So what’s so special about this event that keeps me coming back every year?

Let start with the speakers AND the content.   Check out this list.  Go ahead.  I’ll wait.

Pretty awesome, huh?   Not only you will have top notch content from these speakers, you have their full attention in-between sessions for any issues/challenges you are currently have in your environment.  It is a ship, we are at sea, they can’t really get away from you It could be that performance issue you’ve been dealing with in the last few months, or some architecture challenge you are about to embark on, or even just a career advise.   There’s no rushing between one session to another.   The speakers are available to you in between sessions and that is so valuable.  Even if they duck out to the coffee shop, it is still on the ship.  Don’t tell them, but they are really trapped and you get to exploit that, in a good way!

Next are the attendees.  Check out the list for this upcoming cruise.   Pretty impressive list, yes?   I know, I am on that list but think about the variety of backgrounds these attendees come from and how awesome it is to be exchange experience, or discuss some challenge from someone that has been there and done that.   Real world problems, with real world answers.   I have to say, this my favorite part.   I made friends on a personal level from this event more than just a professional peer (Karen, Erin - I’m looking at both of you).   Now we run races together, discuss baseline performance collection or integrity of the data or just simply be there for each other.  You can come away from this cruise with new professional contacts and personal peers to bounce ideas off of.  It is phenomenal, and a networking opportunity that you really can find in no other venue compressed in a short cycle of time!

You might even see double rainbow!

Last but not least.  The cruise itself.   All you can eat buffet, phenomenal views of the Alaskan coast and mountains, never-ending entertainment (beyond your SQL peeps) and excursions while you are not soaking the knowledge or picking up some smarts from these speakers.   Do I need to say more?  Win win and win again.  Really, if you add it all up, the value of this cruise and what you can bring back from it are without comparison.

There is still room if you are interested.   It is very affordable considering the value that you are getting.   If you have a +1, start talking to your partner/spouse and pitch it to them, then pitch it to your boss.   If you solo, just run it up the flagpole with the boss.  If you need help of how to pitch it to your manager, Tim Ford has brochure/fliers and all the former attendee are a tweet away and I’m pretty sure you can gather many input from them.   If you are not in twitter — you have no idea what you are missing!

Managers – these section is for you.

I know you probably think – there’s NO WAY that I am sending my people to training in a cruise.  They won’t learn anything.  They will be out partying.   I’m not spending my training budget for THAT.   I know what you mean.   See – I’m in a management myself.   I have to be wise with my training budget on where I want it to go and how I think my team can benefit the most and what kind of value the company is going to get in return.   I’m accountable for that return on investment as I have to stand in front of my own  boss and set the expectation of what kind of value that we as a company will get by going to variety of these training/event and I choose very wisely.   There are many fantastic training opportunities throughout the year and this event absolutely high on my list.

My husband, John, wrote a post that went more detail about this two years ago.   He was an IT Managers for years and responsible of DBA team and training budget as well and if you still have doubt this event, go ahead and read it here.

If that still doesn’t convince you, and you still have doubts, please free to contact me directly and I am more than happy to share my experience to you.  Not just as a data processional, but from the management point of view.    No, I am not being paid by SQL Cruise to say and do this.   They still invoice me for the training and I have to pay the cruise just like anybody else.   If anything, I am doing it from my own benefit because the more people attend, the more *I* get to interact with them and exchange experience.

Lastly, this event is made possible for you  by some awesome sponsors.  They are the reason why it’s so affordable.   SQL Sentry, Brent Ozar PLF, Quest, Idera and Redgate – thank YOU for your continuous support to make this event possible for the community.   You. Are. Awesome.

The countdown has begun.   All aboard!

I’m not going to go back to do Mt. Rainier summit attempt this year as I explain in my previous post, so I have to fill my year with some goal I can work towards to and even though my husband started to tempt me with Triathlon event, I’m going to pass as I am not really a good swimmer.  And I rarely ride a bike.

Anyway, I have have registered for another two race this year, and planned to register for the third race as soon as the registration open.   They are Vancouver Half-Marathon on May 6 and  Disneyland Half-Marathon on Sept 2.    I will blog about my third race as soon as I registered and committed to it.   For now, let just say – I might do another one towards the end of the year.

My training started yesterday and I will blog my weekly recap as usual.

The best part about this race?   I’m going to do it with my close friends.   Both of my bridesmaid from my wedding, who also a great friends of mine, Mindy Rose and Marisa Madrid are going to run Vancouver Half with me, on top of that, Ryan Malcom (t) is joining us for the fun.   This will be Mindy and Ryan’s first half-marathon and Marisa’s second.   I’m excited to share this experience with them!

For Disneyland Half, two of my awesome friends, Brent Ozar (t) and Kendra Little (t) are joining me on this fun.  Brent is trying to recruit more people from SQL Community to join us on this race as he blogged it here.

