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Dressed for Hawaii

This morning (Sunday, Nov 5) Koree and I woke up at 5:00 AM to make our way over to Dallas for the White Rock Half Marathon (for those like me who had no idea what a “Half Marathon” is, it’s a 13 mile run as opposed to 26 miles). Don’t worry, neither Koree nor I competed. We were just there to lend a helping hand at one of the aid stations. We were posted at mile 10, so by the time the runners got to us most of them were winded and ready to down the water and PowerAde we were handing out.

Before we go any further, yes, that’s me in a Hula Skirt and a coconut bra (Pic coming soon). Unfortunately, they made me keep my pants and shirt on. How awesome would that have been? Anyways, the Hula Skirt and bra gig turned out better than I anticipated (despite my hesitancy to wear it to begin with). I got hundreds of comments from runners. They varied, but most were positive. Well, I think most were. You know hard it is to make out those comments made under your breath. There might have been a few of those.

Nevertheless, the highlight of the Hula Skirt era came when a group of ladies that were running / walking together stopped their run, approached me and asked me to dance for them. I politely declined, as you might imagine, but these ladies were damn persistent. They made it clear that they wouldn’t continue until I showed them my moves (for those who know me, know exactly why I was fighting tooth and nail to not dance for them). But they won out. I shook my hips a little, swung my arms around and humored them as they cheered me on. Needless to say, I won't be applying to dance at La Bears any time soon.

But I digress. Back to the lessons learned while volunteering at this marathon.

• There are some extremely fast, big-winded (is that a word) folks in this world. Forty-five minutes into the race, the first runner came blowing by our station, refusing any water. Let me save some brain cells for you. That’s about a 4:30 min / mile pace – and he was quickly approaching mile 11. I almost soiled my Hula Skirt.
  
• Marathons can be dangerous. Shortly after the speedster blew by and wisked my skirt up, we noticed a lady taking a shortcut across the park. Well, at first it seemed like she was taking a shortcut. That is, until she face-planted into the ground and laid motionless. That was a scary sight. Several volunteers rushed to her aid, and I’m happy to report she is okay. Wherever you’re at, keep your head up. You were doing well and almost accomplished something few people do.
  
• Once you get past the first few crazy marathon nuts who are out for blood, marathon participants are extremely friendly (I'm sure those first few are nice as well, they're just too busy winning). So many of them jogged by with a smile on their face thanking us for all we’re doing for them. It was awful nice of them, but let’s be real here. Who’s doing all the work? I’m standing here in a Hula Skirt and coconut boobs handing out water while they’re wrapping up their eleventh mile. Besides, I’m working on gaining some good karma here. I’m going to rely on volunteers to pick my body up of the pavement in a few months. So to say the least, “You’re very welcome.”
  
• And the last lesson learned today – Don’t rush home to watch the Dallas Cowboys. They’ll let you down every time.

Hats off to the participants. I was impressed.

- Kevin

Fundraising Update II

Follow this link to view November's fundraising email.

Well, I’m going to finalize my fundraising email strategy this evening, so if you’re reading this, you’ll probably get an email from me soon asking for your help. If not an email, it’ll probably be a letter. Please keep in mind, I really would rather find a way to hit my financial commitment to LLS without coming directly to you, but please understand that none of this money goes to me. Every penny invested in my email campaigns (prizes, etc) will come straight from my pocket. And every penny you donate goes straight to those who are fighting this evil disease.

So here’s what I have in mind. My email strategy will consist of monthly emails. In each email I will be offering a separate prize for the ladies and gentlemen who donate to my cause. The offer in the November email will be a $100 American Express gift card. For those who donate $25 or more will be entered into a drawing for the AMEX gift card. Each winner will be notified at the end of the month and I will make a posting for others to see who won for that month. In the following months, if you have donated previously, don’t feel like you have to continue donating. However, you will have an opportunity to win new prizes every month that you donate. If you wish to be removed from the emails, don’t hesitate to let me know.

I hope this is a fun for everyone and keeps people involved with what’s going on. This event is important to me and I’m hoping to raise as much awareness as possible.

Fall Has Definitely Arrived

This was one of those mornings where you wake up, look out the window, and you can just tell it is cold. It’s one of those Saturday mornings where you’re coming off a long week and you just want to lay in bed a little longer. After all, it’s 6 AM and it looks very cold outside. So that lazy voice inside my head told me to get back in bed and make up the workout this afternoon when it’s warmer (today’s workout consists of running for about 5 miles and swimming for an hour). But then my football fanatic voice spoke up and reminded me that if I did that, I would miss some good football games today. For those who know me well know that my achilles heel is football and it will win out over sleep any day of the week. So I roll out of bed and get the process rolling.

You know the song by Phil Collins, I Could Feel It in the Air Tonight? Well, I have no idea what he was referring to, but I could definitely feel something in the air this morning...bitter cold. Fall has definitely arrived, because it was freezing this morning. Though, I don’t guess you can really say that it is fall. Anyone who has lived in Texas for any period of time knows that there are two seasons in this state, HELL and winter. And it seemed more like winter this morning.

Running in 40 degree weather isn’t much fun. The last time I remember being forced to run this early in the morning with it being this cold was in 7th grade when my track coach told me 15 minutes before the race that I had to run the 110 meter hurdles, which I had never even practiced before. Talk about rekindling bad memories.

