Las Vegas Recap, Part 1

As predicted, I'm like the worst blogger in history. We're now status-post 23 days from my Las Vegas trip and half marathon finish and I'm just finally sitting down to recap the weekend! I thought I'd be so full of free time after finishing with Team Challenge, but quite the contrary and I have stayed pretty busy over the past few weeks! I do have to say that I have loved being able to sleep in on Saturdays and haven't totally missed having to run in the cold weather. I was even able to get back to Faith and Light, a group for people with disabilities that I'm involved with here in Atlanta, since I had been missing the Saturday morning meetings in order to train. It's nice to see all of my friends there again!

So, I'll do a short and sweet recap of Vegas weekend, but most importantly of the race!

We got to Vegas on Friday morning and checked into the MGM Grand (Amanda and I had a great room with a view of the strip ... amazing!) and went over to the race expo. It was held at Mandalay Bay, which looked like it was really close by but in actuality was a pretty good walk. Not a huge deal, it's not like we weren't all running 13 miles in a few days, but I'm pretty lazy. The race expo was neat ... a little overwhelming with all the vendors and people and stuff going on. We picked up our race numbers and Amanda and I changed corrals so that we could start with my friends from Georgia that I always ran with. (seemed like a foolproof plan, but one of our mentors Betsy ended up changing her corral too so I wasn't able to run with her). We took some silly Elvis pictures, drank some beer, and got some pretty funny stickers for our singlets.

On Friday night, Amanda and I got tickets to Ka, the Cirque du Soleil show at MGM Grand. 1 word for the show ... incredible! It was totally worth the expensive tickets and we had a great time. Even the expensive gin cocktail I had was worth it, although I was spinning and about knocked flat on my butt when we left the theater. We had dinner after the show and called it an early night because Amanda was running the next morning with her team.

Saturday was somewhat of a wasted day. Amanda went for a run with her group, but I opted to sleep in since my team wasn't going out for a group run. I ended up feeling kind of yucky and groggy on Saturday, so I spent a good part of the day in bed with Tylenol and my heating pad. Saturday was also official 'singlet decorating day' and we enlisted our mothers' help to make our singlets super cute. I'll post some pictures so you can see the full glory ... but we decked out our singlets with rhinestones, glittered guitars, decks of cards, our names, and a great sticker that said "If found on ground, please drag across finish line." We also decorated our race numbers with plenty of glitter glue, which happens to be one of my favorite craft supplies. We even had cute hair ribbons and Team Challenge face tattoos. If we're not setting world records with the running, we're certainly looking CUTE while we're at it.

Of course, Saturday was also the SEC Championship game between Alabama and Florida, and even in Vegas I couldn't stand to miss football. We watched the game with a big group of people from my team, and although it would have been so much better had we all been drinking heavily and eating chips and dip, it was still a lot of fun.

Saturday night brought the Team Challenge pasta party. It was so much fun ... we all walked into the party through a tunnel of cheerleaders and encouragers, ate some good food, heard some inspirational stories, and did lots of cheering. It was a cool experience to be with all 900 other Team Challenge participants from around the country knowing that together we raised $3.4 million towards the fight against Crohn's and Colitis! The top fundraiser in the country raised $40,000 by himself ... WOW! Talk about dedication! After the pasta party, we had team meetings and got details about the logistics of race day ... and had team gifts/prizes! Our top fundraiser got a great orange/blue Team Challenge snuggie ... how funny! My mentor, Karla, gave me a 'Most Traveled Member' award and it was a really funny toy truck with all the trips I've taken through the course of the season. It was really sweet and Karla was a great mentor!

Amanda and I probably should have just gone to bed after the pasta party and team meetings, because the race was bright and early on Sunday morning, but instead, we went to see Robin Williams! He was performing his stand-up comedy show at the MGM Grand that night, and our parents bought us tickets to go! We missed the first few minutes of his show, but everything else we saw was so funny! He's definitely a vulgar comedian, which is hard to imagine after seeing him as such a funny and normal guy in Mrs. Doubtfire and Patch Adams. To hear some of those jokes and obscenities coming out of his mouth was a little appaling, but we definitely laughed a whole lot! I wouldn't dare repeating most of his jokes, but he was totally worth seeing and kept us in stitches for the whole show.

Sunday morning and the race comes next ... stay tuned!

Lazy Days

I'm a little sad that my season with Team Challenge is over (but anxiously awaiting the next race I do with Team Challenge!) .... BUT I will tell you that I absolutely loved sleeping in and being completely lazy today! We trained for our half marathon from the end of August until the beginning of December. And we met every Saturday morning at 8am to run. I loved it, getting up and getting exercise, hanging out with my teammates, and being active. But I sure loved my day today .... getting to sleep in, stay in my warm apartment, and sit in my pajamas all day long. It's been really cold here in Atlanta, and I'm pretty thankful that the for the majority of our training it was on the warmer side! Of course it was freezing in Vegas during our race, but that was just one day!

