6 miles in almost perfect weather...

Nelson and I got up bright and early on Saturday to head over to Lake Merced where Team Challenge was meeting to do our six-miler. (Yes, Nelson was in town. No, he didn't run with me, but he did take Nimo out for a LONG walk while I was running. It was so amazing to see him at the end!)

I was super nervous about the run in general because I haven't run six miles in 10 years, literally. It was a beautiful sunny day, but there was a cold breeze which made it an almost ideal running day. In the end, the run was challenging but not impossible. I ran almost the entire way with my teammate, Rachel. She and I have similar paces and both run to trashy pop. It's a pretty perfect match if you ask me!

Before our next run I have to get some familiarity with the course. Why you ask? Since I'm still new to San Francisco, I never really know how long we have been running or how far until the end. I was really frustrated when I realized that I walked a few minutes on mile 5 that I probably would have pushed through had I known we were almost done! Oh well.

Oh--and the new sneakers are great. Still need a little more breaking in, but they were super comfy!

Stay tuned, embarassing pictures to come!

New kicks!

The best part about running a half-marathon is that you need new shoes to do it! These beauties just came in the mail, thank you, endless.com. I'll be debuting these bad boys tomorrow for our 6-mile training run at Lake Merced. Pictures to come!

Donation Incentives (bribes)

hola.

So a huge part of my commitment to Team Challenge involves fundraising $5000 to find a cure of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. While I think donating out of the goodness of ones heart is laudable, for some it may take a little more encouragement to part ways with their money.

On that note, I plan on giving a little something back to anyone who donates more than $100 to Team Challenge to help me reach my fundraising goal.

But--I need to know what the world wants in return for their generosity. Cookies? Zucchini bread? Dinner? Framed picture of me AFTER I finish the marathon (when I'm a hot mess). Give me your suggestions and I'll see what I can do to oblige specific requests. Get creative people--$5000 is a lot of money!!!

Half-Marathon Training

I started training for the Napa-Sonoma half-marathon two weeks ago with Team Challenge and I've already run 4.5 miles. My favorite part so far is the fact that I have so much incentive, and support to get my ass of the couch, out of the office or out of bed as the case may be. We have a huge San Francisco team that is ridiculously supportive and fun. I've already started making new friends, which seems to take a bit of time in SF. It's definitely humbling because most of my teammates can kick my butt--I'm usually one of the last people in from our group runs--but they still cheer and smile (instead of pointing and thinking, maybe she should just get back on the couch). I can't say I particularly look forward to the training runs yet, but they are growing on me, if anything, because I know that there will be a plethora of smiling faces to share the pain with, rain or shine.

So--keep an eye out on my blog. I fully intend to keep up with this thing a little more regularly to keep people posted on my training. And yes, I will even subject myself to the humiliation of putting pictures of me in action up.

On another note--Nelson gets here in the morning AND I get to do 6 mini-trials tomorrow for the Homeless Rights Project. What a week--and I actually have work to keep me busy! Woo hoo.

Shameless plug below (hey sorry, donating is part of the deal).

www.active.com/donate/napa10norcal/napa10MPrice