You Signed Up For What??? My Mid-life Crisis

My alarm went off at 3:30am. We had to meet as a group in the lobby of our hotel at 4am for breakfast and our shuttle to the startline was to leave at 4:30. The shuttle bus dropped us off in the pre-sunrise dark where we waited for the race to begin at 6:15. I was in corral 22. Your corral is based on what your estimated finish time is. They start at 1 and proceed until all 45,000 runners and walkers had begun. Corral 22 crossed the start line at approximately 6:45 and I was off! What a great start. The reason they call it the rock n roll marathon is because there are live bands all along the course. The first band I past was doing Tom Petty's "American Girl" (my favorite Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song!) which definitely got me motivated. The first 4 miles were great and I was making excellent time. We weaved all through Balboa Park; past the zoo (look out for the honey badger! He's nasty!), the museum of natural history, the awesome outdoor organ that someone w...

The training is going well. Saturday we ran 10 miles. The course took us from Copley Square, through downtown crossing, over to South Boston, around "Castle Island and back. Castle Island was cool, but South Boston as a whole? Not so much. This is the place that has been called "up and coming" since we moved to MA almost seven years ago. At what point do you throw in the "up and coming" towel and just admit that you are not all that? Actually, parts of South Boston are very nice. Like most shore towns in MA, the neighborhoods right by the water are lovely, and the areas leading into it are run down or industrial like this: Next week we jump to 12 miles for some god forsaken reason. What happened to 11? I hear this one will be in Brookine which will make my stuck up heart feel much better! Thank you to all who have donated. Remember, there is still time to enter the raffle!

As part of my fundraising efforts for the San Diego half marathon I have decided to hold a raffle. There are two ways to enter the raffle: For each $25 donation, you will be entered into a raffle to win one of the following prizes: $50 gift card to Beehive Restaurant in Boston’s South End Official Bruins Hockey Puck autographed by #40 Tuuka Rask. For each $50 donation, you will be entered into the Grand Prize raffle drawing: Enjoy a dinner party for you and 7 guests in your home prepared by Kevin Hudson. As some of you may or may not know, in a previous life, I was a professional chef at one of San Francisco’s finest restaurants, The Hayes Street Grill. For the lucky winner of this raffle, I will come to your home and prepare a 4-course, gourmet meal for up to 8 guests. Together, we will sit down and determine the menu selections and then you will sit back and enjoy the evening with your dinner companions. Does not include alcohol. To enter, please go to my fundra...

To celebrate 10 years cancer free, I have signed up to run the San Diego RNR Half Marathon with Team in Training and fundraise for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Below is my story. After reading it, please click on over to my fundraising page here and sponsor me for this cause that is close to my heart. For those who lived through it with me, you have heard it all before. In the spring of 2001, I went to the doctor to see what was wrong with me. I hadn't been feeling quite right for awhile and just thought I had a sinus infection. My doctor agreed with me and put me on antibiotics. A week later, I had an allergic reaction to the medication and was told to stop taking it. I felt a bit better and so I just went on with my life. About a month later, my tonsils started to swell up and my ears became plugged up like they do when you have swelling in your sinuses. I went back to the doctor who then decided I had tonsillitis. I was put on another set of antibiotics whic...