October’s Race

October 17, 2011 by · 3 Comments


Another race is done for us this year and that makes 13 races for us total! Saturday we participated in the Susan G. Komen 5k here in Dallas.  Before we even got to race day Beth realized she had thrown her race bib away since Susan G. Komen mails you your race packet. Which is very convenient but not the norm amongst races, so that was a bit confusing. Thankfully it had been a couple weeks since the trash had been taken out and barely any digging through the trash had to take place since it was pretty much on top!

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We made great time getting down to the race and were able to park with no problem whatsoever. We walked over to Northpark Center (mall, for you non Dallasites) to look for the Creekview Cheer Squad and Teal’s friend Cynthia from school and the gym. We found the cheer squad but no Cynthia, so we made our way to the name plate table and fastened pictures of Cindy on our backs.  Since we planned on pinning pictures of Cindy to our back we’d brought extra safety pins with us which are not actually something that come in your race packet with the bib.  Those little safety pins were hot commodities and so many people tried to steal them from us. Ha.

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Can you spy the Go Sport ID in this pic? 🙂

Snapped a picture real quick in between taking a potty break and lining up for the start of the race!

It took us twelve minutes to get from where we lined up to the start line….then a few seconds after that we remembered to start our Runkeeper apps.  We started out walking because there were SO many people out there!  Glad we both had decided our goal was going to be to enjoy the race and take it all in otherwise if we were really trying to race it I think we would have been so frustrated.  All of the walkers out there were all over the place – of course in the street but also up on the sidewalks and in the grass.  We were able to get some running in during that first mile but it was saaaaaa-low and full of dodging around or having to stop and walk or being cut off. 🙂

By the time we got to the first mile marker we’d been out on the course for about 14 minutes and at this point we had resolved to just walking the rest of the way, but walking as fast as we could!

During our 2nd mile we noticed a woman on someone’s front porch with a bunch of people surrounding her.  Not sure what happened there if she fell and got trampled or what, but so nice of the people in that house to take care of her!  One of the best parts of the race was that you could just tell a lot of the people out there do not normally get out and exercise like that.  We talked about how neat it was that t his cause encouraged so many people who aren’t regulars to working out to get out there and walk for a cause!  Hope some of them were inspired to keep up the walking!  We also laughed at the little girl we heard on the course tell another person in her group “if you wanna be skinny you gotta run!”

Somewhere past this sign Teal’s friend Cynthia texted her to say she had finished and wanted to know where we were.  We were so surprised she was finished AND she had gotten to run the whole thing.  Apparently, if we do this race next year we need to sign up as “Elite Runners” to be able to actually run it.  We didn’t do that originally because Elite Runners? – do we really fall into that category?  Beth was annoyed she hadn’t signed up to be chip timed, but who knew it wouldn’t end up not mattering anyways?  As we mentioned in our pre-race post, Teal actually did this run about 10 years ago and back then it had less people and the majority of them were runners. Ohh, how times change! 🙂

As we neared the finish line we found Cynthia and the Creekview Cheer Squad!  They had all finished the race and were motivating and inspiring everyone as they passed by and made their way to the finish line.  They were awesome!  We took the opportunity to get some pictures before crossing the finish line!

our junk in the trunk 🙂

I’m pretty sure I was suppose to crop that last picture, but it kind of makes me laugh so I didn’t. 🙂

Neither of us had expected to be out there as long as we were so we grabbed some free coffee and walked back to our car.  We probably walked faster to the car than we did the whole race, but we don’t care! We got to get out there and walk in honor of Cindy and #TeamCindy and that’s ALL that matters.  When we run Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio I think the emotions of running in honor of Cindy will be multiplied as we have been raising money for a few months now and have invested our own hearts into her story and her family!  And then, of course, we wouldn’t be Teal and Beth if we weren’t race walking to our car because Teal had to get to work and Beth was headed to a make up weights session at Johnny’s!

