Takin' this Show on the Road

Well, friends, I'm off to Atlanta, GA for the New Years weekend. I am VERY excited because so many of my friends are going to be there, including some I haven't seen in a very long time!! We will be staying at Kim's fiance Will's apartment in Midtown Atlanta, which is a really great area of town with many restaurants, bars, and other fun things to do. Don't worry, though, I will keep up with my running while I'm in Atlanta. I have scoured the internet and I came up with a nice 8-mile route from right near Will's apartment and I will make poor Taylor go with me Saturday morning. I'll be sure to post you on how it goes. In the meantime, you don't take a break either, keep reading my blog and don't forget, your donation is 100% tax deductible for this year if it is made by 11:59pm on Sunday!! Thank you for your support: 30.5% there!!!

Here's a little visual of my run :)

My New Gear!!

Running slightly tangent to the mission of my marathon (curing cancer) is another very importany consideration: looking hot (well, that and keeping warm). So I made sure to ask for all kinds of hot spandex running gear for Christmas, and here are some photos of what I got!

Here are my new spandex running tights, my AWESOME New Balance Jacket, and my fuel belt. This belt holds little 6 oz. containers of water and/or powerade to keep you hydrated during long runs!

AHHH! I lost a hand!! One exciting feature of the awesome jacket, the cuffs flip over to create a little pouch for your hands (an alternative to gloves). The new hat is REFLECTIVE...those flowers are actually grey when they're not in the light. Crazy. Oh, and here's my Goo. It's this nifty stuff that is essential carbohydrates in gel form that you can dispense easily and and digest quickly during long runs.

See, coaches, I'm good, I stretch. Actually, who am I kidding, this is a pose. :-) Still, I do feel that I look fairly official. Oh, and how about those ARCHES? I mean seriously, no wonder I get accused of running on my toes!

Ok, I will spare you all the rest of the disturbing photos of me modeling my new gear :-) Don't worry, there will be plenty of action shots up here soon! Stay tuned!

We have liftoff!! 25% raised!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Let me start out with a big WHEW! It looks like my letters are finally arriving to their destinations around the country. Of course, their arrival is only step 1. If you are here as a result of receiving my letter, well that's step 2. Step 3 is, please click "Donate Securely Now" to donate to my campaign!!! I am 1/4 of the way to my goal, but that means I still have almost $3,000 to go!! I know that with your help, I can do it, so please read on. The money that you donate will go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to fund life-saving research and patient aid programs. What better way to spend a few dollars this Christmas day than knowing you are supporting a good cause. In fact, I am going to start an honored hero series on January 2nd. Each day, I will feature one honored hero who has battled Leukemia, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's Disease or Myeloma so you can see how many people these funds are helping. And don't forget, you can e-mail me with YOUR honored heroes and I will gladly feature them on this blog and, more importantly, will draw on their inspiring stories as I run 26.2 miles on April 28th. Please, please get involved. If you do not want to donate online, you can e-mail me and I will gladly send you instructions for how to write a check or other exciting ways you can help!!!

Oh, and please make sure you come back soon, becuase later today I will be posting some pictures of all the great running gear I got for Christmas. I think you may just be jealous once you see me in my hot spandex!!! Thanks Santa :-).

Houston, we have a problem

You loyal blog readers out there may recall that 6 days ago I posted a nice little note anticipating the arrival of all of my new readers. They were supposed to come here immediately (if not sooner) after they received my (if I do say so myself) outstanding, compelling, and touching fundraising letter (inside the Christmas card). WELL...it appears that NO ONE has gotten my card despite the fact that I mailed them 9 days ago!! I am beginning to panic just a little, so please do me a favor and if you see my little card with the nice letter in it, please leave a comment so that I know I don't have to file a missing person's report on the little guy. Thanks! Oh, here's visual.

Feeling Inspired!

