New Music Monday

Yay, it's new music Monday again and I'm so thankful that for my birthday a few weeks ago, my roommate, Gina got me an iTunes giftcard so I could go ahead and buy more songs recently than usual.

It was perfect timing since I had the Full Marathon and desperately needed new running tunes. Sadly, it was pouring rain the entire time and my precious iPod died halfway through the Marathon. Not to worry though, I went to the Apple store last week and was able to get a brand spankin' new $200 worth iPod for only $60 so it's all good and I'm already back in business! : )Here are a few new songs that I've added to my music library:

1. Ke$ha - Blow
Sure, this is a slightly ridiculous song but it's a great workout/running one and it's super catchy. I honestly can't help but find her songs enjoyable and entertaining. The chorus of this song is especially fun to sing along to.

2. Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
I've had them on my New Music Monday before but I found another song on this album that I think I like even more. This song rocks. For some reason, there's something I like about a song making no apologies about swearing in a song. I respect that. In "Little Lion Man", the words are "But it was not your fault but mine. And it was your heart on the line. I really fucked it up this time. Didn't I, my dear? Didn't I, my..." There's just no replacing that word, it's so powerful.

3. Bruno Mars - Marry You
This is just a sweet song with a lovely melody that I can't seem to get out of my head. Mr. Bruno Mars knows exactly what the ingredients are to make a winning radio tune. I am sure that this song will be on the radio soon.

4. Katie Costello - Dig a Hole
This number lightly calls out springtime to me and I think that's why I like it so much. I'm definitely going to check out more of her music now after having listened to this one.

5. Lykke Li - I Follow Rivers
This singer's voice never fails to hypnotize me throughout every song of her's that I hear. Like one music critic has said of her, "[this Swedish pop singer] captivates like a voodoo spell to get you in the mood".

6. Tune-Yards - Bizness
African rhythms and hip-shaking horns fill this song. This certainly gives it that unique sound not commonly heard very much in today's mainstream music.

LA Marathon Recap!

"If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience another life... run a marathon." -Emil Zatopek

My head has been full of mixed feelings about the Marathon so it's taken me a long time to write this particular post. I loved the experience and I hated the experience. It was amazing and it was awful. I enjoyed every second of it and I despised every second of it. There were moments of sheer bliss and moments of sheer agony. I can say for certain that I wouldn't trade those almost 6 hours back for anything in the world. The marathon pushed me more mentally and physically then I've ever been pushed before in my life.

Honestly, the first 20 miles went by fairly smoothly and the only complaint I had was the torrential downpour that we were constantly being hit with. Yes, folks, even in Los Angeles, it rains. Actually, this particular day, it didn't rain, it flooded! I've never seen rain like this here ever and long-time LA residents were shocked by it too. So, of course my clothes were soaking wet, my shoes and socks and everything else were wet. My poor hands were so frozen the entire run that they became numb and I think that they were beginning to turn blue even! At the finish line lots of people were being treated for Hypothermia.

Ok, back to the running part, so like I was saying, the first 20 miles weren't miserable and then I hit that "wall" that I've heard people talk about but haven't encountered myself. It was a serious wall alright. Everything that I've heard about the "wall" is correct and it's terrible. It's hard to explain exactly what it felt like... I felt like it took everything I had in me to take each step forward. I didn't have much more in me. I just kept saying to myself, "Only 6 more miles, only 6 more short miles." But those 6 miles were the longest miles of my life!!! I slowed way down and walked a bit more and slowed my running pace as well. One of my roommate's friends who ran the Marathon as well summed it up best, "the first 20 miles were easy; the last six, longer and more tortuous than the preceding 20!"

By mile 23, everything was hurting! I took out my phone during a rare dry moment out there and saw that my sister had called several times so I called her back. She asked me where I was and I told her that I had 3 miles to go. She then asked how I felt and I lost it. I began crying and just blubbered out, "not good". I'm not sure if it was hearing her voice and knowing that she was at the finish line waiting for me or that I wasn't going to be a quitter at mile 23, but I pushed through all the pain I was experiencing and crossed that finish line in just under 6 hours! I am proud to report that I was #14,038 out of 20,000 runners.

