Happy New Year!!!

 Happy New Year!!! Have you been planning and fun any exciting resolutions? This comic cracks me up, because it is SO TRUE! My resolution this year is a little different. I am going to complete a 12 month fitness challenge. By committing to these 12 activities, I'll be able to keep myself in check and active throughout the year. Let me know if you would like to join me in any of these events.  Also, if there are any events you want to participate in and need a friend, let me know!!

January 12 - Strongman Competition NJ

February 9 - Cupids 5k Hartford, CT

March 17 - Half Marathon NYC

April 27 - Color Me Rad 5k Hartford, CT

May 5 - Five Boro Bike Tour NYC (pending me buying a bike)

June 1 - JesVic5k Watsontown, PA

June 15 - *My Wedding* - sure to be a marathon in and of itself =)

July 26 - Sunset Run 5k Trumbull, CT

August 4 - Walnut Beach Ice Cream 5k Milford, CT

September 8 - Run Around The Block 15k Block Island, RI

October 13 - Steamtown Marathon Scranton, PA

November 28 - Turkey Trot Punch Gym Norwalk, CT

December - TBD (it will be a surprise!)

It's almost midnight...this will officially be my last post of 2012!!

Love,
Kerry

p.s I'm watching CNN and I can't get enough of Anderson Cooper giggling...love him!

falling down, getting up, and lots of prayers

Saturday December 15, 2012

Today was rough. Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. In the wake of the awful shootings in Newtown, I didn't want to do anything today. I wanted to curl up on the couch, watch CNN, and cry.
 

But that wasn't going to fix anything. So I went on my run with Team in Training. This weekend I went to a new meeting place, at Walnut Beach in Milford, CT. There I met the event coach Cindy, and lots of new running friends. Jill, another coach, ran/walked with me. I was super nervous because today was a planned 5 mile course, and I had serious doubts that I could finish it.
 

I quickly learned that finishing wasn't going to be my biggest hurdle today. Not 5 minutes into the run I tripped and fell on the sidewalk. Not a dainty fall either, I felt myself going down, tried to recover, couldn't, fell onto my palms and drop rolled onto my back feet flailing in the air. It was definetly some double-o-seven moves. Thinking back it would have made a GREAT video...seriously funny stuff. After explaining to my running partner (and the poor concerned citizen walking on the other side of the street) that I was ok and I am no stranger to falling...I got up and just kept going. I am seriously one of the clumsiest people alive. I blame by big feet. I can't wait to tell my Mom about my fall, we love to reaccount all of my clumsy adventures growing up, numerous bicycle accidents, skinned knees, falling down stairs in college (completely sober inbetween classes), it's almost fitting that I would wipe out on my run too.
 

So besides that little "Snafu" the run went really well! Coach Cindy was awesome, she met us throughout the run with water and even let me try "power gel". I guess it's best to try out those sort of things before you do a real race to see what works with your stomach, I tried the chocolate power gel, which tasted sorta like raw brownie batter. I did intervals again, jogging 3 minutes, walking one minute. At around mile 4, we went to 2 minutes, 1 minute, but by the end we finished at 3:1 again. I felt great when the GPS showed us that we had gone 5.44 miles! Coach Cindy was waiting with chocolate milk and bananas and we took a picture by the beach.

 

 

I feel very grateful that I found such a wonderful and positive group of people to run with through Team in Training. We dedicated todays run to the victims of yesterdays shooting. I hope in the coming days the families of victims can find some peace admist the chaos.
 

Thanks again to all my friends and family for checking in on me throughout the past 48 hours. Keep praying, this area needs it.
 

Kerry

 

TNT Day 1...check!

They say starting is the hardest part. I think that's true. When I joined Punch Gym the hardest part was finding the courage to walk through the front door. Today, getting out of the car to meet these runners was an intense moment for me. Not just the scary fog, but just that moment of pure panic. Can I do this? Should I do this? What the hell is wrong with me? I'm not a runner...why am I here?! These people don't know me, I could drive away and they would never know the difference.

Except for Rachel. Thank God for Rachel, seriously having a friendly face expecting you makes all the difference in the world. Rachel goes to the gym with me, but I didn't meet her until the Fairfield 5k when she graciously let me run/walk with her the whole way.

So after pushing away all those negative thoughts, and seeing Rachel, I finally got out of my car. After introductions were made, we just started running. We ran 3 min, walk 1 minute for the majority of the 3 miles. The other runners in our group were "real" runners. I started to immediately get worried about holding them back because I'm slow...but again my pre conceived notions were wrong. At one point the coach Brian started running back towards us. I said are we turning around? Rachel says "no silly, he is just running with us". For the entire 3 miles the whole group ran together, the faster people would run head, then loop back around to make sure we were ok and so we all stuck together. I was super impressed.

Everyone was so nice too! No judging and so incredibly helpful and pleasent. I thought these experienced runners would get annoyed at me being so slow, bur again I was proved wrong.

When we were done and back at the cars the coach Brian gave Rachel and I purple Team In Training shirts. I was definetly sucking wind, and happy to be done, but this was a nice little surprise. And then the best part...."so you guys coming to the diner?!"

Hell Yes!!! I love diners and food!! They go every Sunday, which is incentive enough for me!! While eating I found out these runners were experienced beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Numerous half marathons, marathons, triatholons, and ironmans for all of them! I was sitting there with my bacon and eggs and all I could think about was how these are the people I need more of in my life.

I am so very excited about this new journey. I am still not very good at running, but I'm getting there. Surrounding myself with aTeam in Training people is exactly what I needed to do to start this next adventure :)

Thank for reading and taking an interest in my life :) Please consider donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here --->  http://pages.teamintraining.org/ct/halfnyc13/kerrychomas