Onward Hoe!

I get these ideas into my head sometimes about how to do things, and once they're in there, I can't see any other way to go about doing the thing I'm thinking about. Sometimes it's really funny, sometimes it's really frustrating, and sometimes it's just determination.

For example, you may remember a while back when I had the Iron Chef dessert party. Well, in trying to come up with a theme ingredient, I got the idea to make the participants use rice in their desserts. Rice. And once I had that idea, it seemed like the only logical choice of foods. Perhaps the only possible choice. But Whitney kept telling me, "NO. We can't make them use rice. They're not actually iron chefs. They're not actually chefs at all." There was another funny example involving the shifting of plates on a table at Red Lobster, but Whitney tells it better, so ask her about it. But the point is the same.

So all of this to say that I've gotten it into my head over the last couple of weeks that I want to run a marathon. Go ahead and laugh. I'll wait...

This is hilarious for many reasons, not the least of which being that I don't run. I walk sometimes. I play tennis every now and then. I dance spastically in my living room (among other places). But I've always despised running. When Jeani and I were training for soccer season our junior year in high school, we had to be able to jog two miles. The first day we went out to jog, we made it about 1/4 mile before we had to stop, heaving and wheezing, and walk the rest of the way. Eventually, we were able to do the whole distance, but (1) we were 17 and in much better shape than I am now, and (2) that was only two miles. I'm talking about running 26.

I realize that this is a rather lofty goal, and that it will take a long time to prepare for, so I'm taking baby steps to get there. On April 7, I'm going to do a 5k in Chapel Hill, the Tarheel Trot. I'm going to try to run it, but I won't be upset if I have to walk some.

In October, I'd like to get a team together to go to Charlotte for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. This one's a biggie. Technically it's a walk, but I'd want to run at least part of it. It's a two-day event, and you can really choose how far you walk, but the whole thing is a marathon and a half with 26 miles covered the first day and 13 the next.

If you'd like to walk/jog either of these with me, let me know. If you'd like to support me in the Avon walk, I'm going to need to raise at least $1800 to participate. If you'd like to participate in other ways, click here. They need all kinds of volunteers, including massage therapists (you know who you are).

Beyond that, I don't know what I'll do on my road to running a marathon, but I think those are two good goals to get me started, and they're both for a good cause. Maybe one day I'll do the NY Marathon. I mean, if Diddy can run the City, so can I.