Happy Holidays From Team G Shock!

Well since its almost time to head home for the Holidays, we wanted to wish everyone a very happy and fun-filled time with family & friends! Hope that everyone has very safe travels to wherever they are headed and is able to enjoy some time off!

And just for fun, here's a look at our Team G Shock themed card that we sent out this year! :)

the front...

...and the back.

We do want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for all of the support since we've created Team G Shock. We have been so blessed to have such great friends & family behind us the whole time (and even beside us in some of the races!). And all of the very generous donations are going to a great cause to help my family and lots of other families have many more years filled with Holiday memories.

Event #8 - Snowflake 5K

This past Saturday was race #8 for Team G Shock! The Snowflake 5k in Shelby Bottoms Park in Nashville! The race started at 9:00AM which is later than most of our morning races, and thank goodness because it was COLD! I can only imagine how cold it would have been at 7:00AM! Luckily, Nate & I had cracked the night before and exchanged Christmas presents early (oops) so I had some brand spankin' new Under Armour cold weather gear to get me through! And he had a shiny new G-SHOCK (I had to) watch to keep us on pace!

We got to the race a little early and met up with David Wright, a co-worker and friend of mine who was joining us for the race! DW has been a big supporter of Team G Shock so it was great to have him running with us. There were over 300 people running the race, and it was a very similar course to the Shelby Bottoms Boogie 5k we did back in September. We've been trying to focus more on our goal of breaking 30:00 and decided to give it a go on this race. SOME of us were able to do it, unfortunately I could not quite keep up! I'd like to blame it on the cold I'd had all week, but it could be just because I'm slow. :) But one day we'll all get there! The good news is, that Nate & I both set new PR's! Here are the results from the race:

95th place - Nate Towne - 29:20

96th place - David Wright - 29:24

123rd place - Sara Ross - 30:40

We are so excited about our new PR's and this just gives me some more motivation to keep up with Nate & whoever else we run with! I've included some pictures from the race below. But first, some quick (and somewhat unrelated) news. Nate's company had their holiday party on Tuesday and they took some time out to share some announcements during it. Well, one of the announcements was that Nate got PROMOTED!! :) He is now officially an Agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment!!!! He has worked so hard for this and I am so proud of him! So if you see him, be sure to congratulate him!

Here are those pictures I was talking about...hope everyone has safe travels during the Holidays!!

Nate & me pre-race and cooooold!

after the race: Nate, me & DW

me & Nate - new PR's!!!!

Nate & his fancy new Casio G-Shock watch...

...that kept him on pace for a new PR!!

Snowflakes & Good News!

No, not the real kind of snowflakes. Not the fun, makes you want to run outside to feel them, and watch them all day from your cozy house snowflakes. Unfortunately, as I have learned in my last 5 years in Nashville, we don't get those. And if we do, they go away very quickly. But what we do have is the Snowflake 5K this coming Saturday! The race is at 9AM and is on a course that we have already run, which will be nice. I've been feeling a little under the weather this week so we haven't spent much time training, but hopefully we can make up for that before the race! And one of my co-workers and friends, DW, will be joining us for the race. Apparently Santa will even be there to lead the race! So keep us in your thoughts this weekend as we head out for Team G Shock race #8!

More importantly, onto the good news! Obviously, Team G Shock was started for a reason, and that reason is my Dad! He's been so strong through this whole thing. He had a check-up this morning where they tested his PSA level (for those of you that don't know what that is, its basically a blood test that is used to detect diseases like cancer in the prostate. The higher it is, the more it points to there being an issue). Well, Dad's level was UNDETECTABLE! Wahoooooooo! :) Great news! He's not done by any means, but this is a great step in his treatment. So thank you thank you thank you for all of the prayers and good thoughts and be sure to keep 'em coming!

