20 Miles, Baby!

This has been a momentous week. Where our training schedule had us slated for 20 miles, I went into the run on Saturday hoping to get through 16 miles pain-free. The coach decided that the safest distance I could increase after returning from an injury and only having run 12 miles in my longest run.

Saturday was beautiful, slightly overcast and cool. I dropped down to run with the Fosters, a slower pace group, and thought I would shoot for 18 miles to push the wall out just a little farther. Well, 16 came and went and as we passed 18 there was no way I was calling for a ride. The 18 mile marker was at the Ferry Building and it was 11:30 on Saturday morning with the Farmers’ Market in full force. That’s just silly.

I felt great. Earlier in the day, I had begun mentally coaching myself to shoot for 20 and, passing 18, I knew the 20 mile mark was easily within my reach. When we finished, having run a pace so slow most of us were complaining about it – get that, complaining that we’re running too slow for 20 miles – I knew I had healed my knee and could definitely run the marathon.

After soaking in the ocean for 15 minutes with my team, I return home, showered and went out shopping. Willow and I were at the gym by 9:00 am on Sunday, cross training. And yesterday, I signed up to run a second AIDS Marathon this year. I’ll be running Florence, Italy over Thanksgiving weekend and pushing my fundraising goal out another $4000 for the year.

If you haven’t yet had a chance to donate and would like to, please hold off until I get my runner number for Florence. It should be only a matter of days and I can start filling that account.

Miles run in May: 57.5

Leigh’s SF Fundraising: $3915

Total SF Funds by Team: $738,725 ($261,275 to go!)

Leigh’s Florence Fundraising: $50

Thank you to everyone for your generous support and encouragement. I'd like to also Thanks Kenny L. ($25) and Jean K. ($200) for their very thoughful donations and support. You all keep me going!

It really is something when you can say….

Oh it's just 9 miles. There was a hill to go up: not a bad one, but I appreciated my walk breaks. There was a serious hill to go down, which is much harder on the body than going up.

So, how did I do? I ran 9 pain-free miles and my pre-injury pace and it felt great! For the first time, Willow and I ran together on a Saturday run and we happened to be the only people running in my group. We had a wonderful time together: dished some dirt, talked fashion and food, and finished our run feeling great.

The UV is something else. I have a sunburn even though I was wearing 30 block. I've got a bit of the summer Rudolph look. The benefit of the warmer days we've had is that the ocean was the warmest it's been all season. Our post run 10 minute dip was actually a nice cool down. Being a Chrissy Field rather than Ocean Beach means calmer swells and that's always better too.

I had some difficulty mapping our 9 mile course, so here's the closest I could get from the written directions and memory. It should give you a sense of the elevation change and the hill we climbed from mile 2.5 - 3.5…boy it felt good to reach the top.

To date we've raised $708,350! Can you believe it? That's a lot of money in just over four months. I think we're going to hit our $1 million goal.

I would like to thank my teammates at PRN on the Plano Team, who graciously donated our Quarterly Achievement Award prize of $300 to AIDS Marathon. Thank you! Your cocktail sacrifice is greatly appreciated!!

I would also like to thank Eric P. & Dan P. for their $25 donations and Roselyn for her $20 contribution. To date, I've received generous contributions totaling $3690. Simply amazing. Thank you all!

What an incredible day!

Today was wonderful. It was cool and mostly overcast, which is great running weather. Last night I had such a hard time falling asleep. I kept thinking about how I had to run 12 miles the next morning and worried that my knee might give out again or that I wouldn’t be able to finish the run. I dreamt about running most of the night. I also had a lot of other wacky dreams.

And then, I overslept. I woke up nine minutes before Willow would be here to pick me up. It was a really good thing that I set all my things out last night. I ran though the house eating cereal and dressing simultaneously. I put in my contacts while she was driving to the park and taped my knees during the Pace Group Leader’s meeting. And then…I ran. 12 wonderful miles! It was fantastic.