So, my awesome reader – if you are thinking about doing a half-marathon and want to do that with a friend, this is your chance.   Join me in either of this race and we’ll have some fun together.  If this is your first half-marathon and you aren’t sure if you can do it, or pick which training plan to use, I can help you.   I had a lot of help (and still do!)  and this is my way to pay it forward.    Disclaimer – I’m not a coach, or a trainer, however, I am a good training buddy.   I can be your person to whine, brag, complaint and cry about your run as long as you don’t mind to be mine.   It’s going to be awesome, because we are awesome.

Put on your running shoes, and let’s do this together.

This year is also mark as 25 years anniversary of this event, which made it even special and my mind was set to be part of this amazing event again.

Then life happened.

My family are my biggest supporter.   Without the support from my husband, I would have serious hard time to accomplished things the way I did.   Last year, we trained together and weekend after weekend, we drove 2 hours to the mountain so we can hiked for 8 hours and head home (well, he drove, I napped).   It was wonderful and awesome.

There are certain health challenges that we are facing recently and my husband is heading in to some surgery with about a month recovery time, and there were absolutely no way we can squeeze in an appropriate training with that short period of time and the last thing you want is to go up there without proper training.   So we decided this year, something gotta’ give.   We are not going to be part of the event for this year and will be looking forward for the opportunity to be part of it next year.  The mountain is not going anywhere and it always welcome and challenge us to give it another try.

For those who want to know more about this event, feel free to contact me.   If you want to give mountaineering a try and want to take on challenge to summit the mountain, this is an awesome event to be part of.   Their reach to the summit program give you flexibility to choose between four mountain; Mt. Rainier (14,410ft), Mt. Hood (11,239ft), Mt. Adams (12,276ft) and Grand Teton (13,770ft).   I proudly stood on the summit of three of those mountains (Rainier, Hood and Adams) and I can tell you this, it was absolutely amazing experience.   They will have professional guide service and you are not required to have certain pre-requisite mountaineering skills (you kinda have to be somewhat fit tho).

Me at 9000ft

This picture was taken around 9,000ft and is my favorite picture of me in the mountain.   It was a phenomenal day and a great reminder of why I love this mountain so much (I did look happy, yes?).    We might still take occasional hike up to the Camp Muir during the summer or to the surrounding lower peaks.   Would love to have other people in this awesome SQL Family to join us one of these days.

2013 Climb for Clean Air — watch out for us!

Until next year.

No, I didn’t break my half-marathon PR and I wasn’t the first (or probably last again) on my age group, but I finished another half-marathon yesterday.  Remember when I post here about my next crazy adventure?   Well, by completing that race I finished the challenge!  I did Disney Coast-To-Coast challenge and January is not even over!

Inspiration Dinner – Team in Training

Thank you VERY, VERY much for everyone who donated and support my cause.   There were total 369 runners from Team in Training for this race and collectively, we raised ONE MILLIONS DOLLAR!   ZOMG.  That’s a lot of dolla.   I was very impressed and touched.   This money can do so much for further research and patient support and I can testify and attest to that from the personal experience!  I have a stack of thank you card that I need to send out for all my generous donor who supported and helped me during my 2011 fundraising season for THREE different event.   Everybody was so generous and they were continuously support me on various event!   Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I was on the slideshow!

The pasta dinner was great.   It was a wee bit crowded and there’s a bit of mishap about seating arrangement, but it got fix right away.  Food were good and I had wonderful company.    They put all the ‘In Honor’ and ‘In Memoriam’ pictures on the slide and it feels really weird to see my own picture up there!

We wrapped up the dinner by 8pm and I went back to the room and get my things ready for the race.

Race Day

My husband woke me up at 3am (YES, THREE AM) to get ready.  I was not a happy camper.   After I whined about 10 minutes, I finally got up and got myself ready.   I ate my usual pre-race breakfast, english muffin + peanut butter + honey + banana and head downstairs to meet the rest of Team in Training runner.    We hung out for a bit, took pictures and started to walk to our corral at 4:30am.

Unlike WDW Marathon, my husband able to walk me all the way to my corral and stood there with me while I was waiting for our corral turn to start.    It was a good 40 degrees morning, calm and a bit chilly.   I felt surprising calm and not anxious.

First wave of runner and the wheelchair went out promptly at 5:45am and my corral started at 6:05am.    There were so many people with running skirt and wings!  It was very, very cool!

