We survived!

The title is totally facetious...trust me. Though we travel by police convoy about 50% of the time here, it's all for show. Half the time our police officer is half asleep. Our police "convoy" this morning was also pointless, since the minute we hit the road all of the officers sped ahead and left us in the dust to fend for ourselves. The drive itself was just beautiful though, nothing but sand against the blue sky. Very peaceful. Very serene.

I wish I could say the same about our hotel room. I will say this- Americans have the highest standards of hotel cleanliness in the world. And we're spoiled little bitches because of it. Though our hotel here is supposedly "upscale" (it is right on the Nile, constructed primarily of marble, has an ornate lobby), our rooms look like...well, dilapidated Tijuana whore houses. The floor in our room has not been swept or mopped in months, possibly years, and they didn't even try to pretend that they cleaned our dirty bathtub (I found used soap in ours).

I have gotten used to this over the years. Whereas this once depressed and frustrated me and nearly ruined every trip (more for Roy than me becase he had to listen to it and deal with me refusing to move anywhere outside of whatever I designated as my 'clean zone', which was usually a one-square foot radius in the middle of my bed), now this all amuses me more than anything else. This is because I have developed a special technique over the years...it's called "Go Blind." So that I don't annoy Roy with squeals and moans of "EEEEW! The tub is grimy!" and "HOLY SH*%! There's hair on my pillow!!!!" Here's what I do now- I simply remove my contacts the MINUTE I step into the hotel room. Once I do that- presto! All is good in the world again. I am clueless, and Roy is happy my mouth is shut.

We're off to Luxor tomorrow. I'm excited. Not so much because of the sites, but because I hear they have laundry and massage service. Toodles.

Salaam Alaikum!

Hello everyone! Egypt is awesome! As we speak I am sitting in a smoke filled dial up internet cafe with men chanting their prayers on the ground right next to me. Surreal. Our entire trip has been perfect so far. The pyramids were beyond my wildest expectations...three times huger than I'd ever imagined. We even got to crawl (and I do mean crawled) down into one in stifling hot heat. Unfortunately we were about 3,234 years too late to raid it.

Ranking right on up there with the pyramids was a special site in Amsterdam. And I'm not talking about Anne Frank's secret annex. I'm talking about the legal prostitutes standing behind glass windows tapping on the glass to get our attention and beckon us into their bedrooms for a little romp in the sack! I'm also talking about the three feet tall weed plants under hot lamps growing all over the place!

Tomorrow we head south with police convoy (wish I were kidding) to about 20 miles north of the Sudanese border to Abu Simbel (a temple). We need to rise and shine at 3:30am to rendevous with the convoy.

We got up early this morning too. We were on an overnight train, and I was excited to be served our breakfast in bed. I nearly laughed out loud when I saw our food tray and it's exotic fare- which was FOUR pieces of bread. Yum!

More another day, it takes twenty minutes to post anything with this crappy dial up!

Just say no...just say no...

Tomorrow my still ample butt will be crammed into a tiny, hard airplane seat en route to Egypt! Finally. We leave our house around 5:15am to drive to LAX. From there we fly into Minneapolis (now there's a city I can *hardly wait* to see)! And from Minneapolis we fly to Amsterdam, where we will get to spend the entire day before flying to Cairo.

Sweet.

While I am perfectly aware that there are a number of sites of great historical significance in Amsterdam (Anne Frank House, Vincent Van Gogh Museum)...really, all I care about is packing my rolling papers- 'cause pot is legal there!!!

All right...you have I know I am totally kidding.

Trust me, I have no intention of ever risking my job over something so stupid. How disgraceful would it be to get busted for smoking dope at my old age?  Egads. Trust me, if I'm going to lose my job and go to the pokey for something, it's gonna be for something really good, like grand theft auto, or soliciting an undercover police officer.

Anyway, I'm not sure how often we're going to hit an internet cafe while we're there, but judging from my dad and mom's usual expectation/hope that we call and/or email them at least every 15-minutes while we're gone, I'm guessing it will be at least a few times. Until then, toodles and Happy Holidays!

Holiday Cheer

Since I procrastinated all week, I was a busy bee this weekend! On Saturday I woke up early to bake three different treats for a Christmas get together that night- chocolate chip muffins, blueberry muffins, and five dozen cookies. I also made three dozen bars of soap for coworkers, wrapped up the last of the Christmas presents, and sent out the final Christmas cards.

