DAY 1, 2005

Got up early this morning, around 6:15, and dragged my tired ass out into the Saugus morning. So, here I am again, I swore I'd never do it, but, yes, I am going to train for another marathon. Why? I blame Wendy DePauw. Wendy is an old friend from high school and she and her husband, Dan, have donated the past two marathons. I hadn't seen or spoken to them in 5 or 6 years until this past Christmas.

Over the holiday break, Steve and I went to visit the DePauws, who live in Northeast Ohio. The first thing Wendy said to me after our cordial "hellos" was, "When's the next marathon?" I demurred and said I doubted I was going to run any more. She replied, "Well, you can walk it, can't you?"

That was my challenge.

The marathon this year will be next January in Carlsbad, I think I have enough time to get prepared.

Anyway, I barely ran this morning. My quads were sore due to a two-mile jog I did with Budd on Sunday. See, the Great Strides walk was this past Sunday and once we had completed the 2-mile loop with all of the families, Budd decided he wanted to run the loop. I figured, "I'll show him." Let me tell you, Budd runs a lot faster than I do. It's all a race to him. That, and the fact that I was wearing hiking shoes, contributed to my sore legs the past two days.

Still, I'm glad I got up and did my 13-minute run (how miserable). This is the first step in thousands of steps to completing my 3rd marathon. I plan to take it slow this next couple of weeks just to get back into the swing of things. But I'll keep the blog going and try to come up with some interesting things to say this year.

Aloha