Boxing for Blood Cancers

We have had a few BIG days this week!

Thursday night's Boxing for Blood Cancers show was a huge success! Jaime put on an amazing event and the turn-out was unbelievable!  Everybody fought hard, but the big wins of the night went to Dena and Zach! Both fighters were amazingly calm and composed and stuck to their game plans, which obviously worked to their advantage.  They also both wore matching tulip skirts.  Maybe that's the key to winning?

Dena (in the pink shorts) vs. Jeanine

Zach in white and red shorts

Dena's win announcement:

Striking Beauties Shelley, Janice, and Becca also put on great shows and had a HUGE fan base cheering them on :)

Jess with Shelley and Maria

Shelley satisfying a creepy fan.  Sorry if this is someone's husband, but he was drunk and wanted to challenge Shelley to a fight.  This was all we could do to get him to go away.

Janice warming up with Zach

Becca (in pink shorts) vs Heather

My shoes also made their first sanctioned fight debut Thursday night!

Lookin' good, shoes! (On Becca)

It was fun for us to sit back, watch, and cheer like crazy...but it also made reality sink in a little bit! We are fighting in less than 3 weeks!!!!!!  It's business time!

More Fight Photos:

 

We think you should spend all of your expendable income on charity events that involve beating people up.

Tomorrow night one of our boxing heroes and friend, Jaime Clampitt, is hosting a night of amateur fights to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  The event is called Boxing for Blood Cancers and it is dedicated to one of Jaime's friends who is a Leukemia survivor.

High quality photo here!

Not only is this an important event for Jaime, and a great cause in general, it is also showcasing many of our friends and fellow training partners.

Striking Beauties owner, Dena, will be fighting Jeanine (a friend of the gym) in a Lawyer vs Doctor match-up (also referred to as the fight of the little people! These ladies are 110 lbs and under!)

Dena, seen here with her gorgeous daughter, Ali.
Oh, and what do you know?! Another photo by unofficial blog photog Jen O!!!

This is going to be a great match-up! Although we're friends of Jeanine's we have to say....GO DENA!!!

Tomorrow night will also be the big return of TMZ!!!!!! TMZ is an old term that used to be thrown around the gym quite frequently and stands for Team Marcin and Zach.  They had customized tee shirts and a fan base, it was a whole big thing.

Then, unfortunately for Zach, Marcin went away to become a state trooper and Zach reverted to his natural state.  A lover, not a fighter.

However, tomorrow night BOTH gentlemen will be returning to the ring! We're really excited to see both of them get back in there! Zach should also get an extra shout-out because he's fighting AND working the corner for a number of our fighters.  The man is multi-talented, what can we say?

And finally, our fellow Striking Beauties Shelly, Janice, and Becca will be facing off against many of the girls we've been sparring with at Balletto's for the last few weeks- Heather, Gina, and Cynthia.  Everyone has been working really hard- we're actually excited to just sit this one out and watch how it all plays out!

The Sunday night sparring crew minus Jess because stupid graduate school got in the way!

Now, I'll be honest- my goal was to photoshop Jess into the picture above, but sadly I lack the photoshop skills and tools.  Just imagine you see her in there somewhere looking really tough.  Like this:

SO tomorrow night- fights start at 8.  Come watch our friends beat people up and raise money for Blood Cancers.  And catch a glimpse of TMZ. Totally worth it.

That's not junk in my trunk

Thanks to everyone who has been voting on our walk-out songs and a nickname for me (Nora)!  Kind of unfortunately, "the Norovirus" is coming out with a commanding lead, although my former coworkers at Mass General are showing some love for "Nasty."

Although a few people have voted, mostly people have been giving new nickname ideas that we haven't considered yet.  For instance, my principal (yep...) suggested "War Horse" since a coworker introduced me to a student as Mrs. Swarhorse recently.  Zach came up with Nora NyQuil- "She'll put you to sleep"...but without that little addition to the nickname it sounds like I have an OTC prescription drug problem.  My college roommate also suggested "The Rage."  I don't know what that says about our time living together, but it could actually be fitting :)  Or, something like "The Wrath of..." Nora Swartwout.  Basically all saying I can get mean.

