She's Baaaa-aaaaack!

362680.
That's the number I'm to use in my correspondence for the 2009 ING NYC Marathon.
Yes, I'll be throwing myself into it yet again.
And yet again, as a member of FRED'S TEAM!!!!!!
How could I not?

So here's the deal: now that I'm a court reporter, and also a transcriptionist (I do off-line captioning, for DVDs and TV shows) I am on the computer every day, sometimes all day, and in one awful instance, for almost 96 straight hours, the last thing I want to do is, naturally, get back on the computer and blog.

But I miss it, and I miss you all!

So now that my training will be starting to ramp up, here I be, once again. Soon, I'll revamp the site to reflect marathon #4. There's no good slogan for four, like there is for three (three time's the charm.) Do you know any?

I have the More Half-Marathon at the end of April, that's the next race I'm signed up for, and I can tell you already I'm a little undertrained for it. I've started to up the frequency of my runs, but I need to start upping the mileage. Yes, I've been running, just not logging it. I've started with this week to get the log going again. There has been more, alas not much more.

Here's my thing: Whatever gains I made training for last year's marathon didn't stick around, not like they did in 2007, and I was very discouraged. That made me not want to run too much. I say I don't worry about the results, but I do. I'm slower, I lost my endurance. And that makes me not want to run, which makes me slower, and makes me lose my endurance. Sort of like when you don't go to the dentist...

I talked to coach Jeff about it at the last race. He says it's okay, I'll get it back once we really start training, and it's good that I'm not too trained right now, otherwise I'll peak too early and crash and burn come marathon day. Since every time I take Jeff's advice it turns out to be correct, I will believe him, and try not to feel too bad.

I am going to really bust my hump this year, as busty as I can get. I want to break four hours. I know I can do it. And I want to bust my fundraising goal this year as well. That won't be easy in this economic climate, but if you believe in a cause strongly enough, you can make it happen.

Speaking of which, Liam's latest scans, just last week, came back 100% clear!! The family is off for a celebratory vacation, as soon as they decide where -- the beach, or Disneyland. Mom hopes for the beach, but Liam does have a thing for Snow White...