gretchen says

Last night at Ingrid’s gymnastics, I was talking to a friend about how much fun it is to support a fitness habit with gear. I’m really not a shopaholic but as a geek, I do love gadgets and data and all of that. And as a Mainer, you do have to consider the clothing as well.

So, here’s what I run with:

Clothes:

I just bought this shirt from Target – a Powercore running shirt that is soft inside, wicks sweat and all of that. It’s compression so it’s super tight, but it helps with the jigglies quite a bit. I’ve had a few days to use it, but this week has been warmer so I’ve been using my summer clothes (A basic wicking tee from C9 by Champion – more Target – and a pair of Avia capris I have had for years) but the below 40 degree days, this shirt has been great.

I also wear a sports bra, but I’ve had it for years and don’t even know who makes it but I think it maybe came from Kohl’s originally? It works so far, so I haven’t gotten a new one. Since I’m, ahem, fairly large chested, they are hard to come by, so I’m just happy to have one that works and sort of dreading the day I need to find another one. (Though I’ve heard good things about Moving Comfort…

For cold weather legs, I was advised to get Under Armour Frosty Tights. Those things are like $50! But yay, they had some on 50% clearance in Navy Blue, even available through Amazon with free shipping, so I bought them for $25. The first time I wore the compression shirt and the compression tights I felt a little — exposed (despite being so covered only my hands and neck and head were showing) because it’s all tight. But oh well, I run in the dark and never see anyone and even if I do? OH WELL. I’m running. I was really surprised at how warm they kept me on my coldest days (so far) so I’m glad I got them.

My socks are from Target, too (sensing a theme?) and are Duo Dry ankle socks and they seem to be just fine, though I’ve heard that other brands can be better.

Shoes: I am wearing Asics GT2150 that I purchased last year from a local sporting goods store. This is when I first decided to do C25k, and they seem fine but I really would like to go to the Maine Running Company for an actual fitting. I have heard noth

ing but good things about that process, at their store, and being an overweight, duck footed runner, I could probably use some professional advice. They seem to work fine, but I read about others who just LOVE their shoes and stockpile them and won’t ever buy anything else, and I think I need more professional input before I can say that.

Technology:

First and foremost, I run with my iPhone. It’s (“just”) the iPhone4, but I love that it does so many things all at once. I have apps to monitor my pace and distance and cadence and tell me when to run and when to walk and when I need to move faster, and I just looove that. And while my phone is tracking all of that data, it’s ALSO playing my favorite podcasts (I know I should probably run to music, but running is when I have clear enough headspace to actually LISTEN to my podcasts. My favorites are This American Life, MacBreak Weekly, Manic Mommies, and This Week in Tech.  I have other favorites, too like the Moth, but that would require more playlist management than I do right now because it’s a short one. The other 4 I listed are all at least an hour long, so they are good for my workouts. I’ll always take recommendations for other podcasts, though!)

The apps that I use are iSmoothRun — it tracks a ton of data AND will export to multiple places. I have mine set to post a summary of my run to Facebook, Twitter, DailyMile and RunKeeper. I can also set up custom interval workouts, so when I get frustrated with a C25K week, I can make my own. Like, this morning I did my 3/1:30 routine, but I have a list of workouts I’ve made that I can choose from. I set a custom pace (12:30 – have I mentioned I am sloooow) so that when I am in an interval, it will tell me to speed up or slow down. And after every interval, it will let me know how I did. Interesting finding — I can never find that exact pace until the END of my workout. Which is weird, because it means I’m speeding up as I go farther??) It cost a few bucks when I bought it, but I really like it.

I use Downcast for my podcasts. This is a new one for me, and might be the solution to listening to shorter podcasts on longer workouts, because it does have a playlist feature. I like it way more than the interface in itunes, or even their new podcasts app, but I only recently bought it because my old one was basically bricked with an update. (Podcaster 5) and it was time to move on…

Headphones: Kinivo bluetooth headphones. When I hit my 10% goal in Weight Watchers, I rewarded myself with some wireless headphones. I am surrounded by magical technology, and it has always, always driven me nuts that headphones are still usually a knot of wire and figuring out which is right and which is left and then having the cord flap in your face while  you run, and needing to have the headphones always be just 3 feet from the phone. Oh my god, the anxiety corded headphones have given me in the years of digital music. Anyway. I bought the Kinivo pair based on reviews and price. I am not an audiophile that is going to be super critical of sound quality, but they sound fine to me.  They are over the ear, which I prefer because I can hear the environmental noise — cars, people, etc — still. Since I also wear glasses, I was worried about how they’d compete with the limited over-the-ear real estate I have, but it’s been fine. They sync quickly, remember the phone, and have a pretty great battery life — it took 3 weeks to drain them the first time, and I’m still waiting for the second drain. My only minor complaints are that the one button can be tricky because if you go to power off and don’t press long enough, you’ll dial the last number dialed (oops!!) and there is no ear-to-ear adustability, so there is some space between the plastic band and my neck. But for $25?? Those aren’t issues.

