Guest Post from Erika: Finished!

Well, I did it. What started as a crazy idea that Lynne and Simon came up with over three months ago ended in Victory! Over my bum knee, that is. Today all three of us ran (and finished!) our first half marathon (13.1 miles). And it was Fun!

I even beat my time goal by several minutes. It was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be, despite very cold temperatures (41 degrees - ok, cold for California anyway), a night of very little sleep (the latest incarnation of poor little Peter's Neverending Cold comes with a hacking cough), and an early separation from my favorite running buddies due to a poorly timed bathroom stop. My knee, predictably, started with the shooting pain thing at around 10.5 miles, almost exactly where it started hurting on my last run of that distance. It was a little touch and go there for a while, but I pushed through and managed to even speed up a bit for the final half mile. I remain conflicted about whether or not my body is capable of running a full marathon. One thing I am not at all conflicted about is running skirts. I didn't see any of the "elite" female finishers wearing skirts. I was very happy in my tights, thank you very much.

So, now it's 2 weeks of rest and some hard thinking about what, if anything, I want to do Next. The Big Sur marathon is in April. We'll see.

In other news, I forgot to mention one milestone in my last post. The passing of Maude. Martin finally found it in his heart to donate her for scientific experimentation. Might have had something to do with her latest "issues" plus registration fees, which added up to over half of what we originally paid for her. Ah, well. She was a good car. I'm still not giving up on my dreams of having an art car some day. Maybe the Coffee Cat will come to be at some point (a van disguised as a giant cat – complete with speakers broadcasting Pawlene's trade mark "meow" – that visits gloomy suburban office parks to dispense espresso drinks, whimsy, and tasty pastry treats). We'll see.