The Day Is Here

The day is finally here.  Today all of our training will come to fruition.  I am so incredibly proud of each and every one of my students.  The fact that they made it to the starting line is amazing.  I know they will all finish and they will all be winners in my eyes. 

Alex, Nick, Miguel, and Jonathan before the race.

The St. Liz coaches:  myself and Ms. Hernandez. 

Nick is helping Ivan secure his bib to his RBO shirt.

More details on the race later but I wanted to share that everyone finished - all 21 students finished either the half marathon or the relay.  What they set out to do, they completed.  What a huge accomplishment!

Pasta Dinner

After attending the Expo we headed to Pasta Pelican in Alameda for our pasta dinner.  This was a great time for us to get together and talk about the past 11 weeks of training and to give each other pep talks for tomorrow!  The students were able to have a three course meal beginning with a choice of soup or salad, followed with an entree of pasta, and to finish off the meal a delicious dessert. 

Eduardo, Ana Laura, Ivan, Nick, Jefferson, and David trying to decide what to order.

 Mr. Schooler with Javier

 David, Alex, Jonathan, Alex, and Miguel

 Javier is trying the Clam Chowder soup.

 JJ and Junior are ready to dig in!

 Ruth and Nadya getting ready to eat their dinner.

 Jonathan and Alex digging into dessert.

 

This pasta dinner would not have been possible without the extremely generous donations from the following individuals:
James and Aracely Burke, Michael and Janice Chrobak, Jim and Dawn Schooler, Steve and Marisa Linquist, Kait Knight, Juan Casillas, Wendy McPhee, Michael and Laura Moir, Eli Pitta, Jay Schooler, Chris and Rachel Baker, Tery Schooler, Christina Malley, Virginia McCarthy, Will and Julianne Cole. 
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Expo

Today we went to Oakland Running Festival's Expo to pick up our registration materials and our race bibs.  This was the first expo for all of the students so they enjoyed walking around checking out the vendors and getting free stuff!  Eduardo was glad that Zico was sponsoring the half marathon because he loaded up on Coconut Water.

While touring the Expo Eduardo, JJ, and Ana Laura ran into Tod, RBO founder.  They were happy to give him a hug and say hello to him.  I'm sure he had some inspiring words for them.

All of the students were excited to get their official ORF shirts.  Junior and JJ showed us the half marathon shirts.

Tomorrow we have 21 students running.  Twenty are running the half marathon and 1 is running the marathon relay.  In addition, two St. Elizabeth teachers are running the half marathon and one former teacher is running the half marathon. 

2 Days Away

This is it. We are two days away from running the half marathon and relay.  There are 20 students running the half marathon and 1 student running the relay.  I'm so incredibly proud of each and every one of them.  They have done an amazing job keeping up with the training and preparing themselves for their first big race. 

Tomorrow we are going to the Expo together to pick up our bibs then we'll have our pasta dinner.  I know they will do amazing things Sunday morning.  Whether they are the first of our group to finish or the last, they are ALL winners in my mind.

Eduardo Recaps 12 Miles

Running 12 miles this week did not seem like it was going to be much
of a challenge. I had ran multiple times that week and had been
anticipating the run. Coming in the morning on Saturday, I was ready.
I did some pre-stretching and made sure that I had hydrated myself. As
I walked in Mrs. Schooler told me that one of my fellow running club
members, Jonathan, had some shot blocks. Based on the taste of the GU
we had a few weeks prior I was willing to try any other form of
energy. I was also looking forward to the chocolate milk that RBO
promised us once we finished the run.

Running around the lake the first time was probably the hardest. I kept a steady pace and made
sure that I tried to get into the motion. After the first lap I felt
pretty good and somehow on the second lap I wound up leading the
entire group. I was amazed, even though I was at the same pace I began
with, I was all the way in the front of the group. I kept this lead
all the way though that lap and once I reached the end of the second
lap I took my shot blocks and was amazed on how much it tasted like
candy. If I was able to I would replace all my meals with it. I wanted
to eat all it, but I kept my cool and went back to running. Going
through the third mile the shot block worked. I had enough energy to
keep going and I began to speed up while still pacing myself. By the
time I reached the last lap I made sure to drink some water and then
took the last of my shot blocks.

