Ready, Set, RUN!!

The new year has officially been here for two months and that means my goal to run at least three 5ks and (Possible) a 10k is off and running. My first 5k of the year is Saturday.

Evan, myself and my friend Beth will be up bright and early to head to Dallas for This Yummy Run . Evan picked it so of course it had to be food or sugar related. There's a chocolate party afterwards so I'm sure it'll be interesting to watch people stuff down chocolate after running 3 miles. :)

On top of doing the 5k on February 11th, I'll also be involved in the virtual run for Sherry .

Many of you don't know Sherry, but you know her story. She's the Montana teacher who went for an early morning run and never came home. She was simply doing something she loved before starting her day and a random act of violence took her away. I'm sure many of you read her cousins blog and have heard about the virtual run this Saturday. Once I read it I knew I wanted to be a part of it. I'll have my race bib and Sherrys bib on during the race.

When I started running, I never thought it would bring me in a circle of some amazing people. Through twitter, the blogs and face to face people I have met at runs and the gym and on the road doing what we love to do I have learned so much and received so much positive energy and comments and motivation. I love it!

I'm truly grateful for some of you awesome ladies. Thanks for keeping me consistent and pushing me to go farther and do more.

Sept. 2010- The start of something BIG in my life.

October 2011- My first 5k

2012 is going to be so fantastic, it just keeps getting better and better.

Happy Wednesday Friends,

Britt The HLC

February- The Heart Month

No, not hearts as in Valentine's.....

 The month of February is dedicated to raising awareness about heart disease and increasing knowledge about prevention. Educate yourself on the dangers of heart disease and get on track to better heart health.

Did you know Heart Disease is the #1 killer of Women? Most would say Breast cancer....

One form of Heart disease that is near to my own heart is Children with CHD. A sweet friend of mine had an adorable baby girl a month before I had Avery. Emma looked like your typical blue eyed doll and was born perfectly healthy by the look of her, however she was born with a heart defect and succumbed to it at 5 months old. Her mother and father have been huge advocates for raising awareness in Children with CHD and helping spread the word to raise funding for more research to be done in the medical field.

Congenital Heart Disease

• Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 birth defect worldwide
• Congenital Heart Defects are the #1 cause of birth defect related deaths worldwide
• About 1 out of every 100 babies are born each year with some type of Congenital Heart Defect in the United States (approx. 40,000/year)
• Nearly twice as many children die from Congenital Heart Defects in the United States each year as from all forms of childhood cancers combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than funding for Congenital Heart Defects
• Each year worldwide 100,000 babies (under one year old) will not live to celebrate their first birthday
• Each year in the United States approximately 4,000 babies (under one year old) will not live to celebrate their first birthday
• The cost for inpatient surgery to repair Congenital Heart Defects exceeds $2.2 billion a year
• Of every dollar the government spends on medical funding only a fraction of a penny is directed toward Congenital Heart Defect research
• The American Heart Association directs only $0.30 of every dollar donated toward research. The remainder goes toward administration, education and fundraising efforts. Of the $0.30 that goes toward research only $0.01 goes toward pediatric cardiology for CHD
• Though research is ongoing, at least 35 defects have now been identified
• Although some babies will be diagnosed during gestation or at birth, sometimes the diagnosis is not made until days, weeks, months, or even years after. In some cases, CHD is not detected until adolescence or adulthood
• It is a proven fact that the earlier CHD is detected and treated, it is more likely the affected child will survive and have less long term health complications

Today was National wear RED day in support of heart health. Did you wear red?

XOXO-
Britt the HLC