gals on the run

Saturday, November 22nd, Sarah, Emily (her sis), and I

ran the Girls on the Run 5K celebration run with a bunch of 3rd-5th grade girls from Lynchburg and the surrounding areas.

Girls on the Run is a program for girls in 3rd through 5th grades that encourages girls to run (obviously) and make healthy choices. It also helps girls with peer pressure choices and talking about "tough" issues, like using drugs, smoking, and drinking as well as body image, eating disorders, and being a friend.

The celebration 5K is a "race" but isn't timed and recorded. There's a clock at the start so you know your time when you finish, but it's non-competitive and is more about promoting the girls' and their big accomplishment of finishing a 5K!

As a teacher at one of the GOTR schools (Thomas Jefferson Elementary), Sarah wanted to support some of her former students and cheer on the TJES group. I went with her since I knew a lot of the girls, too, since I also taught at TJES. Since I'm not teaching there anymore, it's always fun to see the kids from school and get huge hugs from them when they come running up to say hello! Sarah's sister, Emily, went with us, and we all ran the race, had a great time chatting, and felt better that morning for having done it.

So here's to the GOTR of Greater Lynchburg! The run was a huge success!

OBX half-marathon

When Kelly Perdieu told me about the OBX Half-Marathon back in September...she mentioned that she really wanted to go and that she probably would be staying with some friends who have done it every year. Since I didn't want to impose and I didn't really have the money, I didn't really pursue the idea of running it. After I started working for Riverside Runners in mid-October, I once again had the idea pop into my head when a fellow runner, Tommy Harris, mentioned that he was going to the OBX to run the full marathon and he was looking for someone to be his driver (aka: take him to the start, 26 miles away from his house). I thought it would be so much fun, so I asked Gregg if he'd be interested in going (being our driver) and told him we'd have a place to stay. I was running in the mornings with Kelly (semi-training, but not really running that much), so I decided to step it up in preparation for the race. I confirmed with Tommy that we'd be coming along, that we'd stay with him at his house, and that Jeff had approved me to be gone that weekend from work. I started running more, ran a PR in the I Am Woman 5k, at 25:36. In no way did I think the OBX Half was going to be some GREAT race for me, but I knew it would be fun. Tommy, Gregg, and I left on Nov. 7th, a Friday afternoon, stopped for spaghetti in Chesapeake on the way down, and then settled in. Saturday, we went to the Race EXPO, picked up our packets, bought fun Gizmo socks, and drove the courses. Saturday night, we talked about our goals for the race...mine being that I beat my previous half-marathon time of 2:08:53 by 4-5 minutes (goal: 2:04:00). Tommy and Gregg both agreed that they thought I could break 2 hours, but I wasn't too sure, knew that I was feeling ultra-nervous, and was a bit sore in my right Achilles.the morning of the race, after visiting the bathroom and porta-john plenty of times, i took off. tommy had prepared my feet with moleskin, vaseline, and his favorite treatment, Bigeloil, and i felt really good. Gregg missed the start of the half because he was dropping Tommy off for the marathon start, so i took off and hoped to see Gregg somewhere along the course. if it weren't for him popping up every few miles, i probably wouldn't have done as well...gregg would come out of nowhere, cheer for me, take some pictures and then move on ahead and meet me again. i felt so good the first half of the race...running around 57 minutes for the first 6.9 miles. the 2nd half, a 10K, was a similar time, around 59 minutes, which put me at 1:56:57 for my finish. i knew that i slowed down a bit in the 2nd half, but i wasn't sure by how much, and i wasn't pushing super hard until the last 5K and then really the last mile. when i saw the finish line and saw that i was under 2 hours, i started to cry! i was so happy, so proud, so excited that i had beat my own goal and fulfilled what both Tommy & Gregg had said in the beginning. running this race was like a new step for me...breaking records...running a better pace than ever in a long distance race...and just feeling so good about myself. :) i'm sure there's more running records to come!

summer race series

last year at this time, gregg and i had only met a few times:

mid-September 2007: ended up at the E.C. Glass parking lot at the same time after running on the 10-miler course on a Thursday night...in preparation for the 10-miler...he introduced himself and asked if i wanted to meet him and some others at the Corner Cafe for a drink (me: "what's the corner cafe, and who is this old guy i'm talking to?")

