Run for the Fallen

The run for the Fallen was yesterday. It was started by an awesome woman Julie who had run in Maine for the same cause last year and knew NH needed a run. Everyone knows how proud I am to live in the USA; I mean I do have it tattooed on my body! It was a little daunting to see it was a 12 mile run but they were always very clear to state it wasn’t a race to see how fast you could finish but to honor the 55 men and women who are no longer here with us.
I have been very lucky that of the 30+ soldiers I have adopted over the last 6 years I have been able to say Welcome Home to all of them, but there are so many families that never get to say welcome home let alone goodbye.
The run started at Odiorne State Park in Rye, NH and the ceremony before was bar far one of the most touching and emotional things I have ever been a part of. As the names were read, a gold star father, who lost his son, rang a bell. He also ran at least 10 miles! We sang the National Anthem, said the Pledge of Allegiance, and Senator Kelly Ayotte spoke as well as did the run too. I’ve decided she is so awesomely in shape I want to be here when I’m 43!
The run itself was beautiful, we ran along the ocean for a while and on the side of the road the families of the fallen were standing next to a picture of their loved one. One of the most touching moments was to watch a veteran stop at every picture, take off his hat and tap the top of the sign. I told Kelly we had to stop following him since I couldn’t cry for 12 miles! We high fived a lot of people but it came to a point when it was just me and Kelly (everyone spread out) there were many hugs and yes tears! I found it so ironic they were thanking us, there’s no words to express my thanks to them!
We had originally planned on doing 4 miles, hopping on the trolley and then finishing the last couple of miles. Well 4 miles came and went and we didn’t see the trolley! The next time we saw it, it was completely full! I’m glad we kept going since around mile 6 there was the cutest girl in her yard cheering us on and her mom had a hose and we got a nice misting! The people of Rye were so amazing. People were in their yards and were handing out water which was very much appreciated. Around mile 8 Kelly and I decided that it was a very good time to catch the trolley and it was very nice to sit down! They took us to the boat ramp and we waited for the rest of the people to make their way there! We all finished the last mile together. I’m not going to lie, it was a struggle for me to finish. I tried to keep moving while we were waiting but my muscles did start to tighten up so the end was mind over matter! At the end we all had flags and put them around the pictures that were set up. I was good until the families started to put flags around their loved ones pictures. Cue the tears (AGAIN!)

Carrabba’s provided the after run meal which was super yummy! I could have eaten the bowl salad they had there it was super yummy! They had an awesome Air Force Band, Afterburner, and I think it was duty as a good American to drool over the trumpet/guitar player! They were very very good though and you couldn’t beat lunch with a view! The ocean people not the hot military guys!

