Topic: Personal
Just finished a 5K/10K Fun Walk/Run that benefited San Diego's non-profit children's program STAR/PALsponsored by City and County police & parks departments. City employees were encouraged to form teams and participate...so we walked the 5K. On my own I would never do this, but if someone asked me to be on their team...welllll, don't want to be a spoilsport. Someone asked us to join their 10K run team, and we just laughed. Some of us are not meant by nature to be runners unless we want to black both our eyes, as Ms Parton once said. The runners then said we can just walk the 10K, and we firmly refused - I mean, if you're in the middle of a run and you're walking, you might as well stencil a big L on your forehead and be done with.

First we had to get there at the crack of dawn (what is with these events that have to start before the sun is up? why can't we do this at, say, 4pm?), then it started to rain. I was tempted to just let them keep my $18 and go home. It took us 55 minutes to walk 5K...and then at one-hour-five our penultimate boss finished his 10K run, so we ran up to him and informed him that we beat him. Har har. Seriously, we suck. We got passed several times (I think we got lapped, actually) by runners older than me and Stacey combined, and once by a man with a prosthetic leg. A man with a prosthetic leg.

Ever since the Breat Cancer 60 Mile last November, I have developed this totally cavalier attitude towards distance walking (distance = more than 50 yards). I don't bother to look for a nearby parking space anymore, 'cause hey, I walked 60 miles and another 200 yards is nothing. What? You want me to be on a team to do a 5K walk? That's only 3 miles, we'll be home before breakfast. Pah!

As long as I don't have to raise $2,000, that is...

p.s. While walking from the parking lot to the registration table I met this one guy who was doing the 10K run. I told him about the 60 mile walk and he was really impressed; then he started trying to flirt with me; then I started complaining about how hard the camping was and how I couldn't put up my tent, and he said, "Not a nature outdoorsy girl, are you?" and when I scoffed and said, "No!" he turned around and walked off. So there you are...