Heroes for Children 5k

May 21, 2011 by · 1 Comment

I, Beth, recently have gotten back into volunteering and specifically with Heroes for Children.  One day at the end of January I decided to try out yoga at an actual studio and ended up meeting one of the co-founders of Heroes for Children that same day.  Talk about perfect timing as I’d been looking for one charity or organization to get involved with!  Both co-founders of HFC lost a daughter to cancer and throughout their daughters’ battles with cancer each family was blessed by friends, neighbors and family and through these people in their lives were able to overcome many of the obstacles their family faced.  They saw many other families, as I am sure some of you reading this blog have seen, struggle financially amongst other things while their children battled cancer.  In December 2004, Heroes for Children was formed and since have provided over 2 million dollars in program services!

You might be wondering,  How exactly does HFC provide for families? – “[we] provide direct financial assistance to families with children battling cancer.  The average gift is $750 to assist towards such necessary expenses as mortgage/rent, utilities, car payments, or even funerals for children who have lost their battle to cancer.  This is the largest program and main focus of Heroes for Children.  More than $45,000 is spent each month on direct financial assistance.”

There is also the Laptops for Love program which “donates new laptops to teenagers battling cancer.  This unique program provides teens with a link to the outside world while undergoing cancer treatment and allows them to keep up with their school work while away from the classroom.”

This is just one of a number of other events throughout the year to raise money and not only here in Dallas, but also in Houston. Please take a look at the HFC site to learn even more!

Finding an outlet to volunteer got me very pumped up and when I learned that Heroes for Children holds a 5k annually I got even MORE excited and knew that I needed to be apart of the 5k committee.  Each year the Heroes for Children 5k is held in September at the Shops at Legacy in Plano, Texas.  I am excited to see the behind the scenes part and all the details that go into organizing a race!  I am glad to finally be able to see just how much time, dedication and hard work goes into planning such an event.  Our first meeting as a committee was in April and we are all deep into the organizing process!  You are probably wondering – if it’s in September why are you already talking to me about this now??  Well, that’s a GREAT question!  We are starting team recruitment already and are looking for team captains!  The first chance to learn about being a team captain is Wednesday, May 25th at 11:00 a.m. at Ringo’s Pub at the Shops at Legacy.  Lunch will be provided for you and if you’d like to attend please feel free to leave a comment on this post or you can email me at ealynch12@gmail.com. There will be other opportunities to attend a team captain informational and I will be sure to keep you guys updated (like a happy hour next month in Dallas)!  If you live in the DFW area, we would love your support in the 7th Annual HFC 5k even if it’s just you signing up to run and not bringing a full team!  If you have any further questions feel free to contact me!

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April’s Race

April 18, 2011 by · 4 Comments

We are now a third of the way through our 2011 running goal!!  Yet again we had a VERY busy race weekend – are you starting to see a theme with the two of us?  Busy, busy, busy! Beth and Joe picked up Teal and made the roughly hour long drive to Ft. Worth to meet up with Mouyyad!  Since the race was in Ft. Worth one of Mouyyad’s friends picked up all of our race packets and it was very out of the ordinary for us to be standing around at the start line without our bibes 15 minutes prior race, but we got our bibes and were ready to go with time to spare!

We thought the majority of the race would be throughout the zoo, only part of it was and as it turns out that was perfect since the zoo part was pretty smelly!  For the first half mile of the 5k I think we both regretted reading this blog on clock blocking and all the people we were having to dodge (not because the blog is bad – it is SO true was just at the forefront of our minds).  I think we both were pretty tired early on due to that and we have both been a little spoiled with our last couple of 5k’s being pretty small there was no need to dodge other runners.  There were also a few hills throughout the course.  Both of us never really felt like we were running in a race where we would do well.

But then you look at our results and see that we were completely wrong:

Teal: 25:55, finished 6th in her age group and set a new PR!

Beth: 26:11 and finished 7th in her age group

 

Also, both Joe & Mouyyad got new PR’s out of the 5k Zoo Run!

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Didn’t You Run a Race This Weekend?

April 12, 2011 by · 5 Comments

So inititally I was scared I was going to wake up thinking it was Sunday and miss the 5k, as I thought Friday was Saturday.  I didn’t, but unfortunately I kind of wish I had.  This post is one I feel bad about writing, and I figured I would start out by saying that I do give the organizers a big A+ for starting a 5k race that promotes awareness of Diabetes.  Racing is a great way to raise money, we know, we pay regularly do to run them!  I felt like the effort was there, but when it came to actually pulling it off and the sheer organization, I unfortunately have to give them an F.  Maybe this is another sign I should not run without Beth?

