steal of the century

Yesterday I was reading one of my daily blogs and read about this girl, who writes for Mind of Mencia, who just ran her first marathon in Hawaii.  She wrote about her preparation for it, and then a separate entry for the first half of the marathon.  Reading that brought back all the emotions & reactions I experienced during my first marathon, in Hamilton, Bermuda.  The anxiety of preparation--do i take this? no..i wont need it...but what if i do?...better take it...well, i dont want to bring too much...what is everyone else taking?...ok, enough-i'm leaving it...ok fine, i'll bring it with me.  Imagine agonizing about this over everything you take.  Even after having made a list of what you will need.  Then there's the anticipation at the start line, the feeling of excitement as months of blood sweat & tears culminates in a few 'short' (ha! whatever!) hours of running...and then dragging yourself through those few short hours.

 

Reading that made me want that feeling back...I felt the same way after reading David and Abbie's postings about their first triathlon...David had blisters at the end, Abbie's legs were shaking from the effort.  They helped each other through it, and the same as Pamie, didnt come in first, didnt come in last, but FINISHED.  It's hard for me to get my butt off the couch, but there's no prouder moment than when you cross that finish line.  And no better feeling than when you get to sit down (collapse) afterwards in a heap of sweaty smelly exhaustion.  Doesnt that sound like fun??? :)  I want that feeling again!! 

 

So, this weekend i think mom & i are going to look into marathons to run in april.  I found a couple of international ones (London & Paris), and a few domestic ones (Nashville, OKC, Dallas, Big Sur).  Stay tuned...

 

Oh, and on the topic of the subject line....my company has a classified ads, and i found an add for a mattress.  JN has been needing one BAD--his was his great grandpa's, and i think it was worn out when he got it.  This mattress that he got, it's a Sealy pillowtop...only a couple of years old...i looked & a new one on sale was like $700 bucks.  Guess what he got it for?  $65!  and this was after the guy asked $100 OBO.  :)  We picked it up last night, and it is a ginormous improvement over his last one.  Makes me want to hit the garage sales...so i can find more steals of the century!