Adding another race to my belt this coming weekend....

Hello my few friends who follow my sometimes updated  blog!

Just thought I would check in here and get ready to blog another race weekend!  A few friends from TNT and my friend from work and I are headed to LV for the Rock n' Roll Half Marathon this coming weekend courtesy of our driver, Ed.  We leave Friday, so check back for some updates of our adventures.  Should be a fun one, even if it's going to be really cold!!

Stay Tuned.......

Joy's Alaskan Adventure!

Yes, I am crazy and short on time today.  To make a long story short....I have signed up with Team in Training to do the Mayor's Half Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska in June 2011.  So, I am hard core fundraising again.....visit my site!  I will update more later.......so excited!!




Visit my Fundraising Site for Alaska!

Lots going on in this head lately.....

Hello strangers!  Yes, I have neglected this poor blog since I returned from San Diego.  So, I have decided to try and post more here.....

So, I have been involved with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for a few years now....the first few were just walking in the Light the Night walk with my family and then more recently, with Team in Training starting in 2009.  My reason for getting involved was to walk in memory of my Grandma, who had Leukemia.  She was diagnosed in her 80's and was pretty much told that there was not much they could do because of her age and the side effects of the treatment.  So, my inspiration has been to help raise money to fund research that will hopefully find less toxic treatment for all cancer patients, but the elderly in particular.  My Grandma passed away in 2006.  I have always hated this dumb disease but recently, I have had way too much exposure to it.

One of my Team in Training teammates lost her dad to Leukemia a few weeks before we went to San Diego for the marathon.  That was rough to see as he was one of her biggest supporters when it came to her running and marathons.  I never met him but you could see it in his eyes in pictures.  We rallied around her and conquered our long run on the canal behind Sunnyslope with his name on our jerseys.

Last month, a guy I went to high school with found out that his 4 year old has Stage 4 Neuroblastoma, which is a common childhood cancer, but can be aggressive.  I have not really had any contact with Woody over the years and then everyone joined the facebook bandwagon, so that is about it for a connection but that doesn't matter when you take one look at Ronan.  Strangers have taken to his story because his beautiful eyes just pull you in, whether you like it or not. He has begun a journey that is not going to be easy but all you have to do is read his Mom's blog and you will see that he will be just fine.  I don't know her but her personality and determination is very evident in her writing.  The Thompson family will get through this and I can't help but follow their story and keep them in my thoughts and prayers.  Follow his story at www.rockstarronan.com

Two weeks ago, I read an update from a friend of mine that just set the waterworks off.  I am sure you get tired of hearing me talk about how much I love Team in Training and how great of an experience it is.  All of that is true about both seasons that I have completed but there was something about our San Diego/Seattle group that was different.  We clicked instantly and spent every Saturday on the canals/mountains and smelling up either Einstein's or IHOP, depending on the week. We invaded the track at Andersen Jr. High every Tuesday and did so with smiles on our faces and determination to raise money and awareness about blood cancers.  In the end, everyone was raising money for each other to make sure everyone met their goals.  I had not seen that happen in my previous season, which just said a lot about the friendships that had formed during this training season.  No matter how fast or slow you were, we were all together at the end of practice and either ate together or continued on our merry way each Saturday.

We headed to San Diego and I went by myself, so I needed a roommate.  I just indicated on my paperwork that if there was anyone from the East Valley group that didn't have a roommate, I would rather room with them over someone from another location.  So, I looked at the name on my envelope at our send off party and found that Heather would have to put up with me for a weekend.  We all had so much fun and she was the best roommate ever!  So, when her little announcement to us was, "I have cancer," I was shocked.  So now, she is one of our heroes.  Her positive attitude as well as all the support she has is going to pull her through being diagnosed with breast cancer at 29 years old.  She heads into surgery tomorrow and we will all be there for her whenever she needs anything.  In only a few hours, we filled up a spread sheet of people who love her and will provide dinners for her and her Mom over the next few weeks while she recovers and then heads into her chemo treatments.  That is what a TEAM does.  Heather - kick cancer's ass!

