beat down

you might remember here, here, and here when i talked about battling illiotibial band syndrome last fall.  i was supposed to do the portland marathon on 10/10/10, but two weeks before the race, i decided to postpone it and try again for the eugene marathon on 5/1/11.  i started training for eugene in mid-december and i did well for about two months before my i.t. band started acting up again... but on the other leg!  ugh.  so, for the last month, i have hardly been running, i have been on prednisone, been to the doctor, and been to the physical therapist.  in fact, this is what one gets for going to see the physical therapist (she did graston on me).  nice, huh? 

anyway, here is my dilemma... on friday (two days from now), i have to tell team in training if i want to "recommit."  this means that i agree to continue to train and do the marathon on may 1st.  they will register me for the event and book a hotel.

the problem is that i ran on the treadmill tonight for 30 minutes and now i can barely walk, especially to get up and down the stairs.  obviously, this presents a problem if i want to try and run for 4 1/2 hours straight.

i have to admit that despite the knee pain, despite the GIGANTIC bruise on my leg, despite the doctors and the physical therapists, i so stubbornly want to do this race!  i want that finishers shirt, darn it!  and i want to check it off my "things to do before i turn 30" list.

anyway... just needed to get that out.  thanks for listening.

p.s. on a completely different note: if anyone wants to learn spanish, come on over!  chad has spanish language cd's playing and we also now have post-it notes all over the apartment with spanish words on them.  :) 

word for the day: discouraged

i had another physical therapy treatment this morning and discussed the option to postpone the marathon with my therapist.  we both agreed it would be in my best interest to switch to the spring season (eugene marathon).  that will give me 3 months to rest my leg, do some strengthening exercises and try to correct the muscle imbalances.


i'm not going to lie, i'm not happy.  to have trained all this time and not be able to cross the finish line with my team pretty much sucks.  but, from all accounts, the eugene marathon is a cool event and (added bonus) at least one of my current teammates will be running the season with me.  oh, and my funds for TNT transfer with me.  so, all is not lost. 


unfortunately, the weather today is cold and rainy, so i think that's just exacerbating my discouraged mood.  i'm drowning my sorrows in a latte. 

i hate quitting.

the portland marathon is 19 days away and i have 3 days to decide if i'm running it or not. if i don't run it, i can still transfer to another season (probably the summer season and do the eugene marathon on 5/1/11) and not lose too much of the money i fundraised.

but i hate quitting. the competitor in me wants to run (we're "thisclose" to the race and i've been training for 4 months!).

knee -- you're killing me here!!!

iliotibial what?

i kind of suck at blogs! i always get really excited about the prospect of keeping a blog, but then i suddenly realize that i haven't posted in two months, which kind of defeats the purpose of keeping a blog.

at any rate, the big news lately is that i have been battling with iliotibial band syndrome (according to wikipedia, one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners). with the portland marathon less than 3 weeks away, i am getting less and less optimistic about actually accomplishing my marathon goal this year. which, i'm not going to lie, is a huge bummer considering i've now put 4 months of time into it (7 if you count the half marathon training from january to april). but when i can barely make it through the first 6 miles of a 20 mile run, i'm not so sure that 4 1/2 hours of running in excruciating pain sounds like fun.

so, i'm very, very, very cautiously optimistic that this thing will work itself out before 10/10/10. after all, it came on without warning, so perhaps it will go away without warning. in the meantime, i'm going to physical therapy and hoping that will help.

next year, I might try biking instead!

10 random facts about me

1. i am obsessed with photography blogs. i love them. i read them every day and live vicariously through the photographers. i am saving up for a nikon d60 and in the meantime am pouring over photography books like understanding exposure and the adobe photoshop cs4 book for digital photographers. maybe one day i'll be able to take photos that are half as good as some of these folks: Esther Havens Photography, Gary Chapman Photography, Jasmine Star Photography, The Beautiful Mess (owned and operated by a guy i went to high school with and his uber-talented wife), and Love the Schultzes. there are many more photographers that i follow online, but these are some of my favorites.

2. i am obsessed with goals. i have fitness goals, financial goals, weekend goals (get "insert chore here" done). for example, i decided last fall that i was going to run a half marathon this year... well, i've done that, am doing the cascade lakes relay in a couple of weeks, and the portland marathon in october. my half marathon turned into a running trifecta... and that's just the way i like it.

3. my dog is my child. i love her like i imagine i will love my future human children. i worry for her safety, i spoil her, i'm proud of her when she learns something new, and i love, love, love cuddling with her. she makes me happy.

4. i have a husband (and a dog!) that can't sit still, which is probably why we're so good together. if we have a day off, we're off to the lake, on a hike, golfing, biking or playing tennis. he also hates shopping. i think he's been a good influence on my fitness level and my spending habits.

