Hi,

First, with today being the anniversary of the Boston Marathon bomings, and with Monday being this year’s Boston Marathon I thought it would be the perfect time to share this opportunity for you to feel the intense passion my friend Roger has for running and for helping find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

Roger is one of the 5 of us who ran the Mainly Marathons Center of the Nation Series back in 2013.

Roger in Wyoming on his self-declared "Boston Strong" day. We all wore blue to support the Boston victims

Roger in Wyoming on his self-declared “Boston Strong” day. We all wore blue to support the Boston victims

The short version is Roger lost 113 pounds in 9 months to run the Boston Marathon and raise money to help support Team Boomer and the important research being done to conquer Cystic Fibrosis.

Roger’s niece Julia has CF and while Roger was morbidly obese and could barely breathe he realized that his niece was also struggling to breathe. But he had a choice to remedy that. He’s been a force like no other I’ve yet to meet in my life. You must go here to donate if you can. He chooses one marathon a year to be his big fundraising effort and this year it’s Big Sur.

Here’s his amazing video:

Best of Luck to you Roger and I can’t wait to see photos from the race! Big Sur is a sight like no other.

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In other big news Duncan got his stitches out yesterday! Yippee!

IMG_2418

And I’ve been eating too many Peanut M&Ms.

There is no such thing as sharing. I don't share my Peanut M&Ms

There is no such thing as sharing. I don’t share my Peanut M&Ms

I was feeling rather sore in 2 spots after the Love Run, my left calf and my right piriformis. So I didn’t run at all on Monday and Tuesday. But Wednesday and yesterday I ran about 4 miles each at an easy pace.

Wednesday easy 4

Wednesday easy 4

Thursday easy 4

Thursday easy 4

My calf still feels a bit achy and i’m actually planning to get in my long run later today, so i’ve been wearing a compression sleeve, and massaging and foam rolling it, and using ice/heat too. After today, I’ll most likely take a few days off completely.

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NJ Half Marathon Goals

So now I’ll tell you about my goals for the NJ Half Marathon in 17 days. I was going to keep them a secret but something compelled me to share. First of all, after 3 years running the full at NJM, this will be my first time running the half there.

Setting my marathon PR at the NJ Marathon in 2014

Setting my marathon PR at the NJ Marathon in 2014

The last 2 races (Cherry Blossom 10 miler and Love Run Half Marathon) I’ve kept a 10 min overall pace with plenty of splits between 9:37 and 9:45. And I was completely in control of my breathing the entire time. I’d probably consider these tempo runs. So, I have decided—barring any injury or crappy weather on race day—that I want to push myself and try to keep a 9:45 pace for the entire race and finish sub 2:10. I’ve run about 35 half marathons in my life ranging in time from 2:05 to 2:54 and only 3 of those were sub 2:10 (2:05:03, 2:07:54 and 2:09:18) So if I can keep to a 9:45 pace I can finish in 2:08. I know it’s going to be tough but I want the challenge. And this course is not only flat, but I know every turn like the back of my hand having run the full marathon 3 years plus doing multiple training runs on the course. I’m not going to be devastated if I can’t achieve this goal but I’m excited about trying 🙂

 

What or who inspires you?

Any fun weekend plans?

Will you be watching the Boston Marathon on Monday?

Hello,

Hope you are all safe and sound. Working from home does have its drawbacks. When there’s a terrible global event (yesterday’s terrorist attack on the airport and metro in Brussels) there is constant news coverage. I was sick and full of anxiety and sadness all before starting my day. I handled a couple of urgent work tasks and then headed out for a run to get away from the television.

It turned out to be a really good run.

A good run

A good run

I really have no idea what I did differently. Only thing I can think of is that now that I’ve reached 10 miles for the long run the weekday runs that are 3-4 miles will just inherently feel easier.

Maybe it was my lucky PR shirt. I wore this shirt when I PR'ed at the 2014 NJ Marathon

Maybe it was my lucky PR shirt. I wore this shirt when I PR’ed at the 2014 NJ Marathon

Sunday I went to this fun trampoline place called Sky Zone with Mr. SOTSS and his oldest daughter. It was so much fun. I bounced a lot. We got a kick out of my hair during the slow mo.

Monday morning I woke up to the first full day of Spring with a blanket of snow.

IMG_1874It was so pretty but within a few hours it had all melted. Monday also marked 7 years since the day I picked up Duncan at 11 weeks old. Crazy!

On the drive home from western PA. I drove 8 hours round trip to get this munchkin

On the drive home from western PA. I drove 8 hours round trip to get this munchkin

And 7 years later he’s still attached at the hip (or maybe i’m attached to his hip.)

hipsters

hipsters

He is so good in the car. Just relaxes until we pull into the driveway and I tell him “we’re home”.