Nevertheless, the ran went very well. I ran about 5 miles in 40 minutes. I’m seeing a huge improvement week to week. That puts me at about 8 minutes a mile. Now that won’t shatter any records, but if you need a reminder as to why that is such an accomplishment for me, read Pre-Training Profile below. So I’m feeling pretty good about my progress. This was the first week I ran by myself, so I pushed myself a little more than normal.

The swim session was much improved as well. Coach T seems to think I’m making leaps and bounds from each swim session. I guess my fins are growing back again. I’m starting to think that I’m going to have a chance at pushing the more experienced triathletes at my first event ever, so that’s getting me excited and wanting to make me work even harder.

Anyways, sorry there weren’t any humorous updates this week. The A-Team (my friends) all decided to stay in this morning. They obviously don’t care about football as much as I do.

Wipe Out!

Tuesday, October 3

I just have to look back at our cycling training tonight and laugh. It’s days like today that make me glad that I’m training with the people I’m training with. They make it easier to go to training sessions every day because I know at any time you can create fun memories. Granted, not all memories are funny at the time they unfold. But after looking back at today's events with the knowledge that everyone is okay, I find myself chuckling whenever I think about today.

It all started like every other training session. We met on a Tuesday night to cycle as a group. As you might imagine, once we get out on the trail, the pack tends to break up and the better cyclist begin to pull away as others fall behind. Now one thing you must know, if you don’t already, is that there are really two types of bicycles – mountain bikes and road bikes. Mountain bikes are the bigger, bulkier bikes with big-treaded tires. They’re not made for speeding down the road. The other type is a road bike. Road bikes are lightweight, aerodynamic and are designed to fly down the road. Picture Lance Armstrong cruising through the Tour de France. Now look down. That’s what we will all be riding come race day. Also, keep in mind, when cycling competitively, you wear special shoes that clip to your bike pedals, much like a ski boot, to keep your feet firmly attached to the bike. Keep that in mind becuase it will be important later on.

I digressed to make sure I fully explained that not everyone in our group has a road bike yet. Some are still trying to find the right bike for themselves, so they’re currently training on their mountain bikes. Road bikes are very expensive, so several members of the group are making sure they take their time and get the right bike.

Here enters Bret and Jennifer Starr. You remember Bret. He was the principal I mentioned in an earlier post. Well, they're great people, both he and Jennifer. And great friends of Koree and I. But I’ll dive into who they are in another post. Bret and Jennifer are among the group that is still training on their mountain bikes, which means it’s almost impossible for them to keep pace with someone on a road bike. Or at least one would think.

So we get underway (and this is the first time Bret and I have road together, mind you) and Bret, Coach T and I are cruising along at a pretty good pace. And to my surprise, Bret is right there with us for the first several miles. Pretty impressive (and I’m not just saying that because he owns the firm I work at). Nonetheless, Coach T does his thing and speeds up or slows down to chat with others (don’t worry, I’m not going to challenge him – this time). So Bret and I are cruising along chatting about work, fantasy football, the bike he’s going to buy, etc. We ride to our half way point, turn around and start our trek back. Now, the wind was really blowing on the way back, so Bret was at a huge disadvantage on his mountain bike. Wanting to make sure I finished strong and concluded with a good workout, I began to press ahead. With only about 5 miles left on the ride, I catch back up to Jennifer, Bret’s wife. The wind kicked my butt, so I thought I would ride along with Jennifer the rest of the way and chat about the new season of Lost (Bret, Jen and I are planning a Lost watching party - we're fanatics).

Then, all of a sudden, Bret comes out of nowhere and starts to pass us. As he’s pulling along side us, he reaches out for Jennifer and startles her. Her initial reaction caused her to jerk her bike just a little, forcing her off the trail and blowing out her tire. Everything else happened so suddenly as I looked back. The first thing I saw was Jennifer flying over the front of her handlebars, with nothing to break her fall but the pavement. Noticing what had just happened, Bret tried to stop immediately and he too lost control. It was a scary moment, but fortunately nobody was hurt too bad. However, thanks to the less fortunate ruptured tire, Bret and Jennifer had to walk the rest of the way back. After stopping to make sure everyone was fine, I rode on.

Now, on to my part of this story. Remember how I said that my feet were clipped to the pedals. Well, sometimes that can become a little tricky, especially when the whole concept is new to you. So as I’m cruising up to a group of about 8 people that had already made it back, I came to a complete stop and forgot to unclip my shoes, guaranteeing that I would fall to one side or the other, I just didn’t know to which side I would fall. You could see it on all of their faces as they watched me slowly fall over to my left, helplessly. It was like everything was in slow motion. They knew what was happening, because it has happened to all of them many times before. Apparently, it is fairly common to forgot your shoes are locked. This was just my first time to forget. As I hit the ground, I cut up the back of my leg and put a nice gash in my knee, but none of that hurt as bad my pride. I just laid there remembering how Coach T had embarrassed me in front of all these people once before. Now here I am, looking like a fool once again.

Oh, life’s lessons.

To see Bret and Jennifer's blog detailing the accounts of their little incident, visit Team Starr.

- Kevin