Well last night's practice was pretty uneventful. We were working on our arms again this week, which means we alternate our usual running style (mine being more "unusual" than "usual") with a modified style as dictated by Coach Ramon (see videos below for a little entertinment). This week, the modification was was to swing our arms really low, which subsequently makes our stride very short and we end up looking like we're shuffling along. I actually missed the part of practice where Ramon explained WHY we were shuffling along looking like a bunch of idiots, but I feel its fine. It was good for me, because I tend to run on my toes, and the new form really helped me stay off my toes. Another nice part of practice was that Taylor was able to join me at practice to meet some of my friends, and I even got to tell him a thing or two about running form, since I am quite the expert.

In other news, my fundraising is going very well, all things considered. Those things being: I mailed my letters 9 days ago and only my Aunt Sheryl in WHYOMING has gotten them...go figure!!! I realize that Christmas is a very busy season for the mail, but this really is getting ridiculous when it takes more than 9 days for a bunch of letters to get to Michigan and Ohio!! Well, the good news is that some of my local friends were so generous and visited my webpage and donated. Thank you so much Abby and Leslie, you are too kind. Don't forget, I will need all of the motivation I can get to get me through all 26.2 miles of the marathon, so please share with me any people you love who have been affected by a blood cancer or any cancer. These heroes have completed a marathon far more difficult against their will. The emotional and physical battle of cancer is more than I could ever imagine, and my marathon is a small way that I can show my support and attempt to understand. So thank you for sending me your honored heroes.

I should take this moment to introduce you all to my grandma, who is my inspiration to start this marathon. Grandma was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma three and a half years ago, and today she is a survivor. But her battle is not over, and neither is the larger battle against cancer. That is why I run. I run because there is still hope that one day, no one will have to go through what my grandmother and my family have been through; what millions of people go through every year: watching someone they love battle cancer. Here's to you, Grandma!!

Rotate 90 degrees clockwise

Welcome to my blog if this is your first time visiting!! You are in for a treat. I have been promising for about a week to put something interesting up here. Well, without further ado, here are some videos of our wonderful coach Ramon introducing today's workout. I apologize that they are sideways....but I completely forgot you can't rotate video (unless someone knows how!). Anyway, please still do take a look. Actually, the most interesting think about these video's is Ramon's accent anyway, so really you just need to listen. He has a hilarious accent and typically keeps us very entertained with it!! Enjoy and I promise some upright videos and more pictures soon!

Telling us what we're in for:


How fast should we run, Ramon?


I almost kissed him after he said this!


A little candid moment of Ramon telling us how he REALLY feels


A little explanation about how to run on the West Side Highway


Just to let you know, I am an intermediate runner and ran for 1 hour today, but this video was getting a little long, so I cut it off before he gave that instruction. I had a great time running this morning. We ended up doing a little bit more than six miles and, even though it was very hard, it was really enjoyable!! I never thought I'd like getting up early on a Saturday to run, but I really have been enjoying it! Though I must admit, right before the runs, I always want to punch myself in the stomach for deciding to do this. I realize that as our mileage increases, this urge will probably increase exponentially, as we will start to run as much as 18-20 miles on a Saturday!! This prospect is not exciting for me, but hopefully it motivates you to donate to my cause (unless, of course, you'd like to JOIN me!). Thank you for reading, don't forget to click "DONATE SECURELY NOW!!"

Did you get your letter?

Well, I do believe today may be the big day!! I mailed my letters on Tuesday, so my guess is that most people will be receiving them sometime today. My little blog is sitting here in cyberspace HOPING that it gets some serious hits today!!! So...if you are on my site for the first time or as a result of reading my letter, please leave a comment!! You can do so by clicking below where it says "124234 comments" (or something close to that) and leave your comment. You don't have to log in to leave your name, just choose "Other" as your identity and drop it in there :)

Please remember, I have a BIG goal, and I'm not just talking about raising $4,000 in 5 months. I want to hear from all of you who you know in your life that has been affected by cancer. Not only would it be an honor to run on their behalf, but I know that I will need all the inspiration I can get to propel myself the necessary 26.2 miles on April 28th!!

You can include the information about your honored teammates (that's what we call the folks who serve as our inspiration as survivors of Leukemia, Lymphoma, or any cancer) in a comment or e-mail me at carissa.lucyk@gmail.com. I will gladly accept photos, stories, names, ages, or any other information and will post it here and on my fundraising page.

