Team Cindy

June 17, 2011 by · 5 Comments

It is such a honor to me to even be writing this blog – a few weeks ago I got a text from one of my college roommates saying “We are ordering more Team Cindy shirts, do you want one?” I responded immediately with “YES!!”

If we back up a little bit, I met Julie (college roomie) in 2003 and within 9-ish months of our meeting we became roommates.  Right around the time I met Julie her mom was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.  I know the news had to come as a shock and heart break to Julie, her sister, Cynthia, and their dad.  And in the times I first met Cindy and when she would come down to College Station for a visit, I’d never thought she was anything but a healthy lady with a contagious joy for life and her family.

 
Cindy was one of those moms of your friends that you immediately fell in love with and always enjoyed having the opportunity to be around and in truth she has passed that along to her daughters, as well as marrying a man that contains the same quality.

 
The very last time I was around Cindy was in roughly July of 2009 – I had gotten together with Julie, her husband, Cynthia, her boyfriend (and future husband) and another couple for a low-key dinner at Julie’s house.  After dinner we decided to play cranium so Cindy came over to hangout and give us an even number for teams.  She just fit right in and never seemed like a mom who had 20 years on us.  I could always see how Cindy’s daughters were her passion and so important to her.  She loved and adored Julie & Cynthia and never in an overbearing way – I always viewed her as a close to perfect balance of being a mom and a friend to her daughters.

Julie, Cindy & Cynthia

One of the things I loved hearing about Cindy, prior to my meeting her, was she had been an elementary school teacher for years, and I believe before every school year the kids who would find out Mrs. Death was their teacher would come up with these stories of how scary she must be!  How silly they must have felt upon meeting her that first day of school and realizing there is absolutely nothing scary about Cindy Death.

 
In the early months of 2010, Cindy began to experience organ failure as a result of all the chemo she had received.  Many nights were spent in the hospital with Cindy surrounded by her loving family.  Cynthia was scheduled to be married in early May, but it started to look like Cindy would not be able to be there unless the wedding was moved up.  Everything actually fell into place and Cynthia’s wedding was moved up by a little over a month.  But there was yet another hiccup in the plans for Cynthia & Mike’s wedding and having Cindy be there – she would not be able to leave the hospital.  The last Friday of February the wedding was brought to the hospital so that Cindy could see her baby girl get married. 

Julie, Cindy & CynthiaThe entire Death Family & their spouses - Jimmy, Mike, Cynthia, Julie, Jeff and Cindy

The pictures above were taken by a very talented photograph here in DFW, Love Me Photography,  you can see her blog here as well as a slideshow of all the photographs she took at Cynthia & Mike’s wedding.  Just six days after this wedding, Cindy went on to heaven.  Or as I have heard Julie say “heaven just got another angel!”
 
 
Cindy Death, was a beautiful woman, a daughter, sister, wife, mother, teacher and friend to many, as well as being adored by many.  That is why I am so honored to be running a race and running for Team Cindy/Life is a Run.  Teal will be running with me in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half in San Antonio in November and we have set a goal to raise $1,200.00 for Susan G. Komen ($100 for each month of this ruinning year).  As of today we have $90 towards our goal!  If you would like to donate to Team Cindy please go here.
 
 
If you plan on running Rock ‘n’ Roll SA look for me in my Team Cindy shirt:
 
 
– Beth
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Do You Use Leg Sleeves?

June 14, 2011 by · 4 Comments

And if so what brand do you buy?  And why?

Would love to read any in all feedback so leave us some in the comments!

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June’s Race

June 13, 2011 by · 4 Comments

Well we survived!! The person who decided to start the race at 7:15 was genius, any later and we really might not have made our goal of not dying and finishing. This being our first “hot” weather race, we were very nervous. Neither of us does well in the heat, as we are sure many runners feel the same way, although our friend Chris will tell you he enjoys it, we think he’s nuts.


