for the checks

another great cause MARCH22-28!

2009-03-18T16:23:00.001-07:00

check, check, check it out ...

www.tapproject.org

help fundraise without your OWN money!!

2009-03-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

www.insiderpages.com/fundraisers/Team-in-Training-Large-0904

Starting TOMORROW - March 15 - April 4 (three short weeks!) I will be fundraising using insiderpages.com. How can you help? Go to that link and write a review of a local business. If you are the first person to review that business they donate $0.50 to my fundraiser, and if you are the 2nd to 4th person to review it they donate $0.25.

All the money raised is going to my team-in-training fundraising and will support my marathon in New Jersey!

Tell everyone you know! The person who helps me raise the most money will win a refurbished ipod shuffle from me!!!!!

Thanks for your continued support!!!!!!!

NYRR 8000 M

2009-03-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

last night's fundraiser was successful! i mean, it would've had to have been no matter what considering it cost me and bridget nothing to do, so even if one person came we made money. but we made about $155/each off the wristbands plus another $55 in cash benjamins from people so we each made about $210 yesterday which was definitely exciting!! my new fundraising minimum is $2600 so that puts me at about $1500 (which is not registering on my fundraising page yet so don't be alarmed).

after drinking a ridiculous amount from 4-7, i somehow got peer pressured into going to japanese, which was a good thing because otherwise i probably would have just gone home and gone to sleep and not been fit to run this morning. as it happens, i went to bed by 10:00, and despite waking up every hour from 3am on -- thinking it was time to wake up and being alarmed that my head hurt too much -- i got up at 7am and got to the race EARLY (as in, i didn't arrive as people were already crossing the start line).

i didn't know what time we crossed the start but at mile 1 we were at 14:40. from that mile on i was running about 9:50/mile, until i got to the last stretch. cat hill .. you knowww. which really wasn't as bad as i remembered it but it was still not easy.

i probably could've shaved another 30 seconds off my overall time had i known where the actual finish line was, but it was a lot sooner than i thought. i crossed at 54:04 and when i checked my pace turns out i was running a 9:57/mile pace. WHOOO!!! FINALLY!! it's ABOUT TIME!! i mean, i know it was only 5 miles, but still, i have been enraged by have 10:something paces.

also, i am going to write a letter to NYRR about their water stations. i mean, WTF!! i get sooo enraged every single time.

#1 - why is the cup sooo big.

#2 - why is it SOOO filled with water.

#3 - why do people STOP AND WALK to drink there water (see #1&2 for possible explanations).

it is enraging. believe me, i have run many many races. in FLORIDA. where an intense amount of water probably IS necessary. even in florida though the cup is tiny and you have about as much water in it that you can swallow in one gulp. this allows people to not stop to drink it and its just a much wiser idea.

i get pissed every time at these freakin races.

also, when i see a child who looks about he weighs all of 80 lbs... like he is actually skin and bones ... start to walk and then hear is mom behind me, "don't walk yet, its only the first mile!" and then watch her as she runs up on him and encourages him to keep running .. i mean, it enrages me. i dont care if you have seen your kid run 20 miles without stopping so you know he can do it .. if he wants to walk, let him walk. quite frankly he should be walking to go get a milkshake (or 5) to put some weight on him.

thanks again to everyone who came out and supported us last night!!!! you guys are awesome!!!

a little bit of good news

2009-03-13T11:15:00.000-07:00

...ok, a lot.

i spoke to the people over @ TNT today and they said i COULD switch to the NJ marathon which is the weekend AFTER the country music marathon. im still bummed because part of the reason i wanted to do it was that i REALLY REALLY wanted to experience the whole 'country music' part.

so, now i really need to reenergize and refocus on running a marathon!

tonight. FUNDRAISER. 4-7, GIN MILL, $25!! it will be awesome!

tomorrow. NYRR8000.

sunday. i better to a long run. like, a longggg run!

UN.BE.LIEV.ABLE.

