Soooooooo……my sis and I were never really into the same activities when we were younger. We both played sports recreationally but they weren’t really our “thing”. Cheerleading was her thing and baton twirling was mine.

Once we got older, our “things” changed. Mine somehow turned into running and hers turned into fashion.

Well, now I’m happy to say that our “things” are finally the SAME!

It started back in September of 2010 when we ran the Chicago Half Marathon together (which I’m not even sure how we decided to sign up – but it wouldn’t surprise me if I pressured her into it).

She was amazing and ran like it was no big deal.

See, she’s in front of me here. I think this was around mile 9? Rockstar.

I swear she didn’t even hurt after the race. I look tired and she looks happy. Not fair.

And then when I was the running coach for Team Challenge, she joined the Team to run Vegas with us.

We couldn’t run the race together since I was the coach, but she totally killed it. Seriously, she almost beat my PR with like no effort at all. Again, kills me.

So, I finally did it. I convinced her to put her natural running ability to the ultimate test.

Because last week she got an email identical to this one:

We’re both registered to run the Chicago Marathon this year and it’s going to be A-MAZING! I can’t wait to share the experience of 26.2 miles with my sister. She already shares her love of fashion with me almost every day (I need the help!), so I’m totally excited to share my love of marathons with her.

Though, if she beats my PR I may have to kill her.

What was your “thing” growing up?

I sure love having a day off during the week. It makes the week FLY by! I can’t believe that tomorrow is Friday already!

So, like I mentioned yesterday, we had big plans to drink our faces off celebrate Sunday night. It was a Team Challenge party!!

Ryan had arranged for the Team to have dinner at America in New York New York. I actually got to go to a Manager/Coach reception in the penthouse of THE Hotel (owned by Mandalay Bay) beforehand (yeah, I’m a baller) and had 3 glasses of wine before we even went to dinner! My bad idea jeans were on in FULL force.

Because when we got to the restaurant, dinner started like this:

Please note that those aren’t all mine, but the red one was delicious and I ended up drinking 3!

Three of the guys ordered beers and their drinks showed up in these Lady Liberty glasses:

So, the challenge was on. David agreed to drink his drinks for the rest of the night out of this cup. That thing went everywhere with us that night.

The sports bar:

The tram from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay:

And the club, Eye Candy, in Mandalay Bay:

It even made it’s way on to the dance floor!

The night quickly went from this:

To this:

Because of these:

In true Heatha style, the peace signs were in full effect:

We worked hard all season. Sunday night was no time for holding back!

Hehe.

Running 20 miles and then dancing for hours in 3 inch heels was probably not the best idea. Monday morning was not definitely one of my better mornings. I even had to get up and go to a Coach’s certification at 7:15am! But I made it, and even though I felt like death the entire time, it was totally worth it.

We definitely set the bar this season. It’s going to be hard to top.

But I’m going to get another chance since I just agreed today to stay on as coach of the NorthEast Ohio chapter of Team Challenge!!!! Our next race is in Virginia through Wine Country, and training starts in February!!

So, tell me: do you play hard? I don’t play nearly as hard as I used to……..but when I do I don’t hold back. Life’s too short!

Wow, thank you for all the nice comments on my last post! You guys sure know how to make a girl blush….

Like I mentioned at the end of my post, I had no idea what I was in for on Sunday. It started off like any other race morning and then the whole Team met in the lobby of the hotel.

It was nice to get to see everyone and pump them up/calm their nerves. And after a big pep talk , I told everyone Good Luck, let them know they were on their own once we hit the street, and that I’d see them on the course! Since I was the coach I got to start in any corral and could move up and down the course as I pleased (love the special treatment, btw).

So here was the plan:

Nick was my asst coach so he took off with our speedy runner and basically ran with her to the finish. I started in Corral 12 with the next 4 fastest runners. I was going to run with them to mile 6, turn around and head back until I saw the next runner come through, run with him or her for 2 miles or so, turn around and head back for the next runner, etc, etc. Then Nick was going to catch them as they reached mile 12 and encourage them to the finish line. We did this until every single one of our 25 participants were done.

The plan worked beautifully.

You couldn’t ask for better scenery:

The guys always find it so funny that I run with my camera.

The first 6 miles were pretty speedy (2 of those miles clocked in at 8:45!) – and I was feeling great when I split from the guys to find my next victim. Hehe.

The orange jerseys made it easy to find Team Challenge participants and I had a good idea of when I’d see people come through so it worked out real well!

By the time I crossed the finish line, it was 4 hours later and I had covered almost 20 miles!!!!! I had guessed I would run about 17 miles since I was going back and forth so I was surprised when I saw 19.79 on my Garmin!

Every single participant finished the race, and that’s what matters. Not their time, not what place they finished in, but that they did it. For most of the people on my team, this was their first time running a race EVER. They were seriously incredible. And the money they raised (over $116,000 from my team alone!) is even more incredible. These people deserve more than just a race medal for everything they did this season. They really made a HUGE impact on my life, and I just hope I did the same for them.

After I was sure my whole team had checked in after the race, we made our way back up to the hotel room for some much needed showers and naps! Our day was not over……….

We had a celebration to get to!!!!!!!!!!!

Recap coming tomorrow.

Good night, guys!!

Have you had a coach or mentor that made a huge impact on your life?