Unreal

So this is my first blog post ever.  Yes, I'm a little bit behind the times.  I still like to send letters via snail mail.  My TV still takes about 4 people to lift and carry, and I have a first generation nano pod that I run with.  Okay, that doesn't seem like I'm that far behind, but in this day and age with new gadgets and gizmos popping up every second, I might as well live in the early 19th Century, pre-Edison and the incandescent light bulb.  But I digress.

This morning was the beginning of week 3 in my training for the San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon in June, and it hasn't hit me that I'm training.  Not in a "I can't believe I'm doing this" kind of way since I've run a couple of events before, but more in a "I'm training, so I should probably be more mentally invested" way.  I haven't really been walking, let alone running, and we're already three weeks in!

Granted (and yes, here are my excuses), I'm running the event with two awesome ladies, Lynnette and Sarah, and we haven't been able to coordinate schedules during the week to meet and run, and I was also hit with the worst asthma attack I've had in ten years.  I've had it pretty much under control to the point where I haven't had an inhaler for the last seven, but with our warm Southern California days making everything bloom and the cool evenings (I know you Mid-Westerners and East Coasters are pulling out your violins), my allergies have been going haywire and I'm sure my 2 new kitties aren't helping either.  And it's been awful!  I've been wheezing and coughing and my chest felt like it was going to explode.  I've  been on Benadryl, inhaled steroids (that doesn't count as doping, right?) and Albuterol all week, and quite frankly, I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to do this event.

So today, at 7 a.m. in Griffith Park, while I stretched and listened to our coaches, husband and wife team, Bert and Jeanne, talk about eating right and developing a morning marathon routine, I had visions of me passed out next to the Gene Autry Museum, with bikers and other runners staring on in horror.  Or just running me over.  Would Jeanne and Bert even know? And why couldn't Lynnette and Sarah come today?  Why am I here alone, in the gutter, gasping desperately for air, while the bikers and real runners are breezing by me, full of life and vigor and with lungs that work?

But alas, I made it through.  And I actually ran a little.   And I feel better!  So yes, if later on I say that I can't do this, please remind me to read my first blog post ever.

p.s.  Much thanks to Diane & Ramon Ocampo, Rick Emerling, Emily Kuroda and Alberto Isaac, and Gene Denos for their generous donations to the American Heart Association!  If anyone else would like to donate and help me reach my goal to raise $1,000 for this great cause, please visit http://LAStartTraining.kintera.org/ronalee_miyasaki