T-minus 3 days

Oh, it's that familiar feeling: the nerves/excitement/incredulity of an upcoming race. This Sunday's Napa-To-Sonoma Half Marathon will be my 9th half (well, technically my 10th, but I walked my first one) and it doesn't really matter how many of these I do--or whether it's a 5K, 10K, or a run around the block--when I put on that race bib and line up with other runners to cross a start line (and, presumably, cross a finish line eventually--so far, so good, I've finished each time), I get nervous.

This time is no exception. I knew it was fast approaching, but now that it's only days away, I'm getting increasingly anxious. I'm more so than normal because it's the first one in a long time (maybe even the first ever?) where I didn't really train leading up to it. Oh sure, I've been running, but I've been following the team's training schedule, which has had us on a different mileage plan than what would be if I had been formally training for this half. Technically speaking, I should be in "taper" right now--resting and doing light workouts in order to conserve my energy for Sunday. Let's just say I'm not really tapering right now :). Heavy leg workout on Monday, Yasso 800's at track last night (a special kind of torture--oops, I mean workout to help predict your finishing time at your event), upper body weights today, 5-mile buddy run tomorrow morning, and more upper body weights on Friday. And oh, have I mentioned not getting a ton of sleep this week?

Not the ideal circumstances for sure, but I am still looking forward to donning that bib, crossing that finish line, and getting my medal. I had been hoping to set a new personal record at this race, but now I think it might be better to take the pressure off and just approach it as another training run--one in which I'll get a medal, of course :). My goal is just to not totally stink ;). If I can come close to my last PR or match it, I'll be happy (of course, I wouldn't mind beating it!).

And hey, when all else fails, there's always the wine tasting after the race :).

The Rancho Conquerers

Day #1 of a 3-day weekend and how do I decide to kick it off? With a run, naturally :). And not just any run; I decided to be ambitious and set out to tackle the mighty Rancho San Antonio, with its rolling hills and its often uneven terrain. I'd only ever had good experiences on Rancho despite all of these things, however, so I thought nothing of it to suggest it to my game running partner, Janine.

It soon became clear that this particular run wasn't going to be quite so fun. Within minutes, I was struggling--I was out of breath and choking on my heart (because somehow it slid up into my throat!) and wanting to walk every single hill there was. I wanted to quit so many times and turn around, but kept on soldiering on so I wouldn't let Janine down.

Walk/run intervals, walking up hills, taking stretching breaks when needed--the first half of the run was all about trying to acclimate to the suddenly hostile terrain (and my suddenly hostile stamina).

But then something magical happened. The run turned... INCREDIBLE! No, really. It turned INCREDIBLE.

Still not sure exactly what happened--perhaps it was taking it a little easier on the first half (thank you, sluggishness), but something switched on for both me and Janine, and we practically flew back to our starting point, not stopping to walk until we were just a few feet from our destination. That's about 2.75 miles of nonstop running--downhill, uphill, flat trail, it didn't matter, we were both feeling so good that we kept on running. And running. And running. So this is how Forrest Gump must have felt!

I owe a debt of gratitude to Janine, who didn't let me give up when I wanted to. On the way back, I wanted to stop at one point, but she urged me to keep going and fight through it. I did. It worked. I'm SO GLAD I kept on going.

Thank you, J9 for the push! It ended in a fantastic run :).

And they say there's a recession?

Much has been made lately of the economy sucking eggs right now--and how this is unfortunately, having a negative impact on many nonprofit organizations. LLS isn't immune to this, and the consequences of less funding coming in can make a huge difference: research that's critical to finding the next breakthrough may have to be put on hold or make do with fewer dollars; critical programs that help patients and their families may have to be downsized. Our mission as TNT runners/fundraisers is more important than ever, and yet it's no secret that it's probably one of the toughest fundraising environments out there right now.

Which is why I'm totally floored--and PSYCHED--that people's generosity still shines through brightly and clearly despite the challenging economy.

Two weeks ago, I made the (admittedly scary) decision to switch from the Nike Women's Marathon to the Royal Victoria Marathon. Doing so meant that I would go from having met--and actually, exceeded--my fundraising minimum to having to be even scrappier to raise $750 more to meet a new, higher minimum.

What's a TNTer to do? Buckle down and get to work, of course. So out went a new batch of emails, planning went into a new bake sale and a karaoke party fundraiser, and numerous links to my fundraising site were plastered all over Facebook. And folks, if there was ever any doubt, there shouldn't be now: THIS. STUFF. WORKS.

In the last week, I've managed to raise $150--$125 of which came in the last 2 days alone!

It just goes to show that even when the economy is struggling, people understand the value of what this incredible organization does. So THANK YOU to all of you who have been supporting me on this journey--your generosity is making all sorts of impossible things possible.

Did I convince ya to help yet? It's SUPER easy! Just visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/sj/RoyalVic09/jenibarra and you're one click away from helping a vital cause.

Thank you!