Fly Like a Butterfly

Tomorrow, I board a plane to the Big Apple. Timmy and MK are riding with me to the airport to make certain I don't try to play beat the clock with American Airlines. This is good news as I try to push my arrival to the last possible minute before I miss my flight. It's a little game I've been playing with DFW for years.

Tomorrow night, I'll be with a lot of important people in my life eating at Joe Allen in Midtown. Tomorrow night? Is that possible? The last six months of my life. All those mornings. All those miles. It all comes down to this.

I want to thank all of you for being with me on this journey. Each time you listened to my running stories, understood when I ditched early on Friday nights, asked about my training, contributed to my fundraising ... each and every thing you've done for me ... well, I've noticed. I always say I'm the luckiest girl in the world to have the friends that I do. That's the absolute truth. Thank you. Each one of you. I mean it. Thank. You.

I've run over 850 miles since May. What's another 26.2?

I Love A Rainy Night

There was a huge difference between what I wanted to do after work today and what I had to do. I wanted to drink a beer on my couch, eat to-go sushi, and watch tv, but --- as I tell my 5 year old niece, "you don't always get to do what you want to do."

For those of you not in Dallas, it was chilly and rainy all day. Perfect sitting on your couch weather. Not perfect running-after-a-long-day-of-work weather. I called Timmy for an excused absence, but no such luck. His pep talk was solid, but it didn't make me any happier about him being right.

The trick is to not give your brain time to talk you out of it. That might be the secret to most things in my life, actually. I grabbed my old running shoes, put up the hood of my rain jacket, and headed out the door. Once you get over the initial thought --- "It is cold and wet outside. You are about to be cold and wet" --- it isn't so bad. I've been colder (SXSW 10). I've been soaking wet in the rain before (see 20 mile run this summer). Do I want to do it again? Not really. Did I survive? And then some. I don't know when I became the sporty girl who goes on her runs even on a cold, dark, rainy evening, but I like it.