And because who doesn’t love a picture of a baby? – 

Post workout at Johnny’s, Beth was off to her nephew’s 5th Birthday Party (costume party)! That’s the youngest nephew trying to get in the spirit of the costume party, but not sold on it!

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Susan G. Komen 5k

October 14, 2011 by · 4 Comments

 

So this Saturday brings our only true October race even though it feels like this has been one of the hardest running months thus far. We are in the midst of true marathon training as you know but we really wanted to take this chance to participate in a race that really means something to us! We will be participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure tomorrow at North Park Mall. We are especially excited about this chance to participate in another Komen race, because as you know, this cause has become near and dear to our hearts given our efforts to raise money in honor of Team Cindy and others like her.

 

We will set out in the morning and will actually be participating on the Creekview Cheer Team this year. As you might know Teal works for Carrollton Farmers Branch and her friend Cynthia, who you have probably read about before is a cheer coach at Creekview. They are a service squad, as opposed to competitive squad, and they were able to raise money for breastcancer awareness so we are glad to be able to support them in their efforts to do just what we hope to do too!

 

We are very excited to run this race and have heard much about the amazing atmosphere! If you haven’t already you should really check out the website for this race and the cause. We understand now the importance of early detection and awareness and the website is a catch all for anything and everything you would ever want to know about breast cancer.  In Cindy’s case when she finally went to see a doctor her breast cancer was at Stage 4.  No matter how scary a feeling something abnormal in your body may be – simply ignoring it won’t make it go away!

 

 

 

Cindy & her daughters, Julie & Cynthia in March 2009

We will be running this race with a picture of Cindy and for the first time we do not have true goals. We want to run and take in everything that we see. Teal ran this race about 10 years ago and just remembers being in awe of what is present at the race so it is really something to take in. We will also be doing our long training run on Sunday morning which this week should feel like an easy peasy 13 miles, right?? 🙂 

 

 

 

Goals:

Enjoy the race and take in the atmosphere

 

Weather:

Morning – 65*

Rain- 0%

Wind- 10mph

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday No. 9 – One Week Old

October 12, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

[Added 10/13] Jack officially turned 1 week old on Tuesday! His mommy posted this picture on her facebook page.  While we were busy posting this blog yesterday – Mr. Jack was busy getting his first set of professional pictures taken!  If you’ve been keeping up to date with all of our #TeamCindy posts, Jack was having his pictures taken by Love, Me Photography.  This is the same DFW photographer who shot Cynthia’s wedding at Cindy’s hospital.  And as a bonus I added a picture of Jack looking like an pilot –


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18 Miles: Check

October 10, 2011 by · 7 Comments

We set out Saturday morning with the goal of 18 miles. The weather was not bad although when we started running it turned out to be extremely windy. We started about 6 o’clock this time with our friend Mary Alice, who was in town this weekend for the baby shower (her sister is Rebekah who we were throwing a shower for Saturday afternoon, more about that later) and also to visit friends. Mary Alice actually ran White Rock half last year with us! Anyways, back to Saturday, we decided to keep with as close to the same route as we ran last week, knowing it was relatively flat and we are comfortable with the area since we trained there for most of White Rock half 2010. We had talked about adding a small portion to our course so we would run all the way up to the Shops at Legacy (where the Heroes for Children 5k was) because last time we were literally running laps around a mall to make sure we got all of the mileage in!

We seemed back to normal running routine, we mentioned last time that we talked a lot, this time I am not sure we said much to each other except for portions where we turned around. Also we didn’t have any restroom breaks this time. Mary Alice ran with us but for most of the time we didn’t see her, we kept turning around to make sure none of us lost each other but despite our best efforts it still seemed to happen anyways. At one point in our route we running down a winding road with no sidewalks, we know—safe right? We both saw Mary Alice (and hoped she saw us) and figured she would run the same way but when we got to the end we didn’t see her so we both decided to run back. If anything was ever going to happen to anyone surely it would happen there. Drivers really don’t see you and sometimes if they do they don’t move over even though there are 3 full lanes and hardly ever traffic…MOVE OVER people… it’s just nice. We would do it for you! Nevertheless we ran up and down that three times, finally deciding to just run up to the Shops at Legacy where we both heard “Teal-Beth!” Luckily we found Mary Alice and talked about where to go from there.