Anyways, of all the new entries, Jess has come up with maybe the most applicable.  Since we've been spending so much time together she's discovered my little secret.  I am a Never Nude.

Watch Arrested Development: Never Nude - Watch more Funny Videos at Vodpod.

Do these effectively hide my thunder?

I can be confident in posting this picture online because I know we only have a total viewership of 4 people (me, Jess, Julie, and Jess's sister). My secret is safe.

Glass of champagne? A nice cold beer? No thank you, I'll just drink this protein shake I brought from home.

Besides the aches and pains, bumps and bruises, and blood that have come from our training, another serious side effect has been party pooper-itis.  Jess and I are both trying to stick to a healthy diet (as best we can!) which includes good foods and cutting out alcohol.  This has been difficult in a season of bridal showers, bridal shows, bachelorette parties, weddings, St. Patrick's day parties, and Marathon Monday!   Not that we need to drink to have fun, but it's pretty lame to have to stick to water and pack your own snacks for these events.

Yesterday my friends and I hosted a pub crawl in Boston to raise money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

With the other Avon Walk girls- Michelle, Jess, and Nicky

In the spirit of full disclosure, I DID have a bloody mary early in the day, but I justified it by saying that it had healthy tomato juice and spices and very little alcohol.  I was also proud of myself for skipping scorpion bowls at the Hong Kong, which are my absolute favorite!! (And yes, I did pack a luna bar and string cheese for the road)

All in all, it was nice to wake up clear and refreshed and NOT hungover this morning.  Made that morning run that much easier!

Thank you to all who turned out yesterday (or bought tee shirts- thanks Magen and Jess!).  The fundraiser was a huge success! We raised somewhere around $2,500 in total!


Also, don't forget to vote for our walk-in songs and nickname on the right hand side -->
We need to choose by next week!!

IMPORTANT (again)

Jess and I have the unique opportunity to pick songs to walk out to for our fights at Haymakers- something that is not commonplace at amateur fights! We are both having a tough time selecting songs, and we're looking for your help!

Personally, I have been toying with four characteristics that could make a good walk-out song... (1) relevant lyrics (something having to do with boxing/fighting), (2) something that is relevant to me, (3)  the ability to get me pumped up (4) something tongue in cheek that at least makes me laugh...

As always, I am frozen with indecision and have over 10 possible songs picked out...

Jessica envisions walking out to the ring will be a lot like this:

We have until April 29th to make a decision, so please vote for a song for each of us at the right side of the blog.  Polling ends on April 27th...

This is important!!! Please help!
 
Note: This is not as important as buying TICKETS!!!  You can do that here:

Tickets for Jess

Tickets for Nora

I'm on the practice field running two-a-days so I don't drop the ball when it's threw my way (- a quote from the prolific poet Shawn Carter)

Ok, so there are no balls in boxing (get your mind out of the gutter!!) but Jess and I have certainly been running two-a-days this week in preparation for our final month.

This started on Sunday with our regular workout at SB then sparring at Balletto's at night.  On Monday we trained with Jaime in the morning then had class and technique with Zach at night and we were back at it again today training with Jaime this morning and class/sparring/technique tonight!

This has been extra brutal because Jaime KILLS you in an hour workout.  Everything is very focused and extremely fast with no rest at all.  During the workout you feel like you might fall down dead (I found myself gazing longingly at my water bottle), but you can just feel your endurance getting better and better.  My new favorite drill is throwing as many punches as possible in a 2:00 round and then trying to increase your punch count the next time around!  Sometimes she also has her three-year old stand along the ring and yell "faster! faster!" What could be more motivating than trying to impress a toddler?  It certainly works for me!


