JOA MOVING SPIRIT TEAM, NERC TURKEY SOUP RUN, AND I2P UPDATES!

THE JOA MOVING SPIRIT TEAM

I'm proud to be a part of a newly formed team, team JOA Moving Spirit as a coach and pacer! We are currently looking for both runners and volunteer coaches/pacers to join the team - so read up!

One of my running friends, local runner Joe Vasil goes to church with a young boy (John Owen) and his family. John has a fatal disease, Duchenne’s Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)

Joe and John:

DMD progressively wastes muscle and causes muscle weakness. It begins with microscopic changes in the muscle. As muscles degenerate over time, the boy's muscle strength diminishes. With DMD, ultimately the heart muscle will stop working.

Touched by the family Joe wanted to contribute and has done INCREDIBLE things already! His latest contribution to JOA is creating the "Moving Spirit" team. This team will help derail DMD together at the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. One goal is to have Team Moving Spirit runners in each distance - the 10k, 1/2 marathon, and full marathon. Training starts January 1 2012! There will be plenty of support through the team's expert coaches! If you need some motivation to get into running further distances, or are just unsure of where to start join team Moving Spirit! Click on the link below to register!
http://joainc.org/Runners.aspx

All the training you need to complete this amazing journey will be provided. We ask that you commit to training with the $50 entrance fee, which will cover your race day shirt and other miscellaneous expenses. We encourage you to take part in fundraising efforts where your friends and family sponsor the steps you will take to derail duchenne. Race fees will be covered with $1,000 raised in fundraising efforts. You will be given you all the tools you need to help with your fundraising efforts.

This is a perfect way to jump into a new distance. With so much support and running for a great cause, your experience will be nothing short of phenomenal - I promise you that!

Again coaches and pacers are needed as well - you can click here to sign up to be a volunteer! http://joainc.org/Coaches.aspx

The goal of John Owen's Adventure is to put $150,000 in the hands of Scientists searching for a treatment of DMD. Let's help find a cure for John and the 500,000 other boys suffering from DMD.

NERC TURKEY SOUP RUN

This year's Turkey Soup Run went great! Thanks to Guy Gadomski for all his hard work on this. Guy made loads of bread and turkey soup, while other members brought various yummy foodstuffs. It was a beautiful day (well, for most-I wanted snow!) Many runners showed up - old NERC's and new and we all had a blast. It was great to see new faces -Big thanks to everyone who came out!

IMPOSSIBLE2POSSIBLE UPDATES

The time is here! Youth ambassadors are leaving this week to begin their journey - Expedition India! Previous youth expeditions consist of travels to:

Baffin Island

Tunisia

Bolivia

The Amazon

Click here to be taken to the Expedition India homepage to follow along!
Watch as Ohio youth ambassador Jessica Kenny from Lake Erie College runs India with other youth ambassadors from the United States and Canada!http://impossible2possible.com/india/home

Good luck to all the youth ambassadors, educators, doctors, and adventurers! Safe travels!

NERC Autumn Leaves 5 miler, Forbes House Donations, and Runnin' the streets of C Town

AUTUMN LEAVES

BIG thanks to all the runners who came out to the Northeast Running Club's Autumn Leaves 5 miler last weekend. The weather was (depending on who you ask...ahem) great and people seemed to really enjoy themselves. This was the last race this year as far as volunteering goes for my family and I. Saturday we helped set up - my husband with outside/course marking duties with the manly men and me inside setting up registration, food, etc. with the womenfolk. My son went outside with the tough guys for awhile but quickly came back inside coughing and sounding horrible. He wasn't looking good at all so as soon as the inside work was done we hit the road and went back home. I gave him some medicine, some homemade soup and kept him inside the rest of the day. That seemed to do the trick as he was back to his old self on race day, well rested and recharged - ready to fulfill his duties of picking on NERC V.P. Sean! Poor Sean....poor Sean! There were a decent army of volunteers on Sunday, and my son, Carole Krus' daughter (such a cutie) and myself were in charge of a water stop. The kiddos handed out the water and I took pics of the race. There's five photo albums which you can find at the links below:

Album 5

Album 4

Album 3

Album 2

Album 1

Thanks Mark Anson for putting on another great race!













Big thanks to all the volunteers who came out as well. The NERC is a great non-profit organization and none of this can be done without your help!


FORBES HOUSE DONATIONS

Big thanks to all my friends and co workers who donated to the Forbes House! The picture shown here is only 1/3 of the donations received!