A lot of the turns and runs through the parking lot stuff kind of threw us a little off, and about the 13 mile mark Teal had mentioned to Beth that if she lost her she wasn’t going to make it. Unfortunately an annoying Achilles problem that started last week came back and Teal had to slow down, and Beth thankfully would run ahead and then turn around to stay close. It really is a million times better when your running partner is close! Teal had to stop and walk for about .25 of a mile and managed to start again.

We ran back into each other about 3 miles away from finishing. When we had about 2 miles left Beth said- “I am going to run until I hit 18 and I am going to Starbucks and going to have someone pick us up.” SWEET!! If we had kept running the normal way home we would have had to walk quite a bit. Beth finished up and Teal had to run a few more laps around the Target parking lot. Luckily Beth’s mom, Nancy a.k.a. Fancy Nancy, came to our rescue [Hi, Beth’s mom! Thanks for rescuing us!]! I am pretty sure both of us were in pain. Eighteen miles was rough. I know for me [Teal] this was much harder overall than even the 17. We ran faster last week. Beth said she felt pretty good the entire time so that is a plus.

Of course keeping with our madness- Teal went to work.  Beth got an ice bath, went to yoga before last minute prep for the baby shower.

We met up again around 2:00 p.m. and set up for the baby shower at Teal’s house. The shower went off wonderfully and was a lot of fun. We are super excited and cannot wait to meet baby Elliott!

Teal, Mandy, Rebekah & Beth

Us with MA a.k.a. Mary Alice

We all kind of stayed around after and watched the A&M game [Whoop!] and the Rangers game. Beth even managed to make it all the way out to Dallas for a joint Birthday party for some friends born in September & October!

out celebrating birthdays!

I was able to get some recovery in on Sunday. My knees were throbbing so here is my version of an “ice bath.”

This week brings more training of course. Below is our plan. Luckily our run this week is not as far and we are excited to run in another Susan G. Komen race on Saturday. We will for sure catch you up on that.



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Baby Jack
 

October 7, 2011  by  · 1 Comment 
He’s here!! We are celebrating with Cindy’s family on the arrival of a new family member and as we’ve said before Cindy’s first grandbaby. Cindy has to be smiling down on them from heaven!


Julie at 38 weeks


Jack’s mom, Julie went in Tuesday for her 38 week appointment after two weeks of bed rest due to high blood pressure, and her blood pressure had gotten a little worse. Her doctor admitted her into the hospital and said we’ll either induce Wednesday or Thursday.


After regularly checking Julie’s Facebook page and Cynthia’s Facebook page there was finally an update at 2:30ish Tuesday afternoon that she was moving along. Then 30 minutes later a text message from Jeff, the dad to be, that in an hour the pushing would probably start. And then radio silence for hours! Haha Sometime in the 7:00 o’clock hour Aunt Cyn posted Jack’s first picture on Facebook.




Jack Scott was born at 7:12pm weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and 21 inches long! Mom, even though she had some complications, and baby are both healthy, and they should all be going home today!


Jack & his JimmyPa (Julie's dad)


 


Aunt Cynthia & Jack (Cynthia is pregnant with Baby Cindy due January 7th)


 


Last night Beth got the opportunity to go meet Jack and see how Julie & Jeff were holding up!  He’s such a teeny tiny guy!  Made all kinds of sweet noises and cute faces!  Don’t worry Beth isn’t scared of holding Jack just trying talk to Julie and hear about everything!




 




We are still in fundraising time, so if you’d like to donate money to Team Cindy, Jack’s heavenly grandmom please go here.  We cannot tell you how much we appreciate everyone’s support and the honor to raise money in the name of Cindy Marshall-Death!  We will be proudly wearing our Team Cindy shirts while we run the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half on November 13, 2011.