Thanks for being my free therapy this evening.  I have had so much running through my head dealing with this horrible disease called cancer and how it's affecting everyone from small innocent little boys to women too young to have to decide on what kind of surgery to have, and everyone in between.  Hopefully, with all the research going on out there, we can find a cure and not have to deal with all this garbage.  Seeing all of this over the past month or so has put things in perspective for me personally.  I may have issues going on right now that are stressing me out but it's nothing compared to what Ronan and Heather are going through.

So, find a cause that you are passionate about and get involved.  Every little bit helps....

Yes, I am doing this again.....

So, I have signed up for the next Team in Training event, which is the PF Chang's Half Marathon in Phoenix!  I am a Mission Captain again but this time, I am working with all three marathon groups, not just my East Valley training group.  It's going to be exciting to do a home race with Team in Training.  Anyone else interested?  Let me know!  Visit my fundraising site as well!


http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs11/NauTweety

Stay tuned!!


Go TEAM!!

Monday, June 7th, 2010 - Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

So, we decided not to take our assigned shuttle to get to the airport because we had to get on it at 11am for a 4pm flight.  That was simply not acceptable, so we stuck around the hotel and enjoyed the beautiful weather a bit longer.  We hit up the deli for lunch and sat outside knowing that we would not be able to do that when we got home…..the first piece of news I paid attention to was the excessive heat advisory that we were under at home.  YUCK!

We headed to the airport and proceeded to celebrate our victories as well as my roomie, Heather’s birthday.  We made some noise in the airport and stimulated the economy in the bar and talked about how much fun we had, despite the blisters and sore muscles.

It was pretty funny to see us all maneuver around.  We boarded the plane and headed home….back to reality I suppose.  I was not too sad though…..my LMT sister was picking me up from the airport and taking me to her place where her massage table was ready to go!!  I got my post race massage, which was awesome!  The greatest thing about this race experience was that the only thing that really hurt after this was my back.  No shin pain, no pain in my feet.  A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  My close friends and family will remember that I was in some pretty horrible pain after Seattle because I let my feet go untreated.  I was worried about my shins because of some horrible pain I had a few weeks prior to the race.  I was not going to put all this training and hard work with my TEAM and then not be able to go myself!  Luckily, I had nothing but my back, which bothers me on a regular basis anyway.  Hopefully, the next race, I will just have the normal aches and pains associated with 13.1 miles of fun!  Thanks to my favorite people at Alpha Chiropractic for taking care of me and making sure I was ready to get out on that course and finish.  If you have any need for a sports therapist, chiropractor, or anything of the sort, I highly recommend this office.  Not only do they know what they are doing, it’s a fun time in the process.  I won’t lie and say I enjoy going there all the time, because it is not pain free for me, but it hurts less when you are laughing in the process.  You can tell them I sent you….at your own risk.  J  My walking peeps are also treated there, so we took this picture post race to thank them for taking great care of us:

Another race in the books for me and I am already signed up for PF Chang’s with Team in Training in January as the Mission Captain for all the marathon teams.  I am excited because most of my team is also signed up, so we can continue to motivate new people and have a good time doing it.  I am telling you, if I can be a morning person on the weekend just to put in the miles and can raise money for such a great cause, anyone can.  Ask me and I will put you in touch with the right people to get you signed up! 

And so, I leave you with another GO TEAM!!  TEAM ARIZONA & EAST VALLEY ROCKS!!

Stay tuned for my next adventures, whatever they may be……

Sunday, June 6, 2010 – Race Day!

*****So, I know that I am horrible at blogging at the time things happen but I figured better late than never, right?  That is pretty much the story of my life.  Anyway, here are my tales of the rest of my San Diego trip....only a few weeks later, but who cares, right?*****

So, it’s the crack of dawn and I actually got up on time!  I even have proof:

Everything is laid out, so it’s just a matter of putting clothes on and gathering the necessary items and heading down to the lobby in order to catch the first shuttle to the start of the race.  Funny that now, after the shuttle issues yesterday for the Inspiration Lunch, there were two busses waiting to take us to the start of the race.  We all got on the bus and took the obligatory bus pictures to prove that we were up this early and then headed to the Start Line.

