I’m doing another marathon! I’ll be doing the Seattle Marathon on Sunday November 25^th as a member of the Team Survivor Northwest Team. And I’ll be doing it as a fundraiser.

I work for a nonprofit in Seattle called Team Survivor Northwest. We provide free fitness and health education programs to women cancer survivors, in any stage of treatment or recovery and at any fitness level. We do all sorts of classes and groups- yoga, indoor fitness, biking, dragon boating, triathlon training, hiking, running, snowshoeing, dance classes, canoeing, walking, swimming, and mountain climbing. I work with a lot of our members and these women are amazing.

Why provide free fitness classes to women cancer survivors in Washington State?

We know that:

• Exercise is an important part of the recovery and life enhancement for cancer survivors.
• Steady and moderate exercise improves functional, social and emotional quality of life.
• Breast cancer will affect 1 in 8 women in their lifetime.
• Regular aerobic exercise (like running, swimming, and biking) decreases the risks of some cancers and may impact a woman’s survival after breast cancer.
• Exercise can help decrease fatigue, depression and anxiety.
• Exercise helps build emotional and physical strength and improves the ability to enjoy and participate in life.
• Exercise improves sense of control, self esteem and body image.
• Washington State has the highest rate of cancer in the country. In 2007, an estimated 17,000 new cases of cancer are expected to occur in women in Washington.

Show me the money!
I’m setting a goal of raising $1,000. That will buy either four 3 hour cycling clinics for 30 cancer survivors or one year of fitness for 5 cancer survivors.

The Supernavage family has decided to come to Seattle for the week of Thanksgiving. They’ll be here to cheer me on and Emmy will probably run with me. As most of you know, I’m turning 30 soon after the marathon. I don’t need anything for my birthday. But a donation will help me continue to train with the group.

Can you donate to my marathon?
You can make a secure donation online at www.teamsurvivornw.org (click on the Marathon/Half marathon Training link on the left side of the page and click “Support the Marathon Team”)
Or mail a check to our office (Team Survivor Northwest, 200 NE Pacific St. Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98105).

I hope that you’ll help me by supporting my fundraising efforts. Thank you in advance for your generosity! You are truly making a difference.

Happy running!

Alicia

The other side of the Cascades

Last weekend, Brit, Barrie, Brian and I (I need to add a B and R to my name before the next trip) escaped the Seattle rain and headed over to Leavenworth for a weekend of camping. There’s an area of the Wenatchee National Forest called the Enchantment Lakes. As the name might suggest, it’s a beautiful area with plenty of high altitude lakes. It’s hard to get a wilderness camping permit so we just car camped. Next year we’ll apply for a permit! On Saturday we hiked along a river and picked blueberries. We did an amazing hike on Sunday up and over a ridge. It’s wildflower and mosquito season around the lakes. Bring a camera and the deet.

We stopped into Leavenworth for pizza after the hike. The town recreated itself as a Bavarian village a while ago (don’t know exactly when). So the whole place looks like a Disney German village. Even the Starbucks and Subway signs are wooden. Kitchy.

Alicia and I had a wonderful time during my Mom and Paul's visit from July 10-17. We had many adventures such as eating tasty icecream on Bainbridge Island, riding the monorail and having dinner on the Space Needle, taking a cruise of Elliot Bay, and exploring Capitol Hill. Paul and Mom enjoyed their eccentric innkeeper Linda, Pike Place Market, and the exciting Underground Tour (watch out for spiders). They managed to figure out Metro bus, avoid sketchy Broadway folk, and survive the super hot weather. We hope they will come back again soon. Brian

Arrgh!

Everyone loves pirates. Especially kids. Especially kids on a sunny day. Especially kids on a sunny day at the beach. Especially kids on a sunny day at the beach with free pirate eye patches, swords, and bandanas.

Saturday was the annual Pirate’s Landing on Alki Beach . We took the Water Taxi over to West Seattle. I can’t believe we hadn’t been there yet. It’s a real beach with ice cream stands, a boardwalk, sand, party houses filled with college kids, fried seafood restaurants, and 100 pirates. Pirates load onto an army boat, storm the beach, everyone cheers, and they walk around for the rest of the day “intimidating” people and posing with kids. Zach would be in heaven (come next year!). I’m sure there’s some significance but I don’t know what it is. We got ice cream, walked around, ate fried halibut, wore paper pirate hats, and basked in the sunshine.

And Brian’s feet got sunburned.

We headed out to Exit 38 on Friday after work. Only 45 minutes from Seattle! It’s a super-short hike (walk?) to Deception crags. To our surprise, for a sunny weekend, it was totally empty. The weather was perfect- warm, dry, late afternoon/evening sunshine.

It was Brian and Andrea’s first time on real rock! CJ and I set up sport 5.6 and 5.7 on top-rope for them to try. I’m happy to say that Brian had a ton of fun. A little scary for both of them but they did well (see them smiling?).

Here’s to more climbing this summer!

Happy Independence Day!

Well, a few days late.

Wow. What a difference in weather! After a cool, wet, schizophrenic spring, summer is here. Everyone here acknowledges that summer doesn’t start until after 4^th of July. It was a tough couple of weeks with the endless 55 degree days. But forecasts for this week say it’ll be 75-85 and sunny for the next 10 days at least. Bring it. People on the bus are already complaining about the hot, sunny but breezy 75 degree days. Goodness…

We celebrated summer by cooking and going to two 4th of July cookouts! We toasted a friend’s birthday on Lake Washington and played croquet. We cooked salmon near Gas Works Park and watched the fireworks. Look at all of the boats lined up on Lake Union for the fireworks!

Bruce and Heidi visited Seattle!

Fun city. We showed them around town- Fremont troll, Summit Tavern, Pike Place Market, Bainbridge ferry, Top Pot,

Here's my current political campaign I'm working on:
I want them to move to Seattle.
Leave the Wisconsin winters behind.
Become west coasters.
Get a house together.
Plant a garden together.
Raise kids together.
Eat Sunday brunch together.

Excellent plan, no? Exactly, now go lobby them.