Almost There...

We are nearing the end of our "1000 miles in 365 days" challenge. Our time will expire on May 6th, where most of us till be clocking in our last 26.2 or 13.1 miles at the Orange County Marathon and Half Marathon. I feel confident in saying that we will all meet our 1000 mile goal. It will be quite an accomplishment for each of us personally....as well as a successful fundraiser for the children at Acres of Love. I believe we will have raised over $10,000!

Back in October there were 4 of us runners that made a trip to South Africa to visit the children. We had a wonderful time and further committed ourselves to this cause.

It's been such a pleasure to have married 2 loves....running and the children at Acres of Love. I can't say that every mile has been easy. We typically meet at 5:20am several days each week and log in at least 5 miles. Weather, sick kids and tired bodies have been our challenges, but the children in South Africa have been our motivation. We have an amazingly committed running group and each woman brings such inspiration. When our 365 days is up, I can guarantee that the same 9 women will meet on the corner at 5:20am the very next week to hit the pavement for another 5 miles!

If you haven't already....please sponsor 1 (or all!) of us in our 1000 mile challenge. 100% of your donation will go right to the children.

http://www.acresoflove.org/

Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon

Woo Hoo....we all finished and did great! Such a blessing to have healthy and able bodies and be able to run for the children at Acres of Love.

Going To New Heights

Over the last couple of years I've decided to do some things I never thought I would do. One...run 1000 miles in 365 days. Two...hike Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states. I'm over 500 miles into 1000 mile journey and on September 28th I set out to take on Whitney.
Before I left for the trip I packed my backpack with the usual stuff first aid kit, water, beanie, gloves. My heart pulled at me to pack two more things, a picture of my boys and a picture of the kids from Acres Bridges Forever Home. I nestled them safely in my pack just in case I needed the inspiration later.
Most people don't decide to summit Whitney in a day. Usually people get to a base camp spend the night and summit the next day. Obviously, my group wasn't like most people. We set out at 4am to start our ascent headlamps on and backpacks in tow. When the sun came up our surroundings were nothing short of amazing. 6 hours into our hike we were at Trail Camp elevation 12,000 feet. With only 2,500 feet or 4 miles left to go you would think it would be easy. At home running 4 miles would take less than 40 minutes. On Whitney with the elevation, terrain and 99 switchbacks it would take hours. I didn't realize the importance of those pictures in my pack until I started the last part of the ascent.
Me and my hiking partner Melanie pressed on through the switchbacks. That's where I shed a couple of tears riddled with self doubt. Every time I took a break and grabbed water or a snack from my pack I saw those pictures. When I would start to break down mentally I would think of my kids and the Acres kids. The effects of elevation can be crazy. Every step can be exhausting both mentally and physically. I was determined and inspired not to quit. 10 hours after our journey began we were at the summit, almost 14,500 feet up. The top was completely breathtaking.
Those pictures helped me through the 10 hours up and the 7 hours down. Worlds away and without even knowing it those beautiful children inspired me to get to new heights.

Almost Halfway There

Don't you love our logo? It was designed by Candace's sweet hubby. Our shirts are getting printed this week.

Most of us are almost halfway there in our miles. We have the Long Beach Marathon coming up on October 9th. We would appreciate any and all prayers for our health and for a successful race day. Cristina, Kim, Erica, Bradleigh, Gretchen and I (Lisa) will be running the full marathon and Jodi, Candace, and Chris Ann will be running the half marathon.

Our group has raised over $8,600 to date for the Acres of Love Bridges Forever Home children.

Thank you for your support.

The Girls

This picture was taken at our "1st Quarter Celebration." We are all on target with our miles and still going strong, meeting several times a week at 5:20am to pound the pavement for the children Acres of Love. We have raised almost $9000 so far!
We are running in the Long Beach Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday, Oct 9th.

Running in the Hail

Well, we had our long run on Saturday. A group of us (Jodi, Candace, ChrisAnn, Bradleigh, Erica and I) met down at North Beach. Erica actually got there early and did two miles before we arrived. Anyway, we split up in to two groups. We ran PCH from North Beach heading towards Dana Point Harbor. We started noticing a couple miles into it that there were drops on the ground. Eventually it started to really rain. Then we heard the rumble of thunder.

As we crossed the bridge over to what we lovingly call "exile island". It's really not a bad place to run but a few years ago when we first started adding a lot of miles we weren't real creative with the route. So, to add mileage we would run the island several times. You feel a bit like a hamster on a wheel going around and around. Its actually quite lovely, you can see the boats in the harbor, watch paddleboarders... The smell, though, not so good. I would says its a cross between rotting fish and mildew.

I'm getting sidetracked, as we walked over the bridge, it started to pour down rain. We were drenched.... We looked down and could see little pieces of ice on the ground. We could also feel them hitting us. It was hailing. Some were small like pebbles but others were the size of grapes. It's a pretty rare occurence for it to hail in Southern California. Bradleigh, Erica and I took shelter in the bathroom but we had endured the worst of it. The rain and hail stopped.

So, we posed to take this picture with the hail. This was around mile 5 and had 10 more miles to go in our wet clothes and sloshy shoes....

Not sure if this is a rave run but I can say we won't soon forget it and have earned our bragging rights.

Rave Run

If you subscribe to Runners World Magazine then you are familiar with the page in each issue called "Rave Runs." Here they feature epic pictures of amazing places around the world that people run.

I was in Santa Cruz for the last week with my family. I went on my morning runs past farm land, into La Selva Beach and through Manresa State Beach. It was beautiful, some of the best parts of the trip for me. I would go early in the morning, all alone, through the cool fog, exploring such gorgeous scenery. And on every run I would think about the "Rave Runs."

Hoping the other gals that are on this 1000 mile journey with me will also take some pics of their "rave runs" over the summer on their vacations. I know there will be girls in Spain, Iowa, Yosemite and several of us together camping in Doheny Beach over the 4th of July!