1. October 2007: went to the Corner Cafe for the first time because the hash ended there, and saw him with a friend, Jeff, who owns the running store. talked to jeff, acknowledged gregg, but didn't think anything of it.
   


2. November 13, 2007: went to the Lynchburg Road Runners meeting to accept my award for 3rd place in my age group for the Lynchburg Summer Race Series. gregg was there for the free pizza and asked me after if i wanted to get a drink. once again, i rejected him...("who is this guy??")
   


3. November 18, 2007: ended another hash at the Corner Cafe and gregg happened to be there (i didn't know this at the time, but he was an owner of the CC, so it made sense that he was there all the time). when everyone was getting rides back to Food Lion where we started our run, most of the cars were full. i had started talking to gregg at the counter, and he offered a ride back to Food Lion. I accepted, and on the way, in his new BMW convertible, we started chatting and he asked for my number. my phone was broken at the time, so i gave him my number, but told him i wouldn't have my new phone until Thanksgiving (this was true) because I had it shipped to my parents' house. nonetheless, i told him to call me sometime after the holiday...(again, i wasn't that interested, but i did like his car).
   


4. November 29, 2007: gregg got in touch with me the week after Thanksgiving, asked me to meet up with him and some friends at mudpuppy's on a Thursday night. i was baking Christmas cookies, so i told him i'd come if i finished in time without it being too late. something inside me prodded me to go once i pulled out the last batch from the oven, and since it was close, i decided to go with my gut. i met gregg (his friends had already left) and we started talking...and it was like instant connection. gregg says now that even if we hadn't had a romantic connection, he still would've wanted to at least be friends cause he thought i was so cool. we talked for a long time, but i had school the next day, so i had to go home.
   


5. December 1, 2007: the night before (Nov. 30th), i was having people over from school for Game Night, so i didn't get to hang out with gregg...(ironically, i think he had a date with some chick, or dinner or something, so it's funny how it all worked out), but on Saturday, December 1st, there was the annual Peaks of Otter Christmas Classic. gregg and i talked about riding together, if i could be up early enough to catch a ride with him. it turns out, i woke up, and gregg picked me up...and he brought me a vanilla latte from Starbux...i was instantly wooed. we ran the race (gregg was 4th overall!) and then waited in the Bedford Middle School gym for a LOOOOONG time for the results. if the results hadn't been so screwed up, gregg and i wouldn't have had all that time to talk and hang out...it was destiny. we stopped at subway on the way home (he bought me lunch) and then vowed to hang out later if we could...he stopped by later that afternoon and i was baking banana bread, then asked if i wanted to hang out that evening. no longer even wanting to go, i told him that i had dinner plans (here's another ironic part of the story: anisa, a teacher from my school, had been wanting to set me up on a date with this guy from the hammersley dealer because she was dating one of his co-workers. i had agreed to go to dinner with her to meet this guy that night...so i just told gregg i was having dinner with a single friend...partly true). the blind date dinner was awful, i had NO interest in the guy she set me up with, and i wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible...i ended up calling gregg when i got home at 10 and asked him if he wanted to watch a movie. i ended up telling him about the blind date because i felt guilty and because i wanted him to know how much i was thinking about hanging out with him instead of dinner with the blind date guy.
   


6. December 2007-present: gregg and i hit it off (obviously) and we've been together ever since. two nights ago, we had that same Lynchburg Summer Race Series Awards meeting, and this time, instead of 3rd in my age group, i won 1st. it made me very nostalgic to receive this award because now i have this amazing boyfriend who has helped me become a better runner and who supports me in so many ways...and who was there when i received the award last year but wasn't a part of my life then as he is now. so this blog is dedicated not only to my 1st place award, but to the amazing past year of my life...