For starters, the race time was changed AFTER registration; originally it was supposed to start at 8:00 a.m.  I work every Saturday so if I am going to race that day it has to be early enough so that I can get to work by 9:00 a.m.-ish.  A week before the race they updated the page to say the race would now be at 9:00 a.m.  Great!  I went anyways, I work for my dad so he is lenient but I don’t like to push it too much.  My husband and I arrived at UTD and the directions said to go to the Southside of the basketball courts, no one was there from the race.  There were about 20 of us waiting around, we wait, wait, nothing.  I decided to walk around this building and I found a guy with an event shirt.  He says it starts at the student services building which was not mentioned.  Sure enough I find them and it’s now 8:20 a.m.  At 8:30 a.m. guest speakers are supposed to start and their website indicated there would be a total of 2 speakers.  It’s now 8:50 a.m., no speakers, no idea when the race will actually start.  A few minutes later the guest speakers finally start, the first was a little girl who was AMAZING and totally worth the wait!  But then we get 3 more about nothing except thanks for coming out.  I think one of them was even a guy running for office.  IT’s now 9:15 a.m., no race yet, and all the organizers are standing around saying “the race will start in 5 minutes.”  I would have said fine and not been so annoyed, but they did this for about 15+ minutes.  I finally looked at my husband and said, “they have 5 minutes or I have to leave, I have to get to work!”  At this point it is 9:30 a.m. and no one has even lined up to race.  As a matter of fact, I am  convinced that they didn’t even know the race route as two of the organizers were debating where the turns were supposed to be!  I was done!  So in total I went to a race, had to pick up everything, i.e. race packet, there and literally stood around for an hour and a half to run a race that takes me less than 30 minutes to run.  So unfortunately I left.  I left out of sheer frustion and time.  By the time I left at 9:35 a.m. the race had not started and still no one had lined up in preparation for the race to begin.  I feel terrible for even mentioning the race and not running, but sometimes that’s just the way it goes!

The AMAZING guest speaker!

At the same time, I do recognize that I have a bit of a different situation with my Saturday’s and my part time job where a race that starts on time and starts early enough I can fit in before I have to be at work.  There are a lot of people who get up for a Saturday race and do not have any sort of time constraint like I do.  I also recognize that A LOT of work goes into the scheduling and organizing of a race!  Perhaps these guys have not actually run many to know a lot of the details, but I do hope they learned a lot from this race and will improve their race for next year!  Beth is actually a volunteer for Heroes for Children  and apart of their 5k race committee, which I believe she’ll talk about in a later post, and I have no doubt she will learn A TON about organizing a race. 

Also, here is a picture of me from before the race and sorry that’s all you get!

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March’s Races

March 28, 2011 by · 8 Comments

This past weekend was a very busy race weekend and is a little bit of a glimpse into how crazy the two of us are with a short race on Saturday, Kacie’s Run, and a bit of a longer run on Sunday, Rock ‘n’ Roll Half.  But first let’s back up to our week leading up to our race weekend – Teal had a lingering cough and ultimately started treatment for bronchitis.  Mid-week Beth got a cold and with a double race weekend we would be lying if we said we were not nervous.  We looked and sounded crazy, Teal would break into coughing attacks, and Beth had to carry around a box of tissues.  Not a pretty sight.

Kacie’s Run on Saturday went GREAT!  CFBISD had over 500 people participate in either the 1 mile or 5k races.  The crazy wind we had all week in Dallas stuck around for the run but the sun was definitely out and the temperature was in the high 70’s by the time we ran.  The course was awesome as it is super flat and plenty of space to not run into or have to dodge other runners.  I am pretty sure our nerves had taken over slightly as we both ran the first mile in right under 8 minutes. By mile two we were great, only one small coughing attack but we pulled through!

Our Results

Teal: 26:26, finished 6th in age group and 68th over all

Beth: 26:19, finished 4th in age group and 63rd overall

 

 

For the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, we decided to run the relay and that we might have a better chance of placing if we ran on co-ed teams than as a Life is a Run team.  Teal partnered up with Joe and Beth partnered up with Bitner.  The boys were given the first leg of the half marathon to run, 7.1 miles, and the girls got the last leg, 6 miles.  As crazy as we were expecting the race to be with making sure we got to the right place, Rock ‘n’ Roll staff seriously had it under control.  The exchange area was well organized and it was awesome to see all the race action.  At about 35 minutes in, the first place runner passed all of us waiting for our partners at the exchange.  Oh to run a 5 minute mile…

L to R: Bitner, Beth, Teal & Joe

 

The weather in Dallas literally changed over night – Saturday we had a high in the 80’s and by the time we went to run our relay Sunday morning I think the temperature had maybe gotten up to 50 degrees with no sun.  Even the Rock ‘n’ Roll staff said that it must have been some kind of cruel joke.  It was freezing.

