Halfway There

I’m halfway there! (A cake even told me so.)

I’m very proud to announce that I ran 14 miles yesterday. That’s slightly over a half-marathon.

Some of you can remember, waaaayyy back in January, when I was first considering signing up for this program. I thinking about running the half-marathon in San Francisco, and I thought I was nuts for even considering that at all. I mean, I thought of myself as such a non-runner, I even had a motto: “I don’t run unless there’s a gun.” Needless to say, the thought of running 13 miles was kind of big.

Within in a couple months, it just got worse, because somehow, even though I hadn’t even walked a mile, much less ran one yet, the thought of a half-marathon in San Francisco became comfortable. Why not take on a full marathon in Honolulu? Just before I signed up for Honolulu, fortunately someone mentioned Florence. I asked, “Florence? As in Florence, Italy?” That was correct… and oh yeah, one other thing, this marathon has to be completed in 6 hours or less. And not to mention the additional $1,000 I would have to raise. No big wup, right? (Close in on panic attack.)

And now, 14 miles, can you believe it?! Well I can. I never doubted myself for one second.

It was a good run. There was a beautiful morning yesterday. Although it was a little bit on the chilly side for the first couple hours, the air was clear and fresh. We ran out from Griffith Park onto Forest Lawn Drive all the way to Barham, up around Warner Brothers until Hollywood Blvd. Then we turned around and headed towards the park again. That was only the first half. We ran back out and headed up Victory Blvd, expanding our usual route northward to Olive. When we returned to the site, everyone nearby started cheering and clapping us on. “You did it! You did it!”

And as all good stories should go… then we had cake. It was a small white cake with lemon filling was brought out to celebrate this moment, and it was gooooood, too.

So I’m halfway there, but in a way, I’m already there, because I have now realized what I thought was once impossible.