Happy Holidays!

Well, its 5 days until Christmas - where has the time gone? We've spent most of our year visiting family & friends, planning our (quickly approaching) wedding, and of course running races for Team G Shock! :) We've had a great year, and are looking forward to what 2011 will bring for us, and for Team G Shock!

We don't officially have our next race scheduled yet, but keep an eye out for that info coming soon! In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at our holiday card. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and gets to spend time with the people you love. From me, Nate and everyone else who has been with Team G Shock this year - here's to an amazing 2011!

Event #21 - Lifetime Fitness Turkey Trot

What a way to start of Thanksgiving in Minnesota! We flew in Wednesday night and got in kind of late, but were up bright & early on Thanksgiving to run our 21st race. This one was a first for us, as it was the coldest race we have ever run. The thermometer read 7 degrees at the time of race finish, and boy did it feel like that. I've never been so bundled up for a race, and thank goodness we were!

And with temperatures like that you would think no one would show up. But it is Minnesota...and there were LOTS of people there. We had never run this race so based on our experience last year, we were expecting a few thousand. There were over 14,000 registrants and over 10,000 people finished the race. Wow. The race was run through downtown Minneapolis, which means it was CROWDED. There was never really a chance to break away or run in your own space - there were always people (and kids and dogs) right near you. But we had a great time, and we survived the cold!

It was definitely not our fastest race, but here are our times:

Nate Towne - 36:15

Sara Ross - 36:15

And of course, in the spirit of Team G Shock, we got some pictures (mostly thanks to Nate's parents!). Not sure yet which race we will run next, but keep your eyes out!

Nate's parents & us before the race..its cooooold

Nate, me, our friends Alison & Josh and their family

I borrowed this from the website - the start

And we're off...we are most likely still around the

corner not at the start yet

After the race! You can see "TEAM G SHOCK"

through Nate's fleece!

Our best man Matt and his wife Kim with us after!

I had to. I miss snow :)

Turkey Turkey Turkey!

Its hard to believe, but its already time for Thanksgiving. This year has seriously flown by. We are heading out today to visit Nate's family for the holiday. I'm excited for my first Thanksgiving in Minnesota...even if its going to be veeeeery cold. We will get to spend lots of time with Nate's family (and my soon-to-be family) and are really looking forward to it.

We are also squeezing in a race while we are up there. We will be running the Turkey Day 5k very early tomorrow morning. Be sure to send us lots of (very warm) wishes as it will be a chilly day! And while we're running that race, Dad and my brother Geoff will be running the Virginia Run Turkey Trot. Its the same race we ran last year on Thanksgiving, so it should be fun to hear how they do!

Hope everyone has very safe travels wherever they are going, and also has a wonderful holiday with family & friends!

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

What's Next For Team G Shock?

That's a great question. Our original goal was 10 races and $1,500. It didn't take us very long to reach that, so we increased both: 20 races and $3,000. We reached the $3,000 pretty quickly (thanks to My Birthday Wish) and just ran our 20th race (The Army Ten Miler)!

So now what?

We've been asking ourselves that for a couple of weeks now and trying to figure out where to go from here. We could increase the goals again, but that will just go on and on forever. Once we reach 30 races, we'll change it to 40, etc. Same with the fundraising goal. But we're definitely not ready to put Team G Shock to rest. We've truly enjoyed the experience thus far, so why stop now?!

Here's the plan: we're going to continue running races, and we hope you will continue to check back on the blog for updates and results. And we're going to continue fundraising as well. Maybe we'll hold a special fundraising event, or maybe we'll bring back the Birthday Wish - but the point of this whole thing was to raise money to find a cure for Prostate Cancer, so we can't give that up.

We could not have made it this far without the support of both of our families and all of our friends, so we want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We will continue to run for my Dad and for all of you. And I hope you'll keep cheering us on!

Happy Veteran's Day!

Just wanted to write a quick note to wish a Happy Veteran's Day to all of the current and someday veterans! And a very, very special Veteran's Day to my favorite one of all - my Dad! :) Thank you for serving for all of those years. And thank you for all of the experiences your service allowed me. From living in so many different places (including Germany!) to meeting all kinds of people and seeing all kinds of things that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. I am proud to say that I was and will always be an Army Brat!

Event #20 - The Army Ten Miler

Last weekend was amazing. We got to see most of my family, some of my friends, and we accomplished a goal we set almost a year ago. On Sunday, October 24th, along with my Dad, we ran the 26th Army Ten Miler. I had been lucky enough to experience the race before, although I certainly hadn't trained for it like we did the past few months. So this year I was excited to be prepared, and for Nate to experience it all - the expo, walking up to the Pentagon as the sun rose with 30,000 other people, passing by the monuments as crowds of strangers cheered us on, and crossing the finish line.

We trained hard for this race, and it definitely paid off. Our goal was to finish, and we did it! We ran with my Dad for about the first half of the race before he had to make a pit stop, and then Nate and I made our way through D.C. together until the finish line. Dad finished about 10 minutes behind us and then we all got some snacks and walked around all of the tents and people at the finish area.

There are not enough words to describe the feeling of running with that many people while bands, soldiers and complete strangers cheer you on. The Team G Shock shirts were a nice bonus since we heard "GO TEAM G SHOCK" many times along the course.

We got our official results this week, so here are those:

19541st place - Sara Ross - 2:02:32

19543rd place - Nate Towne - 2:02:33

20613rd place - Joe Ross - 2:12:07

We were so excited to run the whole race and have all of us finish strong! We took a few photos before/after and I also grabbed a few from the official photography site.

Bright & early in Arlington!

Making it official! :)

Walking around the finishers area

After the race - WE DID IT!

With my finishers coin!

We can't believe that this race was our 20th race for Team G Shock. The time has flown by and we could not have done without the support of our family & friends. Our goal was 20 races & to raise $3000 for The Prostate Cancer Foundation. We've run the races, and we've exceeded our fundraising goal. But this is certainly not the end of Team G Shock. More things are to come, and we will be updating about that soon! For now, we're going to enjoy the memories from the Army Ten Miler! GOOOOO G SHOCK!

Off we go!

Tonight we are headed off to VA (YAY) for the big race weekend! We have lots of plans: time with family & friends, the race expo, my first bridal shower, some relaxing, and the race! We have put lots of time into our training and can not believe that Team G Shock's 20th race is here! The past 16 months have flown by, and we're so excited to see what comes next for this team.

But first...10 miles to run! :) We got our last training run in today (just 3 miles) and will rest for the next couple of days. I can not wait for the race and can't wait to share with you all how we do! Keep an eye out for results, and if you have a moment, send some good thoughts our way as we run our longest race yet!

Until next week..GOOO G SHOCK!