DOUBLE DIGITS!! WOOT WOOT!!

Well, I did 10 miles today! Yay for double digits!! :) I did it in 2:15:47. It was an extremely hilly course, but I did it. I tried using some sport beans today, which were pretty helpful I think. I've also got some gels and things to try out too. They recommend using something every hour of exercise, so...

We had our recommitment party this afternoon for those of us who recommitted to the team. Several teammates have had to drop out for various reasons. It was nice to see the team together. Usually we all run at our own paces so I won't see some people during training.

Most of the runners on the team are doing an interval type of run and they have special timers to help them with this. For example, they run 4 minutes and then walk 1 minute for the entire time. They say it's the best way to do it and not get injured so I may look into this. Right now I've just been running the entire time.

Well, I'm about to go watch a documentary about marathons called The Spirit of the Marathon. Have a good weekend!!!

1.30.09 Update

Just a short note to let you know how I'm doing. We had a short run yesterday, just 3.7 miles but I finally wore my watch so I can keep up with my time. I did it in 45:15. See, not a fast runner by any means but I'm faster than a 17 minute mile which is what I'll have to do in order to finish the race before the open the course back up to traffic. We move up to doing 10 miles tomorrow. Yikes! One of the perks though is that I've lost 8 pounds so far. Which is great considering I'd like to lose about 60 total. So just 52 more pounds to go! :) Will update you tomorrow on how the 10 miles goes.

9 Miles!!

This past Saturday I moved up to running 9 miles. It wasn't too bad really except for the rain. And of course, wouldn't you know it, I step in a giant puddle about 1/4 mile into the run and get my socks soaked, so I had to run 8 3/4 more miles with wet feet...so I got a nice little blister from that. Mark bought me some brand new running shoes that got broken in rather quickly that day. I needed some new shoes desperately, so thanks Mark!! :) I did buy a watch this weekend so I can time myself. I run as fast as an old lady walks, so it should be interesting to see how long it takes me to do the runs. :)

1.20.09 Update

Well, I can't let this day pass by without mentioning how excited I am about our new president!! Here's a pic of me and my coworkers while we watched the inauguration in the family waiting room here at the hospital. Okay, it' not a political blog, it's a running blog...so that's all I'll say. :)

I ran 4 miles after work this evening. The temperature was 33 degrees and very windy. It's not so bad if the wind isn't blowing, but the wind can really make it not very fun. I haven't been keeping up with my times on my runs too much, but I'm going to start wearing a watch so I can give you guys an idea of just how slow I'm running. :) My goal for the marathon is just to finish it before they close down the course, which means I have to do it in 7 hours or less. So that equals to about a 17 minute mile I believe. I think I have been averaging about a 14 minute mile or so. But I'll try to start posting my times because I'd be interested in knowing how long it's taking me too.

I'm getting close to meeting my fundraising goal too. I only have $330 left to raise! I can't believe how supportive and giving everyone has been, raising the money has actually not been very hard at all. I've really appreciated all of the support. Well, it's getting close to my bedtime, so goodnight!!

1/17/2009 Update

Last week in training we moved up to 7 miles. I have never run more than 6 miles at one time before. I was nervous about this run all week. But I did the run, never had to walk. I was so excited after I got done. This week we moved up to running 8 miles. I was less nervous about this run because I just kept telling myself that it was just one more mile over the 7 I did last week. It was so cold this morning. The Coach pushed the run back an hour to 9:00 AM so it had warmed up to 22 degrees at that point. But once I got started running, I warmed right up. I did the run fine. I haven't had to stop during a run to walk yet so far in training. I find that during these runs I tend to think about my dad a lot. We aren't allowed to run with our ipods/headphones on the team runs due to liability/safety reasons, so I have a lot of time with just me and my thoughts. When left with my thoughts, they always seem to turn to my dad. I've actually started enjoying this time to myself rather than dreading the running. We'll see if I say the same thing once the mileage goes up more! I go up to running 9 miles next week, so stay tuned to see how that goes. :)
I've also added a couple of pics of my dad in the post. Just cuz I can :) The top pic is a pic of my Uncle Walt, my dad and my brother.

1/1/2009 Update

1/1/2009

Happy New Year! 2008 was a challenging year and I'm looking forward to a new year. Training is going well so far. We're up to running 6 miles right now and next week it moves up to 7! The most I've ever ran in my entire life is 6 miles, so going past 6 miles makes me nervous. So far I'm doing okay though. I'm a slow runner but I am able to complete the runs. Thanks for all of your support!! I hope you all have a wonderful 2009!

12/2/2008 Update

12/2/2008

It is week 3 of my training and boy are my legs getting sore! Training is going well. I run 5 days a week now, each run right now is about 2 or 3 miles. The mileage will start increasing soon and that is making me a little nervous! It's definitely a challenge to stay motivated to keep training since the days are shorter and it's getting much colder out. All I want to do is hibernate in my warm house! Having the team helps and thinking about people living with these diseases and what they have to go through on a daily basis helps. If they can do what they do, then certainly I can run a few miles. Thanks so much for all of your support!!

I'm running a marathon

I've decided to create this blog to document my experience in training for a marathon. I joined The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training in November and began training for a marathon. You can see my TNT webpage here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ga/Georgia09/jmitchekun. The TNT website doesn't really allow me to do a lot of journaling/blogging about my traning so I will use this site to do keep people updated on how my training is going. I will copy the first updates from my TNT to this website and then try to keep it updated on a regular basis. Thanks for checking out my blog!