Fitbit! I got the Fitbit for Christmas and have worn it just about every day since. It tracks steps and flights of stairs (and sleep, buuut with a toddler that doesn’t sleep through the night, that ends up just depressing me) and syncs to a website where you can share your data with friends. I wear it on my bra, both when running and just with everyday use. It’s very cool to see the trends and how I’m doing with my goal, and to know that it’s 2000 steps to go around the loop and that my morning run route is almost 7k steps. And with my employer holding a step contest right now, it is super easy to just pull up my data and enter my numbers. I have the Ultra, but the newest version — the One — adds some great features, like Bluetooth syncing. (It will work with an iPhone 4s or 5, and the newest iPad, I think.) Right now, I don’t see the numbers online until I get home because it has to sync through a base station.

And to carry my iPhone, I use a SPIBelt. Yes, it’s basically a fanny pack, but it’s SO much better than one. It doesn’t bounce, it protects my phone from the elements, but keeps it near, and it fits so snugly that with my regular shirts, I wear it underneath and you don’t even notice it’s there. I have the water resistant one, in black, but they make lots of other colors and options. I had tried an armband for my phone but to make the phone fit, I had to remove my every day case, and it was awkward on my arm, and I couldn’t get to the controls, etc. With the SPIBelt, it disappears, basically, and I need to remove my phone to  access the controls (or not, I can stretch out the belt part and see my phone if I just unzip) but I can just set up my app and my podcast and go with it.

That’s what I have now — what will I want next? I can see purchasing official running capris in the spring, and some new socks and shoes. (OH! And I met my goal for the Freaky5k so will be donning a Team Sparkle skirt later this month, color TBA) And with technology, I’ve heard cool things about heart-rate monitors and GPS watches, but I look at the Garmin website and just get overwhelmed. Or if/when I update my phone, and I can use Bluetooth 4.0, I could probably just get a HRM and sync it wirelessly WHILE wearing my headphones (my Bluetooth doesn’t allow multiple connections). ANd then I think if I could have the GPS features of the Garmin with the ease of use and syncing with the Fitbit. . . that would be awesome. It would be nice to see more easily the time and pace and all that (with my phone in the SPIBelt, I can’t see it, so I rely on the app to tell me my statistics. And I haven’t used an HRM but have heard good things. But when I look at the Garmin site and see all the options, there doesn’t seem to be a perfect one (the 405 seems best, it’s now discontinued but available on eBay — but I’ve heard mixed things.) I am such a gadget hound, and will always be looking for the one device to do it all, all the time.

Is there such a device? Or any Garmin fans out there to provide advice?

This morning, I was not feeling it. Before my alarm even went off, I had a dream that I missed it and woke up too late to run and felt bad but not THAT bad, so when my alarm woke me from that dream, and I was soooo comfortable (this weekend marked the return of the Big Down Comforter for the season) it definitely took a little extra energy to swing my legs out from under and go for a run. I was slow to get into my clothes, I was slow to get my podcast chosen, but as soon as I stepped outside and got to the street, I realized that the September sky at 5:30 am was clear and speckled with stars. Orion! Right above me! No one else around! And I did my route, and was so thankful that I had gotten out to see the stars right in the middle of my city.

I also have been playing with different interval sets — I had been doing 2:15/1:30 and then was inspired by one of my friends to try another of the C25K workouts (in the past, I get stuck on week 4 and get frustrated, so I had moved to my own repeating intervals instead) but decided on Sunday to try week 4 again, and see if my strategy was helping at all… and it was!! I got through all of a Week 4 workout (3/1:30, 5/3, repeat twice) and then did the last mile without timed intervals, but running several blocks and then walking for one, and repeating til I got home. So today, I decided to try Week 5 – and because I am slow and am going for mileage, not time, I tweaked my intervals to be the Week 5 one (5/3 x 3) to add 3/1:30 x 4 at the end. And I got through that, too! So I might even go for the next week 5 workout on Thursday (8/5 x2) and follow that with more of my own custom intervals.

