Week 7 of 18: Huh?

As I took last weekend off (including my 9 miler) because I was out of town, I was supposed to step things up a bit this week. Which, didn't really happen. But nevertheless...

Sunday: Lots of TV watching and then a 5 hour drive home from North Carolina.

Monday: 45 minute 6 AM spin class! My favorite way to start the week.

Tuesday: Trash Tuesday!! Err, Track Tuesday. On the agenda? 10 x 400s. We met up on the Daniel Island track to knock these out. Participants: Shannon, Katy, Sarah, me. We started out the first half between 6:30 and 7:30 pace (eeek) and then finished up between 7:30 and 8:30. Was really glad to have Shannon there when the speedier gals left us in the dust on 6-10.

Wednesday: Off. Was hoping to do AM spin, but my legs were beat.

Thursday: Was supposed to do my tempo run, but happy hour with these ladies sounded more fun :)

Friday: Although not a tempo run, got in 4 miles on the dreadmill + 10 minutes on that weirdo machine Cyvex? Not sure. A good cardio workout.

Saturday: LONG RUN DAY! 14 miles on the agenda. Of which I ended up doing about 13.5. My Garmin messed up so I'm not totally sure of the mileage. I was feeling okay until about mile 8, then my leg started to hurt and I started getting tired. Hopefully next week's run will be better. I'm hoping to step up my training a bit from here on out to be adequately prepared. I also am working on a fundraiser this week so hopefully I can fit it all in!

Winner of the giveaway to be announced later this morning!

Training Update + $50 Gift Card Giveaway

I missed this past weekend's long run (was supposed to be 9 miles), and didn't run from Friday through Monday....slacker! I was out of town and it was nice to do absolutely nothing all weekend, so not a total loss.

But starting off the new week, I got up early on Monday morning for a nice spin class. It's the best way to start the week! Then on Tuesday morning we got up bright & early for the regular Track Tuesday (which has now been dubbed Trash Tuesday after my Freudian slip in an email to the girls) for 10x400s. I prefer 400s to 800s, so I was down for it. We started out at a 6 something pace and then ended up around 8 something towards the end. It is so so humid here! Today I took off but tomorrow I'm hoping to head to the beach for a morning run or either to the gym to run on the dreadmill, however the mood strikes me.

I've felt kind of lackadaisical about training lately. And about life. Weird.

So for some fun....

A suhweet giveaway for anyone still reading...

I really have been lacking in kitchen gadgets, cookware, etc. lately so when I was contacted about this giveaway, I was pumped! Anyone interested in a new Le Creuset dutch oven, or perhaps a hand blender for easy soups? (Me, Me, Me!!)

CSN Stores contacted me to do a giveaway for a $50 gift card to any of their sites. At first I thought, who/what is CSN Stores?? But then I looked further and discovered the gems that are Cookware.com, FitnessEquipmentandMore.com, and BedroomFurniture.com. Wowza! Sweet giveaway, methinks.

So here's what I'm gonna do. If you want one entry into this giveaway, simply comment on this post, perhaps telling me which site you would use your gift card at. If you want to, or you can just comment to say hi :)

But for anyone who donates to my Team in Training fundraising campaign ($10 or more), I will give you 100 entries into this giveaway. How does that sound? :) To qualify for the 100 entries, please come back here after you donate & comment to let me know. Or you can leave a note in the comments section of the donation form. Either way.

You can donate easily here.

**UPDATE** I will announce the winner Monday morning July 26th! So you have all weekend to get your donations in.

Good luck!

Week 2 of 16: Marathon Training Take THREE

Marathon training? Take THREE.

Ever since my first marathon I have had a love/hate relationship with the marathon. I love it for how strong and accomplished it makes me feel, but I hate it for the pain/agony/time etc. that it takes to train & to actually run the race. I just don't think I was meant for long distance races like that.

I love the half marathon, and oddly, have yet to run a decent 1/2 that I was proud of. It's on my list for this fall.

So while this year's 26.2 may be my last (for a while) I'm trying to also make it my best.

Katy & I are training via the Runner's World Run Less, Run Faster training plan. Basically, you run three times a week but you make each workout really count, plus you're definitely well rested for each run. Tuesday is track work, Thursday is a tempo run and Saturday is your long run. I love it so far because I have time for yoga & spinning yet I'm still getting in the miles necessary to train for the big race. I'm a firm believer that you don't have to log 40-50 miles a week just to prepare for the marathon. Of course, it can't really hurt either as long as you're going about it smart.