Where was Roy in all of this chaos? Well I'm glad you asked. (Even though you didn't). He was cavorting around Knotts Berry Farm with his little brother! Really....he deserved a break, since all I did was work 50+ hours last week and he was out of school ALL WEEK LONG.

Today we walked and then cooked Hawaiian food for a meal with my brother and his friend. Yum. Between the two get togethers this weekend I once again ate more than I should have, so I'm hoping my ten-mile walk today negated some of the damage! I have two more Christmas get togethers before we leave for Egypt and then I'm home free! So far, despite eating all these festive meals, I've managed to not gain any weight. Of course I probably should have lost a few, but I'm happy with the draw.

Based on my walk today, I think I'll be in okay shape for the two half marathons in January. I've been diligently reading my new books on marathon walking, and much to Roy's chagrin, have even adopted a new walking style. I now walk...like a racewalker! Thaaat's right! Complete with my arms pumping madly at my side!!! Awesome.

Roy is somewhat mortified by this new development (as am I). He's already sternly told me that he has no intention of crossing over. Twice. But as I've tried to explain, in a relatively short amount of time, I've been able to shave 1-2 minutes off per mile! Today we even averaged 14-minute miles (I believe 17-20 minute miles is considered 'moderate,' while anything less than 16 minute-miles is considered 'fast'). So much as I hate to admit it, I'm sticking with the dork routine!

I hate evil marketers

Eight months ago I knew better than to step onto an elliptical. This was mainly because unlike most other cardio machines, the elliptical actually required me to use all FOUR of my limbs. Since my preference for a good cardio workout would be to use NO limbs, I figured we weren't going to be compatible.

A few months ago I changed my mind and decided to hop on. Fifteen minutes into my very light workout I was ready to pass out. Nonetheless, I continued to use it about once a week and have managed to work my way up to today's workout- 50 minutes on random level ten. According to the elliptical, I burned 708 calories... Yeah right.

While I would love nothing more than to shout this accomplishment from a mountaintop and have each city name a street after me, something tells me this is a giant load of bull crap. Here's my thinking- if I walk briskly for an hour, I tend to burn around 300 calories. For those of you who barely made it through 3rd grade math class like me (trust me, not a joke) , this means I would have to walk over two hours to burn the same amount of calories. Since I use the same main muscle groups and about the same level of physical exertion to walk or use the elliptical, I don't see how this is possible.

Here's what I think (if you don't like conspiracy theories, stop reading now)... Back in the day, the poor spineless engineering geek who invented the cardio machine calorie counter was bullied by the Vice President of Sales into jacking up all those counters. This was so that that they could sucker naive, chubby people such as myself into buying one! Damn those bastards ('cause it works on me everytime)!!!

Most people I talk to tend to concur that the numbers seem inflated. However, I know a very knowledgeable fitness freak (he's a former marathon runner) who based on his own calculations, believes them to be fairly accurate. So what gives? Does anyone else have any thoughts on this matter? I really want to get to the bottom of this once and for all! Thanks for your thoughts! Whatever you all decide, I'm going with.

Watch out Buddha...Josie's back!!!

Despite my growing appreciation for chocolate and cookies, I have managed to steer clear of most of the office goodies this holiday season. Where I haven't been quite as successful is at the office parties. Like most people, I love good food. And I'm not dedicated or strong enough to do things like bring my own ziploc bag of carrot sticks to munch on while everyone else eats chocolate cake. Quite honestly, I would rather you just shoot me.

Anyhow, over the past few weeks, I have gone to three Thanksgiving meals and two Christmas meals (with another three to go). On each occasion, despite my best laid plans (avoid the carbs, no seconds, skip the desserts...) I still ended up eating too much. On the way home after each party I would frett over how much I ate, what I ate, and how disappointed I was in myself. Yet the worst moment of all was always that next morning when I stepped on the scale and saw that 2-3 lb. weight gain. You would think my dog died, my man left me and my trailer was repossessed by the sad, mournful look on my face.

I know I was harboring both an unhealthy and unproductive attitude. Not to mention ruining every celebratory occasion with my sadness and guilt. So rather than continuing to fear every party for the rest of my life (which is not recovery) here is what I chose to do:

1. I realized that I could not go back in time and change the things I did wrong, or the helplessness I felt afterwards. Nor would I want to. As miserable as I was, it's all part of the learning process.

2. I acknowledge that I have a tendency to overeat at parties, and on some level- will likely continue to do so.

3. However, instead of moping, I will redirect my energy toward relosing the weight. Though I have been doing this all along (and usually return to my pre-party weight within 3-5 days after the party), it has always accompanied by an annoying poor-me attitude (you know it's true).

