Ribbon Girl

Ribbon Girl

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2012 Girls on the Run 5K

Saturday December 1st at 9:00AM, hundreds of girls and their supporters will participate in a 5K event at Huntersville Park. The season began during the week of September 17th and many girls in Mecklenburg and Carrabus counties have been training for the race. I’m so excited for the girls who are a part of this program. Best wishes ladies!

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Race for the Cure Charlotte

 

Komen Race for the Cure

Join us for the 16th Annual Charlotte Race for the Cure

Saturday, October 6th * Uptown Charlotte

Festivities begin at 6:00 am

Who can participate?
Anyone! We had 17,000 participants last year. Our youngest participants were in strollers and our oldest participants were in their 90’s.

How much does it cost?
The recreational event is $30 per person. More than 90% of our participants are in the recreational event. You can either run or walk in this portion. The competitive event is $35 per person, and this is great if you want your running time recorded.

What does the registration fee cover?
Your registration fee provides a special Race t-shirt and race bib. These will be mailed to you if you register before September 17th. Survivors will receive a pink shirt and a hat on race day.

How far is the walk?
The race is a 5k, which is 3.1 miles. We also offer a 1 mile option, and a fun run for children in our Kid’s Fun Zone.

How much money do I have to raise?
We do not have a minimum fundraising amount. We hope that all participants will choose to raise at least $100 – that would result in $1.7 million raised!

 

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THE SLACKER IN ME

I AM A SLACKER!!! I HAVE NOT RUN IN 2.5 WEEKS……..UGH!!!

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The Perfect Running Form

Running better, from head to toe. By Jane Unger Hahn From the August 2004 issue of Runner’s World

Head Tilt How you hold your head is key to overall posture, which determines how efficiently you run. Let your gaze guide you. Look ahead naturally, not down at your feet, and scan the horizon. This will straighten your neck and back, and bring them into alignment. Don’t allow your chin to jut out.

Shoulders Shoulders play an important role in keeping your upper body relaxed while you run, which is critical to maintaining efficient running posture. For optimum performance, your shoulders should be low and loose, not high and tight. As you tire on a run, don’t let them creep up toward your ears. If they do, shake them out to release the tension. Your shoulders also need to remain level and shouldn’t dip from side to side with each stride.

Arms Even though running is primarily a lower-body activity, your arms aren’t just along for the ride. Your hands control the tension in your upper body, while your arm swing works in conjunction with your leg stride to drive you forward. Keep your hands in an unclenched fist, with your fingers lightly touching your palms. Imagine yourself trying to carry a potato chip in each hand without crushing it. Your arms should swing mostly forward and back, not across your body,between waist and lower-chest level. Your elbows should be bent at about a 90-degree angle. When you feel your fists clenching or your forearms tensing, drop your arms to your sides and shake them out for a few seconds to release the tension.

Torso The position of your torso while running is affected by the position of your head and shoulders. With your head up and looking ahead and your shoulders low and loose, your torso and back naturally straighten to allow you to run in an efficient, upright position that promotes optimal lung capacity and stride length. Many track coaches describe this ideal torso position as “running tall” and it means you need to stretch yourself up to your full height with your back comfortably straight. If you start to slouch during a run take a deep breath and feel yourself naturally straighten. As you exhale simply maintain that upright position.

Hips Your hips are your center of gravity, so they’re key to good running posture. The proper position of your torso while running helps to ensure your hips will also be in the ideal position. With your torso and back comfortably upright and straight, your hips naturally fall into proper alignment–pointing you straight ahead. If you allow your torso to hunch over or lean too far forward during a run, your pelvis will tilt forward as well, which can put pressure on your lower back and throw the rest of your lower body out of alignment. When trying to gauge the position of your hips, think of your pelvis as a bowl filled with marbles, then try not to spill the marbles by tilting the bowl.

Legs/Stride While sprinters need to lift their knees high to achieve maximum leg power, distance runners don’t need such an exaggerated knee lift–it’s simply too hard to sustain for any length of time. Instead, efficient endurance running requires just a slight knee lift, a quick leg turnover, and a short stride. Together, these will facilitate fluid forward movement instead of diverting (and wasting) energy. When running with the proper stride length, your feet should land directly underneath your body. As your foot strikes the ground, your knee should be slightly flexed so that it can bend naturally on impact. If your lower leg (below the knee) extends out in front of your body, your stride is too long.