I was so humbled, honored and proud to have been a part of such an amazing event. So while they were not there, I know they must have been smiling down. Thank you Army Spc. Nicholas P. Bernier, Army Spc. Michael B. Cook Jr., Army Chief Warrant Officer Christopher R. Thibodeau, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael E. Geary, Marine Cpl. Philip E. Charte, Army Ranger Sgt. Andrew C. Nicol, Army Master Sgt. Jared N. Van Aalst, Army Staff Sgt. Kyle R. Warren, Marine Cpl. Jonathan D. Porto, Marine Pfc. Eric D. Currier, Army Spc. Marc P. Decoteau, Marine Staff Sgt. Stephen L. Murphy, Marine Capt. Kyle R. Van De Giesen, Army Spc. Justin R. Pellerin, Marine Sgt. Michael C. Roy, Army Staff Sgt. Edmond L. Lo, Army Spc. Adam M. Kuligowski, Marine Cpl. Michael W. Ouellette, Army Pvt. Chipper T. Rogers, Army Maj. Brian M. Mescall, Army Cpl. Scott G. Dimond, Army Spc. David S. Stelmat, Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator (SEAL) Nathan H. Hardy, Army Pfc. Marcianna Bennington, Army Pfc. Juctin P. McDaniel, Army Sgt. Zachary D. Tellier, Army Capt. Jonathan D. Grassbaugh, Army Spc. Justin A. Rollins, Army Spc. Toby R. Olsen, Army Spc. Matthew J. Stanley, Marine Lance Cpl. Ryan T. McCaughn, Army Cpl. Nicholas A. Arvanitis, Army Cpl. Matthew E. Schneider, Army Sgt. Russell M. Durgin, Army Sgt. Daniel R. Gionet, Army Capt. Douglas A. DiCenzo, Army Pfc. Nicholas R. Cournoyer, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert L. Moscillo, Army Pfc. George R. Roehl Jr., Army Staff Sgt. Donald Smith, Marine Pfc. Matthew L. Bertolino, Navy Senior Chief Information Systems Technician (SEAL) Daniel R. Healy, Army 2nd Lt. Matthew S. Coutu, Army Sgt. Angelo L. Lozada Jr, Marine Cpl. Timothy M. Gibson, Marine Lance Cpl. Adam R. Brooks, Army Spc. Alan J. Burgess, Army Spc. Jeremy F. Regnier, Marine Lance Cpl. Peter "PJ" Sora Jr, Army Master Sgt. Richard L. Ferguson, Army National Guard Spc. Jeremiah J. Holmes, Army Sgt. Randy S. Rosenberg, Army Sgt. 1st Class Robert E. Rooney, Army Pfc. Andrew D. Stevens, Army Spc. William J. Tracy, Army Spc. Jesse Conger.

Your service and sacrifices have not been forgotten! They gave their today for our tomorrow.

If there are two things you can pick up from my blog today they are:
1. Our freedom is not free and a day should not go by that we should not be thankful for those who have paid the ultimate price for us.

2. Always ALWAYS thank a soldier no matter where you see them. It may be the nicest thing they hear that day!

Daily Mantra: We are the land of the free because of the brave!

Cigna 5k and 200 days!

The weather for this race was AWESOME! It was 75 with no humidity. I have no idea how in August we lucked out like that! Traffic was a NIGHTMARE, I sat on the off ramp for 20 minutes and finally went the opposite way and parked a mile away. Gave me a chance to do sprints on the way up. It was my first race with my Nike+ shoes. Having the chip in my shoe is so much easier since I just hit start and set it to a 5k run and it does all the math! I started off way too fast for my pace. There were 5328 runners and it was hard at first to not get caught up in the fast pace. My first mile came up before I knew it and I ran a 10:50 and I knew I couldn’t keep that pace up ( I wish but not yet!) so when the water stop came up I actually stopped to drink water which helped me to fall back a little more and slow my pace. Mile 2 was pretty boring so I’m glad I had some good music. Going into mile 3 there was a hill. I was like WTF are you KIDDING ME? It was BRUTAL! I called it my own little heartbreak hill, but I kept my feet moving and told myself it would be pointless to walk at this point. The last .1 there are always a ton of people which is a good motivator to get to the end! I crossed the finish line and according to my chip I ran the 5k in 40:17 (13:01 pace). According to my bib I ran in 41:42 (13:26 pace). This time I’ll go with my chip since there seemed to be some errors on scoring and times kept changing. Either way I shaved time off my last race which is always the direction I’m headed. There was no fruit left so I grabbed a Powerade, grabbed my free but I’ll never wear shirt and walked the mile back to my car.

So my goal for August is to get up to 4.5 miles and then by the end of September 6 miles for the 10K in October. Next week is the Run for the Fallen and then the 28th is the Tavern to Tavern 5k. Not sure I can drink beer before 10 in the morning but if that’s what I have to do I will! After October I will probably concentrate on building distance (SO NO BILL I WILL NOT RUN THE ZOMBIE 5k!!!) since there are a mere 200 days until the ½ marathon. It will be interesting to run in the winter! I also decided (or was coerced) into playing softball this fall, so we’ll see what kind of entertainment I can provide!