Since making this decision I've had two occasions to test my new resolve. A few days ago I went to a delicious Christmas lunch buffet at the Hilton, and today I went to an office Christmas party at P.F. Changs (looove that place). At both events, just knowing that I was "allowed" to eat more than usual helped me feel almost zero anxiety before, during or after the meal. This also meant that I was able to enjoy myself and my food more. At one party, I even had seconds without feeling suicidal afterwards.

Later on both days, once I started to feel the old pangs of guilt and sadness creeping in, the first thing I did (instead of weeping on my keyboard to you all) was to change my clothes and work out. And instead of eating dinner, I decided to have a light snack of dried cranberries instead. If you counter one bad move with two good ones, it's harder to feel like a failure afterwards.

I am fairly sure that over the course of the holidays, I will have easily gained 5-6 pounds. But as of today- as long as I eventually lose them, well then I just don't give a hoot. Because I enjoyed those meals and that time with friends, and I am more than willing to pay the consequences the next day at the gym. But I will no longer mope afterwards.

And that for me...is one step closer to recovery. Ohmm....

I am obsessive compulsive...and I love it

Today was our much ballyhooed ten mile "practice walk". Other than a few blisters, we did better than we thought we would. We finished it in exactly 2.5 hours (15-minute miles). However, our time was definitely skewed since the course we walked was both flatter than an Asian woman's chest (hey there now! That's not very nice!) AND had zero traffic lights (some races we will have to wait to cross streets once they reopen the roads). So I still think it will be a very ambitious goal to finish the 13.1 mile race in under 3.5 hours.

Here's why it's dangerous being manic and having a credit card. Over the last couple of weeks I have bought a few pairs of running shoes, a pedometer, an MP3 player, two books on marathon walking, a hiking backpack, and a waist pack. To date, I've gone on exactly three extensive walks. This means each walk has only cost me about $2.2 million dollars each. And I wonder why I have so little money in my 401(k).

Another rant about Roy

After our walk tonight we decided to go out to dinner. I ordered my usual chicken with a side of steamed veggies. Roy got the Philly cheesesteak with fries and a side of Ranch dressing to dip them in (I'm guessing because his lunch of pepperoni pizza and brownies was so healthy, he probably felt he deserved a treat). Now I will admit that Roy only ate half of his food, but this is the same man who is now three pounds under his original target weight, because according to him, he "doesn't know how" to stop losing weight now that he's minimized his daily food intake.

Sometimes I just don't know how I can love that skinny bastard.

Happy happy, joy joy!!!

Before I launch into a self absorbed post about how ecstatic I am...I have to send a huge ALOHA & MAHALO to all of you for your heartfelt words, prayers and thoughts on what to do for my mother. It was all VERY appreciated. I definitely have a few good ideas on what I can do for her now. Yesterday I sent her a humourous book I bought on-line written by a cancer survivor. Though the books aims to keep you in stitches about cancer, I read one very powerful quote that absolutely sold me on the book, "Sick minds cannot help sick bodies." I'd heard similar things to that before, but never quite so succint.

Here's more good news that I couldn't write about earlier but can now. Yesterday my brother Joseph flew back home to surprise my mom! He walked into her hospital room with an armful of flowers around 2:30 yesterday, and according to him, just like that- she perked right up and seemed better already. :) He even surprised my father (who always helps us surprise my mother, but is never himself a recipient of the surprise). Joseph said when he walked up the driveway my father was cleaning the yard. He said my dad just stood there staring at him for the longest time before breaking out into a huge smile. Awesome.

Now here's the final bit of news that has made my heart sing all morning since I stepped on the scale this morning - I've lost 35 pounds. I still have 5-10 to go and then I swear, I'll stop obsessing about this (and instead just obsess about how to maintain it). As I would have said in the 80's - this so rad.

Speaking of the word 'rad,' I've been diligently trying to bring it back for years now. I try dropping it whenever I go, all the while assuring others that yes, I used that word deliberately and encourage them to do so liberally themselves. So far it hasn't exactly taken off. Damn them all to hell, I won't be deterred! If I leave one mark on this world, it will be to bring that word back!!!! (And I thought my life had no purpose...sheesh.)

