Kathleen Fasanella

So I've done this really crazy thing. I signed up to run a marathon this coming January in Phoenix. I'm in training for it now. There's this organization that will train you to run a marathon and walk you through it. For diddley. All you have to do is raise money for Leukemia research. What a racket. In my book, that was a slam dunk. So, you'll train me and walk me by the hand through running my first marathon and all I have to do is raise money for charity? Funny how I became mercenary so quickly. And me, the social saint.

I have always wanted to run a marathon. Strike that. I have always wanted to be able to say that I ran a marathon. I am not athletic. I have never been athletic. Part of the reason that I make a priority of staying in shape is that I know that I'm in better shape than most of the people I went to high school with. And I was fat then. They were all thin. And athletic. They looked good, I didn't. But I'm sure I look a lot better than most of them today. I lost weight. I got into shape. Still, athleticism does not come naturally to me. I'm a klutz. I run like a dork. I'm slow. I plod. I haven't run since the early 90's and I wasn't any good back then either.

So I'm kind of excited about this marathon. I have to raise a lot of money in donations, about $4,000. A lot of people say they appreciate my support, let's see how many support me. If I'm getting around 3,000 visitors a day over at Fashion-Incubator, I should be able to get the money. I could always do an event or something. People always want to meet me. Maybe I could do a meet up in Phoenix for people who donate $100 or more. I could stay an extra day and do a class for people who donated $1,000 or more. I haven't done a class in forever. I haven't been able to handle being around people in years...at least for the last three or four years I've gotten bad. I'm never around people at all anymore. I'm doing the running thing to try to get reintegrated. I have no contact with people other than my husband.  I worry that autism narrows my world more each year. I've heard that running is really good for autistic people. Supposedly it helps with the executive functioning stuff. That is really my down fall.

I quit smoking 63 days ago. Overall, today was a pretty good day. There are many days that I wouldn't mind smoking. Most days in fact. I'm finally off the patch. I did that for 60 days. I am running because I hope it'll reinforce the nonsmoking.  

On the registration form, there was the list of sentences you had to rank in order, which of the following reasons is why you decided to sign up. They did not list my reasons which were:

1. I don't want to smoke.
2. I want to be hot. The hottest 45 yr old babe around. Why not? I was ugly when everybody was beautiful. I figure it's my turn if I'm willing to work for it. That seems more honest than being beautiful only because you are young.
   
3. I want a butt. I forgot to tell you about that part. I'm slender but as I've aged, my butt has done a disappearing act. I'm too young to not have a butt. Now I'm all tits, a stick with tits. I want a butt.

Today was the first day I "trained". Wowee. I ran and walked for 45 minutes. That does not sound like training. Later, I rode my bike to the farmer's market. That was 5 miles round trip. In the early evening, husband and I rode our bikes to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and the grocery store to get some beer; that was 3.2 miles roundtrip but it works out that both ways are uphill. Or certainly felt that way.

My husband is sitting across from me on the bed as I write this. He's looking at me just now and insists I'm up to no good. I deny it but between us, we need another blog like we need more holes in the head (s). 

 Rats. about 45 minutes worth of stuff just disappeared from this spot.

 I had been saying you can sign up to do this too. You don't have to run the whole thing. You can do a half marathon and you can walk it. Here's some info from the Team in Training website:

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training^® is the world's largest endurance sports training program. The program provides training to run or walk a whole or half marathon or participate in a triathlon or century (100-mile) bike ride. Since 1988, more than 295,000 volunteer participants have helped raise more than $660 million.

By helping to raise funds for leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma research and patient services, you'll receive:

• Personalized fitness training by certified coaches for a period of four to five months
• Training clinics
• Your own personal Web site for online fundraising
• A supportive group of teammates
• Lodging and airfare to more than 60 accredited events in the United States and abroad.