Here I am before the Marathon started:


After the Marathon:


Post-Marathon champagne my roommate got me! Yay!


As of today, I'm feeling much better and will probably be able to stop taking so much Aspirin soon. It still hurts to get up if I've been sitting for a long time but definitely not as much as Monday and yesterday. Now, the only thing really annoying me is that my iPod is still out of commission. Sadly, it got too wet on the run and will probably never be resuscitated. : (

So, have I inspired any of you to run a Marathon now?! Not sure if I'll run another one but there definitely is a part of me that wants to run one in better weather. We'll see.....

Tomorrow is the LA Marathon!!!

Tomorrow I will be running the LA Marathon. That's 26.2 miles.

Wow!

This is a huge deal for me. I'm borderline freaking out/super excited and thrilled. I've been training hard for over 6 months and before that I was training for a Half-Marathon. So I honestly don't think that I could have prepared my body more for these 26.2 miles. 26.2 miles!!!!! Now, I just need to work on my brain. I know that around mile 15, I'll probably have to dig deep down in myself and find those reserves that we all have. The reserves that will move my legs and I'll just switch to auto-pilot and stop feeling whatever pain has set in. The endorphins will surely have kicked in and my mind will take over the driver seat. Or perhaps, I'll be feeling great and won't have any problems at all. That's really what I'm hoping for.

Here is a really cool YouTube video that shows a 3D map of the LA Marathon course that I'll be running. This definitely gets me pumped up! We go through just about all the neighborhoods here in LA. I'll have to take mental notes throughout the run to blog about later! Ha! We'll see if I can manage that.....

Here's a great quote that I just found that definitely inspires me: "The race, the marathon, is a renewal of belief in one's self and the ultimate expression of confidence that you have created the foundation that enables you to go the distance."

Woo hoo!! Stay tuned tomorrow or possibly later on in the week for all the Marathon details. In the meantime, wish me luck!!!!

Surf City Half Marathon Update

Yesterday morning I ran the Surf City Half Marathon in Huntington Beach. All in all, it was a great run and I'm really happy that I ran it. I am really proud of my time and pace. I ran at about a 12 min per mile pace and I finished in 2 hours and 42 min! So, yay me! However, there were a few negatives, it was pretty chilly the entire time and incredibly boring during the middle. It was super foggy so we couldn't even really see the water. This was too bad since the entire run was along the Pacific Coast Highway. I was expecting there to be music entertainment throughout the course but for the most part, it was quiet and uneventful. I was bummed that I decided not to bring my iPod! Next time I know better!

Here are some pictures from yesterday:


After the run was over, I spent some time in my sister's backyard playing around with my nephew. Here I am showing him my awesome running medal.


Before:



After:

Running Update!

"Running is a free form activity; we alone determine how fast, how far, and how long we run. The empowerment of running is open to anyone, at any speed. Your definition of "slow" may change as your grow more fit, and will change as you grow older." -Jeff Galloway, Running Guru

My Full Marathon is fast approaching and I'm starting to get seriously nervous. What exactly was I thinking when I decided to run 26.2 miles?!

My longest run was just yesterday-18 whopping miles and it was tough but certainly not impossible which gives me hope that I can just run 7 measly more miles for the Full Marathon. I did however, struggle through the last two miles but I never gave up and that's whats important. Right?

Here is a pic of my running buddy and I after it was over and yes, we are still smiling!
Oh I almost forgot, next Sunday I'm running a Half Marathon in Huntington Beach! Whew! It's called the Surf City USA Half Marathon and the medal we all get in the end is a little surf board! The entire run sounds like its by the ocean so I am sure it will be an awesome run. Cool, huh? There are about 13,000 participants that enter this Half Marathon! That's a lot of people!

What competitive nature?

