It's GO time!

Woohoo--we're in San Francisco for Marathon Weekend!

The expo inside the humungous tent was super-running-girl fun. We picked up our race numbers, got lots of free samples, had our gaits analyzed, and picked up our "Starting Corral" wristbands.

Well, at least we aren't in the slowest group.

Today is for taking it easy--painting our nails TNT purple, maybe a little trip to Niketown and H&M, then the Inspiration Pasta Dinner, and early to bed. We meet up with our team at 5am tomorrow morning for team pictures and to get in line for one last stop in the porta-potty. The race starts at 7.

To top off my weekend, I got good news from my LLS honoree, Michelle. She just got her test results back from her doctor. She is 100% cancer free, 100% grafted, and 100% normal chromasomes. I am so happy for her! This year's marathon raised over $14 million for LLS. I feel honored to be part of this amazing event.

This is it...don't get scared now.

Company

Last Saturday Brenna and her posse came up for a visit. They brought their own Beer Pong table and taught us how to play.

Don't worry, we had water in our cups. We're in training! Beer Pong is as bad as golf--so many rules.

I wasn't too bad, but Larry and Richard beat us. We had a great time laughing and visiting with B's friends.

Sunday morning they headed off to the 49er game.

It was lots of fun hanging out with B's friends. I really do miss having my kids close to home.

After they left, I went out and ran in my first official race in a long, long time. It was a trail run down in Folsom. I didn't really race though--just ran my usual snail's pace and used it as an easy training run. My only goal was to not be last! Mission accomplished.

Running down a dream

There's something good
waitin' down this road
I'm pickin' up
whatever's mine - Tom Petty

One of the reasons it's been so quiet around here lately is that I have been running. A lot. I used to be a runner. In my 20's and 30's I ran just about every day. I even ran quite a few 10k races. But something happened. I stopped running. I guess it was a lack of time and energy caused by driving three kids around constantly in my mini-van. I've missed it lately. I walk every day, but it's not the same. When runners would pass me, I'd wonder if I could do it again. With more than 50 candles on my birthday cake, I wasn't sure.

In June, I got a brochure in the mail from Team in Training. It's a fundraising program for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It said, if I joined my local team, they would give me a coach and train me to run the Nike Women's Half-Marathon in October. This was pretty hard to believe, but it got me thinking. I knew people who had blood cancers. They were neighbors of mine.

Dan, the owner of Auburn Running Company, sold me my walking shoes and coached me on how to start running again. He endured two bone marrow transplants and months of chemo. He passed away in June.

Michelle, a friend who lives down the street, had just sent her youngest off to college and was looking forward to life as an empty-nester when she found out she had leukemia. She spent months at Stanford receiving chemo and a transplant. She's back home now and doing very well.
So, I signed up for Team in Training to get back to running, and to honor Dan and Michelle. It was scary at first! I couldn't run for a minute straight without feeling like I was going to die. And I wasn't sure how I was going to raise $2100 dollars. But, I kept plugging away and showing up at my team workouts. I'm proud and happy to tell you that Saturday, I ran 12 miles, and I felt pretty good afterward. And, today I received a check that put me over my fundraising goal.

Thanks to my team, I'm running again and enjoying it (most of the time--I still hate the hills).

Thanks, Brenna, for signing up with me. You've helped keep me motivated and I can't wait to run with you in the race!
Thanks to all of you who have given your support and words of encouragement. It means a lot to me that you believed I could do this. Thanks to all of you that have donated to LLS. I have spoken to so many of you whose lives have been touched by these cancers. I hope my efforts will make a difference for others.

Two weeks to go...

Here and there

September was a fun filled month. We took a trip to Park City with my mom to visit Kelly and my aunt and cousins. We stayed in a timeshare (thanks, mom!) right in town. We were one block away from K's apartment, and had a gorgeous view of town, and Park City ski area. We hardly used our car--we could walk just about everywhere we wanted to go. The fall colors were just starting to show, and got better as the week went on.

I forgot my camera (again!), so just took a couple of pictures with my phone. My kids will crack up when they see the next two pictures. These boys were strolling through town advertising for their doggie salon.

Don't worry. They didn't mind their hairstyles, and the colors were non-toxic vegetable dyes. They loved all the attention they were getting!

Yes, there was knitting. My aunt and mom wanted a knitting refresher course. Neither one had knit in over 30 years. I brought yarn and needles for them to knit scarves and they only needed a few reminders before they were knitting away. I also brought yarn, needles and a hat pattern for Kelly and Brenna. All three of us knit a cabled hat. Well, Brenna and I knit a cabled hat. Kelly, inadvertantly made up her own stitch pattern. We laughed a lot! But, her hat is turning out really cute.

A week after we got home from Utah, Larry and I were off to Lake Tahoe for a few days. We played a little golf and enjoyed the cool weather.

I spent some time knitting on some secret projects, and also cast on for another Ulmus shawl. I'll have photos for you soon.