My goal for the Freaky5k this year is to finish under 40 minutes. I would really like to make that happen. Really.

And I am just $30 away from my goal (and fyi, Purple leads for skirt color with 18 votes, and Orange is second with 12 … just so you know) and would love to hit that goal (and then some?) very soon!

I set the bar high with my goal of $250, and I have so far received three donations totalling $105 — which is AWESOME. (Thank you A.C. in NY, B.W. in Maine, and …. my mom and dad.) But I REALLY want to meet my goal, and it was easier last year with Komen because everyone hates cancer, and everyone knows what Race for the Cure is. Hardy Girls, Healthy Women is a much smaller organization, but it has big needs, too. And maybe even more, because HGHW can’t just slap some pink on something and get five cents in return, their money is earned with a little more grass-roots effort, which is why it REALLY matters to me. So, I upped the ante.

If I meet my goal, I will wear a skirt in the race. Not just any skirt. A SEQUINED skirt, from Team Sparkle. Now, if you know me, you know why this is a very valuable prize. I am Not a Skirt Girl. And I am especially Not a Sequined Skirt Girl. Not much of the bedazzling type, over here,  more of a jeans-and-t-shirt or khakis-and-long-sleeved-knit-shirt girl. I do have patent leather shoes… but they are Danskos, so that is immediately negated.

But look at these skirts:

A sampling of the skirts at Team Sparkle (image from www.team-sparkle.com)

And tell me you wouldn’t pay good money to see ME run a 5k in one. Exactly.

So, for every $5 you donate, you earn a vote to pick which color I will run in. (And yes, pink is an option. If you know me, you are looking for your wallet. If you don’t know me, just know that… I hate pink. Like, a lot. A whole lot. But if I get $250 for HGHW and the votes are in pink’s favor, that is what I will order.) You can donate through FirstGiving, or if you know me personally and would rather give me cash, I can take those donations, too. My 3 initial donors will get their votes and rewards, too, even though I just came up with this plan today. And if I run in a sparkly skirt, EVERYONE will be rewarded with a photograph of that.

The theme of the Freaky5k is “bringing scary back,” and to most people, a sequined skirt is not exactly SCARY. But to me, running a race is pretty scary, and doing it in a SPARKLY SKIRT is even scarier, so I’m bringing scary back in my own way.

You can donate and vote until October 17, and you can donate and not vote after that date, too. (I just need time to order the winning color.)

Here is Guidestar’s page on HGHW, if you want to know more about the organization and verify that they are aboveboard and worth your $5 and my 5k. In a sparkly skirt. (And for what it’s worth, Komen has a 1 star rating, based on 656 reviews, at Guidestar – so your support of my race this year is really and truly for a great cause.)

And this is their mission statement:

Hardy Girls works with communities and with girls themselves to change the environment in which girls are developing. We aren’t focused on fixing a problem with girls but on the world they are experiencing. We see and imagine the best girls can be, we create fun and challenging spaces for them to realize their strengths and talents and we engage the community in that process. Hardy Girls’ work is based on research that shows girls going through adolescence lose the strong voices that were natural to them in their early years. As girls reach adolescence the difference between the images they see of women in the media and the image they have of themselves causes them to turn their anger and confusion inward. While boys “act out”, girls “act in”, causing them to engage in at-risk, destructive behavior damaging their bodies and their minds. Our vision is that all girls and women experience equality, independence and safety in their everyday lives.

One of the issues I’ve had with learning to run is figuring out the endurance piece. I just can’t seem to bust through the 2nd 3 minute run in week 3 without being in a lot of pain. A 3 minute run! WTF? So I asked my good friend Jeanne for help, and her thought was that I was going too fast. (haha. Ha.) She told me to aim for 12:30 on my running intervals, so I went into my app (iSmoothRun) and instead of using my C25K intervals, I set up a workout of repeating intervals of 2 minutes running, 1:30 recovery, repeated 11 times, which I figured would get me through my 3.25 mile route. (I went off-plan with C25K way back, when I opted to always do 5K instead of a 30 minute workout) I’ve been doing that all week, and it’s still been sucky, and I’ve still had pain and had to walk ten steps or so (especially on the uphill intervals) but today!!!! Today I did the whole thing, ran every second of my running intervals, EVEN THE UPHILLS (and in fact, the longest uphill ended up being one of my fastest intervals? Not sure I believe that, but that’s what the voice in my headphones and my run log says…) and most importantly: I didn’t hurt. I felt like a million bucks.

