shuffle for the cure

before the great boozing for nola of sunday night, i'll be running...jogging...trotting...oh, okay...shuffling across the finish line of the Komen New York City Race for the Cure on sunday morning. 4 miles. i should finish in approximately...4 hours. no, not really. i'm a little faster than that.

i find i can run 4 miles on the gym treadmill fairly easily, but it's astonishing how the level of difficulty increases when there are things like hills in the way. drats.

mom was a big runner. she ran marathons. she was built for it - long, lithe legs and a short torso. i have the opposite. short, strong, trunk-ish legs, and an inordinately looooooong torso. (normal-sized t-shirts become navel-exposing t-shirts on me. i spend so much of my day tug-tugging my shirt down-down. annoying.) i am built for short bursts of explosive speed. i beat all the boys in grade school. i was one of the few white girls on the track team that ran the 220. i tend to live my life this way too. short. bursts. of. explosive. speed. not always the best way to approach life, is it?

i do not run long distances easily. i huff. i puff. i almost fall down, but...i keep trying. by running, i'm learning patience, i guess. something else mom had in spades that wasn't transferred while i marinated in The Womb Room. i suppose i (try to) run in order to have some sort of kinship with my mother too. i like to believe if she were still alive, we might go on long runs together in the hills of northern Michigan followed by big breakfasts of whole grain pancakes and too much coffee.

cue the f-ing violins.

blah blah blah...i'm waxing nostalgic, made giddy and pensive by the sunlight streaming thru the tree in my backyard, the murmurs, whispers and giggles of a couple on a nearby porch, and the gentle gonging of the church bell heralding the hour...how can you not be a trifle maudlin in such circumstances?

anyway...like you're not charity-tapped enough...if you feel like donating to my little Shuffle for the Cure, click here. i may not finish in record time, but i'll finish.

and don't forget, ladies...get your mammies grammed.

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