[6/23/12] Updates and medical mission to the Dominican Republic!

First, before I get into my upcoming mission trip... I wanted to say THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND LOVE!! This picture says it all...

I know it's hard to read but I've raised over $1310 dollars and was given this exclusive T-shirt that I will take with me on my medical mission! The fact that you all have shown so much love and support for me and for the kids in Africa inspires me SOOO much! Thank you!

I will be going on a medical mission down to the Dominican Republic for about 10 days :) During this time, our team of 15 students will be providing as much help to the people as possible. We are bringing medicine, our skills, and our training with us to this mission. I will be taking pictures during this time as well!

While there, I will continue my training with some of my friends there! We will be running during our downtime and because it will be really hot, this is going to serve as my hot/humid weather training since Chicago can get pretty hot and humid as well (although definitely not as bad as down there!). I will return on July 2nd so that will be my next post since we will have limited internet access down there. Take care everyone and God bless!! :)

[6/20/12]: Reflections and updates!

Hello everyone! It has been such a better month of training for me it's ridiculous! After my exams I have taken the past two weeks to really strengthen up my core and my hip muscles to alleviate the strain on my left SI joint. If you all remember, I injured the left side of my hip while running at the beginning of May and basically had to stop training for a full week. When I was trying to get back into it, I caught a really bad case of food poisoning that prevented me from eating for 6 days and I lost 10 pounds during that time (which was bad because I lost a lot of stamina and muscle mass during that time...). Since then, however, I've been trying to stay positive about everything and it has resulted in me getting back to work on the training schedule! Thank you for all your prayers and your love these past few months!! Keep spreading the word!

Right now it is incredibly hot and humid in Chicago. It is 90+ degrees during the daytime and it stays around 80+ degrees at night so it has been challenging to run outside. Still, I plan to train in the heat to make sure that I prepare for any type of condition on race day. I am also going to be in the Dominican Republic for a medical mission! (YAY!) I'll explain that in another post soon! :)

Overall, I've been keeping to my training schedule and I'm looking forward to going home and running in the hills and forests of California soon :) Take care everyone! I'll be posting pictures/runs when I have time because things are kinda crazy right now lol!

[6/1/12]

Wow... I can't believe it's already June! A little more than 3 months away from the big day :) Some quick updates!

I want to sincerely thank my friend Roshni and her family for their amazingly generous donation! :)

I'm not going to sugarcoat it... May sucked a lot. Injury near the beginning of the month and then a week long bout with food poisoning at the end of the month. My training schedule definitely fell apart due to all those health problems so I'm praying that June will mark the beginning of a much better month for me. One thing I'm good at, however, is adapting to the situation so I will use that ability to get myself back into fighting condition

Due to my final M1 block exams on June 4th and June 6th and the fact that I was severely weakened by the food poisoning (lost 10 pounds over 5 days...) I'm going to focus on finishing the year out strong. I will then pick training back up starting on June 7th and focus on that for the rest of the summer! I'm still confident I can reach my final goal of 1:30:00 or better but I need to keep it sustainable!

The 5K color run is tomorrow (Saturday, June 2nd) and I highly doubt I'll have the strength to run/jog it. There's always next year! I'm planning on signing up for more tune up races during the summer to help me gauge my progress so keep posted!

Take care everyone :) My next post will be on June 6th once I'm done with my first year of medical school!!! :)

God bless!