My plan is to repeat this on Thursday, and then do one of the C25K workouts on Sunday, and then next week nudge up my running intervals by 15 seconds, or maybe 30? and then tackle that endurance level (and I almost put that in quotes, because seriously, running for 2 and a half minutes straight is an embarrassingly low bar for endurance, but it’s MY bar, and it is certainly more than I could do before!) and then keep increasing my interval time, and decreasing the recovery time, until some day, I am just running. And today was a tiny but also kinda big step in that direction.

I haven’t posted an update on my running in a while, so here’s what’s new:

I am still learning to run. I am probably going to ALWAYS be learning to run, but I’m still getting out there.

This summer, on my Summer Fridays (I flex my schedule to have Fridays as a work from home day) I loved getting up and going for a run and showering and then starting my day, and as soon as summer Fridays were over, I missed it, but the only window to do that would involve getting up early. I mean, REALLY EARLY. But I wanted to try, just once, to say I did, so I did. I downloaded an app for my iPad to set an alarm (Dave is the alarm master in our room, and HE didn’t want to get up that early!) and I laid out all of my running clothes in the living room, and when my alarm went off at 5:15, I snuck out and downstairs and suited up and headed out, and…. it was great. More than great. It was almost EASIER to get up at 5:15 and go for a run that it is to drag out of bed at (mumblemumble) and race to get out the door. The streetlights were still on! It wasn’t muggy, it was the just right temperature. After my 3.1ish miles (I don’t go for time, but for distance, and aim for a 5k every time I run, but that typically takes me about 45 minutes, see: still learning, above) I get in, take a shower and get some breakfast before anyone else is really awake. It’s great. I wish I’d started sooner.

Because I now realize I can do it, I started immediately worrying about winter, and remembered that there was a free gym pass promotion through our wellness department at work, and yay, I was one of the ones to to make it on the list! The gym is right by my house, and not only has cardio machines, but also does classes, including one that is like the Group Power class I loved so much at the Y, AND it’s at 5am. I am looking forward to that as well.

But related to running, I am going to do a 5k I did last year, again, called the Freaky5k. It’s at the end of October, and is sponsored by an organization that I love, called Hardy Girls, Healthy Women. Here’s their mission statement:

Hardy Girls Healthy Women (HGHW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health and well being of girls and women. Our vision is that all girls and women experience equality, independence, and safety in their everyday lives. To that end, our mission is to create opportunities, develop programs, and provide services that empower them. Since day one, Hardy Girls programming, resources and services have been powered by the latest research in girls’ development. Much of that research comes from the work of Hardy Girls co-creator and board member, Lyn Mikel Brown.*

I want my daughters to be raised in a world that values them as people, not pretty objects, and Hardy Girls, Healthy Women (and Brown’s book, Packaging Girlhood) help me do that. I can’t wait til they are old enough to participate in the Adventure Girls program (next year, for Ingrid!) and the resources they provide for people who work with girls — I would love for my girls to spend most of their time in a “Hardiness Zone.” So, this year, instead of raising money for Komen, as I did last year, I am making my fundraising race the Freaky 5k. Part of being a healthy woman is nutrition and fitness — but also having the courage to sign up for a race, when you run a 15 minute mile.

I would love it if you would donate. I am running with at least 2 friends (hoping to get more!) and our team name is Geek Girls Go!, with the motto of “Not Just a Pretty Brain.” Please consider supporting me, and us, and HGHW, by donating a few bucks over there on the right. If I can dare to learn to run**, you can dare to donate $5.

*Little known fact: Lyn Mikel Brown grew up in Washington County. (I know this because she graduated with my cousin. It’s WashCo. We know our 6 degrees.)

** and learn to get up before dawn to do so!

Desk before: One long cluttered arm and one shorter L shape where I work. I wanted a stand up desk, so I did some research and found out that I could do it pretty easily and cheaply. I already had two computers (a laptop and a desktop) and this meant I could use my laptop more. 