Ankles/Feet To run well, you need to push off the ground with maximum force. With each step, your foot should hit the ground lightly–landing between your heel and midfoot–then quickly roll forward. Keep your ankle flexed as your foot rolls forward to create more force for push-off. As you roll onto your toes, try to spring off the ground. You should feel your calf muscles propelling you forward on each step. Your feet should not slap loudly as they hit the ground. Good running is springy and quiet.

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Training Logs

Training logs are a wonderful tool to help reach running goals and monitor progress. I havent always used training logs, or actually,  I have used them but just not consistently. Lately, I have been reminding myself to log my training/running. I am finding that it helps me to realize that I’ve done really well in a particular month or really sucked.  It also helps me to track and remember why certain runs did not go so well for me due to body ailments, weather, etc. Runner’s World includes free training logs with a subscription of the magazine and I have been using those and actually like having the paper copy to write into.  However, with such modern technology, I had a feeling that there were more techno savvy methods of logging my miles. Runner’s World also offers tracking your runs online. Its pretty neat. Check out the link below.

http://traininglog.runnersworld.com/landingpage.aspx

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The Pain of the Ankle Sprain

Sprained Ankle

Ankle brace

During the month of August, I had four races scheduled (one each weekend) to get in the last bit of summer fun runs before the hectic Autumn kicked in. SUDDENLY, I had an unfortunate mishap. I sprained my ankle during the 1st week of August. I simply couldn’t believe it! Initially when it happened and the initial stinging pain struck, I thought that I  could just sit down for about 10 minutes and the stinging would subside and then I would be on my merry way. Well, that did not happen. The longer I sat, the more painful my ankle became and then….it swelled terribly and turned purple. I ended up going to Urgent Care to get it checked out. Of course I had x-rays taken to be sure that it wasnt a broken bone,,,and it wasnt. It was a severe sprain with lots of internal damage. The first few days the colors of red and purple deepened into my skin tone. It looked plain ugly. So the doctors orders:

1. Wear the brace for 2 weeks

2. Take the medication: 1 horse pill three times per day for 3 weeks

3. NO RUNNING for 4 weeks

The last one devastated me the most. I don’t take pharmaceutical medications so number 2 is also hard for me but not nearly as bad as number three. I guess number one is the easiest. Especially since I have 4 races that I am signed up for during the month of August. What is a girl to do???

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End childhood Obesity by Running

Childhood obesity is no longer on the rise….but has RISEN to a level that is on the verge of  being considered what I call ” OOC” and that means… “out of control”. We already know and have heard through many channels the multitude of reasons for this demise in our healthy children; particularly, children of color (more specifically, African-American children). Mrs. Obama and President Obama have launched a campaign this year, called “Let’s Move” to end the American plague of childhood obesity in a single generation. This campaign targets 4 key pillars:

•  Getting parents more informed about nutrition and exercise
•  Improving the quality of food in schools
•  Making healthy foods more affordable and accessible for families
•  Focusing more on physical education

There are not a lot of stats compiled for 2009 yet, but lots of data up through 2008.

Obesity by Race/Ethnicity 2006-2008

New Obesity Data Shows Blacks Have the Highest Rates of Obesity

Blacks had 51 percent higher prevalence of obesity, and Hispanics had 21 percent higher obesity prevalence compared with whites.

Greater prevalences of obesity for blacks and whites were found in the South and Midwest than in the West and Northeast. Hispanics in the Northeast had lower obesity prevalence than Hispanics in the Midwest, South or West.

For this study analysis, CDC analyzed the 2006−2008 BRFSS data.

Knowing this information, it is important for all of us to do our part. Children are our future and we need them to be lean and healthy in order for them to live long lives and do good in the world. I will do my part by starting a youth running group in my community beginning on April 1st . Not only will we run as a group together, but we will also discuss nutrition and good health. We will enter into competitive races as a group together. We will support each other and lastly, we will donate some of our time and effort to a non-profit organization (Samaritan’s Feet), which donates running shoes to those who are in dire need.

This can only be GOOD!

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Get Involved!!!

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Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait

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