Team In Training

Well, there's no news to report on the knitting or 3 Kittens scene today, so I thought I'd update you on the "fitness" portion of my blog.

First, I finally tested for and received my black belt in karate on December 2. It took 4 1/2 years and four surgeries to get this far - but I still feel it was worth it. I know my husband took some photos of me during the exam, but I don't have access to them right now. Of course, there were only about 40 of us testing for our first degree black belts, and my husband was about as far away from me as you could possibly get, so you wouldn't really be able to tell it was me in a photo anyway!

Second, I'm running a marathon in 2 1/2 weeks. YIKES! Last year, I walked the Nike Women's Marathon with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training in support of my sister-in-law, Peggy King, who was battling lymphoma. I had a great time training for the marathon with my friend, Margaret Kelberer, and all my other teammates, plus I was able to raise almost $20,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Here's a photo of me and Margaret at the end of the marathon:

The marathon was in October, and Peggy lost her battle in December. So now I'm training with Team in Training to run the P.F. Chang's Rock and Roll Marathon in Phoenix on January 14th in memory of Peggy. We had our longest training run this past Saturday - 20 miles! I'm happy to say that I finished the run with no problems, albeit very slowly! Plus, even more importantly, my fundraising is going gang-busters. I've raised just over $51,000!! Most of that has been through family, but alot of my friends and friends of Peggy have pitched in. Check out my fundraising website for more info. It's a great cause, and training for the marathons has boosted my confidence - I figure if an overweight 43-year old with bad knees and high blood pressure can run a marathon, anyone can! And, I know that raising the money for LLS made Peggy really proud of me, which makes me feel great.