Olivia

I met a delightful little girl at the podiatrist's today.

I was sitting in the waiting room reading a magazine when she approached me with a cup of water she drew from the water cooler.  "Here you go!" she said.  She drew a cup of water for herself and sat down next to me.

"Thank you!  That's very thoughtful of you!  What's your name?"

"Olivia.  What's yours?"

"Diane."

"Diane?  Do you have a little girl?"  Holy shit.  The questions little girls ask.

"No, I don't have any daughters or sons."

"Do you have a husband?"

"No, I don't have a husband either!"

Olivia's mom came in and started putting Olivia's shoes on.  "Mommy, this is Diane, and she doesn't have any little girls and no husband either!"  Apparently Olivia found my lacking of daughters and husbands noteworthy.

Where was I?  Oh yeah.  Podiatrist's office.  If you ever want a podiatrist in South Bay Los Angeles, I got you one.  This guy is awesome.  Dr. Thompson on Skypark in Torrance, but he also has an office on Sepulveda in Manhattan.  Best doctor I've met in South Bay so far.

Anyway, I'm cleared to race on Sunday.  Yay!  And both my podiatrist and my physical therapist think I need as little support as possible - neutral shoes all the way for me.

I'm going to drive up to San Francisco tomorrow, and it's going to be excellent.  Tomorrow also happens to be 100 days to MCM as well.  The countdown is on!

So Sunday.  A year ago I ran the same race, and it was quite possibly the most awesome running experience of my life.  Yes, it trumps my beloved first marathon.  When I finished the race I had the most magnificent runner's high.  I was certainly not the fastest half-marathoner that day, but to me, I had just conquered the known Universe.  And I really wanted to f*** someone.  (Hey, conquerors claim prizes all the time, right?)

On top of all of that, I also PR'd that day (PR stands for Personal Record).  I think my time was something like 2:37.  It is easily the toughest half-marathon course I've run, but I had my best time to date.

I'm going to take that bridge by storm this year.  Bring it, hills of San Francisco!  And I'm going to break 2:30. . . . or else I'll just go back next year and do better.