This week's training (officially week 2 on our 16 week plan):
Monday: AM spin class <--It was tough! But love how strong spinning makes me feel.

Tuesday: Track Tuesday! We did 1 mile warm up, then 4 x 1200 with 200 walks in between. Sarah & Katy kicked my a$$. I love Track Tuesday's though because the Charleston Running Club comes out there mid way through our workout and they're always speedy & inspiring.

Wednesday: Off. Was planning on yoga or spinning but was feeling a bit under the weather. Which was okay by me because I was well rested for this morning's run!

Thursday: 5 mile tempo run in 45:00. I was aiming for my 10k race pace + 30 seconds (which would be about a 9 minute mile) so I came out perfect! This was a great treadmill run, one of the best runs I have had in a while. I was pretty pleased with my speed because lately, I have been lingering over the 10:00 min/mile pace...which I don't love.

TOMORROW: Would love to get some yoga in, but will probably take the day off because I have friends coming into town! Will be drinking tons of water and eating well in preparation for....

Saturday: Long run with the TNT team, 11 miles on the docket. It should be cooler than past weeks (in the 80s) so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Happy 4th of July!

Blogger Support for TNT!

I promise I have an update on Week 1 training coming up soon, but for today, please go here...

Bobbi is AWESOME. Not only does she do it all, but she manages to blog about it all too. (I can't keep up. Clearly.) She generously offered to help me raise money for my TNT campaign today!

The deets (from her blog):

>>If we sell 30 Enviotes (plus you will receive the Envipal for free ($8 value)), I will DONATE $150 ($5 PER BAG) to Kristen for her Team in Training Fundraising efforts.

>>So you are going to get a great reusable tote + a wonderful lunch box for only $20 and I will be giving $5 of it to a wonderful cause!!!

>>We only have until tomorrow night May 26th to make this happen, so let’s get shopping!!!

THANKS Bobbi!

I bought my tote, did you? I promise to be back with my Chicago 2010 Training Schedule and an update on how the first week went soon! Happy Tuesday :)

Marine Corps Marathon: A Race Report, Part I

Ahhh, the lure of the marathon. What makes people want to run for hours on end, for 26 point 2+ miles, through cities & states, through pain & blood & sweat & tears....

...I have no idea, because dear lord is that race torturous!

Ok, ok. I do kind of know. People run marathons for the massivecrazy sense of accomplishment you get when you finally cross that finish line.

This marathon for me was a definite test of will. I signed up not long after completing marathon #1, and I think I only signed up because I felt like I could do better. I felt I could perform at a higher level than I did at the NC Marathon. I wanted to train harder, run faster and cross that finish line well under 4:30 the second time around. Honestly, I was a bit embarrassed with myself back in May. Of course I was proud that I had DONE IT but let's be honest here, anyone can do it if they want to. Not everyone can be great at it.

And I wanted to be great.

{Well, great for me. Not great as in superstar elite runner sub six-minute mile great, but great as in, a 150% performance on my end.}

But over the past 5 months or so, running for me has been on the back burner. My life has been crazy busy, full of changes, new beginnings, new stresses...and quite honestly, I was a little burnt out on running.

So when time finally came for me to actually run this marathon, I was more than ready to get it over with. I really didn't know what my time would be, I could only hope that I was prepared enough to hit that sub 4:30 mark that I hoped I could. I had hit almost every long run, and had kept up fine. I had actually noticed an increase in my long run pace from my previous training season. {Increase as in, speedier.} I had taken up yoga and w as working on my strength.

So, all in all, I was prepared. I was ready, come what may. But, I was also very nervous.

Kimi, Matt and I had a long drive to DC {via Raleigh to pick up Meredith}....

Kimi is excited!

Had a busy day Saturday at the expo & running errands... {trying on bridesmaid's dresses for Meredith's upcoming nuptuals! Going to the inspiration dinner..}


But when Sunday morning came around all of that nervousness had faded away and in it's place had come excitement!

Kimi, Katy and I outside of my room getting ready to head for the Metro!

