Brother Update

So, this past May my brother ran his first ever half marathon and totally blew everyone away. I wrote about it here and about his weight loss here. It’s worth a read to catch up and fully understand his awesomeness.

Anyway, he said he was one and done but you know how that goes. His badassery continues.

He signed up for another half marathon!!!!! And this time, he’s going sub 2– Yeah, he’s going there.

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He’s lost about 15 more pounds bringing him to right around 80 pounds total.

I just can’t believe it.

310 to 233

310 to 233

His transformation is seriously one of those where if someone told me this would happen, I would say, “There’s no way in hell.” And mean it. All those idioms, expressions, sayings–“When pigs fly.” “When hell freezes over.” “I’ll believe it when I see it.” All of those.

But he did it. By golly, he’s doing it.

In fact, I’ve got an admission.

He’s faster than me.

I’ve never been so ridiculously happy someone is faster than me.

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He ran that 5k this summer in 23:49 beating my 5k PR by 15 seconds!!!!

It was a small, local race–no medals or glitz– but he was able to pull off a 5th place overall finish and 3rd in his age group.

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No medal, just pride

Freaking amazing.

I know I keep saying this, but I just never thought my brother could transform himself in this way. And he’s done it all by himself, just diet and exercise–no gimmicks–just hard work.

I couldn’t be more proud of him. Anytime I start to get down or am in a funk, I think of my brother who is kicking so much ass, and he just inspires me to keep going. He is living proof that ANYTHING is possible.

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Believe in miracles. Believe in change. Believe that people can change. I hope you guys have a great weekend!

❤ , helly

Chicago Marathon Training: Week 12 Recap

Helloooo September!!!! So, I’m officially in the “next month” part of my training. As in, “Chicago Marathon is next month“!!!

 

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For reals tho.

Okay, I’m gonna try and keep this positive with this week’s recap because it was a really tough week. The husband was out of town for the first half so I was in solo-parenting duty. I’m going to have to do this quite a bit for the rest of the year as he is booked to leave the state (and country!) at least once each month up to January. Excuse me while I die.

Anyway, I had my own busy schedule at work as Tuesday was our school’s Open House. That meant I had to move my run to Monday (which I usually bike but haven’t in the last, oh….3-4 weeks). So Monday I rushed home from work as I had an hour before I had to do kid pick-up. I was actually pretty pleased with this run. It was tough, but not horrible.

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Tuesday was the longest day eveeeeeeer. I woke up at my usual 4:45 to get ready for work and then had to wrangle the kids and do morning drop off (my husband usually does this since I have my long commute) and this is the part that always stresses me out when I”m solo. Luckily, I was able to make the 45 minute drive and get to work on time. After work, I had to drive 45 minutes back to pick up kids and drop them off so that my sister-in-law could watch them while I drove 45 minutes back to work for Open House. After Open House was over, yup, I had to drive all the way back home–not 45 minutes since there was no traffic at 8:30 p.m. lol!

When I got home, I was greeted at the door by my husband!! He was able to cut his trip short and I gave him the biggest, tightest hug ever. I was so tired that I had no idea how I would’ve functioned the rest of the week without him, and it was barely Tuesday!

Wednesdays are track days and I dragged myself to my run club’s speed work session. I was not at all feeling it though, and after two 800s I stopped to chat with my buddy who recently BQd at Santa Rosa Marathon. She showed off her medal and swag and shared her story and it was way more interesting than Yassos. I managed two more before I just called it quits.

It was another after work/before kid pick-up run on Thursday as we had a play date that evening. It didn’t go as well as Tuesday’s run though, lol!

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I took a rest day Friday, and Saturday I woke up to meet up with my friend (the same one who had just BQd the weekend before!) to run my 13 miler long run. She’s training for a 100 miler and said she’d join me and count this as her recovery run. Bad ass status.

My alarm went off at 3:30 for my 4 a.m. start time and I ran 5 miles before meeting up with the 5 a.m. crew. My splits were all over the place and I never could really settle down.

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I also keep saying that I’m not gonna turn back and stop for the 5 a.m. crew, and just keep my long run continuous, but I somehow always end up back. Anyway, it wasn’t a long break, maybe 8 minutes or so, before we headed back out.

But again, I struggled to get going after stopping…

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The only other stop was at mile 10, to fuel, and I didn’t stop my watch. I fueled one other time, after mile 5 during my first stop.

It was a tough run/one, but I was happy that I ended on a good note. AND, I was happy that despite having a rough start to the week sans husband, I was still able to get my runs in. That’s what I’ve been really proud of this cycle; I’ve consistently been running 4 times a week. My other trainings, the 4th run was always sporadic and I’d always make an excuse as to why I couldn’t add that extra run. This time though, I’m just making it happen, some way, some how. 😀

Total miles this week– 23.88 and total miles for August — 107.77

Hope everyone is having a Terrific Tuesday and week so far!! ❤ , helly

–How was your monthly mileage?

–How do you combat excuses your mind tries to make?

Giddy Up and Go!!! MRTT Summer Virtual Race Recap

I mentioned in my previous post how last Sunday I met up with my Moms Run This Town ladies.

A little backstory on MRTT: I started my city’s chapter a little over a year ago having no clue what to expect. I was sorta involved in neighboring cities but thought that having one in mine would be fun (and convenient) so I went for it.

Over 150 women later, my chapter has become very active and super fun. It’s been a blast to see the group grow and meet people starting their fitness journey, coming back from a hiatus, or trying out a “run club” for the first time.

We have weekly meet ups on Sundays, but because both my husband and I are currently training, I’m not always able to attend (I’ve been long running Saturdays and my husband Sundays). I do have an amazing co-leader who has been instrumental in helping the group grow and making our meet-ups successful though.

With her help, I finally felt like our chapter was ready to take on a summer virtual race. MRTT national hosts two virtuals a year, one in summer and one in winter. I passed last winter as I was reluctant (and really, still a newb) to take on such a task. But with my buddy Jennifer, this summer I was in.

The theme was “Giddy Up and Go!” and the medals were suh-weet!!

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A lot goes in to making a race happen (and this was a suuuuper small one, lol!) and organizing was tough, but after months of planning, last Sunday, we were finally able to see the fruits of our labor. And it was….AWESOME.

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We had such a great turnout for our first!

Jen and I created swag bags that our runners would receive (and swag for their littles if they ordered medals for their kids!), mapped out a 5k course, and even had bananas, oranges, and water as post race fuel.

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Everyone loved our swag! We had MRTT colored bandanas, headbands, an MRTT magnet, and really cool drinkable glass jars (that had chalk tops to write on!). Inside the jar were hair ties, a rubber MRTT bracelet, running fuel, and a discount card to a local burger joint.

I decided not to race and take pictures for the runners. That way, they could get free race pictures 😉

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I also wanted to be at the end so that when they’d cross, I’d be able to medal them. The mom who finished first was so excited that she was the first to cross, saying that she’d never finished a race first in her life. It was so cool to see her excitement 🙂

All in all, it was so much fun and even though it was super tough behind the scenes, the big day was such a success that yes, I’d do it all over again ❤

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–Have you ever organized a race?

–Have you run a virtual race before?

I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Who’s racing? Who’s long running? (I’ve got 18!! Eeek!) ❤ , helly