TNT Week 7- Silent Mile

This week we ran 7 miles. There wasn't any snow, thank goodness, but we did run in the rain. The weather has been beautiful lately, so hopefully it stays. I'm tired of all the wetness! There was an important message at this weeks run. We ran the first mile in silence to honor those affected by blood-related cancers. There was also rose petals for all the patients. We dropped them as we ran the first mile and on the way back we saw the petals on the ground as a reminder why we were there and it gave us a little push to make it to the finish. We always hear numbers and statistics, but we don't really see just how big the numbers are until they are represented by objects. The ground was covered with rose petals. It was beautiful, yet so sad. It was an inspiring message for me.

Exhausted Mom

I thought I was ready for kids someday, but this week my 4-legged kiddos really put me to the test. Take for instance this guy:

He looks pretty sweet and innocent in this picture, but when one of our females is in heat he turns into a totally different animal!! I think he was put on this earth to do one thing and he will do just about anything to get it! He's a machine! We used to just put a diaper on our females, but twice now he has managed to maneuver his little red rocket thru the diaper and connect. Don't ask me how, but like I said he does anything to get it. Most of the time he doesn't mind wearing it, but he has found a way to get it off in the heat of the moment, so we constantly have to keep an eye on him. Bella is in heat now. So far it's been 100% bullet-proof! For him we really don't like to call it a diaper, but rather refer to is a the man-pon, nutt bag, or rocket pocket.

Now for these lovely ladies.

Don't let their cuteness fool you. This is the vicious mother-daughter duo. For some reason they have been attacking Raven and it's a struggle to get them apart. I've been clawed and bitten in the process. They clamp down so hard on her that when I try to pick Raven up to get her free, one of them is hanging from her nose, the other from her ear. She's had multiple cuts on her nose and ear, but the other day they got her eye! We didn't want to take any chances so a vet visit and $100 later she is on eye drops and antibiotics and her eye is ok! How could they ever think of hurting this sweet thing?

So between making sure nobody is fighting and keeping an eye on our love-making machine I'm exhausted! Is having kids this hard?

TNT Week 6

This weeks training was one of the worst hours I've experienced in a long time. We met at 6:30am. It was dark, freezing, and snowing!! We met a Quivira Park to get on the trail. We couldn't even see the trail with all the snow! We were supposed to run 4 miles, but coach thought we were running 6 so the water-stops were messed up and we ended up running almost 5. My shoes and socks were soaking wet, I had snot and tears running all over my face, and worst of all I wore a thong and had the worst chaffing ever between my cheeks!! I was angry the whole time and I just wanted it to be over. This goes to show just how committed I am! I am hoping this was the last of our winter weather! Snow is definitely not favorable training conditions!

St. Patty's Day Fundraising

We took a crap-load of green beads and shamrock cookies to the St. Patrick's Day parade in Westport thinking we were going to get rid of all our green stuff in exchange for the more important green stuff....$$$$. The problem was........so was everyone else! We were competing with so many other Team In Training members and other St. Patty's Day vendors. Our team even got stopped by the "vendor police" because we didn't have a license. The normal cost was $250, but they said they would cut us a break and only charge $100. We made a whopping $1.25 and decided to take our green stuff elsewhere. We went to HyVee and set up shop inside. We also had a bake sale at Walgreens, and with all attempts we ended up with around $173. Yesterday was "jeans day" for all of the Olathe Walgreens, so hopefully we had a good day of donations. Anyone still wanting to donate can visit my fundraising page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/mid/rnr10/ezacharias

Team members Theresa and Stephanie ready to sell their green goods.

TNT Week 5

Once again I missed training this week since it was my weekend to work. Our distance was 6 miles this week, so Friday I went out in the drizzling cold for my long run. It was tough, real tough. I forgot my water and goo, so I didn't have much in me to keep me going near the end. I was exhausted! I just can't believe I was running for One. Whole. Hour. Without stopping.
I'm heading to the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Westport tomorrow for some fundraising. I'll post pictures soon!

Boot Blocking

While back home this past weekend I decided to try out boot blocking in Manhattan to try and raise some money. We made about $200 in 2 hours.....not bad. It was fake patty's day in Manhattan and with the men's and women's basketball games we got a lot of traffic. It was kind of embarrassing at first, and we got tons of stares and comments. I was offered hugs and invited to a few parties by the "happy" college students.

Theresa is part of TNT also so she came to do the fundraising with me and we recruited our other technician, Katelyn, who is going to school at KSU. They did a great job letting the traffic know about our cause, and I came along with the boot to collect the money.

We plan to get out there and do it again this week.......weather permitting!

TNT Week 4

I went back home to Clay Center this weekend to visit my parents, so I missed out on the group training here in Kansas City. Five miles was our distance this week, so I used my handy dandy Garmin watch to track my distance as I ran the (horrible) streets of Clay Center. It wasn't near as bad as what I thought it was going to be and I was happy with what my Garmin said:
Distance: 5.00 miles
Time: 50:03.14
Pace: 10:01/mile
Calories: 606
Yep, that's right 606 calories, so I didn't feel bad at all when I went down to Tasty Pastry and got me one of these:
I can't go back to Clay without getting a nut roll. They are my favorite! I look at all my calories burned while I run and that's how I justify eating these special treats. I need to get away from this habit because the jiggly thing I have behind me while I run will never go away!

Devin's 30th

We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Gaslight Grill with family and friends for Devin's 30th Birthday! The food was great and they had live Jazz music for entertainment.

After dinner we all went back to our house for cheesecake and wine. Birthday boy must be getting old! He just couldn't handle all the fun!

TNT Week 3

It was another early and COLD morning of training this week. What I like about training so far is that we meet at various locations around the Kansas City area that I would not normally go to. We run on trails and I get to see all the beautiful nature KC has to offer. This week we ran the trail through Corporate Woods which I really enjoyed. It makes the run go by so much faster when you have something new and pretty to look at. Our early meetings on Saturday mornings isn't all about showing up, running, and leaving. This week we met here:

.....and enjoyed some warm coffee and bagels while chatting with the other team members.