A Virtual 5k/10k

Recently, I created a team to participate in the Albany area Walk to Cure Arthritis.
In the spirit of  full disclosure, I am employee of the Arthritis Foundation. 
However, My decision to form a walk team was personal. Most of you know that I'm an avid runner. Few of you know that I have Osteoarthritis in several of my joints. At this point in my life, it's often uncomfortable to start walking in the morning. Within the past 2 years, I've developed OA in my wrist. I also have several family members with various forms of arthritis, including juvenile, Rheumatoid and Fibromyalsia. Many of the people I love deal with Arthritis pain on a daily basis. Most of them have much more pain than me.
So, it's become very important to me that we fight to find a cure for this lousy disease.

But, I'm not really a fan of just saying, "Hey! Support my Cause, and throw some money at my team!"

So, I came up with a plan. An alternative way for people to support our team, and get something in return.

A virtual 5k/10k run!

So, what is that and how's it work?

 You make a donation of at least $20 to Team Dragonfly on the Arthritis Walk Website. Once I receive notice from the Arthritis Website of your donation, you will be enrolled in the virtual race. I'll send you a race bib, and you'll be ready to roll!

If you'd like a finishers medal, simply add $10 to your donation.

**By making the donation directly to the site above, you will receive notice from AF of your tax deductible donation.**

Once you're enrolled in our virtual race, the ball's in your court! Choose which distance to run, choose your course, and complete the run any time between April 12 and May 10, 2014.

After you complete your run, leave me a message with your time and distance on our Facebook event page

Virtual races are great for lots of people and lots of reasons:
    Want to run your first 5k, but are a little self conscious about joining a huge crowd?
    Is fear that you'll be the slowest runner, preventing you from running your first race?
    Do you work crazy hours, and you just can't find a race that's scheduled when your free?

No worries. We've got you covered!

Please join us! 1 in 5 people in this country has Arthritis. Let's work together to make a difference.

A Project Worth Blogging About

Mack joined a cross country team this past fall, and has run a few local 5k's. I've been searching online for creative ways to display her bibs and medals. I really didn't find any thing that I liked.
So, I combined a few ideas, and came up with this wall display!
This was so easy, and it really looks fantastic. We used the pins to attach the bibs, to keep it looking fun. This way, she'll be able to change out the bibs, and add more hoops as time goes on.

a bib

A view of the wall

No Race bib for this run. Just a photo and ribbon

To Showcase the fabric

She took first place in her age division!

The whole wall

Running Laur's Fall 5K Race Report

Earlier this week, I committed to participating in "Running Laur's 5 miler" -which she graciously also included a 5k distance in.

The idea is that you commit to running one of the distances, within the first week of fall, and then run your race. Site, time and distance all set by each participant.

So, tonight was my 5k. It's the first stand alone 5k I've entered since Teagan's run

I decided to run one of my usual routes, in reverse for this race. Mostly, because I was running during rush hour traffic, and this allowed me to make left hand turns at each intersection.

Here's the course:

Race Report:
Start time: 5:45 PM.
Pre race routine- brushed my teeth. Does any one else out there, brush their teeth before each run? Drank some water. Walked 1/2 a mile to warm up- and took off.It was at least 70' out, and sunny. I felt pretty good. There is a short hill at the beginning of the run, and then maybe 1/2 a mile of a slow incline. Funny, how I never noticed it as a decline when I run this course in the other direction.
The run was fairly uneventful. However, two things happened, just as they would in any other race.
First,I swallowed the necessary bug at about the 1.5 mile mark. YUCK!Too bad for me, there were no water stops on this course. Where the heck were the volunteers when I needed them!
Then, I got passed by 3 or 4 fast guys. I think they were the SUNY CC team. But I can't really be sure of that, since I only saw a streak of purple before they were out of sight.
The rest of the race was quiet. I got into the zone a few times, where I was pretty deep in thought, and wasn't paying attention to much of anything. So, the next thing I knew, I had done another 1/2 mile. That's my favorite part of running, and it rarely happens in a race with 100 people all around me. So, I really appreciated it tonight.

My finish was strong. I had some kick left. I love having a finish line in my driveway! I love having the kids cheering me on. Jack jumping up and down with excitement, shouting, "How was your run Mommy?" and "Running's fun. Right Mommy!"
This was the first time I've ever participated in a virtual race. Thanks Running Laur for organizing it! Jack is right, it is fun!

Finish time: 32:41
Pace: 10:32 per mile.
This is a new PR for me!

Me and Jack after the run.

Something Big on the Horizon

This past week I've had an opportunity come my way that I'm pretty excited about.

It combines two areas of my life that I am quite passionate about: Work and working out. I'll explain. As many of you know, I work with adults who have had a Traumatic Brain Injury. I love this job. The guys I work with are incredible. They are strong and true survivors. This past fall I was asked to be a founding board member for a fledgling Not for Profit called "Mindful Journeys Mentoring" (MJM). This is an incredible project for people with TBI's to help each other. But, I'm afraid I am digressing. ANYWAY...we have applied for 501c3 status and are now in the position to begin developing the actual Mentoring program. To do this effectively, we need money. So, as a member of the Development Committee, I have started researching the possibility of having a 5k run/1mile walk as a fund raiser! We're looking at early October, and are in the very early stages of research and planning. But I'm already learning a great deal about organizing an event like this! See the coolness?! Hanging out with people who are incredibly inspiring to me, and organizing a run! How awesome is that?

Here's hoping it works out! There are many pieces of information to bring to our board meeting before I get the approval to go ahead with it. So, keep your fingers crossed, and if you have any experience organizing something like this, please give me some advise about what to do and ask as I go along.

Be safe. Have fun. Peace.