Celebrating another birthday

43!  Three birthdays since the diagnosis.  I used to get upset about growing another year older, not any more.  It actually reminds me that I am here and 43, that is awesome.  I am so grateful to feel healthy, to have the most wonderful family and a supportive circle of friends.

If you know me you probably know that I hate running.  Well, this year my book club proposed a personal challenge for everyone to tackle.  I chose to run a 5K. In my previous life I have run only very rarely: when I was in high school for training for the tennis team and a little in college for a month or so.  That is it.  I hate it because I get out of breath, and cannot do it for even a short time.  This spring I installed an app for Couch to 5K and started training.  And little by little noticed that I could run longer each weak.  Finally early in May I made it, I ran the 5K with a friend, and bunch of little girls (it was a Girls on the Run event).  It felt so good to accomplish it.  Then summer came and I stopped.  This fall when I got back on the exercise wagon I decided to run a 10K.  So I am training - it is my 8th week (I fast forwarded the first few weeks since I was still in good enough shape from the spring) and will be running 5 K this week.  My goal is to be able to run the 10 K without walking on December 7th in Moab.  I really do not care about my time, maybe that will come later.  But I love being out as the sun rises, seeing the beautiful colors on the mountains, feeling the cool (and it is getting colder and colder) air on my face.  I have also signed up at the gym on campus just so I have the option of a tread mill if the weather gets so bad that I cannot run.  This was my view about a month ago, full moon setting as the sun is rising.

I hope I can post a picture of myself at the end of the 10K in a month and a half.

Cheers!