The Races Just Keep On Comin'...

A few weeks ago marked 1 year since Team G Shock was officially started (aka, the first blog post went up!). Well today it has been exactly 1 year since we ran our first race! Hard to believe that it has been a year. A year full of running, fun times with family and friends, more running, setting records on the course and for Team G Shock's fundraising (thank YOU), an amazing birthday celebration, and even more running. We've come a long way, and hit a few bumps along the way, but its all been for one goal - to raise money and do whatever we can to help find a cure for Prostate Cancer.

1 year down, and 14 races later, we're still going. This Friday we will be heading up to Delaware for a nice long week at the beach with my family. And since that's where we first ran with Team G Shock, we figured we should do it again! So race #15 will be the 8th annual Jimmy's Grill 5k in Dewey Beach, DE on July 4th. The race is run by an organization called the Seven Sisters & Two Brothers Road Races. They put on a series of races every Summer in the Dewey Beach area (one beach over from where we vacation). Dad was able to run in a few last year (aka, show us up in our original goal of 10 races by running 3 on his own). We're excited to run and this will be our fifth race with my Dad, and my oldest brother may join us too! It will be a fun week starting off with that race!

So until next time, hope everyone is enjoying their Summer, and GO G SHOCK!

Happy Father's Day!

Just wanted to write a quick note to wish my Dad, and all of the other Dads out there, a VERY Happy Father's Day! :) I was lucky enough to spend time with my Dad since him & my Mom (along with Nate's parents) were in Nashville this weekend.

Hope everyone (especially the Dads) had a WONDERFUL day!!

And here are some old school pictures of me & Dad..hope they make your day as much as they did mine! :)

me sleepin' on Dad's shoulders in DC

what is still one of our favorite things..hanging on the beach!

love my Daddy! :)

Event #14 - Music Fest Road Race

This past Saturday was Team G Shock's 1-year anniversary. And we also ran our 14th (where has the time gone?!) race. The anniversary was awesome - to think what we had accomplished in just a year, its amazing. The race - not quite as amazing. It was hot. And when I say hot, I mean HOT. It was 90 degrees with 100% humidity...welcome to Tennessee. And that was at 8:00AM for the start of the race. Yikes. So needless to say this race was not our best performance. BUT, the important thing was that we did it. We ran and finished the race and all for Team G Shock. Every runner has "off" days, and this was one of ours. But just another chapter in this adventure.

Here are the (not-so-fast) results from the race:

440th place - Nate Towne - 36:03

441st place - Sara Ross - 36:04

us before the race...

due to the head cold I'd had all week..I came prepared

(notice the fog from the humidity on the camera lens)

after...very sweaty...but we did it!

We've got a busy weekend with both sets of our parents coming into town tomorrow! Excited to show them some of the wedding planning we've gotten done. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Team G Shock's Anniversary!

It is hard to believe, but this Saturday, June 12th, is officially 1 year since the start of Team G Shock! It has been an unbelievably amazing year filled with running, running a little farther, setting goals, crushing those goals and discovering the generosity of friends, family and strangers (aka, new friends). We want to thank everyone who has encouraged us, or run with us, or donated money for everything you have done. We feel so blessed by everything and are excited for the future of Team G Shock!

And that future will start with a race on our 1-year anniversary! We will run our 14th race, the Music Fest Road Race, this Saturday. It is hard to believe that in less than a year (b/c our first race wasn't until later in June), we will have run 14 races!! We are so proud of what we have accomplished and couldn't have done any of it without the inspiration of my dad and his fight!

Here's to our first year, and many many more!

Event #13 - Memorial Day Dash

We hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! We spent lots of time relaxing and ended the weekend with race #13 - the Memorial Day Dash. Since it was Memorial Day, the race began with the National Anthem being played and a moment of silence for all those serving currently and also those who have served in the past. It was really nice.

The race started outside of the Nashville Sounds (our very own minor league baseball team) stadium. We got to run into the stadium and on the field and then made our way around a few other Nashville landmarks until we reached a cemetery nearby. The money that they made from the race will go to restore the cemetery. We looped in and out and in and out of the cemetery paths and finally made our way to the finish line! It was a great race and we hope to do it again next year.

Here are the official results from the race:

236th place - Sara Ross - 31:19

237th place - Nate Towne - 31:19

Not our best, but definitely looking good! :) We're excited with the time and hope to improve on it in our upcoming races!

We took a few pictures before & after, so here are those...

before the race..we always look sleepy!

Nate got himself some new shoes..and this is the first race I've worn mine! YAY!

after in front of the Sounds field.

the flag at Ft.Negley..Happy Memorial Day!

Races, Races & More Races!

Since race #13 was rained out (boo), we've put a few more races on the calendar to keep up with our goal of getting to 20 races! This Monday (Memorial Day), we will run in the Memorial Day Dash here in Nashville. The 5k run will take us through some notable Nashville locations which should be fun! I'll be sure to post some photos & the results next week. Then, on June 12th, we'll be running the Music Fest Road Race - a 5k during CMA Fest here in Nashville. CMA Fest is a crazy weekend filled with every country music fans favorite things - concerts, meeting artists and everything country music. This is the first year that they are having a race, but it should be fun!

And then in July we are heading up to Delaware for some time at the Ross family beach house! It will be great to get some rest & relaxation in, but we figured why not try to sneak in a race especially since my Dad will be there too! We haven't quite figured out which race it will be, but it will be part of the Seven Sisters & Two Brothers of Dewey Beach Running/Walking Series. They hold races all summer in Dewey Beach (one beach down from ours) and Dad ran a few of them last Summer and said they were great. We're excited to get to join in on the fun!

So there are lots of races on the calendar for Team G Shock & we'll be signing up for even more here soon! We're still training with the ultimate goal of running the Army 10 Miler in October and each race gets us closer and closer to that goal!

Hope everyone has a very fun & safe Memorial Day weekend! GOOOO G SHOCK!

Event #13 - Girls On The Run 5k

On May 1st, we were supposed to run our 13th race, the Girls On The Run 5k, here in Nashville. But unfortunately mother nature had other plans. As I mentioned in my last post, Nashville was doused with more rain than it has ever seen in such a short time. When we went down to the race, we were all just bummed that the rain and lightening wouldn't stop and the race had to be cancelled. Little did we know what the rest of the weekend and the next few weeks would hold for our wonderful town.

So, we didn't get to run that day, but Nate & I will run other races and so will the girls that had trained for this 5k. And Nashville will rebuild and dry off. We have another race that we're looking forward to at the end of May (the Memorial Day Dash 5k) and life will move on. But if you have any extra prayers or good thoughts to send to our city - please do! The people here are tough, but everybody needs a little extra help from time to time.

I took a few pictures before the race and then a few during the weekend as well. Keep in mind, most of these are before it actually got bad.

me & nate before..its early & rainy. but we're mustering up some excitement!

waiting out the rain before the race was cancelled

booo for cancelled races :( but we had no idea what would come next

later that day, this is what we ran into when trying to get home..

the water you see is the fairgrounds down the street from our house

cars in water down the street from our house - this was still Saturday.

Sunday & its still raining. The Coke factory by our house.

the fairgrounds were turned into rapids. unreal.

a truck that was stuck at the fairgrounds

that is usually a road

more views of roads covered

water almost completely covering a car if you look closely

amazing to see lines of debris as high as the water was all over town

fences completely crushed by rushing water

cars displaced by water

an all-too common scene - peoples belongings scattered on the yard during clean-up

the water was as high as the stuff you see on the car antenna. that's an SUV.

Here's a link to some more photos from the Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/flooding_in_tennessee.html