We have been training for the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon, as I have mentioned previously. We’re actually getting serious, starting to put in longer runs, and doing weekly track workouts. We even have Polartec pullovers to indicate the level of our commitment (we are willing to buy crap – see how committed we are!!).

This weekend is the 21st annual LA Marathon. Both Chuck and I have run this race several times – Chuck more than me; I’ve done it three times. We have decided to treat the race this year as our long run of the week and go keep our friend Bill company for about ten miles. He’s a legacy runner – one of a decreasing number of nut jobs whackos runners who have completed EVERY one of the races. That’s right – come rain or come shine they have shown up 20 times to do this course. This is a level of OCD that I can only imagine achieving. Bill’s long run for this year leading up to the marathon was the Firecracker 10K in Chinatown. For you non-runners, that means his long training run was 6 miles. Here’s the thing: most marathoners do a long run of AT LEAST 15 miles – 20 is even better. We have actually started a pool betting on his finishing times – the times range from 6 hours to over 8 hours. 6 hours translates into 15 minute miles, 20 minute miles would take 8 and 1/2 hours. You can see we aren’t overly optimistic about his finishing times. We have some other friends running who have actually prepared and so will be running faster. We may not see them on race day, but we’ll be thinking of them! And we’ll be at the LA Marathon Expo Saturday at our friends’ RaceReady booth (it’s cool, they pay us in clothes!). It’s a neat expo – if you play your cards right, you can eat a full meal by hitting all of the samples being handed out.

The most exciting part of all of this (and it’s all about me, after all) is that I am getting EXCITED – about the marathon in June, about running in general. After the past couple of years of injuries, surgeries, recovery, job changes, I had been in what was feeling like a permanent running funk. Every step of every run was like punishment, and every mile flet more like ten. A twenty minute run felt like hours. Now it’s back to being fun, and something I look forward to doing each day. We’re planning more runs for the summer – in Napa and in San Diego. I’m back!

I’ve been running almost continually (that makes me sound like The Fugitive – I mena recreationally running, you understand) since I was 14. My first pair of real running shoes were Nike Kip Keinos. Those were the best shoes – red with the swoosh in white. I felt so cool and fast in them! Over 100 pairs of shoes later, those are the only ones I can close my eyes and still see. I haven’t been committed to much in my life – I was over 40 before I got married, and it took me six years and five declared majors to graduate from college – but by gum, I have stayed committed to running!