We had written our names on our TNT singlets, attached our flair, written the names of those we were running in honor of on our backs, eaten our breakfast, trained for months, and were ready to RUN!

I was excited to run this race because I had people to run it with. {Instead of the cows like last time.} Plus I knew there would be thousands of spectators to cheer us on!

We headed downstairs to meet the rest of our SC team & then headed on to the Metro. This was quite the experience! There were hundreds (maybe thousands) of runners squishing onto the platforms, into the trains, onto each other...it was packed. Kind of like this...

This was taken later on in the day, during the marathon, when all of the spectators were trying to get to different spots on the course to cheer on their runners. (Taken by LiLu as she was schlepping around town to cheer me on!)

Once we got off at the Arlington Cemetary stop, the 30 ,000 runners spilled out onto the street and we made our way to....the photographers!

First up, me and Katy!


And....again...
Let's add in Kimi! Now with our numbers....we were definitely hamming it up at the start line!

So after a bit of a chilly wait, we were off! The first 8 miles of the race were supposed to be hilly, as it wound through Alexandria before crossing the bridge into Georgetown, so we were planning on taking it easy. We ended up losing Kimi & other TNT'er Andrew after mile 1. Katy and I both had groups of family and friends on the course, and we saw all of them at the 1 mile mark!

Hmm, my camera was mad at Matt that day I think. Let's try this again.

Ok, so don't have great pics from mile 1. Moving on...Katy and I decided to run the first 6 miles straight through (because it was crowded & hilly) and then after that start the run/walk. We were planning on sticking to what had worked in training - running a mile, walking a minute.

We saw Katy's family again on the bridge over into DC at mile 4!

We were to wind through Georgetown, then head down by the water to Hain's Point for about 4 miles before we made it back up to the monuments.

I think this was around mile 8 somewhere in Georgetown. Katy's family was great at meeting us every few miles. {Note, I have no idea who the other purple TNT'er is there, we're kind of hiding behind.}

We were feeling great! We were having fun, cheering, getting cheered for, slapping hands with little kids on the sidelines...it was so much fun!

But, it was going to start sucking pretty soon...

To be continued!

I finished!

Going to post a full recap soon, but wanted to let you all know I finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 4:47, a PR by 14 minutes!

A little slower than I had hoped, but ended up with some (I think) IT band issues around mile 23...major pain! The pic above is of me and TNT teammate Katy resting at the TNT tent after negotiating the mess that was the finish line. I would never have finished this one without her! THANK YOU KATY!!!

...more to come!

XOXO

ChasRunner

Marathon time baby!

Marathon #2 is less than three days away now! Don't have much time to post, we're packing tonight and heading up to D.C. in the morning! Wish me luck folks :) The past few weeks of training have been pretty decent, my last really long run went horribly, but when doesn't it?!

If you really wanna, you can track me online here using my first and last name. I think they either send you emails or texts every time I hit a 5k mark! If you wanna track me, just shoot me a comment and I'll let ya know who I am ;)

I am riding up to the race with Matt and my TNT teammate Kimi. We're stopping along the way in Raleigh to pick up my girl Meredith, and we're meeting up with our other teammates Friday night. We're also gonna get in some quality time with my girl LiLu and her boyf at some point. My dad, brother and grandmother are also coming up! (Remember last time?) So...it should be a fun packed weekend.

Look out for a massive recap next week!

You can also follow the play by play on Twitter....that's where I've been hiding the past few months ;)

_________
**Congrats to fellow Charlestonian Amanda on her bun in the oven! So excited for you lady :)

A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to my Team in Training fundraising campaign. I exceeded my goal and raised $3, 526.00 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! You all rock.

20 miles....

I am currently sitting on my couch, fresh out of my ice bath + shower, with my feet up watching The Sopranos. (Not my first choice, but I do like the show, and honestly I'm too lazy to change the channel.) We just finished 20 miles and although I was struggling the last two miles, it went pretty well!

I've found two lovely ladies that run around my same pace and we tend to stick together during the long runs. Today me, Katy and Kimi ran 1 mile intervals with a 1 minute or so walk at each mile marker. I LOVE breaking up the long runs like that, it makes the run go so much quicker!

