My First Expo! Mercer Island Half!

Rock 'n' Roll folks sent me a bunch of stuff for my first expo! Cody helped me get set up as it required more labor than my little arms could muster. I signed up 20 runners! It was a ton of fun talking to people about the event and about other runs as well. I didn't realize how much I knew about running until I spent a whole day talking to people about it! Then, the next day, I was at Seward Park giving away SBUX treats and talking to people s'more! Yes, it's super time consuming to do this, and considering the value of my time it's pretty much a volunteer gig. But I really enjoy it, and I think Cody is glad that I don't talk to him 24/7 about running and it gets me doing something besides complaining about being bored all the time. He has been super amazing & supportive.  =)

Running Decisions

This weekend, I committed to do Ragnar with the Burning Bunions. They've since changed their name to Two Shortcuts & A Detour, or something like that. Bob said they had a revelation during some gathering and decided to change their name. I think it'll be slightly awkward since we have two giant feet with bunions on the rockboxes. I think there are maybe 7 of us who have paid up and selected a running position. I will be #12, a hard ~10 miles (long but flat) followed by 2 moderate ~5 miles (rolling hills.) It should be fun.

I also decided that after this Ambassador of Rock gig is over, I will probably join the Seattle Running Club. They meet pretty regularly between Fleet Feet and Balance Athlete, both of which are pretty convenient for me location wise. I think it will improve my running to join a club since I don't really train or do drills or anything, and I feel like I have pretty much plateaued. To actually run with people who are like minded and to do track workouts should be beneficial. At least I'm hopeful.

Busy Rockin'!

I've completely neglected my blogs the past few weeks. Apologies! But I have been busy with work, run, work, and work running! It's fabulous to finally get paid to run, but it's definitely a lot of work! I'm discovering all of the local run clubs, run stores, and run activities that Seattle has to offer and I must say it is VERY impressive! I did not realize Seattle had so many gathering of runners throughout the city and in neighboring areas. What a great way to meet people! And stores see the market potential and put on events that incorporate other fun activities and promotions with running to get more folks out there. Amazing! I love love love it! It's turning out to be a lot more work than I expected as the Ambassador of Rock, but I'm enjoying it and am definitely going to do my best to get this event sold out as quickly as possible!

2012 Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon Promo Code!!

Last day for discounted registration fee! Sign up now! Use promo code for additional $10 off! DO IT!!

Ambassador of Rock - Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon & ½ Marathon!

That's ME!!!! Just got hired by Competitor Group to promote the event for 2012! I'm super excited and can't wait to start spreading the rock gospel to all of Seattle! Watch out, folks! It's going down!!

Updates!

I signed up for the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in June! My friend is moving there in 2 weeks so the timing will be perfect for us to crash with her and hang out for a few days. I'm super excited!

At this point, I've pretty much decided not to do a half ironman this year. I will continue to cross train, but I want to focus on my running and build up endurance. Maybe a 50K soon? =)

It's a miracle!

3 days after the Arizona Marathon and I'm able to run up and down the stairs - for real?!? I'm very happy that my body is recovering much faster this time. It took me 3 days to stop scooting down the stairs on my butt after the Seattle Marathon, and even then I didn't walk normal for 5 or 6 days. This is excellent news! Too bad it's SnowMaggedon outside and I haven't been able to go anywhere to actually get a decent run in.

Yay! I did it again!!

Finished the Arizona Rock & Roll Marathon in 3:32:41!

Just barely qualified for the Boston Marathon in my division, but the battle is just beginning. The way sign-up works now, on top of cutting the requirement times to make it harder, they also allow people to sign up in increments. Those who meet their division times by more than a certain number of minutes get to sign up on Day 1, those who beat it by less sign up on Day 2, and I think it drags out for a few days before it's a free-for-all for the rest of the qualifiers. Since I just barely made it, I'll probably be one of the last, if there are still spots open at that point. *sigh* I might consider doing the Seattle Rock & Roll just to try and get under 3:30, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

On the positive side, my legs are a lot better today already. I'm actually running up and down the stairs, whereas last time i had to shimmy down on my butt for a few days. I definitely think I was more prepared this time, and the course was much flatter, but what I didn't consider was the dry air that I'm not used to. I sounded like a smoker all Sunday after running in that dry heat, although, the temperature was near perfect so I really can't complain.

Similar to the Vegas R&R, people didn't get to the start line on time, but rather than just leaving them, the start time actually got pushed out 30 minutes. Yeah, we waited for them. It was annoying because we were cold standing out there in shorts and such, but I think it was nice of them to wait. People spend a lot of time, effort, money to participate and organizations should definitely take that into consideration.

The bands at this race were awesome! They weren't very attractive, mostly older folks, but they were almost all cover bands. So, each time I ran by one, I recognized the songs and they were good. It was motivating. Another thing that made the time go by were the doggies people had. I noticed that most people had fluffy, beautiful dogs in Arizona, big and small. I saw lots of shitzus and maltese, and some very large fluffy dogs as well. They reminded me of Beezy and kept me going. In contrast, Seattle folks usually have labs and mutts. Nothing wrong with that, just doing a little comparison.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the results and also very grateful for having a wonderful bf to support me and take care of me on these endeavors. <3

First post of 2012!

I set a resolution to run 1,750mi this year. That's approximately 35mi per week for 50 weeks. As long as I don't run into injury, I think it's totally do-able.

I will also be aiming for the photo-shopped abs - such is the case every year and I usually end up deciding that I just love carbs too much. Speaking of carbs, the low carb diet started off well, but the NYE weekend in Mt. Hood pretty much slaughtered it. Been back on the wagon, though, this week and going strong!

I printed out my confirmation form for the Arizona R&R marathon next weekend. Number 1428! Yup, that's corral numbero uno! I stated my goal as 3:20:00. I didn't realize that would put me so far up, but it's better than getting stuck in the crowd. I'm getting excited, even though I hurt my neck pretty bad snowboarding last weekend and haven't been able to put in much mileage this week. I will try to do double digits on Sunday and jog a bit next week in preparation. I've been monitoring the weather in Phoenix and it is marvelous! Pretty excited just to get out of this crappy Seattle weather.

Low Carbs Day 3 - no serious casualties

It's been 3 days since I cut down on carbs. I would say there have been zero casualties, not including the crappy waiter and the incompetent coworker, both of whom needed, and deserved, a little bit of "educating."

I realized that I'm still eating a lot of vegetables and fruit, which have carbs, so I'm not really going low-carb normal people style, just low-carb Kayan style. Definition: Before, my days were split something like 90% carbs and 10% everything else, now it is closer to 50% carbs and 50% everything else. I usually don't eat a lot of straight meat. It is generally mixed it in with some yummy starch, but I've been eating steak, scallops, chicken, etc. without mixing it in anything.It's tough, because I sooooo want some bread, or crackers, or potatoes, or noodles. I still eat constantly, so I feel full all of the time, but something is just not quite there....