Christmas in the City

If you are coming here now it is because Christmas in the City is just days away and we are in an emergency!  Christmas in the City may not have enough toys for its 8,000 plus kids this year due to Internet malfunctions and we could really use your help! I am sorry to bother you all, I know we all have our own specific charities but if you could read on I would forever apprecitate it..

Regardless of your religious affiliations, anyone can enjoy and take part in this adventure called Christmas in the City, one of my favorite, 100% volunteer, non-profit organizations.  And because this is, afterall, my blog, I can't help but let you all in on one of my favorite things that comes around  once a year.  So please forgive me as I spend a moment or two on the best event ever!!

So what am I talking about, what is Christmas in the City?  Christmas in the City is a nonprofit organization that brings Christmas to thousands of children and mothers who are currently homeless or living in domestic violence shelters. For one day, the children and moms can forget about everything and just enjoy Christmas...

In 2010, more than 3000 people attended CITC.  The children entered the event on red carpets into a large room decorated for Christmas.  Fake snow filled the air and volunteers and cartoon characters lined the room welcoming the children as the choir sang Christmas Carols.  The day was a dream come true.  It included a 7-course meal, kid friendly exhibits (e.g., a petting zoo and the Children’s Museum), Winter Wonderland – an area full of carnival rides, games, food, and fun, and performances by various dance troops and performers.  The day concluded with Santa bringing each child a personalized present off their very own Wish List as well as a gift bag with different age appropriate presents such as stuffed animals, hats, gloves, and t-shirts.  The mothers also received a gift bag with gift cards, books, and more! For those children who could not attend, CITC still provided them with a personalized gift, giving out an additional 3,000 presents in the last year alone!

Ok, now I have told you what CITC is, so you know what is coming next....How do you get involved?  It does not matter where you are, you can get involved in CITC. You can volunteer your time, donate presents or money, or simply spread the word.  Every bit helps CITC!  This year we are looking at 5000 children at the party and need an addition 3,000 presents for children not at the party plus gifts for moms!!!! If you want to get involved, it is pretty simple you can go to christmasinthecity.org or you can just let me know and I will set you up!!!  We could really use your help and would love for you to come and support his awesome cause - come on, who does not love Christmas?!?  If nothing else, check out our Facebook page or Twitter Account.  We need people to spread the word!!!

So an add on as of December 13, at this point we are days away from CITC.  We do not have those 8000 presents due to some problems and we need your help whether through donating, tweeting, buying a gift, we need your help soo badly!! It can be all done online and we would forever be greatful!  Thank you for taking the time, I am so sorry to bother you! I really really appreciate your time :)

Here is a suggested tweet:  @CITCBoston is in trouble! we r days away from the party w/o enough presents for 8000 kids! Please help! http://tinyurl.com/73mezam

Have you ever heard of Christmas in the City?  Would you like to be involved?

Hungry Horrors

First off sorry Jess I totally stole your name "hungry horrors."

Today's post may not be the most upbeat sorry.  I am a bit, eh exhausted.  Maybe it is all the work on this Wellness Event I am doing (insert shameless plug here, have you checked out my Wellness Event).  Today was a loooonnng day.  Just one of those days when the hours ticked by extremely slowly, too slowly.

The day started out pretty good.  I got to sleep late and got a great wake up call via a very wonderful foot rub.   But the day seemed to go downhill from there.  So what kept me going?  Knowing that my amazing husband was slaving away over a hot stove - literally, he made his first roast chicken tonight along with roasted potatoes and vegetables.  Not bad huh?

Chicken and pink fuzzy pants what can be better?

And the dinner was as good as it looked.  It was pretty amazing!  But unfortunately, I needed more.  Today, I have been craving sweets like woah!  Now, I am not one to deny myself of sweets.  I am not a person that believes in good or bad foods.  If I want granola, I will eat it, if I want a piece of chocolate, I will eat that plain and simple.  But today, was a bit over the top.  After my Oreos and milk snack, I found myself yearning for something more.  And that something more came in the name of SUGAR and SWEETS.    I tried to stifle it, to tell myself that I did not need to eat more candy.  To stay away from the Peanut Butter M&Ms in my draw just eating one or two.  I did make it out of my office alive knowing that I would satisfy my craving during dessert (which is also something I do on a daily basis).  So post my wonderful dinner, I went right into a nice slice of apple pie.  And I mean like literally right after dinner I ran to the fridge for the apple pie only to stop to decide to go for the chocolate or the pie - PIE!!!

Ice-cream for a marathoner hell ya!

