Re-Prioritizing

My company had our annual Foundation Day yesterday. Foundation Day is when my company requests it's employees to take time away from work (during work hours) to volunteer.

We went to the Food Bank of NY, which is located in the Bronx. We organized and boxed 22,000 lbs of frozen hams which will be delivered to the food banks agencies and will help 9,000 families.

After Foundation Day, the agency puts together a Happy Hour at a local bar. I haven't had a drink in 2 weeks (not even wine at dinner- WHAT?! I know.) I'm feeling really good, and just would rather water lately.

However, I really wanted to end Foundation Day on a positive note with my coworkers. I'm on a new team now and wanted to get to know more people around my cube's location. So, I decided to attend the Happy Hour.

It started at 5:40 and was going until 7:40. I was really enjoying myself (I had a PERFECT, SEATED spot next to the chicken fingers, wings, and had a place for my bag.) It was pretty awesome, as far as happy hour plus' go.

I ordered a Stella, and after 3 sips, noticed that I was FULL. Luckily, since my body hasn't been enjoying the poison, I was good with just one.

But, I really just didn't want to run the 6 miles on my schedule. I was capable of it, I mean, it was only 1 beer, but I just didn't have it in me. After standing all day, moving 45 lb boxes of frozen hams from one side of a room to the other, the last thing I wanted to do was run 6 miles.

So, I didn't run.

GASP!

I started berating myself, but I remembered: Earlier this week, I had received a really inspiring email from another member of Team Tuesday. He's run 3 marathons and he told me that sticking to a schedule doesn't take into account real life happenings. Such as: happy hours with coworkers, and putting a strict schedule on yourself (but mostly, when you can't adhere to that schedule) can cause undue mental stress.

So, I decided that I'd hang out (until 7:15, I'm such an old lady!) and then head home and run this morning.

And that I did. I finished 6 miles this morning. My legs survived, and my mind even told me I could have kept going, but I really had to get ready for work.

I don't feel bad that I didn't run last night since I got the miles in this morning. I have to run 13 tomorrow, so now I'm just nervous my legs will be tired half way through that run.

Let's hope that won't be true. And let's hope that my wearing 5" platform heels all day today/tonight won't hurt my run tomorrow morning, too.

;)

xo

Maybe You Haven't Heard the News...

I'm not even going to apologize for not writing in over 6 months. As you can tell by my history of writing entries, and then not, and then writing and apologizing, it's just a common thing for me to get caught up in real-life and not blog about it.

However, to catch you up quickly...

• I moved off one account at work, and am now working on three new accounts. My new accounts are totally different than what I've been working on for nearly 2 years, so I'm excited for the new challenges and opportunities.
• I turned 27, and even though it wasn't spent on a cruise with my entire family, like it was last year, I had a wonderful dinner with the most wonderful man and then came home to the best (surprise) decorations anyone could ask for- done by the one and only best sister on Earth. (See proof below.)

• Three of my best friends got married to their soul mates, and all my guyfriends, girlfriends and I got down and dirty enjoying ourselves while celebrating our friends and their new husbands. 

Those happened, amongst a whole summer of travelling to Martha's Vineyard, the Hamptons, my Hometown, and spending a great deal of time on my bike, and at the beach getting tan (which my dermatologist yelled at me for!)

But the last bullet is something I never planned for...

• I signed up for the NYC ING Marathon... and got in. 

That said, I started training about 10 weeks later than trainers say to, but have to pat myself on the back for the work I've done thus far (and honestly, if you know me, you know I don't pat myself on the back alot- well, seriously anyway.) I did the math, and at the end of September for the 30 days of this month, I'll have run 104 miles (though it should have been more, according to some training guides, but whatever.)

I have 39 days left to train= 146 miles to run. (That doesn't include the 26 miles I have to run DURING the Marathon, either.)

This was as unplanned in my 27th year as is snow in July in Arizona.

I don't stick to workout activities...

• I tried belly dancing, (I mean, HELLO, I love Shakira!) but after the 6-weeks of the gym-hosted class were over, I didn't want to pay for it elsewhere. 
• I tried Zumba, had fun, then just stopped. 
• I do yoga on and off, but not as on as I did in 2008 (my arms have never looked as good as they did then!) 
• I pole danced (at a GYM!) a couple times, but mostly because I wanted to be part of that sisterhood known as "stripping," without the actual stripping part. Also because I could wear platform shoes and get a workout in without being at a club. 

I have never been "athletic." I was put on the 4th grade softball team in 6th grade (I quit right after I found that out.) I was told "thanks, but no," when I tried out for tennis freshman year in high school. I never even looked trying out for field hockey, soccer, or any other sport because I knew it- I was a dancer. Not, an "athlete."