Of course, the first stop, per Hank’s advice is to get in line for the “bathroom” and take care of business.  This is the only time these lovely port-a-potties will actually have toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  Once this was taken care of, we headed to find our team so we could hang out for a few hours and stretch and kill time.  What was funny as we sat in our circle, most of us were updating Facebook on our phones.  Then, we would laugh and talk about how the only people updating their statues at this ridiculous hour were the people sitting in our circle.  Hey, it was early and funny at the time….

Then, it was time to head to our corral - #39.  This is where all the fun takes place….the last corral.  

After another stop at the pretend bathroom, we were all off to our respective corrals.

We waited for almost an hour before we were told by John Bingham, the “Penguin,” to just go!  He lumped corrals 38 and 39 together and just sent us on our way out onto the streets of San Diego.  And we were off…..

ROUTE PICS – I will be posting a slide show here eventually. 

So, there is no way I could blog everything that took place over the next 4+ hours.  One story I will tell happened at about mile 4.  Even though Coach Hank said to use the “bathroom” (and I use that term loosely) several times before the race started, I didn’t have to.  My theory when it comes to nasty Porta John is that if I am going to get in that nasty closet of doom, I had better have to go and go fast.  I didn’t have to, so I decided to wait….and so did Mary.  Rita and Sarah had used it right before we went to our corral, so they were good to go.  Mary ended up being the first to go at the first set of Porta Potties.  We were on our way and were all good until we headed out of Balboa Park and I had to go.  So, we stopped at the next set of Port-o-Lets and I proceeded to use the facilities.  I was just “sitting down” when someone started banging on my “house” and said, “Please Hurry.”  What the?  I thought it was one of the girls giving me crap (pun totally intended) but I didn’t recognize the voice.  I said, “I am hurrying as fast as I can.”  I then heard, “If you don’t hurry up, we will have to take you to the end.”  Again, WTF.  We were at mile 4, not mile 10, not even mile 12.  There is no reason why the Sag Wagon should have been giving us a hard time this early on in the race.  Oh, for those of you who are not familiar with race lingo, a Sag Wagon (or SAD wagon per Mary) is a vehicle that drives after the last participant has started the race.  It is their job to make sure everyone finishes in the 4 hours allotted for the half marathon so that they can open the streets back up.  They are supposed to pick people up and take them to the finish line if they aren’t keeping up the appropriate pace.  I am perfectly fine with you harassing me at mile 12 if I am falling behind but give me a chance to start for the love of my sanity!!  When I got out of the Port-O-Loo, my teammates had started walking a bit and had grabbed my fuel belt as they were told they couldn’t wait for me.  Geez already….give me a break!  So, this was the funny story heard throughout the rest of the weekend. 

So, to make 4+ hours short, we laughed and complained and Rita tried bribing officers of the law to give us rides to the finish line.  Sarah race lifted a flag from “her mile” and carried it as long as she could without it bothering her.  Rita and I took pictures of everything under the sun.  She looked like she was talking a walk in the park…..rightfully so, since she is a serious marathon walking veteran.  Mile 12 was the most interesting as our newbies (Mary and Sarah) developed a bad case of “I hurt, are we there yet, I can’t believe they are walking back with their medals” syndrome.  There were other words inserted here that I cannot repeat as my mother reads this blog as well as other people that may shrivel up and die if they read what was being said during that that last 1.1 mile of the race.  I believe that was my favorite leg of the race next to being told to hurry my pee break.  This was not my first half marathon either but it was the first time I had people to walk with the entire time.  In Seattle, I was by myself most of the race as my teammates were quite a bit faster than me.  In Phoenix, my friends were a lot faster than me and both times, we all started together and then went at our own pace.  The four of us in San Diego have relatively the same pace…..Rita is probably faster but slowed down to enjoy the entertainment that we were all providing.  When one of us needed a pit stop, we all stopped and either took one too or stretched.  So, I had my walking peeps with me the entire race and we all crossed together, which I would not change for the world.  This is the first race where I didn’t turn my I-pod on once, which is unusual for me.  I like my music, but the company of these people was far more than a little device could have given me for over 4 hours.  I may not have had the fastest time in the world, but that was not the goal this time around.  What I do have are memories that will last a lifetime and lifelong friends……and a story that prompts people to tell me to hurry up and pee on a regular basis now.  I cannot wait to do the Vegas half marathon and Phoenix again with these amazing people.  Not only do we all have a passion in common….raising money and awareness about leukemia and lymphoma, we have a damn good time in the process.  I can only imagine the new words I will learn at the end of each race and I can’t wait! 

