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August 11, 2005
Kickoff!
Strap on those running shoes, as the winter season of Team in Training has begun.
Tonight was the kick-off meeting for Team in Training at Dole Cannery, where we got our first taste of what was to come for the next four months. Chapter Coordinator Jen McVeay rallied the troops with a stirring opening speech, afterward leaving us to our fearless training leader, Jonathan Lyau, who laid out our training schedule for the first few weeks.
With all the preparatory work that I've been doing, I guess I'm ready to tackle the Advanced Run schedule, though my mileage doesn't seem to be quite up there yet. It assumes I'm running 25-30 miles a week, when right now I'm at about 15-20 miles total, 3-4 times a week. I might put a few shorter Intermediate workouts in there to help ease the transition. But we'll see.
And I found out earlier in the week that one of my friends, who did Team in Training back in 2002 and is a mentor this year, is my mentor.
I really should mention something about Jackie, since she truly is a model for persistence in the face of adversity. She's about three to four years younger than me, and trained diligently for her first marathon in 2002. But shortly thereafter, she experienced irregular heart rhythms that ultimately led to her needing a pacemaker. Since then, she has steadily recovered, and plans to do not one, but two marathons this fall: the Nike Womens Marathon in San Francisco as well as Honolulu.
Now that's a great recovery. And so far she's been incredibly helpful and encouraging. We went over the first draft of my fundraising letter, and the main thing she wanted me to do with my page-and-a-half letter was cut it down to one page. Oops. I guess when I really get into something, I'll go on and on about it when I'm writing.
So, the fundraising machine is almost ready to roll. I've set an initial goal to raise $100 a mile, $2,620 total...I wonder if it's realistic. It certainly feels like a stretch, since I can't even remember when I last fundraised like this. I hope I'm up to it.
The first training session is Saturday. Let's roll!
Posted by Keith at August 11, 2005 11:14 PM
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