As I sat down this lazy Monday evening to peruse through my latest Runners Magazine, something struck me as I was looking at their list of 2010 Running Heroes. These incredible men and women strive for excellence in all their running endeavours. They long to be the best in every event they participate in. In fact, most of them want to be better then the best, they want to be the ultimate super best. Yes, that exits.

They are constantly working to improve their finishing times, their speed and of course, their overall performance. Each of these runners want to hold any and all records for half marathons, marathons and also shorter runs. The one trait that all of them have in common is the competitive drive. In the dictionary online, " 'competitive' is defined as having or displaying a strong desire to be more successful than others".

Honestly, I don't think I have that in me. I never think, "Wow, I really want to be better at this than her or him."

If someone were to carefully examine all the personality traits in me, I am certain the competitive gene would be missing. I must have been absent the day they were handing it out. I just don't have it. But I'm not sure I want it either. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of seriously competitive people. They are usually angry when they aren't the best at whatever it is that they are doing and sometimes take it out on others. I feel like the complete opposite of all that. I mean, what's the point of all that competitive nature if it leads to sadness and aggression if the ultimate goal isn't reached?

I don't know... Perhaps, I would be a more successful person in life if I had a little more of a competitive nature in me. Who knows? However, I really don't think there's anything wrong with instead of working towards being the best out of everyone, simply striving to do the best that you can do. That's exactly what I do. I strive for my own personal excellence. I guess I compete with myself occasionally but is that really being competitive?

Are you competitive? How so?

Lessons from my Half-Marathon

Here's a list of all the things I learned from running the Disneyland Half-Marathon yesterday:

• I have a new-found respect for my body and what it can do.
• I love energy goos, gels and blocks! They got me through a few tough miles.
• For this first running event, running the fastest time was not important to me, running with my pace group and enjoying the experience was.
  
• While I have a new-found respect for runners in general, I also think that absolutely anyone can run a half-marathon. It just takes lots of training and determination. Seriously, if I can do it, anyone can.
  
• I haven't been this proud of myself in awhile and let me tell you, it feels amazing to achieve something like this. It gives me hope that I can conquer anything that I put my mind to. Yes, this is cheesy but true.
  
• I now understand the 'runners high'. I can't begin to explain what it feels like but it definitely exits. All I know is that I want to experience it again and soon!
  
• Of course I already knew how awesome my friends were but some of them were downright amazing throughout my training and then cheering me on from wherever they were the day of my race. I would like to give a shout out to my awesome sister, Tonya and her husband, my roomie, Gina, Courtney S, Stacy, Em, and Tracy. I love you girls and I know that I couldn't have done this without you. XOXO

These are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

My Half-Marathon is Tomorrow!!

OMG, I am kind of freaking out! My Half-Marathon has finally arrived-its tomorrow morning bright and early at 6am!! I know that I have trained hard and couldn't have run any more than I did. I trained exactly as much as the APLA organization told me to. So, I guess I feel pretty well prepared for tomorrow but still I'm a little stressed. I just really want to do to well and finish on time and with my pace group. I would be soooo angry at myself if I didn't run across that finish line.

Stay tuned for the entire recap of the day and plenty of pictures! Wish me luck! Thanks for all your support!

I RAN 12 MILES!

Today I ran a whopping 12 mile training run to get ready for my upcoming Half Marathon. It's September 5th which is very very soon! But after completing today's 12 mile run, I'm not worried at all about it. Whew! Thank goodness for this amazing training program provided by the APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles). I never would have gotten to this stage on my own.

Here I am after running 12 miles, feeling pretty good but definitely ready to sit down and stop running!



This is me with two other Half Marathon participants. We were happy to sit down and relax after the run. It was a little tough getting up though. Isn't it neat that they gave us medals today?!


This is my pace group after the run. We were missing several people today but we still had to get a picture altogether at mile 12! What an amazing accomplishment! The half marathon will be a piece of cake now for us!

