Making a difference, one mile at a time.

It's about that time

2008-05-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

I run day after tomorrow. I'm excited, calm, and ready to do it.

I dedicate this run to Dipti Massi. Her strength and courage gave me the support I needed to finish this endeavor. In addition, I dedicate this run to her family and friends that have all supported me at this time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Almost there...

2008-05-28T08:52:00.001-07:00

I've been gone for a while, crazy work and personal schedule, squeezing in trainings has been difficult, but I've been doing it and I'm almost there. Less than 4 days to go!

I will write a post after the run and tell everyone how it went. I'm excited and can't wait to get it done!

Thanks for all your support thus far!

Distance running

2008-05-07T10:02:00.001-07:00

The marathon is less than a month a way and I cannot wait to cross that finish line! I've reached my fundraising goal, I'm steadily training on my own and I'm flying Virgin to San Diego (so excited about that one!).

Fundraising - now at $5,253! That's a lot of money and thank you to all those that donated! There is still time, so if you want to donate, please do here: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/marathonmegs.

Training - with a busy work schedule, it's been hard to get to all the team trainings, which I really enjoy; so I've been training on my own. It's a bit weird, not having a coach there or other people to run with, but I've been good about getting out there, pounding the pavement and finding places to run in the city.

My favorite area to run is on The Embarcadero. I feel as though the folks that were building San Francisco all those years ago thought, "hmmm... we need San Francisco to be a healthy city, so let's figure out a place for these individuals to run..." and built the beautiful 4.5 mile long Embaracadero. And while running on it, there are so many sites to see. Starting at the ballpark in SOMA, one runs by tall buildings, the Bay Bridge, the Ferry Building, Pier 39, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and if you push yourself a little further, you go up the Fort Mason Hill and bam, you are in the Marina. Yesterday I pushed myself hella far and went from the ballpark all the way to Crissy Field. Ran for about 2 hours. Yeah, long. In my head, I was doing the mileage math and figured I ran about 8, at most, 9 miles... I looked it up today and guess what? I ran 11. Yes, 11, 2 miles way from my goal for the 1/2 marathon. 11 miles! I'm pretty excited that I accomplished that on my own. I'm sore today, but I feel good and so happy that I cracked the 10 mile mark.

Here is my route:

Thank you!!!

2008-05-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

$5,001!!!

Oh wow... I just reached my fundraising goal today. And then some ($1... but still, that's $1 more).

Thank you to all the wonderful people who donated to this cause. I really believe in it and by donating, you've shown your belief in me. All their names are listed to the right of this post. Please scroll through to see who they are.

Thank you for all the support!

There is still time if you haven't donated yet! http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/marathonmegs

Less than one month to go!

In honor of...

2008-04-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Dipti Massi and Shanu
Dipti Sutaria. Wife, mother, grandmother, best friend, Godmother, and for me, the one I wish I had gotten the chance to know better.

I've gotten to know her wonderful family and I'm highly honored to be running in honor of her for them. Her daughter sent me some photos of Dipti Massi and I want to share them with you.

Update time

2008-04-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was out of the country this past week in Dubai for my cousin's wedding. Aside from choreographing a dance in a day and practicing for it, I hate to say, but my exercising took a break to the poshness that was Dubai. Instead of running and sweating, my hair and nails were done daily (I kid you not); lavish meals three times a day and NYC socialite style-parties nightly...

It was a dream that had to end and now I'm back and tonight, heading to my first practice with the team since I left *gulp*... wish me luck!

I'll post on how sore I am tomorrow and coming soon... "Connecting to the Cause." I'm going to post about my personal honoree(s) soon enough, but wanted to make sure I do it in a special way...

