My bad.

"Hey Katie-- way to create a blog, promise daily updates and then disappear for two weeks!"

I know, I know... I KNOW.  Honestly, you don't want me to blog about what's been going on in my blog absence.  I've self-diagnosed myself with a bad case of all-over flu, so I've been sidelined from running for awhile.  

Today is my first day back.  I'm a little scared.

Okay, terrified.

Part of this all-over flu was a nasty chest cold that seems to have settled and made itself quite comfy.  I have a doctor's appointment today to hopefully nip it in the bud because y'all?  Training OFFICIALLY starts on Monday.  Just to get back into the swing of it, I'm planning to put in 3-4 miles today through Saturday, rest Sunday, and jump in Monday with rested legs.

So that I have some sort of sanity (on the blog... with myself... for Brian's sake), my plan is to post the week's training runs here each Sunday evening, then blog about the runs as I chug chug chug along.  Get excited for this material to include treasures including but not limited to discussions of the following:

• race fuel-- basically, i gotta figure out what to eat/when to eat it/how much to eat.  i've read that on race day, lots of people eat tiny pretzels for the sodium.  out of all of the fuel options out there, my family (and brian) would not be surprised in the least to see me reaching for a salty carb versus a powerbar
• shoes-- what better excuse to buy kicky new sneaks than when you're running 26.2 miles?  i've only ever worn the brooks brand but am open to new options.

these are kinda fun, no?

• pain-- i'm not even about to lie to my people.  there's going to be pain.  probably a lot of it.  i've been doing lots of reading and research to try and prevent anything negative from happening (figuring out the best diet balance for tons of running, lots of stretching, taking the right vitamins to keep the immune system up... because mine is often weak and to help sore knees and joints... because i have those, etc.) but i'm also prepared for inevitable wear and tear on the body that comes along with training for something like this-- eek!
• music-- i'm relying on my ipod to get me through this race.  this necessity comes with its own set of panics including what if the power runs out? what if i miss the race experience because beyonce is telling me to put a ring on it and billy is declaring that only the good die young (on second thought, songs with death/dead/dying in the lyrics might be omitted from the soundtrack to this adventure)? what if the power runs out? do i practice running to a playlist so i know what to expect?  do i know four hours with of music?  WHAT IF THE POWER RUNS OUT?!?
• runners things-- body glide? gu? negative splits? energy beans?  there are words i've learned in the runners world that i never thought i would say.  "i need to try the vanilla energy beans" are just a few of them.  we'll work through it together, my friends.

Welp, I'm off to that doctor's appointment in which I'm hoping a resident will prescribe me another bottle of codeine cough syrup so that I (and other parties involved) can get a good night's sleep for the first time in who knows how long.

Fundraising Update: So many of you beautiful, generous people have made donations to my fundraising efforts-- I'm at $310 and training hasn't even officially started yet!  Y'all are amazing, no big deal.  

If you would like to donate to the Miles for Miracles team and to my personal fundraising goal of $3000, stop by and check out my fundraising page!

http://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/newyork/page/Katherine-Fox.htm