The Half Marathon and Team in Training

Okay, first of all, let me just say that my cat is the cutest thing ever. I think he's comfortable here in his new home, don't you?

Anyway, I went for my registration meeting for Team in Training. I met the gentleman who will be my coach, and he has a great personality; he is a self-described "fitness nut" and has an excitement for running that is contagious. I definitely think he will be a great source of encouragement and motivation.

He advised me that since I've been running on the treadmill for a while now, to try to increase my speed just a little and to start using an incline of about 2%. This will make the outside runs easier to adjust to, and build my endurance so I'm not at square one at the first group run. Tomorrow is spinning class, so my next treadmill run will be Wednesday. I'll blog on how it goes with the new speed and incline.

A huge part of what I'm doing with Team in Training is raising funds to support research to find a cure for blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma. These cancers take many innocent lives each year, many of them children. This is an incredibly important cause for me, and I hope that many of you will support me. My fundraising website is http://pages.teamintraining.org/tn/cmc09/nperson. Please visit this site and share it with those you know. Every dollar counts.

Happy Halloween!

So, it's Halloween and I've had one set of trick-or-treaters. They weren't even really dressed up. I always thought dressing up was the best part. It was sad, really.

I dressed up. I carved pumpkins. I even have spooky music playing on a boombox on my porch. Halloween is supposed to be a fun night when you can be silly, creative, creepy...all those things you really want to be on a regular day.

I'm dressed as a gypsy witch; it's kind of a costume I improvised using the outfit I bought this year at the renaissance festival. Those suckers are expensive, so I was determined to get more than one use out of it. It's freaking my cat out a bit. He wouldn't do very well as a witch's familiar, I don't think. He's a big baby.

I didn't think the candy would get to me, but having it sit around with no kids to hand it to, it's starting to call my name. I've had some Reeses and some SweetTarts. Now I feel all icky and gross. Bleh.

Maybe the kids will start showing up soon and I can get this candy out of my house. Julia and her friend will be back before long, and they'll both have sacks of candy, too. This really is an unhealthy holiday.