Allow myself to introduce...myself. Here are a few fun facts about me:  I am a charismatic and obsequious young man whose shiny personality captivates those around me, but most of all myself My favorite sounds are puppies and children playing under a rainbow I enjoy speaking in strange accents for no apparent reason I enjoy choosing extra-crunchy peanut butter because I think it "keeps me real" I prefer understanding to confusion, art to science and Betty to Veronica I sometimes think wisdom can be found coming from the mouths of children, but understand that most of the time it is just incoherent babbling that must be stopped at all cost I walk with a limp although I have no injury, in order to gain pity from strangers passing by At times I eat with my left hand just to make sure my right hand doesn’t get to cocky But most of all, I love myself - so much that sometimes I get a rash  All right.  Truth it is.  I am 39 and turning 40 this month (BTW, big party coming up so pencil it in the calendar).  For some reason I think that when a person is 40 years old, they should be sort of a grown up man.  Right?  Well, in addition to all of the other challenges and restraining orders I am dealing with, my inability to keep queso fries out of my mouth and somehow make use of one of the many gym membership to which I have subscribed seems to be one of the biggest.  So here we are.  I refuse to have Oprah moments. I will sometimes\oftentimes show up for training hung-over or even still buzzed. But I promise you this, people of the interweb. I will show up and do my best.  I will share my experiences here with candor and honesty.  And I will try and keep my whining to a minimum.  And I will see YOU at the finish line.  You don't know me, but that last line was to be read with a knowing wink. 

Okay, I watched all the videos and was re-inspired of what I need to do. I entered in this thinking I was never going to win, but when I check my email two days later to find out I was a winner, I also most cried. The reason for that is I have been as I call myself “Big Daddy” for about 15 or more years. I am glad to be on a team that has never applied to running 5K, 10K or more. This way I can share the support of others on a team as we work on a tough task. I think the last time I ran anywhere was in 1986 (6th grade).

Our first day the coach Patrick wanted us to warm up walking around a .25 lap, and then he broke it up in five segments for the next lap:

1) Briskly walk 2) 5-10 lunges”yea who invented this one?” 3) Jump in the air “I think my stomach moved more than me getting my feet off the ground” 4) 10- crunches 5) 10 push ups. +) 10 Gallons of water for me. (Town Lake looked real fun to jump in right about now)


Okay wow that’s a lot, so much after our 1st lap, most were standing around resting, but to hear coach say 1 more time. I was laughing and did it!! Now me being a big guy my team supported at beginning and walked with me and helped me count as I tried to jump in the air.

Okay here is a small factoid about me. My waist size is 46 and shirt size is 4 to 5x tall, I huff & puff when running more than 10 steps, I ‘m a 10yr diabetic (I received permission from my doc, lol).
I am hear still alive and ready to take a new approach on life and try to live to the fullest.

So what do I plan to get out of this?
1--Pushing my diabetes out of my life 2--Being able to be more physically fit 3--Start reducing my clothing size 4--Start eating the right foods 5--Run or jog this 5K (Trail of Lights) 6--Keep my Chronicle team as friends for life


I want to thank Chronicle, The Zen Team, and Run-Tex for making this all possible. Being an Aquarius I get to emotional and say too much some times. Thank you a lot Erin (Austin Chronicle for allowing us participate in the first year The Chronicle has done this!) Okay I think I have typed way to much… hmm anything else to say… Oh yea…..

Gooooo Teeaammm!!!!!!

It's been a few days since our first meeting of the Club Chronicle crew, and I'm still sore from that first workout. Who invented lunges? I wish I could find them and tell them how miserable they made me the past few days. And I sit here laughing about my intro video (especially the part at the end where the dog almost runs into me.) I still can't really believe I was chosen for Club Chronicle/Team Zen Challenge. It was one of those moments where when I got the email saying I made it, I turned to my husband to let him know the good news, and then I was suddenly terrified because it meant that I actually had to DO SOMETHING! Anyhow, doing something is not a bad thing. My husband and I welcomed our first baby into the world 8 months ago. When the baby arrived, I pictured the baby weight melting off. After all, I'd be on maternity leave for a few months with time to work out and chasing a baby around would certainly burn some calories, right? Not so much. So here I sit, on the couch, where I have spent much of the last 8 months being lazy! It's time to get healthy and in shape for myself and for my family. I'm excited to have the support of the rest of the Club Chronicle-er's (if that is a word), they seem like a great group. So hopefully with our team and my family and friends support I will successfully run the Trail of Lights 5K! Wish me luck! And I hope you enjoy my journey along the way!