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What is the Deal?
 

October 6, 2011  by  · 4 Comments 
So this week I’ve been far from my usual workout self.  I’m not quite sure what my deal is!  Usually I get my workout plan for the week laid out and where everything can fit in to my busy week.  Monday I decided sleeping was more exciting than getting up for yoga, but I did manage to get in spin class after work.


Tuesday morning I got up and worked out with Johnny per usual for a Tuesday morning, but I skipped running in between that and going to work.  And we got a new client at work that’s left me at work late a couple of days and going in early.  Which is why Tuesday night there was no time to fit in a workout post work and before my usually weekly movie night.


Wednesday morning I had to be at work early to prepare for a hearing and attend the hearing so I wasn’t able to get up early for yoga or anything.  By the time we were finished with the hearing yesterday afternoon I was exhausted!  Maybe because I didn’t get my usual cup of coffee in the morning.  Or the hearing I sat through over temporary orders in a family law matter drained me. Or I had two of my protein shakes for breakfast and then finally got to eat a salad at 2:30 p.m.  I somehow convinced myself to go to yoga.  Probably because I have a goal of hitting 150 yoga classes by October 31st.


Yesterday after yoga I went home and sat in my bed and watched TV for like 3 hours before passing out around 10p.m.  It felt great to do nothing for that many hours something I feel I rarely do.  But I was suppose to be running 8 miles, cleaning up my house and prepping for a baby shower that Teal and I are hostesses for along with our friend Mandy.


Here we are at Thursday and I got up and did my usual Thursday morning workout with Johnny and again skipped on running before work. 🙁  Notice the lack of running this week?  Yah, I haven’t actually run since we put in those 17 miles on Saturday.  Which makes me wonder how 18 miles will go this coming Saturday!


Due to the lack of running this week though I kind of feel like I suck. 🙁  Here’s what this week training wise is suppose to be:




And in reality it’s look liked this –




Funny that I feel like I suck this week yet I’ve at least put in an hour each day doing something active! Ha


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Wordless Wednesday No. 8
 

October 5, 2011  by  · 2 Comments 
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Mileage Milestone!
 

October 4, 2011  by  · 4 Comments 
This past Saturday we ran the FARTHEST either one of us has ever run before! Mileage milestone!


It was kind of shocking because for the first time in a long time we stepped outside and were kind of chilly!  Nonetheless, we had our camelbaks, our fuel and the tunes to entertain us!


The previous Saturday we started out on our 15 mile run [ultimately we only ran 11 miles of it] and I know both of us walked away from it feeling defeated and how we’d really make it a whole marathon!  After running the 17 miles on Saturday we realized that the previous Saturday it was 1. a hot day again and 2. we hadn’t paced ourselves accordingly for all of the hills in our course.  So in an effort to complete the 17 miles we knew we needed to give ourselves a flatter course this week.


Ok – back to the 17 mile run! We had our flatter course and positive attitudes that we would put in the exact mileage we were scheduled to run this week [Marathon Training week 9]!  Rarely do either of us walk when we ran, we just lack the ability to get going and for a long time after walking.  However, on this run we may have had to take a short potty break after only going about 2 miles, but we were barely in the run so starting up again was no big deal!  When we were in mile 4 of our run we were running towards a group of about 8 women, as we got closer they all parted and moved off the sidewalk so the two of us could just keep on going.  When we were close to them we realized they were out training for the 3-Day for the Cure and they started cheering & encouraging us on in our running!  It was so neat since it happened to be October 1st and they were training and sporting breast cancer awareness shirts and what not.




We actually saw quite a few people out walking or running that morning and when we were in our 8th mile we ran into [not literally] the same ladies again.  We got more cheers and encouragement from them!  They really were great and it was such an unexpected awesome thing added to our training run.  It was just extra inspiring since we are doing our #TeamCindy fundraising and they are walking for the same cause!


