Getting Serious

For the Easter holiday in the Spring of 2009 I went to visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania, along with my mother and my kids. As I was changing clothes one morning my mother walked in, looked me up and down as I was nearly or completely nude, and at length commented "Well, you finally have a figure." As she said this, she simultaneously illustrated her point with some hand motion which distinctly went outward at what I must assume was supposed to represent my depression stage ass.

I was back in the gym the day after we returned.

A friend from work, a runner (with whom I indiscriminately shared my black toe story) suggested that I go to a specialty running store to get the right shoes. OK, first of all, who the hell knew that there were specialty stores for running? Obviously, as we all now know, not me. However, I was willing to do anything to avoid another 5 pedicureless months, and I went to the store. Potomac River Running. They are awesome. As I sit here sore as hell today, the only damn thing that doesn't hurt is my feet. They measure your feet, they analyze how you walk and how you run using a treadmill and some special video camera set up, they have you stand on this thing to see how your weight settles on your feet. They do it all over again with various shoes selected for your feet. Then they find you the perfect pair of shoes. I am forever in their debt. No, I do not own stock in their store, don't get discounts, and do not even know anyone that works there. I don't know anything, actually, which you may have concluded by now.

This same friend knew I wanted to run the marathon, which she had completed previously, and told me about this group she runs with, Team in Training. TNT (no, not TIT, fortunately) is a fundraising organization for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). Basically, they train you to complete an endurance event, and you fund raise a minimum amount of money for them to provide services to patients suffering from leukemia or lymphoma (many of which are children). For me this provides an opportunity of the best nature - I get support to accomplish a major life goal, and at the same time will contribute to the assistance of people suffering from these blood cancers.

After I got my fundraising website up (which TNT basically does for you) my first donation came in, $500 from the same friend's parents, her dad is a survivor. They donate to the LLS every year, usually through their daughter's races, but my friend is not running in a fall event and so they donated to me instead. My fundraising minimum is $1800, but it would be great to exceed that amount. To date I am halfway there.

Now that all the pieces were in place it was time to get serious. Unfortunately, I could not even make it around the lake once without having to stop and walk...the lake is only 1.25 miles...the race is 26.2 miles.