We finished and headed through the line for pictures.  We got a group picture and then our individual picture and then we headed to find the TNT tent.  After seeing where the UPS trucks were with our gear and where the TNT tent was, Mary made an excellent suggestion to go and get our gear first and then hike to the TNT tent, which was probably another mile away.  Okay, maybe not a whole mile but it sure felt like it.  We found some of our team in the tent and hung out there for a bit……had some food, obtained some much needed ice, and then headed to the busses back to the hotel.  Kudos to whoever had those busses right behind the tent because in Seattle, they were nowhere near where we were. 

We headed back to the room and rested for a bit before heading to the Victory Party.  The funny thing about this is how we all said we were going to party and live it up and we were all so tired, we just hung out and walked around a bit to see what was going on.  We got Mary’s feet temporarily taken care of and then we headed back to the hotel.  At that point, I was out.  Probably the best night’s sleep ever though.

So, this is a little late but that was race day in a nutshell.  I wish I had the time to write it closer to when it actually took place but oh well, that’s how I roll.  Keep checking back for updates on the pictures here since I am still gathering pictures from my teammates.

Go TEAM!!

This one is for you, Grandma...please help me get up at 3am.

Saturday, June 5, 2010 – A Day of Inspiration and Relaxation

Today, all we had planned for us was our Inspiration Lunch.  I pretty much vegged out until it was time to head to the lobby to catch the shuttle.  Too bad they never really showed up for the 3 bus loads of people that were waiting at our hotel alone.  We ended up taking a cab so that we wouldn’t miss out on our lunch.  Team in Training has an Inspiration (usually dinner) meal for the participants where you load up on the carbs and then you hear some speakers that will amaze and inspire you.  This time, we heard from Jenny Hatfield, a motivational speaker and coach who happens to be married to John Bingham, who usually speaks.  He said hello via taped segment and wished us well.  You usually also hear from a survivor or a honored patient and this time, we heard from a man from MN who lost his 10 year old daughter to Leukemia.  I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house.  Once we were done, we got some last minute instructions from our coaches, one of which was very disturbing.  Due to the shuttle bus snafu, we had to change our meeting time tomorrow to 3:45am out by the bus stop.  Excuse me?  Yeah, you heard me…..so; my roomie and I are getting up at 3am.  I am mortified but I will get over it. 

We headed back to the hotel and just hung out.  We got our stuff ready for tomorrow and laid it all out for a photo op:

I spent some time in the lobby where there was free wireless updating the blog and posting some pictures.  We met up for dinner at a deli on the water over here and had something to eat.  One last minute East Valley meeting and it was time to wrap it up for the day….but it’s early!!!  Everyone keeps saying, “Bye…see you in a few hours.”  UGH!

So, the next time you hear from me, I will have a 3^rd 13.1 mile jaunt under my belt, and my 2^nd Team in Training event.  This organization is amazing and I can’t wait to start another journey with another group of awesome people (and some of the same from SD) in August….yes, I have already signed up as a captain for PF Chang’s in AZ in January.  I can’t stay away.

So, as I write this, a perfect stranger just came up to me and gave me a hug and told me to have a good race.  I look like a blubbering fool right now in tears in the lobby on my laptop.  What incredible people I have met or encountered along this journey.  I am telling you, if you ever have a chance to do this with TNT, do it.  I will help you fundraise if you are worried….I just think that everyone should experience what I have experienced, twice now. 

I will see you at the FINISH LINE. 

GO TEAM!

PS...I love our TEAM Arizona shirts!!!

Friday, June 4, 2010 – We are on our way!

It’s finally time to leave!  All our status updates on facebook this week talked about how excited we were to get to race weekend and how we wanted the week to go by faster.  Finally!  We boarded our plan and headed to beautiful San Diego (SD).  Here is one thing that I need to share because it’s flippin hilarious.  Since we traveled as a group, we were given paper tickets.  When is the last time you saw these bad boys?  I believe my words were something along the lines of, “Moses delivered me my tickets on tablets today.” I just had to share…I guess it was funnier the first time.

