“There’s no such thing as excess eating, only inadequate activity.” – Dorothy V. Harris

In the spirit of the above quote, you should know two things. First, I just finished off an amazing pumpkin souffle from Trader Joe’s frozen section. Dang, I love that store and its creations. Second, I earned every bite of that souffle after running three miles this morning when it was still dark and my baby was still sleeping. I feel like I deserve a gold medal but a souffle will also do.

While getting up early is tougher these days, I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t love it. One of the things that scared me about having babies was the idea that my body would never be the same again. And maybe it won’t–it’s too early to say. But, what I do know is that my body can still run and it still feels good to run. Most importantly, though much in my life has changed this year, my mornings feel once again familiar.

I feel like myself when I rummage through my bottom drawer, in the dark, fumbling for my warm runner’s headband. I feel like myself when I knock softly on Sharon’s door, and our shoes shuffle over the  dried leaves as we walk towards McKinley. Crunch, crunch, crunch. I feel like myself when Sharon kneels down to tie her laces a little tighter before we start moving. I feel like myself when I lose track of how many times we’ve gone around because conversation is just that good. I feel like myself when we pray over our day and our worries, barely noticing that the sun has now arrived. I feel like myself when Tammy and I hop back in the car, the freeway now busy, and head home to Tahoe Park.

My body may be a little slower, and my feet might hurt a little bit from wearing sandals all summer, but otherwise I feel so good. For an hour I get to escape in this body that has grown life, and continues to nurture a tiny being. She takes a lot of me, physically, and I think one of the greatest gifts I can give her is my own health.

Maybe my body won’t ever look quite the same, but I think I’m okay with that.

There are a lot of things in life that are totally normal to some people and completely strange to others. For instance, my husband might say it’s completely normal to sit on the couch watching two games of football at the same time, (one on his laptop, one on TV) whereas I might believe that’s not only excessive but really boring.

On the other hand, yours truly paid a good chunk of change on Sunday to run through mud for fun. Yeah, yeah. I know.  I can practically hear my friend Sarah lecturing me as she reads this. “Um, wait…let me get this straight. First of all- you ran just for the fun of it, and then on top of that you purposefully ran through mud?”

Yup. And, I loved it.

The race was more challenging than I thought it would be–from the steep hills to the obstacles along the way–and it was a lot dirtier  too. (I wish I had an “after” picture to prove so!) But what surprised me most was how alive the race made me feel. At the risk of sounding cheesy, the race made me feel alive. I could feel my lungs burn in a way they hadn’t in awhile, and my legs were like jello when we crawled out of the lake. And the mud! Oh, the mud. It was much colder than I thought it would be. I sunk into it, squishy and soft. SLOP, SLOP, SLOP it went. My mind was racing the entire time, “Close your eyes… no… wait! Don’t close them- because you won’t be able to see. Half close them. And, make sure to close your mouth! Wow, I hope there’s nothing gross in here….”

With every sense elevated and the crowd cheering us on, I finished right behind Jonathan who slowed down for me along the course so that we could finish together. I’m pretty sure his pace helped me out because I finished 14 out of 214 women in my age category. How fun is that?!

Afterwards we joined the rest of our black-eyed peas for pizza at BJs followed by a Sunday afternoon nap. I woke up today feeling every muscle.

I feel alive. I like that feeling.

There’s a reason I’ve been so tired (and cranky) recently. You see, one of my fabulous aunts ( I have many fabulous aunts- I’m lucky that way) asked me to run be part of a relay team this April. It’s no ordinary relay either. The Ragnar Relay will take 12 of us over 24 hours to complete the course from Ventura to Dana Point.

Everyone on the team will run three legs of the race, which means that training requires us to sometimes run twice a day to prepare. Today was the only day this week I could squeeze in two runs with Sharon, my faithful running partner. Just so happens it was raining. A lot. Since I’ve nominated myself to create and compete in the race’s video competition, I’ll give you a sneak peak at what goes into a race like this. (This is your cue to sit back/enjoy/feel sorry for me/tell me I’m hardcore/send bouquets of flowers as encouragement.)

This picture captures our Thanksgiving Day, at home in Sacramento. Fog, beautiful colored leaves, and 28,000 runners (including us!) on the streets this morning at 9:00am for Run to Feed the Hungry. This annual race grows each year–and is now the biggest Thanksgiving Day race in the country! It was really fun to be outside this morning enjoying the holiday with so many happy families. Plus, the race brought in $750,000 to feed hungry people in our city.

Isn’t it amazing that in tough economic times, this race grew by 4,000 people and raised more money than it ever has in it’s history?

Happy Thanksgiving. I need to go eat my apple pie.

If you’ve ever pulled yourself out of bed at 6:00 a.m. in the rain and cold to run…you’ll get this video. Is it weird that I felt super inspired when I first saw it?

Sharon and I are back in the game. We made it out three mornings this week. Welcome back Spring time weather. Welcome back.

Spent New Years Eve with a similar crew as last year… minus Eric and Camille, add Shane, Anna and Jim. Evening was low key– Chinese food, desserts, drinks, the Question game, Dick Clark, etc. Today we played football in the park. I hate football and didn’t really enjoy myself other than when I got to scream “One Alligator, Two Alligator, Three Alligator.” Because Anna told me I needed to blog this picture, I’m doing it. Plus, I’m using this opportunity to remind her that one of her 2008 goal is to blog. Get on that Anna. Get on that.