When I saw the marker “Mile 12” I felt like I could easily have run five more. I felt strong, my knee didn’t hurt, the sun was breaking through the clouds. It was marvelous. At the end of my run, following tradition, Willow and I stood in the ocean for ten minutes to “ice” our knees.

In the icy waters, we recapped our day’s run and shared the cheers and songs our minds devised to entertain us on our route. I made up a cheer that after sharing with Shaun, our Site Coordinator who gives us wonderful cheers each week, I will be doing for the entire site. I made it up somewhere around mile 7 and shared it with my team. They ran 18 miles today and said that in the last two they used it several times to keep them going. I thought when I shared it with Shaun he would share it with others – but now I guess I’ll be doing it at 8 am in front of everyone.

Today I was running with the Jack Fosters, so here’s my cheer:

When I say Fosters, you say Wow!
Fosters!
Wow!
Fosters!
Wow!
When I say running, you say Now!
Running!
Now!
Running!
Now!

Each team can replace Fosters with the name of their team or simply “Runners”. Willow’s was much better. In her head today, she rewrote Aretha Franklin’s Natural Woman to “You make me feel like a Marathon Runner, Runner!” She actually synched up every verse to match our training. I know Shaun will be doing that one soon!


This evening I went for a three mile walk to flush out any lactic acid in my legs. While I felt like I had hardly lactic acids I also doubted that I had any brain cells as I’d clearly used all my body’s sugar for my legs. I doubt I had any decision making and certainly no critical thinking skills to call upon. Nonetheless, I felt like I could walk for hours.

Next week we’re running 10 miles, then 16 the following Saturday. This week I logged 25 miles, 19 running 6 walking. I can’t believe we’re in the hundreds of miles logged. It’s crazy! And so much fun!

Enjoying my new shoes…the last pair pasted the 300 mile mark and are now for causal use only.

Many Thanks for your donations!

Good Morning. I’d like to say Thank You to some wonderful people who have helped support the cause. Your donations make such a difference. (I almost feel like I’m about to gaze through the mirror on Romper Room as I call out names.) Sathina & Craig $250, Anh $100, Lea $50, Omar $25, Aria $25, Marion $100, Joy $40, Suzanne $25, Andrea $25, Erica $25, ja Elise $25, Katie $50, and Mana $25. Thank you all!

I think it might have been the shoes. My day was over the top wonderful (Yes, the endorphins are probably still streaming through my blood.)

Women and shoes. Yes, it’s a cliché but I am a woman who loves shoes and today I received the most incredible pair of new shoes. They are beautiful, they sparkle, and best of all they make my feet feel like I’m walking on clouds. Clearly, they are not my first pair of Manolos. And Carrie would probably never look twice at them. In fact, I would probably kick down three bills for sexy strapies if they felt this good.

I love getting deliveries at work. It usually means I scored something wonderful on eBay. Today, when I opened my package all I could think of was “Today is Tuesday. Tuesdays are maintenance run days and I have new shoes!”

I took the express bus home, I was practically changing into my gym clothes as I came through the door of my flat and was back out the door in less than 5 minutes. And today, today I felt like a runner. I remember when I was training for my first AIDS Marathon and after the race, after the recovery, I started running. I actually became a runner and I would run after work and sometimes it would feel so good I was sure my feet weren’t even hitting the ground. That was today. Today, I was a runner. I ran three miles after work, stretched at Ocean Beach while watching the sun sink into the sea.

Last weekend we passed the half way mark in our 26 weeks of training and fundraising and I ran 8 pain-free miles. As of today, we’ve raised $639,363.00 and are closing in on our $1 million goal. I hope you’ll join us in our fight against AIDS…we’re so close to this goal. In the fight against AIDS it’s probably something akin to a maintenance run. It’s a piece of puzzle, but you know, those maintenance runs build muscle and stamina and after a bunch of them we win. I won’t win the marathon. In fact, just typing that make me giggle. I can win my own race though and we can beat AIDS. We just have to keep working at it.

I look forward to the day that I don’t have to run marathons to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS. I look forward to the day that I run lots of half marathons because they’re fun. Mostly, I look forward to an end to suffering. Choose your cause, but pick one and fight for it.