Event #7 - Virginia Run Turkey Trot

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a great time up in Virginia, and it all started with another 5k! On Thursday morning, we woke up bright and early and headed out to Centerville, VA for the 21st annual Virginia Run Turkey Trot! The race began at 8:00AM, but since it was so crowded we wanted to get there early. As I mentioned before our good friends the Baker's joined us, which was a lot of fun. Good to see them, and very fun to have them join Team G Shock for the day!

The race was through the Virginia Run neighborhood of Centerville and was packed! There were over 3,000 runners of ALL ages that came out, which was surprising since it was so cold out! There was also a ton of fog that morning, which made it interesting. You couldn't see too much ahead of you on the course (which I liked because you couldn't see any hills or how big they were!). It was also fun because it was so crowded and you were always in a crowd of people. In some of the races we have run, you can literally find yourself running alone for the majority of the race. But in this it was packed in the beginning, and although it spread out a bit, you were always surrounded by lots of people. And it was nice because some of the neighbors came out to cheer the runners on!

We also have a brand new Team G Shock record set by the very speedy Ted Baker! And then came myself & Nate and then Dad & Mr. Baker. Here are the official results (they don't have place-rankings for overall, so the places are in the Men's Division for everyone else and mine is out of all of the Women who ran):

65th place - Ted Baker - 19:45

875th place - Sara Ross - 32:12

1165th place - Nate Towne - 32:12

1239th place - Mr. Baker - 33:16

1241st place - Joe Ross - 33:16

We stayed after for a bit to enjoy some of the door prize drawings (although none of us were lucky winners) and for the awards. It was a great way to start off a Thanksgiving filled with family and fun! See below for some photos!

Nate, Dad & me before the race!

Dad, Ted, Nate, me & Mr. Baker before the start!

Mr. Baker snuck up to get a picture of me & Nate during the race.

We look pretty happy for a freezing cold 5k!

post-race: Nate, me, Dad, Ted & Mr. Baker

Happy Turkey Day!

We are off to VA for the holiday and just wanted to wish everyone a very happy & safe Thanksgiving! If you are up early tomorrow morning send good vibes out for the Virginia Run Turkey Trot that we'll be running. Details and photos will be up next week! Gobble Gobble!!

Big Announcement!

After some thinking and discussing this weekend, Nate & I have decided that we need to do more for Team G Shock. We've already doubled our fundraising goal from $1500 to $3000 (mainly because it was way too easy to reach that $1500 mark, so why not do more?). But, why should people donate more money, if we're just doing the same old thing? So, instead of 10 races, we've decided to run 20 races to help find a cure for prostate cancer! Nate & I have really had a lot of fun running together and challenging ourselves with each race. We've also had fun running with our friends and family and have felt so supported by everyone through this whole adventure.

We have race #7 this Thursday, #8 in December and we will continue to add more as they come up! If we run one nearby, feel free to come out and join us! Or, if you're feeling generous, donate to Team G Shock! We appreciate every little bit. And please know that it all (the running, the donating, the encouraging) is helping my Dad and many other men out there!

GOOOOOOO TEAM G SHOCK!!!

Holidays = more races!

Well, we are currently gearing up for Team G Shock's 7th race, the Virginia Run Turkey Trot, that will take place next week on Thanksgiving morning at 8:00AM. Nate & I will head up to Virginia on Wednesday night and then hit the race with my Dad early Thursday morning. Some very dear family friends (that we've known for a VERY long time thanks to the Army!) will be running with us. And when I say with us, I mean much much faster than us. But we're excited to have them come out for Team G Shock! So keep an eye out for pictures and times - there might even be a new Team G Shock record!

We have also registered for race #8! We will be running the Snowflake 5K right here in Nashville on December 12th at 9:00AM. Its actually on the same course as one of our other races (the Shelby Bottoms Boogie 5K...aka the race that it POURED during..aka the race that we set our current Team G Shock PR on!) so that will be fun to see how we do compared to last time! If you'll be in town that weekend, register to join us!

We have had so much fun over the last 5 months running these races and raising money for Team G Shock. Now that we've doubled our fundraising goal, maybe we should double our goal of 10 races to 20 - what do you think? :)