2009-03-07T10:49:00.001-08:00

oh GREAT.

you know im not a person who employs foul language, um, ever. but right now its about that time.

in order to get my masters from Lehman college, i have to take comprehensive exam, in spanish, on 4 out of 6 predetermined questions (ie: "El Romancero gitano de Federico Garcia Lorca se caracteriza por una feliz combinación de tradición y novedad. Apoyándose en ejemplos concretos, identifique qué aspectos del libro tienen que ver con distintos momentos de la historia literaria española o universal, y qué otros aspectod están relacionados con las vanguardias.") So it involves a LOT of pre-exam research and of course you cant bring any of that with you to the test. its on ONE saturday (ONLY) during the semester and its five hours. 12-5. you cannot take it in the summer. you cannot take it if you are not registered for any classes. my last opportunity to take it is THIS semester. i JUST got an email from the advisor telling me that date. any guesses?anyone?

yep. april 25 aka the date of the country music marathon.

UMMM.

WTF.

i am beyond pissed! its just sooo frustrating.

that's all for now.

the fundraiser is still on though. be there.

clear your calendars!!

2009-03-04T15:40:00.000-08:00

so its finalllly happening!

me and bridget are having a fundraiser on friday, march 13 @ the gin mill on amsterdam between 81st - 82nd. its from 4-7. understandably, a lot of people are still at work, but teachers are not.

its gonna be $25 for the 3 hours, open bar, wells drink and draft beers.

so be there and tell everyone you know!!!

my two favorite things: salsa & shamrocks

2009-03-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

so yesterday bridge and I ran the salsa, blues and shamrocks 5k in the heights. it was fabulous in that i love salsa, blues and shamrocks. i love 5ks. and i looove (the most) running races that are only 2 subway stops away from my house. one thing i DID learn was why the "heights" is so aptly named the "heights". those were some HILLS! good God.

its sort of hitting me that this thing is happening in two months and i really need to push it into overtime!!

go here. =)

...back in the swing of things

2009-02-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

ok so i just got back from a little 4-miler by my house. i wish the tuesday night group practices weren't at 6:40. why can't they be at 4? lol. i know most people have to work till 5, or God Forbid (!) 6, so I understand why its that time, but it just seems silly to wait around till 640 when i could be done by, 620. which is when i was finished tonight.

good Lord its cold. come on FEBRUARY! give me some warm weather. i made the mistake of not wearing gloves or my rockin' head band so my ears are hurting, my hands are numb and my nose is running (haha, which really doesn't have anything to do with anything except that i want to complain about the cold some mo').

i am buckling down for the next 6 weeks (yes i still have 2 months to train, but 6 weeks till another vacaaay hahaha) and I am determined to raise this money and run this marathon.

if you've ever raised money for anything or run anything, please leave me a comment or email me @ kimlarge@mac.com with suggestions. other than harrassing my friends i'm running low on ideas.

besos,

kimbooo

the best xtraining week ever.

2009-02-22T09:22:00.001-08:00

wheeww boy its been a minute.

i have been out of town for the past 3 weekends. first weekend in florida, last 2 weekends in costa rica. this has been throwing my marathon training for a loop .. as well as my fundraising. i really need to pull it together so im refocusing my energy now. between teaching, taking 3 grad school classes and training for and raising money for a marathon i'm a litttttle overwhelmed but something about idle hands and the devil and yada yada yada.

so last week i was in costa rica. i love costa rica. i will move there some day. a problem in costa rica, especially when you're in the mountains, is that you have to walk EVERYWHERE up huge mountains. and not just like a steep incline, but like, a steep incline up a mud / rock hill where you just might (if you're realllllly lucky) have the immense pleasure of sticking your foot in a foot of mud, wherein you pull your leg back up and your foot comes out of your shoe and said shoe is wedged in the mud. yummmmmm. it was awesome. here's a picture:

I'm not really sure if you can tell by this picture, but that is just a straight up climb. my knees cracked with every step (yes, i'm like 100 years old) and that went on for about an hour. on the way back down, yes i did fall on my butt, thanks for asking. it was equally awesome. my running shoes (i know i know i shouldnt have been doing this with running shoes) now are almost completely and utterly covered in mud from costa rica. my own little souvenir.