At some point I’m sure Kelly, Deanna and I will start group runs. Really Kelly and I had the best of intentions to run last weekend but Saturday was a pajama day and Sunday it was like a monsoon so we just stuck to our own regiments for the week! Well kids that’s all this week. Get your feet moving even if it’s taking the stairs or parking farther away at the grocery store!

Daily Mantra: "In running, it doesn't matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say 'I have finished.' There is a lot of satisfaction in that."

A Race Fit For a Princess

Well I turn 35 in 7 months, WHAT? I’m pretty sure I just blogged about turning 34. So me being the planner I am decided I need to do 35 up and in a BIG way!



Ireland? Been there!



Vegas? Done that!



NYC? Got the t-shirt! So where’s a girl like me spend a milestone birthday?



DISNEY WORLD of course! And you’re invited! But there’s something bigger going on while I’m there that is going to just be huge to me! So we’re flying down on the 22nd of February and spending the 23rd at Disney. Then on February 26th I’m going to be running in my FIRST HALF MARATHON! Yes you heard me correct. I am running in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I’m very lucky to have my amazing friend Kelly running next to me. I’m going to have my family, friends and most of all Prince Charming to cheer me along the way! If you would have asked me when I turned 34 if I’d be running 13.1 miles in a year I probably would have laughed you down the street. But I know I can do this. Plus I get a cool princess medal for finishing and the title of Princess! Who wouldn't want that? I’m far from ready and the fact that it is near 100 degrees played into my decision to 1 run in Florida in the winter and 2 get a few more races under my belt. So check out the link and you know come to Florida it'll be fun! http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/rundisney/princess-half-marathon/ The toughest one coming up is the Run for the Fallen. It’s not a race it’s a way to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. It’s 12 miles and my goal is to run the first 3-4 rest for a few and run the last 2-3. Such an emotional cause to run for and I couldn’t imagine not being a part of it.
Kelly and I hiked Mt. Major last weekend. Talk about a hike. My blister is finally healing and so it made hiking a little challenging but we got to the top (of course we took the long steep way, as opposed to the short steep way) and the view was AMAZING! I could have stayed up there all day! 3 celebratory bottles of champagne (and 2 corks in the lake) and 1 chick flick later I was more than ready for bed.
No running till Sunday when the heat and humidity breaks. Stay cool kids!





Daily Mantra: You won’t realize the distance you’ve walked until you take a look around and realize how far you’ve been.

Revolution Run 5k

4th of July turned out to be way more humid than I expected! I’m glad we ran at 9 and no later. I would have preferred to run at 7:00 seeing as how it was already 81 degrees when the race started! I got to run with my fancy new IPhone and turned on my GPS tracker which was good seeing as how the course wasn’t really well marked with mile markers! We started uphill and I made the choice that even if it was slow I was going to run up the hill so I didn’t lose momentum. There were some people who did the walk/run but I just can’t do that, it’s all or nothing with me. It was tough because the water stop wasn’t until mile 2 and the water was REALLY warm, almost hot! YUCK! I took a chug and literally wanted to spit it back up. I ended up slowing WAY down for ½ mile and at that point was just waiting for the downhill to come. I did get lapped by the girl who was leading the 10K run, good for her! There weren’t a lot of people along the route like the Hollis one, but I did just enjoy the time with myself. I also had no one to pace really. My miles were up and down. 11:45 mile 1 14:50 mile 2 and 12:50 mile 3 so I averaged about a 13 minute mile. When I was coming into Holman Stadium this very nice probably 70 year old man ran with me for like 50 feet, he was very sweet! It was kinda cool to run into the stadium while there weren’t a lot of people there they were cheering and they announced you coming in. There was no one with me so I got the spotlight to myself! I finished in 42:02 and was VERY proud of myself for the conditions we ran in and the fact is was my second 5K and this one was definitely a rolling hills course. I got my medal and downed some Gatorade (oh warm water please be gone) and a banana and watched some of the other runners come in.

