Halfway there!

Well, I got one picture to upload! This is one of my favorite parts of the Mount Vernon Trail, right before a small, but challenging hill.

A couple Friday's ago, my pace group got together for dinner to discuss fundraising efforts and our pace issue. On the way, my train decided to break down, traveling for 5 seconds at a time at a 10 second per hour pace, then slamming on the breaks, causing everyone to fall over into each other's stinky arm pits. Stop and go the entire way to Dupont Circle. By the time I got to the restaurant, I can't say I was in a festive mood. However, we had a nice dinner. I skipped the tour of "places of questionable amusement," and went home to see my husband who for once did not have a paper to write or test to study for. Saturday, we ran a recovery run of "only" six miles (I've always wanted to say that-it's as close to being an elite runner as I'll ever get). For some reason, my body was saying "noooo, sleep in, eat Heath Bites, and greasy pizza. I felt like a slug bug out there, but finished with the group. It seems I had a virus brewing, because a couple days later, I got good and sick.

Despite a case of nerves Friday night, I successfully completed my longest run yet – 14 miles!!! Our pace group did GREAT, even increasing the pace for the last mile. Thank you to Tina and Michele for volunteering again this week. They took pictures, gave us food and water, and lots of cheer! After the run, Steve and I (stupidly) went to a movie. Sitting in an extremely cold theatre (or was it? We saw “The Weatherman;” every scene was of cold, snowy, icy, Chicago) for two hours caused me to feel a little like the Tin Man. I tried to move, but could only whimper. Steve got me to the car, spoiled me with a hot Starbucks coffee, and I spent the next day and a half on the couch. I’m a little concerned about what the 17-miler, 20-miler, 23-miler and actual marathon might do to me. Today, however, I did my 45 minute maintenance run with only a little stiffness. Ice packs, Advil and stretching seem to be the key.

Soooo, onto the important stuff. Our fundraising total has reached $1900! We’ve got less than a thousand to go in order to reach the required goal. If you haven’t yet donated, and would like to contribute to these fundraising efforts for Whitman-Walker Clinic, please click on the “Sponsor Me” link on the right hand side of this page. For those who have already contributed, thank you so much. Please let your friends and family know about this great cause and encourage them to participate!

Last, I’m off to figure out the laptop issues. I WILL conquer this technology business in time to post some pictures. I will, I will, I will…