Now, dancer friends, I'm not saying dancing isn't "athletic," because I know it is. But, it's also an art (I mean, my sister did get her BFA with a concentration in performing arts/dance,) so that's where I'm putting it for lack of a better space.

I'll always be a dancer. I'll never be an athlete. That's what I told myself for 27 years. And I was comfortable with it. I thought the treadmill was just there to help people lose weight (or attempt to, in my case for the last 10 years.) I thought I'd just look like a fool if I tried to do anything with my body that I hadn't already done before. So, running? PSSHAW, are you kidding? My heart rate definitely doesn't belong being that fast. Unless someone is chasing me, no way. That's what I said to myself.

I did EVERYTHING I could to NOT run "the mile," in middle and high school. I remember running around the crappy track in middle school- where small pebble rocks would jump into my socks. I absolutely hated every second of running, so when I was given the opportunity to be a Gym Leader junior and senior years of high school (I refed the freshman and sophomore gym class games, etc.) where as a "reward," I didn't have to run "the mile," of course, I TOOK IT.

Then, in 2009 I started running outside because it was a cheap version of the weight-loss machine known as the treadmill. My friends, Lindsay and Brooke, were running a half marathon, and I joined them on one of the "long runs," (which I never really understood what that was until recently.) I managed to get through 8 miles (right?) out of 10, in the blistering heat. But, I did it. I was kind of amazed at myself.

It was at that time that I started running, really without realizing it.

I moved to New York and saw Central Park as the biggest challenge my waist would ever face, and woke up various warm mornings to run through it. I never really felt the need to run more than 3.5, except for the rare days I ran 4.5 miles. But, I got a group of my friends together 2011 to run 5 miles on Thanksgiving day. We all got through it, and were given pies as a reward! We saw it as an opportunity to eat whatever we wanted on the dinner table (err, dessert table for me.)

In January 2012, I was sent an email from a lead of the Friends of St. Jude, who was asking if anyone on the committee wanted to run in the NYC Half Marathon. Without thinking (typical) I sent an email saying "YES, I'll DO IT!" and next I knew... I was training to run 13.1 miles.

This is me just after mile 7...

Go me! (I did finish, by the way.)

I thought about running more half-marathons after that, but never did any. I ran a 10K race in Central Park, and had my sister there to cheer me on. But, again- that's where my running-thoughts stopped.

She really is the best cheerleader.

That is...until mid summer, when my uncle asked me if I wanted to run the NY Marathon this year. I never thought about it until he had asked me. He had run the last Chicago and Boston Marathons, and was possibly going to run the NYC as well.

Throughout my early professional years when in Boston, we'd get Marathon Monday off, I'd just watch the runners in a buzzed-awe while at the window of a bar on Boylston St. I never thought about all the training they went through, the personal challenge they were committed to that day, the amount of miles they had already run that day before I saw them at the near-finish line. It was just a day off for me.

In New York, the same thing went through my head. Of course, it wasn't a day off (it's on a Sunday,) but I preferred sitting on the sidelines with a beer in my hand and then celebrate friends of friends after they came into the bar with their medal later that day.

I started casually (3 miles here, 4 miles there, a whole 8 at one point) training for the Marathon before I knew I was going to run it. I didn't think I'd get a bib number, so I didn't really try that hard. And then when I was notified by a charity I requested a number from that I was actually able to run with them- I was in complete shock. I registered and then saw this on the screen...

Holy SH!T! This is HAPPENING!

So, here I am. I'm running with an amazing charity called Tuesday's Children. Their cause raises money for the families of 9/11 victims. They've since opened their cause to raise money for families who have lost loved ones due to terrorist attacks throughout the world. It's a charity that is so close to B, that it's close to me, as well.

I wasn't going to blog about my running, because there are a million bloggers out there who do that, but the more I was talking to my friend, Katie, this morning, the more I thought... I'm not a typical runner. 

I still don't even consider myself a runner, so maybe people might actually want to read what I have to say. I'm not coming from the traditional background of other bloggers- I'm not running to lose a significant amount of weight. I'm not running in memory of someone. I'm not running because I absolutely love it (believe it or not.) I'm running because I signed up for a Marathon and have to train for it now.

I mean, really. I'm hoping to fall head over heels for it and run more Marathons after this, but I can't say that's a goal for me right now. So, I'm going to blog about the rest of the 39 days of training, and maybe along the way I'll discover other reasons why I'm running. 

Here goes nothing! 

Also, if you want to help me raise money to hit my $3,000 goal (all of which goes to Tuesday's Children,) please donate here: http://tuesdayschildren.org/component/content/article/16/433-bcastine

xo