Trailer for The Other City.
Once again, I am participating in AIDS Walk Washington and, once again, I’m asking you to donate a few dollars to this cause.  This 5k run and walk benefits Whitman Walker Clinic, a non-profit organization that offers medical and dental care, addiction counseling, free HIV/AIDS tests, legal services, AIDS education, and [...]

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*with 11 other awesome, crazy people

We finished the American Odyssey Relay in 32 hours and 30 minutes– slightly better than I’d anticipated.  We averaged right at a 10 min mile over 202 miles and some pretty legit changes in elevation.  I did it.  I didn’t think I could but I did– we did.
My team, Shelby’s [...]

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Way back in October, when I ran the Marine Corps 10k, I came across a booth for the American Odyssey Relay.  I think the sign said something like “run through America’s Civil War history.”  They had me at Antietam.
A week ago I thought it’d be the running that scared me.  Not any more.  I ran [...]

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Yesterday I ran the Marine Corp Marathon’s 10k (ha! tricked you with that name– just six point two dinky miles for me thank you very much) in one hour, two minutes, and 41 seconds.  Yep, it looks like the 10-min-mile is my new standard pace.
Oorah!

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This is me, just after I crossed the finish line.

I did it!  4 miles in 40 minutes and 26 seconds– even quicker than my goal pace.  I feel very, very proud of myself.  I can understand why people get addicted to running, I felt like I was beaming all day!  Nothing like setting a goal, [...]

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“Running Shoes” from Mark Steele’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

The Runner
Walt Whitman
On a flat road runs the well-train’d runner,
He is lean and sinewy with muscular legs,
He is thinly clothed, he leans forward as he runs,
With lightly closed fists and arms partially rais’d.
Included in Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and available online.
My first ever [...]

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I am not sure I’ve felt the so-called “runner’s high” yet but yesterday AM after I finished my 3/4 mile run I did have a a wee moment of enlightenment… or I came up with an aphorism or something.  Here is my great insight:
Running isn’t rewarding because you finished a race, running is rewarding because [...]

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Some readers of this blog know that I really, really want to be a runner but am, at best, a fast walker.  I have a lot of admiration for long distance runners– much of it because I’ve never been able to really push through that first mile of yucky, unfun, heavy breathing, feeling like a [...]

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