Thanks so much!

 

Well, I made it (almost) – just 3 more days until my marathon in Chicago! It seems like this training season has flown by, so much has been going on. This has been a special season for me, having the opportunity to raise money for Mercy for Animals. However, I couldn’t have done it without the support from all of you.

I’m happy to report that I reached my goal – and then some! So far – with all of your contributions – we’ve reached almost $1200 for MFA! What’s more, donations to MFA are being doubled through the end of October, so that’s almost $2400 to help defend the rights of animals.

All that’s left now is to run the race (and to deliver the check of course)! Thanks again for the support and I’ll see you all at the finish line!

10 Days and Counting…

 

It’s been a while since my last update, but that doesn’t mean not much has gone on.

I finished my long run – a 22 miler – on a weekday no less. It’s one thing running 22 miles and crashing on a couch shortly thereafter, but it’s a completely different story when you have to get ready and go into work. Certainly not something I’d want to do again, but I’m so glad I did. I had a great run and felt very confident in myself going into the marathon taper.

This is my last weekend before the big marathon on 10/10 in Chicago, so we’ll do a leisurely 10 miler on Sunday. This followed up with a couple more short runs during next week and it’s time for the *real* fun!

This has been such a wonderful experience running with the goal in mind of raising money for Mercy For Animals. I’ve spoken with many people over the last several weeks over the phone or email that have given me such encouragement, it’s made the training (dare I say…) easy! Everyone’s support of MFA is simply mind-blowing and I’m so glad there are people out there that care for this cause as much as I do.

Now for the great news…

It was just recently announced that from now until October 31st, all MFA donations are being DOUBLED ! That means everyone’s donation contributed to my goal so far will be DOUBLED, and everyone’s donation for the next 10 days will be DOUBLED. So that’s going to make the animals DOUBLY happy for helping to end cruelty on factory farms.

So, for those of you that have already contributed – THANK YOU! – for everyone else, please consider making a donation to help me reach my $1000 goal (which ultimately will turn into $2000!). I’m only $230 shy of my goal – so that’s $23 per day or $1 per friend – either way, it’s certainly doable!

Thanks so much for your support, and I’ll see you across the finish line in Chicago!

Visit this link to help me reach my $1000 goal!

Tri Racing & Fun in Austin

I managed to get away this Labor Day weekend for some training (in  the form of an Olympic triathlon) and some fun (in the form of some great vegan food and great company). The Austin Triathlon went well – I met my target goal of 3 hours & 30 minutes. Not only that, but this was my first major race ever that I actually got to partake in the post-race food – they had vegan bean & potato tacos available at the finish line. How great is that?!

For the fun part, I was introduced to the food trailer craze that quite obviously has taken Austin by storm. There was Counter Culture, where I had a tasty vegan garbanzo “Tuna” salad sandwich, followed by Hey Cupcake, a – wait for it – cupcake trailer that carries a couple vegan options daily (which, to be honest, were just “okay”). Probably my favorite was Bananarchy (pictured right) – a frozen banana trailer – because honestly, is there a better name than Bananarchy?…the fact that you could dip your frozen banana in vegan chocolate & toppings didn’t hurt either.

 

frozen banana tastes better than it looks

Now that the triathlon is over, it’s back to focusing solely on the marathon – which is a bit of a relief. I’ll take one more day of rest on Wednesday, then it’s to the track on Thursday for speed-work. Chicago is just over a month away, but I’m still feeling confident of reaching my goal of collecting $1000 for MFA. I’m very honored to be running for this organization and can’t wait to meet the crew in Chicago!

Busy week for the animals

Wow, what a week! Finished my brick workout last night (24 mile bike ride + 3 mile run) – I feel more confident about the triathlon in Austin I have coming up on Labor Day now, which is a good thing! Just a few more workouts this week and I will be ready to go.

Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about all the demonstrations, feed-ins, and protests that went on in Dallas. Pretty amazing stuff, there seems to be quite a buzz going on here about the vegan community. I think it’s a great thing when there’s so much publicity – whether or not they agree, it’s good for people to at least be aware of the message.

Hoping to build upon the press, we decided to go ahead and send out the official press release to the Texas State Veggie Fair I’m organizing in October. I had an interview with Hanna Raskin at the Dallas Observer which resulted in a great article, in addition to other media mentions in Pegasus News and D Magazine’s Side Dish. Needless to say (but of course you knew I would say it anyway), I’ve been quite busy working on putting that event together.

