I won!!!!

Oh lucky day!  I just won a new water belt for raising the most money since February 9th.  I got a message from our fundraising director:

"Congratulations!!!! You raised the most money since February 9^th WELLLL above the $250 goal. Well done!!!"

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

Speed Demon

I wasn't really feeling up to running at the track tonight.  Boy, am I glad that I went!  I rocked it at the track tonight.  Coach Sophia asked me to move up to the next fastest group this week.  I did and I almost caught up to the group in FRONT of me.  Musta been the new kicks.

Buh-bye Asics Evolution 3's.  Say hello to my new Brooks Ariel motion control shoes.  

If you haven't already, make sure to place your donation:

https://secure2.merchantcart.net/runsfm//MyWebPage.cfm?pID=377511

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

THANK YOU!

I must extend the hugest of thank yous to my friends, family and colleagues that have donated to my half marathon.  I appreciate the support so much.

Thank you to:

Kimberly Mueller

Mary Hackenbracht

Don and Erin Diva

An Anonymous Donor

Alyssa Harper

Miles Mesina

Sarah Woodberry Trauner

Tastemakers

Terrence Young

Robert Woodberry

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

Movin' on up...

Ever since I started training (last year and this year), a goal of mine was always to start in a slow group and move my way on up.  Well, the time has come for that.  After last night's track workout, [Coach] Sophia came up to me and said, "I saw you out on the track tonight and I highly sugget that you move to the next fastest group."  Woo hoo!  I have definitely felt myself getting faster. Maybe not on the Saturday group runs, but definitely on the track.  It takes me a while to get warmed up, but when I do, I'm able to give it my all.  I'm also getting to the point where I'm not needing to ice down after track workouts.

During last Saturday's run, Anita, my pacer told me that she wasn't going to be at this Saturday's run.  She proceeded to ask me if I would be able to take her place as the pacer for our group and the group in front of us.  She said that they even added me to the pacer roster for Saturday.   Well, back to work.

Bye for now.

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

Sprints

Oh, memories.  I swear, every time I'm at the track, it reminds me of the good old St. Francis High track days.

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

Fundraising

Well, enough blogging about running for now.  In addition to training hard to prepare for another race, I am also working hard to raise money for yet another great cause - the fight to end breast cancer.  As a part of my training, I also joined a group called Committed 2 Community and the money that I will be raising will benefit the California Breast Cancer Research Program.  I have set a personal goal to raise at least $2000 in donations for this organization, but I need your help to achieve that goal.  Thanks to the generosity and support of my family, friends, and friends of friends, I was able to raise almost $3000 in donations in 2008 for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. So, I'm pretty confident that I could meet this goal again.

According to the California Breast Cancer Research Program (http://www.cbcrp.org/) website states, "Nearly 200,000 California women are living with the disease, and today a woman has a 1 in 8 chance of developing breast cancer during her life time."  Thats 200,000 women too many!  We must find a cure to eliminate this disease.  I completely understand that times are tough financially, but at the same time, think about how your donation will help.  Think about your mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces, friends and loved ones that are living with the disease or that have lost their lives to it.  Your donation will bring us steps closer to finding a cure and eliminate breast cancer.  You ask, "How can I donate?."  Well, you can donate one of two ways.  If you would like to donate using your credit card, you may visit my fundraising page https://secure2.merchantcart.net/runsfm//MyWebPage.cfm?pID=377511 and place your donation online.  If you would like to send a check, you can email me at melanie.javier@gmail.com and I could send you a donation form to mail in.

I will be continuously sending email updates on my progress, but as always, you can always visit the blog.

Thank you very much in advance for your love, support and generosity.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

It hurts so good.

I will admit, I hurt...in too many places actually.  However, it's a good kind of hurt.  Our track workout last night was intense, but awesome!  We did a 20 minute fartlek around the Kezar Track. In other words, we did a 20 minute indian run where the person in the back of the line would sprint to the front of the line.  Last night was not a night to slack off.  Why?  The track coach was our pacer!  Thank goodness for my yoga ball in my office.  I'm constantly stretching throughout the day.

Good times!

~*~Run Mel Run~*~

A first for everything

For the first time ever during training, I actually ran almost the ENTIRE time!  As you may have read from previous blog posts, I normally run for 3 minutes and walk for 2 for the duration of the run.  A sweet girl that I met last week ran with me and we were both so proud of ourselves for being able to run 3 miles with only 3 stops along the way.  We were supposed to run 22.5 minutes toward Pier 39 and turnaround to come back.  We stopped once because it was a little shock to both of our bodies at first.  We stopped again to stretch after the first 22.5 minutes was up, then started running back towards the start.  We stopped one last time as we were approaching Pier 23 because I got hot and had to take off one of my layers.  :o)  To top it all off...well, actually to top off my training so far...I still have not had to put on my shin brace.  I'm definitely working through it and training my legs to not rely on it.

Tonight, I'll be heading to Kezar for yet another track work out.  Yay, more sprints!

Bye!

~*~Run Mel Run~*~