“Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” ~ Dean Karnazes

So today, I feel great. Not sore at all. Which would tell you perhaps one of two things. One, I must not have worked hard enough or two, it must have been an easy, breezy 13.1. Well, neither would be true. I worked really hard. Or maybe it was my lungs that worked really hard. Undertaking running as a severe asthmatic not a small feat. Some may even say it is  crazy, especially when you are talking distance and elevation. And the hills. Oh. My. Gosh. Like this one. At mile 6. Nasty thing to come upon when you are cruising right along. Why does it take me by surprise each and every year?

 And the fact I only trained 3 weeks and the fact I had a nasty attack through that canyon last weekend, that I had barely recovered from, made this run even more complicated. But you know me, I like a challenge. Tell me I can't do something or can't have something and I will work twice as hard to accomplish it and obtain it. And I worked my tail off for this run. And in the end, I did the best I could. Finished 500 or so out of approximately 1600 in my age group. Finished 8,000 or so out of the 20,000 plus half marathon runners and bettered my time my 2 measly minutes from last year. But I worked for those 2 minutes, let me tell you. I really did. My oh so lovely dry heaving at the end, of course not in front of the hunky SF firefighters handing out our Tiffany necklaces, told me so. But man, was I spent by that last mile. It passed quickly and it was, in the end all worth it. Every step.

But more then all that, the training and wheezing and struggling, that race I ran in, raised an additional 10 million dollars for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Raising the total amount donated to LLS by the Nike Women's Marathon since it's inception 9 years ago, to 118 million dollars. How incredible is that?

 I ran for my sweet girl and all her cancer fighting, warrior buddies. Those that have been blessed by a cure, those still awaiting theirs, and those who should be here and who's cure remained cruelly elusive. I will return next year. Definitely will be returning. Just have to keep being a part of that inspiring environment. Got to do my small part.

"We cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love."~ Mother Teresa

And, in addition to all that, I get to go with my girl Jess. We splurge and stay in a hotel that you literally walk out the front doors, turn right and voila, start line, right there. We don't run together of course. She smokes me with those long,lean and much younger legs. But she is always there waiting for me at the finish line. We compare notes and check out our  'finishing medals'. We shower and go eat a yummy recovery lunch and the last 2 years we tack on 3 or so extra miles and walk and have a celebratory pedicure.

 * Jess opted for the Bloody Mary and lightweight me went for a nice, tall, cold glass of chocolate milk.

It is an amazing weekend. Whirlwind, but amazing. And like childbirth, which of course I know nothing about, seeing that I had 6 c-sections, like childbirth, once the hard part is over, you forget about it and say, hey, I can't wait to do that again. Next year I think I will train a bit more. And perhaps lower my expectation of myself. And realize, that as I am just a bit away from 50,  have asthma and Lupus and a few other not so fun health issues, I'd say, I am not doing too bad at all.

But if again, you know me at all, chances are I won't be coming to that realization anytime soon. Inside you know, I still think I am 30. Okay, well, 35.

And the quote, at the top. Applicable to life in general, is it not? Zoey sure has illustrated the truth in that. We just end up following suit. Fearless leader that she is.