Running Post #7/Fundraising Letter

I just sent out the following email to all my friends and family in hopes of getting more money for my half-marathon for AIDS. This email is a little different though, I have created a fun incentive to get people excited about it... Check it out! : ) Oh and as a side note, on my training run tomorrow morning, I'll be running a whopping 11 MILES!! Aaaaahhh!!! Wish me luck because I am super nervous!!

Hey Everyone,

Ok guys, so in order to entice you to donate to my AIDS Half-Marathon, I've decided to copy a fellow Half-Marathon participant. He has raised a ton of money by creating deadlines for his friends and family.

This is what he did: He told them that he if he raised $X by DATE, he would wear a Brownie Costume on his 8 mile run and then he did it again and promised to wear an Athena costume on another long run!! And he really did!! He filmed it and took pictures and posted them all over the place.

So, here I go!!! If I raise $200 from you all by August 14th, I will dress up as a Pin Up girl for my 6-mile run! What do you think?! I'll take a million pictures and post them on Facebook, my blog, etc...

Just think, I could be dressed like this while running 6 miles!

Now back to the serious stuff, I've challenged myself to participate in a half marathon training program that is simultaneously motivating me to run hundreds of miles and helping to bring an end to the devastating effects that HIV/AIDS still has on our society.

Every dollar that someone gives helps improve the quality of life for someone less fortunate. APLA offers dental care, mental health care, bus passes, food banks, health referrals, job training, prevention courses and advocacy on a local, state and federal level. All donations are tax deductible.

It's not too late to donate! I know some of you were waiting for paydays; waiting for a more convenient moment; waiting for a reminder from me... so here it is! Please visit my AIDS Marathon home page and donate today! And remember that I might be dressing up like a Pin Up girl on next Saturday's run!

Thanks for being amazing!! And for all of your generous, generous support!!!

Love,

Leah

Click here to visit my personal page.

If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:

http://apla.convio.net/site/TR/Events/NationalAIDSMarathonTrainingProgram-MARATHONONLY?px=1490081&pg=personal&fr_id=1070&et=VVrx9Zu3iPhbRzlSbTaIKw..&s_tafId=7201

Running Post #6

I ran 10 miles today!!!!!!!

I have no words to describe how good it felt to complete that. It took my training group 2 hours and 34 minutes to complete it and we burned about 1600 calories doing it! That's a lot!!

I am so sore and achy today but that is to be expected. Surprisingly, I was at the lead of my group for pretty much the entire time and I felt like I could have gone a little faster than most people. I've been really pushing myself to go faster on my own training runs so I am sure that is why I felt like I could have run faster today.

Running 10 miles was a personal goal that I made for myself back when I first started seriously training back in April. Now that I've done it, I guess I am in shock. I think we are all capable of so much more than we think we can. I never in a million years thought I could run 5 miles let alone 10 miles, but here I am with a 10 mile run under my belt! I can honestly say that I'm not too worried about that Half Marathon anymore.. I mean, that's only 3 more miles than I did today! Only 3 more miles! Piece of cake? I don't know about that but I do know that I can handle it.

If you haven't donated already, then please check out my APLA website and consider donating. Even the smallest amount helps me reach the mandatory fundraising goal. Thank you so much friends!!!

Running Post #5/Fundraising Letter

Today I sent the following email out to my friends in hopes of getting some more money for my Half Marathon for AIDS. And because I have such awesome people in my life, as soon as I sent this out, several people donated right away!! I seriously love my friends! Thank you so much guys!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Ok guys, it's crunch time for me and my fundraising for my Half Marathon for AIDS!!

So, here's the deal, I'm running the Disneyland Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend for AIDS. The deadline to donate is July 2nd!!! Aaahh- That's next Friday! I still need to raise $1370!! While this may sound like a ton of money, if each and every one of you donates just $10, I know that I'll be able to meet the $2000 goal and maybe even surpass it! So, please, please donate! Seriously, every little bit helps!