The first couple miles, I can’t barely pass anybody as there were so many people and I took my time and tried to make my way to the side so I can get a good pace going.   We made our way towards Disneyland park from the employee entrance where you can see the train, parade car, and other behind the scenes stuff.   It was a lot of fun!    That path took us to the side of Main Street USA inside Disneyland Park and we ran towards the Sleeping Beauty castle.   It was absolutely stunning.  The sun just rise and it made the castle sparkle!   I didn’t take a lot of pictures this time around as there were a long lines on each of Disney Character for runner who wanted to take pictures.   Pretty much all the princesses and their prince were out, I saw Jack Sparow, Mickey and friends, Toy Story character.   It was so much fun!    I had to made a potty break inside the park and unfortunately, every bathroom had a very, very long lines.   I stood there and went anyway but that took about 5 minutes out of my time.

Me at Mile 10

From Disneyland park, we ran towards the center of city of Anaheim.   There were so many volunteer and entertainment around!  I saw my husband, who wore a tutu (yes, in spirit of TinkerBell) and carry a cow-bell and a sign.   It was sooo good to see him!   Then I saw Karen Lopez (t) and Rob Farley (t) at mile 5 who also had a sign with my name on it.

Karen and Rob F. took an extra day from their busy days to stay at Anaheim so they can cheer me.    These two awesome people were on their way home to Toronto, CA and Adelaide, AU from spending a week in Seattle for training/meeting but they bought extra ticket to LAX and spend extra day for me.    They are my #SQLFamily.   I met both of them via SQL Community and I mentioned this on previous post about how awesome this community is.   I’m very blessed and honor to be able to call them a friend.

We ran through the city and I saw Karen and Rob. F again between Mile 8 and 9.   I had a cheek-to-cheek smile and I felt great!    Shortly before we entered California Adventure Park, I felt a sharp pain on my ankle.   I had one of those uh-oh moment again as the pain was significant.  For those who don’t know, I sprained my ankle 10 days before my full marathon, then ran the full, then I spent two weeks walked around the park at Disneyworld.  So this ankle took a lot of beating lately!

I stopped running, stretched and massage the tendon a bit.   I knew I had about 5k to go and I wasn’t going to quit it.   I stopped at the medical tent, took some Tylenol and slowly jog my way towards California Adventure Park.    I enjoyed my time running through the park and tried to forgot the pain in my ankle.   The cheer-tweets from my #SQLFamily were constant throughout the whole 13.1 miles.   I felt SO much love!!

I finished! Upright and Smiling!

We ran through the park and out and I knew that the finish line was around the corner.  I barely could hear my music as the tweets came constantly over my iPhone.   I started to run faster and I saw my husband WITH HIS TUTU on top of the bleacher.   I waved to him with a big smile.   I saw Karen and Rob F. again by the finish line and I lifted my hand up, had the most cheesy smile and cross the finish line.

I did it.   I finished.

I got my space blanket, my medal, and went to Coast-To-Coast tent and got ANOTHER MEDAL for completing the challenge.   We then proceed to post-race refreshment where I drank entire powerade in one shot, ate banana and took my official post race picture.

I saw my husband from the distance and leap into his arm.   I did it!!   He gave me a very proud look!!

A few minutes later, I saw Karen and Rob. F.  We hugged and Rob F. told me that they had a surprise for me.   He pulled out his phone and play this video here.  Go ahead and click that link or paste this to your browser:  http://youtu.be/iUuEcdQWjZc

I was about to die of excitement.   That’s JEFF GALLOWAY!  He is the running guru, the Olympian, the mastermind behind the run/walk method, the official Disney Coach and he was TALKING TO ME!

You think that would be the highlight of my day, right?  I finished, got my medal, got another medal, and saw the awesome video.   Well, I thought so too, until I walked into the Platinum VIP area where my husband, Karen and Rob F. was when they cheered me on and I saw Jeff Galloway there.   I shook his hand, gave him a hugged and we chatted for a while.   I mumbled almost the entire time because I was just a way too excited!!

Me and Jeff Galloway. Can you tell I was excited?

I had incredible weekend.

Not only because I finished the race, met with my running guru but because I was surrounded with family.   I had an incredible and awesome support from my husband and my SQL Family,  in person (Thank you so much Karen and Rob F.) as well as virtually (Thank you Erin Stellato, Jes Borland, Rob Drysdale, Sarah Strate, Tamera Clark, Tom LaRock, Richie Rump, Andy Leonard, Grant Fritchey, Robert Davis, Tom Roush, Steve Jones, Jeremiah Peschka, Merrill Aldrich, Dave Levy, Shahryar Hashemi, Allen Kinsey, Diane McNurlan, Tracy McKibben.  I’m sure I probably forgot someone here, my apologies)

I am very blessed.   This professional community that I belong to become a second family to me.  They are there not only when I wasn’t sure what causing the ruckus on my server, but when I need a support for my challenges and adventure.

From the bottom of my heart.   Thank you.

Until the next adventure

I’m a marathoner.   I ran 26.2 miles.   Well, I hobbled around the course with a sprained ankle.  I ran, I walked.   I ran and walked.  For a long time.  Very long time.   But I finished.   I was upright, smiling cheek-to-cheek, and wasn’t the last one!   It was awesome.   It was victorious.   It was absolutely fantastic.   I am a marathoner.

