It's been a while

I have been remiss in blogging for a couple of milestones.
First and foremost, I ran my best 10K time Feb. 25 at the Charles Harris Run for Leukemia 10K.
This race starts at Tucker High School in Tucker, Ga., and ends at what is now Druid Hills Middle School (I'll always call it Shamrock Middle School!) in Decatur, Ga.
It's a point-to-point race that ends about 2 miles from my house. What I really like about this race is 1) it's fairly flat and 2) because it is so close to my house, I invite my friends over for a pancake breakfast after the race.
This year, however, I was not really looking forward to the race.
I hadn't trained well for the 10K. I only ran one training run at 4 miles in the past two months. And I hadn't run that much at all during the week. Not good.
On top of that, my friends all had prior plans, so no one was coming over for breakfast afterward.
In essence, I was going to run this race on my own, and I didn't expect to run it all that well.
So imagine my surprise when I got close to the finish line and saw I was about to turn in my best 10K time in three years!
I bested last year's best 10K time (the Big Peach Sizzler on Labor Day 2011) by two minutes!
My Charles Harris time was satisfying for another reason.
This year's Charles Harris happened to fall on the same day as six years ago, when I had just been diagnosed with cancer.
I was diagnosed Feb. 22, 2006. It was a Wednesday. My breast surgeon called me on my cell phone at 9:30 pm.
There is NO good news when your doctor calls you at home at night. Trust me.
The next two to three days were spent crying, screaming, being fearful, and, most of all, sleepless.
I literally had not slept in two days when I decided to go ahead and run the Charles Harris 10K that year. I had already signed up for the race. And God love my friends who rallied around me and ran it with me.
That race was 45 degrees and POURING down rain. I don't mean a light drizzle. I mean something that felt like a monsoon. And Jessica, Erin and others ran it right there with me.
We had the pancake breakfast after that race, and I was grateful for the distraction.
Fast forward to 2012.
Feb. 22 fell on a Wednesday, and the Charles Harris fell on a Saturday, just as it did six years ago.
What a difference six years can make.
I won't say that I didn't think about where I was 2006, but really I felt how far I'd come.
During the race, I did think about my friend Danica.
Danica survived breast cancer, but all of the cancer treatment caused her to get leukemia. She died from her cancer treatment. She was a beautiful mother of three young children, one of whom I know was too young to remember her.
As I ran, I thought of her. I felt her presence. And I hope I honored her with my run and the money it raises for leukemia research.
It's been a while, my friends, but I'm starting to feel like I was before cancer. It has been a long road.
It's good to be back.

A very lucky penny

Winter has finally arrived in Atlanta.
This morning's Hearts and Soles 5K had temperatures that should have been around for the Polar Bear Run. Oh well.
Didn't find any cold cash on today's run, but the pig has been fed this week.
Last Sunday I did a little over 4 miles down to the horse farm in Decatur and I changed my route slightly and found a nickel and two pennies. That was the first silver coin I've found so far this year.
Then Thursday I walked to a coffee meeting and spotted a penny on the side of the road. I was careful to retrieve it because I was in the Buckhead area of Atlanta and drivers DO NOT yield to pedestrians.
It turns out it was a lucky penny in many ways.
It was a wheat penny, so it was at least 50 years old. The last year wheat pennies were minted was 1959.
How do I know that?
My grandmother collected them for me. I have two coffee cans filled with wheat pennies. I got them after she passed away two years ago.
Mostly I've been rolling them with the intention of selling them on eBay, but so far all I've managed to do is roll them.
I've become very familiar with wheat pennies as I count and roll them.
I like to think that my finding the wheat penny Thursday was my late grandmother's way of saying hello.
I think about her so often, and miss her terribly. We were so very close.
Indeed, Thursday's find was a very lucky penny.

Run like a polar bear

I've run four 5Ks so far this year, and Saturday's Polar Bear Run in Marietta was my fastest time of the year. ;)
I ran this race with my friend Nicole.

Nicole and me at Polar Bear Run

It was chilly for the race, but not horrible. It was sunny. The first year I ran this race, in 2009, it was warm, a balmy 45 degrees, but it rained.
I  hadn't run it since until this year. For metro Atlanta, this race is fairly flat.
I'm having fun plotting out the next few races I'll be running. It looks like March will be pretty busy -- probably a 5K every single weekend, but that will also be the start of the nearly perfect running weather in Atlanta. I don't think I will mind so much that I'll be getting up early every Saturday to go run. At least that's what I tell myself now.
Still, that is the fun of the run for me. And how often can you say you've run like a polar bear?