If I don't meet my goal, I have to personally fork over the rest of the money. While I will gladly do this because I want to do whatever I can to fight AIDS, I would much rather concentrate on the running part of this adventure.

And as if you needed another incentive to donate besides helping in the fight against AIDS, if I'm able to meet my goal by the end of next week, I'll write each and every one of your names on the shirt that I run the marathon in! Neat, huh?!

Please also ask your jobs if they would like to do matching gifts! That would be an incredible way to donate too. My amazing friend who works for Macys asked them and they are matching her gift! So, please ask all your companies to do the same thing!

You can send donation matching forms to:

ATTN: Andrea Lockhart
611 South Kingsley Drive
LA, CA 90005

Every dollar that someone gives helps improve the quality of life for someone less fortunate. APLA offers dental care, mental health care, bus passes, food banks, health referrals, job training, prevention courses and advocacy on a local, state and federal level. Remember, all donations are tax deductible.

MY HALF MARATHON WEBSITE

Thank you to each and everyone of you for supporting my journey! I cannot do this without you!

Love,
Leah

P.S Enjoy the attached picture of me decked out in my running gear! Yep, I am officially one of those runners with the water belt thingy! : ) Hey, I gotta stay hydrated! Think of me Saturday morning as I'll be running my longest distance ever-8 miles!!

Running Post #3

This past weekend, I sent out an email to all my wonderful friends and family, in hopes of encouraging them to donate money to Project AIDS Los Angeles. Like I''ve already mentioned several times before, on September 5th, I'll be running a half marathon for AIDS and I have to raise $2,000 by July 2nd. It's proving to be very difficult to fundraise so I hope that by putting the link here on my blog and having these running updates will create the buzz needed to get more funds. So, please, please donate if you can! If everyone just donated $10, I would be absolutely thrilled!

So, here's this week's letter:

Dear Friends and Family,

So, in case you totally ignored my first email about my decision to run a half marathon, here's what's going on:
I've decided to take on an amazing challenge to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Over the next several months, I'll be training to complete the Disneyland Half Marathon, and I'll be raising money to support AIDS Project Los Angeles. I've never done anything like this before, running 13.1 miles. But the work of APLA is so compelling, I feel I need to do my part. Plus, completing a half marathon is on my bucket list! : )

AIDS continues to be a devastating health problem in the United States. At last count, 1.2 million Americans are now living with HIV, and 56,000 more become infected each year. Fortunately, here in Los Angeles, we have an incredible organization that is working hard to stop the spread of HIV. They also provide food and home health care so that people affected by HIV/AIDS can continue to live full and productive lives.

Now that I've gotten all of that info out of the way, I can let you know how my training is going.. Well, running has never been my forté at all but I am starting to really enjoy it. Wow, I never thought that I would say that! The training is going pretty well and I am proud to say that today I ran 5 miles on the training run!! Whew! Just a month ago, I wasn't even able to run 2 miles and today's 5 miles wasn't actually too bad. We now are running with other people in our pace group so it's a lot more fun. We help support each other and make sure that we are all drinking plenty of water.

So, I hope you will support my efforts by making a tax deductible donation. To find out more, please visit my AIDS Marathon Home Page by clicking on the link below. If you have donated already, then, thanks so much! This means the world to me! You are getting lots and lots of good karma coming your way!

Please don't wait to donate, my deadline to raise all the money is coming up soon on July 2nd! I greatly appreciate your support and will continue to keep you posted on my training progress. Next week, I'll be running 6 miles! Whew!

Love,
Leah

Click here to visit my personal page.
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://apla.convio.net/site/TR/Events/NationalAIDSMarathonTrainingProgram-MARATHONONLY?px=1490081&pg=personal&fr_id=1070&et=6T_sLd0xqS8EkL8Pr4DY4g..&s_tafId=7201

Running Post #1

This week I ran outside for the first time. I figured that it was time I get off the treadmill and experience the great outdoors on foot. I ran around my super cute neighborhood and it is totally cute-lots of family homes, awesome gardens full of blooming flowers, beautiful tall trees everywhere and very few cars and pedestrians. I never thought that I would be running outside but thanks to my bright idea to run a half marathon in September I gotta train. And when I say train, I mean that I got to bust my ass training for it. I am absolutely terrified of running and the idea of this marathon scares the crap out of me which is why I know it's something that I should do. They say you should do something everyday that scares you, well, this is my thing for the year.