And after?  Was I full? Yup. Did I have a great well-rounded meal? Yes. Did I try to satisfy my body's cravings? Of course.  But did I want more? You bet ya.  My stomach still craved sweets, needed sweets...so what did I do?  I had a piece of gum and then another.  Now, I am all about satisfying my cravings and needs but stuffing my face is also not the answer when I know I have already given my body what it needs and knowing that eating more would just result in me feeling really stuffed and with a major stomach ache.

Smores Pie - this is kind of like apple right?!?

So here is the part I hate.  The just sitting with it.  Dealing with it.  Whether it be wanting another piece of pie that I know I don't need or debating whether I do actually need something more....I am not going to lie I HATE this part.  I am pretty good about all this stuff, but  I hate that feeling - am I hungry? am I not hungry? am I tired?  What does my body want/need?!? Or maybe it is just hormones (that is Aaron's opinion who is currently also on his second piece of gum after having a yummy Oreo ice cream sandwich), can't we always blame it on random hormones.

Unfortunately, I do not have the magic bullet.  No great answer.  In the end, you just have to listen to your body, try to make a wise decision and learn from your decision (what went right, what went wrong, observe and tweak). Ultimately, be gentle.  It is not easy to honor your hunger or your body.  But guess what?  Every day you get another chance to learn and grow :)

So do you think I am crazy or do you ever experience hungry horrors?

Here is one more for the road because Aaron could not get enough and he did make me dinner...

My Own Race Expo & You Are All Invited!

If you knew me in high school, you would know I liked to be involved. It was not enough to just go to school and do my school work and come home.  Rather, I needed to be involved in every organization and had a blast doing it whether it was girl scouts, USY, swim team, whatever, I needed and wanted to be a part of that.  In college and law school, I needed to take a step back from that.  It was just too much.  But since law school, I have had some extra time after work is over for the day to engage in some of my favorite past times.  One of the groups I am really involved in is my temple's Sisterhood.  I am the co-VP of Programming.  Anyway, get to the point Steph, you are rambling again...

Since July, I have been working on my own mini-race expo.  The story goes like this, my Sisterhood President wanted us to have a Personal Trainer come talk.  Once she said this, my mind started racing, haha so funny (lame, Steph).  I thought what if we did more than just a Personal Trainer, what if we had more people and almost had like a race expo.  So that is what I have been working on.  I envisioned multiple people to come have booths, do demos, offer screenings on an afternoon right after New Years.  I thought it would be great if sponsors got involved to give us cool free stuff and the rest was history. Well...sort of, I have had to do a TON of work to plan this event, but it is really happening and really going to get there (I hope! My biggest fear is no one comes!).

So the event is two months away - it is Sunday January 8th from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. So what do I have so far?  We have a nutritionist, acupuncturist, chiropractor, Running Company speaker, personal trainer, pilates instructor, nurse, and more.  We will have consultations for blood pressure, pilates demos, information on fitting shoes etc.  We will have great sponsors - Pretzel Crisps, Code Blue, Hint Water, Tribe Hummus, Yasso Pops, Whole Foods, Fitness Clubs, and more!!! Looking at the list, I realize this is a mini-race expo and I am sooo excited about it.  Even better, for non-Sisterhood members it is only $5 and it is right outside of Boston.

I am still trying hard to get more people! I would love to have more sponsors, maybe even enough to get tee-shirts!! I also would love more Wellness people.  And then there is the little issue of advertising, I really need and want to get the word out!!

End result, I could not help but tell all of you about it.  Are you going to be in the area on January 8th? I would love to have you come. Do you have something to contribute? A brand?  A service? I would love to add you to the list...Have you ever done anything like this? Do you have any advice for me?

Hope to see you on January 8th!

High to Low - Post-Marathon Blues

Quinnysmom - last chance, you won the nuun giveaway. I will pick someone new tomorrow if I can't find you. I am sorry!


So am I still on top of the world one week later? Sort of.  I wear my jacket with pride, smile when someone asks me how the race was, and chuckle a bit when they ask me how long the race was.  Am I sad it is over? Yes.  Am I jealous of the NYCM? You bet ya.  But it is not a let down in any way shape or form. Maybe because there are so many other things going on in my life right now, maybe because I have so many more fun runs coming up, or maybe because I know I will be back at 26.2 one day soon....

What is hard?  The actual running.  Today, the running buddy and I set out on my first run back since completing 26.2 and while she warned me it was not going to be easy,  I was still mystified by how HARD it was to run a mere 6 miles when last Sunday I was flying high at Mile 18.  I get it.  I know what you are thinking.  Come on Steph, give it a break, you ran 26.2 miles last weekend. Your body is going to need time to recover.  I know and I DO get it.  But it is still not so easy to sit with.  I don't know how to explain it, but I know you all get what I am talking about as fellow runners.   You know, those times where you see the rational side of things, you see the facts and you understand them, but that little voice in your head still rears its ugly head and says but this SHOULD be easier.  Others are out there running miles in no time post marathon, so you SHOULD be able to do that too.  Or that voice saying Coach/PT said not slow but not race pace, so you SHOULD hit that.  But in the end, you could only average a 9:13 average pace for 6 miles (slow for me)...so you say REALLY? Come on body...lets get a move on!