The other loveeely aspect of travelling in central america is that they dont really believe in toilet seats. or throwing toilet paper in the toilet, but thats a different story. so there's a lot of squatting involved. hahahaha. that might have just reached the point of TMI but i need to stress just howww much i was working on my marathon training all week!! :)

PS. i HATE cold weather. hate hate hate hate hate. how do people live their whole lives like this? no wonder people up north are so angry all the time!!

xxo

hills, hills, hills (to the tune of "bills, bills, bills")

2009-01-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

last night we did hills, or rather, one hill repeatedly, in central park. cat hill. if you ask me we should be running that huge ass hill at the top of the park, but whatevs, i guess its better to start smaller so that you can actually run it more than once. we ran it 5 times. i really dont mind hills because when you run up it, you get to run down it. i'm really good at recovering. i do not push myself on the recovery. maybe i should be pushing myself harder because ramon was like, 'dont be afraid to sweat ladies! that's what waterproof makeup is for' hahaha. .. like i could sweat in 25º weather even if i wanted to.

my biggest concern at this point is honestly the temperature difference that is going to exist in nashville. i mean, its not florida, but still .. running in florida in DECEMBER i was like holy eff i can do about 6 miles it is sooo hot and makes me want to vomit (which, in fact, i have done on more than one occasion).

i hope it stays in the 30s for the next several times we run. saturday is a long run and then sunday bridge and i are doing the 4-miler. im bummed bc im gonna be in florida when its the bronx half-marathon on feb 8, but i think i will just run my own half in florida, it will give me a better idea of the temps anyways.

xox

longest mileage yet!!! (9 miles)

2009-01-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

running on saturday mornings is the worst. maybe it wouldnt be so bad except i have to factor in another mile at least for all the walking i have to do to and from the subway in addition to the regular mileage i'm doing.

so okay i have been really been sucking it up with the running, but i'm just so exhausted after work every day and since i dont have any other schedule (as in, grad school) its too easy to come home and sleep and tell myself i'm going to go when i wake up ... yeeee bout that, it uh, never happens. so the longest distance i've run thus far is a little over 6 miles, and that was maaaybe 2 weeks ago, maybe 3 weeks, i'm not sure.

this morning the weather was fabbbb 38º. bridget wasnt feeling well so she didn't make it out, which made it suuuupah hard to motivate myself to do it, but i knew i would feel too guilty if i didn't go. so i got there and saw some people i know and they asked me if i wanted to run 12 miles with them. i was like uhhhhh. lol. from 6 --> 12, that'd be quiiite the jump. ramon told us to run 1 mile longer than our longest run, but my mileage is off because i'm basically running a half-marathon runners mileage. soo they split everyone into pace groups and i ran with the pacer of the 10-min mile group. we did this loop from 72nd to the top of the park (110th street). where i encountered the biggest hill of central park: harlem hill. umm. i hate hills that go up AND curve around because you never know where its gonna end. luckily since i was runner with the guy who was pacing it, he told me to slow down and it was a wise choice.

when we got back to the 72nd transverse we basically lost the rest of the group we were running with. they decided to run the lower loop (another 1.7 miles) instead of running a big loop. so then it was just me and this guy. hahaha. i knew i couldnt keep that pace up though bc we were going on 5 miles and i had been talking and going pretty fast for the whole time. but he had to stop to switch his socks and i am confused about where i was supposed to meet him, but i ended up running another 4 mile loop by myself. when i got to the 102nd street transverse i really started to feel it. that was probably about 7 miles. i could just feel that i had no energy left. and yet, i kept imagining telling people that i ran 9 miles and i really didn't want to have to say, ohh yea i walked a little bit. not to mention that it wasn't even that i was out of breath ... it was just that my body felt like it was shutting down. hahaha. i just had literally no energy. i can definitely see why sport gels (GROSSSERRROOO!!!!!!!) become important because there's no way i can run a marathon without eating something somewhere in the middle. also, you obviously carbo-load the days before.