5. i have nervous breakdowns when things are messy or out of place -- not so good when you live with a man and a dog. when they first arrived in oregon in february, i was constantly stressed out about my messy car for WEEKS! i still hate that there is dog hair, dirt and dust everywhere in my car... but i try not to get upset about it.

6. i have visited 9 countries and lived for a period of time in 2 of them (france for 13 months and new zealand for nearly 4 years). next up: chile and peru in 2011 (see? another goal.).

7. my husband and i had a fairy tale start to our relationship. we met in france where we lived at an abbey, and on our first date we kissed in front of a castle. we both cried at the paris airport when we had to leave each other because, at the time, we didn't know when we'd see each other again. and then he missed me so much, he asked me to move to new zealand to be with him -- and it took me about 1/2 a day to decide to go. that's just how i roll.

8. if my checkbook isn't up-to-date down to the penny at any given point, i feel unsettled! weird but true. i like knowing exactly how much money i have.

9. chad and i are one of those fancy couples that own property overseas -- we have a house in new zealand. not because we necessarily want to, though. we tried to sell it last year and couldn't, so we put tenants in it. we'll put it back on the market late this year. better luck this time.

10. ice cream and espresso are two of my favorite things. put them together in a milkshake and i'm one happy girl.

summer tunes

i walked through the cellar today and the guys were all jamming to Fat Freddy's Drop, a favorite new zealand band of mine. chad and i saw them in concert at Peregrine Wines during my first summer in nz. in fact, we took in a cooler (aka "chilly bin") containing cans of red bull and a bag of ice. when the lady at the gate asked us if we had vodka in our bag of ice, we just awkwardly laughed because, well, we actually did. thankfully she let us through anyway - which made for a fun night, lol! at any rate, this band is one of my favorites, especially for sitting out next to the bbq on a warm summer's evening... or just for listening to at your desk, which i'm doing as we speak.

you can find them here on itunes.

in other news, i promised yesterday that i'd try to keep a "things i'm thankful for" list going. here is day 2:

i am thankful that i have a healthy body which allows me to do things like run a 216.6 mile relay! t minus 5 weeks and 3 days until the cascade lakes relay. i see LOTS of hill training in my near future...

goals before 30

in three days, i'll turn 29, which means there is still a lot to do before i hit the new decade.

i can't say that 28 has been bad, that is for sure. the last year brought a lot of changes. in fact, it was my last birthday which saw chad flying back to nz (not the best of birthday presents, but hey...). the fact that we got married, he and fife are now in oregon, and he is working as viticulturist is pretty fantastic!

so, with that, here are some things i want to accomplish within the next 368 days:

1) run the cascade lakes relay and the portland marathon (training in progress)

2) sell the house in nz; explore options for buying here in the valley

3) start a 401k (i.e. finally be a responsible adult) - plus some other financial goals

4) buy a nikon d90, keep reading photography books and blogs, and see if we can't create some acceptable images!

5) go to nz for dane and julia's wedding and christmas with the douglas clan

6) book trip to chile and peru (even if the actual travel doesn't happen until after my 30th birthday)

so, now that this is all out in public, i'll be held accountable!

on the road again... i start running again on saturday!

for those of you that don't know, i have signed up again for team in training, this time to do the portland marathon (yes, the full 26.2 miles - i must be insane). i am doing it for a reason bigger than myself - to raise money for the leukemia and lymphoma society to help people like our honored teammates emily, karin, mark and caleb. caleb was diagnosed with burkitts lymphoma in july 2007 at age 9. thankfully, it is in remission, but not without him having to go through chemo and all the awful things that come along with it. unfortunately, 7 months after he was diagnosed, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. nine months after that, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. what a horrible thing - i just can't imagine.

i bet you didn't know that blood cancers are the leading cause of death of children in america. the leukemia and lymphoma society (LLS) gives $1 million a week to fund blood cancer research. in fact, they funded the research of a doctor at OHSU who created the drug Gleevac. people who were previously told they weren't going to live very long are now able to take a little orange pill. this one little orange pill targets the bad cells as compared to chemo which can't tell the difference between good cells and bad cells. that all happened right here in Oregon.

there are 11 support groups for people with blood cancers in the portland area, including a group for young adults and another for spanish speakers. funds from LLS support these groups.

LLS also has a co-pay assistance program, which means a patient can get up to $10,000 from LLS to help pay their medical bills. LLS can contributed $15 million per annum to this program.

they have a program called first connection which pairs up cancer surviors with newly diagnosed patients for information and support.

finally, LLS is involved in advocacy. because of their efforts, health insurance in Oregon now has to cover your standard care if you participate in a medical trial. previously, insurance companies wouldn't cover medical trials.

and so, for all of these reasons, i am running a marathon on 10/10/10. i would appreciate your support by tax-deducible monetary donation at my fundraising website. my goal is to raise a minimum of $1,250 and my friend kim has gotten the ball rolling with the first $50 donation. $1200 to go!!! please help me help LLS.