I've been using Hammer gels, and Espresso is my fave. It tastes like mocha with a bonus jolt of caffeine! I took one around the hour mark and it really helped me pick up my pace. Then around the two hour mark I took a Hammer Apple Cinnamon gel. These taste like apple pie! Unfortunately since they are so sweet, I think the tend to give me cramps. It was hard to recover after that. In an effort to save the remainder of my run, I took about a 1/2 of another espresso gel around the 2:45 hour mark. It sort of helped.

The last two miles were the toughest for me, we had just had our last water break and were heading out for the last long stretch in full sunlight. It was getting hot out there and my legs were lead!

Our stats ended up being 20 miles in 3:24 with an average pace of 10:14. On our running portions we were keeping a steady pace of under a 9 minute mile!

Before my last marathon, my last long run of 21.5 miles that we run straight through (no walk breaks) our average pace was 10:54...considerably slower than running with short walk breaks! GALLOWAY SUCCESS.

I wore my new running clothes....

Sugoi Fizz Tank
Mizuno Women's Maverick Split

Love them! The shirt has a nice big pocket in the back where I can store my gels. The shorts I have are all black, very comfy.

I just inhaled a huge green smoothie with some added Amazing Grass (review to come whenever I finish the boatload of samples they sent me :) and now Matt and I are deciding if we want to go get food. I'm planning on lazing around for as long as possible today, I think I earned it!

What's everyone's fall racing schedule looking like? I have the Marine Corps Marathon on October 25th, possibly the Raleigh 1/2 Marathon on November 1st, and then the Kiawah 1/2 Marathon on December 12th. I might also throw in a few 5ks if I can find the time. (Will be doing one on Thanksgiving Day in Greensboro, NC most likely).

Happy Sunday folks..

Ahh, life.

It has pulled me away from this space for almost a month. I've been busy, but I'm not gonna lie, I've also been a tad bit too lazy to spend my hard-earned weeknights tapping away on my laptop. But alas, I have missed you all so I wanted to drop a line to let you know I'm alive, and faring well.

Since we last spoke, I have been doing quite a bit of running, a ton of studying, passed my final financial exam (squeee!), formally been knighted a financial advisor, settled into our new home, got my ass back into yoga, eaten a crap ton of kettle chips, been super busy, hosted an inaugural supper club for eight lovely ladies...and have generally been loving life.

The Marine Corps Marathon is coming up in just a little over a month so mileage over this way has been pretty crazy, as I'm sure it has been with most of y'all! Marathon season is in full swing!

The team and I (have you donated yet? I'm aaalllmost to my goal!) will be setting out for our first 20 miler this Sunday, so I'm sure I will have plenty of time to prop my feet up and tap tap away on Sunday Funday so maybe I will get around to the product reviews or giveways I have been promising....

Two weeks ago we did an 18 miler and it went great. Last weekend's 13 miler, not so great. So I'm hoping this weekend is back up to grrreeeat.

Hope you all have a fab weekend and (hope to) see you back here soon :)

XOXO

ChasRunner

John Denver, Monster Mix & Stank: A Wild West Relay Race Report, Part III

How long is it going to take me to FINALLY post the finale of my WWR recap, you ask?? Well it's ending today!

Missed parts I or II?

So we made it to our "campsite" at our final exchange, and we were greeted with this:

There was really no where to sleep except for in front of and behind our van...but we made it happen. For, maybe 45 minutes to an hour :)

After a few hours of not sleeping and munching on handfuls more of Monster Mix, we got up to greet Van #1 and bring in their final leg so we could finish up ours! Around this time we were getting worried that we wouldn't make the cut off time (which we thought was either 4 or 5) so upon chatting with Van #1, we decided that we would "leap frog" our leg. (We should have started the race about three hours earlier than we did.)

Basically leap frogging is having two runners on the course at once. For example, we would drop of runner #6 and then drive ahead to the next exchange and drop of runner #7. We thought this was a great idea AND it would get us to the showers quicker. So we waited a while on Van #1, cheering on the huge caterpillars who were venturing out in the road to try and cross, but inevitably got squished under the wheels of a Chevy. (Seriously, I wish we had this moment on video.) When they finally arrived we snapped a few pics for them and we were off!


Alesha and I split up Steve's leg (about 2 miles each, I think mine was a little less at like 1.8) and then I headed on for my final leg. Which.Was.Killer.
I felt like the first three miles were completely uphill but I guess they were rolling. I peaked at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass and then it was all downhill from there! For some reason I had it in my head that I was only doing 4.6...but when 4.6 came and went I figured it was a bit more :)

Killer form.SIKE!