anyways, it was reallllllly rough running the last mile. from about w 95th to w 72nd it was like i was moving in slooow motion. BUT. ...

i did it!!

it felt reallllly good to finish it and i actually can't believe i did!! so, i can officially run 1/3 of a marathon!!!

i need to run like 3 miles for the next couple days. 3 miles seems so easy again!! yaaay!

also, it was fun because the first 5 miles that i ran with that guy, we talked the whole time. i forgot how fun it is to run and talk, and how fast the mileage goes when you're talking. :)

stupid ice covered snow

2009-01-12T14:52:00.000-08:00

i really hate it when i motivate myself to go running on a monday and then a quarter mile of my run is covered in snow thats covered in ice and i have to walk soo slow that i may as well be going backwards in time and then i still almost slip about 5 times. yeah, that's awesome.

hills tomorrow.

fred lebow 5-miler

2009-01-10T14:04:00.000-08:00

Bridget and me after the Fred Lebow 5-miler in central park.

OMG sooo cold afterwards. it was 24º and the snow held off, but good god it was cold -- but the cold only hits you after you stop running.

i think its getting easier to run these races now that i kind of have an idea about the layout of central park. its always easier to run when you know where you are.

id say we finished in about 50 minutes. i dont know for sure because i dont know how far in to the start i actually crossed the start line ... but after the first mile it said i was at 14:46 and i know there's no way it took me more than 10 minutes to run the first mile, the 2nd mile was at like 24:00, 3rd at 34:00, 4th at 45:00, and 5th at 56:00. So i'd say 50 or 51:00.

Again I started way in the back and without bridget but after the first mile i saw her up ahead .. she tricked me though because she was without her hat this time. hahaha. but so we ran the rest together.

the only part that sucks is this one hill -- cat hill -- its always at the end, its from like e 75ish up a couple blocks. in terms of hills i've run, its really not that bad -- compared, specifically to the hill at the end of the turkey trot, it's nothing -- but i just hate hills that are sort of gradually rising. i prefer steep inclines over shorter distances --- like the bridges on the causeway.

anyways, we start hill training tuesday so i'm sure i will learn to love 'em. :)

ps. in other news:
to the man forcing his 6 yr old son to run a 5-mile race in 20º weather in SHORTS .... even AS he is crying, "IT HURTS SO BAD" and you say, "It doesnt hurt" ... stop being a d-bag!!

pink is the new purple!

2009-01-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

so another exciting running milestone (?): today when bridget and i went to pick up our race numbers for the the 5-miler tomorrow, we had NEW colors! whooo!! instead of the purple, slowest-time-imaginable-number, we got the pink, moving-on-up-number. it says our paces are in the 10-minute mile marks which is happy. the thing i like about running is that there is always something you can improve on - whether its distance, or time, or whatever, it never lets you down!

so, im not going out tonight because i want to avoid another repeat of the morning of the 15K which i never really quite got to.

also, its supposed to snow tomorrow so that should be interesting!

groin pull!

2009-01-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

i'm sorry, is that too much information?

but really, why does this always happen to me?

considering that happened after a 5 mile run it is just reiterating that i HAVE to start stretching, doing cross training, and strengthing my "abductor" muscles.

why cant training for a marathon be easy?

;)

test #1

2009-01-06T19:07:00.000-08:00

ok so tonight we had our first test for the timed mile on the lower loop in central park.

i haven't run in a week.

the last time i ran it was 80º in la florida.

in new york it was 34º (feels like 25º) annnd on the last loop it started to rain. so ran at 34º folks is quiiiite chilly! originally i was only going to do 2 loops which is 3.4 miles but then a couple of people id met before like literally made me do another loop. i was like, 'nahh im good' and theyre like, 'nahh you're not' so i did the 3rd lap for 5.1 miles. i mean, lets be honest, its not that i couldnt do it -- bc i obviously did -- i was just lazy. hahaha

so what was my mile time? 8:38, 8:30something, 9:20. pretty decent. especially the 8:38 one. i never run that well the first mile. also, i was pumped bc my total time for the 3.4 loop was 28:00 and the last 5k i ran (3.1 miles) i did in 30:28. so yeee im definitely improving my times. now i just need to start improving my distance.

