Happy Birthday is a Victory Song! :0)

 

Last week, I attended the American Cancer Society’s 2010 Awards and Honors Banquet.  In case you haven’t already noticed, I work a LOT with American Cancer Society and if you haven’t already heard me talk about it, I’m an RN with a specialization in Oncology so there’s the connection with ACS! :0)

Our Mayor spoke…

…and our official guest speaker was a 17 year old SURVIVOR!  Wow…her story was so touching and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room!  This is the reason why we do what we do!!

 

My boss received the highest honor of the night!  2010 American Cancer Society Volunteer of the Year!!! :0)

        

Our Oncology crew!  :0)

Katie and I!  Katie works for the American Cancer Society and will be running her FIRST Half Marathon in 13 days with ACS’s DetermiNation team!!  Go Katie go! :0)

   

I love ACS’s theme this year!!  It’s so true! :0)  This picture reminds me of my DetermiNation journey!  Training for a Half Marathon and fundraising for the American Cancer Society…when I cross that finish line, it will be a true victory as well as an emotional one, I’m sure.

I’m dedicating this race to the memory of my Grandfather as well as his friend who both lost their lives to cancer.

This speaks for itself.

This banquet was held at the same place as our Wedding Reception.  In honor of that special night, we recreated our “red wall” pose! :0)

Well sort of!  The angle is a little off and the clothes are slightly different but that’s ok! :0)

Back to ACS and DetermiNation, I’m very close to reaching my fundraising goal!  Will you take part and support my cause? 

Don’t forget to stop by my Sweaty Band/Bondi Band Raffle going on here!  There’s just 4 days left to enter! :0)

Thanks to everyone who has already shown their support!!

Counting down the days!

Now that my Disney Marathon is behind me, I have more races to look forward to!  My next race is Rock and Roll New Orleans and I’m running it with the American Cancer Society’s DetermiNation team!

Fundraising for this event has been a very rewarding and exciting experience!  I’m grateful that I was able to join an team and form many friendships along the way!

I’m also grateful for all the support that YOU guys have given to me!  It means the world to me that many of you were willing to donate and help with this incredible cause!

It is because of the American Cancer Society’s prevention programs and funding of research that we have come so far with this battle!

I have just a little ways to go with my fundraising and the wonderful ladies over at Sweaty Bands have agreed to help me out with a raffle!

What will you win? 

 

A 2 pack of Sweaty Bands (one thick and one thin) as well as a package of Assorted flavored Sports Beans and a package of Berry flavored Sports Beans! 

Valued over $30!

Also, I have a Bondi Band left over from my previous raffle so there will be two names chosen for this raffle! 

What will the 2nd lucky winner receive?

A Bondi Band and a tube of Body Glide!

How do you enter?

Check out my fundraising page at:
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/karenmichelle

It takes determination to endure.
It takes DetermiNation to find cures!

Donations can be made here and are required for additional entries.

Donate $1 and you’ll get 1 entry
$5= 5 entries
$10=15 entries
$20=30 entries
If you would like to donate anything above $20, you’ll get double the amount that you donate. Ex: Donate $25 and you’ll get 50 entries, etc.

**Leave me a comment telling me how much you donated and I’ll adjust your entries as indicated.**

For additional entries:

1.) Become a follower of my blog.
2.) Follow me on Twitter here.
3.) Like Sweaty Bands on Facebook here.
4.) Post about this raffle on your blog…doesn’t matter if it’s as a link your homepage or in a blog entry. Spread the word! :0)
5.) Tell about this raffle on your facebook, your twitter, mass emails, etc. Leave a comment here letting me know that you did so!

Thanks so much for all the support. You have no idea how much it means to me! Fighting cancer as a profession and being able to fight cancer while doing something I love (running)….there’s nothing that can top that! :0)

This giveaway will end one week from today – February 5.

All donations are tax deductible!  :0)

Thanks again!

Helping to create a world with LESS cancer and MORE birthdays!

Really really dumb!

Yesterday, I woke up with an achiness and soreness in my back.  The achiness went straight down my spine like a sore muscle and it felt as if I had worked out the day before after not doing so for a long time.

I also noticed that my inner thighs were sore.  I was so confused trying to think back on the events of the weekend.  I did run with my friends on Saturday, but we took it nice and easy and slow and were able to talk/laugh/joke the entire run. 

That couldn’t be it.

I got to work and I thought “hmm…am I having some sort of strange delayed muscle soreness from after the race?”  Dumb, I know cause it’s been 2 weeks now since my Marathon, but you never know.  This idea sounded really stupid to me (I’m a nurse for crying out loud) but I had nothing else to go on, so I went with it.

I called Heather and told her all about it.  We tried to reason and figure out what was wrong with me. 

I hung up the phone with Heather and thought some more.  I reviewed my day on Sunday step by step. 

OH.
MY.
GOSH.

Karen, you are officially an idiot.  I felt SO dumb. 

I spent an hour and a half in my flower beds on Sunday cutting out all of the dead stuff.  My time was very broken up in the flowerbeds cause I worked a little, got chased by this massive scary bee, came back inside, waited a while, then resumed my work.  (I’m sure that was pretty funny to see!)

I didn’t overexert myself and I never broke a sweat so that’s why the thought of my flower bed shenanigans never crossed my mind!  However, I was constantly up and down and up and down (like doing squats) and I must have worked some muscle groups that haven’t been worked in a while!

Wow.  I don’t think things through sometimes and I make myself look really stupid in the process. I’m sorry for the totally ridiculous phone call, Heather!  Can I blame it on “Marathon Brain”?  A lot of my patients say they have “chemo brain” and I’ve also heard of “baby brain” (from pregnancy hormones) so is there a such thing as “Marathon Brain”?  If not, I think there should be.  Cause I have it.