It was somewhere around this point that one of us said – I wonder if people think we actually talk to each other while we are running, you know, since we don’t. Which then led to us being the chattiest we have ever been on a run before besides the occasional “we’re half way finished!,” or “do you want to go this way?”  We talked about running New Years Double, and wanting to do the Coast to Coast challenge in 2012.  It was also around this point that we busted out our fuel for the day – swedish fish!




source


After hearing multiple times swedish fish are a great source of fuel for your long runs, which I think this can mostly be credited to Katie.  Just in case we did not care for them while running we each took a GU gel out with us, but the swedish fish were good!  Definitely refueled us and since we put them in individual baggies they were easy to grab from our camelbaks and continue running while eating.  We’ve got quite a few more long runs so if you have any other fuel suggestions we’d love to hear them!!




We finished up our 17 miles exactly where we started and were immediately ready to lay down.  In the last mile or so Teal started to feel some man in her achilles which kind of altered her running stride to make it through the pain and mile 17.  This is what we look like after running 17 miles –




After our run Teal had to get to work at MowerMedic, and Beth opted to try out an ice bath.  Thanks to Heidi, for all her tips & tricks to not feeling completely tortured during an ice bath!  It completely worked and made a huge difference in the ol’ legs that day and the next day.  Definitely did not feel like I’d done 17 miles!  We are pretty proud of ourselves! Next week we are on to our next mileage milestone of 18 miles!


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The Month of Pink
 

October 3, 2011  by  · 2 Comments 
A new month! And a month that finds us even closer to our two ultimate goals for 2011 – run a race every month and complete White Rock Marathon.


While October is a month that the majority of people associate with Halloween , I am sure more and more people are remembering that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  This year I am confident in saying that this month is more near and dear to our hearts than ever before.  If you’ve been reading our blog then you know we are fundraising for Team Cindy through our Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half we will be running, which means we are raising money for breast cancer.  We have pledged to raise $1,200 – that boils down to $100 per month of our 2011 race year.  We are currently at 56% of our goal –




Donate you can find our fundraising page here


Yes, Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio is NOT officially until November so yes, we will be running the Komen 5k in Dallas on October 15th and proudly wearing Team Cindy on our shirts!


So if you follow us on twitter don’t be surprised if the #TeamCindy hashtag is more a part of our timeline than ever before.


One of the exciting parts of the month of October is that it will bring the arrival of Cindy’s first grandchild!  So get ready for some cute pics of a sweet little Jack!


Cancer in general is a hard thing to deal with and there are so many people affected by it and in so many different ways!  This year we have chosen to mainly raise awareness and money for breast cancer, and also childhood cancer with our volunteering and running for the Heroes for Children 5k.


Are you doing anything this month for Breast Cancer Awareness?


We’ll leave you with a picture of Julie and Mr. Death with their Team Cindy sign waiting for Cynthia to finish the 3-Day walk in 2010




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The Story of Teal & Beth
 

September 30, 2011  by  · 1 Comment 
So we officially became bloggers 7 months ago and we started off with race talk immediately, the goals we had for ourselves, why we were blogging and all that fun stuff.  We both realized that really you guys probably don’t know much about us besides that fact that we run, run some more, brunch, and well you know indulge in the occasional adult beverage, but what you may not know is how we met and how we have actually gotten to where we are now—Friends!


We met each other really randomly the first time through a party one our mutual friends had at the time. I had always heard about the infamous Beth Lynch and was really kind of nervous to meet her. She came to the party and we didn’t talk much, but rather I just sort of stayed close to our mutual friend.  In 2006, Beth and I, and our friend were all graduating from college and decided to take a beach trip! Basically to celebrate that accomplishment and it turned out later to be an annual thing… more about that later! I would definitely say we were “friends” at this point but really didn’t do much together or talk or really hang out on our own. I don’t even think we even had each other’s phone number at that point. Our beach trip was awesome, but we really never “bonded” about much. Just talked and stuck with the people we knew most at that point.


