Race for the Cure

My sister fought breast cancer this year and kicked its butt. She ran a 10k in the middle of her radiation treatment, which I thought was pretty awesome.

So this fall both my sisters and I signed up for our local Race for the Cure. We ended up running and walking with my niece and cousin, and my sister's sister-in-law.

As we prepared for the race, we saw many groups of people with matching shirts, celebrating or memorializing someone's fight. Some people listed one name on their shirt. Some listed many. It was so amazing to see all the support. I had to stop reading people's shirts after the first mile because I was starting to cry and that makes it really difficult to run.

My favorite thing about this race: Everyone was wearing pink somewhere. (It made it hard to find people. After I finish a race, I usually go back and cheer for everyone else as they finish. We couldn't find my cousin because we missed her pink shirt.)  All the survivors got pink t-shirts.  My sister hated pink.  Anything she saw in pink, she would say 'yech!'

But this shirt, she wanted the pink one.

I'm so thankful she got one.

Family 5k

A couple weeks ago, my family participated in a 5k.  We all wore matching shirts - that my sister and I put together, a process that went surprisingly smoothly. (She had an iron to put the design on the shirts and I designed the logo on Photoshop. It took longer to print the designs than to put them on the shirts.) The shirt design process also resulted in several emails going back and forth regarding the design, etc.  For some reason, I don't hit the R key on the keyboard very hard and quite often in the email drafts, 'shirt' was missing its R. Hopefully I was able to catch all these before the messages were sent. :-)

The race itself was a blast.  The weather was perfect.  Usually whenever I sign up for a race it rains.  It didn't.  Two of my brothers hadn't run a race in at least a decade and they participated.  Those who couldn't run walked.  My husband ran and pushed the twins in the jogging stroller.  My sisters-in-law pushed the little one.  My niece pushed her dog in a stroller.

I ran and had a fabulous race, running more than two minutes faster that I hoped to.  At the start, I thought I might be able to keep up with two of my nephews, but they took off so quickly at the start that I didn't have a chance.  I settled into my own pace, but felt like my legs were exhausted.  They didn't seem to have any spring.  The course doubled back after the first mile and I got so cheer on family members as I met them.  As I approached the second mile, another runner asked what my goal time was.  When I told him, he told me I was having a really good day.  I didn't believe him because the time I thought I had at the first mile was much worse than I hoped for. I assumed he meant I was really close to that goal time.  Until I saw the finish line clock.  WOW.  It was a really good day.

My mom and aunt were at the finish line cheering everyone as they finished.

The kids ran in the fun run or I should say my son ran and we carried the girls.  My daughter wanted to hold my hand but run next to her brother who was holding my other hand.  I couldn't move with my arms all twisted up, so I ended up carrying  her.

But everyone had a blast and we hope to make it an annual tradition.

After the River Bank, what's next?

I made it!  I beat the time I was shooting for by about 6 minutes.  The whole experience was a lot harder than I expected.  It didn't help that I ran the first six miles about thirty seconds per mile faster than I intended to. Then came the hills.  I was sure that the spectators who congratulated us on finishing the last hill were lying.  This couldn't be the last hill with more than three miles to go.  Generally they were telling the truth, except that the last 400 yards to the finish were up hill.  That's just mean.

Several members of my family were able to run the 10k and it was so much fun to be there with them.

So my legs are pretty stiff today and I look at stairs and cry, but I'm also excited to start training for another race.

So what's next?

We are trying to get as many of my family as possible to run a 5k in June.  They can run, walk, ride in a stroller or cheer.  The course covers many of the roads we trained on in high school cross country and track practices, so it will bring back a lot of hopefully good memories.

We're getting matching shirts with everyone's name on them in tribute to my parents and the legacy they created.

I'm excited to run with all my siblings and hope they can all participate.  After training for a long race, I look forward to some speed workouts.

My husband has even started running, hoping that my sisters will not beat him.  I told him he's going to have to work pretty hard.

Guest Blogging at Grand Rapids Region Writers Group today

I'm guest-blogging at the Grand Rapids Region Writers Group (http://grandrapidsregionwritersgroup.blogspot.com) today.  Today is their monthly meeting at the Grandvilla Restaurant, but I won't be there.  I'm running in the River Bank Run.  If you want to see me, I should be running on Wilson Street sometime between 9:00 and 9:30.  Hopefully I won't be on Wilson for that entire time. :-)

Less than 3 weeks to go...

As you may have read before, I am training to the in the Fifth Third River Bank Run on May 14. I am running the 25k and my sisters are running the 10k along with several of my nieces.  I am quite excited about having so many in my family participate.  We may even have matching shirts, if we can get them done in time.

I also was able to get a profile in the The Rapidian about why I'm running and my training schedule.  You can check it out here: http://therapidian.org/river-bank-run-runner-joselyn-vaughn

River Bank

The Fifth Third River Bank Run is now only four weeks away.  Last week I found someone to do the long runs with and it makes it so much easier to do them. We did ten miles and it was awesome.  (Okay she did twelve because she's training harder than me.)