I do however have a BATTLE WOUND from the Marathon!  Woohoo!  I don’t get blisters (or I don’t usually get blisters) thankfully, so this is a different kind of battle wound (but it’s still on my foot!).

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I broke a bone in my right foot this past summer playing softball (my first ever broken bone!).

I probably started running on it about a week too early but through all my training, it only bothered me one time – a large mileage week. 

I was really worried about it with the Marathon but thankfully, my right foot never bothered me.

Instead, it was my left foot that gave me issues!  After the race, I started having a pain in my left foot (same spot as the broken bone on my right foot) and it felt funny when I walked.  It wasn’t excruciating pain and it felt fine when I walked in tennis shoes. 

Well, days after the Marathon, this funky bruise popped up…

I know it’s hard to see and this picture does not do it justice!  It was very dark and round.  Really strange.  What else is strange is it’s the pain on my left foot is the same exact spot as what I broke on my right foot!

I guess I broke a blood vessel or something, I don’t know!

That’s my claim to a battle wound and I’m sticking with it! :0)

Official 2011 Disney Marathon Race Photos – ASI Photography

Thanks to the lovely photographers over at ASI Photography, I now have a new set of pictures to work with! :0)  Here’s my “official” professional photographs from the Disney Marathon.  I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing about the Marathon now since this is the 6th post about it but I’m still excited and I can’t help myself! :0)

And they’re off!  18,000 runners….stretched back as far as you could see!  It was crazy!

We ran through Epcot the first time in the dark!  Very interesting! :0)  Something funny about the 2nd picture…I know the girl in purple…Courtney….but I wasn’t actually running with her!  We just happened to be in the same place at the same time! It’s Courtney from I Cano Do This! funny if you ask me!

Our first character stop!

Poor Bobby!  We just started and he already wasn’t a happy camper!

 

We loved the faces that Flynn Ryder was making!  He was so funny! :0)

The Fairy Godmother…I needed some Fairy Race Dust sprinkled on me!  Hehe! :0)  (That was especially for Heather!)

Last year for the Half, they didn’t get one single picture of me running out of the castle.  This time, I knew exactly where to run to make sure that didn’t happen again!

Not only did I get one….

I got two….

….and three shots!  I knew one of them was bound to come out!  The above picture is hands down my FAVORITE picture of them all!! :0)

Out of the Magic Kingdom….

…and Halfway there!

                    

We found these guys on the Golf Course!

I still have no idea how Bobby got back up after this!  We were right at mile 18!  Haha!

I totally didn’t see this photographer!  I was probably updating my Twitter or sending a mass text to my family! :0)  Yes, I updated Twitter the entire race! (See the bottom of this post for a full Twitter recap!  Hehe!)

Mickey again!

Chip and Dale! 

Hollywood Studios!

Random Character shots from Hollywood Studios!

My mom apparently doesn’t watch the Disney Channel!  She wanted to know who guy with green bananas in his hair was!  Haha!

Running down Hollywood Boulevard!

Made it back to Epcot!  Almost there!!!

We can see the finish line!

.2 miles to go!  I’ve just run 26 miles and I’m still smiling.  Just goes to show you that Disney knows how to do it right! :0)

We did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish my eyes were open!  Oh well!

What an amazing feeling!

Another favorite of mine!  I was very excited to take this one! :0)

Just incase you were wondering…..if you aren’t a Twitter follower of mine…yes, I updated my Twitter during most of the race!

Wanna see?  Ok! :0)

*Ugh. It's 2:45 am. Why did I say I wanted to do this again??? lol #wdwmarathon 1:58 AM Jan 9th 
(apparently the time on my twitter was off from WDW time! :0)

*Riding over to the start line with @runningwithsass!! #wdwmarathon 2:54 AM Jan 9th

*Two years ago on this very day is where it all began! It's time to run a MARATHON! #wdwmarathon I will remember today forever! 2:57 AM Jan 9th

*RT: DisneySports Good luck to everyone running in the Walt Disney World Marathon today! #runDisney #WDWMarathonWeekend 4:30 AM Jan 9th

*It's go time! #wdwmarathon 4:33 AM Jan 9th

*Hills hills hills! Made it to mile 5!! #wdwmarathon 6:06 AM Jan 9th

*Mile 7 with @runningwithsass!! http://yfrog.com/h0g4gioj 6:55 AM Jan 9th

*Mile 11! Just ran through the castle!! #wdwmarathon 7:28 AM Jan 9th

*Almost to mile 15!! With @runningwithsass and her husband!! 8:23 AM Jan 9th

*At mile 18! Everything hurts now! Just took a pic with grave diggers! lol #wdwmarathon 9:18 AM Jan 9th

*Mile 22! It hurts to walk it hurts to run...ugh. #wdwmarathon 10:21 AM Jan 9th

*We did it!!! 26.2! I am now a Marathoner!!! :0) Thanks for all the support! #wdwmarathon http://yfrog.com/h8u2zhj 12:11 PM Jan 9th

And just because I loved this from Morgan at Becoming Rooks….

*I love that @runningwithsass and @kren2700 are live tweeting while running the #wdwmarathon!  9:25 AM Jan 9th
Thanks Morgan!  :0)

This should be my last 2011 Walt Disney World Marathon post for a while.  I can’t promise not to talk about it in upcoming blog posts, though.  I will probably talk about this race until the day I die for a really long time!

Thanks for following along with my crazy, exciting, way-too-much-fun-for-a-marathon journey!!! :0)