"This is it. Don't get scared now."

Have you ever seen Home Alone?  This is by far my favorite Christmas movie of all time.  I love it.  In it, there's a scene where Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) brings his sled inside the house, positions it at the top of the stairs, and proceeds to ride it down the stairs and out the front door into the snow.  It's a cute scene and you can relate because you probably thought about doing something similar when you were a kid. 

Today we took A.'s baby bed apart, and I walked onto this scene:

Priceless.

Mini 2010

The hubby and I ran the Mini this year. His first, my second. Now we've only been training hard and doing long runs for about 6 weeks. Me because of a knee injury, him because of a fear of the cold and a foolish belief that he is invincible.

I started the day in Corral D, he was in about P or so. Our gun time was 14 minutes apart, but our chip time was just 4 seconds apart. 4 seconds!! Can you tell we trained together?

Dave was quite pleased with his performance since he ran the whole thing and didn't die.

I was quite disappointed with my performance since my knee blew out (again. see reference to injury above) around mile 8. After that I did a walk/run/hobble combo for the next 5.1 miles. It hurt and I finished a full 30 minutes slower than last year. And my pride still hurts today.

Apparently I forgot to pull out the camera this weekend. Maybe because it was so, so cold. I have no pics of the event to share :(

Wheel. Of. Fortune.

My mom called to tell me they were having wheel of fortune auditions about an hour away. That's all I had to hear and I was in! Hubby and I loaded up and made the drive. We made a weekend of it: a night in a hotel, out for pizza at Uno's, yummy breakfast in the morning. Them we headed over to auditions where we passed The Wheelmobile (every scrabble nerds dream. I should know.). We stood in line forever. We finally made it inside where Road Show Pat and Road Show Vanna called contestant after contestant to come up and play a speed round. Good times were had by all. Alas, we did not get chosen for the audition or the show. But we did get pics with Real Pat and Real Vanna:

He's posing extremely weird.  He didn't actually tell Vanna to "get in my belly" despite how it looks.

I'm in the presence of game show greatness.

Why I Run

Enough is enough.

At the age of 28 I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.  I had a doctor who wanted to put me on medication that would alter my appearance, my moods, my body chemistry.  For life.  I wasn’t willing to accept his diagnosis or his treatment options.  Instead, I turned to exercise for relief from my symptoms.  I started out walking, and accidentally started running.  And amazingly, my symptoms improved.

My friends and family thought I was crazy.  They would pass me on the road and honk.  Offer me a ride.  Call me later to ask how long I had been out there.  To ask me why I choose to run.

Why do I run?

I run because it makes me feel alive.  It makes me feel well.  It makes me feel good enough.  I run because it makes me feel empowered.  It gives me a challenge.  It gives me much needed me-time.  I run because it makes me a better mother.  It makes me a better wife.  It makes me a better employee.  I run because I appreciate the legs and heart and lungs that let me.  I run to feel athletic.  To feel free.  To feel light.  I run for the camaraderie.  I run to be alone.  I run because I want to.  I run because I have to.  I run because it makes everything else seem possible.