We both rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn (both a blessing and a curse) as I said, any later of a start and we might not have made it, but as the busy people we are, less sleep is always a negative! We arrived at the race about 30 minutes early and met up with Tracy, Michael, Ashley and Chris. Chris pulled a hamstring earlier in the week and was unable to run, but he raised money for the cause and just loves to cheer us on, so he came! We didn’t see our friend Joe before, but we were able to catch up with him at the end. He ran the ½ like a pro!
The race started promptly at 7:15 (good job, race organizers!) It started at Williams Square, which is a really cool part of downtown Las Colinas, and ran through the Campion Trail area. The course was well laid out and the website even states that it is essentially “hill-less”! Huge plus! We were even able to run a part of the race in shade, as part of the trail ran through a tree-lined area. As previously stated we didn’t know how fast we would run, but we both came in the first mile at a little over an 8 minute pace! Not bad!  The goal really was steady and finish. We had no idea how the heat would get or how we would do having been inconsistent for the month. Around mile 3, we were both together and pretty much stayed the way through the race! For the first time in a while, both of us ran most of the race close together. We discussed afterwards how kind of weird it is. Both of us actually think it’s weird how the other can keep going based on what we sound like running.  If you ever listen to another runner’s breathing it is actually crazy! We all sound weird.  I always think Beth is dying and she thinks I am. Very funny, but somehow we both make it each time.
It really did heat up outside toward the end and the last miles was rather torturous. None of it was in the shade and it’s now full-sun in Texas. We both crossed the finish line seconds apart! Upon finishing, the Junior Military kids handed us our medal and a sweet ending treat, POPSICLES!  Beth ran straight to the restroom and Teal went straight for the shade! We both sat for a while to cool off and ate our popsicles. Two to be exact! This was the first time we received popsicles at the end and they were A-mazing! As well as the cold paper towel handed to us!

The Junior Military passing out the medals


We both hung around after the race to wait for Joe to come in and to cheer on the other runners. Joe ran an excellent half and impressed us all. Teal’s friend Chris was unable to make it- he was supporting the youth at his church and had to leave earlier than expected. Being the trooper he is, he still ran is 13.1 miles that morning on his own! Great job! Because the race had a military cause, many service men and women ran the race. Some of them were even in their full gear -seriously impressive stuff. We watched one troop come in wearing full gear and his backpack on having run the ½! Another marine carried the flag above his head as he finished the last stretch. They really have great strength and energy!  I was whining about my shorts and a tank top being too hot for the day, and I only ran 6 miles. Many carried flags and military gear and it really was an awesome thing to see. It’s safe to say we will do this one again. It was only the second year of this race and overall the organization was great and the turnout was awesome! Great event for an awesome cause!

Results


Beth: Finished the 10k in 56:46, 6th in age group and 87th overall
Teal: Finished the 5k in 56:41, 5th in age group and 86th overall

So proud of how we did!

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May’s Race

May 8, 2011 by · 2 Comments

before the race started

Well, we now have half marathon number two under our belts! And we are about 17 weeks away from our next one!  This past Saturday we ran in the White Rock Centennial Half and as we mentioned before did not really get a lot of training in before doing it.  For this post we thought we’d let you into our minds as we ran so enjoy…

Teal: This race was seriously a mental game for me. I knew going in that I could finish the race even though I really hadn’t trained consistently, but I was very nervous about what that would do to my head. One mile in I was completely off, I had accidentally turned my runkeeper app off and my music kept repeating the same song and I couldn’t get it to stop repeating. In my head I was like, this is going to be a long 13 miles if I can’t even get this stuff under control and was annoyed that my mileage and time was now off for the way that I track my running. I finally just decided to stop and fix it all after mile 1. After getting everything set I was now officially in the race. I started with my normal counting, but felt very tired, my knees were tight and I just felt like I was running heavy. The first 3 miles seemed to take forever. At the beginning I had decided that I would try to make sure I stayed between the 2 hour and the 2:10 pacers. I lost track of the 2 hour pacer by mile 3 which was slightly frustrating.  I decided that the only way to get through was literally go one mile at a time. I started to get really nervous that I had overdone the week. I had run 9 on Sunday and 10 on Tuesday, and thought maybe my body was just worn out.  Starting at mile 4 I just started saying to myself, less than 10 minutes to mile 5 and kept that up. Mile 4 was a huge tease, because they ran us through the finish line, so I felt like the race was super long knowing that I still had to make it all the way around the lake. After each mile I just said to say to myself less than 10 minutes until the next one. It worked and by 10 I felt ok, I ran a next to a trainer from my gym for about 5 miles and it was motivating, we kind of went back and forth in pace with each other, but it kept my mind off of being tired. It was at mile 10 that the 2:10 pacer passed me. I stayed with them for a while but then lost sight; I literally didn’t have much left to keep up with them. The hills were crazy and I hated every last one of them. We had run the Tour des Fleurs last year and they ran us up the same hill for this race that I had to walk in the 10k, so I was very proud of myself for making it and actually making all of the hills. The bridges scared the crap out of me too. Every time I ran on one they moved. The first one I ran across literally made me think I was passing out. It was that weird feeling you get when you miss a double bounce on a trampoline. It scared me to death and literally my heart dropped to my stomach. At 11, I seriously didn’t know if I would finish. I really wanted to walk but kept saying to myself you will be mad if you do. I had a goal to beat my last ½ by 5 minutes. I, however, decided to stop at the drink stop for the first time, I had been drinking the water from the bottle I was holding.  I walked the entire water stop; it probably took me about a minute and a half. At the end of the 11, I ran the rest and was determined to not stop even if I was running 11+ minute miles. I finally made it to 13 and I swear on everything it seemed like a ½ mile from 13 to 13.1.   I just kept thinking, you made it this far keep going, start counting and just freaking finish. I crossed the finish line and was kind of dizzy and seriously worn out, way more worn out then White Rock in December.  I looked for Beth who was just outside the fence and I looked at her and said “that has to be the longest .1 miles I have ever run!”