Fundraising update: I am ALMOST there! Yes kids, less then a $1,000 to go for my goal of $5,000! So if you haven't donated yet, please, please, please, help me fight blood cancers and donate some change! Yes, CHANGE (get it... you donate "change" you make a "change"). It doesn't have to be in monster amounts (although, that will be gladly accepted!), even a little help goes a looong way! If you are curious, the power of your money:

$1000 supports one week's salary for a medical researcher at UCSF, Stanford, or Berkeley who may discover key information to developing curative treatments for blood cancers
$500 provides a blood cancer patient with financial assistance for one year
$200 provides a Family Support Group Program for one year for a patient and their family
$75 is the average cost of tissue typing to become a bone marrow donor
$50 is the cost of a CT scan
$25 covers one prescription co-payment

As you can see, together we're making a huge impact and even $25 helps out in a big way!http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/marathonmegs

So, thanks for hanging in there with me. We're almost there... a little over a month to go!

Marathon Update

2008-03-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

In between working,training, and getting engaged...I've barely had a moment to update this blog, and apologies for that. So here we go:

-Two weeks ago, on one of my Saturday runs up in Marin; I ran through the town of Sausalito and back to Mill Valley Elementary school for a total of 8 miles! Yes, that's more than halfway to my goal of 13.1 miles, so I'm feeling really good about the half-marathon. I'll admit, the first 5-6 miles was fairly okay, and around mile 7ish, my legs started slowly petering out, but with a little practice, I should be comfortable running 8 miles in no time.
-My "comfort level" of running at this point is between 4 - 6 miles. When training started, I was huffing and puffing around 3 miles, so that's more than double the distance, in less than 2 months.
-Fundraising - I'm at a whopping almost $3,000 as of this morning! So many wonderful people have been donating and for those of you still wanting to donate, don't wait! And please don't be unnerved by some of the large amounts of money, those folks are family and they are required to donate that much (haha...) Every little bit counts. Donate here.
-Schedule:

Monday nights: Buddy run with my teammates The Embarcadero - we run either towards the ball park and back or down the other directions towards Fisherman's Wharf/Ghiradelli Square
Tuesdays and Wednesdays are on my own for cross training - I try and get to the gym in the morning to do some elliptical or try to walk a lot those days around the city
Thursdays - coached work out at Kezar Stadium; the coaches put together a series of track work outs for us
Friday - DAY OFF!!! - I'm usually sleeping by 10P
Saturday - team run all around SF/Marin
Sunday - run on my own

-Places that have felt my pounding of my feet on Saturdays:

2 February: Sports Basement @ Presidio
9 February: Blackie's Pasture
16 February: Beach Chalet/Land's End Trail - we saw Robin William's pink house that day
23 February: Ferry Builiding/Embarcadero - ran out past the PacBell and also the day I got engaged!
1 March: Mill Valley - ran through the town of Sausalito
8 March: Tennesse Valley; ran all the way down to Stinson Beach and tackled a very big hill that day
15 March: I ran on my own that day, so I ran down the Embarcadero, through Fisherman's Wharf and then finished it off with a climb up the stairs to Coit Tower

So, that's what I've been up to so far to this point...

Thank you to everyone that has been following this blog, sending me e-mails, calling me, and otherwise personally encouraging me every step of the way. A special thanks to all the family friends last night that listened to my schpeal while they were trying to enjoy either the birthday cake (at Party 1) or the pizza (at Party 2).

Look out for a post soon on my "connection with the cause." So far I've been blogging about what I've been doing, my runs, the places, etc... I will be posting about the special individual that is the reason for all this effort.

Thank you again for keeping up with me... a little over 3 months to go!

Running at Beach Chalet

It's raining!!!

2008-02-25T15:11:00.001-08:00

OMG!!! Thank you to those of you that have donated so far. I was at $300 last Friday (i.e. - less then 3 days ago) and now, I'm at $785! That's almost $500 in a weekend! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I really appreciate everyone donating their money and time to this cause in my name.

For those of you still wishing to donate (or donate more, hehe) please visit: http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/marathonmegs.

So yes, I owe updates on my runs... promise to do that this evening, pictures and all. Just wanted to give a shout-out to all my rainmakers. Thank you!

Still here!