I went to the bathroom before I left and that’s when I noticed my foot. I had gotten new running shoes the previous week and had worn them a few times but I ran in my old running shoes. My poor shoe was all bloody, apparently I had a small blister from my new shoes and not noticing it I ran without anything over it. Therefore somewhere along the way I busted heel open funny part is I didn’t feel it. So I stopped by the EMTs for a band aid and they cleaned me all up and sent me on my way. Not gonna lie it killed the next 2 days! Curt Shilling has the bloody sock, well I have the bloody shoe!

I went home, showered and headed up to Boston to hang out with Kelly and cause a ruckus in Southie! There was a buffet of alcohol, weird pub people, ring pops and of course fireworks! It was awesome to see them in person and the view we had was awesome. You could see the entire city from Monument Hill and all the other displays (some albeit illegal still cool!)
Up next is the Cigna 5K in Manchester in August. My company sponsors all the runner from here so it’s FREE! It’s very hot this week so I may do some sprints but that’s about it! Kelly and I will do some hiking this next weekend so I’ll still be getting my cardio in! Next week’s blog could be bananas! HAHAHA!

Daily Mantra: There is only one thing that can guarantee our failure and that’s if we quit!

Warrior Dash Wrap up

Can I just say how much my stomach hurt after the dash? Only because we were laughing SO hard throughout the whole thing. It was a horrible day weather wise, it was thundering and lightening when we got there and didn’t know if we would be able to go. We ended up running in the 9:00 heat (we were scheduled at 8:30). We made sure to put ourselves at the back of the pack and I can only imagine what our little tutu butts looked like running up the hill! One we got into the woods we actually couldn’t feel much of the rain so that was nice, only we kept sinking in the mud and slipping. It was like one big slip and slide the whole way. We did all the obstacles, including the 12 foot wall! Best part was in the course they had photographers and we actually posed for pictures, clearly we weren’t doing this for time! In the end we lost our tutus due to the mud but they made the whole thing more fun! We finished with a time of 1:13 minutes but there are no cool finish line pictures since a huge team finished in front of use and blocked our view! We collected our medals, tried to wash off in the horrible water fans (ended up rinsing off in a puddle!) and got our free beer!
There was a good band playing when we first finished, McAlister Drive, and unfortunately a not so good band when we were eating lunch. Just my opinion but I know what I like and they weren’t it. On a cheesy note, someone did get married on stage. In the time it took Kelly and I to go get a beer they were married and gone. To each his own! We’ll be back to do it next year for sure, the more the merrier and the costumes will be bigger and better to!
So this weekend it’s back to the running world. I got an awesome new pair of Nike+ (I can sync with my iPhone SUPER COOL) and I’m running a 5K on July 4th in the morning. I can’t think of a better way to start the day! Then maybe go bum around the city and catch the fireworks in Boston.
Here’s my schedule of what is coming up…
7/4- Revolution Run 5K
8/11- Cigna 5K
8/21- Run for the Fallen 12 mile (no I’m not running the whole thing but I want to be there!)
8/28-Tavern to Tavern 5K
9/17-Celebrate Pink 5K- with Angela!
9/24-Urban Dare Race- with Lam
10/8- Renegade Playground Challenge- same premises as the Warrior Dash only sounds better!

Daily mantra: Whether you think you can or you can’t you’re right!

Post Race Wrap Up!