The scenery was beautiful though, I wish I had more pictures! The highlight of this run for me was when I was trudging up the final hill and was feeling beat down and the van was parked at the top of the hill waiting for me blasting Baby Got Back and cheering like crazy! I'm telling you, it was priceless! It also gave me that much needed boost to move that junk in my trunk to the exchange!



We finished up with our next two runners (blaring John Denver the whole time! how approps) and then Alesha was up for our last runner. We went ahead to the finish line and called the other van to make sure they were going to meet us there so we could all run across the finish line together. (They had already been to the hotel and showered! So.Jealous.)


Finished!!!

Van #2. 34 hours of non-showering, sweaty STANK!

Since this post has dragged on and on for over a week now, lets cut to the chase. Here are some pics of us all showered, clean and pretty again post-race.

Underexposed photo opp on our floor. Love these gals!!

Post-race Happy Hour at our slope-side hotel. Most of the gals got Sangria, but I opted for the more potent Marg. It was pretty good, not too sweet.

The fabulous ladies of Van #2 :)

Dinner at Mazzolo's. Yummy, over priced Italian ;)

All in all, I LOVED the Wild West Relay and would definitely do it again. I am already dreaming of the next relay I can participate in if not the WWR (Miami to Key West in February anyone?).

What I loved most about the race? Other than meeting all the fun people, I am thankful that I was finally introduced to the gorgeous state of Colorado. Previously I have only experienced the North Carolina/Tennessee/Virginia mountains which are lovely, but honestly they cannot hold a candle to the vast openness of Colorado and Wyoming and the great West. I honestly think I have fallen in love with this state! It's almost enough to make me want to shed my Southern home and head for the hills! At least temorarily ;)

I promise I will return to some normal blogging soon. I have my FINAL financial exam this coming Monday the 24th so I'm pretty bogged down until then. Hopefully after Monday my summer of studying will finally be over and I can enjoy the beach/pool before...wait, it never gets really cold down here ;)

{Did a brutal 16 miler this past Sunday with the team. It was tough but I'm glad I pushed through! Back down to 10 I think this weekend. Marathon here I come!}

When you make plans...

Well hello there! It is a fabulous Tuesday morning here in Charleston. I've been super busy moving, organizing the new place, and working a lot of overtime to make up for the fact that I'm leaving for Colorado on Thursday! I'm pretty excited about the trip, not gonna lie.

So here I sit, sippin' my green juice (I really need to start posting about my raw + food combining adventures , because it's going well...maybe after WWR) and I realized I had this post just waiting in drafts for y'all. So while I get to working I figured I would post this up. Don't worry, I know I still owe you a Part II of my Charleston mini-tour, and it's coming...patience my dears, is a virtue ;)

In running news, I ran a fantastic 12 miles with the team on Sunday. I wasn't going to go, seeing as we had been out the night before for drinks + dinner with Shannon and her boy at Crave and had stayed up until after 1 AM. But when the alarm clock went off at 5:45 I somehow popped right up out of bed!

We ran 1 mile intervals with a 1 minute walk break in between, and let me tell you, it was one of the best long runs I have ever had! We were managing between 8:30 and 9:30 pace while running! So our average pace came out to 10:02 for the entire 12 miles! If I can keep that up for the marathon I will be sitting pretty.

I've been learning that this time around, I do better when I just go...no worries, no planning, no serious must-stick-to-this training plans, hell I haven't even been running with an iPod in over two months! (They're all broke, boo.) And you know what? I'm lovin' it :) Guess that's a little bit off of my plan I set for myself back in May, huh?

It just goes to show that when you make plans, God (or whomever you believe makes the rules of the universe) laughs at them!
***

I was tagged a while back from Cynthia (a fellow WWR'er) in this 7 Traits thing and am just now getting around to it. Gonna try to make this 7 things you don't already know about me...