2008-02-22T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Team! Yes, those of you following this blog are my teammates in this journey I'm taking to run 13.1 miles. I feel as if the more and more I say it, the less daunting it becomes. A very quick update - I'm still here. Yes, I know I haven't blogged all that much recently and a 1,000 apologies, but for a valid reason. I'm busy. Busy running, training, working (believe it or not, I still kept my day job) and now am taking an additional extra-curricular evening class to become better at my day job.

So far, as you can see, my blog has been updated, and updated beautifully. A VERY LARGE and BIGGEST thanks to MzSwats! She spent a lot of time on this and I totally appreciate her making this blog so relevant to its subject. Thank you! Read her blog too, she's amazing.

In other news, I've been running in the following locations (updates to follow) - Ferry Building, this time towards Fisherman's Wharf; Beach Chalet; and around my neighborhood. I sent out some e-mails (did the rain dance) and have received additional funds (rain)! Their names have been added to the thank you roster.

So, that's all I can update for now, I promise to update more this weekend. To all of those on this journey with me, THANK YOU! And to those that I'm running in honor of, as always, we are all thinking of you.

Have a great day team!

Running in San Francisco

2008-02-05T11:32:00.000-08:00

I'm still a tourist in the city I live in. I am in awe of everything the city has to offer. I stare up at the tall buildings in the Financial District wondering what people in their that late at night are doing. The sight of either the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate brings a smile to my face. And the best thing, I'm training in the middle of it all...

This past Saturday was my first run with my coach and the team. We ran in the Presidio District, running towards the Golden Gate bridge and back to the starting point at the Sports Basement. That morning, it was chilly and drizzly, the ocean was that crazy color in between gray and blue, churning away. We started the morning with a helpful "Chi running" course. Our instructor, Hazel, runs marathons all the time and recently completed a 50-miler. Wow. After the course, we began our run. I ran a full 3 miles, and with all the helpful training, I felt good about it. My legs moved with ease, I was breathing deeply and not even thinking about the run, more so enjoying the sites and sounds around me. I crossed off an San Francisco "thing to do" and touched Hopper's Hands. Awesomeness.

And to finish my run out, on my last mile, the sun came out and the rain stopped. When we finished the run, our coaches/mentors/manager had set up a wonderful breakfast buffet for the runners to refuel. It was a fantastic way to start a Saturday.

Last night, I ran down the Embarcadero in downtown San Francisco - starting near Pier 23 and ran all the way to the AT&T Ballpark and back. It was roughly about 4.5 miles. Again, the run was amazing. My legs were moving with ease, and I was incorporating all of the Chi running lessons from Saturday. I was running right alongside the Oakland Bay Bridge close enough to see the cars moving and being stuck in traffic. Not me, I wasn't stuck anywhere, but moving breezily along the Embarcadero. One side of me, the Port of San Francisco, the other side, the bustling Financial District.

So, after two training runs, I'm feeling good about this. Although, last night, at about 3AM, I had some major cramps in my quads and had to down some Advil. I'll be keeping some bananas around the next time that happens. All-in-all, I feel good and am glad I joined this event.

Disclaimer

2008-02-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

I've added Google AdSense to this blog. This is not for me to make money. Any and all revenue will be donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Thank you.

Getting started...

2008-02-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

It was a New Year's resolution of sorts. "Let's all run the TNT Marathon!" "Okay!" And now, about a month later, here I am. Two weeks into training, muscles sore, and an awakened spirit. The more I train, the better I feel about life, human nature, and power of giving.

As I celebrate my first birthday as a Bay Area-ite with a move to San Francisco, a newfound love for my job and now the marathon; I decided that everything going on in my head about my experience was something I wanted to share with others.

I will be running in the half-marathon in San Diego as part of Team In Training. TNT raises awareness and funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through these sort of events. I'm running in honor of a loved one that unfortunately lost her decade long battle this past summer. This marathon is dedicated to her, her family, and her memory.

The marathon is June 1. Let the countdown begin!