Back to the plane:  It was neat because the crew on our plan talked about us over the speaker and let the plane know how much money we raised as a chapter.  We are pretty loud and obnoxious, so we made some noise.  We also had a group from Kentucky on our flight.  It was cool to see people from other teams in our airport on their way to SD.  We (captains – Jennifer, Cathy, and me) decided to do a little something for our team for race weekend.  We had some Fairy Tale brownies, which I have never had before…..holy crap they were good!  Since I am the queen of quick, easy, cute, and cheap good luck gifts in mass quantities, I whipped up a little brag book for our team from us.  Pretty fitting that I chose something to hold pictures since I am pretty infamous for my little orange camera that goes everywhere and takes a ton of pics.  We gave everyone their goodies on the plane and we were on our way!

We arrived and picked up our bags and headed to the bus that would be our transportation for the weekend.  We hopped on and less than 5 minutes later; we were at our home for the weekend.  We are at a marina, which makes for a cool view from our 8^th floor balcony!

We got settled in and headed to the Expo at the Convention Center via our friendly TNT Shuttle Bus.  We got there and got the important stuff done first…..race packets.  Look at us checking in!

Once we took care of that small important business item, we headed into the main part of the expo.  I usually buy a bunch of stuff but they really didn’t have anything exciting, which was disappointing.  They didn’t make the beanie bears that the other two races have had and I have on my desk at work, so I was pretty bummed.  I got my pin for my hat and was on my merry way.  The best part were the fitting rooms.  Anyone who has completed a race knows why this is funny:

Funny, since I prepared to blow a wad of cash on souvenirs.  We started walking around and hit up all the free stuff.  My walking buddies were a little overwhelmed as this is their first race.  At one point, I narrowed down the important stops:  TNT booth, PF Chang’s booth, and the MDG booth.  We hit those up and then just started to walk around.  Here are some more pics from teh Expo:

Before we knew it, it was almost 5pm, which is when we were supposed to be back for a group run.  While it’s not mandatory, we should have gone but after walking around so much at the expo, we had done our own version of the 20 minute “run” which we don’t do anyway.  So, we hopped on the next bus in the hopes of avoiding our team since we didn’t make the run.  Lo and behold, they finished their run right at the bus stop as we pulled up.  BUSTED!  Awkward.  Oh well, it’s all good!  We headed upstairs to figure out dinner.  After a mad texting war between my team and my friend who lives here, Carrie, we managed to figure out dinner:  Panera Bread.  If anyone knows me, I love Panara and pray for a day that they will set up shop in Az….which will never happen. 

We gathered in the lobby and headed to the front of the hotel to see about getting a cab to Panera, which was only about 3 miles from our hotel.  We were set up with a van driven by a crazy guy who proceeded to bash anyone who would need 4 hours to finish a half marathon.  Okay shuttle driver man, let’s see you get off your seat and do something.  Weirdo.  We arrived at our yummy destination and he proceeded to charge us $4 a person (7 people). 

We were walking towards Panera when everyone but me saw my friends who live here:

Very cool!  It’s always great to see these guys as they are a fun couple to hang with.  I grew up twirling with Carrie and, even thought it was a short visit, I am glad we had a chance to catch up.  My team headed to get ice cream and the grocery store while we were yapping forever and then they were ready to head back to the hotel. After hearing our story about the shuttle guy and finding out he totally ripped us off, Robert so graciously volunteered to make two trips back to the hotel and take us back so we didn’t have to call the driver back.  While he made his first trip, I headed to get my Gatorade and water with Carrie, Mary, and Sarah.  This trip to Von’s produced the necessary race day items as well as a cooler to hoard ice in for after the race.  Sorry Mary, I am only thinking of my shins…..not the world this weekend.

Robert came back and picked us up and we headed back to the hotel.  I am sure they weren’t prepared for our giggle fest.  Once the Three Walking Muskateers get going, someone is bound to pee their pants.  Thanks guys, you rock!

I headed up to the room and thought I was going to head down to the lobby to take advantage of the only area with free wireless internet access.  It turns out; I was more pooped than I thought, so I headed to bed.  Day One is over and it’s on to Day Two!