This weekend a busy schedule and SNOW IN APRIL made it difficult to fit a long run in. (Yes, I am feeling wimpy about not wanting to run in the snow and forty mile an hour winds.) I got seven in before it got dark last night, but it was very cold.

Part of the reason, I made it out the door were the conditions last year.  As with every race I did last spring, the week leading up to the race was unseasonably warm, the sun shone and it was downright beautiful.  Then came race day.  Freezing temperatures, snow, rain, gusty winds.  Every single time.  The downpour did let up during the actually running of one race.

River Bank was no different. All week, I had debated about which shorts to wear and whether to wear a short sleeve shirt or a long sleeve shirt that I could take off should I need to. Saturday morning dawned with freezing temperatures, windchill and flurries in MAY.  I wore long pants, a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt.

I guess it's best to be prepared.  Gotta love Michigan weather.

Jaden's attempt at exercise

During one of our recent thunderstorms, I was running on the treadmill.  I briefly contemplated what I should do should the power go out.  I supposed I would catch myself on the bar and it wouldn't be too disastrous.

I set up my laptop to watch Bones - my treat for running - and plugged my headphones in.  With the noise of the treadmill and my focus on the show, I couldn't hear the thunder or anything else. A couple miles in, something weird happened.

Something hit my feet.  I looked down and our fifty-pound beagle Jaden had jumped on the treadmill.  During electrical storms, he tries to get as close to his most respected adult as he can.  He once tried to climb a stepladder to get to my father-in-law.

Jaden isn't terribly fit and couldn't keep up with my pokey pace.  He flew off the end of the treadmill and into the wall behind me.  But that didn't deter him. He jumped on again, practically knocking me over, with the same result for him. A couple more attempts, but no success.

He will have to find another way to get his cardio in.

Frostbite Run

Yes, it was as cold as it sounds.  So I over-dressed.  By mile 3, I was stripping off my gloves and jacket and probably would have chucked more if I didn't have to carry it.

The race wasn't as bad as it sounds though.  I was able to average 9 minute miles which was much better than I expected on the snowy roads and freezing cold.  And I finished second in my age group.  We won't mention that there were only two in my age group.

I've been doing all my runs on the treadmill and have been too lazy to up the incline and too chicken to run much faster than a 6 on the treadmill.  My laziness showed in that it felt like I was pulling a piano up most of the hills. The piano instead of pushing me down the downhills felt like it got stuck on the crest and I couldn't get away from it.

Yesterday I was pretty sore. Stairs were wince-inducing, but it's better today.

Today I start training for the 25k with longer runs inching up to 15 miles and, of course, adjusting the incline on the treadmill. And maybe pressing a number higher than 7 on the speed.

Registering for River Bank

I did it.  I registered for the 25k at the Fifth Third River Bank Run.  And now I've told everyone, so I can't chicken out. And I've paid for it, so hopefully that will keep me motivated for the training.

It's been a long time since I've run more than 6 miles.  Last year I did the 10k at River Bank. But other than some training runs this winter, it has been more than a decade since I last ran the River Bank run.

I wanted to attempt the 25k last year, but I injured my knee on my first long run and couldn't hardly walk for two weeks.  By the time I recovered, I had lost too much training time to attempt the 15 miles.

This year I've done a couple long runs on the treadmill - which wasn't nearly as horrid as I thought, watching movies on Netflix definitely helps. I'm tackling a 10k this weekend.  It will be cold and snowy and quite an adventure.  My goal will be to finish rather than set any land-speed records.  But finishing will put me in the right direction for tackling that 25k in May.

Anyone else out there working on a big goal?

Getting in Shape

As probably 95% of Americans resolve, I want to get into better shape this year.

I want to be able to run like I used to thirteen years ago and thirty pounds ago.  Realistically I can't train the way I did then, but I can make a goal of losing the weight and that will make it easier.

I also have an added incentive.  Everyone is my family has been a runner at one time or more in their lives, except my oldest sister.  She was born with a hole in her heart and encouraged no to do a lot of physical activity.  One doctor even told my parents he wouldn't do anything for her because she was going to die.  Needless to say, my parents packed her up immediately and went to another hospital.

After fifty years, her condition had come to a point where the hole needed to be fixed.  Since that was done, she has been feeling so energized and her doctor has given her the green light to run.  She has been logging enough miles on her treadmill to put the rest of us to shame.

We hope this spring that all my sisters and as much of my family as we can coerce will be able to do a 5k together.

How's that for an incentive to get in shape?

Their first road race.

This weekend, my children ran their first race.  It was very exciting for me as there are a lot of runners in my family and I ran all through high school and college.  Since having children, the time to run has become more precious.  It's hard to fit a run in after chasing three little ones all day. It was so fun to be able to share the experience with them.

Their race was six blocks--quite a journey for two-year-old legs.  My son ran almost every step.  My daughter, after walking a half mile to see Mom finish her race, was already worn out, but she determinedly finished the race.

At the end, the children were rewarded with popsicles, which I don't think either of them have ever had.  My son licked through the first inch of his popsicle and exclaimed in wonder, "There's a stick in it!"