Tuesday, June 30, 2009

link of the day

Check this out - Sarah Palin is pretty cool. I knew she was a runner, but I didn't know she ran a sub-4 marathon! Dang. She would totally smoke me in a race!

I'm a Runner - Sarah Palin - from Runner's World

Check out the pics too!

Friday, June 12, 2009

disney marathon: mile 26.2

Ahhhh this is it! The end!

As I ran under Spaceship Earth, and the applause and cheers became even louder and thunderous, I was shaking...oh my goodness, could this really be the end? I rounded a corner, out a back entrance, into the parking lot...and there it was. Huge crowd to my left. Trees. Grandstand. Finish line. Tears. Arms up. One more smile. One more "yeah!!" Waving at my fan club one more time from this side of the finish line - their cheers & smiles & jumping up and down gave the final push I needed to get over the line.










And then it was done. 26.2 miles. Done. Once I crossed the line, a million thoughts left my head and for just one second I felt sad. A year of training to do something less than .5% of Americans will do this year. And now it was over. Now what? But then as I kept walking, I saw the medals, I saw how far I had to keep walking and the lines of people going through the aid stations and all I could think was "I need to see my family RIGHT NOW." I was so giddy and excited and I just couldn't wait in any more lines! I needed ice for my legs, badly, but I just didn't want to wait. Time to celebrate!!!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

6 lbs lighter

Today I had my post-boot camp fitness assessment, and I am 6 lbs lighter and 3% less body fat. I guess that's pretty good right? I want to do it again, and see if I can take off another 6 lbs, but I don't think with a wedding coming up in less than 3 months that I can really afford the expense. I'm definitely going to try & keep it up though, work out hard like that every morning that I can. I feel so much stronger now...even though the post test said I was about the same in strength & flexibility, I don't believe it. The last day of boot camp I could bear crawl like never before!! haha. And I can do more than 10 pushups without collapsing. That's saying something.

I have to say that my favorite days of boot camp were 2 days last wk and then the last day (on Monday). One of the days we did an Easter egg hunt of sorts...one person sprinted to the eggs and brought one back, and whatever was written on the egg was what the group had to do. Another day we went to Centennial Park and did a lot of running, stopping at various points in the park and doing different things. A really nice change-up in routine, and of course, we all know that I can run. The last thing we did at the park day was run from one end of the park all the way back to CNN center...it was long and a gradual uphill, but I didn't stop even though I felt like I was moving so slowly. At the top of the hill I thought, how did I ever do that for 26.2 miles?! I can't even imagine it now.

Then the last day of boot camp, we did a relay race where we sprinted, ran backwards, skipped, and sprinted again. My team won so we didn't have to do extra stairs! Yippee! But that day was fun, in addition to the relay race, we did a sequence of bear crawl, run, crabwalk, run, side squat, run, lunge, run. I actually enjoyed that too. It was hard but we could go at our own pace.

So in summary, boot camp was a worthwhile, effective and even fun experience. There were days I dreaded getting out of bed, but man, I am so glad I did. Above all, I'll miss the people. It's funny how attached you can get to people after seeing them every morning, bright & early, for 20 days. I actually saw one of the boot campers today before my post test, she was just lunging away around the athletic club track. Dedication! Encouragement...motivation...I think that really makes a difference. We'll see how that works when I'm on my own!

And I guess it's back to long distance running :) Half marathon, Disneyland??

Monday, June 8, 2009

across the earth (long post!)

A couple weeks ago, Ryan & I went to see Hillsong United in concert. Those aren't really the right words...really, we went to worship. A while back, I got a Hillsong CD which is actually different from Hillsong United, which is the youth-oriented worship band from the church of the same name. Confused yet? haha. The best part is that even as confusing as it may be, it makes me want to move to Australia so bad. The point is that these are really great worship songs and have gotten me through some times - good & bad. It's amazing to me how one church can have such a worldwide influence over how the Church worships. But then I guess that's just God! He does big things.

It's hard to describe what a blessing the night was, but I'll try. I bought the tickets a long time ago, and so they were pretty good, right near the front, and supposedly seats. But when we got there, Hillsong United had asked to have all the pit seats taken out, so we were standing the whole time. And we were so close!


We got there with just enough time to spare, and then worship started...


Brooke Fraser! She's from NZ originally, so you know, she's a kiwi! I love her voice, it's something else.


Here are some of the best pics that Ryan took throughout the night...






The blessing of those hours...just the sweet fellowship with other believers, thousands of us brought together for one purpose: worship. To gather at God's feet and adore Him, tell Him how worthy He is, reflect on how much we need Him, how much we owe Him, how much He's done for us. Like a very small taste of what heaven might be like, when we are all together praising the Lord all the time! We were truly in the presence of the Lord that night. Which is why it's so hard to put it into human words.

Here are some videos that Ryan took too:
Mighty to Save

All I Need Is You - audio only

Salvation is Here - I have claimed this song through so many things - esp the marathon :)

From the Inside Out

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

disney marathon: miles 13-26

Slowly but surely, we are nearing the end of my marathon memories. Sad! Maybe that's why I didn't want to blog on it for so long, because then there really would be nothing left :(

Anyway, from the Grand Floridian on til the finish, I didn't see my fan club at all. It was a very long stretch. Even though the race was already half over, the last half was excruciating. I also don't have as many pictures.

