Observers might say "fast shuffler" as opposed to "runner", but whatever. Week 22 of the 26 month marathon training was last Saturday, and we ran a "practice" marathon. Which was the same distance as a "real" marathon, 26.2 miles. Holy cow. I never thought I would be able to go that far. Now we just have three more 8 mile runs on the next three Saturdays, and then it's the marathon in Ireland. It seemed so far away in April when the training started! And now it is almost Halloween. Here is a picture of my goup at the finish (Bryan's mom and dad and sister came up to cheer me on! And they took some pictures for me. It was very very nice of them and gave me a big boost at mile 15. Thanks guys!). I'm wearing the orange hat. And the picture is small on purpose because running attire is not very flattering unless you are a stick person.



It was a very emotional experience, as many marathon runners I know told me it would be. From mile 24 on I was pretty much a big sobby crybaby. It felt so good to have worked so hard to train and to raise money for a good cause. And speaking of raising money, I'm still doing it - you can sponsor me by clicking here. And for those of you waiting for some bribery, my sweetie has generously offered to send prints of his beautiful pictures if you sponsor me. Here are all the deails and directions to follow to get your pretty pictures. Thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far and supported me through all this training!