Who You Gonna Call? Duskbusters!

Wednesday night was the big (okay, fairly tiny) 5K race through Golden Gate Park to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis research, and it was fun! My final tally raised was $465, with huge thanks to David Grover, Dennis Grover, Barbara Avery, Moira Moody, Liz and Vicky Gomez, Lauren Hawkins, Mary and Gary Rice, Melissa Gossett, and Wiebke Wiechell. You guys are awesome and I was thinking of you along the way.

This was definitely the most personal road race I've run before, hitting close to home because I lost my mother to MS, but it was also one of the most fun. My team, Come on Myelin, organized by my stellar friend, Courtney, were the perfect team: jovial, friendly, and completely independent of each other (my only question when signing up was "I don't have to run with other people do I?"). We cheered each other on before and after, but during, everyone went at the pace that worked for them. (We also came in second for total fundraised at $3,345!)

At the very end of the race there is a giant uphill climb, and then another several hundred feet to run, and meanwhile you can see the race clock quickly ticking time off as you run toward it, huffing and puffing from the hill. I'm still waiting for them to post the stats to see my final time; I know I didn't beat my personal record, but I think I came close-ish (meanwhile, a woman running with a small dog and a ten-year-old boy both beat me by quite a stretch: way to make me feel like a winner, guys.). Perhaps the real triumph was simply how much I was looking forward to running on Wednesday night. After taking a couple days off beforehand, I couldn't wait to run off the extra energy, and I was definitely pumped up by the fact I had so many great and generous supporters. We were a small group overall (maybe 150 runners?), but that made it special, and even kind of community-like.

I still don't necessarily love running, but having been doing it consistently for over a month now, I feel less intimidated by it. And since I live next to one of the best parks in the world, there's no excuse not to keep it up.

Note my fancy DuskBuster wristband!

Comments

My Litquake 2012 Report

I've been avoiding putting this together, because a part of me really doesn't want this year's Litquake festival to be over already. The other part of me is still cranky-tired, wandering around trying to get to all those projects I said I'd get to after Litquake, and feeling post-Christmas like. In short, this year's Litquake was AMAZING. Every year has been awesome, but this one was particularly special for me because I got to actually help plan the awesome. As a volunteer during the festival for the past several years, I definitely felt like I contributed to making each event I helped at awesome, but this year, being on the committee,* I got to witness the tremendous build up to the festival that happens the whole year prior. The amount of love, sweat and time that goes into it is incredible, and I'm not sure I've ever been part of something so cool. Which is not to say I'm not still cranky-tired and looking forward to feeling fully recovered.

For Mom, Twenty-One Years Later

I lost my mom twenty-one years ago today. She died from complications related to a long battle with chronic-progressive multiple sclerosis. I was a week away from turning twenty-one. Which means I have not had her as long as I did have her. It used to make me unique among my friends, to have lost a parent at such a young age. But I’m no longer young and many friends have joined this depressing club. The dues are astronomical and no one prepares refreshments. People, moms are important. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. Whether you were once a child or are currently a mom. They are the sun, moon, and stars, even when they are completely obscured by darkness. I wish she mattered less. She doesn’t. She matters more than almost anything: that first hit of love, that childhood sense of safety, that initial understanding of what it means to be a woman in the world: mom. Mom in 1974-ish Memory is funny when it comes to dead people: I can remember her any way I

Obsessions

Things I'm mild-to-excessively obsessed with currently: The color orange . Specifically, International Orange, or the color of the Golden Gate Bridge. Flags on display at the International Orange exhibit last month at Fort Mason A faux-store of all International Orange things, from the same exhibit. Me want!! Some StickyWords from under the bridge And the newly repainted writing desk! Now in Daredevil Orange (thanks to three coats of Sherwin Williams this weekend). Much less clashy with the rest of the house now. Next project: corral those ugly looking cords on the side. For about a year now, orange has been my new favorite color. It's just so dang happy looking. Sutro Tower It's a very local icon. You can spot it almost anywhere in the city, if it's not ensconced in fog, but it is so beautiful when it is ensconced. (Sorry, I also watched a bunch of Anne of Green Gables lately, so I'm all Lake of Shining Waters-y in m

Invincible Summer

Search This Blog