I fully intend to keep up with my running and do another half marathon in the next few months (I knew I said I wouldn't get hooked, but I just can't help it!), but I'm glad that if I just maintain my training the hardest part is out of the way already! And while I don't mind running on Saturdays, I fully intend to sleep in and then run! :)

I'll start posting details and pictures from our trip to Vegas in the next few days. I just finally unpacked my bags and got my apartment back into a presentable state, so in due time more updates will come!

I did it!

A week ago at this time I was in Vegas and preparing for the big race! The whole weekend was amazing, and I'll definitely write and fill in later .... but here's a quick picture of me and Jennifer crossing the finish line!

We did it! And it was so fun! And I'm totally preparing for my next race! :)

Guardian Angel

Today was a bitersweet kind of day for a few reasons. I mean ... tomorrow, we leave for Vegas! WOW! I can't believe it's here already. It's been a long journey, but it's also flown by too! I am so excited, although I'm definitely nervous too!

It's all bitersweet, because a year ago today I lost a really good friend. He was such a huge cheerleader in my fight against Crohn's Disease and not a day has gone by in the last year that I haven't thought about Jeremy. I'm so excited about Team Challenge, but I sure wish that JereBear were here to experience this all with us!

When Jeremy first went into the hospital, I remember meeting his mom for the first time and her saying to me, "Oh you're Courtney ... how are you feeling? Jeremy always talked about you and we've been praying for your health." I was just blown away by Jeremy's family and their compassion and and mostly their faith. I knew Jer was a Godly, Christian man and he was definitely one to admire.

This is at the Brewery after Jeremy, Eddie, and Nick's company Christmas party

JereBear, me, Eddie, and Anna

A year ago today, I was sitting outside in the cold on my porch in Knoxville with my best friends. We laughed, we cried, but we all knew that we had the BEST guardian angel in Heaven watching over us. It was two days later, on the 5th, that I had my 2nd relapse of C. Diff and was so sick that I had to miss Jerermy's memorial service.

Jeremy was always the biggest cheerleader for all of our triumphs and struggles. I know that through this training he's been with me, pushing me through. And I know that on Sunday morning, when I wake up at an un-godly hour of the morning to RUN A HALF-MARATHON, he will be cheering me on the loudest of them all. And I know that when I see him again, we'll finally be able to have our birthday dinner date ... except it won't need to be a clear liquid diet date like we had planned .... because we'll both be healed! Love you JereBear!

My Knoxville family at The Biltmore House ... my heart and strength through Crohn's!

So Thankful!

If the only prayer you said in your life was 'thank you,' that would suffice. -Meister Eckhart

I returned back "home" to Atlanta today after a really great Thanksgiving weekend in Summerville. I hadn't been back there since May, which is definitely the longest stretch I've ever gone without going home. It was perfect. I few home on Thanksgiving morning (and even got in a nice little run through the Atlanta airport ... whoops ... I'm not one for being punctual but this was the first time that I was thisclose to missing a flight on my own accord). We ate lots of good food, saw an awesome Widespread Panic show with my Dad, did some good shopping, watched the Gamecocks BEAT Clemson!!!, saw a great friend over coffee, and even got in a good run! I forget that not everywhere is hilly and it was so nice to run on flat ground!

So we are officially T-7 days until the half marathon! I am so excited and don't know how I'll make it through 4 days of working!

All in all, I am incredibly thankful for so many things .... good health to even have trained for this race, great friends and family for supporting me in my quest to find a cure for Crohn's and Colitis ($3800 raised from 83 incredible people!!!), and the opportunity to complete a half marathon with Team Challenge! It's been a great run!

27155

...That's my official race number for the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas 1/2 Marathon! Yay! It's getting so close and I'm really pretty excited! I just wish it were here already!

We've been getting lots of emails lately from the race itself with all of our information ... for registration, the expo, and the weekend as a whole. It all seems so strange that I've been training for so long and the time is actually here! And it's even crazier that I feel GOOD and know that I'll be able to complete the 13.1 miles relatively easily! Of course I still expect to huff and puff my way through it, and take plenty of walk breaks, but I'll finish in much better shape than when I started training back in August!

There is a system where you can be updated of my status through the race by text message. I think I have to sign people up for it, so leave me a message if you'd like to keep up with my race in progress next weekend! The race itself starts at 6:15am, which I'm a little less than thrilled about it .... but I'm certain that y'all won't be getting text message alerts too early :) Remember, I'm not setting any world records for this race!!

11 miles .... check!

So yesterday came and went .... and I can now say that I've completed an 11 mile run! We did a 6 mile loop followed by a 5 mile loop through Decatur, and it was a perfect morning! It was cool, but sunny and just beautiful!

The first 6 miles were good, and we took a quick pit stop at the Big Peach to use restrooms and get some fuel. The final 5 miles were .... challenging. My run/walk group that I was with decided to run the route backwards. We run this route pretty often, so we thought we'd mix it up a bit. Bad idea, because going backwards means running UP all of the hills. I think we were all struggling, but we finished, and I actually felt pretty good. It's a nice accomplishment to know that I can run 11 miles without completely dying!

