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Feb

21

Just 5 for a cancer cure challenge!

Posted by : Carol Dani Toro | On : February 21, 2012

Category: Fundraising

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5 Minutes

Take 5 minutes to read about what I’m doing to help find a cancer cure and find out how you can help with this initiative.

5 Dollars

Take 5 dollars that you would normally spend on coffee and make a tax-deductible donation on my fundraising website: http://bit.ly/doingitagain2

5 Reasons

  • One new person is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 5 minutes.
  • Two $5 donations provides 2 hours of microscope use to determine if a new medicine will stop a life-threatening lung infection in a bone marrow transplant patient.
  • Three $5 donations will cover the cost of sending 3 newly diagnosed patients information about their disease and how to get support
  • Four $5 donations pays for a bottle of nutrients that will nourish 10 million leukemia cells grown in the lab for a week, enabling scientists to test whether a new anti-cancer drug halts their growth.
  • 5 is the number of years some cancer patients have to stay in remission to be considered cure

5 Friends

Forward this page to 5 friends and encourage them to make a difference.

Feb

12

Negative Splits to beat cancer!

Posted by : Carol Dani Toro | On : February 12, 2012

Category: Training

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Take that cancer!

With this new concept I will be…

Better, Faster, Stronger

This morning I ran my first negative-split in 38 minutes.  Don’t know what a negative-split is? No worries, I didn’t know what it was until this morning.  At first I thought it was something we should never do, especially since it contained the word negative.  After all negativity wont help us find a cancer cure. Little did I know that running negative can have a positive effect. (Yeah, yeah, I had to do that.)

As Coach Shelby explained, a negative-split keeps you from hitting the wall at the end of your run.  The concept is that if you run slower in the first half of your race, your body will be warmed up and it allows your body to conserve precious resources.   This allows you to push yourself a bit harder without much effort. If you’re doing it correctly, you should be able to pick up the pace to finish with speed and strength.

While I’m no expert, I believe I completed my first split today.

I also never thought I would say this, but…. Heyyy, check out my splits.

negative split 1024x409 Negative Splits to beat cancer!

*CORRECTION* The highlighted stat should be under Average Pace. (Sorry I was out of it when making this nice little excel table... which of course I forgot to save.)

My second half was definitely faster AND I didn’t hit any walls! From looking at the Average Pace stats you can definitely notice that as time progressed my average pace got better and better. WOOHOO!

If I’m patient and keep up with my negative splits, I’ll be able to run a full marathon in no time and continue fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society so that one day we may find a cancer cure. Little things like this in my training, give me the motivation to push myself even harder.

 

Feb

03

I will run until we find a cancer cure…

Posted by : Carol Dani Toro | On : February 3, 2012

Category: Fundraising, Races for a Cure

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A couple of years ago, David “Grouch-O” Acosta, my friend and co-worker was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Cancer had snuck up on him, and disguised itself as asthma symptoms.  At the time, my friend was a few months short of receiving health insurance coverage and did not seek immediate medical attention.  His symptoms worsened and by the time he went to the ER, the doctors discovered he had stage IV cancer.  The few times I visited him at the hospital, Grouch-o, as we had nicknamed him, smiled.  He kept his head up high and at 26 years of age, this young man never lost hope.

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Jan

15

Running like a true Seattlelite

Posted by : Carol Dani Toro | On : January 15, 2012

Category: Races for a Cure

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Anything for a cancer cure, right?  If you had told me yesterday that I would run in the snow, I would have called you foolish.

Well, it looks like I’m the fool now. The weather can never be too awful to not run for a cancer cure.

This morning I ran the Nike+ Women’s Half Marathon in the snow!!!!! The half marathon was part of a virtual run all over the world to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

According to the Weather Channel it wasn’t supposed to snow until about 2pm.  I actually thought I would be in the clear. WeatherBug, on the other hand, said it would snow around 10am. But seriously, who actually even checks WeatherBug?

I had never seen the snow fall and didn’t even know what it looked like when it fell. The first 20 minutes, I was super excited, but as soon as my fingers started to freeze off, I was completely OVER the snow. The romanticism of white snow falling around me quickly faded. It was awful. The snow just came piling up on us. It was like the more we ran, the more snow we would encounter.

nikeplus 300x225 Running like a true Seattlelite

Friends from the Team: Michelle, Liana, & ME icon smile Running like a true Seattlelite

There was nothing great about being covered in snow, getting hit in the face with snow, and not being being able to feel my toes nor my fingers. My snow gloves didn’t even work! (Well, probably because I got them at the grocery store for $10.) By the time, I got to the finish line I just wanted to take off my shoes, yank off all the wet layers on me, and never be in the snow again.

The snow is NOT for me. I’d rather be indoors sitting by a fire and watching it snow from afar.  However, I am willing to go great lengths for finding a cancer cure.  Being outside in the snow, are you crazy?! After a hot shower, I’m still trying to warm myself up. It’s as if the snow penetrated my bones!

Despite being initiated as a crazy Seattlelite, one thing is for sure…I’m a Florida Sunshine kind of gal.

May

16

I conquered the lake!

Posted by : Carol Dani Toro | On : May 16, 2011

Category: Running Progress, Training

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I had my first 50 minute run and it was at Greenlake somewhere in Seattle. I’ve never really gotten out of the Bellevue area and the journey to Greenlake was much easier than I expected. i dont know what I would do without a GPS.

I continued doing intervals but I switched them up a bit. I had been running 6 minutes and walking 2 minutes. At Greenlake I decided to challenge myself and run 8 minutes and walk 1 minute. It went pretty well until about 45 minutes into the run when I ran past the water stop. Just the thought of water tortured my bladder and I had to take a potty break.

greenlake run I conquered the lake!

greenlake graph I conquered the lake!