Overall the race was rough there were lots of hills, lots of wind, and not too many cheering spectators. The spectators are my favorite part. They literally make it easier to keep going. I kind of felt alone in this race and was sometimes bored, which makes it much harder to run.   I should be incredibly happy that my legs can carry me that far!!

Beth: We started the race right around the 2 hour pacer.  When we got started I saw the pacer and said to myself “I will not see you again during this race!”  I had my runkeeper app on during the run and it was updating me every half mile how I was doing.  This isn’t an app I want to run with regularly while the coaching feature is on.  I prefer to be my own motivator and pusher, but nonetheless I had it on.  I was talking myself through the hills and was proud of myself for keeping my miles under 9 minutes for the first 7.  It was when I got to the mile 8 marker that the 2:00 pacer passed me.  And I wanted to just break down and cry right then and there as I watched my goal pass me.  I let it get to me and I took a minute then to walk, but started again as this guy who introduced himself to me as Ryan later said, “Come on runner! Let’s go”  I started up again and ran on and off with him some – he was a great motivator for a couple of miles for me.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so for me when I tell you on this blog that my goal is this if I don’t achieve it that makes me feel like complete crap.  So that first time of walking I was just like “great! You know you are now going to have to blog about this!  And now you didn’t even complete the half without walking!”  And honestly, I had to do a couple more brief walking periods in the last 5 miles.  When I was approaching the 13 mile marker I heard my runkeeper app say “..distance: 13.1 miles..”  All in all when I crossed the finished line I think I had done a distance of 13.3 miles.  Thinking about my time it’s very bittersweet – I am kind of impressed I finished it just over 2 hours considering how my last 5 miles went, but I am disappointed with myself for not keeping it together and staying under 2 hours and running the whole time.  But on a positive side my favorite part of the race was high five-ing some of the kids out there cheering on their parents and the baby I passed that was at least old enough to be waving his arms around in excitement as people ran by!  That big grin on his face put a smile on my face!

Us with Bitner

 Our Results:

Teal: Hit a new PR at this race! Finished in 2:14:52, was 53rd out of 140 in her age group and finished 831st overall!

Beth: Finished in 2:06:35, was 39th out of 140 in her age group and finished 617th overall.

We mentioned in our pre-race post that Bitner was supposed to run with the half with us in December at the White Rock Marathon, but was sick and unable to run.  This was his very first half marathon race ever and we just had to acknowledge how awesome he is!  He finished in 1:44:39, was 21st out of 94 in his age group and finished 106th overall!

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White Rock Centennial Half

May 6, 2011 by · 1 Comment

 

Well it’s finally that time. The DRC White Rock Centennial Half is tomorrow! We are both a little nervous as usual but ready to go. Beth ordered us really cute tank tops to wear that say “Life is a Run,” so if you see us come say hi! This month was crazy as always  and we were only able to get a few long runs in together and a couple of them did not go all that well, but we were able to get a good long run in on Tuesday night. Each of us ran 10 miles and felt MUCH better about running this weekend. What’s 3 more miles right? We definitely know we will make it, but we want to be improving our times each time we run so that puts a little more pressure on ourselves to do better! We are excited to be running with Steven this time. He was originally going to run the White Rock Half with us in December, but got really sick the day of the race and couldn’t make it. This is his reprieve! We hope to see you guys out there and we will of course let you know how it goes.