Race Recap

The hotel wake-up call service woke me up at 2:30am.   It took me another 30 minutes before I actually moved from the bed and started to get ready.   I decided to wear my capri as supposed of my short, compression sleeves and a tank.   It was a cool morning, about 40 degrees out.   I had my throw-away jacket with me as well.   About 4:00am – I was sitting on the bus and head out to Epcot.

Traffic were pretty heavy and it took us almost 30 minutes to get to Epcot from our resort.   I was surprisingly calm.   We walked for another 10 minutes from the bus stop to our race retreat tent and I checked my bag, used a porta-potty and started to walked to my corral.     We walked for another 20 minutes to our corral.   There were so many people around me!   It was a full moon and it felt somewhat magical

The event started on time.   Wheelchair racers were out exactly at 5:30am and before long, my corral started to move to the starting line.   Exactly at 6:05am, they let our corral go.

I ditched my jacket before even hit mile-1.   I was pretty warm.   The first 3 miles went by pretty fast.    We went towards the Epcot, around and went towards the future world-case and head out from the side, made a loop towards our corral.   I felt great.   Then I saw John at Mile 4.5!!  I was soooo excited!!   I blew him kisses and kept on running.

I stopped for at porta-potty at Mile 5, did my thing and kept going.   We were running on the road that connect Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and I had to tell you – they put some interesting stuff for us out there.   There’s always sign about Disney-fact on the side of the road for you to read as you run (Do you know it takes 7 marathon length to go around all four Disney parks?) and there were Disney characters!   I had my camera with me and able to snap pictures with a few of them.

Mile 10.5 - The Castle!

We came to Magic Kingdom from their staff entrance and put us directly on Main Street.   When I made that turn to Main Street and saw the Cinderella Castle, I had to admit, that was very, very cool.   I saw that castle the day before so it’s not like that’s the first time I saw it, but I had the same reaction with my daughter the day before.   It was one of those  ”awwwww, it’s the castle”  reaction.

We went around the castle and under it, and out we were to the next park.   I was feeling great.   I paced myself well, about 2 minutes slower than my normal race pace due to my sprained ankle, tried to be cautious on how my gait and made sure that I did heel-toe inward on my stride.

Mile 12 came around, I suddenly felt a pull on my ankle.    I had those ‘uh-oh’ moment for a second.   I stopped.   I stretched it a bit and massage the tendon towards my knee.   My physical therapist warned me about this, so did my trainer.   I stopped for almost 10 minutes and decided to kept on running, even with slower pace.

Goofy, Donald and Me

I hit the half-marathon mark and the sun was baking me! It was pretty warm! The stretch between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom had a couple overpass, which mean, a hill. I was doing okay though, even though I can feel my ankle somewhat throbbing. No, shooting pain though so I kept going.

There so many tweets that came in between the 13-18 miles. I think it some point, between 15-16, that’s all I hear. It was awesome. I was laughing. I was smiling. I was giggling!

Then I hit mile 22. Something changed. My ankle hurt more and more and I started to doubt myself. I never run more than 22 miles before. Ever.  It was really a mind game.   I had even more cheer-tweets.   They were encouraging tweets.   I stopped for a minute, tried to massage the tendon around the ankle again and kept running.    I had so many people believe in me and I need to switch my mind set.     I grabbed a couple Tylenol from the medical tent, and started to run again.

Mickey and Me.

The last 4 miles felt very, very long.   In fact, my runmeter app was 2 miles off as it already announced that I hit 26 miles when I ran past 24 miles sign!   Talk about discouraging tweet!   I started to get mad.   I want it to be done.

We entered Hollywood Studio, and I ran past the entire Disney character there without taking any photo.   I could careless about it anymore.  I just want to be done!    We ran through the boardwalk and headed towards Epcot and when I saw the Epcot famous ball from across the lake, I felt relieved.   All I had to do just ran around the lake and head out, then the finish line would be there.

Um.  Yeah.   Turn out, when you just ran 24 miles, those lake at Epcot is HUGE.    I kept hearing a tweets and I had to say, that’s what kept me going.    My ankle hurt every time my left foot hit the ground and my gait were completely off.

Mile 25.

People were cheering.  There were so many volunteer, Disney staff and just some random people that happened to be in the park cheering us.   I can see the Epcot famous ball closer and closer.   I took a deep breath and started to increase my pace.

Mile 26.

Who would’ve though .2 miles could feel like 2 miles?   OMG.   My phone constantly read the tweets.   Everybody excited.  Heck, I was excited AND impatience.   Who moved the darn finish line???

Then I turn in the corner, and I saw the finish line.