It was an honest mistake

As it turns out, the State Tollway Authority in Georgia does not have a cash back program.
But on Friday, it did for me.
In Atlanta, Georgia 400 is a toll road and I was headed to a business appointment and had to part with 50 cents at the toll plaza to get there.
I've put all of my "found money" silver coins in my purse and pulled out 50 cents in various coins, including one very road weary dime, to pay my toll.
As I pulled up to the toll booth, I hoped that road weary dime would not be rejected by the toll's coin collector.
So when I threw the change in the bin and then heard a funny noise, I thought my fear had been realized and reached into the "rejected coins" slot to retrieve my wonky dime. I could see coins in there.
What I pulled out where two shiny pennies -- only I hadn't thrown any pennies in.
The toll booth arm raised, indicating I could go and I left, with two pennies in my possession.
In my confusion I couldn't figure out why I had two pennies.
Then it occurred to me -- none of my coins had been rejected, and I'd just made off with a "discount" at the toll booth.
I hadn't intended it, but I'd gotten cash back from my toll. :)
Then I had the ugly thought that the whole incident was probably caught on security camera and wondered if I would see blue lights and a cop car to arrest me on the spot.
None of that happened, it's just I have an overactive imagination sometimes.
So, Tollway Authority, before you arrest me... it was an honest mistake!!
My "found money" piggy bank got those two pennies, along with a penny I found this afternoon.
Honest!

Let freedom run

For the first time since I've been working for my company, which is nearly 15 years, we have Martin Luther King Jr. Day off.
So what did I do with my day off? Ran a 5K, of course!
It was the inaugural MLK Day 5K -- Let Freedom Run. A balmy 37 degrees at the start. No more warm January weather, I'm afraid.
The course was throughout Atlanta's Buckhead and I can tell you that we runners made a lot of Buckhead drivers unhappy. I don't think all of that car honking was for support. :)
Just so you know, car honkers, that noise doesn't make me run any faster.
I found a penny on this morning's run. I actually spotted three pennies, but I could only safely collect one of them. A female runner next to me got one of them, too. She said she had found a penny a day for the past three weeks. That is a nice, and lucky, little streak!
During the race, there were high school drum lines along the course offering some motivation. I fully intended to take some photos and post them, but my hands were in gloves the whole time and it was too hard to try to get the camera out with gloves on, so no photos.
It was a good, challenging race. The perfect way to spend a day off from work.

Too warm for frostbite

Ran the Frostbite 5K on Saturday, the second year I've run the race. As I recall, it wasn't that cold last year either, but this year I ran the race in a T-shirt and shorts. I know I didn't do that last year!
I ran the race with my friend Julie.

Julie and Me before the Frostbite 5K

I hadn't seen Julie for several months and it was good to catch up for 3.1 miles.
I also ran into my friend Jennifer.

Me and Jennifer

I even found three cents on the race course, so the piggy, which was completely empty after New Year's Eve, got fed this week.
For anyone who has just started reading this blog, I put all of my "found money" from races or just anywhere, in a little pink piggy bank with the idea to see how much found money I find in a year. I found $4.42 in 2011.
What crazy warm weather we've had. But the weather man says it's all to end this week, so the MLK Day 5K Let Freedom Run on Monday will require my cold weather gear.
Let's just hope Monday's race won't cause frostbite.

A new year

Here it is the start of 2012 and I've already logged my first 5K!
I ran the Resolution Run 5K in Kennesaw, Ga. this morning. There were a lot of people in attendance. Nice to see a good crowd for a 5K.
My friend Nicole and I ran this one together.

Me and Nicole before the race

And here we are after the race, still looking fresh as daisies!

All smiles post race.

For a January race, this one sure was warm. It was 61 degrees at the finish. I wished I had warn shorts instead of my capri running pants.
I spent New Year's Eve with my neighbor Christine and her family, having a wonderful dinner, then watching a movie. As the year came to a close, we "broke open" my piggy and counted all of my found money in 2011.

My "found money" piggy bank

Drum roll, please!
I found $4.42 in 2011. Well, let's just say that's what I picked up. During many a race I saw coins on the ground but for the safety of myself and others, could not have picked them up. I leave those for some other eagle-eyed runner or walker. :)
I will certainly enjoy a cup of coffee or whatever with that $4.42.
And how did I do on my first 5K of the year? Wouldn't you know it, I spotted a nickel, but it was embedded in the asphalt. But I will continue to keep a sharp eye for more.
After all, my piggy is now empty and hungry for more cash in the new year.