After some research, and with approval from our wellness coordinator, I headed to Lowe’s for supplies. I bought 2 1x8x4 boards from the shelving area (the cheapest version, and looked for pieces that didn’t have knots in the center) and they chopped them into 2 foot segments. (I could’ve done the same with a 1x8x8 but the 4 foot boards were easier to maneuver around the store with, and there wasn’t a price difference.) I also got 2 basic cinderblocks (8x8x16) and 2 half cinder blocks (8x8x8), and an anti-fatigue mat. I bought red because I love red, but there were neutrals available, too. Total cost: $36.96

I managed to set it all up myself, although maybe my wellness coordinator wouldn’t approve of the “just heave the desk on top” method, and my drawers still fit underneath. Actually, I love the new layout, because before, the drawers had a lot of play on either side, and my USB power thing was shoved behind the drawers and inaccessible. Now it sits in the space between the drawers and the table top, and I can easily plug other things in (like my laptop — taking it with me to class will be super easy.) I also have a place to tuck my bags, and I have two spare 1x8s in case I feel like I need some more height.  For now, barefoot on the mat, it seems about the perfect height, in my danskos, it feels a little low. I can always tweak the top surface to fit, too, though.

In the next FY, I will be losing the iMac and getting a display that runs from my laptop, so I won’t need to toggle the mouse pairing between computers. For now, though, it works great.

From my research, it seems that having the option to sit or stand was key, and it seemed like a lot of folks who went straight to Stand- Only gave up after a while. I used this site to calculate the desk height, and may try something like a wobble board as I get used to the option. 

I’m typing this from my standing desk, and already digging it. Yay!

My second race report! (Really?)

So, I did Race for the Cure and was so proud of myself, I immediately started considering doing another one. On Twitter, I mentioned this:

Almost as a dare, not to the others, but to myself. And wouldn’t you know it, they bit! Over the last month, we quickly organizes a logo (thanks BFF!), a Facebook group, and a plan for our team — made up of basically people who know each other best via Twitter. A week before our race, I even ran with Diana, which was also the first time I’d met her in real life! And only about ten days ago, after hearing they’d be headed this way from southern Maine, I told a friend to join us (Dave’s middle/high school best friend’s wife just did her first 5k two weeks ago!) and we ended up with a team of six. One had to bail due to illness, so today it was five strong women meeting in Waterville for a good cause — for me, Tami, and Bev, it was our second race ever. For Tanya, it was her zillionth race — but her first in more than 8 years. For Diana, it was her very first 5k!

Last night I put together the goodie bags for the car ride, healthy snacks and bottles of water and bananas for the drive, and I put all the things I’d need in the tote bag so I wouldn’t forget it, made sure my iphone was charged, and ate a small bowl of oatmeal and had a small cup of coffee. Diana and Bev showed up at the same time, just before 8, and we picked up Tanya down the road a piece, and we were off!

Picking up our info was easy, and it was great to have Tami there with Aaron, who was deemed team manager and given all our stuff to hold, and told to take pictures. We had to walk to the starting line, and it was timed, but not chip timed so they basically said “go!” and we went. 

The first part I walked while I started my app and got it secured in my SPIbelt, and then I started to run. I caught up with Diana and we were at the same pace for a while and then I inched ahead. My goal was to A) have fun, B) finish, and C) do my best while listening to my body. I should have started out slower, my shins started to hurt, so I alternated running and walking (which was my plan anyway — I am nowhere NEAR being able to RUN the whole thing!) and my app would tell me every 5 minutes how I was doing. I’d also made a playlist to help me — so instead of timing intervals, I’d measure them out, like “I will run until I get to that street/telephone pole/crack in the road” or “I will run til the end of this song” and that helped. The course was a downhill that then cut across and headed alongside the city soccer fields, and that was a highlight — while there were Colby cross country team members directing people, by the time they saw the “penguins,” they were sort of bored and yawning out a “good job!” as people went by. (They were very nice, but not at all impressed by ME! A super geek/non athlete/wrong-side of 35 MOM shuffling by!) But at the soccer fields, there were some passionate little kids, probably 8-10 years old, Hardy Girls, I’m sure, who were lined up on the sidewalk giving us high fives as we ran by, so excited to be seeing RACERS, that it was totally inspiring. To those Hardy Girls, this was a BIG DEAL! And it was great.

