What an Awesome Adventure

We are an awesome bunch. I am sincere in this. I looked around the room on Sunday and was astounded by the transformations ! We were pumpin out push-ups and crankin out sit-ups and running miles in shorter times (in some cases, really shorter times) and all with smiles on our faces. I remember going to the initial fitness test with such trepidation. I know I was not the only one! But Sunday, all I saw was pure joy. There are a few mental snapshots of these 12 weeks that I can draw on when I need inspiration, but the smiles on our faces as we wound this up will be among the strongest. Isn't it wonderful to have done something so important and know that you will be an inspiration to those around you?

Congratulations to all of us! I could not have had a better group to spend the last 12 weeks with!

Making Progress

Although a certifiable pain, the air cast is definitely working. I don't have pain with every step I take. I did an interval workout on a stationary bike yesterday that was challenging and more importantly, doesn't seem to have left any marks.
I am so proud of you guys that are participating in "Race for the Cure" on April 18th. I have participated for many years and actually ran it last year. That event is what created the itch to try training for the Mini! I am very sad that I will not be able to do this with you, but I will be with you in spirit. It is a gratifying and emotional event. I have wonderful memories of last years race. So with everything else, I have a story about it. My husband Rick was volunteering at the Zoo that Saturday morning (as he does every Saturday) so he came out to the road to wait for me to pass. It was pouring down rain....(I was having so much fun that I didn't realize how hard it was raining!). When I passed by Elephant hill I heard Rick call to me. There he was standing under an umbrella. I ran up the hill to give him a kiss. He told me that I felt like a popsicle! When I ran back to join my fellow runners, a guy in the crowd asked if I was going to get a kiss at every mile! I told him to keep up with me to see!
I hope everyone enjoys their recovery week.

Finally I know what I have been knowing

Well......I am just back from the Sports Medicine doc. As I feared, I do have a stress fracture in my left tibia. But there is good news to this. I am in an air cast instead of a boot and only for 3-4 weeks. My bad news is no Mini Marathon. I am really disappointed but know that there are far worse things out there. I will heal and be back running in as few as three weeks! In the meantime, I have to brush up on my swimming strokes as that and cycling are about the only aerobic things I can do. But I can do them and will. It's a relief to me just to finally know what's going on.

In the keeping it real category, I just happen to be reading a book that is keeping me grounded instead of singing the woes. As I state in my blog bio I am originally from South Louisiana, a little town 45 miles southwest of New Orleans called Houma. Close enough to New Orleans that growing up, I could put the car on auto pilot and get there in ......well fast. I with the rest of the nation watched in horror as the flooding and aftermath of Hurrican Katrina unfolded. I cried for days because the places that they showed (the Gulf coast as well because I had family in Gulfport, Mississippi) were so familiar to me. I know that it is hard for people who aren't don't know the South Louisiana people found it hard to understand why these people didn't just leave, but I understood. I knew it was a terrible mistake, but people from that area just don't leave when a storm is brewing. Home is all they have in most cases. They just can't bear to leave it to fate. I am reading a book called "The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous" that tells the story of a group of shrimpers that road out the storm in a place called Violet Canal which is south and east of New Orleans. They went through the worst of the storm, including too many tornadoes to count and storm surges of 20 to 25 feet from more than one direction on their shrimp boats and lived to tell about it. They were heroic in their rescue of stranded folks and were courageous in their attempts to keep life going because they were forgotten......for days. The author happens to be an acquaintance of mine from my home town that now writes for The Wall Street Journal which has made it even more special.

My point to all of this is that reading this couldn't have come at a better time for me. To read about these people's resilience in the face of a terrible tragedy and seemingly insurmountable obstacles, it serves as a reminder that life throws you big curveballs and little curveballs. This is a little curveball that will be better in a blink.
Thanks for reading. Hope all of you are healthy and doing well.