Now I am totally pissed because I recently discovered that I must have pulled a muscle or something in my right calf because after about 5 minutes of running, I get this horrible intense pain. It's actually been happening for a long time but since I am running often now, I am more aware of it. Actually, I felt this same pain two years ago when I walked the 60 mile Breast Cancer Walk. However, at the time I thought it was just because that was a ton of walking on one weekend. Yet, here we are, almost two full years later and I still have this awful pain in my right calf. Well, everyone told me that there were going to setbacks with marathon training, I guess this is my first setback. I hope this is my first and only setback, even though I am sure I have several blisters and broken toenails to look forward to... : (

So obviously yesterday's and today's runs were not long at all due to this pain. In fact, sadly, I couldn't even quite run a mile, I do know that I will get better at this. I will get better at running and I'll figure out how to stop this calf muscle from hurting. I'm even keeping track of my progress on my very own excel spreadsheet. Yep, I'm a dork! But I think that it will help motivate me to run more every time.

"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start." -John Bingham, running speaker and writer

Half Marathon

So maybe I'm crazy but I'm considering running a half marathon in September. I've never been much of a runner but the few times that I have attempted it at the gym on the treadmill, I have enjoyed it. For those few brief moments when I'm really into it and the music is pumping in my ears and I manage to keep a pretty good rhythm, I love it. I love the way it makes me feel like my body can do anything it wants. It's really quite beautiful the way our bodies allow us to run, jump, skip, hop, walk, leap, and everything else. Running is kind of like body poetry. I have always looked up to runners and enjoyed watching them do what they love for hours on end. I guess I've always wanted to become one of them. Plus the calories burned is an awesome bonus too.

I also feel like I need to push myself to try something new and challenging every year. This would definitely be that for me. Right now, running a half anything seems almost impossible but I know that it's not and I know that if I really want to do this, then by golly I will. Wow, I've never used that expression before in my life but it felt necessary right there. : ) Accomplishing this half marathon will prove to myself that I can do absolutely anything that I put my mind to. Taking on anything after this will seem so easy after running this.

Well, this half marathon that I'm thinking of running takes place at Disneyland and the organization that I would be a part of is the National AIDS Marathon Training Program. They train you from the very beginning and even encourage people who have no running experience at all to join. So, not only would I be doing something amazing for my body and my overall health but I'll also be raising money and awareness to a deadly disease, AIDS. I cannot think of a sadder disease, it kills lovers all over the world.

"Why can’t fighting AIDS be fun? Mickey and the gang are waiting for you at the Happiest Race on Earth! You’ll find a little magic around every corner as you run through Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and high-five your favorite Disney Characters. This 13.1 mile course winds through Disneyland and the California Adventure Park, as well as parts of Anaheim including Angel Stadium. You’ll stay at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel and receive a free ticket to either one of the Disney Parks. The Disneyland Half Marathon takes place on Sunday, September 5th. Training begins May 1st."

Doesn't this sound appealing?

Well, I'm going to an informational meeting about this half-marathon tonight so I'll either be super excited and want to begin training right away or I'll be scared to death and not want to run ever again! Haha... We'll see. Stay tuned for my update!

"No war on the face of the Earth is more destructive than the AIDS pandemic."

-Colin Powell

The global HIV/AIDS epidemic is an unprecedented crisis that requires an unprecedented response. In particular it requires solidarity -- between the healthy and the sick, between rich and poor, and above all, between richer and poorer nations. We have 30 million orphans already. How many more do we have to get, to wake up?"-Kofi Annan