After returning to Texas we hung out a while, went to birthday’s, random get togethers and had even starting a “craft night” to which my husband refers to as, “drink and gossip” night. One of Beth’s best friends, Rebekah, around this time had gotten engaged and was planning her wedding. We all gathered basically once a week and helped her prepare for her wedding- glue stuff together, address and lick envelopes- you know crazy wedding stuff!


Rebekah's wedding in Pampa, TX


As I mentioned earlier the beach trip turned into somewhat of a tradition and that next summer of 2007 we made it to Cancun again. Definitely by this time we both had grown much closer in terms of friendship—we had each other’s numbers for sure 😉


Rebekah, Beth, Teal & Vanessa - 2nd Annual Beach Trip!


In 2007 Teal got engaged to her long time boyfriend and really this is when things really changed.  I really wanted to have Beth be a part of my life on a more of a “ yea she is my friend” level and I asked her to be a bridesmaid in my wedding. She of course said yes and then everything just sort of went from there. Beth and I bonded big time about my wedding and the happenings involved with that. I really felt like she cared- You can tell, she makes a great deal of time and effort into her friends and really did anything and everything she could to help and support me with the wedding.  I was slightly crazy (don’t judge- most brides are) – but she never batted an eye- including nights where we would glue, unwrap, wrap, and make crap for hours. (Notice a pattern?) She was there! Not to mention I got to use her amazing handwriting – yes you should be jealous!


So you know how we mentioned that annual beach trip—in 2008 we decided to change things up and went to the Dominican Republic! Of course as you have probably guessed by now- more bonding and hanging out and all that fun friend type stuff.  My wedding was in November of 2008 and basically everything went off without a hitch- minus of course a short temporary moment of panic about my bracelet, but beyond that nothing. Below you can see Beth in her running around madness at the wedding!


Dominican Republic Beach Trip




We flew to Hawai’i that next year to visit Rebekah and tour Hawai’i – Beth who has now flown with me a million times had gotten used to my routine, holds my hand, lets me cry like a 2 year old, and lets me sit by her! A task I am sure not many want! Hawai’i was probably the best trip of my life!




On our way to Pearl Harbor and our hair got stuck together


Things kind of got a little crazy after this year. I had started graduate school, had started working for my dad at MowerMedic and was also teaching. Life was insane. So insane in fact that I had no time off, ended up exhausted and ran around like a crazy person trying to get everything done. Beth always managed to stay around and was always encouraging to me. No real trip took place that year, but I did meet a girl through grad school who would but a bug in my system about running a half marathon. I had talked to this girl in my program about running a 1/2 and neither one of us really thought we could do it. We had talked about it with each other and really realized this was a goal and something we both wanted to do! By September Beth and I really started training and kind of kicked things off with the Tour de Fleurs race and basically went from there- both completing our first half marathon at White Rock.


Mary Alice (who happens to be Rebekah's sister), Teal and Beth after finishing White Rock Half


Upon finishing you could tell that neither one of us was really that satisfied. I honestly think it went something like “that’s it?”  I know for me I looked around at all the people finishing the marathon and was like—we have to do that! Beth of course said “if you’re in, I’m in” and that is how we got to where we are now.


Since finishing the first half we have spent super amounts of time together, the four of us Mandy, Rebekah, Beth and I have spent New Year’s together, traveled to Mandy’s wedding in Cancun and hang out all the time! It is safe to say that this is a friendship I cherish with all my heart- as cheesy as it might sound. She’s not just my running buddy- I think you can see!


New Year's Eve 2010


We are only two short months away from this year’s goal and I know I would never have been here without her support and out support of each other. Beth has a six sense really about the social media world and mentioned a blog- I really have no idea how to do anything technological- She is the brains behind this posting business!! I really kind of thought this blog would not be what is now! This has not only helped us running wise in terms of motivation and accountability but also to learn so much more about each other and become better friends in the process and not to mention has opened both of our eyes to the huge running community.


And a couple of goofy pictures of us to end it all:






– Teal


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