THE FINISH LINE

I almost sprint to it, but I remember that my husband and my girls were waiting for me at the left side of the finish line, so I started to look for them.   Before long, I spotted them.   I saw him waved and grin.  I saw my girls with their ‘I love you mama‘ sign, I saw my brother-in-law.   My eyes started to tear up and I had the cheesiest cheek-to-cheek grin.   I lifted both of my hand and cross that finish line.

When the volunteer put that medal around my neck, I started to cry.   There was another runner who cross the finish line shortly after me broke down as well, and we ended up hug each other and cry on each other’s shoulder.   I didn’t really catch her name other than she wore Team In Training jersey.    I grabbed the gatorade, banana and some bagel and head out to the photo line, did my finisher photo and walked back to race retreat tent to meet the rest of my family.

I stretched, and ate some snack and I was impatiently waiting for my family.   Then from across the tent, I saw my husband.   I ran towards him (yes, I ran again after 26.2) and leaped to his arm and started to cry.   All I said was “I did it.  I did it“

I finished the marathon.

I'm a marathoner!

I had the same medal around my neck with the elite runner who finish first.   That’s the awesome thing about this competition.   Every finisher have the same medal.    We compete against ourselves, and on that race, I won.

I have a long list of thank you for those who supported me during this journey, first and foremost, I want to thank my husband, John.   I know this is a public blog and yes, I have said these words in person, but I want to make an effort to say this again here.

Thank you, John — for everything you do.   From waking up at the wee hours over the weekend, made sure I had my pre-run breakfast and ride your bike alongside me during every single one of my long run for hours to end to everything you did on the race day.   YOU are my hero and my inspiration.    I love you more than I can say with words.

To the rest of you — my family, my best friends, my SQL Family.   There were too many names to mentioned, but you know who you are.   Thank you for your constant support.   For those encouraging words, for the giggles, and most importantly, for believe in me that I can actually do this.

You guys are an awesome bunch.

I am ready!

I will have my phone with me (no, please do not call me as I will ignore you) and I have this cool app called runmeter installed.   This app allowed me to find out my pace, how many miles I’ve been running and my time.   It also allowed you to talk to me.   Yes, this app will read your tweet or facebook message to me.   If you are familiar with twitter, you will see the tweet from me that indicate the start of my running.   From that moment on, if you tweet me, the app will read those to me (someone please tweet me with different language other than English, I’m so curious on how that sound!).   It’s super cool.   If you are a facebook person, the same app will post the message on my facebook wall that indicate the start of my run.   Please do comment under that post, as I will hear your comment.   Say something funny.   Something encouraging.   Do a tongue-twister words.   Spell things backward.   Tell me that you believe in me, that I can really do this as there will be moment that I’m going to second-guess myself, especially after 18 miles (or right now as I write this).

Thank you for walking (or running) beside me throughout this journey.   It’s been awesome.   YOU are awesome.

See you tomorrow on the other side of the finish line.

Anyway, I’m going to just list those here.   Both.  Things I did, and I didn’t do and hope that I can be better this year.  Better on things I did, and actually accomplish things that I didn’t.

Without further ado, here goes, in no specific order:

•  Be more active, physically

Back in March when my health were improved, I made a vow to be more active, physically.   I started to hike more, and more and visit the gym more.   I gained more energy and actually able to chase my kiddos around.  I think I accomplished a lot on this front.  Note to self for this year is to be more active with my kiddos.   I want to engage them on different sports and the freedom for them to try variety of them.

• Lost weight

As a result of being active, I dropped 28lbs pound.   Yes people, I actually weigh 28lbs heavier last year.   There.  I said it out loud.   Note to self for this year is to maintain them, which I believe is as hard as losing them.

• Summit Mt. Rainier

I love the mountain.  I absolutely love it.  I love to be in the mountain.   Mt. Rainier hold a special place in my heart, not only because it absolutely gorgeous, but because I stood on it’s summit on August 2005.   Since then, I have many challenges in my life, health related and I always want to go back.   I tried, and gave it all, and more but I didn’t make it to the summit.   Note to self for this year is to try it again.   It’s the journey to get there that completely awesome.   Well, to be able to stand on its summit again won’t hurt either.

• Half-Marathon

After the climb, I was dare challenged by Karen Lopez (t) to also run a half-marathon.   Looking back, I wasn’t sure why I actually agreed to this because running was never been my thing.   I actually tried NOT to do any run on my cardiovascular activity.  I did pretty much any cardio, other than running.    Long story short, I agreed.   Then I had to open my mouth and tell the whole internet my twitter friends and even blog them, so now I have public accountability to actually do it.   I finished upright and smiling.   It was the best dare challenge.   I fell in love with running and even want to do it more, hence the next bullet point

