I Hated Pink....Till This Very Day

I hated pink... till this very day. The day that I had the honor of running with hundreds of breast cancer survivors. A race where there was a pray for those beloved that had passed; where running time, even measured, was not important; where the hope and the goal was not in the PR but in the cure; where the medals were not for the fastest runners but for the real winners, the breast cancer survivors.

Every instant my feet pounded the asphalt was dedicated to all the women that have gone through this and survived, and to the ones that have passed. God Bless Them All.

The 5K race, with 15,000 participants, and in a "kinda summer" Seattle day, closed with a beautiful ceremony in our Seahawks Field where Survivors paraded indicating how many years they have survived breast cancer.

My company, Boeing, received the largest team award with 1,400 runners. Boeing pledged $100 for every Boeing runner, for $140,000!!!

My time 30:38 for a pace of 9:52.
0-1 year

Fremont Briefcase Relay: The Most Fun Race Of My Life...With 15 Minutes Of Fame Included

I made it to the front page of The Seattle Times....The paper's caption is:

"Runners take off Friday evening from the starting line of the Fremont Briefcase Relay at Adobe Plaza. In the relay, five-person teams wear work-related clothing (loosely interpreted), each team carrying a briefcase that contains a phone book. Lizzie Lee, center, in white dress, and Mimi Newman, at right in Oktoberfest attire, were among those starting the first leg of the relay."

Yesterday, June 06, 2008, I ran the most fun race of my life (so far...): The 5K Fremont Briefcase Relay. The run consisted on a 5K relay (5-member team running 1K each) wearing business attire from the waist up, with a briefcase with a 2008 Greater Seattle Yellow Pages in it.

Our business? Gold Diggers and a rich Bachelor to catch. The Gold Diggers: Shelly Martin, Alisha Schmidt, Cara Haubrich, and Lizzie Lee. The Bachelor: Mike Stevens.... Our briefcase: (to put the money and run) was my 3rd grade briefcase (43 years with me!!!).

1st. leg: Lizzie, 2nd: Alisha, 3rd: Shelly, 4th: Cara, and Mike recovered the briefcase for the last leg and to run away from the Gold Diggers. He had to run under 6 min/mile to make up for the time it took us to run with the wedding dresses. Our team did 27' something.

It was exhilarating and impossible to describe the magnitude of the fun.

After the relay, we ran the Fremont 5K (580 runners: 233 females, 347 males). I tried to break my PR given the "fast" course and get it under 29' (I only needed 2" for that), but couldn't do it. I don't know what was fast about the course, when the first 0.5 miles were uphill (and that was my leg in the relay!!!). I did 30'40" for a 9:53 pace. Overall 140/233, 4th in my division... We weren't many, we were only six old ladies in my age bracket!!!!!!

Mike did 21'25", Shelly 32'13", Alisha 27'34", Cara 31'56". Congrats to all, and THANKS for the wonderful time. Memorable.

The race didn't end well. 0.20 miles before the finish line during the 5K race a man collapsed before me, apparently with a heart attack. I hope and pray he made it.

On a boring note, my long run this week was a 10-miler, again on the treadmill, given the Fall/Winter lousy, icky, miserable weather we've had in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. Pouring rain, sleet (yes, sleet) and cold!!! This week snowed in Stevens Pass. Our high yesterday only reached 54, that's fourteen degrees below the average high of 68. The weather reports say is not unprecedented but certainly unusual. This is our weather from June-uary as we call it.

But guess what? We had a sunbreak at 5:45 pm, 15 minutes before the Briefcase Relay. That was a gift..

Another week with a shortage of miles (16.7) and tomorrow Sunday I ain't running!!!!

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Ok. I lied. I did run on Sun another 5K. Pretty good. I'll post about it next Sun. My total week mileage: 19.8
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Sub-Thirty and My Own Rabbit

This past week was amazingly exciting...

I arrived from California on Tuesday after three weeks with hubby. I wasn't jetlagged, of course, but woke up too early to catch my flight and went directly to work, so I was tired for a run that night. Wednesday came with some kind of excuse that I do not even remember. As I was planning on running a 5K on Saturday, I needed to get the long run out of the way on Thursday.

The long run plan for the week? 15 miles. The season? Spring according to the month of the year, but Fall in my beloved Seattle, with pounding rain and gloomy day. The alternative? 15 miles on the treadmill. So determined to do it, I went to the gym to spend three hours on that machine. I don't watch TV, the Ipod hasn't been in use since my daughter sent it back from Thailand... so, my strategy for this time was to break the work in three blocks of five miles and just to think on stuff!!!

What can you think in three hours? Well, many things... Writing an email to my boss, subject: Leave of absence on the grounds of insanity (this thought occurred to me between mile 5 and 6). I redacted the email, corrected it, read it in my mind, etc... Thoughts of happiness for trading my tempo works for 5K races (way more fun)....Picturing myself running on my "by-the-water" route in Long Beach.... Thinking in the nice times to come when my hubby comes back to Washington State to be with me, whenever that'd be...Etc...Etc...Etc...

At mile 10, my legs were struggling... At mile 11 I was really tired and decided to stop. Ok, that was my plan for a 15-miler. After that I went to the store and after 30 minutes in the store, dragging my feet I told myself: "If I would've stayed, considering 12min/mile, I still would be running". There was no way that I could have done 4 more miles.... So seriously, I don't regret... My legs thanked me.

Then on Saturday I ran the Edmonds Waterfront 5K on a perfect sunny day (for a change). Mike (one of my bosses... yes, I have two.. or three) had a goal around 21'. Mine was to beat 32'.

The waterfront part was just a stretch of half a mile, but Edmonds is a very pretty town, and I enjoyed the race. The sound and the Olympics were gorgeous that day (see pic below).

Mike, after finishing, joined me and ran (rabbited) for me for a third of a mile. It was great... I went as fast as I could...and I got 29'01", a sub-thirty!!!! (I hate to say almost a sub-29). I am pinching myself because I still can't believe it.

Female Overall 21/ 54 - Overall - 65/118

I immensely thank Mike. He really helped me to push at the end....

See?

• Incomplete 15-miler? A little bit disappointing.
• A 14.1 mile/week? A little bit disappointing.
• Having my own rabbit? Priceless.
• 3 minutes drop on my 5K PR this year? Absolutely Priceless.
• 8 minutes drop on my 5K PR since back to running (2005)? Absolutely, Absolutely, Priceless.
• Incomplete 15-miler? Who cares?
  
• A 14.1 mile/week? Who really cares?