Adventures Update

Wow.  I am totally lame.   I haven’t update this blog since January!  I have totally no excuse other than I have not make this as a priority and that’s kinda lame.   The most important part of my training is to have accountability.  I need to publicly announced my next race, blog my training progress (or complaint), record my success (or delayed success — I don’t like to word failure) and hopefully inspire others along the way and I failed miserably on that part.

However, better late than never, so here goes an update.

I’m going to run another marathon.  Yes.  I broke my ‘I can only do one marathon a year’ rule.   On June 2nd, I will be at San Diego Rock & Roll with my Team in Training people and will give my best so I can yet cross another finish for 26.2 miles of crazy.   Wait, that’s not all — on June 22nd, I will be standing at the start line and will run/walk/crawl my way to the finish like for Seattle Rock & Roll Half Marathon.   That’s right, marathon and half (again), but this time at least, they are separated by three weeks!

But Yanni, why in the world you do these (crazy) runs, you might ask.

Well, I could come with lists of reasons but there’s one that always stand out for me.   BECAUSE I CAN.

See, I know so many people that are not fortunate enough to be able to run, let alone do any marathon.   Not because they don’t want to train or put an effort, but because they are physically cannot do that or being constraint with cancer and its awful fallout from it.    I am SO lucky and fortunate that even with my own physical limitation, and believe me, I have many of those — I am still able to do this.   I am able to put hundreds of miles of training run and give my best and more to complete the challenge of marathon/half-marathon.   Every time I cross the finish line, I am being reminded of how lucky I am to be able to do this.   It really humble me and THAT make me want to do the race over and over again.    The fact that I am part of Team in Training and help Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to raise money to end blood cancer and give the blood cancer survivor a hope, that just make the whole thing even worthwhile.   It hit so close to home, their missions and what they do and I will do many, many races with them in the future

I lost my father last Wednesday (4/24) to a sudden heart attack.   I have somewhat complicated relationship with him and it really hit me hard.   It really make me realize more than I already believe that life is SO short and you just never know when it’s your time to go.      Make the time to chase your dream.   Always hug your loved ones, and tell them you love them and smile often.   Set a goal that seems so far away and work your way, chunk by chunk towards it.    This goes for everything, not just running a marathon/half.   The sense of accomplishment you experience when you reach that goal is far greater and so worth it than any struggle you have during it.   Trust me on this, I’ve been there, done that!

Training Update

I will try to do weekly update starting next week, including my training plan.   For now, I’m just going to summarize what I’ve done so far.

I started my training for these events on Feb 8.   Summer season for TNT kicked off at Feb 1 which was a week after my Tinker Bell Half Marathon (yes, I did that one too AFTER Goofy Challenge.    Sorry for lack of update).   I attended the kick off party, but chose to skip the run and give myself a break.

Fast forward for today, I did 18.02 miles earlier (220 minutes — yes, that’s 3 hours 40 mins).   TNT training plan is using time based, not mileage based.  This season is the first time that I actually am being a stickler on following it and I love it!   It’s about the time on your feet and you have less pressure to do certain miles when you are not feeling your best.

Me and my girls

Me and my girls

Weather was nice breezy 50 degrees all morning with absolutely no rain.   It was awesome.   I had such a great run!   My pace was steady (and slow) and I was doing great until around mile 13.   I hit the wall.  YES.  The WALL.   I struggled with it, and tried to asses if I actually feel physical pain that raised a red flag, but I knew it’s all mental.   I mentioned that to one of my coach who ran alongside me, and about a few minutes later, I heard my daughters screamed my name and held a sign that said ‘Happy Birthday, Go Mama Go” and my heart just melted!   That was exactly what I need!!   That gave me enough boost for another 5 miles and finished my run today!   As a bonus, my husband and my daughters saw me again at mile 16 and my daughters ran the last 2 miles with me!   Now, if only I can have that during the race….  (not going to happen, I know)

In overall, even with ‘hit the wall’ feeling, I had great run and very pleased with it.   In fact, when I looked at my running app that tracked all my runs, this is the ‘fastest’ 18-miles I ever did (compare the previous 18-miler I did).  Not too shabby!

Tomorrow, I’ll have to do 40 minutes recovery run.    Will try to do that earlier in the day as supposed to the later.

Fundraising Update

I am so blessed that I know so many generous people!  To date, I have raised $5,160.00!!   In fact, I raised over $700 in the last hour (I asked so many people that in lieu for birthday gift, to donate to my fundraising and boy, did that work wonderfully).   Thank you SO very much!!   For you who want to be part for this awesome fight against blood cancer, you can join me by donating online at http://pledge.yannirobel.com.   I will do all the running and you’ll just skip a latte or two.

Special Message

I will end this post with so much gratitude.   I feel so blessed.   What a wonderful birthday and here’s to many, many years of health, strength, perseverance (okay, stubbornness), success, joy and lots of love.   Thank you for being part of making my day awesome!

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