To All of my donors (and whoever is reading)

Hello Donors!!!

I just wanted to send you all a quick e-mail to let you know that MARATHON weekend is upon me!! My teammates and I will leave at 6am tomorrow morning to fly to Nashville for the Country Music Marathon!!! With the race just two days away, I am nervous,s cared, but most of all excited to run this race in honor of the real heroes in my life: the survivors!!!

My honored teammates this Saturday (and always) are:

Ann Hooper,
John Sanzenbacher,
Doug Bronson,
Joyce DeSalvo,
Gretchen Hagelow,
Edward Lepolt,
Lowen Meyer,
Eudora Sovay,
Amanda Tolleson, and
Jack Trumble.

Many of you may know one of these people. THANK YOU for donating on their behalf!! Because of you, I am just $58 away from reaching my goal of $5,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have no doubts that I will meet it by race day.

So thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is my honor to run on Saturday for all of those who can't. Please keep myself and the 28,000 runners who will run alongside me in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you,

Carissa

A day of lasts and firsts...

Today was a day of lasts and a day of firsts.

It was our last Saturday practice, our last "long" run.

It was my last early morning Saturday in New York (at least for a while!!), and - with it - my last lame Friday (though let's be honest, I'll probably still be kinda lame!!).

Hopefully, it was also my last TERRIBLE run before the race!! Today, even though we only ran 6 miles today, I felt worse than I have felt in a long time. After just three miles, my stomach hurt so bad I had to stop and stretch for a few minutes.

But there's one more last: this is the last time I'm going to think about my bad run today!

And now for the firsts.

Well, for starters, this was the first SPRING day of the season!! All season it's been cold, cloudy, dreary. Now, don't get me wrong, I actually like running in the cold. But as far as post-run days go, today was beautiful. We went to brunch afterward and sat outside. It was a beautiful New York day. Here we are after our first spring run (notice Erica is even wearing a tank top!):

Today was also our first casualty. That's right. Kiernan had a little run-in today with a cyclist. Now, before I go on, I must tell you, I am actually surprised that I haven't mentioned this yet. The cyclists in New York are, essentially, the enemy. They frequently yell at us for taking up too much of the road. They are notoriously tempermental....very irrational in their anger and not at ALL the chipper folks you would expect from those who are releasing so many endorphins on their bikes. So, needless to say, today's run-in with a cyclist was a little bit ironic. We ALMOST made it to the end of the season. Well, this was a fairly painful run-in for Kiernan. Here she is dressing her wounds:

Finally, unrelated to training, today was my first New York baseball game!!! Here are a couple of photos.

What a fun day!!!

Beyond Sad

I know that I am definitely not alone in my shock and outrage at what happened today at Virginia Tech. In my own small way, I just want to say that I hope that this is the last time that a school, office building, or small city becomes the talk of the country for such an awful reason.

To those affected by this tragedy, directly or indirectly - myself included - my thoughts and prayers are with you.

Half Marathon #3 and RACE Day is Just Two Weeks Away!!

The Music Marathon is just 2 weeks away!!! AH!!

So as you can see, I am getting quite nervous. However, the Brooklyn Half Marathon was our practice this morning, and it was really reassuring for me for the marathon. For one, we were specifically instructed that today's race was NOT to be a serious race, but rather just another long run on a Saturday morning.

Well, we started this race at a comfortable pace and attempted to keep an average of 9 minute miles for the entire race. The temptation during races is always to run too fast, especially at the beginning, and then it's so easy to simply DIE at the end. By keeping a slower pace at the beginning, we were able to continue without slowing down the whole race. I am really wuite proud because even though I was definitely not pushing myself (I could have run a couple minutes faster, probably), I still managed to get a time that was just 5 seconds slower than my last half marathon 3 weeks ago. Part of the reason for this is that this course was pretty flat whereas the other one was VERY hilly. But the real reason that today's race made me feel good is that it was so easy for me to complete. At the end, I really did feel like I could have run another 10 miles at the same pace without too much difficulty. So, Coach Ramon will be happy to hear that not only did I have a good run today, I also was converted to his theory - which he has been preaching all season - that starting out slow and steady really is the BEST way to have a good marathon.

Here's a picture of Kiernan, Erica and I at the finish line. I cannot WAIT for this picture in Nashville in two weeks, girls!!!!