• Run More

This is one of the goal that I made after I accomplished one.   Inspired by my half-marathon, I want to do more.  I want to run more so I decided to register myself to a full marathon.   Even though as I write this, I haven’t complete the race yet, I think I can proudly say that I did run more on 2011 than the rest of the previous years combine.  310 miles in 4 months.   I’m patting myself in the back with a cheek-to-cheek smile right now.  Note to self for this year is to run even more.  I am three days away from my first marathon.   That will put this year in a great start

• Healthy lifestyle

While are at on the fitness theme, one of the thing that I accomplished last year is also have a healthy lifestyle.   That included the choice of food that I eat.  Late night donut binge is no longer in the agenda (occasionally cupcakes are okay).    I didn’t feel we accomplished a lot as we still ate out quite a bit, so note to self for this year is to cook more at home (Yes, I’m talking to you, John)   I am at fault on this more than anything because well, it took an effort to actually do this.   I can come up with ‘I’m tired after all day of work and climb/marathon training’ excuse but I’m not the only working mother out there.   So let just say, I’m going to be better this year.

• Raising awareness about charity and fundraising

There are a few charities that have a special place in my heart and this year I did four different fundraising for them.   I was shameless and persistent and never hesitate to educate others about the organization that I believed in.   Some of my friends have no ideas on things they do.   I think I did an awesome job this year.   Total I raised on four different fundraising event were over $20,000.00 which was unbelievable.   I am surrounded by very, very generous friends and colleagues.  I even inspired others to start their first own fundraising for the charities they believe it and they did absolutely awesome!

• Attend Technical Conferences and Training

Last year, I attended SQL Skills Immersion Performance Tuning Class, SQL Cruise Alaska, SQL Saturday Vancouver, SQL Saturday Olympia, SQL Saturday Chicago, SQL Saturday Portland and SQL PASS.   This list actually surpassed my expectation for technical conferences and training for a year.   I learned tremendously, made absolutely valuable professional contact, fabulous friends and really hit a jackpot with the combination of all.  This year, I want to even do more.   I don’t have a list yet, but I have a few SQL Saturday in mind on top of SQL PASS and another Immersion training.

• Write More

When I was at SQL Saturday Chicago, I attended pre-conference hosted by Brent Ozar (t).  Since then, my blog went to a complete make-over and I vowed to write more.   Well, I kinda failed on this part.   I didn’t write a lot on the technical/technology front.   In fact, I was seriously lacking on this area.   I did, however, write more on my training, both before the climb and half-marathon (and now my marathon).   Those were more ‘notes’ for myself and I didn’t think anybody actually read them.  Note to myself for next year is to have more technical/technology content on my blog rather than just blabbering about my training

• Presenting

Yeah.  Totally failed on this one.   Other than being on the panel for WIT Luncheon at SQL PASS, which I was still in awe that I was asked to sit on that panel next to others that I respect so much, I did not submit any abstract to any event.   A complete blow on this one.   I’m not so happy with myself on this end, but am making an effort, a lot effort to actually do it this year, not just talk about it.   Watch me community, I’ll be speaking (somewhere) this year.   There.  I open my big mouth again, now you can hold me accountable on this.

• Be a mentor

I always considered myself to be a good teacher.  I have patience (yes, yes I know – some of you probably raised your eyebrow) when I shared my knowledge.   Early last year, I was asked to be a mentor to a group of young women in Indonesia.    I did a few talk with them remotely and they have full access to me for questions about technology, career, IT, etc.    It took me a while to made them comfortable to talk to me but I am proud to say that these young smart women are no longer in the dark when it comes to technology industry.   They have the awareness on what they can do and live up to their potential.  The hope is they will have enough confidence to go after their dream.   Note to self about this topic, I want to do the same locally here.   I have a few career day talk (almost) scheduled for this year at my neighborhood school district.   Just as Kendra Little (t) said during one of the WIT talk — We need smart people in this industry.  And women is as smart as men, and there are absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be crowding the technology field.

• Get a “board of director”

During SQL Cruise last summer, Buck Woody (t) told each one of the attendee to get a board of directors.   A group of people that you trusts, the one that you are going to consult and go to and help you made the good decision for your career.   Without naming names, I managed to get a bunch of great people to be my board of directors.  You know who you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart.    Note to self for this year is to sit on someone’s board of director and help them with their career.   Paying it forward

• Read 12 books, and review them

I failed.   I did not read 12 books in 2011.   Let alone review them.   I did read 5 though but didn’t even write a review.   Note to self for this year is to actually write the review for the books I read and make an effort to read one book a month.

• Never miss my children’s play/performance

Work-Life balance is absolutely important to me.  I am fortunate that my employer is very supportive with it and believe of the work-life balance.   I’m proud to say that I did not miss any of my kiddos play/performance last year and able to attend every one of their school events.   Note to self this year is to maintain that and to volunteer on their school to help out with an event.    Just one.  One event for a year shouldn’t be that hard, right?