1. I am OCD. It's mostly a paranoia that my apartment is going to burn down. I check my stove like 10 times before I go to bed to make sure it is turned off. I also once had Matt drive 45 minutes back home after we were out for my birthday to check and see if I had left the iron on. Luckily (or not), I had. He is extremely sweet for putting up with me :)

2. I drive a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The hood is a slightly different shade of red than the rest of it, and there's a story behind that. It's old but it's paid for baby! And it's nice that my gas is only about $30 a month. My first car was a Mercedes though, I start out classy and then downgrade apparently.

3. I'm a less severe version of a hypochondriac yet I refuse to take any medicine (including Advil or whatever) or go to the doctor. (Unless its the dentist, eye doc or the gyno.) I always think I have a blood clot or a heart condition or something else completely unlikely.

4. My parents divorced when I was in 4th grade. It was pretty bad until I left for college. My mom has since re-married and divorced + is cougarrific, and my dad has never remarried. I think he likes the bachelor life.

5. I starred as Cinderella in a community theater musical in high school! It rocked. Especially when I *surprise* slipped the Prince tongue in one of our fake kisses. He about shat himself! (This was high school remember, and I was at least two years older than him. The entire cast knew it was coming which made it even more hilarious.) I still miss the theater and think abotu trying out for community shows every now and again.

6. I sang in our schools chorus (as well as community ensemble), and was usually quite pissy if I didn't get the alto solos. Diva alert! I also was in our high school pageant. Twice. I got 3rd place the second time (looossser). It was one of the most fun things I remember about high school though.

7. Matt was/is my first real boyfriend. I never had a *real* boyfriend in high school, and dated a guy in college but he sucked so he doesn't count. I went a little crazy with guys junior year of college and decided to swear them off altogether (um, not lesbo style, just swear off for a while) until Matt and I met. We met at a bar and the night is kind of hazy...I don't remember our first kiss...how crappy is that?! But I do remember our second kiss because it was outisde of my car, and he picked me up by my, umm, bootay, and set me on the hood where we made out. It was soooo Vin Diesel in the Fast and the Furious. I was hooked then and there!
***

Anything else you want to know about me? I'm a semi-open book! Hope you have a great Tuesday and hopefully I will be back with some more fun stuff before WWR!

Dessert Party + Blogger Meetup + TNT Update

Guess who I met up with at my dessert party?


Why it's Diana from The Chic Life!

This past Saturday Matt and I headed down to Charlotte for my TNT dessert party that my mom was hosting.

We had tons of desserts that were donated to us by various bakeries, and my mom and I also made up her famous blueberry pound cake. I had gathered tons of giveaway items from local companies and I was hopeful that the event would be well attended and get me closer to my $3,500 fundraising goal.

I won't say that the entire party was a failure, but it definitely wasn't what I had hoped for. Not many people came. The good part? I raised $225! Better than nothing, right? Another good part? I got to meet Diana and her hubby!

After Kelsey posted about my event last week, Diana contacted me about it since she lives in Charlotte. I love meeting other bloggers because we always have stuff to talk about! Although The Chic Life is more of a food blog and she's not a runner, it was cool to chat about whole foods + healthy living with her. It was also nice that our boys could chat over some beers + cake + sports :) I hope we can all meet up again sometime when we're in Charlotte or they come to Charleston. (Thanks for supporting my cause guys!)

Diana was kind enough to let me steal her pictures, because if the above pic is any example, my point and click Nikon had nothing on her DSLR. You can read her recap of the night here!


All for a cause!!


The spread! Her pictures make it look much more chic than it was :) I guess that's her specialty though, right? I need to take some tips on that...

We had a beautiful flower arrangement donated by Willow. If you live in the Charlotte area and need flowers, this place is amazing. It's run by Tricia whose tag line is "organically inspired designs." We picked this up at her studio, which is run out of her gorgeous house in the Baxter Village area of Ft. Mill right off of I-77. Thanks Tricia for the fab arrangement!


We had two cheesecakes, this one is a chocolate cinnamon flavor. It was so-so.

This was strange indeed, some sort of frozen strawberry treat. It was actually pretty good. We dubbed this one the "ham and cheese" dessert. I've never seen or tasted anything quite like it.

YUM. My mom's blueberry pound cake. We had a little mishap making this. My mom was mixing everything up and we got flustered and distracted by some visitors and she forgot to add the sugar!


We had it all ready to go and were about to add the blueberries when we were like, hmmm this doesn't look right. We had to throw it out and start again. I guess there really is a method to the madness of adding ingredients in the stages that recipes call them to be added. But the second time was a charm as this was definitely the star of the evening.