Our Goals:

Beth: My first  1/2 was 1:56:39 and I am SO nervous about this 1/2 that I just don’t want to be above 2 hours.  Ideally I’d beat my first 1/2 time even if it’s just barely, but it makes me nervous to put that out there and be disappointed!

Teal: My first ½ was 2:18.06- I would like to beat this time by 5 or more minutes and of course the usual, don’t die!

 

Weather forecast:

Wind: 18mph

High: 91

Low: 70

Precip.: 0%

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What Motivates You?

May 4, 2011 by · 3 Comments

We have been asked by a few people what motivates us to run – we want to know what motivates YOU to run!

For both of us it is a means to staying active, healthy and in shape!  We set goals through signing up for races and maintaining our running ability.

Do you have differing reasons or an additional reasons why you run?  We want to know! Leave us a comment w/motivates YOU!

– Beth & Teal

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April’s Race Part II

April 19, 2011 by · 2 Comments

This weekend just so happened to be the annual Crawl for Cancer in Dallas, and as tradition would have it we decided to partake in the Pub Crawl festivities again.  Originally we signed up for the Crawl for Cancer at the end of January before we had even started thinking about running a race in April.  It turned out Beth had 3 weekends of traveling in this month so we ended up settling on having Pub Crawl as the same day as our race, but in being consistent with our craziness we went anyways. After leaving the zoo run we headed home to freshen up then headed to Lemon Bar for brunch before the Pub Crawl.  We were team red this year and had a completely different bar path than the years before – we went from Lotus to Ginger Man to Trophy Room to Sfuzzi and ended at Uptown Bar & Grill.

We had discussed the level of drinking that would take place this weekend because as you may know we plan on running the White Rock Centennial Half Marathon on May 7th. We need to train for this, as our last half was in December and we have not run that far since. Both of us were a little nervous signing up for this race because of the time frame and that fact that our longest race this year was the 15k, Too Cold to Hold, we ran in January.  We were scheduled to run at least 8 miles Sunday and both had every intention of powering through even if it was a slow pace.  Just get the mileage in!

We headed out on our usual path which we took when preparing for White Rock Half last year and at the 5 mile mark were in need of a break!  We had spent the previous day drinking after all, so we stopped in Starbucks, got some water and headed out to finish the last 3 miles.  Tonight we are having our 8 mile run do over and hope to run it all consecutively!  The plan is to stay on track and run 9 miles this Sunday and 10 miles the week before White Rock Centennial.  Don’t worry we will be sure to keep you posted on our 1/2 training progress!

And we will leave you with one last pic from Saturday –

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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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Dash for Diabetes

April 8, 2011 by · 1 Comment

April was almost looking to be as crazy as February, and as you know I (Teal) was unable to run an official race. Beth, luckily, was able to squeeze in the Cupid Run in Corpus and kept our goal alive. So, in fear that it would happen again I signed up to run the Dash for Diabetes, because Beth and I have a crazy month again. She has a trip with her sister, Kate, to visit relatives and tour Texas, as well as a few other events this month. and I have a wedding to attend. I am super jealous of this trip, but just in case you were worried, we did actually plan a race together. We will be running the Ft. Worth Zoo Run next weekend! The Diabetes race stuck out to me because it is a huge problem in my family. My step-dad is so bad he can’t keep a doctor, and my grandmother has struggled with it for most of her life. So it’s none the less fitting. Here is the link to read more about it if you want.

With that said, I woke up this morning truly ready to run. I set the alarm, had all of my stuff ready, and when I woke up I did my daily morning check of twitter and thanks to @druidDUDE (yes the dude from Glee) I read: Hello Friday, Hello Tumblr. FRIDAY? What? I woke up my husband who was like “What is wrong with you, it’s Friday.” So I quickly got up and got dressed for work. The race is Saturday. Booo.

Apparently I need to actually get prepared for a Saturday Race. Usually Beth and I would have pre-planned a meeting place and time and I would know what day of the week it is, clearly I don’t do well alone. Here is my goal and the weather for this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes! Hopefully I won’t wake up tomorrow thinking it’s Sunday.

My Goal: Hoping to do better than Kacie’s run which was 26:26.

Weather forecast:
Wind: S at 21 mph (oh lord!)
Low: 71*
High: 91*
Prec: 10%

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