Here are some pictures from the marathon. I was definately feeling some pain as I crossed the finish line!!

Thank You Thank You Thank You

A great big huge Thank You to all of you who supported me throughout my training and fundraising. So many of you encouraged me by sending notes and emails and I also appreciated all the phone calls on the weekend of the race!

I wanted to let you all know that it's still not too late to send a donation. I will be accepting donations until November 22, 2006. You can send a check to me at my home address or online (disregard the last email that I sent out about it being to late to donate online, that account is still active). Go to the links section on the right side of the page and click on the word 'Donate'. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to call or email me - aamoretti@verizon.net

Check back soon as I will upload some photos from the race.

Crossing the Finish Line!!

The plane landed in sunny San Francisco Friday afternoon just around noon. A short ride to the hotel and we were off to see the city. More sight-seeing on Saturday and after a pasta dinner it was off to bed for a good rest. 7 AM Sunday morning the race starts and 26.2 miles later I crossed the finish line and it felt great!! The whole weekend is a blur, everything happened so fast and before I knew it the race was over and I was sitting on a plane for 5.5 hours heading east. Although it was over fast it was quite a memorable experience! I met some great people and loved San Francisco, what a great city!

My official time for the race was 5:36:05 which was a little longer that I had hoped, but for my first marathon I think it's great! I am just thrilled that I crossed the finish line. The race started out slow, with 15,000 people it was hard to move! Running by the Golden Gate Bridge and hearing the fog horns blowing was awesome! And, oh, the hills!! They were grueling, long, and hard. There were tons (at least it felt like tons) of people cheering us on mile after mile. It made the race quite memorable. Around mile 20 I thought I would die; between the pain in my knees (due to my IT band) and the pain in my feet (yikes) I really wanted to throw in the towel! After a quick stretch by one of the TNT coaches around mile 22/23 and I was off to finish the race. Stopping every mile after that to stretch out my IT bands I cried my way to the finish line. I can't explain the overwhelming emotion when I saw the finish line. The finish line was right along the coast, I even cooled off in the icy Pacific Ocean!! What a thrill!

So, I'm already planning the next marathon! I know that I can finish within 4 hours and am determined to meet this goal. It's true what they say about marathons beeing addictive!! I will post pictures soon! You can go to the nike marathon website (find the link on this page) and type in my last name or bib#7826 to see pictures from the race.

Last Minute Donations

I wanted to let you know that it's not too late to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. The Society's mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Since its founding in 1949, the Society has invested more than $483 million for research specifically targeting blood cancers.

If you still want to donate there are two easy ways. First, click on the Donate link on the right side of the blog page and that will bring you to a sight where you can use your credit card. You can also make a check out to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and send it to me at 531 Derstine Ave, Lansdale, PA 19446.

To all who have generously donated I wanted to say a big "THANK YOU".

Three More Weeks

Wow! I am floored that I only have three more weeks of training left until the marathon! This summer just flew by, and fall is here! I am definately enjoying running in these cooler temperatures, I hope San Francisco is this nice. I am so glad that many of you have kept up with my progress and continue to ask me about it. I also wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who came out Wednesday night and participated in our fundraiser at Pizzeria Uno's.

To keep you updated on my running; this weekend will be my last long run (over 12 miles) before the race. I will be running 18-20 miles on Saturday so think of me as you sip your coffee and kick back and relax! I've actually enjoyed my long runs and have even gotten my mother to bike along with me as I run! My favorite spots are Forbidden drive and the Perkiomen trail. These trails seem to be kinder on my knees than the hard pavement at Valley Forge. Speaking of knees, my knee continues to heal and the only problems I have are on the long runs. The pain is bearable and is getting better as I keep at the training. I continue to ice it and rest it when needed.

