A letter to a keyboard...

Dear Keyboard,
Welcome to my desk! There are a few things that you need to understand. I will likely spill my coffee, yogurt and countless other things on you. It is not because I don't value you as a work tool, it is because I am hungry and over worked. I appreciate your cooperation in this relationship, and hope that it is fruitful. As long as you agree to actually type the keys I press you have no risk of being ejected from the window. Thanks, I'm excited for the possibilities of our new relationship.

Sincerely,
Your Boss

Welcome to Miami...you can't make this stuff up!

3:15am: my alarm goes off and I reluctantly get out of bed
4:00am: I arrive at the airport – love that early morning traffic! I was super early and there wasn’t a line at security
5:40am: I’m on my way to Miami
9:40am: Land in Miami, check my e-mail and head off to get my rental car
9:45am: I realize I forgot my GPS and it will be an interesting morning.
10:30am: I stand in line at Hertz for 30 minutes to pick up my rental car, next time I’m using National. The lady makes me prove that I actually work for Kraft – seriously!?!
10:45am: rental car secured
10:45am-11:00am: Driving around the airport lost-in my defense there was construction…
11:00am: I stop my car to try to figure out where I am, a little too close to the airport and get surrounded by cops. They determine I am in fact not a terrorist and provide directions…and an escort, since I am clearly very lost!
11:40am: After following the friendly cops directions I realize I am again lost…welcome to Miami…I stop in a design shop and talk to a very tan gentleman with notably the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen and he directs me to turn around and drive 45 minutes in the opposite direction…BAH!
12:15pm: I arrive, only a mere 30 minutes late for work and go on with my day…lovely!
12:15-4:30pm: work, work, work!
4:30pm: Return to the airport, on the highway following the very clearly posted signs…why was it so hard to get from the airport???
5:30pm: Sit down to work and have some dinner while I wait for my flight – after 30 minutes a waitress has yet to show…I settle for Starbucks for dinner.
6:50pm: my plane boards – more work
7:20pm: electrical problems, headed back to the gate…without lights or AC
7:40pm: apparently they are all fixed, and the pilot “hopes for a safe an uneventful flight” yes he really said that!
9:45pm: land in Chicago and all I want is my bed – goodnight!

I'm a horrible tourist...

I don't like living as a tourist, it's just not my style. So here's what my weekend looked like marathon weekend...

Saturday I went to the expo and at that point I was pretty sure if I did the marathon as a run/walk I could complete 26.2 miles! Those expos are good at one thing, pumping you up and getting you started on that runners high. I came home and talked to a few friends who reminded me that I was being foolish, but I think they used stronger wording. So I reluctantly decided to jump in at mile 14, because who doesn't run 12 miles without training (due to injuries I hadn't run in 2 months).

I ate lots of yummy carbs, drank more water than a fish and went to bed early. I woke up Sunday morning a little bit defeated that I wouldn't be at the start but still up for the challenge of whatever was ahead of me. Actually, if I'm going to be real, mostly defeated, I tried to go back to bed. Instead I went and met my friend Alyssa and her family and we set out to cheer on her sister Amy. We spotted her at the 4 miles mark and I thought this too might be a good spot to jump in...again Alyssa reminded me that I was being stupid...so alas a compromise, mile marker 10. So we sat in Starbucks, drank some more Gatorade, ate some more Cheerios and waited for Amy to make it to mile 10. When she did I jumped in and was off to the races...provided some encouragement and prayer and then was on my way.

I'm not really sure how to summarize the 16.2 miles that took place that morning. They were hot, and sometimes very painful. The course alert changed from green to red in less than an hour signaling that conditions had become extreme and dangerous. The visualization is probably my torn up feet and legs so sore I can barely walk. I've taken to "running" down stairs because it hurts too much to walk. One of my co-workers asked me why I do this to myself...my response...it's great when you are doing it, so great that it's worth all of this! All the cheers and the feeling of accomplishment, which I'm sure is much better if you actually run the whole thing. Bugger, I am a stubborn woman! Thankfully, I was able to get past that, I only ran the amount my body could handle that day and I am getting ready for take 2, Disney, January 9, 2011!

Thank you all for your amazing support, I'll post pictures soon!

10-10-10 as a tourist

The Chicago Marathon is this weekend, 10-10-10…and as you can guess I really want to run. I had been diligently training when I sustained more injuries than I’d like to count and I got completely derailed from my marathon goal. So what do I do in this situation, but do my best to still enjoy marathon weekend and run my version of the Chicago. I clearly can’t run the full, because without training, that’s the sort of stupidity that causes runners to break bones, tear tendons and sometimes even die.