As for marathon training goes, this week is the start of “speed work.” I think we’ll be at the track at least one day this week – which reminds me of my goal to raise $1000 for Mercy For Animals to take to the Chicago Marathon in October. It reminds me because the obvious intent of speed work is to go fast – and October is fast approaching, so…(okay, that’s probably a bit of a reach, oh well!).

Please consider donating to help me achieve my goal – it’s all going to the help MFA fight for the rights of all animals!

Have a great week!

Another Saturday Down

I can't seem to get around having mega-long Saturdays between all my activities. I busted out my 16 miles early this morning (although, not quite as early as I would have liked) - just in time to make it to the White Rock Local Market to see my good friends Chris and Jennie from Tough Cookie Bakery. After getting some awesome cookies and pretzels (and discussing plans for a top-secret mega-cool event on October 16 - details soon), I was off to Petsmart on Inwood for the Dallas Humane Society's Dog n Kitty City adopt-a-pet event, volunteering to help the good puppies look pretty in front of all the people, hopefully finding a home soon. It was great to see my favorite little pup, Flash, who hadn't been at the event the last few times I was there. He's been getting a little extra training to help become more marketable to his future forever home - hopefully that comes sooner than later - he's such a sweet little dog.

After a trip to Suma Veggie for some vegan Chinese buffet action - it was home for a quick nap and preparation for my usual Saturday night hockey game. As has been the norm lately, our short-bench provided ample opportunity on the ice (read, we were all busting our arses out there with little rest). Even though we ended up losing, at least the early game time got me home with time enough to unwind and get ready for my bike ride in the morning.

So, there you have it - even though my Chicago Marathon for MFA is just under 2 months away, it feels like I'm running a marathon about every Saturday already. But - I'm not complaining, this has been such an exciting time in my life with all of the great people I get to hang out with and all of the positive things going on - I wouldn't trade it for anything.

So with that being said, I think it's time to get to bed - the 7:00 am bike ride is calling!

Meat Free Monday at Bliss for MFA

While I've been really focused on getting all of my runs in, my cross-training has been lacking - which is not good, as on top of my Chicago Marathon training, I'm also training for my first Olympic distance triathlon in Austin on Labor Day. That being said, my cross-training has consisted of swimming and biking. And now after that being said, I haven't been cross-training nearly enough. Finally, after saying that, I'm saying that it sucks (sucks that I haven't been cross-training enough).

Anyway, point being that the one thing I've been doing regularly is a weekly swim, which has usually been followed-up by dinner at Bliss Raw Cafe. I'd been getting those in on Wednesdays, but starting this week Bliss is working with MFA on a Meat-Free-Monday initiative where they are donating 15% of Monday sales to MFA! So, this week I got my swim in on Monday and hit up Bliss afterwards - win-win! Hopefully, I'll still get my Wednesday swim in and get some consistency (Labor Day is creeping up very fast!).

So, the *real* point being - go to Bliss Raw Cafe on Mondays (well, any day, but Mondays especially) and mention MFA.



Then, consider going to my Chicago Marathon for MFA page and help me raise even more money for MFA!

18 miles down!

So, I had my longest run of the season today (actually, longest run of the year)...an 18 miler. The problem was, my route was a 9 mile loop around the lake. What that means is - it's easy to see your car while finishing up the 1st loop and think..."well, I'm feeling a little tired today, and man, it's pretty freakin' warm, and well, I still have time next week to get a long run in."

I did think about it - BUT, I had a few motivating factors. One, that the average high in Chicago on October 10th is a cool 63 degrees - not 80+ like it was this morning. Two, I was attending the Super Yummy Vegan Pizza Party, benefiting Mercy for Animals (MFA) later that day.

Lastly, I remember that I plan on running the Chicago Marathon in just over two months with the hopes of bringing home a $1000 check to MFA later that day. That's because I've decided to dedicate my race to MFA and their mission of ending cruelty and defend the rights of all animals.

I'm not gonna lie - the hopes of stuffing myself with lots and lots of pizza later that day was pretty motivating - but the real reason I didn't hope in my car and head back to the house and continued on with my 2nd loop was MFA - I was running for the animals!

Now, it's time to stuff myself. Can't wait!