I've been thinking a lot about the race and the biggest question I come up with is: How am I ever going to finish? My goal is to finish within 4 1/2 -5 hours. I am also going to allow myself to walk portions if it. If you are interested I added the link to the blog page for the race. You can actually see a topography map of the race! Check out the hill between mile 6 & 7. That might just do me in!! All in all I am really excited about the race and being involved with a great organization like Team in Training.

Still Running!

The race date is quickly approaching! Only 7 more weeks left in my training and fundraising. I want to say a big "thank you" to everyone who has contributed so far! It's been so encouraging to hear from everyone, also! I have not quite met my goal of $4000 yet, but I am more than half way there, so thanks!

My training has been going well. As some of you know I was having problems with some knee pain and had to cut my mileage back. I am slowly building back up to where I need to be to complete the marathon. I have been running lower miles but more often, sometimes twice a day! This has seemed to help, but I'm still taking it easy. I am bound and determined to finish this race without knee pain! Whatever it takes.

A few weeks ago my family took a cruise to The Bahamas & Bermuda. We had a great time and I kept my training up even as we sailed the ocean blue. I have to say the highlight to our family vacation was the running track on the cruise ship. (My brother, Andrew, and I running one morning.)

On a Fundraising note: I have rescheduled the Uno's Fundraiser Dinner for September 27th. You might recall the black out that we had back in July that cancelled the original date. This is an easy way to donate to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Just show up at Uno's in Montgomeryville and eat dinner and 15-20% of your dinner bill goes directly to the LLS. I have vouchers that you need to present to the restaurant that evening. If you have questions or need a voucher, please call me 215-393-1602.

I am in week two of my 16 week Marathon training and I am really excited. I have been logging about 15-18 miles a week with a lot of cross training (biking!). I was in Niagara-On-The-Lake, On Canada for 9 days for some meetings with work. It was perfect weather for biking their on and off road trails. Some friends of mine spent the weekend with me and we did the Short Hills which is a provincial park just southwest of NOTL and the Falls. It was pretty technical but lots of fun! We biked the waterfront path from St. Catherines to Port Dalhousie and also the Niagara Parkway path from NOTL to the Falls. Needless to say I was exhausted on Monday morning after all this biking and was falling asleep in the meetings at work!

I did my first training run with Team In Training (TNT) on Saturday morning. We did about 9.5 miles at Valley Forge. I was a little unprepared and not hydrated enough and ended up feeling really nauseated all Saturday and Sunday. I learned my lesson and have been really deliberate about hydration the past few days. Last night I met a couple of the guys from the LAB, a bible study I am involved with, and we rode about 22 miles from Betzwood toConshohocken. It was a great ride, slow and steady, exactly what I needed!

My Fundraising letter are in the mail and everyone (and I mean everyone) should be receiving theirs very soon. If you don't get a letter, please let me know and I'll send you one! Or you can go to my website and donate right online with a credit card www.active.com/donate/tntepa/aamoretti . On July 18, 2006 we are going to be holding our first fundraising event at Kildare's Pub in King Of Prussia, PA. There will be free appetizers and John Francis and Sara Heintz will be performing. For directions to Kildare's go to www.kildarespub.com . For info about the music go to www.johnfrancismusic.com they are both local Philly musicians and we think they are outstanding!! I'll give more details the end of the week when we have everything finalized with the restaurant and musicians.

Let me introduce you to the team. On the far left is Daniell Roser, the middle two are Jessica Kinzie and Jessica Boyles, and that's me on the right, Alexis Moretti. Here's a little info about us: Danielle is a Social Worker and works with challenged individuals to live their everyday lives. Jessica K. is a fitness instructor at a retiremant community and recently got engaged to an awesome guy named Jason. Jess B. is a teacher in the Philadelphia School District, what more can I say! And I am a Territory Manager for a wholesale perennial grower selling perennials throughout the Northeastern US.

We are really excited about this opportunity to raise money for a great organization and also accomplish an amazing endurance event! Please visit our site often as we share about our training and fundraising for TNT.