Polipinos in the Mist

A couple of months ago I decided to quit my whining and grab life by the balls. This Saturday was a testament to my efforts. It was the Snowman Shuffle. It sounds intimidating eh? Well, it is a four miler and like always, we had to walk half a mile just to get to the starting line. The forecast called for flurries and chilly weather, but when I hit my alarm clock and it said the temp outside was 45 degrees, I just laughed.



When I walked out my door, I was shocked by the torrential downpour. The rain was coming in sideways. I was ready to crawl back in bed when I remembered that my friends expected me to be there. I hit Walgreens on the way in and grabbed a rain poncho, which is actually a glorified tent with a hood.

You can see it here with me, Halladay Celebration and boot camp team captain Denise, who we ran into at the end of the race.

By the time I made it to Cherokee Park, it was basically mist. Although the weather had turned OK, the attendance at the race was pitiful. There were really only a handful of walkers. Most were hard core runners looking to make really good time due to the warm weather. I was told that this was the kind of weather(45 degrees and overcast) that records were broken in.

I knew I wasn't going to break any records, but I knew we showed up when most people rolled over and went back to sleep. It was just four of us in our little group. Harris Bueller, Halladay Celebration and Heidi, who has graduated from Norwegian Bikini Team Model to Life Coach. Bueller and Celebration pulled ahead since they are giants and couldn't help themselves. I told Life Coach it was OK to join them that I had music and I would be fine. She was having none of it. Secretly I was hoping I could just be alone so I could walk at a leisurely pace. Nope. Not gonna happen. Not on Life Coach's watch.

First she had me start with yoga breathing exercises to help keep my pace. She wouldn't let me talk while we were going up hills so I wouldn't die. Then she started calling out little jog spots. "We'll just jog between these two trees." The next thing you know we have jogged a good deal of the four mile journey. I couldn't believe it! She said "how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Brilliant. We made it in about an hour. Not bad for a little Polipino.

This is us after we watched a strange video tape and then the phone rang and then-oh you get it. Anyone else creeped out suddenly?

So I took Sunday off and ate like a Hoss. I'll attack my eating another day, but for now, I need to keep on the training schedule. Tonight it called for three miles. I really wanted to blow it off. I convinced myself that I would do one lap around our neighborhood which is 1.7 miles. I grabbed my new shoes and started to head out the door when my hubby said he wanted to join me. I knew then I was in for the full three miles.

Usually I have to strain to keep up with him, but with Life Coach's word rattling in my head, I started jogging in between trees. I know many of my less vertically challenged friends will find it amusing that Jeremy just had to widen his stride to keep up. Ah well, one bite at a time. One bite at a time.