This evening, Travis and I are eating baked potatoes so that I can fuel up with some healthy carbs, and then I hope to head to bed early. I’m not exactly worried about the running tomorrow, but I am nervous about having to wake up so early and make it to the park in time. Subways are unpredictable on the weekends!

(This is where I once again remind you that in addition to training for the NYC marathon with Team In Training, I am also helping to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Your donations will help me get through those 26.2 miles, but most importantly, it will help those with cancer in their daily journey and push us closer to cures that will save lives. You can donate right now online! Special bonus: if you donate now you won’t get bombarded with future emails and letters from me! Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have already donated!)

Today while I was running, I was thinking about turning thirty. I’ll be thirty in February and I just keep thinking how wonderful my first 30 years have been and how lucky I have been. I feel so blessed to have always had such good health and I don’t want to take it for granted. Training for the marathon with TNT helps me with that in two ways: 1- by keeping me active and fit, and 2- by helping to raise money for medical research and care. (…Of course, that leads to the part where I ask for your support… If you would like to help me fight Leukemia and Lymphoma, please check out my TNT fundraising page!)

It feels good to be taking care of my body. I have always been active, but I am so happy that I decided to challenge myself with the goal of another marathon.

My enthusiasm for running has varied over the years, but it has always been a part of my life. In every place I have lived, running has helped make it home. It has been my way of exploring my neighborhood and making it my own. In Kansas, I ran the safe streets and bike trails around my parents’ suburban home. In Iowa, I ran the gravel roads around the farm land and waved to the Amish. In Oregon, I ran the forested hiking trails of Hendricks Park and Skinners Butte. And, In Brooklyn, I’ve finally felt at home while running the crowded city sidewalks and Prospect Park trails.

Ten years ago, when I was just a freshman in college, I signed up for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training with my friend, Jody. We both enjoyed running and I guess we thought it would be “cool” to run a marathon. We were attending school in Lamoni, Iowa, and in addition to our individual training, we had to wake up at a terribly early hour each Saturday to make the over-an-hour drive to Des Moines to do our weekly training with the TNT group. It was intense and I truly can’t believe we did it. In June, we both crossed the finish line of the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon – a full 26.2 miles run by two 19-year-olds far from home. It was more challenging and more fun than I can describe! The 21,000-person crowd running the marathon went on for miles on the roads of San Diego and the number of spectators was even larger. It was such a wild party atmosphere for the entire five hours it took me to finish. (Jody finished much faster and actually placed in our age group!) The experience of that marathon is one of the most vivid memories of my life.

So… why did it take me ten years to do another? Well, it is mostly because of the training. Marathon training is demanding. I have attempted to do it on my own in the past and failed miserably. I know that I need a group to help motivate me to complete the hours and hours of running that is required to prepare for a full marathon, and… I am extremely excited to announce that I have joined The Leukemia and Lymphoma Soceity’s Team In Training (TNT) program for the second time and I will be training for the New York City Marathon on November 7th, 2010! Getting into the NYC Marathon is not easy – people from all over the world apply to run in it – and I feel that running it with TNT is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I am excited, can you tell?!

Part of being a member of TNT means raising money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are many different charity endurance training programs to choose from now – many more than when I first discovered Team In Training in 2000 – but I chose TNT again because of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s commitment to research, education, and patient services. Seventy-four percent of every dollar raised goes directly toward these activities. I have set a daunting, yet exciting, $5,000 fundraising goal for myself and I plan to meet it. Click here to visit my TNT fundraising website. I would be more than thrilled if you would consider making a donation. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a wonderful charity that not only provides funds for cancer care and research, but has also made a huge impact on thousands of lives through TNT. I am proud to be a part of it.

I plan to improve my TNT fundraising page over the next few weeks, and also write weekly blog posts about my training experience. Please check back to follow along on my adventure!

Life has been changing and moving quickly lately. On Saturday, we spent all day at the Handmade Cavalcade craft fair, then on Sunday we took an all-day trip to New Haven, Connecticut, to sell our car. Boohoo. I feel sad about it. We bought our 2004 Subaru Imprezza WRX about two weeks before our wedding in 2003. (The photo above is us driving off in the car after our wedding ceremony.) It felt like our kid, or maybe our home. We drove it across the country twice, and it had been our only car for five years. But for the last year here, in New York, the poor thing just sat parked on the street. We hardly used it (maybe driving 200 miles in the last six months) and Travis had to move it to a new parking spot twice a week. Yuck. Plus, the insurance was expensive. So, it is on to a new life via CarMax and we are car-less. It is a relief to not have to worry about it any longer, and after one last trip to the DMV we will be able to cancel our insurance. I do love extra money!

Early Monday morning we headed to the hospital (by hired car and driver) for Travis’ ACL reconstruction knee surgery. The Hospital for Special Surgery was fabulous and everyone there was very professional. You can read Travis’ thoughts on the experience on his blog. The surgeon said that the surgery went perfectly, and it seems like it did because Travis is recovering quickly. My only complaint is that it now falls solely on me to take Crusher down and up the three flights of stairs to our apartment every time he needs to go outside….

Life is good and all of the recent excitement has gone as smoothly as we could expect, but I am definitely ready for some downtime! If you need me, I’ll probably be taking a nap.

Today’s “new creative thing” is this healthy salad that I made for dinner. It is Bob Greene’s Black Eyed Pea Salad with Turkey Bacon recipe from today’s Oprah show. It was extremely tasty considering that it is part of a “managing diabetes” diet. The whole Oprah Show was about diabetes, and even though I don’t usually watch, I tuned in today. My grandfather had diabetes and I am just generally scared of it. I should be more concerned about heart disease – and I am- but it doesn’t hurt to have even more motivation to eat healthy. The salad consisted of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, black eyed peas, turkey bacon, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar. Bob Green (Oprah’s health guru) was touting apple cider vinegar as some sort of miracle liquid that decrease the glycemic index of any food it is paired with. …but I guess it wouldn’t taste good on donuts.