After the soccer fields, I thought “hmm, I remember there being a hill when I street viewed the course” (because HELLO, we are the geek girls, of COURSE we streetviewed the course!) so maybe this is it?”… and then I saw The Hill, which reminded me of 14th St Extension here in Bangor, only maybe longer. I knew I’d be walking up that mother. So I did, I walked as fast as I could up the hill, and in the distance, I could see my teammates! Cheering and waving, and it was SO FRIGGING GREAT. They pointed me to the finish lane, and that was after the hill flattened out, so I ran across the finish and beat my Komen time by 2:33! My teammates who finished first had gotten us all water bottles (I was really hoping for a water stop on the course!) and it was very welcome, I pounded some water and then we went and waited for Diana to come in, and she did 2 minutes better than our (much flatter) personal 5k we’d done the week before! It was awesome to have cheerleaders, and to cheer someone on.

At Komen, I had just had Dave drop me off and I did the thing all by myself and then had to wait for him to come find me to take me home. I had no cheering section, no team, no one to hand me water and say “yay!” and having a team this time was so, so awesome. And truly, our common thread, aside from wanting to be healthier and fitter and believing in the Hardy Girls, Healthy Women org, is that we are Twitter friends. (The Internet Is Real Life!)

And now we are looking at the Turkey Trot, in November! I kind of love the challenge of racing against myself — I was 15/15 for my division, but I improved on my own time, on a (I think, with that ending hill) harder course, and I love imagining what these races could look like next year, once I learn to run the whole thing!

I can’t embed the map, but here’s a link!

In eleven days, I do my next 5k! Holy carp! And this time, I have a vanload of people and an official team shirt. Gulp.

And! AND! We are talking about doing one in November. Double carp.

Lest you think this is impetuous, let me just tell you, it is not. There is serious research that goes into choosing an event, especially for a new runner.

At this point I am only looking at 5ks, but I’m sure it will apply if I were looking at different race times, too. Here’s my criteria:

Look for a Run/Walk. I am not even at the point that I can run the whole 5k, but I know I can walk it. I like the idea of a Run/Walk event because when I need to stop to walk, I feel like I still fit in. 

Find past results. I know, for instance, that I can cover a 5k in under an hour. I don’t necessarily want to be last, of course, but more than that I don’t want to hold other people up. If the event shows the last finisher of a 5k clocking in at under 40 minutes, I don’t want to be there. Yet.

Find a cause. Race for the Cure helped me rationalize the idea of a race, and get over my fear of public exercise, because HELL-O, I am so goddamn lucky to have the health I do, and being surrounded by reminders of that good fortune makes my anxiety seem ridiculous. (Rightfully so.) This next event I am rationalizing as setting an example for the girls like me out there, that they can turn into an athlete whenever they want, that a Hardy Girl can be a Healthy Woman, even after senior year of high school. 

Look for a shorter race within a longer race. I’m not there yet, but when I daydream about what a good next goal would be, I like to fantasize about the Sugarloaf 15k that happens at the same time as the Sugarloaf Marathon. Or a half-marathon that happens during a full marathon. (That is way, way, way in the future. Way. But it will be my strategy for the next level.)

And on to my ‘training’ for this 5k, instead of doing the C25K workouts, I have set my own intervals for 30 minutes via RunKeeper, and doing them on a 5k course. So, the first 30 minutes are scripted, and then I play it by ear as I finish the 5k distance. I feel like this builds my strength, but more importantly, builds my confidence to cover 5k at once. As fall settles in, I know I won’t care for running in the snow, so I am hoping to get some treadmill time in at the gym at work, or to join a gym, because I’d like to set some springtime goals for this crazy running thing, too.

No, really, my next race! And this time, I’m bringing friends.

The race we are going to do is the Freaky 5k, in Waterville, which is sponsored by an organization that I love. I first heard Lyn Mikel Brown speak at the Bangor Book Festival a few years ago about her book Packaging Girlhood, and as a strong woman raising a strong daughter (at the time, now that’s plural) I loved the book, and loved hearing about the organzation she created, Hardy Girls, Healthy Women. (Side note: she grew up in Calais, so I like to think her Washington County upbringing influenced her research track. )  

The team I’m on is made up of other reluctant athletes, but of all the events to run, this might even be better than Race for the Cure for being a “geek-friendly” event. As I said to one member, it’s important to do it because there are girls like us out there who never see women like us doing the things that the Other Girls do, so we need to show those kids that smart girls can race, too. 

If you want to join us, register at the link above and mention you are part of team Geek Girls Go!