I guess what upsets me the most is I am still getting side stitches and ankle pain.  I still can't figure out the side stitches for the life of me.  The ankle pain, well that was there before the marathon.  I just consider myself lucky that I got through the marathon in one piece.

So while it is not always easy, I know I need to leave these thoughts behind.  Rather, I need to BE GENTLE with myself.  Honor my body and thank it.  I put myself through Hell (a good kind though) and back getting to 26.2 and now it is my body's turn.  It wants to go slow - ok.  It wants to hurt - I get it.  It wants to have no aerobic ability whatsoever - alright, I guess so.  Because ultimately, my body is kicking ass and the only way it will continue to do so is if I treat it right.  So instead of whining, I am going to quiet those voices, put a smile on my face, and say thanks body and thanks legs for giving me the most amazing experience ever and now I will let you rest because you need it and because body, I am sorry to tell you this, but we have some pretty big races and dreams to complete and they are coming up fast!!

Do you ever thank your body and let yourself rest?  Do you get angry when your mind says and thinks one thing and your body and legs say something else?

A Running Budget - What Would You Do With $60 Billion?!?

Races, sneakers, jackets, sneakers, plane tickets to races, more sneakers....

Whoever said that running was cheap, was clearly not aware of the multi-million dolalr sporting good industry who has showed us all the cool things we MUST have to run.  Can you run without a Garmin? Sure!  Would you? Heck no.  Do you need to have a Road ID? Technically not.  But I don't feel safe without mine.  Do you really need those sneakers? Some may go barefoot, but I am all over the "wear sneakers fad."  Can you do races minutes from your home?  I guess, but why would you when you can race through the Magic Kingdom, travel down the Strip at night, or take in the sights of the National Mall.

Who knew that all of this would add up? I see my father shaking his head as he reads this.  Let me tell you folks, I am the most conservative buyer out there.  In college, I really wanted a Bosu Ball. It literally took me 6 months to get up the courage to buy the damn thing because I felt soooo badly spending $100 on a piece of exercise equipment.  Of course, I still have the stupid thing.  But point is, I don't make purchases lightly and used to never buy anything for myself.  Aaron never had any trouble buying me things or finding birthday presents, because I never bought a thing.  Well, that was all true until.....you know where this is going...I fell over the top, in love with running.

Now, I have been running for a while.  Not as long as some, but a good 4 years.  In those four years, I have been pretty well controlled (I think).  Yes, I did purchase a Garmin and I did travel to a race or two, but for the most part, I did not do too many races and I just kept rewashing all of my running gear and being satisfied with what I had.  I guess when your heart is not truly into it and you are just running because you "have" to, you don't feel the need or desire to spend your entire pay check on running. 

Rocking a regular gym shirt and shorts and armband with regular iPod during a 10 miler!

This was totally my race outfit for EVERY race and run I did...

But then in April running and I fought. I decided I did not want to run.  That running was no longer fun.  I needed to enjoy life more.  Then, something else happened.  I said I would only run for fun.  I met people and pursued the social aspects of running and started this blog. And the rest was pretty much history, in short, I fell over the top in LOVE with running. 

When you fall in love with something, I guess, you just can't get enough of it.  Maybe that is why everyone at my local running store knows my name and pulls me in the backroom to show off the latest winter gear/hot items for the holidays.  Maybe that is why when my grandmother came to visit I did not want to go to the mall and shop at Ann Talyor like usual, but dragged her to the running store for new gear.  Maybe that is why for the second month in a row the only thing on my credit card statement is race entries.  AND maybe that is why when someone literally asked me yesterday what I would do with $60 billion the only word that popped into my head was RACE.

Now, I may or may not be on the ultimate runners high from this little event on Sunday, but the fact remains that my ATM and Credit Cards scream RUNNING!  So much so that we have to put me on a little bit of a budget. Folks, I may be a bit out of control in my race spending category on Mint.com (if there is such a category?!?).  With massive reluctance, when Aaron pointed this out to me, I had to agree.  BUT, I told him we could not start this budget until November, after all I had an expo to attend in October and that is a whole other ball game (besides you can bargain at those so it really does not count, right?!)

