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Tag: #love4lyla

I want to run for a purpose

I Want To Run For A Purpose

May 23, 2018

I am currently on the injured list from running.  I sprained my ankle from a run a week ago.  It makes me miss running when I can’t run.  But it makes me think about running more as well.  I don’t have any races on my calendar this year.  By now I usually have a registration in for at least one marathon.  But I’m feeling a need to run for a purpose.

This past January I ran my 11th marathon during the runDisney Dopey Challenge.  I run the runDisney races for fun and usually don’t take the time to complete the races seriously.  After all, they are Disney races.

The 2018 runDisney Dopey Challenge

I ran with Team Shenanigans and we had an amazing time.  I started the race with my friends Diana and Fun Sized Jen.  After we left the Animal Kingdom we found more members of Team Shenanigans so we began stopping for pictures and waiting for more team members to catch up.  At this point Diana and Jen had gone ahead and I was going to try to catch back up with them.  They eventually got too far ahead of me so I didn’t get the chance to finish with them.  I finished with Jackie Cabrera and Amy and Jason Chase.  It was my first time meeting the Chases and they were so sweet!

I’ll wrap up the end of the race in a few sentences.  I’ll give more details about my Dopey Challenge experience in 2018 in a separate blog post.  To end the race, we took our time through Epcot, met up with a large group of Team Shenanigan members in Mexico while we picked up our pre-ordered frozen Margaritas (thank you Team Margarita)!  Then we chased the balloon ladies, with margaritas in our hands, to the finish line.  It was every man for themselves at that last quarter mile!

2018 runDisney Dopey Challenge Finish Line Photo with Team Shenanigans

I Want To Run For A Purpose

That being said, I do still plan to run the runDisney races.  However, I am looking for my next marathon that I will run.  I want to run for a purpose.  I want to run a race for a cause.  I have always wanted to run Boston as well; but at this time I don’t feel that I am capable of fundraising such a high amount for that race.  However, I know that I want to run and raise funds in honor of Lyla.  I want to run for the fight against childhood cancer.  I want to raise awareness of rhabdomyosarcoma.  I want to run to help others fighting the fight of their life.

I Am Considering Running For Fred’s Team

I really enjoyed running the NYC marathon.  I felt amazing during that race.  I had been feeling that since I ran it once and it was so special to me, I didn’t want to run it again.  Yet, lately I was feeling a pull about running that race again.  I feel like if I run it for a cause it will be a different race for me.  I won’t be running it just for me; but for all those fighting cancer or who have lost their battle with cancer.

My childhood cancer charm

I have always wanted to run the NYC marathon and had the chance to run that last November.  It was such an incredible race for me.  I had my family there to cheer me on as well as Lyla’s dad, Bill.  That meant the world to me having him there. I felt strong on the course, I am now familiar with the logistics of getting to New York, the course itself and this race wouldn’t be for me.

There is a runDisney runner Gabrielle Renna who is fighting cancer.  49 days after brain surgery she ran the Dopey Challenge this past January and she did it with a smile on her face.  This wasn’t only her first Dopey Challenge, but it was her first marathon.  That is a tremendous accomplishment, but running it with cancer – there are no words.

She has reached a point in her health where she can no longer run.  She is in too much pain and gets tired easily, but she still cheers for all those can still run.  I want to be one of those who can still run and run for her just like I run for Lyla.

Cancer Needs To Be Stopped

I know too many people who were touched by cancer.  Whether it was them personally or family members.  I have been close to more people than I can count on my fingers who have encountered cancer.  A lot of my heartaches today are because of the losses from cancer.  We need to find a cure.  There needs to be a cure.  It’s not fair.

Most of us take our lives and our health for granted.  I know many times I do, too.  We are not promised tomorrow.  Yesterday is long gone.  Right now is the only gift you have.

Cheshire Half Marathon 2015

April 27, 2015

Frost Pamela 43 F F40-44 2:25:47 11:08

Frost Pamela Ann 41 F F40-44 2:25:19  11:06

Those are my stats….  The one at the top is my finishing time for this year’s Cheshire Half Marathon.  I thought I was going to beat my last Cheshire finish time my best half PR; but I missed it by 28 seconds!!!  But I’m not disappointed with that.  Of course anyone wants to do better than their previous year or previous races; but I am happy that I was just about the same last time I ran that course.  So far the 2013 finish time is my best half marathon finish time.

I left my house at 7:30 and was stopped in Wallingford for a train!  I arrived in Cheshire at 8:00 and had to park in a large field.  I walked over to the track and met Diana and Kim D at the porta potties.  I made sure to use with 2 minutes to spare before the race started.  

Kimberlee and Diana

They did start it a little later because the crowds were still filtering in from the parking lot.  We took off at 8:40.  The weather was perfect.  It was chilly, around 57 and when we were running I had to take off my shrug and wrap it around my waist around mile 2.  The sun was out until around noon; but it wasn’t too hot.  It was the perfect conditions for this race. 

Representing the Mickey Milers and Love For Lyla

I wanted to do this race again because it is a great course, and also because it was where I ran my first half marathon.  I will most likely do this course again next year too.
I ran with Diana again and we are hauling through the first part of the race which runs along the Farmington Canal.  We run well together.  With each mile we were going faster and faster!  But I told her it’s a good thing we were getting these times in in the first half of the race because it is like putting money in the bank that we may need later on because the last 5 miles of the race have hills and suck the energy out of me.

Around mile 5 I was doing the math in my head and it was reminding me of the first time I ran the Cheshire half.  I remember texting my husband my first year and I was doing between a 9:30 – 10 minute mile if I can recall.  I’ll have to see if I can find my old stats from that race.  But I was doing the math in my head and was thinking that if we maintained that pace I could possible pull of a 2:15 half marathon!  I know that Jeff Galloway said that when you maintain an 11:30/mile pace you can do the half in 2:30.  So I knew we were under the 11:30 and I was guessing that maybe with the hilly ends we could pull off a 2:20.

We had a quiet race.  We were chatty in the beginning and then during the race we were in work mode and pushed on.  As we left the canal after mile 7 and headed to the road I was feeling a little more winded.  We ran  most of the hills, but a few times needed to catch our breath.  There was only 2 hills that we had to walk through one of our running cycles, I imagine that was mile 10.  I was feeling very fatigued at that mile for some reason.  But we only had a 5K left so we kept pushing.  Diana was really pulling me along, despite the fact that she might not have been aware of it.  At the very end of the race when you leave the canal and head back up towards Route 10 there is a small hill so we walked up a little bit of that and then hunkered down to get to mile 12 and then the last part of the race.

Just as I was about to leave, I saw a crowd around a table and realized it was the Achilles International club.  I had commented to Diana during the race that I wanted to be a guide one day.  I talked to someone there and told her I’d like to be a guide and she handed me a form to complete and asked me what shirt size I wanted!  That was all I needed to do to become a member of the team!  I am so excited that I can fulfill something I had been thinking of doing since I read the book The Long Run by Matthew Long.  They were such a nice group of people to work with and I met Tony who was a wheelchair athlete.  I hope to perhaps guide him for a race in the future!  He has done the NYC marathon several times and will be at the Hartford Marathon in October. 

Tony from Team Achilles

It’s been fun running local races near home and seeing my Disney friends at these races. The next local I am running is the Mystic Half Marathon.  That’s going to be a VERY early wake up and a nice drive to Mystic.  Hope to possible PR at that race!  I am looking forward to running it with Diana. Mandy we miss you!  Wish you were here!!!

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