Speaking of my fundraising page: PLEASE DONATE AS SOON AS YOU CAN to my fundraising!!! Remember, all gifts given before the end of the year will be tax deductible this year. Furthermore, what better time than the holidays to support such a great cause!! Thank you!!

OOOOOOWWWW!

Practice yesterday was painful!! The infamous "cross-training" workout is similar to those aerobics classes you may (or may not) have taken before where the instructor makes you do lunges, squats, push-ups, sit-ups, and all sorts of things that leave you essentially incapable of ascending or descending a flight of stairs the following day.

So the set-up for practice last night was as follows:
8 minutes running
8 minutes cross-training
repeat 4 times
=64 minutes!!!

Boo

So anyway, we ended up splitting into two groups, and the "intermediate" and "advanced" folks went in one group with the beginners in the other. Despite my consistent protesting, my mentor insists that I am intermediate, and I guess I am because I haven't had any difficulty with the workouts, they are just harder than I want!

So anyway, the intermediate group did slightly harder cross-training and then we had to run UP A HILL for our 8-minute intervals. This was especially painful when, on the third round, they made us sprint up the hill (which, let's be honest, wasn't much of a sprint). It was the most painful thing we've done yet!!

Despite the pain, I managed to win a game of beer pong at a nice little dive bar on the Upper West Side before heading home to get to bed early! Then, get this, I got up again at 6am for a run with my friend Leslie who said that our run actually felt a little brisk. I was proud that I was able to keep a good pace even after a tiring night. It was great and though my muscles are hurting me now, its a good hurt, so I'm happy.

Thank you for reading this far!! My goal for the next week is to get some serious picture up on this site, so if you are here and are thinking how lame this looks, please please come back and read on. I will make it interesting!

A little holiday entertainment for you (if this doesn't increase the "average time spent on my site," I don't know what will!

I GOT MY FIRST DONATION!!! THANKS WAYNE!

A big thank you to Wayne Ma, who despite the facts that - 1) we just met on Friday (we think) and 2) I didn't even ASK him to donate - just became my first donor toward my $4,000 Wayne, thank you for breaking the ice and helping people to see that "all the cool kids are donating."

I must admit, as I near the actual launch of my fundraising campaign, I am getting more and more nervous. Some of you may not be aware, but I actually hope someday to work as a PROFESSIONAL fundraiser with a non-profit. In fact, then I was working for Team In Training for the past year, I often helped people plan and execute their fundraising campaigns, so I have picked up many creative ideas along the way (one of which is this blog, actually). But when it comes to actually fundraising myself, I'm nervous that people won't respond like I think they will. So, again, thank you Wayne for helping quell my fears and giving me some inspiration!!

Beautiful Day

Well, Earl Saturday number 2 is behind me. That's right, it was NOT easy to crawl out of my warm bed this morning and layer on socks, tights, fleece pants, a long-sleeve shirt, a TNT Dri-Fit and a fleece, but I managed. I walked out of my apartment at 8:15am and was immediately blessed by the beautiful day! It may have been only 23 degrees out, but the sun was shining and birds were chirping, so I was able to ignore my freezing hands and enjoy the morning.

Not only was it a beautiful day, but practice was great too! I have never been much of a morning runner, but today was definitely an exception! I ran with a friend I have met through TNT. Her name is Kiernan and she's from Ohio. We have bonded over our midwest roots, matching accents, and similar paces. We ran the first 4 miles of our run together and kept a pretty good pace!!

I had my new running tights on, which essentially amount to expensive embarrassment because they cost about $20398523 a pair and are SPANDEX!! So, in order to save my legs from falling off, I have to pay to look like a nerd, but at least I wasn't alone. And the crazy thing is, these spandex pants actually seem to work! They kept me nice and toasty and I felt even better on mile 5 than I did at the beginning of the run. I probably could have made it a couple more miles with no trouble, but I stopped because I know that there will be days when I will have to run MANY MANY more miles. I'm going to save my energy for that!

Ok, well again, I promise to post some pictures this week, even if they aren't TNT related, so please check back! Oh, and if you haven't yet, check out my donation page and leave a comment!

