I need a miracle here!

Hello Everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Mine was a little disappointing. This weekend I was supposed to complete my last long run before the marathon....a full 20 miles! But as you know from last week, I was having some issues with my calves and shins. I was still feeling tight on Saturday but coach said to take it easy and see how far I could go. He also told me to listen to my body and stop when my body told me to. I was really hoping my issues would just go away because I was looking forward to a long run, especially since we were running at the Berkeley Marina, which provided us AMAZING views of SF, the Golden Gate Bridge, Sausalito and the Bay Bridge.

But they didn't.

I made it out 4 miles with a walk/jog combo before I decided I really shouldn't be out there. It was closer to the next water stop than to turn around and head back to the start line so I just kept walking. The more I walked, the more I hurt. Luckily, Doug, from the other team who was running with me at first, ran ahead and told my teammates I wasn't doing so great. To my rescue came Cindy and Heather who took me back to the start where I cheered on all the others who completed their 20 milers (wish I could have been one too!)

In an effort to help my healing process, I scheduled an hour long massage yesterday. I made Kyle get one too because he DID finish all 20 miles and he was looking pretty sore! We limped into the massage place and left feeling much better (although not completely healed). I am also going to try and visit Dr. Morganstein this week (sports therapist) in hopes of having a quicker recovery.

Coach told me to take it easy this week and up until the marathon because it's better to run the race under trained and healthy than to try and run it well trained and injured. I do think I am well trained, I worked so hard this season and overcame so many challenges I never thought I would. I will be very disappointed if I am not able to run the marathon as the last four months of my life have been dedicated to running and training. So please, send your healing thoughts my way...I CAN'T miss this marathon!

Thanks for all your support this season! Have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING and remember to give thanks for all your blessings!

PEACE, LOVE and a CURE!

Love, C.

4 weeks away....the countdown begins!

Can you believe it? My marathon is only 28 days away! Yikes.....I'm not sure if I'm ready for this. I still have 4 more weeks to train including this Saturday which is our "big" run of 20 miles but I'm still nervous. I missed my 18 miler because I was hosting a Rummage Sale as one of my fundraisers. It was a huge success too- I made over $1,000 on it! Woo-hoo! That brings my fundraising total to almost $2,500! Only $1,500 more to go, so this is a friendly reminder to donate to a wonderful cause if you haven't already! http://pages.teamintraining.org/sf/honolulu08/cwebster

But back to reality...

I missed my 18 miler last Saturday so on Sunday I went for a run, but got caught in the dark and only ended up doing about 6.5 miles. I would normally run in the dark if I was on the track or with my team, but I was all alone on the Iron Horse Trail and didn't want to take any chances, you know, there are coyotes out here!

I took Monday off from running so I could do the hill workout on Tuesday. The hill workout this past week was different from those before because they were longer hills and less steep than before. They really hit you hard, but overall, I felt like I had a great workout AND I felt stronger! I must be getting stronger because my thunder thighs are not getting any smaller. (Grrrr!)

Moving on, I took Wednesday off as well so I could attend the San Antonio Send-off....some of my teammates flew to Texas this weekend to run in the San Antonio Rock & Roll marathon....which sounds pretty cool! They have a different band every mile, what a great way to take your mind off running. I posted some pictures of the kickoff at the end of this blog.

Thursday I worked very late and coach said to stay off our feet on Friday's before big runs so I really didn't get as much running in this week as I had hoped.

Along came Saturday morning and off to Heather Farms we went to attempt another 16 miler. I was feeling some tension in me left shin and calf. I thought I just needed to get warmed up and stretch and the pain would go away, and it went away a little but by mile 4.5, it had come back and I was in some serious pain. Kyle was running with me and we stopped at a bench so I could stretch some more. Kyle even tried some of the massaging techniques on my calf that Dr. Mogenstein (Sports Therapist) uses on Kyle's injuries - holy moly....I wanted to cry. It kind of felt like my muscles had tangled up all together, like the way small chain necklaces will tangle if you don't take care of them. It was like trying to massage the tangles out, but they never untangle because they are metal and the links just get knotted worse. I was able to jog slowly back for another 3 miles, but with 2 miles to go, Kyle kept trying to encourage me to run, but I couldn't seem to express to him how much pain I was in and barely made it back to the start.

When I got home, I soaked in a ice bath, before taking a hot shower. Afterwards, I slathered BioFreeze all over my legs and after that, I had Kyle massages my calves with the foam roller. I was still in pain yesterday, and was limping around the house. Today, I can still feel it but I feel much better. I will probably take the next couple of days off so I will be able to do my 20 miler. I'll keep you all posted! Wish me luck and send some donations, er, good thoughts my way!

PEACE, LOVE & a CURE!

-C.

#1 Kyle and I with Coach Haakin and Carl.

#2. Words of Marathon Wisdom from Coach Al

#3. Our wonderful leader Lindsay (left) and a team Honoree (right)!

*Rain, Mud and Hills*

Don't those sound like every one's favorite things when it comes to running? :P Well our run included all of those things yesterday morning and then some!

We woke up, bright and early at 6am so we could get something in our tummies, get dressed and get over to Don and Sara's apartment by 6:45am before heading off to the Redwood Regional park in the Oakland Hills. We got sort of lost back in the woods, but luckily, we saw some of our teammates' and our coach's cars drive by us and we were able to follow them through the winding roads. We arrived about 10 minutes late so we quickly got out of the car, got the directions for our run and we were off!

It was still dark out when we started to run, and it was lightly raining but it pretty calming to be out in the middle of the woods, at dawn, with nothing around except for a couple of other runners. I even heard an owl off in the distance. The first 4.5 miles of our run were a steady uphill climb.... which was extremely difficult. Especially since the rain had been falling all night and the mud got pretty thick in some parts of the trail. A couple of times, I had to stop and scrape the mud off my shoes because it felt like I was carrying an extra 2 lbs on each foot. I enjoy running but I'm still not strong enough to run steep hills for 4 straight miles, so the first part of my run included a lot of power walking mixed with running.

I eventually got into my running rhythm at about mile 3 and I felt pretty good. Our turn around point was at mile 4.5. As we headed up the hill, we had some beautiful views to enjoy, overlooking valleys of redwood trees; there were even little clouds floating through the trees that made it seem movie worthy. I made it back down, and although we only did 9 miles (we were supposed to do 14) our coach said the difficulty of the trail was equal to a 14 mile distance, if not more. I would have to agree because a 9 mile run would normally take me just under 2 hours, but our 9 mile uphill run yesterday took me over 2 hour and 40 minutes...and I wasn't extra slow either. It was just a really hard run!

At the end of the run, I was honored to receive the Spirit Box for the week and will have to find something pretty good to add to the box! Thanks Team Oz!

Well I will be training like normal this week, plus getting ready for my 18 mile run next weekend! Although, I won't be able to join the team because I'm heading up a fundraising Rummage sale next Saturday to hopefully grow my fundraising total. If you are in the area, feel free to drop off donations or come by to shop! Saturday Nov. 8th 9am-3:30pm. at The Kensington in Walnut Creek.

Have a great week everyone!

PEACE, LOVE & a CURE! -C.

Pictures: Here are some pics of the trail....isn't it beautiful?