• Build at least one Lego set

I hate to even say it that I did not build any Lego set last year.   Yes.  365 days and not one set build.   I owned a lot of Lego Set.  Too many to count and some of them are still sealed and never open.   I absolutely love Lego and want to actually open those boxes and build something this year.

• Call my grandmother at least every other week

My grandma is getting older.   I need to call and talk to her more often.   I have not been back to Jakarta, Indonesia since 1997 and that is a long time not to see your grandmother.   I need to communicate with her more.   I need to introduce her to Google hangout or Skype so she’s able to see my children.   Internet should shorten out the distance between me and her and I failed to do so

• Meeting and (blasting) all my goals at work

I’m not going to list my work goals here, but I can proudly said that I met every single one of them, and more.   Note to self this year is to challenge myself more at work.   To think more outside the box and do everything that I can to ensure my team member will get what they need to be successful.   I want to be one of those ‘I wish my manager is like that’ kind of person.

There.   I could go on and on, but I think that’s a good list.   Here’s to a great start of 2012 and hope for a continuous success.

My 2011 Stats

Looking back on all of those runs, reading on each note that I put after each of those runs – it brought me to the moment of each run.  The good run, and the bad run.   I had many challenges, and some of it, almost made me give up the whole thing but I didn’t.   I kept on running.  The support from my friends are unbelievable.   There were days that I absolutely didn’t feel like being out there and run, but I did it anyway mostly because I really couldn’t come up with any excuse for skipping them.    Public accountability, there’s nothing better than that for motivation to run.    Cold 30 degrees morning, 5 hours out on the trail with a constant cheer-tweets.   I am very blessed.   I’m surrounded by awesome people.

In my previous post, I talked about my injury.    Let me give you an update on that.    I saw a foot/ankle specialist the day after the incident.   He took one look at the xray, and looked at me, smiled, and said – this is not a fractured.   You have a sprained.   I almost fell off the chair.    WHAT DID YOU MEAN I HAVE NO FRACTURE??     He explained to me in a very simple analogy.   The duct tape analogy.   If you pulled a duct tape off the wall, and it pull a paint off it, that doesn’t mean the wall is broken.   When I twisted my ankle, my tendon pulled 0.03mm of the end of the bone.   I have no structural damaged.   I have a sprained ankle.   Does this mean the race is no longer out of the question?  Not necessary.   The hope just a wee bit bigger.    I had cheesiest cheek-to-cheek smile as the doctor leave the exam room, look at my husband in the eye and said, I’m SO going to do this race.

Thank you for many-many prayer regarding to this.   With the grace of God, a little miracle, my diagnosis changed.   And hopefully, I can have this ankle heal in time and actually do AND finish the race.   Keep that prayer coming!

The next day – I saw my Physical Therapist.   She worked on my ankle right away, did her thing to the muscle around it and gave me tons of homework.   Because of the injury, I have to retrain my nerve around it.   My balance is out of whack and it’s very important that I did a lot of balance routines.  And strength training.   I can’t run until the race day, but got an okay to do different cardiovascular activity like elliptical or stationary bike.   My hope just get bigger.

Today is Sunday, exactly 7 days before my race.    I’m optimistic.    I spent yesterday and today worked on my balance routines (four times a day) and strength training.   I did even a four set of  lunges today (Jes – that’s for you!).   Tomorrow, I have a date with my personal trainer for an hour of torture strength training session, designed just for me.   I had SO much help, and I’m so grateful for that.

Today is the first day of 2012.   I’m kicking it right.   Here’s to another year of full with happiness and healthy days.   For my people, you know who you are.  I love you.   Thank you for being such an awesome bunch.

ER Nurse:  ”Who are those people on your laptop?   They are on video”
Me: “They are my family.  My SQL Family”

Earlier today, I fainted, tripped on the stairs, fell and sprained my ankle.   Being 10 days away from my marathon, I didn’t want to take any chance and want the ankle to get looked at (on top of the excruciating pain I experienced), so off to the ER we went.     We got there around 9:30am and pretty much in the exam room within 5 minutes, had 3 nurses around me.

Long story short, they wanted to make sure everything is in the up and up so on top of the foot xray, they ordered EKG and put a line on my arm so they can take blood and IV (if I needed one).   That really put me in a grouchy mood.   I have a race in 10 days and I was worry.   I need some company.   So I open my laptop and started Google Hangout and tweeted to others to join me and keep me company (Yes, I brought laptop to the ER, along with my iPad and my phone.  They have fabulous Wifi there, btw )

Before long, I have Karen Lopez (b|t), Rob Drysdale (b|t), Erin Stellato {b|t), Tamera Clark (b|t)  on the hangout!  We were all talking and laughing until the ER doctor came back with my xray result.   She started to show me the imaging and told me the medical term on what was going on, and pointed on the imaging on the same shaddy area that I have no idea what it was — that I fractured my ankle.   I got really quiet.   I was almost afraid to ask about the race, as I don’t really want to know the answer — but she went ahead and said it.   That the race is out of the question.   I started to feel my body shaken up, and my tear fell on my cheeks.   She went on and on about the detail, but I pretty much stop caring or even listen to her.   I broke down in tears.   Everybody got quiet.   I cried more.