"LAST" "LONG RUN"

YES!!!!! It's true, today was our "last" "long run."

Before I go any further or explain why both of those must be in quotations, let me assure my mommy, who left a very worried comment on my previous post, that I am not injured in any way shape or form. In fact, I'm convinced that my inability to ask our coaches about my injuries actually forced me to overcome on my own. I now have no pain in my legs whatsoever (well, except what is natural after running 15 miles on pavement!).

Moving on, today was indeed our "last" run. Of course, it can't really be the last because there's this one run we still have coming up. It's called the COUNTRY MUSIC MARATHON!!! I don't know, you may or may not have heard of it! And calling this our last "long run," well that obviously depends on your definition of long. Next week we will be running 12 miles, but compared to 20 last week and 15 today, that's like a walk in the park!

And today, we had the pleasure of running the much-anticipated "perimeter run." We had planned to run this run 3 weeks ago, but a huge snowstorm got in the way, forcing us to run our 18 mile run in Central Park. So, this week we set out from Bethesda and headed east to run down the east side of the city. We then rounded the bottom of Manhattan and made our way back up the west side. Here's a visual:Just to briefly recap the run. I really enjoyed running down the east side (miles 0-7) because I got to see some areas that I have never seen before. For intsance, 59-50 street on York Avenue is this really fancy, beautiful area known as Sutton Place. Were I ever to have $5 or $6 million lying around, I might considering investing in an apartment there. Then, we got to run all the way down and past my office in the financial district (approximately where the 7 mile marker appears on the map.

The run back up the west side was rather uneventful except for the fact that I had about 3 miles of absolutely GREAT running!! For some reason, at about mile 9 until mile 12 0r 13, I had this amazing runner's high. For me, it felt like my legs were literally on auto-pilot. I wasn't tired, in fact, I could even really feel my feet hitting the pavement. I was just cruising along, enjoying the feeling while it lasted. Unfortunately, it wore off after a few miles, but I must say, experiences like that are what will get me through the race when I feel like I can't go on! It also didn't hurt that one of my running buddies, Steve - who is usually much faster than me - kept telling me that I was going fast for him and that whatever I had for breakfast, I should keep eating that! Most importantly, it was a boost for my confidence, which seems to be dwindling as race day draws closer!

Well, from here on out, things should begin to slow down as we taper for race day. Please check back for news about the final preparations! For now, I want to share a couple of photos of us that I found on the Team In Training website. Enjoy!

Here we are earlier in the season after a Tuesday practice. Obviously, this was a much more carefree time in the season!
Here we are after our 18 mile run in the snow. Don't be fooled by the smiles, we were pretty much miserable!

And finally, a nice candid shot of all of us just as Karen finished out 20 miler. Kiernan is there in the purplish sweatshirt!

Still Runnin'...

Yeah, I know, seriously. I thought we were done after 20 miles too!

Well, this week has actually already been a fairly active one for me. On my own accord, I ran the 6-mile loop in Central Park yesterday. I actually did it fairly quickly for me. I ran the loop in 51:55, which I think comes out to 8:39/mile. Yay. The only thing is, my right calf muscle started to tighten up and hurt pretty bad right at the spot where it stops being, you know, buff ;-) Like right where my calf muscle starts, there was a tight knot of muscle that just got worse during the last 2 miles of my run...

So, today at practice, we ran for an hour, but I had to cut it a little short because the pain in my leg was back again. The workout was that we started out heading north away from our meeting point. We ran 10 minutes at a slow pace, then sped up for the next 20 minutes. I felt pretty good for the first 30 minutes, slow from the run the day before, but good. Then, we were to turn around and speed up as fast as we could for the 30-minutes back. Logically, this would take us beyond our starting point. Well, even though I was actually running pretty fast (for me), my leg started to bother me again and I had to stop back at the starting point to stretch.

So by now, the tightness is starting to really worry me. But the weird thing is, no matter how hard I try, I can't work up the courage to ask the coaches what might be wrong! I KNOW!!! It's not like that's what they're THERE FOR or anything. But it's so weird. Today after practice the coach, who happens to be a physical therapist, even asked me how it went. And I STILL didn't say anything! So yeah, I have no idea what my deal is, but I just spend 45 minutes icing my leg anyway. I'll let you know how it turns out! For now, its time for bed! Thanks for reading!