Yes, I'm certifiable. I would have to be wouldn't I? After all of my complaining and whining, I'm running another marathon - my sixth to be exact. That's 26.2 miles. WHY? Well, several reasons actually. The first being it's already April (okay, almost May) and my winter weight hasn't budged (jiggled is more like it). Second, my brother Dave is threatening to run the Nashville Marathon in the spring and I can't have him dust me there - oh the shame! Third, I really want to run a marathon in four hours or less and my last one wasn't even close.
Ah, we hit upon the real truth. I'm just competitive enough to be embarrassed by my last marathon finish. So I saw that the AIDS Marathon training program was offering an advanced training program and having a race over my birthday weekend in HAWAII - how could I resist? I can (hopefully) improve my time and then spend the rest of the week "recovering" by exploring the island paradise. How could it get any better?
The icing on the cake - I raise money for a charity close to my heart. The money I raise goes the Whitman-Walker Clinic right here in DC. This marathon program is the LARGEST private donor to the clinic and last year raised over $3 Million for the Clinic (I believe I have my facts straight here). That's pretty impressive. And DC has the HIGHEST per capita HIV rate of any US City. The disease isn't just in Africa - it hasn't gone away. Did you know that AIDS is now the leading cause of death among all people aged 25 - 59 worldwide? Most of you reading this fall into that category. And if you're a DC resident, one in twenty adults are HIV infected. Pretty grim statistics.
So . . . I'm back in my running shoes and hoping to raise $5000 before August 31st. I sure hope you'll help. I'll be here everyday to keep you up to date on my progress. SIGH.
There is no finish line.