The last lap I kept that same pace and was just ready to finish. My feet began to go numb and as I saw
the tent I began to sprint to the finish. Once we finished Don told me
that we had ran 12.8 miles in 1 hour and 42 minutes. I did not realize
how fast I was going, but I was happy to know that I was close to my
goal of finishing in under an hour and forty five minutes. After that
I ran to the cooler and got my chocolate milk. That was probably the
best chocolate milk of my life. After this run I feel ready for the
half marathon and am prepared for whatever comes on that day.

12 Mile Run

 The students ran 12 miles today.  They actually ran a bit more than 12 miles but we didn't tell them that before hand.  They ran around the lake 4 times.  Mentally I thought this was going to be a tough run for most of them.  Not only was this the furthest distance they've run but it's also hard to run the same route 4 times.  They did mix it up by changing directions but still it was going to be a huge challenge.

The kids did great though!  They each had either Gu or Clif Shot Blocks to take during the run.   They were practicing with fueling while being out on long distances.  They really worked hard and did amazing.  I was so proud of them.

Junior was strong and stayed in the lead the whole time.  He's going to do great at the half marathon!

Following close behind Junior was Ivan and Alex running with Mr. Schooler. 

JJ and Ana Laura did great running together most of the time.  I was really impressed to see JJ sprinting toward the end.  She definitely finished strong!

Janette and Jasmine looked good the entire time.  You wouldn't have thought they were working so hard with the smiles on their faces!



Anthony cracked me up.  He definitely took the idea of refueling while running to a new level.  Whenever we saw him running he was always eating something. I found out after he finished that he ate three Clif bars and 2 Gus during that run!

Jefferson's Recap of 5 Miles

The 5 mile run on Saturday was great. Everything started off as it usually did and I decided that I would jog at a faster pace than usual since it was only 5 miles as opposed to 10 or even 12 miles. I started my run confidently and I did my best to keep my form during the run. The lap around the lake felt very fast and it seems like each time that I run around the lake time goes by faster and faster. This makes me feel awesome and I try to run the lake a bit faster each time. I remember that on the very first training session 9 weeks ago at Lake Merritt running 2 miles seemed like a big deal to me. I used to get tired after running my first mile and I didn't really know how I could run 13.1 miles. As the Saturday runs started adding up I noticed that I didn't feel tired after running a couple of miles. I was able to build up my endurance by increasing my mileage each time. As the half-marathon approaches I will continue to run and give it my best.

5 Mile Run

Today we had a recovery week.  After last week's 10 mile run, we dropped our mileage down to 5 miles this week.  Everyone was in good spirits and looking forward to a shorter, easier run before we tackle 12 miles next Saturday.

Jefferson, Nick, and Anthony did some warm ups together.

 Jasmine, Janette, Jaontra, and Ana Laura were all smiles before starting.


Here comes Eduardo - one of the leaders this week.



Anthony (in yellow) was not too far behind him.

We have been encouraging other teachers to run with us.  Mr. Spongberg (in gray) has run with us a few Wednesdays for our mid-week runs and he ran with us today.  Jonathan and Alex ran with him today.

Mr. Schooler is ready to high five us as he runs on by.

 Stephanie was just finishing up her first lap around the lake.

Javier (on the right) was looking strong today!

Whenever I see Jaontra running, she always has a smile on her face.  It doesn't matter if she's running 5 miles or 10.  She makes it look so easy!






Jefferson picked up speed this week and ended up running faster than his pacing group - great job!

Jasmine and Janette are usually running together, supporting one another.

 
I'm so proud of how strong Miguel is.  He's improved so much from when we first started 10 weeks ago.
 
 Karina works so hard at her training and she's doing great!

I can't wait to see how they do next week with 12 miles!