Lori & Family

This is Lori, a patient in Western Pennsylvania who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in September 2004 when she was eight months pregnant. She is married with two children, and her strong will and determination have helped her to stay positive in her battle with Hodgkin’s. She is one of the many reasons we are running and raising money.

Jenny and Coach Marsha

This is me with Coach Marsha - the walking coach. Team in Training has a different philosophy from the AIDS Marathon trainers. Everyone just runs in a big pack, with slower and faster runners eventually separating out. Michael and I are sticking to our run/walk method that worked for us during the AIDS Marathon - running for two minutes and walking for three minutes.

Cold cold cold cold...

We did five miles today at North Park(pdf map). When we got out of the car, the temperature was 10 degrees! I think I was slightly under-dressed (the forecast had said to expect the 20s for that time of the morning) and so I had to work a little too hard at the start to warm up. My ankles were a little stiff for the first mile or so.

Here we are about four miles in, after we had warmed up a bit. Notice the completely frozen lake in the background!

Pretty tired today but not as bad as last week.

--Michael

Shopping!

When we started our training we had no winter gear, so a few weeks ago we went to a Pittsburgh running store and spent beaucoup bucks to get running tights, long sleeve running shirts, jackets, caps, and gloves. I also got a new pair of running shoes, which I'm alternating with my old pair so that they won't be brand new the day of the marathon. We are modeling some of our winter gear in the pictures below.

The run that day was 4 miles. It started out pretty cold, but once we were warmed up it wasn't too bad.

Winter warriors!

We did our weekend run around the Highland Park Reservoir. Running in cold, as I said, is very different from running in the heat. Certainly our costumes are different. Here we are after our four mile run.

New challenges

As Jenny said, we're training again.

The first challenge is that it's durn cold in Pittsburgh these days. We trained in '06 over the summer and that was very different than running in the cold and wet (and much snow this week!).

My second challenge is, alas, physical -- I came down with a touch of Plantar Faciitis and have been hobbling around lately. I've been stretching and working it out gently, but I'm a little behind in my training.

More news...and pictures... later

Ooops! We're doing it again!

Yes, it's true. Even though Michael and I vowed we would never do another half-marathon, we are doing another half-marathon. This one is for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Western Pennsylvania/West Virginia. We started our training January 27th, and we'll be running in the Cincinnati Flying Pig half-marathon on Sunday, May 4th. You can donate by clicking on the links to the right of this page. The training with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is very different from the AIDS Marathon training. The coaches seem to be volunteer rather than paid, and it shows in the organization (or lack thereof). On the other hand, that means that more of your donations go towards helping people rather than towards overhead. I have a lot more to blog, but I'll save it for another day.

Jenny and David (the photographer)

Jenny - after finishing

Michael and Coach Cal at the VA Beach Half-marathon

Jenny and Talaya at the VA Beach Half-Marathon

Belated Half-Marathon Posting

So, as noted way back in 2006 - Michael and I both finished the half-marathon. That day was pretty hot, and Michael had some heat exhaustion in the last few miles. Luckily the first 7 miles or so was mostly in the shade. Michael and I had some excitement at the end, because we couldn't find each other. With my brother David's help, we eventually did find each other and got back to the hotel and collapsed. We both vowed that we would never do it again, but as you'll see in later postings we have changed our mind.