The Chronicles of a VBG (Voluptuous Brown Gurl)

So after nearly 5 years of driving by and wondering what it's like?!  I decided to try out a new park a few miles from my house.  Turned out to be an awesome idea.  My half marathon is coming up in 17 days and so far my farthest distance on "the big browns" aka my legs has been 6.5 miles.  I was really starting to wonder if I truly am capable of finishing the race in the time-frame allotted - 5.5 hours.  Cape Horn Park has a loop that is a little over 1.1 miles and I managed to make it around 9 times which put me in striking distance of the 10.25 mile course preview I missed on Saturday. I managed to jog about 2 miles within the first 6 and despite what the Wii Fit Plus said - I can't possibly have jogged 5 miles previously.  I know the concrete path is a different surface than my living room floor but there was no freaking comparison. Brutal is the only word that comes to mind, I almost thought about giving up on the race completely.  I kept thin...

This year signaled the passage of more folks I was personally acquainted with than at any other time I can recall.  My pal Diana's groom of 27 years, Ted, died in Spring.  Then in Summer, the 18 year old newly graduated brother of one of my daughter's best friends, then my beloved Dad, the Mother of a good family friend, and today as we embarked on our evening walk, I had the unsettling task of being present when my exercise partner, Annie, learned that her Dad had passed away. Witnessing those tears and anguish with no way to assuage the sorrow is so mentally draining.  You know that their lives will never, ever be normal again not in the way they knew "normal" - with it's familiar scenery, voices, and rhythms. Only time will help memories become sweeter, sorrow less intense, and new patterns forge to suit a new reality - life without that someone so dearly loved. It has not quite been a month since my Dad died but time has moved so slowly it feels as if it ...