We hit two milestones in-succession last week. First, we passed the $750 donation level. This means we've completed Level One of the "Dress Me Like Duffy" Challenge. We've also just passed the $1,000 mark. We'd like to thank all of our supporters.
There's still plenty of time to donate and help us meet and beat our fundraising goals.
Please put "Team Tizzel" in the notes
To mark this occasion it's time to release two exclusive videos. Both are from our 2010 Disneyland trip.
This year Holly ran the 2011 Chicago Marathon with some of our Team AllEars friends. Team mates came from Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Illinois to get together and have a fun weekend.
Learn more about Team AllEars and our efforts to raise money for breast cancer here.
Note: Youtube disabled the original audio due to copyright infringement. I fixed it, but it's not to my original vision. Below the youtube video is the "director's cut" in a little lower quality format (all the server would take).
It's been a little while since our last post, but we have good reasons. We've been out generating new content for this site. You can look forward to our Chicago Marathon Weekend recap and multiple posts about our recent Walt Disney World trip for Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.
Just a reminder: we are raising money in support of Avon's Breast Cancer charities. With this being October, and Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it's a great time to make a donation.
To keep it fun we have our "Dress Me Like Duffy" Challenge. Click the picture below for more information. Also, as we hit other fund raising dollar amounts we'll release some entertaining videos exclusive to this site.
Use the button below to donate. Please place "Team Tizzel" in the comment fields so we can get the credit and add to our costume and video library.
To learn more about Team AllEars and why we are raising money for breast cancer checkout the links at the top of this page.
Thanks!
A couple of days ago the Apple Store Facebook fan page told me to download Snapseed for free. It's a photo editing app for your idevices. It has a simple interface and is fun to use. You can autocorrect, selectively enhance specific areas, change center of focus, etc. It also has those fun lomography filters to make your photos "artistic" or "ugly" as discussed in a former post.
We now present to you the artistic/ugly scenes from our Colorado trip:
The Omaha Marathon (September 25th) was my goal marathon for the year. I was really hoping for a nice PR and my times in training and some other races were leading me to believe that it would be possible. We had a nice time in Omaha on Saturday and had a great dinner at Vivace. I had my traditional spaghetti and meatballs.
Lucky for us the start was moved to just two blocks from the hotel so we didn’t have a super early wake up time. The hotel had complimentary bagels for the runners in the morning, which was nice and I grabbed a bag and gave it to Dave for his breakfast. When we checked in to the hotel on Friday they said a late checkout was not possible. That would mean I would be flying home all sweaty after the marathon. We called and spoke with the manager on Saturday and he allowed us a 1 pm checkout. That really put the pressure on for a PR!
We got to the start area and I did my normal stand in the port a potty line routine. I was nervous like always. It was a very cool morning and I knew the weather would not be an issue. I made my way to the start and Dave made his way to the first spot he was going to.
It was really crowded in the start corral. We started a few minutes late but finally they shot a gun and we were off! My plan was to do 12 minute miles for the first half and see how I felt. I heard and saw from the course elevation that this was going to be a very hilly course and I wanted to be conservative. Hilly course is an understatement. I never would have guessed that there would be more hills in Omaha, Nebraska than Boulder, CO. I’m really glad I had done hill work and that I did Boulder as my training run. I felt amazingly good on the hills. The course itself was not a pretty one at all. We started in downtown and then headed out of town and into some not so nice areas. The course kept looping back on itself as well. Every loop back brought us out to yet another not so nice area and more hills! I was feeling good at the half way point and had already seen Dave a few times.
I was worried about my legs getting beat up on the hills in the first half and could see more hills coming up but still tried to speed up for the second half. I did well and kept my pace well under 12:00 minutes. I saw Dave one last time right before mile 24 and, right before one last big hill. That is just cruel! But I still kept my pace and even sped up more. I was not passed at all in the last half but I passed many. It is so much more fun to be feeling strong at the end. I was doing math in my head and figured I wouldn’t meet my “A” goal of getting under 5:10 but then I realized I was really close and really tried to push it. It was going to be close. I saw Dave at the finish line and crossed with a big fist pump. I got my medal from a Marine in a full dress uniform. It was a very nice hand blown stained glass medal. My time was 5:10:41. I didn’t make my “A” goal, but did get a 16 minute PR. I was very happy!
I
t is now 12:15 and I have 45 minutes to get back to the hotel and shower. I jumped in the picture line, looked for the chocolate milk they said they would have, couldn’t find it and said let’s get going! I walked, limped back to the hotel, showered and packed up. We made it with 5 minutes to spare!
Overall I am extremely pleased with how the race went. A huge PR on such a hilly course was awesome. I love the medal as well. The course itself was awful though. There was just nothing nice to look at. There must be a better way to showcase Omaha. Thanks again to Dave for following me around and being such a great help. I Love You!
Here's the video:
We hit two milestones in-succession last week. First, we passed the $750 donation level. This means we've completed Level One of the "Dress Me Like Duffy" Challenge. We've also just passed the $1,000 mark. We'd like to thank all of our supporters. 
