20 weeks until the Boston marathon!

Wow, that makes it sound so close.  Only 20 weeks.  Only 6 weeks until Dopey!  That's even closer.  AND I only have two more weeks of work until I'm on vacation for the rest of the year!!!! I really, really need a break. At this point I am excited to get Dopey over with so that I can focus on Boston.  My training is going well.  I've been doing short fast runs along the Charles during the week, then my back to back long runs on the weekends.  Plus Pole and Aerial Silks.  This past weekend I did 10 miles on Saturday and then on Sunday I was supposed to run 16 miles. 

I had signed up for a half marathon in Nashua for Sunday and figured I could get to the start early and do a little 'warm up' out and back to add some miles for the day.  Well, Mother Nature had other plans.  She made it pretty miserable.  It was 22 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like 3 degrees.  I figured running a half marathon in those conditions was torture enough and I didn't really need the extra miles.  I felt really great for the first few miles and then I slowed a little and definitely felt it.  My legs just felt heavy and the wind cut through me.  My water bottles were frozen.  Pretty sure my muscles were frozen too.

I just looked at my splits according to my Garmin and I was ridiculously even paced for the most part.
Mile 1 - 9:50
Mile 2 - 9:38
Mile 3 - 9:55
Mile 4 - 9:48
Mile 5 - 10:07
Mile 6 - 10:44
Mile 7 - 10:29
Mile 8 - 10:34
Mile 9 - 10:30
Mile 10 - 10:40
Mile 11 - 10:35
Mile 12 - 10:32
Mile 13 - 10:38

So despite being frozen and tired I still ran really strong.  My average pace was 10:16 for the whole race. Although it was mostly really close to 10:30s, those first few fast miles bring the average down.  I'll take it.

Last week I did another awesome activity to add to my jar and check off my 'to-do' list.  I went to the Paint N Sip wine tasting/painting class up the street from me.  I've walked past the place a million times and looked at the calendar and thought about signing up and wanted to do it for a long time.  I finally signed up.  I was supposed to go with a friend who ended up bailing at the last minute for personal reasons.  Still had an amazing time and met some new friends there. Here is a look at the progress through the course of the class starting with a picture of what we were trying to paint.

The blank canvas 

 The paints we used

Step 1: Paint the sky 

Step 2: Paint the grass  

Step 3: Add the shadowy area in the foreground 

Step 4: Add trees along the horizon and a little fence, and a house 

 Step 5: Fence in the front and then sign it!

Here I am with the two lovely ladies that were sitting with me.  Allison and Janis.  We had a wonderful time and I am sure I will see them again sometime.

I spoke with the owner afterwards and asked about hosting a fundraising event and she agreed.  We will be painting the Boston Skyline on February 4th with $15 of every registration going towards my fundraising for Dana Farber.  I will also do some door prizes and raffles at the event.  It should be a really fun event.  I'm really excited.  At the rate I am going I should definitely hit my goal to raise $10,000.  I may even hit $8K before the end of the year.  I will be mailing out my holiday cards soon and doing another opportunity drawing for a cheesecake.  I'm almost at $6K now if I count pending company matches.  THANK YOU SO MUCH everyone that has donated already!!! If you haven't, what are you waiting for????  It IS Thanks-GIVING afterall.......just saying.

www.rundfmc.org/2014/alicial