Depressing reality

It's starting to get warm, here in Texas. Today it's 81 and sunny. That means it's almost time for the pool water to be warm enough to swim.  We don't have a very big pool. It's downright tiny compared to the others in my neighborhood, but I'm more doggy-paddle swimmer than crawl stroke swimmer, so it works for me. Last week I had to get a couple of bags of salt for the pool.

 My word, it took some oomph to lift the bags in to the back of the car, unload them, and carry them out back. I set the bag down on the patio, and it tipped on its side. That's when I noticed how much each bag weighed.

40 pounds. That's about how much I need to lose. If it's that much of a struggle to carry around a 40 pound bag of pool salt, how much of a struggle is it for my body to carry around that much extra weight? How much strain am I putting on my joints? On my back? On my feet? How much am I risking injury by carrying around this weight? How much better would I feel when I run, if I wasn't carrying around 40 unnecessary pounds? It's given me something serious to think about.

Fortune Cookie Friday

To quote an old Disney song, a dream is a wish the heart makes. Several years back, it was my dream to complete a 5k before I turned 45. This might not sound like much to many people, but I didn't start running until I was 44. It was so hard in the beginning that I would make deals with myself that I could take a walk break when I reached the next mailbox, the next driveway, the next light pole... Eventually, I made it all the way to the stop sign. I was so thrilled the first time I ran a full block.

I took a couple of years off. Some of the time was forced time off because of injury, some of the time was me being a lazy lump. The lump has had her way too long. My waist and my ass have suffered because of it, too. Slowly, slowly, I have been rekindling my love of running, and my love of races. I tell you, signing up for races is a sickness!

So yes, this fortune cookie is telling the truth. My truth. Through greater effort and hard work a precious dream WILL come true. This dream is to complete a marathon before I turn 50.  The marathon in question, because I am envisioning that I *will* get registered for it, is the 2015 Disney World Marathon. I'm giddy just thinking about it. :)