*And it hasn't even started yet...

We are going to Disney to run our little hearts out and so far the have been errors in booking the room, airline cancelled flights, IT band injuries and the vacation is still 5 weeks away.

The injury still hurts so I am doing low impact work outs (blah) and not running (double blah). I will say I usually am not in pain until about mile 8 so hopefully I will be able to work through this issue.

I booked my room with Disney and everything seemed fine. I then got my reservation and it was for the wrong day. I am sure it was an error on the part of the booking agent because I told her the days we are flying (4th - 7th), I told her I was running half marathon on the 6th and I told her I am raising money for team in training to go run on the 6th. But the confirmation read the 7th-10th. So I called and they were sold out on the 5th but could get us in the 4th and the 6th.
Huh?
I took those and proceeded to cry, gnash my teeth and create a Mickey Mouse voodoo doll.
Trey and I spoke (he was amazed I didn't just tear them a new one over the phone). Kara and I talked (more gnashing of teeth) and I called them back. Finally they found a smaller room at the Saratoga for us. Fine, whatever, I need somewhere to sleep, that's all I care about. They finally found the room when I used this classic line 'Because of an error on your (sic. Disney's) part, my little five year old daughter won't have a magical experience.' We had a room within 5 minutes of me saying that. Total call time: 56 minutes. They have now double charged my room and I have to call back but I don't have the stamina.
Delta sent me an email to tell me our flight on the way back had been cancelled. Originally we would leave at 4:30 and get home at 7. Now we leave at 4:30 and get home at 11:30...on a school night. Not only does Delta kick nursing women off their planes, they change our flights mid-itinerary. Actually the flight that is a non-stop is being discontinued while we are travelling. We have a non-stop on the way down but not on the way home. So now we will be leaving at 3:30 and getting home at 9:30.
One good thing about all this: I called to book breakfast with the princesses.
It was sold out.
Elizabeth really wanted to eat in the castle but they are sold out. I have this vision of Trey feeling up the princesses as the walk by our table. I have to say, I was suprised that I called 2 months in advance and they were sold out on both the 5th and the 7th but I am fine with it. Really.

Tomorrow I run the Turkey Trot: its a 5 k fun race...I can't wait.

Happy Thanksgiving!

ZOOT just finished a half marathon!!!!

Go girl! Click that link to real her training stories. Good stuff!

I woke up at 5 this morning and could barely walk because my knees hurt so much. I had this in my cupboard because they are an old dear client of mine. I took 3 at 6, I took 3 at 11, I took 3 at 4. I can walk with no problems right now. I can't believe how effective this stuff is. I can't take alleve or ibuprofen because I react to them by getting severe ulcerative colitis. Tylenol isn't an anti-inflammatory. I was icing and stretching and that was about it. I am so happy about this stuff I am sending it to Kara for her X-mas present (I know she really wanted a puppy or a CD or a baby or something but she is getting this instead).

I am shamelessly endorsing a product and I don't even get a kick back. I need to work on that.

I'm getting really tired of writing about my feet (and you poor people who actually come here to read about them have my sincerist apologies).

Today I was supposed to run eleven miles. It's pouring rain here so I dutifully hit the gym and was going strong until I stepped off to take a water break at mile 5. I felt that familiar "ketchup packet in my shoe" feeling and decided to remove my sneaker to check out the damage. I had irritated an old blister and started a new one in the same spot that has been inflamed since I started putting in legitimate mileage. I could have kept running, and I catually did for a little bit, but I noticed I was favoring my left foot and didn't want to create another injury by altering my gait.

I have flat feet and my feet keep rubbing the side of the insole where my arch shoud be. I had wanted to put off buying new shoes until December, but I think I'm going to go to the running store tomorrow. There's no sense in putting myself through any more pain if there's a better shoe for my feet out there!

On the fundraising front, I have over $300 in check pledges from my co-workers which will push me over the $2,000 mark (woo-hoo!) and my advisees and I are holding another bake sale so that should net us another $100 or so.

Speaking of work, I think my Team in Training coaches are worried about me. They keep inviting me to weekend runs and special weeknight symposia and nearly every one has been at a time when I'm working. I actually had one of them call me at work this week to ask why I haven't been attending training events. Few people outside of the prep school world actually understand what I do and the hours involved (the only people with harder hours work in hospitals). How do you say to a person, "this week is really busy, my students have exams and I have comments to write" and expect them to understand? I also explained that I'm running as part of a team and that my teammate lives in North Carolina and that we train together by phone, email, instant message, and this blog.

I'm planning to run the Feaster Five in Andover this year on Thanksgiving Day with my friend, David. It's a 5 mile course, mostly uphill, but it will be good training for the half marathon.

Those comments arent' going to write themselves, so it's back to work for me!

I broke through the 10 mile mental block this morning. I am now sitting with my legs elevated and ice packs on both knees but I did it.
I ran 10 miles at an 11 minute pace.
I did it.
Too tired to Yahoo! but, you know, yahoo!
I will be running my first race on Thanksgiving morning, it's a 5k here in Asheville called the Turkey trot. Trey will be joining me. My trainer wants me to know what a race feels like before Disney.
Hey Kara, Disney is in 8 weeks!
And did I mention I ran 10 miles this morning?

I have been seriously neglecting this blog and all 4 readers of the blog. But I have not been neglecting my running or my fundraising. My super fantastic family and my very fantastic co-workers have kicked down quite a bit so I have gotten really close to my fundraising goal. I do have a IT band injury so I haven't been running this week. I have been stretching and thinking about running. I have been visualizing running strong at 10 miles which sounds really corny but I have a mental block about running ten miles. It just seems so big, 10 miles is an unfathomable number to me so while I stretch I see myself running past a 10 mile marker and enjoying the run. I hope these visualization techniques aren't just goof ball antics on my part. I think they will help. I hope they will help. We have 9 weeks until the race. I will keep running after the race, I like running.