Halfway through the week Glenn emailed me with a marathon pace workout for the long run.

It looked like this: 

Joe, Barb, Tom & I before the race.

Joe & I finishing the 5K

•  My legs were fatigued because I ran my tempo on Wednesday way faster than the plan called for
• Was scheduled for 6 at 7:14- but despite a terrible nights sleep I felt good and ended up adding a mile to the tempo and picked up the pace quite a bit after two miles.
  Mile 1- Warm up
  Mile 2- 7:14
  Mile 3- 7:14
  Mile 4- 7:08
  Mile 5- 7:03
  Mile 6- 6:53
  Mile 7-6:40
  Mile 8- 6:53
  Mile 9- Cool Down

  
  

• At the 1.5 MP part of the ladder workout, I thought I’d have some fun and speed up my marathon pace to 7:19 and add some hills in the “break” the run up even more. Based on my early leg fatigue, I probably should have just left the speed and old incline alone…there was still a lot of running to do
• I didn’t eat enough
• I took way too much time in between my BoMF run and my actual training run- a good hour at least. I should have taken off soon after the run… OR gone with the original plan and ran early… OR had a bite to eat and waited to run in the afternoon outside once the sun warmed everything up.

I’ve never recorded my miles so precisely until this training, but I’m almost certain it’s the highest mileage I’ve ever ran in a week. 58 for the week so far- and I think I’ll do 3-4 recovery miles tomorrow, which would put me over 60 for the week.

While I’m not totally discouraged, it did feel like a bit of a workout fail. This week was a lot of miles at decent paces on some days, quite the difference from my oh so cozy rest week last week. Moving on though.

• Working hard again
• Being on a familiar course
• Volunteers at every mile yelling out splits
• The Back on My Feet water stops- always motivating to see people you know and they were everywhere! THANK YOU guys!
• The raspberry beer & fried shrimp at the finish

• Um… it was really humid. My black tank top was soaking wet. Should have worn dry-fit, but am still working on fitting back into my good dry-fit workout tops.
• The girl that kept passing me around miles 5-6. She would pass and then move right in front of me, and then proceed to slow down. We had the whole road to work with… made no sense to me. We finally parted way after 1.5 miles of that. 
• It was a little lonely as the race went on and everyone spread out.

Ericka and I post race

Post race snuggles with my little monkey.

 Back on My Feet (BoMF) is a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to creating independence and self-sufficiency within the homeless and other underserved populations by first engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem.

Personally, I think the $1,000 FundRacing minimum scares people away, but if you break it down it’s really not that bad. You have to be creative and you have to be fun with it. AND I think one of the most fun ways to raise the money would be to partner up with your friends and do it as a group. Of course if you do it that way….. then you have to already have your bibs- which a lot of people do!

Weather you have a bib already or not-you can FundRace for Back on My Feet Indianapolis for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon! Back on My Feet has bibs for the SOLD OUT race.

FundRace as an individual or with a Team!
We will set up an on-line fundraising page to help with your efforts!

• FundRace as an individual – With 15 individual FundRacers for the mini marathon, we can raise $15,000 for the Indianapolis program! That is a huge contribution! It costs $1,800 to put a member through our entire program, by raising $15,000 we can put 8 new members through the program.

• FundRace with your Running Group  – Do you run with a group of friends who are training for the mini? Why not make it a group effort and raise the money together? With 10 runners, that’s only $100 each! It’s as simple as recruiting 10 people to contribute $10 to your campaign! Your group of friends would have their own fundraising page as a team effort that you can all share with your different networks- the donations would come in from all over!

• FundRace with your fellow employees – Are there a group of runners at your place of work who are training for the mini? Create a corporate team and FundRace together as a department or entire corporation! What a great team building way to give back to your community!

The fundraising minimum for this race is $1,000 – which may sound like a lot at first, but break it down and be creative!

• Analyze the Goal – Think of it as 25 donations of $40 or 20 $50 donations.

• Examine and Activate Your Network  – Start off by making a list of individuals who would be targets to support!

• Create a Personal Fundraising Plan with Benchmarks – Give yourself goals along the way, breaking it down is less overwhelming!

• Look for “Multiples” – Often times companies offer matching gifts programs and sometimes a family member or friend will match donations as well!

• Step Six: Develop a Communication Strategy – How will you communicate your efforts? How about a blog specific to your efforts -create entries about your workouts and keep supporters updated on how your training is going. Doing this will remind everyone why you are working so hard. Utilize facebook and twitter! Make it a challenge for not only yourself but those supporting you as well! Example Tweet – “In the next 100 minutes, help me raise $100 for my Back on My Feet FundRacing Campaign!”

Still need ideas for fundraising?

• Host a fundraising party!
• Clean out your closet and basement – sell items on ebay or consignment shops with all proceeds going to your fundraising efforts!
• Partner with a local restaurant – often times restaurants will donate a portion of proceeds to a worthy cause, see if your favorite restaurant will partner with you for your efforts!
• Make it a contest for your friends- the first 10 people who donate to your campaign will be in a drawing to win a $25 gift card.
• The best advice is to have fun with it and remember you have joined a special team of people who are all part of helping those overcoming homelessness to become self sufficient.

Benefits of FundRacing:

• Free Entry to the 500 Festival Mini Marathon!
• Opportunity to meet members who benefit from your fundraising efforts!
• FundRaising Kit !
• Team Atmosphere!
• BoMF running gear as an incentive for how much you raise! More details on our website!
• Knowing that there is meaning behind every step you take during your training and race experience!

Are you ready for the challenge? Register today and secure your bib! Do you have more questions? Contact Lindsey@backonmyfeet.org or call at 317.517.8699.

There’s been a roller coaster of emotions and minor health related issues that have kept me back a bit. I’ve kind of let these issues stand in the way of something I’ve always loved. Most people have a battle with some type of fear in their lives. My battle tends to over the top and controlling at certain times and while running is the one thing that usually calms me down and takes me to a place where I can put things into perspective, it is the thing I tend to avoid when I need it most.

Over the past three weeks, I have been getting back on track and I’m ready to start working hard. Back on June, I had the privilege of running the Carmel Half Marathon with Eric Arnold, one our Back on My Feet members and friend of mine. It was his first half and ended up being one of the best race experiences I have ever had. As I’ve said before, there is something special about running someone’s first race with them. The Carmel Half Marathon with Eric and the Green Bay Marathon with Brooke are two races I will always be grateful for experiencing.

The BoMF teams are running the Monumental 5k, half and full this year- with three men running the full. Eric happens to be one of them and although I have not been training as one should for a marathon, I did manage to get in 15 miles on Saturday and plan to do 20 this coming Saturday. Eric wants to break 4 hours in his first marathon- a lofty goal, but I’m certain he can do it on a good day and I fully intend on running his first 26.2 with him. I was there for 13.1 and would be genuinely upset to miss the real deal.


26.2 here we come…

So for now, I’m putting most of my energy into the finishing touches of the Back on My Feet 42K Relay, which is next weekend! The following week, we are going to Miami where I plan to be the best cheerleader ever for Glenn in his first half ironman and then running the Monumental with Eric the day after we return. After all of this….it’s game time. I’m ready to train. Oh and I just started crossfit! Still in the first three introduction classes… we will see how it goes.