I'm grateful my lungs are exploding

I have decided to train for a half marathon. Why, do you ask? Well, 3 reasons. First, my friend Fahre has convinced me that I can do it. And by convincing me I mean she is flying in to Austin to do one with me. No pressure. ;-) Second, because I am a fan of The Biggest Loser and they do it - so why can't I? And third, because my director was killed in a car accident the day after Christmas, which has reminded me that life is too short to not enjoy the life that we have, including pushing our bodies in ways that we never have before.

So I started running again today. (I've taken 3 weeks off, for reasons that really only are excuses). I ran for 35 minutes with my dog Violet. She was much more ready to run than I was. I started out fine - and ran for 15 minutes without really thinking about it, just enjoying being outside, enjoying the trail, and thinking 'hey, this really isn't as bad as I thought it would be!'. Famous last words. The last 20 minutes were all a struggle. Mostly a mental struggle, though I did get a few side aches and I thought my lungs were going to explode. I tried to run through the side aches, and to think about how grateful I am that I can expand my lung capacity. The positive thoughts were hard to keep up. And at the end of the run, I found myself thinking that I'll never be able to run 13 miles!

But now that I'm back, cooled off, lungs deflating, I feel encouraged to try another run tomorrow. And I keep thinking back on my director - Sharon Ransom. One of her friends said something at her funeral that has stuck with me. She said that though Sharon was taken early, she knows that she wouldn't have changed a thing - about her job, her family, her religion, her life. I want to make sure that when I go - whether it is tomorrow or in 50 years, that I can say I wouldn't change a thing.

(For more about Sharon's untimely death, go to http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/RunawayToyotas/runaway-toyotas-problem-persists-recall/story?id=9618735 - she was in the blue car that is upside down in the video. )