Run To Remember This Memorial Day

It's been awhile since I've mentioned the group my sister started almost four years ago, Wear Blue: Run To Remember.  She started this group after her husband died overseas. 

This weekend, she is asking as many people as possible to run (or walk) on Memorial Day to remember our fallen soldiers.  If you are a runner, or a walker, and you would like to pledge some miles, she would really appreciate it.  The goal is 6,460 miles - A mile for every life lost in the Global War on Terror.  As of this post, 5,812 miles have been pledged.   If you are interested, please go here and pledge your miles for Monday. 

If you are interested in running with a group, you can see some of the meet ups here. 

I hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Wear Blue: Run To Remember

This weekend was all about “Wear Blue: Run To Remember.”  It’s a group my sister, Lisa, started when her husband died while serving in Afghanistan in 2009.  Friday night was a golf tournament to raise money for her group.  We had a great time trying to win the raffle and auction prizes, listening to her talk about Wear Blue and seeing the kids running around having fun.



Saturday we headed to San Francisco to get ready for the SF Marathon.  We had our pre-race dinner at the hotel.



After dinner I went up to my room to get some sleep before my half marathon while Lisa headed out to San Bruno to start her ultra marathon, 52. 4 miles.  Her and four other runners from Wear Blue: Run To Remember and Team Red White and Blue started at midnight and ran the first 26.2 miles to the start of the San Francisco Marathon.

Before they started they called out the name of the fallen soldier they were running for.

(photo by Joe Dannels)

They took turns carrying the flag throughout the entire race.


(photo by Joe Dannels)

2:18 a.m.  Running past the Cliff House in San Francisco.


(photo by Joe Dannels)

They got to our hotel around 4:30 and met up with all the other runners.



We walked to the start line and waited for the race to start.



We ran over the Golden Gate Bridge and up some brutal hills.



We were all relaxing, drinking our coffee when Lisa and the rest of the ultra runners crossed the finish line.  I don’t know how they did it, but it was amazing watching them step across the finish line holding the flag.



My favorite picture of the entire weekend.  Lisa (on the right) has the craziest happy face I’ve ever seen.  I just love it and laugh every time I look at it.

Julie (on the left) signed up to run the half marathon and then decided she couldn’t leave Lisa at a particularly difficult point in the race and decided to just finish with her.  Who does that?  She signs up for 13 miles, which is hard enough, and then just runs a full 26.  Crazy.



It was a great weekend, and I can’t wait until next year when we do it all again.

Runner's World Article

My sister (aka crazy person who runs 20 miles for fun) was featured in the February issue of Runner's World.  You can read the article here.

She helped to start a group called Run To Remember when her husband passed away in 2009.

Runner's World did a great job with the article and it gets me all teary eyed every time I read it.

I'll be joining her in July to run the San Francisco Marathon in honor of John.  It's time to start training.

ShamRockin' Half Marathon

Yesterday my mom and I did the SharmRockin' Half Marathon. It was hard. With all the rain we had last month I did zero training. I think I ran one day last month. I am really feeling it today. It was a lot of fun, though, and I managed to finish with a decent time (compared to my other races) so, not so bad.



Mike and Madison were waiting for us at the finish line and Madison kept saying, "Yeah Mommy! Yeah Mommy!"

Half Marathon and Scrapbooking

Last weekend was a great weekend for me. I took Friday off from work and went to the Scrapbook Expo here in Sacramento. I spent the morning shopping, took some classes and the scrapped all night.

Saturday I drove home and my mom and I went to San Francisco to pick up our race packets for the Nike Women's Marathon. We both did the 1/2 and Lisa and her friend did the full marathon. On the front of the Nike store they had every participant's name on the window.



Here I am.



I finished in 2:51 (2 minutes faster than the race two weeks before), and no pain. The weather was perfect and it was a lot of fun. At the finish line, SF firemen handed us our Tiffany's necklace.



I will definitely be signing up for this race again next year.

Busy Busy Busy

I can't believe it's already April! March was a crazy month and the time just flew right by. We all came down with the flu (lucky me got it twice) and we took a trip to Seattle to visit John, Lisa, Jackson and Brycie. It was a very hectic weekend but we had a great time. We took lots of walks and most of them were in the rain. Our first day in Seattle was the worst. We walked to Lisa's new neighborhood to take a look at the model homes and halfway there (about 3/4 of a mile), it started pouring rain. I was pushing Madison and Jackson in the stroller and Lisa had Bryce in the carrier. People that drove by looked at us like we were terrible mothers. We got several dirty looks, but there wasn't really anything we could do at that point.



We also ran the Shamrockin' 5K and I learned that my mom has never ever had beer! I couldn't believe it. We tried to get some of the green beer that was being served after the race but there were just too many people.



On our trip home Madison screamed during the entire flight (about 1 1/2). As soon as the plane landed she stopped crying, smiled and waved to everyone as they got off the plane. We got more dirty looks that day.

Even though we got many dirty looks during our trip, I must say that Seattle has the nicest people EVER! I have never had so many people willing to help open doors, carry my stroller or pick things up that Madison threw on the floor.

With everything we had going on in March, I got very little knitting done. However, I have done a lot of scrapbooking. Here are a few that I've done.