we're run a 5-miler on saturday and then probably the bronx half-marathon in feb (8). the fun thing about running is that everyone wants to know about it. i mean, when i was just running just to be in shape nobody gave a hoot but now that im training for a marathon people are always asking me about it, so its super nice. also im sort of a sicko in that i like doing the type of training we were doing tonight in intervals like that because it just feels sooo good to run slow after youve been running hard yanno. same thing with hills. we start hill training next week and while im sort of dreading it, im also (secretly) excited because #1 i know that hill training is really going to help me and #2 i love the part after you run up a hill where you get to run on a flat surface and it feels so easy. hahaha. i always do that on the treadmill too -- i run on an incline until its too much and then i take off the incline and its like smoooth sailing.

so, the only thing that SUCKED ROYALLY about tonight was during the last mile it started to rain. and yeah, it wasn't blinding rain or anything but when youre running any amount of rain feels like a lot, and did i mention it was freeezing!?? so then i get to the subway i am completely soaked, im sitting in wet running clothes on a train that is being held REPEATEDLY and i get home like i am going to take the most scalding shower of my life and OF COURSE the hot water cuts out halfway. WHAT THE FUUUUU.

peace

and then there were blisters ...

2008-12-31T11:05:00.000-08:00

so i know i have been lame and not updated this, but the truth is there isn't that much exciting stuff happening in my training right now. i am following a sort-of hybrid schedule between the beginner and intermediate schedule but i find it almost impossible to just do the 3-4 miles on the days that it says just do 3 miles or 4 miles. i have to change my mentality from when i used to run which is that i cannot ever run less mileage than i did on a previous day. so instead ive been running 5-6 miles every day. which isn't the worst, but i'm worried i will get injured if i try to push myself too hard. so far everything seems to be holding up except my feet. i've never had any problems with my feet before, but i think that's because normally i put those like gel insert thingees in my shoes and with the shoes i have now i haven't done that. maybe time to start looking into that. the other thing i'm reminded of is that being a runner because you have the worst feet ever! i hate everything about feet anyways and now i am getting blisters in the most bizarre places and its painful and not too pleasant to look at. i guess its a good thing i'm training in the north where no one sees your feet for months at a time. of course, in florida i sort of stick out now. no flip flops for me.

so anyways, that's the latest. can't wait to get back to the 15º weather! whoooo!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

day # 30(something)

2008-12-25T12:20:00.001-08:00

so i decided to just jump on board with a running blog because i know how fascinating reading about my running progress is! (just don't expect correct grammar or punctuation or any of that fancy stuff ;D)

i am back in florida.

when i first started training for this marathon i thought, "no way am i going to be able to train for a marathon in the winter." i don't know what it is about being away from a place that makes you think its better than it is, but i have gone running in florida for the past 2 days, and GOOD GOD! it is hot! while i am enjoying the 80º weather in general, running in it is crazy! i've been running on the causeway the past two days (5.5 miles both days) and if the heat wasn't enough, yesterday i thought i was going to be blown of the top of the bridge due to hurricane force winds (me, exagerrate? never) and then i got sand in my eye and could only run with one eye open and today it was like death valley the whole 2.5 miles back. case-in-point: i wore a tank top and shorts today and sweated through everything and just generally wanted to lay down and die when i finished. luckily my sister was with me and she drove home. hahah.

on that note, the training is (overall) going well .. its just hard to switch climates. i just need to step it up on the fundraising now. if you know anyone, ;) ;) ... http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/cmc09/klargeiwkl

p.s: the inspiration for this blog name? "for the checks" is what me and my hlp amanda used to say when we went running, literally 6 days a week, so we could give ourselves a check on the calendar and "ethelhill.blogspot.com" -- "in memory of ethel hill" is the bench i originally started running from at the causeway 7 years ago and is the inspiration for the ethel hill running club. imma do you proud eh! :)