When the doctor left the room, I looked at my laptop and I saw a handful concern faces.   I felt a huge comfort from this group of people almost immediately.   Then I realized that Tom LaRock (b|t) had joined the hangout while I was talking to the doctor.  He probably wondered what kind of hangout he entered, as I was on the hospital gown and probably cried my heart out!   I usually looked waaaay prettier on the hangout, Tom!  Thank you taking the time from your day for that!   We all chatted for a while, some of them even consult with Dr. Google as they heard the ER doctor talked to me (love technology!).

Allright – you probably ask what is so special about the whole thing right about now.

I’m telling you what.   These group of people – they are my professional peer.   They are not the friends I grew up, or my blood family.  We know each other because we have the same passion about the same technology and in this community, the SQL community, we took it to the next level.   We are not just ‘peer’.   We are family.   We helped each other in so many ways.   Today, a handful member of this community were there for me when I was told that I might not be able to run the marathon that I’ve been training for 4 months.   They were there when I broke down in tears, devastated and angry.    Yes, they were virtually there via my laptop – but they were there with me.   They took the time from their busy day, on this h0liday season to login to Google Hangout and be with me.

Now, THAT is what so special about it.

Since then, I’ve gotten many tweets, facebook message, emails, and texts from many of them, filled with encouraging message and prayer.   It really made my day.   I might not be able to run THIS race, but I have so many people that believe in me that I will get my 26.2 medal somehow.   If it’s not THIS race, it will be another one very soon.   Suddenly, things are not so sucks anymore.   It still is, but somehow, I managed to smiled, laughed and giggled.

Thank you.   For being there for me.   For being such an awesome bunch.

This past two weeks have been very challenging for me.  I got sick.   Really, really sick.   I’m talking the kind that leave you with absolutely no energy.   I had constant fever, nausea and do not even get me started with a headache.   It was awful.   I didn’t go to work for a week as well, and all I did was sleeping.   I managed to sneak 3 run in the past 2 weeks, in addition to my very long run.   A few of three miler jog, just to get moving.  I was dizzy and almost fainted the first time around!

I was worry and anxious.  My race is 3 weeks away and I took a week of running.   I worried that it will ruining my training.  I worried that my strength will get affected by it.   I worried.  A lot.

Then Saturday came around.   It was my longest training run.  A whole 22 miles.

I still look hawt in miles 16

I woke up antsy.  It was a cold 32 degrees foggy morning.   I could have gone earlier, but I decided to enjoy my morning and run a bit later.   I had my usual pre-long run breakfast.   Toasted english muffin with peanut butter, drizzle of honey and slice of banana.   Around 10:30am – I finally got up and get ready.   I wore my long tights and my running jacket on top of my base layer.

We got to the trail around noon’ish, and I told the husband that I want to run slightly different route.    I want to run in a manageable route in my head.   See — I know long run is more than just physical.  It’s a lot of mental too, so I broke down this route to six-3 miler run, plus 4 miles.   From where we park the car, I ran east and back (which is total 6 miles) and did that three times.   Then I ran the 2 more miles east and back, which made it total 22 miles.    I have to say, that trick work.   It got kinda boring since it’s the same stretch of trail, but this by far, was my best run.   I felt strong the entire time and I only have to focus on getting me back to the car, which is about 6 miles round trip.   The only caveat on this plan was I completely underestimate how dark this trail get when the sun down.   I usually ran the opposite route which have more open area, so even though there were no more sun, the trail got some lights from street/residential.    Thanks to the flashlight app on the iPhone — my husband mounted the iPhone on his bike and I ran the last 2 miles stretch with the light from it.   It was… different.   I am not a big fans in walking/hiking, let alone running in darkness so my mental focus was all over the place for the last couple miles.   I was running even faster as I just want to be done.   When I finally reached the car, I realized for the first time that I can really do this marathon thing.   I know I can complete 26.2 miles and I have to tell you, that’s an awesome feeling to have.

Thank you Karen Lopez (t) for introducing me to running.   Thank you Erin Stellato (t) and Jes Borland (t) for inspire me even more.

My 'I just ran 22 miles' face

As usual, I have a whole group of people in twitter that constantly cheered me on during my run.   You know who you are.   Thank YOU very, very much for being there for me and supporting me the whole way.   I love you all.

Fundraising

I didn’t do much in the last two weeks on this front as well.   I have one last email update to send and hopefully, that will generate some donation.    Please visit my fundraising page at http://tinyurl.com/RobelMarathon for more information