Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sunday, November 15, 2009

St. Jude

Dear Family and Friends,

Almost 6 years ago, while at work one day Anita said, "I'd like to run a marathon". Big mistake! I said, "I'll see you at 4:30 am ". That's how it all started. We have been running friends, running enemies, co-workers, cohorts in crime, and lately, shoulders to cry on. As some of you know, Anita's grandson Chase is now in heaven. These last 10 months have been very difficult for the Schlenker and Hawkins families. We have decided to participate in the St. Jude Marathon on December 5th in order to raise money for St. Jude's. St. Jude is the most wonderful place that you never want to need. St. Jude provided Chase with outstanding care from the beginning to end. We would like to give back to St. Jude in Chase's honor. Here is the link to our page for the marathon; www.mystjudeheroes.org/lesanita. Please make a donation if you can, but more importantly, please forward the link to your friends and family and encourage them to do the same. We know it's nearing the Holiday Season and the economy is in recession, but any small amount would help the children and families at St. Jude who are battling their worst nightmares.

Thank you so much.


Love,
Leslie and Anita

Monday, November 9, 2009

Lake Chabot Marathon

Yesterday I had the privilege of running the Lake Chabot marathon. This event was sponsored by Coastal Trail Runs, which in a small way, is affiliated with Pacific Coast Trail Runs. This was a new event and offered distances of 5, 9, 17 and 26.2 miles. The event started at a sanely hour of 8:30 which meant I could sleep some before driving over to Castro Valley. At 8:30a. all participants lined up and Marissa sent us on our way. The marathoners were to run the 17.1 mile loop first followed by the 9.1 mile loop. I headed out running at a nice pace. The course followed the East side of the lake with 2 miles of pavement before hitting the dirt trails. The Skyline 50K, Dick Collins Fire Trails 50 mile, and the Lake Chabot half marathon all run on these Redwood Regional Park trails and I love to run here. We headed down the bridge

and up the Live Oak trail. I met up with a nice man named Ron from Hickman. He used to belong to the Turlock Running club so we had several mutual friends.

This was taken on the Grass Valley trail. Here is my new friend Ron and another runner.

I didn't wear a watch so I had no idea of my time or pace. I felt really good as I came into the start/finish area to head out for the 9.1 mile loop. I dropped off some clothes, grabbed some food and headed out. I haven't really done any trail running since Western and I found myself walking a lot on the uphills.
I was surprised to see how low the water level was. This is a picture of a marshy area, which used to be water.

The nine mile loop is gorgeous. It has a lot of single track trail with lush greenery. There are no bikes allowed on this narrow trail so it's in pretty good shape.
I hit the pavement on the East side of the Lake and knew there was only 1.75 miles left. I tried to run, even on the little uphills but my legs were tired.
I came into the finish at 4:01:58, good enough for 1st woman and 2nd overall (it was a really small marathon). Results can be found here.

Here is Marissa manning the finish line.
I couldn't have asked for a better day!!

Run fun......

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Halloween

On Halloween our running club, Shadowchase hosted a fun run to benefit the Teens Run Modesto.
It was at East LaLoma park and they offered a 5k and 10K. It was a "no frills" event.
Roos and Dino

ran the 5K. Roos pretty much ran most of it and finished in 35 minutes. He's s l o w l y starting to run (although he says he doesn't "get it").
Anita and Kiwi

ran the 10k.
I ran the 10K also


It was a great event and raised $1700 for the Teens Run Modesto program.
Here is Connor at his school parade.

He is a combo of a mad scientist, zombie and old man????

Hope your Halloween was spooky...