I'm a WonderGirl

I'm running my first 5K tomorrow. (Sometimes there just aren't enough exclamation marks.)

When I was in junior high, coach Duvall told me after I doubled over with my face alternating heart-attack red and house-of-wax white, "Girl, some people aren't meant to run. You're just never going to be able to run."

I believed him for 26 years. Then one day I asked, oh yeah? Who says?

I started running just before my 40th birthday this year. I bought myself the most fantastic pair of shoes (Adidas Response Light 4, and I'm going to have to start keeping a camera handy; I want you to see them) and followed the Couch-to-5K 6-week running program.

It took me 6 months instead of 6 weeks to get here, and as long as I don't slip on an acorn or something, I'm not ever stopping. (An acorn fell on my head the other day while I was running. Must have been from the top of the tree. Impressive velocity, impressionable scalp. Pop! Ow! Made my day, not to mention that of the guy in the car who was driving past. I love physical comedy.)

Anyway, I don't expect to have a great race time -- just to finish without stopping or walking. And I'm happy that the Wondergirl 5K is my first, in honor of all the little girls who try the things they're told they can't do.

(Cross-posted from A Sunny Hello.)