October was Domestic Violence Awareness month and the Forbes House is a shelter for battered women and children. Their mission:

"To relieve the trauma resulting from domestic violence, to assure access to safe and caring environments for its victims, and to foster an end to domestic violence through education, prevention, and advocacy".

I'm so grateful for all my friends, the donations filled my entire trunk and the entire back of my car. I've got a few more things left to take down there and that's it! Forbes House is an organization close to my family's heart, and we appreciate all your help!


RECIPES THAT WORK

Missing your hot cocoa? As the days get colder I'm finding it harder and harder to avoid the wonderful comfort of hot cocoa. So - this is what I came up with. It tastes great, much like those McDonald's (ewww) McCafe coffee drinks, but it's packed with healthy goodness. Mix it up! Try different flavors of coffee, different flavors of protein powder and see what you like best. Some tips:

#1: When you go to blend it, blend it on the lowest setting.
#2: Don't reheat (or put the mixed drink back into the coffee pot to keep warm)
#3: This does just fine sitting in a thermos for a few hours.

Protein powered hot cocoa:
Ingredients
1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I use Iso-sensation)
1 serving of coffee (I've been using chocolate mint ground coffee)

Instructions
Make your coffee as you normally would (leave black - no cream, no sugar), then put into blender. Place 1 scoop of protein powder into blender. Blend on low until mixed.

Enjoy!



CITY RUNNIN'

So my son had so much fun running through Pittsburgh a couple weeks back that I decided why not Cleveland as well? Today we went downtown with our friend Charlie Bolek and ran 10k through the streets of Cleveland.

We had a great time exploring the city and goofing off! We started at the Westside Market and made our way towards Tower City, through 4th Street and past the theater district. It was windy but fun - and made for a good recovery run for Charlie who ran 50k the day before!!!!!

This is definitely an activity that we will continue to do. Right now I'm willing to drive 2-3 hours away to go explore a city in this fashion, so next on our radar will either be Columbus or Detroit. We've never been to either city, so it'll be great to explore a new place in such a fun way :) Afterwards we stopped at Patterson Fruit Farm and Barnes and Noble for some new books. The rest of our day has been spent in our jammies reading. Good weekends like this make Monday mornings so much harder! I'm not so sure I want to go to sleep tonight, because when I wake up it will all be over......


Happy Running,
Laurie

FORBES HOUSE DONATIONS

For those that didn't know, October was Domestic Violence Awareness month. During the month of October I collected items to take to the Forbes House for Women and Children at work. The Forbes house is a safehouse for battered women and children. Their mission: "To relieve the trauma resulting from domestic violence, to assure access to safe and caring environments for its victims, and to foster an end to domestic violence through education, prevention, and advocacy".

I was thrilled to have received so many donations to take to Forbes! This is just a third of what received to take to Forbes:

Everyone was so incredible with their donations of food, clothes and toys! My trunk was full - as well as the entire back seat/floor of my car! Thanks so much for everything guys! Work friends donated, as well as friends outside of work. You guys are all awesome! I've taken the majority of the items to Forbes, with just a few things left to take this week. Wonderful!! This organization means a lot to my family, and we really appreciate it!

I2P UPDATES, NERC UPDATES, BEGINNING BACKPACKING & MORE!

I2P UPDATES

I received my I2P gear recently and it's the best stuff! compression shorts, jacket, long sleeve/short sleeve running shirts and tank...it was well worth the wait! The stuff couldn't be more comfortable - thanks I2P!










Did you see?
My amazing friend and coach Ray Zahab was on CTV recently speaking about I2P. Check the short video clip out here:


This was really well done and gets to the heart of what I2P is all about...a must watch!
Ray was also featured in Outside magazine - check it out here:
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/athletes/Ultra-Ambassador.html


And one more video - a preview on the upcoming Expedition India!  This month 4 incredible youth ambassadors will be running  approximately 300 kilometers in the world's seventh largest desert!  Once again one of the ambassadors is from right here in Northeast Ohio - Jessica Kenny.  Congrats to Jessica and all the youth ambassadors, and GOOD LUCK!

India Youth Expedition 2011 Promo from GOi2P on Vimeo.



Northeast Running Club Updates

The Saturday group runs are still on and with my son's Cross Country over I can finally go back! Except this weekend (lol). This weekend the family and I will be helping set things up for the Autumn Leaves 5 mile race held at the Lake Metroparks Farmpark. This race is an incredible event, and so much fun! Run past cows, through corn mazes, and slide in the mud - make sure to come out, you'll have an incredible time! The race is on Sunday and starts at 9:00 a.m. It looks like the weather will be nice for once (boooo) so come get your fill of corn, hay, and fun!