Eh, Friday night, who needs it?

That's right, it is 10:49 on Friday night and I am sitting here thinking about my Team In Training fundraising. What kind of terrible 23 year old am I? And even worse, I am subjecting poor Taylor to my lameness by promising him a back rub if he doesn't bother me while I write a blog!!

Oh, good times! Well, I just wanted to provide an update on my FUNDRAISING for the Marathon. You may recall, I need to raise $4,000 by February 14, 2007 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I am extremely excited about BOTH my training and my fundraising. The reason that I am so excited is: I know I can count on all of you to support not just me, but all of the people we know who have or have had cancer of any kind. The money that people give to my campaign goes directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's life-saving research and patient aid campaigns.

Anyway, what I really want to do now is tell you HOW exactly I plan to raise $4,000 so that you have some context when you hear from me (and I promise you will, probably many times).

My fundraising campaign will have two initial thrusts:
1.) Letters
2.) E-mail

To support both of these initiatives, I have created a spreadsheet with everyone I think will donate to my campaign. For each person, I have listed a goal of the amount of money that I hope they will give to my campaign. I added people and increased my goals until I reached $4,000. The spreadsheet includes e-mail and snail mail addresses for everyone for whom I have them, and it will be my key tool for informing and tracking my fundraising efforts.

I will be mailing my hard-copy letters on Monday, December 11 and posting the letter to this blog the same day. I spent a lot of time writing my letter and I hope you will take the time to read it and consider how much you can donate to my campaign. I also hope that you will send me the names of the people in your life who have had cancer so that I can run in their honor as well.

Next, I will e-mail everyone on my list for whom I have e-mail addresses. These e-mails will include links to my blog and my donation page.

After my initial communications, I will periodically track my donations and will follow up with people to encourage them to give (I say "them" because I assume if you are reading, you have given!!).

Hopefully this gives you some context for when you begin to hear from me. I will be updating and increasing my fundraising efforts as needed to reach my goal, so please check back to see my progress!

My biggest hope is that everyone who hears from me will realize how importance this cause is and will be glad for the chance to join me in such an amazing adventure. Please feel free to e-mail me and give me encouragement or feedback, I would love to hear it.

Oh, and good news, I GOT MY FIRST DONATION TODAY!! A big thank you to Wayne who has promised to donate $25 to my campaign now and $25 more dollars if I run 9:25 miles and finish the race in 4 hours and 5 minutes. What a great challenge! Thank you, Wayne for your support, now click "Donate Now" and pony up (just kidding!!!).

As always, you can donate now by clicking the link at the top on the left. Thank you for reading this far. I promise some more media in the coming weeks!

Second Practice: Frostbite Much!?

Whew, today was the second practice of the season and let me tell you, it was COLD. I believe the temperature was aroun 35, which would be fine with the proper attire and no wind. However, neither of these mitigating situations was true for me, thus I spent the first 1/2 of practice FREEZING! Our workout today was rather humorous. We were working on upper body form, which our coach Ramon insists on calling "upperbody" form and the way he pronounces it, you can tell he doesn't know there's a space there, its really cute. Oh, by the way, his first language is Spanish, so rarely can he be fully understood. Oh! I just had an idea...I will video record Ramon at the beginning of the next practice just to give you the idea.

Anyway, our goal today was to work on our upper body form and to pay attention to the effect it has on our lower body. Now, you may recall from my post a while back called "Another Run in the Park, Another Batch of Stories". In this post, I described in detail how terrible my running form MUST be. Well, this little arm exercise really helped!! We were told to swing our arms by holding them at 90 degrees and rotating at the shoulder only. During this run, we exaggerated the motion just to get the idea, but generally we would not swing quite as much. Anyway, this really helped me focus on running on my heels and keeping my posture upright. It wasn't a very social run because everyone was going all different speeds, but mentally it was really good for me. I enjoyed it very much!!

