Link, enter some info, and you're done! It's that easy!

Oh, and so far Team for Kids members have raised a total of $1,250,828.21 for the NYRR Foundation!

hamstring part deux

So it has now been nine days since my last run, and I must say it feels like forever. I have been diligently resting, icing, compressing, and elevating, as well as doing only non-painful cardio, which has included: stationary bike, stairmaster, swimming, and yesterday I took the big step up to the elliptical machine. Hopefully I will be pain free by this Sunday, just in time for our 20 mile run. According to Coach Adam it is our "most important run of our training," so I would hate to miss it.

I have now missed all 3 weeks of the mid-week speed training due first to a cold, then to my hamstring. I am hoping this doesn't negatively impact my marathon day, as speed work is supposedly crucial to training. I might just have to step it up next week and do some intervals on my own.

On Sunday, in place of our long weekend run, I went for a long swim and tried to match the cardio workout I would have gotten from the 11 miler. It has been about a year since I was in the pool, and I felt surprisingly good! I swam about 4500-5000 yards at my old stomping grounds (the Upper Main Line YMCA). It made me wish there were a nice pool in the city... I have a feeling the Chinatown YMCA might not qualify...

ouch!

So apparently I have a (self-diagnosed) pulled hamstring. I think I pulled it on my run last Friday morning and further aggravated it during Sunday's 18 miler.

Because of this I am doing the following:

Adhering to a strict diet of R.I.C.E. and advil since Sunday, which seems to be working (albeit slowly).

Only doing non-painful cardio (I heart the stationary bike), and not running (obviously). Mainly because...

I certainly don't want to end up like this guy.







So today I'll try this. (I don't even know)





And hopefully by next week, I'll be back in action and hitting the road once again. Although the people-watching at Bally Total Fitness is pretty awesome.

Video with the kiddies!

Thanks to Bob, a fellow TFK member, for this awesome footage of us working out with the "Rabbits," a group of kids who are involved in one of the NYRR Foundation-sponsored running programs.

http://www.teamforkids.org/index.cfm?organization_id=57§ion_id=807&page_id=3554

A great incentive to donate... don't you think??

18 big ones

So it's official, I have run 18 miles continuously.

On Sunday we completed our longest run to date, and despite feeling the remanents of a cold, and not sleeping well the night before, I managed to finish all 18 miles in 2 hours 42 minutes. I felt pretty terrible during the first half of the run, but once we hit the George Washington around mile 9, I started feeling much more comfortable and the rest of the run went much more smoothly. Perhaps it was the 5 minute climb uphill at the Cloisters around mile 8 during which I couldn't really feel my legs and felt as if I were running in place... Perhaps I just needed to sweat out some of my sickness... Or it's possible I just became totally numb after the first half.

Our course started at 72nd and Riverside, and we ran up the West Side Highway, under the GWB, up into the Cloisters (see horrible experience above), across the GWB and back again, and then back down to 72nd Street... tack on a few laps around a track and we had 18.

I'm kind of on a top ten kick right now, so here's your weekly top 10 of the 18:

10. Our run starting at 8:30 AM rather than 6:15 AM.
9. The various forms of city roadkill along the West Side Highway biking/running path.
8. The Fairway loading dock workers cheering us on.
7. Managing to run with a water bottle in one hand and an wad of kleenex in the other.
6. Trying out "Body Glide" for the first time. (I chafe no more! too much? too soon?)
5. Reaching the top of the Cloisters MOUNTAIN.
4. All the TFK runners converging at the GWB.
3. The delicous PB & J sandwiches post-run, what a great idea!
2. Crossing the GWB on foot (I must say, it seems a lot shorter via car)
1. The finish.

Oh, and nothing tops off a great run like an EAGLES VICTORY!! 1-0. D-Mac is back.

Mile .2 goes to...

MELISSA B. AYLOR! (i know you love that picture!)

that's right, with her generous donation, melissa has secured a spot for the last .2 miles of the race... too bad she'll be relaxing in Puerto Rico and won't be able to witness me at this epic moment!

The two best words in the english language...

RECOVERY WEEK.

I haven't been so good at keeping this thing up to date, seeing that recovery week is now over and we are into our Speed Training portion of the training. But since it was such a lovely week, I'll reminisce about it now...



Tuesday I learned that I run incorrectly, which was totally awesome. Apparently you are supposed to land on the ball of your foot rather than land flat-footed, or worse, heel first. So after practicing this for an hour as well as learning other running and stretching fundamentals, I tried this "ball-landing" strategy during our loops around the reservoir... not so successful. The gigantic puddles and the fact that it was dark out didn't help either. I managed to run this way for approximately 200 meters before I reverted back to my flat-footed approach. Apparently this is okay though, according to our coaches now is not the appropriate time to change our entire running stride... who would have thought? According to our coaches, I should stick with being a flat-footer for 90% of my runs with occasional 10% bursts of correct form. I think I can handle that.

Wednesday I went back to yoga for the first time in weeks and got my butt kicked, literally. Afterwards, my hips felt like they had been beaten with a tire iron. This is when I realized how tight running can make your body, and I have vowed to not skip yoga anymore.

Thursday I took the term recovery week a little too literally. I had to rest up for the long weekend.

Saturday, despite feeling the onset of a cold, I did our recovery week short(er) long run, a casual 10 miles. (Not gonna lie, I feel kind of awesome that I can now honestly say "oh, yeah, this weekend is just 10 miles, no big deal"). Ran the 10 miles in Chatam, Cape Cod with my two fabulous friends Emily Geiger and Paige Fitzerald, who were super all-stars and ran 8 of the 10 with me! We went on a really nice run on the streets, along the beach, on a great bike trail, and I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh sea air.

Saturday evening, Paige, Emily, and I enjoyed a post-run romp in Provincetown where we met this lovely lady and saw her hysterical show. Try to top THAT for a post-run activity.