SUNDAY!!!!

Marathon on SUNDAY!!!! I hope all of you are excited, you all worked your tail feathers off! In less than 5 days it will all pay off! Good job everyone!!!!
I am coming to cheer you all on, and of course have fun at sea world :)
I can't wait!!!!
Mental high five to all of you!!!!!

-Amanda

One more Week Homies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2TRUUu2uHo
See you all soon!

Shoutout to our SF team!

Hi all! Kristen here. I know… it’s taken me 6 months to break into the marathon blogging world. No great excuses, but I’m happy to come out and join you all! First, you should all know that you have been so inspiring to me! From tips, to affirmation, to knowing that I’m not alone in the excessive chafing between my legs (thanks Kik), I have loved journeying with all of you. I still can’t believe that six months ago, I avoided running one mile at all costs, and here I am, chattin about how 20 isn’t as bad as you’d imagine. I would have NEVER dreamed it, and I am so happy! Way to go Kiki in getting us out there.

So today’s my day to make sure to give a shout out to some of our other hardworking marathon buddies...

Introducing… the beautiful, the incredible Rachael Arreguin & Korin Okamura!

Lookin' fly ladies. I could have picked more embarassing, believe me.

These are two of my most favorite, precious friends in the world. From that first running week after Thanksgiving, they have been on board- reading the blog, training on the nasty hills of San Fran, finding vintage lamps on the side of the road and running them miles home, getting cheered on by homeless men, and conquering marathon life! I’m so proud of them, and so thankful to have them on this running adventure with me. We ran our 20 together in SLO on Saturday, and they rocked it!

Also, as we’re gearing up for the weekend, if you get a chance to pray for Korin, all this running has brought on some weird internal body/thyroid issues… we’re really praying that it doesn’t keep her from the race! Thanks for supporting her!

Can’t wait to be with you all in 2 weeks! Yessss!

Running in Santa Barbara

Hey Grace great idea. We will be sure and put that together after the race. Vali finished her 20 miler yesterday here in Santa Barbara. I followed her on the bike and gave her Gu and water. She did such a great job and ran almost the entire time. I also included a couple of photos from my run here this morning. This place makes it easy to want to get out and go running. It is so beautiful. We can't wait to see you all soon! 

Curtis

Woohoooo!  Taper time!  Grace- I love your summary idea.  This has truly been an amazing experience and the best is yet to come!  I ran my 20 miles at 8000 feet this weekend and felt pretty good.  My calves got really tight around mile 17.  Not sure what to do about that other than stretch them out as I go.  I'm so so proud of everyone and can't wait to see my long lost CA family.  KikiImsogladyouremakingusdothis :)

-Tayler

In a way...we've already made it!

Megan here. Aunt Grace--I'll be sure to write up my summary and email it to you after the race...because I'm sure we'll make plenty of memories during the race :)

Aunt Grace is right...we can do this!! I ran my 20 miler on Saturday...my post pic is to the right. And I still had enough energy for a thumbs up! Would you EVER think you could run 20 miles?? I NEVER thought I could/would. If we can run 20 miles, we can definitely do 6.2 more, right?

I'm so proud of everyone for sticking with this...we're going to run a marathon! How many people can say that in their lifetime?

I'm so excited to spend time with all of you..it's been way too long. 2.5 weeks until we're reunited!

Sum it Up Challenge: Deadline: June 10

Grace here. I know we've all been thinking about this process we've been in the last 4-6 months as we've trained for our upcoming marathon. Personally, I just recently turned a corner on believing I actually might do the whole thing. From day one, I expected to fail. About 2 months ago I decided I would just do the 1/2 and felt like I MAY be able to do that. Yesterday we did our 20 miler. Now I am starting to believe I might finish the thing before the street sweepers show up. I have a challenge for ALL of us! Even if you've never written on this blog. I would love to hear (and document) for all of us our life lessons from the Rock n Roll family marathon training...kiki.made.me.do.it. You have from now until one week past the marathon (June 10) to send me a short summary of your journey. Just a few sentences is all. PLEASE????? You have PLENTY of time left to form your thoughts as you run the remaining miles. Be yourself, be honest, be timely. Email me your summary when you're ready: grace.cabalka@gmail.com Questions to consider (just in case you have writer's block, feel free to chart your own course!): What are you the most proud of? What has the training experience been like for you? How have others encouraged or discouraged you? What have you learned from them? What principle for life have you embraced in this process? How has being part of a 'community (kkmmdi) impacted your experience? How has this challenge influenced how you face other challenges in your life? At what point did you want to quit the most? What kept you going? When you look back at your months of training; what makes you smile? Can you come up with ONE sentence that summarizes it all for you? No rules, no expectations (other than to DO IT...gracemademedoit). Thank you so much! I will treasure your words, Aunt, mom, friend, cousin, wife, runner, grace

20 mile run

Hey guys. I did my 20 mile run today! I finished in 2:53:00 and felt pretty good. My goal of beating 4 hours looks like a possibility. A HUGE thank you to my good friend Patrick Ang who rode his bike for 3 boring hours and carried my water and GU. Good luck to everyone on the last remaining long runs! Curtis

My hand is up for GU

 GU
- Glucose Polymers
- Filtered Water
- Fructose
- Leucine, Valine, Histidine, Isoleucine
- Natural and Artificial Flavors
- Potassium and Sodium Citrate
- Gu Antioxidant Blend (Natural Vitamin E and Vitamin C)
- Citric Acid
- Calcium Carbonate
- Sea Salt
- Preservatives
- Fumaric Acid
- Malic Acid
- GU Herbal Blend (Chamomile, Cola Nut, Caffeine, Ginger)
- Pectin

SWEDISH FISH

- Sugar

- Invert Sugar

- Corn Syrup

- Modified Corn Starch

- Citric Acid

- White Mineral Oil

- Artificial Flavors

- Coloring

- Carnuauba Wax

Can you see the light at the end???

Grace here...
I hate to have so many posts on one day...but it's just SO inspiring. Well, Steve and I have almost got our fastest mile time up to ya'lls slowest mile time.
Megan: add Kyle, Carolyn, Gerrit and Afton to your list. Also, Mario is coming to cheer us all on! It's Mario's birthday June 1, so we will do some kind of birthday dance on Saturday. So, I am super excited to see all you cousins together. How special is that.
Kiki: drink water!
A few thoughts:

• Here is MY after picture. May as well start embarrassing ya'll now.
• No tricks for my hair. It always looks perfect.
• I think I'm going to make a paper chain during Biggest Loser tonight. 
• My chiropractor (who could be my son) said to squeeze my buttocks so my lower back won't hurt. That adds a LOT of effort to my runs! 
• We're supposed to do our 18 this Saturday. We missed last Sat. Yikes. I have a vague memory of looking forward to Saturdays.
• No one has hit on me while running. Or Steve (to my knowledge)
• We're running old folk marathon style now: Run 4 minutes; walk 1 (for runs over 6 miles). The weird thing is our times are improving. I think that means we walk faster than we run. Scary.
• I've tried to keep the fact that I'm doing a marathon on the down low, cuz I expect to fail...but Mr. Big Mouth has made it well known. Pressure.

I think we are planning to go to Sea World on Monday. Mario can push us all around in wheel chairs if needed. I really can't wait to see you all and I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! People are AMAZED when I tell them we are doing a marathon as a family!!!

Steve trying to keep the calorie count up. errrrr...

LOVE TO ALL! Be careful, and we will see you soon!!! 

KEEP POSTING EVERYONE!!!!