Here are a few pics from Wednesday night's sparring session:

Jess giving Dena some squatting pointers

Everyone looks prettiest after sparring!!

Some eye candy for the fellas this time...after the picture of the blood....

Sorry, everyone, for the brief hiatus! I hope you're all still keeping up with us- we're coming into our final stretch!! 32 days to go until FIGHT NIGHT!!

This week was more of the usual- class, running, sparring, etc...But there's been EXTRA blood this week from both me and Jess!  Jess opened up her nose sparring Golden Gloves champ Mel on Wednesday night and I had a gusher tonight working with Heather from Balletto's...

I think this was bloody tissue #4....

Tonight was another great ladies' sparring night at Balletto's with Jaime and some of the girls that will be fighting in her show on April 26th.  It's been fun getting in with them and mixing things up- we're really excited to watch them fight in a few weeks!


Danke!
In the thank you department, I would like to give a shout-out to Tracey Pierce for contributing to H4H!! Tracey is not just a really pretty face and, let's face it, super hot body.... She's also a kick-ass personal trainer at Striking Beauties, award-winning real estate agent, and hilarious mom of the cutest little guy EVER!!  She is all-around awesome!

Another amazing photo by Jen Osojnicki Photography!!!
Also, how gorgeous are these two?!?!

Thank you, Trace!!! You are the best!!

Merci....

...to Courtney Saunders for contributing to my H4H fundraising.  Courtney is the former mayor of SB who is currently on hiatus due to injury and the fact that she's cheating on us with roller derby.  NBD.  Despite being crippled, she occasionally still shows up at the gym to bully people:

This seems to be a theme in all the pictures I have with C. Sau...

And yes, I do enjoy myself some costume sparring.  This particular costume is not great for exercising as it is made of a very absorbent felt-like material.  Live and learn.

THANK YOU COURTNEY!!!

Happy Easter! (no gym today?!)

Today was one of the few days a year where Striking Beauties did not have classes and I felt lost. What am I supposed to do with myself? Not train today? Sundays have been for boxing drills class and sparring since the New Year, not for brunch and egg hunts.

Well I tried to start my Easter Sunday off right. I decided to take a run with Emmeline (the Honey Badger). It wasn't the same as Zach insisting we can do 3 minutes of double unders or sparring Dena, Mel, Shelly, or Julie until I can't move my legs anymore but a run was the least I could do.

Emme gets ready for an Easter morning run

Nora and I have been training for Haymakers for Hope for about 4 months now. We're in the gym for boxing classes, bootcamp, pilates, sparring, footwork drills, pad work, and running 6 days a week. Today made me realize how much this training regimen has really set in. Missing a regular training day feels so unnatural now. I never thought I could do this much back in January. I can't wait to get back in the gym Monday to train even harder. Nora and I have sparred our opponents and are ready to work with Zach to box our best come fight night. The fight seems so close now! Haymakers for Hope is May 17th at House of Blues in Boston. Check out the ticket and fundraising page here:  http://www.crowdrise.com/haymakersforhope

Happy Easter and I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. It's off to bed so I can get back to the gym Monday morning.

As Promised

I would like to give shout outs to the people who have brought me up to my total of $190, which is awesome, but meager compared to Jess's rockin' $1635!!! Go Jess!

I already gave a thank you to Jen Osojnicki- my first sponsor!

Also, thank you to the Field family.  I know none of you will ever read this blog, but just in case...THANK YOU!

A big gracias to Magen Knell who not only contributed to my Haymakers fundraising, but also to the Avon Walk (which I am doing immediately following H4H) AND she braided my hair for sparring last night.  You are the best Meggie.

Magen at Christmas/Hanukkah time

Also, maybe the biggest thank you should go to my youngest (and probably THE youngest) donor... Emme Gravel!! Thanks Honey Badger!  I will try to channel your chillness come fight night.  There is a lot you can learn from a 16-month old.

-Nora