And it's safe to say that this lemon topped carrot cake came in second. Delish!


The second cheesecake was a Bailey's flavored Irish Creme cake. Yuck!! I love Bailey's but this was nasty.

These were little chocolate marshmellow pies. Looked weird, but tasted great! Reminded me of chocolate Moon Pie's or Mallowmars but 100 times better. (I hate Moon Pies too.)

All in all this was a fun and relaxing evening, and although I didn't raise over $500 like I was hoping to, it was nice to see my family and of course to meet The Chic Life + Chic hubby!

..and I might have a giveaway of sorts in the cards as well. Some of the items I gathered for door prizes I still have, so stay tuned!

Team in Training Update
My running fundraising total for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is $2,612. Which means I only have $888 left to raise to meet my goal! If you can donate anything I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks to the following bloggers/online buddies for donating to my cause even though we've never met in person!

• Ross K (my first donor and largest donor to date)
• Anthony L (third highest donor!)
• JennieBinSC
• Nicole B (Running Bebe)
  
• JoyRuN
• MaytonH
• Jennifer B
• Meredith (Balance for Mere)
  
• Eugene M
  
• NY Wolve (**Updated to add...inadvertently missed this donor! Hard to keep the real names and the blog names together when looking at my donation sheet :)
  

I missed the group run this weekend unfortunately, and didn't have a chance to make up the 14 miles on my own. We are moving this Friday so this week is pretty slam packed but I did a nice 6 mile run last night and plan on doing a few two a days this week to get ready for the madness that is going to be WWR NEXT WEEKEND!

Wild West Relay + TNT Update

So... the Wild West Relay is quickly approaching...actually, it's in 13 days!

Although I almost backed out at the last minute, although I have absolutely no money, although I am moving the weekend before the race, although I have another test for work the weekend after the race, although two weeks after the race is my fundraising deadline for Team in Training, I am going and I'm excited about it.

For those of you who don't know about WWR, here's the rundown:

• 200 miles, 24 hours
• 12 runners per team
  
• 36 legs total
  
• 3 legs per runner
• From Fort Collins, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO
• 2 SUV's packed with granola bars, peanut butter, stinky people & G (that would be Gatorade now apparently)
  
• Lots 'o hills
• Lots 'o elevation
• Really, really challenging terrain but it promises to pretty amazing
  

We gathered runners from all over the blogosphere and then some! Here's our team, the Dangerous Dozen!! We have two guys on the team, hopefully they can put up with a lot of estrogen for a few days :)

• Amanda from Run to the Finish
• Melissa from Trying to Heal
• Bobbi from NHerShoes
• Shannon from Shannon's Scene: Take Two (and a Charlestonite :)
• Alesha my BFF from college (we also went to high school together!)
• Cynthia from Amber (Shannon's cousin)
• Julie (not sure if she has a blog, but I think she has run WWR before! or maybe that's Jennifer?? sorry guys)
• Jennifer (not sure if she has a blog either!)
• Jeri from JerBer Shares
• Moore (Alesha's friend)
• Dionne (Moore's friend and lives in CO)
• ...and yours truly

I am runner # 9 so my legs are 9, 21 & 33. Check out these maps! Holy elevation batman! These are gonna be tough for a sea level gal like myself.
Although it looks like I get my most challenging leg out of the way first, way to plan Kristin, way to plan :)
A longer run, but a gradual descent. Gonna be tough on the quads after all that climbing earlier. ...and the final leg! I'm sure this one will be pretty tough because it will most likely be the next morning/afternoon. We probably will have slept for all of 15 minutes on the ground somewhere waiting on our next leg. But that's gonna be the fun of it, right? RIGHT??

I will be running a total of 16.6 miles, with a total elevation gain of 1,608, total elevation loss of -2,180 with an overall difficulty rating of 9 on a scale of 1-12 with 12 being the hardest. Although my net elevation is -572 (the hardest leg's net elevation is 2,547) I'm pretty sure this is going to be a VERY challenging race for me. I actually would prefer to go up hills than down them, because descending always ends up hurting my knees and quads.

