Some Running, Some Sandy Relief

A few running updates, a few Sandy updates.

Yesterday, I met up with Ashley, Laura and my high school friend Sara for a run in the park. I’d planned on about 4-5 miles but was game for up to about 8.

The park was filled with would-be New York City marathoners who were doing a Run Anyway Marathon, running 26.2 on their own in the park and collecting donations for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. It was just as packed as the actual marathon last year and was a completely surreal experience. Another huge group of would-be marathoners went to Staten Island to volunteer, which is absolutely wonderful.

As far as the run, we ended up running close to 7.75, which was Sara’s longest run ever! It was my longest run since the marathon. My legs still felt incredibly tight, but nothing hurt. So I’m still contemplating that second marathon, because I can’t contemplate running more than three times that right now. Worse than my tight legs, I felt a tightness in my chest the entire time and had a hard time getting a good deep breath. I have asthma, although since I lost weight and started running, it has barely been a problem.

I’d planned on volunteering in the afternoon, but I got home and was completely lethargic from struggling to breathe. I worked on some Junior League stuff related to relief eforts, gathered some belongings for donation (random sites, but JackRabbit was accepting shoes and energy bars and Barry’s Bootcamp was accepting clothes and canned goods) and finally just went to an urgent care to get a new inhaler.

I’d heard rumors that I was in this month’s Runner’s World, and I was able to pick up a copy yesterday.

They had a bigger feature on using social media for motivation, and it was followed by a list of “elite athletes, science nerds, funny runners and others” to follow on Twitter.

Somehow I ended up in the inspirational section? Hugely flattering, Runner’s World, but I’m just a girl who lost some weight and blogs about it. It’s truly crazy to me that four years ago, I could barely run 3 miles, last week I ran 26.2 in 4:04 and this week I was mentioned in Runner’s World.

It’s also crazy to me that the marathon was only 8 days ago. This past week has felt like so much longer than a week. On that note, I’d like to share a few more Sandy updates.

• Jen’s fundraising page is halfway to its goal.
• Ashley has put together a registry to help Jen out with the items she will need as she rebuilds her life and home.
• I’m working with a friend to gather clothes for her, her husband and children, so please get in touch with me if you have clothes that can help them out.
• Anne’s site is down right now, but she has an auction up and will donate all proceeds to the Red Cross.
• There’s also an Amazon registry for Staten Island Hurricane Sandy relief supplies.
• Love Life Surf is doing a great giveaway! She’s giving away an Erica Sara necklace and donating $1 for every entry in the giveaway, up to 1,000, to the Brooklyn Recovery Fund.
• Erica Sara is donating a portion of all her sales from her race bling to Hurricane Sandy relief.
• And, of course, there’s the Red Cross and the Mayor’s Fund.

Please feel free to leave links in the comments to any other donation pages or any other sites to help.