None of us had run a race in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, but we were so impressed with how organized and just how great overall the event was.  There were spectators everywhere, awesome bands, and even the High School cheerleaders from Teal’s school district.  We both talked after the race about being moved, almost to tears, by some of the pictures on runner’s shirts.  Beth saw a girl who ran with an extra bib that said “I run for my mother” and Teal ran behind a boy who had lost his mother to breast cancer, he had a giant picture of her on his back.  It is seriously motivating to run for a good cause and to see those affected by cancer, working for a cure!  This race also supported Susan G. Komen!

One of the exciting parts of the race was when Teal actually ran beside Troy Aikman!  Teal said that he literally just ran up on the side of her, he was on the left and his pacer on the right, and was talking about his race bib.  He thought he was the only one wearing it.  She looked up at him as it is weird to hear a lot of talking during a race and realized who the heck it was!  She looked at the girl on the other side of her for reassurance and yep, it was really him.  Teal looked right at him and asked, “Can I take your picture?”  He said, “Sure if you run fast!”  He had a pace to keep afterall!  Teal, who was running with her iphone to use the runkeeper app, took a quick picture and tweeted it while running.  Seriously cool!  Troy even contacted Life is a Run afterwards to find out about the picture!  How cool is that?

Beth and Teal both finished the race with an excellent pace.  It is safe to say our best 6 miles run ever!

Our Results

Teal & Joe: Ran the half in 1:50:22 (an avg. 8:26/mile pace) Teal’s half in 51:44.  They finished 8th amongst the co-ed teams and 19th out of 305 relay teams!

Beth & Bitner: Ran the half in 1:44:55 (an avg. 8:01/mile pace) Beth’s half in 50:37.  They finished 4th amongst the co-ed teams and 13th out of 305 relay teams!

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February’s Race

March 22, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

If you’ve read our “about” page you might get the idea of how busy we keep ourselves reguarly and already in month 2 of our goal we were having issues finding a race we could run together!  The first weekend of February we spent in Puerto Vallarta attending one of our closest friends’ wedding and the following weekend I would be in Corpus Christi, Texas attending my cousin’s wedding.  And in reviewing races in February in the DFW area it seemed like the weekend I was in Corpus had the most options due to it being the weekend leading up to Valentine’s Day.  Afraid to ruin the goal of a race a month at the very beginning I decided to run the Cupid’s Chase 5k Run while in Corpus.

I was so nervous to be running this 5k because I knew I wouldn’t exactly get a great night’s sleep the night before since I’d be attending my cousin’s rehearsal dinner and potentially staying up late.  About midnight I excused myself from the party and went bed.  The next morning my mom insisted on going with me just to make sure I would be ok, which I didn’t mind because she’s never seen me do any of my running as of late, just hears about it after the fact.  We ended up getting a little lost on the way to the race and I showed up just 15 minutes before it started.  Had I been in Dallas I would have been freaking out as I usually show up an hour early just in case to every race.

When the race started it was about 30*F outside, not very windy and the sun was out so in my mind ideal for a run!  I didn’t have a way to listen to music so it was just me and my thoughts!  I remember looking at my watch about 19 minutes in and thinking “ok, hopefully you have just about a mile left – let’s do this!”  I was pleasantly surprised when I rounded the corner towards the end and saw that I was going to cross the finish line when the clock was around the 26 minute mark! I’d never run a 5k race this fast before and was excited to kick some butt (my fastest time to date had been 28:01)!

Are you wondering what Teal did in February?  Like I said it was hard finding races!  There really weren’t any near by in the DFW area for the last two weekends of February so she ran a race of her own and conquered a 6.33 mile run while I was running in Corpus!  I am so proud of her!  I’m not sure what I would have done had I been in her shoes.  Also, most of the part time work she does is on the weekends starting on Saturday mornings so you can understand how proud of her I am!!

Waiting for the race to start and if you can’t tell I’m pretty much dead center in this picture

 

      

Just a tiny speck on the right side of this picture!

 

And all done!

 

Our Results

Teal – 6.33 miles in 1:00:46

Beth – 5k in 25:50

 

posted by Beth

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