The biggest problem with practice was that I was SO COLD!!! I am ashamed to admit, I own very few acceptable running outfits (I refuse to say how few), and so I am quite limited in what I have to wear in cold weather. Last night, for instance, it was about 35 degrees out and I had no hat or gloves and CAPRI'S!! My hands were literally numb when we started warming up, though I am pleased to say my body seems to have a pretty good internal heater, as they did thaw out during the run despite the fact that they were constantly exposed to the cold. That was encouraging. Nonetheless, Garett called me right after the practice to ask what I wanted for Christmas and all I could say was "GLOVES!" It was funny! Anyway, I must get back to work at this time. Please keep checking back as I will be updating my fundraising tomorrow!

FIRST PRACTICE!!

Apologies for the delay! Yesterday was the FIRST PRACTICE of the season for Team In Training!! Just to recap, I am running a marathon in April and raising $4,000 between now and then to support the research and patient aid programs of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I am currently working very hard at planning and will soon begin to execute my fundraising campaign, so be on the lookout. If you are reading this, you will probably hear from me very soon!

Anyway, Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30am to prepare for our first practice at 8:30am. We met at Bethesda Terrace, which is in the middle of the park at 72nd St. The morning was perfect for running, about 45 degrees and sunny. Despite a little wind, I was perfectly comfortable and ready to run. The first 15 or so minutes of practice were taken up with announcements, explanations, and introductions. The coaches told us that we would be divided into four groups for the season: Half marathon, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The definitions were as follows:

Half Marathon: if you are planning to run the 1/2 marathon(13.1 miles)
Beginner: You have never run more than 3 miles
Intermediate: You can run 4 miles or more
Advanced: You can run 6 miles or more.

They emphasized that the categories are solely divided based on endurance, not speed. So, I was forced to place myself in the advanced group (though I will probably drop back to intermediate just to be safe!). The intermediate and advanced groups were to run 5.1 miles, and were released first. I began to jog and realized that I was part of a somewhat elite group! Out of probably 75 people, only 10 or so took off with or group. Regardless, it was a good run and even though I definitely hit a wall at about 2.5 miles, I made it the whole way without walking.

The biggest challenge for me at the Saturday morning practices is that I have NEVER been a morning runner, and this experience will require me to run all of my most difficult runs early on Saturday morning. After this morning, I am very encourage and really looking forward to an evening practice on Tuesday!! More to come.

Two posts in one day?? Something IMPORTANT must be happening!

That's right, something important IS happening!! My first Team In Training practice is tomorrow!!!! That's right, I have willingly given up my Saturday mornings for the next 5 months in exchange of hundreds of miles of running, and I couldn't be more excited! Tomorrow we will start with just a few miles, but I am still very excited to meet my teammates, particularly the minority of those who, like me, have chosen to be the cool kids who are going to NASHVILLE in April rather than just New Jersey. As our director likes to call us, we're the "closet country music fans," though if you know me at all, you know I am very much "out." I will be sure to post about how amazing practice was. Also, please follow along on my sidebar to see my distance run and funds raised to date!

An Out-of-Manhattan Experience

Today, I had a very interesting experience near work. Now, before I tell you this, you need to understand a little about the area that I work. Most of the people who populate the financial district work in one of the banks on Wall Street. These are certified city folk who usually don't own a car (well, not one that they actually DRIVE), pay a maid to watch their children, and probably have a home at the Cape, the Hamptons, or some other suitably civilized vacation destination. Imagine my surprise, then, when I saw, parked on the street outside my office, a PICKUP truck with a FOUR WHEELER in the back! This sighting was so strange and foreign to me in lower Manhattan that I had to break my newly-acquired "agressive New-Yorker" stride to get a closer look. Upon inspection, the anomale became a little less anomal-ish. First, the pickup was white, a particularly saline color for a pickup. Furthermore, neither the truck nor the ATV (as Taylor likes to call them, so official!) looked as though it had ever seen a unpaved road, let alone anything that might require an "All-terrain vehicle." Bother were shiny and new looking, probably the result of some executive's off-handed comment "You know what I would like, one of those little bike thingies that you can't fall off of with a truck to pull it" and his assistant's over zealous response. Regardless, I was quite entertained by the sighting in Manhattan - whether or not it has ever actually been on the open road.