So I DID IT! I ran (and yes I ran the ENTIRE WAY!) my first 5K race last Thursday! 37:07 was my final time and my pace was a 12 minute mile (I actually ended up cutting about a minute off my mile training time.) I started out at the back of the pack on purpose as to not get caught up in the crowd and run faster than I knew I could. I checked my time at 1 mile and I was running too fast to keep the pace the entire time, so I made and adjustment and at mile 2 I was back on pace to what I knew I could finish. I wish there were words to describe how I felt around mile 2.5 and when I was done. They call it runner’s high but I felt so much more than that! The journey that I have been on the last 12 weeks (and 16 weeks if you could my health journey too) has taught me so much about myself. There’s nothing I can’t do, which means there’s nothing YOU can’t do! Although I always knew I was a pretty kick ass person, I wasn’t always a very happy kick ass person and now I feel like the pieces are all falling together. But I didn’t do it on my own; I had an awesome support system along the way, so without further adieu I will now turn this into my very own Oscar Thank You speech! (What? It’s MY blog!)
Thank you to the most awesome health coach there is. You helped me start on this journey and I seriously do not know where I would be if I wouldn’t have made the call to you. I’m thankful everyday for your health wisdom and your no excuses attitude! I’m such a Rockstar!
My friend Kennedy has been my running inspiration from the beginning. She was the original Rockstar and I’m so proud of her! She just ran a ½ marathon and rocked it out! Anyone who can run for 2 ½ hours is awesome! I can’t wait to watch her cross the line at the Boston Marathon next year! I was so happy to see Karen at the finish line, she stood in the mostly cold and wet for ½ hour to watch me for 60 seconds! Thank you! And thanks for the pink champagne!

Kelly drove all the way from Southie just to have dinner and drinks with little old me! Ok so I guess I’ll thank Dave for Kelly (since I usually do that anyway!). So glad you’re my HLP!
I would have never made it to the finish line without Melissa, who is constantly pushing me to the limit of running. She’s knows I have it in me and I’m glad she’s there to make sure I don’t slack off. She’d be proud to know I went for a 3 mile run Sunday and I’m going to keep going, because there are more roads to run!
In the beginning I didn’t run fast (hell I still don’t!) or very far for that matter, but Matthew ran next to me and kept telling me I could do it. There were times he ran in front of me and I cursed his name because I didn’t think I’d get there. Well I am now and I’m waiting for the run when he gets to follow ME! All those times I yelled I hate you at that, know it was quite the opposite, mostly because you didn’t let me quit!

And to anyone who has ever said they are proud of me, good job, way to go and all those others nice statements, THANK YOU! Words are a very powerful thing and I’m glad to know I surround myself with pretty awesome positive people. Oh and thanks to DMB, David Cook, Black Eyed Peas, Darius Rucker and Jack Johnson, who got me from one end of the race to the other!

Next up Warrior Dash. Billed as the craziest fricken day of your life, it’s a 3.02 mile obstacle course in Amesbury, MA on Saturday, June 25th. Kelly, Deanna and I are going to run it (ok well run at times!) complete with costumes. If it’s going to be a crazy day might as well do it up right! This weekend we’re working on them and really I can’t wait to wear them which is probably the funniest part of the whole thing!
Such a busy summer! Work, school, running, living life! More surprises coming soon!

Daily Mantra: “Success is focusing the full power of all you are on what you have a burning desire to achieve.”

Time Flies....

Holy crap I’m running my first 5K race in 3 days. I’m pretty sure this journey only started 12 weeks ago and now look at me all running 3.1 miles and stuff! I’ve got nerves for sure, but I think that’s where the adrenaline kicks in to keep you going. Oh it’s going to be 96 freaking degrees on Thursday!! WHAT?! Which means it’ll still be like 92 when I run. I will be sweating for sure, but it’s important to hydrate and I be doing that all day. Today is my off day, I did a BRUTAL crossfit yesterday morning and I am still feeling it today. But I guess that’s kinda the point. I’ll get up early tomorrow and run a quick mile or 2 and then Wednesday probably do some sprints in the wicked heat just to torture myself, cause THAT’S fun right? Should I survive (and I’m giving myself a 100% chance of actual survival) it will be one more thing checked off my list. Then on to the Warrior Dash (which we must get to making tutus for!). I really have no desire to do any long races, but I guess we’ll have to see down the road! I have some good music on my I-pod. For me it’s more mental since it helps to pass the time, it starts with the Black Eyed Peas and ends with Lady Gaga, good times! Happy running people!

Daily Mantra: There isn't anything you CAN'T do ~ me