So where does this leave us, well...today I kind of decided all the additional necessary races that I need to attend in January, February, and March.  But I did tell Aaron, the budget was fine, except that if he did not want me to have reflective gear for running at night, I understood (Jewish guilt, works everytime).  Seriously though, in reality, I am going to try  to reign in it....

Except for the fact that running partner and I are going into Boston tonight and we may just happen to sorta walk by North Face and then what really is the harm at that point in poking our heads in and sitting down and seeing what shoes they have to offer (wait who said that, not me Aaron, it was crazy race high Stephanie, I can not be held responsible for her crazy antics, thank you very much!)

Have you tried North Face for running? It is the best!!

Do you have a running budget? Do you ever experience this? What would you do with $60 billion?  Good luck to all the NYCM! I know you are going to rock it!

Picture Perfect

Not too much time for lots of fun posting today.  I am exhausted and hungry.  So I ate a ton and now I have a stomach ache and am even more tired.  I know technically Wednesday is supposed to be "Wordless Wednesday" but I have never been one to follow up on those things so for now I will sort of do a bit of a wordless Thursday (technically I post each night, so it is still Wednesday - score!). 

Here we go with my favorite race pictures courtesy of marathon photo - what do they tell you 1) smile and enjoy your race, it is YOUR day and 2) have an awesome loveable husband willing to carry a lot of crap for you and to exchange it with you at critical points, say Mile 11.5..thanks hun!

No clue what Mile this is at but given that Erin no longer is wearing her sleeves, it has to be after 11.5...

The Epic Exchange a.k.a Aaron carrying all of our stuff from this morning while trying to take my glvoes and Erins arm sleeves while giving us granola bars and nuun.  What a champ!

One for the record books!  This is at about Mile 18.5.  It was so cool that they had all the camera people lined up sitting taking pictures in the middle of the street.  I felt great, on top of the world, clearly I could not help myself to give them a big grin and a thumbs up! YAY MARATHON.

That is all.  Do you ever buy race pictures?  I have never, but these seem too good to pass up...

The Three Ms to Motivation for Marine Corps - Mantras, Music, & Mecnhes

Did you really think this post would be about anything other than MCM?  Seriously, do you really believe I have anything better to talk about?  If you thought this, I am sorry to disappoint you, but this post will, of course, continue to be about MCM.  Sorry all, maybe I just might work in a giveaway tomorrow to ease the pain.  Speaking of which I am still waiting for my third giveaway winner's info please.  Quinnys Mom where are you?

Ok, so lets get down to it.  Mantras, Music, & Menches these are the three Ms that got me through Marine Corps and out the other side - I guess I could add a fourth - cute Marines never ever hurt.  Before I ran the race, I asked you all for some good mantras, I added some of my own and here are a few that worked for me...

Mantras for MCM

1)  Heads up, take it all in, when the going gets tough clear your head, and go back to the basics because running is just putting one foot in front of the other.
2)  It is your day, you are a marathoner!
3)  I am not talking to you.  Sounds like a weird one right? But it worked.  Every time something hurt, I just said stop talking to me ankle (or whatever) and I am not talking to you right now, because today is MY day and I won't talk back.
4)  You will not walk. You may crawl, but you will crawl before you walk.
5)  And probably one of my favorites - just get over this bridge and then glory - everyone will be cheering for you, and there will be bloggers. Liz said this on the bridge to me and it just did it for me.  I kept it with me the whole rest of the race and it kept me going.

Ok? So was that it? Nope, music & menches did it too.  As I mentioned last weekend, I was dedicating miles to people.  I ended writing peoples' names on a long piece of masking tape and putting it on my long sleeve shirt. It worked great.  I did not always use it specifically, but when I struggled I went right to it and it worked like a charm. I imagined these people, their strength, struggle, and what they have done for me and it was like a shot of adrenaline.   Then to add fuel to the fire I paired the music to the people.  It took forever, but it was well worth it!  When songs came on, I thought of my friends and family and powered on.  I also rocked out.  Why not dance and run a bit?  We are running a marathon here, lets have a little fun!

And what a dance party it was!  To make things even better I was only a half of a song off with my playlist.  I hate hate when I make a playlist and it ends and starts over while I am still running a race.  It is soo defeating!  I usually add extra songs to prevent this.  Aaron had suggested looping the last 6 miles worth of songs instead because that was my really good pump up music.  I meant to do this, but I forgot, of course.  But in the end, it all worked out!  To start the music was a mile off, but ultimately it all evened out and I was only one song off.  During the last few minutes of the race, the first song came on again and since I started the iPod before I crossed the starting line, it meant I had it pretty much perfectly right = success!!!

     

Thats about all for now.  Have you ever dedicated miles?  Do you obsess over your iPod playlist?  Do you mind when it starts over?