Our coaches and mentors have been telling us to practice routines now before race day gets here. That means drinking fluids, eating breakfast, and getting fuel during the race. Well, I'm all for doing the "right thing" with this running stuff, so I decided to buy some Gu energy gel to try out during training. It's what they have during the race, and my sister-in-law uses it all the time during her long runs (she, by the way, finished her 2nd full marathon yesterday .... amazing! WTG Beth!) so I figured it was the cool thing to do. Wrong answer ... that stuff is nasty. I'm such a color/texture person when it comes to food, and I realize that may be some of my issue here, but that Gu stuff is like a thick, bad-tasting jelly. And I don't even like jelly. I guess I thought it'd be more like pudding, and less like a sticky-thick-goopy mess. I was not amused. Guess I'll be trying out other things or just going without. Ugh.

After my run yesterday I came home and slept, which is my favorite thing to do. I really didn't feel too sore, just tired, and feel pretty good this morning too! Knock on wood I'll feel good after Vegas too ... because I sure want to go OUT after the race on Sunday night! :)

3 weeks ... the countdown is on!

Scared!

We are running 11 miles in the morning .... and I'm slightly scared! I've really tried to be good this week, both with eating and with running. I did my 5 miles on Tuesday and felt good after that. And I've tried to eat less crap at work this week (and perhaps the email from our office administrator that said no eating during the day while we're "on the clock" helped too ... HA right, I can't make it through the day without snacking). I ran 4 miles on Thursday night on the treadmill in the gym and felt really good throughout it. I tried to push myself, and finished the run and kept up a 12 minute mile pace the whole time. Doesn't seem like much, I know ... I'm certainly not setting any world records here, but I was pretty impressed with myself!

So of course the night before our longest run yet, I had such great expectations that I was going to eat good and rest up ... nope. I had Mexican and beer with the girls from work. No big deal, I'm sure .... that burrito and queso will give me plenty of fuel for the morning!

Updates to come .... POST 11 miles! :)

Crunch time!

We are less than 4 weeks until Vegas .... whoa! I'm starting to get super excited, but nervous too because I'm not just going to Las Vegas to hang out .... I have to RUN 13.1 miles! I've vowed to try and eat better and really be good this next month until the race, because up until now I've continued to eat like crap. I just love snacks too much ... I'm so guilty of eating ice cream for dinner, lots of cereal, and packing my lunch for work that is similar to a pre-schoolers. Seriously ... everyone makes fun of me because I eat Kid Cuisines, Lunchables, and bring stuff like string cheese and pudding cups to work. I can't help it ... I just love that stuff. Kid Cuisine with the corn dog, french fries, and chocolate pudding with sprinkles is my favorite! (It has corn too ... but I pass on that ... HA!). Not saying I won't continue to eat that stuff, but I'm really trying to not pack 9 extra snacks into my lunch box. So far this week I've only been halfway successful ... I've eaten better for the main course of my lunch, but I bought some Halloween candy on sale this weekend and I've been chowing down. I'm typically not very successful with this kind of stuff, especially when it comes to limiting what I eat! :)

This weekend we are running 11 miles .... oh gosh! It's been rainy and nasty here today because of Ida, so I went to the gym and ran on the treadmill. I decided that I needed to push myself a bit more, and put a time limit on my 5 miles tonight. I did it and actually felt pretty good and accomplished. I tend to struggle for the first 2-3 miles of any of my runs ... and after that I seem to get this second wind and do pretty well. I hope it's the same this weekend for 11 miles!!!

Even though I've met my fundraising minimum (thanks again!!), I am still continuing to fundraise to help find a cure for Crohn's and Colitis! Be sure to visit my website!

Thank you!

Grazie .... Merci ... Danke ... Gracias ... Xie Xie ... Spasiba

I met my fundraising goal today and I am completely humbled by your support! I have been training for the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas 1/2 marathon for 11 weeks now ... WOW ... and I have officially raised $3700 to help find a cure for Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis! I have had the amazing support of 81 individuals who believe in me and believe that we will one day find a cure for IBD!

In 4 weeks from today, I will have completed my goal of running 13.1 miles! I can't believe that in 4 short weeks, I'll be in Vegas running a half marathon! I am so excited to be there and part of all the excitement!

This past week I just felt kind of yucky, and it definitely had an effect on my run on Saturday morning. We were just doing 6 miles this weekend, which shouldn't be that big of a deal considering we've been doing 6+ miles for like 5 weeks or so. I made it about 2ish miles before I was absolutely beat. I decided to hang back a bit and wait for the walking group. I finished walking the 6 miles with Janet and Hilda, which was nice to get to know other ladies on my team. I don't know what was going on, but I've just felt 'off' all weekend .... not like sickly and bad, but just not necessarily good either.

Today, I went to special mass for Faith and Sharing sponsored by the Ministry to Persons with Disabilities. It was JUST what I needed today, and the Gospel and Homily were so perfect for today. The Gospel reading was from Mark and was about the poor widow who put 2 coins into the treasury .... a perfect message for today when I met my fundraising goals! I am so humbled by the support of all my amazing friends, family, and even strangers who have donated their hard-earned precious coins for a cause. God has certainly placed all of you in my life for a reason and for that I am eternally greatful. Thank you ... thank you .... thank you!