Happy New Year.

I've heard it said that the new year starts for each person on the day he or she is born. I'm not entirely sure I believe this but if it's true, my new year opened, quite unremarkably, this past weekend. I like to think good things and the fulfillment of dreams are on their way whether it be now or on January 1st.

It has been over nine months since I began this road. It is one of the dreams fulfilled. It makes me happy to know that I am getting faster and stronger. There are so many things that take precedent for so many people: children, spouses, career, families... A person should not lose sight of herself in the midst of everything that happens in her life. That sounds most self serving and perhaps it is - you must take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else.

Whoa, that's enough of waxing philosophical again. My luck has not been running very well this week, between rain and humidity it has been a very difficult week considering it is Autumn and we should be enjoying cooler weather. As for the rain, I was 1/2 way through my run on Monday when the sky completely opened up as if a huge bucket of water had been turned over. I love the rain. My iPod Touch does not. It kept turning on and off as if each raindrop was a finger pressing down on it - very frustrating. Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" kept turning off and on every 10 seconds....(insert frustrated growl here). Needless to say I could only manage 2 miles and change but as my mother likes to say, "a half a loaf is better than none."

It's alright. To quote Dory in Finding Nemo, "just keep swimming...." And there is my "New Year"'s resolution....just keep swimming....

Nike nuts

So I have been pulled into the world of Nike+ - the wireless sensor gadget that hooks into your iTouch player and gives you your running data: 5.19 miles 705 calories 56:39minutes 11:23 average pace. All sorts of nuttiness in this wold of technology. The ipod touch can be very tempermental, but all in all a fun gadget.

I have never been a competitive person. It was never my thing. Being the youngest, the smallest, the slowest, there never seemed to be a point; however there is always one person you can stay in healthy competition with - yourself. There's no harm in outdoing yourself. In fact, you might do yourself some good. One of my goals: 210 miles in 2010. I'm at 106.

Oh and by the way, totals: 60 lbs, 3 pant sizes and 5 mile runs without passing out. Remember it could happen to you....

Time flies when you're on the beach in Maui....

And I am happy to say it didn't stop me from getting my run in each day. That's the thing, you see. What do you do when your routine is blasted out from under you - rain, snow, humidity so bad you can hardly breathe? The answer is this: you plug along as well as you can with what you have. Your body might be surprisingly open to the change.
Mine certainly was. Those hills of Maui are no joke, not San Francisco grade but enough to make your hamstrings talk back. By the third day those wonderful tree-lined hills overlooking the Pacific were old friends. Lesson learned: it doesn't hurt to push. A little bonus prize I received back at July's doctor visit: down 50lbs and 2 & 1/2 dress sizes.

Summertime...and the living is easy...

...fish are jumpin' and the cotton's high...
Wow, it has been a while. I'm up to running 5k with the occasional 5 miles thrown in. 6 months, 35 lbs., 5 miles....very good numbers. But woman can not live on numbers alone. It's when the school janitor stops you and says, "you're getting really skinny" that you can give yourself a nice little inward smile...

It could happen to you...

April Flowers bring May flowers and warm weather and dehydration headaches. Whine whine whine...and i have no cheese to go with it. There is no reason to be Debbie Downer. I am one, or in some cases, two sizes smaller than I was four and a half months ago, depending on whether my taste in clothes runs to champagne or merely Coors Light.

After 4 months I have finally worked myself up to running 5k each day. It took alot of patience and stamina but here I am almost back to where I was healthiest and probably happiest seven and a half years ago. It could happen to you, you know.

Down to Gehenna or up to the Throne; He travels fastest who travels alone. - Rudyard Kipling, Story of Gadsby

the afternoon after...

43:43 - It could have been worse. But it is time to get my crazy heart back into it; once I've picked it up.