Last night I decided to start prepping for WWR and did some hill repeats. I ran about 1.5 miles to warm up (which included going to the top of my chosen hill-the bridge, obvi), then I started my 4 x .25 repeats, running back down the .25 each time. My Garmin died mid-run so I don't have my totals, but it was actually not that bad! I think total I ran a little over 4 miles? Maybe more, I'm not sure.

Next time I would like to do 1/2 mile repeats, which would be a lot tougher. The .25 mile was pretty simple and I could tell that doing at least 4 half mile repeats would definitely test my hill strength. I'm going be doing these a lot over the next two weeks to get ready!

Have I also mentioned that I haven't been running with an iPod in about a month?? Yeah, both of my shuffles are on the fritz and I just haven't had the time to mess with them. Plus, all of our long runs I run with people so there's no need for music...so it's just my solo runs that have been a bit quieter. It's actually been pretty nice...

Headed out tonight to Charlotte for my TNT fundraiser tomorrow night. Gonna be a quick trip, gotta get back in time for our TNT 14 miler on Sunday morning...then spending the day PACKING...as we're moving next Friday to....Mt. Pleasant! Yep, we're leaving our beloved downtown Charleston for a nice slice of suburbia. But we're not gonna be far away from downtown and I happen to love Mt. Pleasant, so I'm not upset about it. (For those of you not familiar with the area, Mt. Pleasant is just the town across the bridge from the downtown portion of Charleston, so, it's not like I'm actually moving away.)

***By the way...have you donated yet?? My running total is $1,867...so I'm onl7 $1,633 away from my goal! I'm also only $133 away from $2,000. Anybody want to make my Friday and help me reach $2,000 today????


Have a fab weekend lovahs!

Dessert Fundraiser this Saturday in Charlotte, NC Area!

Hey y'all! Just a quick update for anybody out there in the Ft. Mill, SC/Charlotte, NC area!

I'm holding another dessert night fundraiser this Saturday, July 25th from 7 to 9PM at my mom's house in Fort Mill, SC. She lives about 15 minutes outside of Charlotte so it's pretty close for any of y'all in the 704 area!

We're gonna have all you can eat desserts, coffee, Bailey's (yum) and hopefully some wine if I can get it donated, in exchange for donations.

I raised about $500 at my last dessert night for my Team in Training fundraising campaign and I'm hoping to shatter that number with the help of my mom at this event!

If you're in the area I would love to meet you! We're going to have plenty of desserts and some fun giveaways as well :) I've got a few "marathon inspired" donations from local companies so far that I'm either going to auction or raffle off...you gotta stop by to see what they are!

If you wanna indulge, shoot me an email for the deets: ChasRunner at gmail dot com

Have a fab Monday!

***Edited to add***

Awesome local companies making this event rock!

• Charlotte Running Company
• Carolina Pilates
• Kairos Yoga
• Willow Florist
• Birds of a Feather
• Starbucks Coffee
• Carswell Bakery
  
• Sayago's Hometown Cafe & Creamery
  

Foto Friday: Pig Pics!

(Stacia, some girl I don't know & me)

(that's me on the left with some of our Habitat committee)

(Jason & Sandy!)

These of course are all from last Sunday's Habitat for Humanity Pig 'N Pluck at Bowen's Island. I don't know some of those people, I just thought the pictures were nice :)

Since I have today off I headed out for a run this morning around 8 AM. I decided not to run with Kara last night as I just kind of wanted to chill, especially since I could get it in this morning.

After wrestling with two iPods for about 30 minutes I headed out the door with one I thought was working. It wasn't. So I left it downstairs in the office and headed out for a nice, silent 5 miler.

I decided to run one mile and then take a minute or two walk break. I did, and it turned out well! My average pace for 5.03 miles was 9:56. Much better than yesterday's 10:25 average pace for 4.5 miles!

Just made myself some green juice and now I'm about to head somewhere to get my study on.

Sweet and Creamy Summer Green Juice

• 2 large kale leaves
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 peeled lemon
• 3 large handfuls of spinach
• 1/2 apple
• 2 carrots
• 1 teensy tiny bit fresh ginger (I don't like my juice spicy)

I hope everyone has a safe and happy July 4th! I will probably be drinking on a beach somewhere tomorrow after our group 12 miler :)

{Just a reminder, if anyone can help donate to my TNT fundraising campaign, I would really appreciate it! Even if it's only $5!}