So after Grand Floridian, we started the trek towards the Animal Kingdom. So boring. I never thought I would say that at Disney World. But seriously, those roads in between parks can be really dull. Especially the back roads that the service vehicles take. I think we got to see the recycling center or some other kind of maintenance area. Exciting right? All the while, the only thing really keeping me going was the Sharpie fun facts signs, the food stand where I grabbed a banana, and the sudden urge to pee. I actually stopped a couple times at portapotties but the lines were so dang long that I didn't wait around for long before I continued running.

Finally, a break! The Animal Kingdom. We ran through a back entrance and were greeted by all kinds of exotic animals with their trainers, as well as some more Disney characters. And then...thank goodness. A real bathroom. Potty break with no line. I was happy :) And then running through the Animal Kingdom. I enjoyed it - we actually ran through a large portion of the park rather than just skirting the front like we did at the Magic Kingdom.

Here I am in front of Mt. Everest:


After leaving the Animal Kingdom, we ran around the bus stops in front of the park and at this point, the sun got really, really hot. I closed my eyes a lot because of the brightness. Then the heat really started to get to me. And then of course, we were back on roads that were not so exciting. I got to this point, I can't remember what it was called, something like Mile 20 lift? A bunch of photographers on a huge lift above us taking pictures. Maybe you can tell how bright it was getting:

At this point I was really starting to drag. Soon after the lift, I started to walk, I remember seeing the Wide World of Sports kind of near us. It was just so hot! And I started to feel the pain in my feet and legs. There was a slight hill around Mile 21, and after topping that, I started to run (at this point, really it was a jog) again. I knew that MGM was close.

Yep MGM was close. Around mile 22, we went in through a back entrance right onto the set of their backstage tour. We actually ran through the wardrobe tunnel. I got really cheered up to see High School Musical costumes in the windows. They also passed out mini chocolates...I think this was the last food station. We ran right by the big hat, which was also pretty cool. We ran through MGM out the front and onto the sidewalk that connects MGM to the back entrance of Epcot. At this point, I took another walking break. At first, I was very discouraged. I wanted to keep running, but the pain was just unbelievable. I've never felt that way before. I thought, it's just 4 more miles, that's nothing to me. Why does this hurt so freakin bad?! Then I just kept thinking about my training book though, and I held my head up high, because dangit, I was going to finish this thing!!! I prayed a lot in my head too, and I just kept thinking about my fan club and how much I loved them and couldn't wait to see them at the finish line. So I would run as much as I could, then walk. Then run again, then walk. Just basically did whatever I could take to keep moving forward. We ran around the Boardwalk and those resorts - I have some very unflattering pictures of me there if you really want to see them, haha.

Then finally, back into Epcot. You know that feeling when you come home after being gone for a long time, and you just feel so at peace and happy? That feeling flooded my heart. Oh hello Epcot. It's been 5 hours since I was here earlier in the morning, and I was SO glad to be back. Yay Epcot. We ran around the countries once more, and then back to the ball, and then the cheers were getting so thunderous that I started to cry. I couldn't believe all these people cheering us on. Waving signs, flags, etc. Even though I wanted to walk some more, I just had to keep going. The energy was incredible!!

Monday, June 1, 2009

last wk!

This is my last week of boot camp! Yippee! I don't think I'm going to do it next month. It's well worth the money, but it's pretty expensive for my budget. However, I do have a wedding coming up in August that the money would be better for! I've learned a lot, and although I don't feel much thinner, I do feel stronger, and that's important. I may do it again in July, depending on how much I slack off in June.

Last week, the girl instructor was gone, so we had the guy Brian every AM. So imagine my surprise this AM when I was expecting Jenn to be back today and maybe an easier day...there was Brian. Ughh. I love the guy, he is a great instructor, but he's INTENSE. There's just no better word. So today we did most of the usual...mountain climbers, planks, pushups, squats, lunges, bear crawls, windmills, jumping jacks, running. Maybe I should make a video so you can understand some of these ridiculous moves, haha. With Brian, I have to peek out the corner of my eye to make sure he's not looking if I need to take a break. Anyway, the crowning moment was at the very end. Instead of running up the stairs like we usually do, we walked up the stairs while holding a kettle bell above our heads with our arms straight & elbows locked. It BURNED. We did probably 400 stairs this way. I envisioned my arms giving out and the kettle bell crashing into my head.

Anyway besides the boot camp, my mom got me the Wii Active, and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with it so far. A lot of the exercises overlap with what we've done in boot camp (squats, lunges, high knees, resistance band arm exercises), so I've been using it in the evenings to get extra workouts in. The leg strap can sometimes be annoying and fall off, and the resistance band isn't very hard either. I'll probably have to go buy a real one. I started the 30 day challenge and have done 4 of the workouts so far, none of which were the same. The exercises switch up every minute or so, it's never monotonous. Although...I've only tried the "hard" intensity, I'm not sure what medium and low are like. Definitely give it a try if you have a Wii...it's easy to pick up and get a workout in when you're crunched for time.