Baby, It's Cold Outside

Greetings from the wee-hours of February 1, 2008! Yikes. February 1st!

I'm happy to report "all systems go" for the 2008 Boston Marathon! My application was officially confirmed by the BAA yesterday and I'm a proud member of a small band of runners playing for the Pine Street Inn (3 of us, to date).

What better way to remind me of why fighting homelessness is important than by taking a run on a dark, lonely and bitter 22 degree morning!...I hope the groundhog has some good news for us tomorrow a.m.! I'm also hopeful that my focus and determination to improve on past performance will help the great people working at Pine Street Inn and especially their guests by raising critical funds and awareness about the challenges faced by a (sadly) increasing number of people in Boston and around the country.

So, I'm about to get out and get moving again. A brief 7 mile run to shake the rust from the pipes and step away from the virus that has plagued our household for the past few days :-(

Re-starting is never easy, especially with only 81 days to go (thanks to Leap Year!). Between starting up on an interesting new career journey (since November) and stepping knee-deep into our town's political happenings to help save our kids' school from closing (since December), getting through the holidays, and general “malais-iness,” I've been neglecting the basics...moving and breathing! Only a few sporadic runs in January, including a great 10 miler with my neighbor, John (thanks!), but now it's time to get serious...again.

In the weeks ahead, I'll be blogging to keep me honest about jogging. And as the rhythm, health, and joy of the process will inevitably return to me (hopefully soon!)...I'm sure I'll be wondering what took me so long to get back into this!

Thanks for checking in...gotta run!