So I am modifying my plan, I will be running as a tourist. I’m not really sure what this means, because it is a plan that I baked and hatched just today. I’m thinking the start would be a fun thing to see and possibly participate in…and from there I will probably run a few miles, jump on the el and meet my friend Kisha when she arrives at mile 14. At that point I’ll jump in with her and see what happens. Depending on my mood and the weather I may finish it out with her from there. So tourism it is, not a complete view of the Marathon, but the best attempt I can make with the injuries I have sustained this summer.

And hey, the main goal of raising funds for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was still accomplished and the Disney Marathon is just barely off in the distance!

Thank you to everyone for their continued support, as I promised I will be running for LLS...just not quite as planned!

Not even close to real life…

These are just a few of my most recent dreams that are so far from reality they either make you laugh out loud or weep…your choice.

Last night I had a dream that a small curly hair blond kid, who was maybe about 5 was walking down Addison St. He saw a car that had a box of paper inside. He decided he wanted the paper so he broke into the car using a snack size bag of cool ranch Dorito’s. Yum yum…somehow, this empty bag of chips allowed him to grip the window and pull it down – who knows?

Here’s one that I thought was true…my friend Beth has started eating healthier. Think of a person who never exercises and lives off of McDonald’s. I am actually really concerned for her health. So at some point I had a dream that she said she was going to run a 5K, somewhere in the process I thought it was real. Today she informed me that it was in fact not real, and that I should know better. She might be cutting back on the bad food, but there will be no running!

I had a dream over the weekend that I was sitting on the couch talking to Matt. That was it, I woke up realized it wasn’t true and that was the end of that. Well not exactly, now I’m sitting on a different couch thinking how happy I’d be if I could just sit on that couch one more time and talk to Matt. Sometimes life deals you cards you don’t want to play, and sometimes dreams are cruel!

Nike SUCKS!

I gave up running in Nike shoes a few years ago, but have been using Nike products in the form of shoes, shorts, socks...whatever I needed for running since I was a small child. Now you can imagine how many miles I've spent in Nike products and how much cash has been tossed into the Nike enterprise. That was until now...

I was excited to see that Nike came out with this fantastic little chip that you could put in your shoe and it would tell you how far you'd run and then track it on your very own website. How cool is that! I was stoked, I went out and bought it and was on my way. I was having a blast until I realized that my mile splits weren't quite right, or consistant. Now I would like to think that I am some sort of amazing runner, but you and I both know that I can't sustain a 7:12 pace for 15 miles after a decade break from running. That's just not realistic! So I contacted Nike support, did what they said and it told me I was now running a 10:00 mile! Are you kidding me, also not possible! Never in my life have a run a 10:00 mile!!! And to run a 7:12 followed by a 10:00 did I break my leg?

Ugh, so I contacted customer service, the oh so friendly Mark informed me that Corp would provide a refund. Great! NOT! I called corp and they said I'd have to prove that it was defective and everything I just told you wasn't enough, oh yea and I checked the mileage against both mapmyrun.com and my Garmin Forerunner 405 (which is perfect). Even on short runs it's off, it was once off by 2.5 miles, I mean really! They shouldn't even be able to claim that it tracks your mileage with results like that!

So here's what they came up with: If and only if I can prove it is defective they will replace it with another one...that is also likely defective because the product SUCKS!

OK Nike, nicely done, you SUCK!

BOB

We live most of our lives without making an impact at all. We live, from minute to minute, hour to hour. We go to work, come home sqeeze in whatever needs to be done with little time for friends and family. But what do we really do to make a difference in the world around us? What do we really do to make a difference in the life of someone we may never meet, or even our closest friends?

Do we live these busy lives because we are scared? Are we affraid of the silence, or what happens in those moments when we just stop and let God guide our actions? I would say many if not all of us are. Affraid that if we step out and try to make a difference we will fail? Maybe you don't know where to start. If we simply refuse to move because of fear, are we not allowing that same fear to conquer us?

I want you to meet Bob. I saw his story today and was inspired. I received this because I've committed to running the Chicago Marathon for LLS with Team in Training. What I didn't realize was that along the way I would be hearing stories of both cancer survivors and those who are still fighting that would inspire me and take my breathe away! So without further ado...meet Bob, he's something special!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvN7LWbKaKA&feature=youtu.be

And if Bob moves you like he has moved me, visit my fundraising page and learn about Nancie, she's the brave lady that started me on this journey!

http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/chicago10/candress