I made it and lived

I ran the 5K this morning with a less-than-distinguishing time of 38 minutes. First the first time ever I walked during a race (with the exception of races I deliberately walked, of course). Masterguns Hunt was in my head in the last half, however, shouting at me to “stretch it out” and I made pretty good time from that point on. Good ol’ Masterguns. We miss you.

However, I finished, and that’s the best part. I stayed around to watch the elites and was pretty amazed. I feel inspired to do more and I remembered why I do this at all. And, best of all, I seem to have purged my body of illness.

Well, maybe that isn’t the best part. The best part is that I raised $115 for a good cause, what with donations and my entry fees and such. I’m also considering joining Team in Training and raising more money as well as training with others. I saw the TIT people at the race and was fairly impressed with the camaraderie — and the fact that the team raised of $11,000 for this race alone. I’ve been wanting to do the San Diego half marathon anyway.

And you know, all this inspiration came from a paid post. Yes! A sell-out, loser paid post. So to those of you who snarked about my being a PPP blogger, this is what I think of you:

Thank you, Dooce, for the inspiration for this.