NERC in the news!!!
Check out this article on Autumn Leaves and our awesome non-profit running club, it really explains what the Northeast Running Club is all about - and what the club's mission is:

http://www.cleveland.com/willoughby-hills/index.ssf/2011/11/northeast_running_club_hosts_a.html

BEGINNING BACKPACKING!

With training miles currently reduced I still need to get my vitamin D! One of my goals (forever it seems) was to get backpacking gear and start backpacking together. Well, we went to REI Pittsburgh, and with the suggestions of my I2P friend Agnes Jung and the recommendations of "B Man" at REI I think we're all set! We got some great stuff and are ready to roll.

I took my son out for a test hike this weekend. We loaded up the packs with EVERYTHING we would take when we are out backpacking:











I wanted to see how he'd hold up first close to home - and this also gives me an idea of how many miles we could put into a day. We hiked a small part of the Buckeye Trail (it turned out to be a ton of road - yeah we got funny looks). Despite the roads we still had a fun time. At first my son had a hard time putting away the phone - but eventually it happened and we had some good conversation. Hints my son was thinking like an ultra runner came out. He schooled me on different toenail removal techniques, info on Badwater, grabbed a stick to carry for the whole hike like ultra-runner dude Ron Ross, and also asked "Hey mom, I wonder....has anyone ever run the whole Buckeye Trail?" Hmmmmmm......

We also got great amusement out of these two signs:

One side of the street with this sign: (Enter Cuyahoga, Leave Lake)











The other side of the street with this sign: (Enter Lake, Leave Geauga)










I imagine it's as simple as this: One side of the road is in one county, the other side in the other county - but it was still hilarious seeing it!

We managed 9.75 miles in 3 hours and 40 minutes. I really have no clue if that's fast, slow, average but I'm glad it went well. I tried to squeeze out an extra .25 miles to make it an even 10 but my son figured me out :) Throughout the whole hike I was testing his sense of direction, having him read the Buckeye trail markings and having him tell me where to go. When we got close to the parking lot I decided to blow right past the trail head in an attempt to sneak in that extra .25 and also to see if he was paying attention both at the beginning of the hike and at the end. He did great at awareness and called me on it right away! Boooo! It still bugs me we didn't get the extra .25! Sheesh.


THE END OF A SEASON

Cross country is over for my mini, and he had a blast running with the team this year. The coaches were great, and the kids were amazing.

Examples of kid greatness:
Early on I was faced with a hard decision to make (a nightmare!) My son called me at work to ask me if a senior, Nick, could drive him to the weekly pasta dinner. My heart fell into my stomach. "Let it begin" I thought. The first time a KID would be driving MY kid. Point blank I was scared as hell. But, this is how it is - he's growing up, so I let him go. Everything worked out fine of course, and the senior that drove him is a pretty amazing person. All the seniors were great role models to the younger kids in fact, and it was so great to see. At one time I wasn't sure if he had a ride to the pasta dinner or not, and I hung out at XC practice to see if my services were needed. He wound up not needing a ride, because once again Nick was taking him-and I watched this amazing kid fill up his vehicle with freshman. So amazing! I never saw that in my school growing up. Seniors wanted nothing to do with lowly freshman. Maybe because I never played sports - so maybe I was lacking in experiencing that kind of camaraderie, but this all was really fascinating and new to me.

The strong character of the kids came through more than once this season. As it so happened I run with the Riverside teacher's running group when I can, and there were a few times we ended up in the same park as the XC runners. One instance when I was running I came up behind some kids who were running and having a discussion on the rights/wrongs of swearing. I slowed down to listen to the conversation again just completely fascinated at their discussion and their feelings on the topic. I ran smiling, hearing how "There was no place for it, etc"  Again...AMAZING! These are teenagers???

Excellent work on a great season runners! We're proud of you!


LAKE METROPARKS/FARMPARK VOLUNTEERING

Another Halloween season at the Lake Metroparks has come and gone, and my son has once again volunteered at the Haunted Hayrides. This is by far his favorite volunteer job with the parks. Other volunteering he does with the system: Day camp counselor aide, Wildlife Center Assistant, and he has volunteered at Christmas Lights. He loves all that he's done but definitely has a blast with the Hayrides. When else can you be an astronaut? I mean come on!











I hope everyone had a great Halloween - now get out and run off all that candy!

Happy Running,
Laurie