Hello Chronicle readers.

Sorry I don't have video for all to enjoy, but I've been on vacation and had to miss the first and second Team Zen meetings.

Ok, so about me. . . I'm 27, engaged (since Tuesday the 3rd :) part of the vacation) and have been living in Austin for a little over a year now.

My finance and I love Austin and have been taking full advantage of the community and arts scene. We both graduated in 2005 and she has since gone back to school to earn a second degree from Texas State.

My goal for the Team Zen challenge is to improve on my 5K run time. I am pursuing a commission within the Marine Corps and as an applicant and Officer candidate I am required to run a timed 3 mile run (5 Kilometers is 3.1 miles). The faster my run time, the better my score and subsequently the better my chances of being accepted into the officer program.

I have been training on my own for the past three months, but I saw the Club Chronicle Team Zen Challenge as a great opportunity to team up with some professional trainers and a few motivated people as well as a good reason push myself a little harder.

Please stop bye every couple of days as I will be keeping everyone up on my training.

Thanks for your support!

Hello Cyber Peeps. Since this is my first blog, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cassandra, I'm 26 years old, and somehow I was picked to be part of Club Chronicle. You know, I enter contests every few weeks or so never expecting to get picked (new car contests, $500 gift certificate contests), and the one contest I get picked for involves working out. Talk about bad luck (hehe).

I decided to go ahead and participate in Club Chronicle/Team Zen Challenge because 1) I was picked and 2) I realized that all of my clothes were magically shrinking in my closet (at least that's how I see it). I knew I needed to change my eating habits when half of my paycheck was going to fast food places. I've already lost a couple of pounds by cutting down on the fast food trips (notice I said down, not out). No one told me that the metabolism I had as a teenager disappeared in my 20s. Therefore, I blame everyone else for my weight gain.

I'll fess up and give you my weight. I'm five feet tall and I weigh 140 pounds. If I were about six inches taller, I'd be the PERFECT weight!

A little more about me: I love shoes to the point of obsession (no matter what my weight, shoe size was always the same...150 pairs later), my BF (boyfriend) and I just purchased our first house over the summer, I graduated from St. Ed's last year with a Communication degree, I'm completely in love with Tony Romo, and I have an odd obsession with Ricky Martin.

Last Saturday was our first workout and I was so sore on Sunday, I couldn't move. I always thought I was in decent shape, and I was WRONG! Hopefully this weekend it wont hurt as much...hopefully...

Make no mistake, that 'off and running' is to be taken as a figure of speech. Like most of my 5Kwannabe's compadres..I can't run worth a bean. I think most of us are pretty much out of shape hence we get along so well! Seriously though, when I met my fellow team mates, I was pleasantly surprised at the chilled atmosphere. Everyone was friendly and had plenty of humour to share. And humour is definitely something that should help me out the next two months. After our first work out this past saturday, I woke up sunday being sore as hell! And apparently, I was not the only one either. Gary set up a newsgroup for us so we can communicate easily (and potentially bitch and complain, that does come with exercising does it not??) and set up walking/running dates in between our saturday group work out. After two days having to hold on to the railing of the staircase to get up and down (I'll learn my muscle groups with all of this) the stairs, I can finally sit down without my upper legs hurting. Man! I had my initial 'oh no, I got picked and now I have to get up really early on saturdays'-shock, but now I am ready for it. I do not particularly like exercising and absolutely need my exercise 'village' to do so. Perhaps the next club chronicle team zen challenge ought to be a dancing competition a la dancing with the stars. Now THAT would be my kinda work-out! Until then, it will be old-fashioned walking and running. And don't forget the sit ups and crunches. Man! Ingrid