You're doing WHAT??

Okay, here we go.

Firstly, I want you to know that I know how stupid this sounds. I'm not a runner. I'm not an athlete. And I have no real concept of how far 13.1 miles really is or exactly what it takes to run that far. Who in the hell would do such a thing to herself? I guess I would.

It's been a hard few years. I got divorced and had to figure out how to live on my own. I got myself in debt. I had some spectacular romantic failures. I've gained and lost and regained weight. I lost several members of my family, one after a hard-fought battle with cancer. I had a cancer scare of my own. My parents split up, reconciled, split up again and each moved far away. I need a haircut. There have been a lot of things happening that I haven't felt in control of. There are a lot of things happening that are out of my reach. And I know that I can't cure cancer. There's a very good possibility that I won't be able to run this half marathon. But goddamnit, I can try.

I can try because it would make my Aunt Mary proud of me. She had breast cancer for years, and she toughed through it until the very end. I can try for Mikey DiPersio, my sister's best friend, who died at 21 years old after 2 bouts with blood cancer, to thank him for fixing my car stereo all those times. I can do it for myself, to prove that I can, and that some things are within my reach.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to take my limited power and focus it on this race. I won't win it, but I'm going to finish it. I'm going to hurl this lumpy bag I've been living in over the finish line at Walt Disney World on January 8th, 2011. But I need you to help me do it. You can donate through the widget over on the right, there, or through this link - http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/wdw11/rvanderste. In exchange, I'll keep writing. I'll fill you in on my physical progress, and all the emotional upheaval that I know will come with it.

Here we go.