Well, I’ve got a busy day so I’m off to work.work.work.

Happy Humpday.

How was your last run? 3 fun things happening in your life right now.

Woah! How is it 6 days into the new year already? Let’s catch up! How did you ring in the new year? Anything new and exciting planned for 2016?

So the good news is I have managed to break my 10-cookie-a-day-habit but I have been satisfying my sweet tooth with these candy canes I got on the half price rack after Christmas 🙂

IMG_0211Let’s face it—I have no expectation that my sweet tooth will just disappear for 2016 so I’ll do what I can to keep it under control.

I got a new couch and it comes with a classic Sally story. So last Tuesday I met some of my high school alumni at a local bar for our annual holiday get together. It’s always fun to catch up although we keep in touch on Facebook too. I spent 4+ hours there and it was after midnight when I got home. I was expecting my new sofa to be delivered between 6:30-9:30am the following day and knew I needed to get my existing furniture out to the curb. I couldn’t exactly call someone in the middle of the night. Mr. SOTSS’s suggestion was for me to just move my existing furniture into the dining room until he was able to get over to help but I’m stubborn and a little too type A to be able to handle having the old stuff lingering for a day or more. So I just hauled a$$ and got-er-done but I took out chunks of sheetrock, pulled some muscles and bruised myself along the way.

All because I was too stubborn to wait 12 hours!

All because I was too stubborn to wait 12 hours!

But I did it! #stronglikebull #stubbornasamule

But I did it! Down 2 flights of enclosed spiral stairs #stronglikebull #stubbornasamule

There was even a moment that the love seat was literally wedged in the staircase and I couldn’t budge it loose. I almost fell apart and cried but I pulled myself together and slithered under the railing to get beneath and jiggle the love seat free. While I’m still sore and bruised a week later, it was worth it.

And the new sofa? I love it!

IMG_0111It’s big enough for Mr. SOTSS, me and BOTH dogs. This was very important to me since Chester is a big boy and hasn’t been able to fit on the sofa with us without being a “lap” dog =)

we ALL fit!

we ALL fit!

So I thought it would be fun to go month by month and share my most memorable moments of 2015. They won’t all be running related but I’m sure you don’t mind. Gonna go in reverse and start with December first so that I can tell you all about my New Year’s Eve:

DECEMBER 31—New Year’s Eve/Day

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

I spent the afternoon strolling the outlet stores with Mr. SOTSS, his girls and his mom too! We then picked up some groceries at the supermarket for dinner. The girls and I took on the important responsibility of picking out ice cream flavors and before you knew it we had whipped cream, chocolate chips, sprinkles and chocolate syrup! If there’s one thing I know it’s that you need to make ice cream sundae’s to ring in the new year. Mr. SOTSS’ mom cooked an amazing dinner (his aunt and uncle joined us for dinner too!). We then put on our party hats and waited patiently for midnight. The girls played chess and then joined me in working on one of the jigsaw puzzles that I bought them for Christmas.

Matching shirts!

Matching shirts!

The finished puzzle. All glued together and ready for hanging.

The finished puzzle. All glued together and ready for hanging.

Party animal!

Party animal!

Siblings! Always a competition =)

Siblings! Always a competition =)

More »

First, let’s talk about the Boston Marathon. It’s always so inspiring to watch. And boy could I feel for those runners in the cold and wet weather.

I streamed the marathon on my computer while at work and while I watched the winners cross I was called away from my desk and missed seeing Meb hold hands with that elite woman. Thank god it was posted everywhere! He’s the bomb. I think if I could meet any runner I’d pick him.

OK, so tonight when I came home from work I walked the dog for about 30 minutes and then i took off for my run. It’s probably the penultimate of my training cycle. I’m hoping to squeeze one more easy peasy 2 or 3 miles on Thursday or Friday.

IMG_4942

sunset

sunset

Now because I’m starting to get into my obsessive all about that base marathon mode I looked up the weather forecast first.

looks good to me!

looks good to me!

And then, because I’m a numbers geek, I went to see how many miles I logged last year in preparation for the 2014 NJ Marathon and how many little I ended up running for the 2015 NJ Marathon.

hmmm, less than half of the miles as last year.

hmmm, less than half of the miles as last year.

Yikes! I am so undertrained! But I’m still so excited to run. I’m actually looking forward to hitting the wall boardwalk in Asbury Park at mile 20.

I just yawned so I better wrap this up and what better way than with cute doodle pics…

Sloppy sit!

Sloppy sit!

I think Chester likes the smell of Duncan's paws

I think Chester likes the smell of Duncan’s paws

If you could meet any elite runner who would it be?

Are you a numbers person? Do you look at your running statistics all the time?