Tuesday, March 27, 2012

I've run 295 miles so far in training

It was supposed to be more, but the stress fracture set me back.  Still, I think 295 miles is quite a lot!  And I'll be over 300 before the long run this weekend. 

My job at the Museum will start being full-time sometime in the next week or so, which is very exciting! 

I have been going to glass mosaics every week, and I'm having a great time with it.  I finished the present I made for my mom, and I'm on to my next project.  I really like glass mosaic-ing!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

If you can believe it, I ran 21 miles!

Even if you can't believe it (I can't either, really), I ran 21 miles yesterday!  All things considered, I feel pretty good today.  Yesterday was the official day that many of the charity marathon teams do their long run, so it was actually a pretty big event.  There were so many water and gatorade stops and people cheering along the course.  We started at the actual starting line and ran along the course until the top of Heartbreak Hill.  There were cops stopping traffic and everything!  Alan and I ran together, and we had a pretty good pace for the run.  We're feeling optimistic about getting our goal on race day, assuming it's not 80 degrees.  I feel very proud of myself for getting through the 21 miles!

The weather here this past week was great.  It was like summer for almost a week.  Yesterday was a bit cooler, which was actually good for the long run, but today is even colder and rainy, so it's sort of disappointing.  It's an inside day, for sure.

Last weekend, I had glassblowing class, which was extremely fun.  I made 4 glass flowers.  I really want to do more glassblowing classes in the future.

And in perhaps the biggest news, I have an internship confirmed in Chile!  Perhaps you're thinking, "I thought you were going to Buenos Aires.  And that's in Argentina, not Chile."  Well, plans change.  It was proving to be pretty difficult to find jobs that would be able to pay us in Buenos Aires, and there's a program that I'm able to do that will pay my stipend for Chile, plus they set up the whole thing.  It's pretty awesome.  Sam has a few leads on things he might do while we're there, but nothing is certain yet.  Anyway, I'll be working at the Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM).  Doesn't it look fun?  And we'll be there from September to January or so.  The exact dates are still TBD. 

Fundraising is also going well, but things have slowed down lately.  I've got less than $650 to go, and I could use some help!  Here's the link: http://www.mos.org/marathon/meettherunners.php#lowenthal  My runner is starting to get filled in in the head, which is very exciting. 

I'll post some pictures next time, and I'll also do shout-outs to my most recent donors in my next post.  Stay tuned!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

$723 to go!

Thanks to my most recent donors, Naomi and Joe, Kristen F, Sarah H, Shreya, Don and Bonnie, Keith and Rebecca (again!), Maria G, Caroline H, Chris W, Frank and Sandy, and Jen F!  I can't believe how many people have been so supportive of my crazy endeavor.  I am so lucky! 

And I only have $723 to go!  Help me get that down to $0 by April 16 by donating now if you can: http://www.mos.org/marathon/meettherunners.php#lowenthal

More updates coming soon!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

I ran 17 miles yesterday!

I can't believe I made it through, but I ran 17 miles yesterday with Fiona!  My foot didn't hurt at all, but my legs sure were tired by the end of it!  We made sure to do a lot of sitting for the rest of the day.  Stairs are sort of tricky today, but I'm feeling remarkably good, considering.  So I would say I'm fully back on the marathon wagon!  Woohoo!  Next weekend we drop the mileage down to 12, and the week after is our longest training run, which is 21 miles.  Running a marathon has begun to seem as insane to me as it did to everyone I told that I was doing it.  But I'm so happy to be doing it!

Also, I've been cleaning our apartment, and I got rid of and rearranged enough stuff to sell one of our bookshelves (the one from the back hall) on craigslist.  It's starting to be time to slim down the amount of stuff we have in preparation for our time abroad.  It's so satisfying getting things organized!  Maybe that sounds weird.  I know Meredith understands :)

The weather starting tomorrow is really looking like it's going to be spring.  I'm so glad about that, everything is better in good weather.  Yesterday's run was a bit cold.  Tomorrow I'm scheduled to run 5 miles, and it will be so nice if I can run in shorts and a t-shirt.

We've been working on another puzzle, and it's taken over our entire table.  Maybe 1000 pieces is too many.  But it's a little late for that conclusion...

Friday, March 9, 2012

Updates

It's been a while since I last posted, but things are going well.  I've gotten back into running, and with the exception of some legs that seem to forget how to run, things are going smoothly.  Tomorrow I'm scheduled to run 19 miles, but due to the setback of the stress fracture, I'll probably run somewhere between 15 and 17, depending on if my friend Fiona decides to run with me.  She's also training for the marathon

Last weekend, I went to Houston to visit my friend Rachel.  We went to the rodeo, which was a first for me.  I got to pet a weird-looking bull and we saw a lot of cute baby animals.  It's hard to express how strange it was for me to go to the rodeo overall, but I had a surprisingly good time (I had to try really hard not to think about the machines on display that were specifically for killing animals).  Here are some pictures of us and animals at the rodeo:


There is a thing called Mutton Bustin', which turns out to be 5- and 6-year-old kids hanging onto a sheep while it runs for as long as they can.  I would never have imagined that such a thing would exist.  Anyway, after they get ridden, the sheep look sort of angry:


As part of the rodeo, there's a concert at the end of the night most of the nights.  The night we were there, the concert was John Legend.  I can't say that I'd heard any of his music before that concert, but it was a fun atmosphere anyway.  Check out the stage they built in the middle of the giant stadium that shortly before had had teenagers running around trying to turn baby cows upside down and drag them into a chalk square (for scholarships, no less!):


And since it wouldn't be my blog without some pictures of things I ate, here are some of the delicious things Rachel cooked for me:


 Check out this close-up of a pea.  I think it's really cute for some reason:


And this is Rachel's dog, R2D2:


 The reason she's called R2D2 is that she goes in circles trying to catch her tail.  From what I understand, R2D2 the Star Wars character also went in circles.  Anyway, it's ridiculous to watch a dog doing that.  But she's a sweet dog, and she likes running, which was good because we took her running.

This has been a long post, but I wanted to also mention that I'm having a ton of fun in glass mosaics, and I'm at the polishing step for my mom's present.  I like how it turned out!

Of course, just like I can't skip posting pictures of my food, here are the latest shout-outs to my donors.  Thanks so much to Kschu (again!), Jasper, everyone at the Nerdy Games Night, Meredith and Brian, Jennifer G, and David and Dorothea!  Unbelievably, I'm within $800 of my goal at this point!  If you haven't donated or think there's someone you know who would like to donate to the Museum of Science Traveling Programs, here's the link: http://www.mos.org/marathon/meettherunners.php#lowenthal

Have a good weekend!