Coins for Crohn's

Come Friday it will be one month until the Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon! As a few of you may recall, I am running with TeamChallenge and raising funds for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America. I'm doing this in honor of my best friend Stacey, who you can read all about here.

With just one month to go, I'm ramping up my fundraising efforts. So far I've been surprised and touched by all the donations that have come in. Thanks to the generosity of my friends, family and co-workers I have reached the required minimum and now I'm just excited to see what I can raise!

If you're interested in helping out and live in bay area, stop by the Sports Basement discount event on Sunday, 11/14/10. You get a 10% discount and another 10% goes to CCFA.

If you're interested in another way to donate, drop a few coins in my virtual piggybank. No donation is too small. You can give any amount by typing it next to 'Other', and all donations are tax deductible.


In running news I held my (more or less) first speed workout today. I say more or less because once upon a time I partook in high school track. But that was ages ago, and I can't remember if I was ever able to complete any of those speed workouts. Seriously. This is no exaggeration (please refer to my bio). But today I did, and I feel pretty good about it.

I decided to give the local high school track a try since it is both flat and a very quantifiable distance. There was a group of teenaged runners there as well that I took to be the cross country team. I was surprised at how self-conscious I was! I had to remind myself on multiple occasions that I am a mature and confident woman, with no need to impress a bunch of amateur runners. Geez Laura...pull it together!

The plan was warm up + 5 x 1K with 400m rests + cool down, for a total of 6 miles. I had just kicked it up a notch to begin my first 1K when I realized that I had only made note of my target pace. Bear in mind that I bought my running watch at Target for about $10. Needless to say, it does not tell me my pace. Although I am quite good at math (refer, again, to the bio), I'm also pretty excited about my Christmas present. (I'll let you guess what that is!!!)

My split paces were: 8:52, 8:38, 8:39, 8:35, and less than 8:39 (I forgot to stop my watch after the last repeat.) When it was all said and done I felt like I had pushed myself just the right amount. I was tired, without the descriptor of 'dead.' And my splits were pretty consistant.

The cherry on my sundae? I DID NOT lock my keys in my car! Why do I bring this up? Well, let's just say I learned a valuable lesson last Saturday at the TeamChallenge group run. House keys do not open cars.