The big ten-mile walk is tomorrow. I've been in full manic-mode since I made the decision to walk the half-marathons last month. Over the last few weeks I've bought three new pairs of shoes (necessary, I promise). Yesterday I bought two books, one on marathon walking (I have only ever found one that focuses on walkers and not runners), and the other on working your way up to jogging one. Tomorrow we're going to get my waistpack. I'm going with the red North Face one even though it costs more. I've also been studying how to walk more efficiently and safely. Apparently, there a half dozen ways that we can walk incorrectly. I've learned that one such common error is called the "chicken wing." I certainly hope I don't chicken wing, and you'd better hope you don't either. No one wants to be called a chicken wing, but I will not hesitate to scream this at you if I see you doing it on the side of the road.

I'm really excited about tomorrow because we're going to time ourselves to see how we do. I do have to set one thing straight though. Even though I'm all crazy about this right now, I promise, I do not harbor secret ambitions of becoming "that person" who loses 70 lbs. and then against all odds, runs the Boston Marathon and inspires a nation!!!

No, no no...that is not me. I walk for the pure joy of walking and mostly because I'm too lazy to do things like rock climbing or jog up mountains. And for another thing, I really don't want to have to train year round and give up all of my other valuable life-sustaining passions (which at present, includes watching TiVO and eating chips). At best, I think I'll work on gradually improving my half marathon finishing times and then consider longer races in a year.

I hate cancer

I had written a blog making fun of Oprah today, but have decided to write about my mother instead. Exactly one month ago she found a lump in her breast. At the time she was told that it was probably scar tissue from a prior surgery.

But it wasn't. It was cancerous. She then was told not to worry, that it probably wasn't the invasive type.

But it was. Then she was told it probably hadn't spread to her lymph nodes yet.

But it had.

And the latest? Her lumpectomy was about ten days ago, but instead of getting better, she's gotten progressively worse. High fever, vomiting, nausea. She also lost ten pounds. She was told it was a bacterial infection and given antibiotics. It's been three days since then, and still no improvement. In fact, she swelled up so badly today that her stictches started to leak blood and fluid today and she was admitted to the hospital. Now they think it could be staph. STAPH. Not good.

Lord have mercy. How much can the poor woman take in a month? I understand that doctors don't want to cry wolf and unneccessarily panic their patients. Unfortunately, in her case, every situation has resulted in the worst-case scenario. As a result, I feel like she has very little hope or faith in what her doctors tell her. It's very disheartening for her. I won't say any more about this because honestly, I have to believe that doctors have their reasons.

If anyone has any ideas of what to do to bring a person comfort from across the miles, please let me know. I can't fly home now because I am planning on going in a month or two when she's doing her chemo and radiation. I call her multiple times daily, but I can't even send books or craft projects since she cannot move her arms (one has the IV in it, and the other must remain immobilized due to swelling from the surgery). She's too old for a mixed tape, stuffed animals or mylar balloons, and we've already sent flowers. So I'm sort of at a loss. Thanks for any ideas guys.

What next? A shuffleboard?!!

Tonight I went on Ebay to try and find a decent fanny pack. Yes...damnit, you read that correctly- stop snickering. I need a fanny pack, a waist pack...whatever you want to call it, does it really matter?

This is because when we went hiking with the Olympians last weekend one of them had one a cool Patagonia fanny pack made just for hiking. I secretly envied it even though I knew typing the words "fanny pack" in the Ebay search engine would cause me great pain.

To date, I haven't needed one simply because I have used Roy as my pack mule. He carries my keys, drivers license, water, sunscreen, camera, band aids, granola bars, cell phone, etc, in a large backpack meant for hiking. But the way I see it, there are three problems with this system:

1. Carrying a backpack causes excessive back sweat and sore shoulders over long distances;

2. Roy may not be with me in every race; and finally,

3. It's a giant pain in the behind to get anything out of it when you're both moving! Go ahead, give it a try with your own spouse on a timed walk! It's gonna end in a fist fight, I guarantee it!


Josie: (whiny voice) I'm thirsty....I need my water.

Roy: Fine, come get it out.

Josie: (even more whiny) You're too tall...I can hardly reach the zipper- Hey! Slow down! You're walking too fast and I can't... ROOOOOOOOY!!!! Don't just stop all of a sudden like that, I almost tripped!!!

Roy: For chrissake, will you stop whining? Just hurry up and get the damn thing out!

Josie: (low hiss) Don't talk to me like that!!!! It's embarassing!!! Now you're walking too fast again! Just slow down a little bit!

Roy: Goddamnit, just let me get the friggen thing out already!!!!

(Punches are thrown around this point)

Moral of the story? I need to get my own waist pack.

Unfortunately, here's what I found- I can either buy a scary black faux-eelskin one for $8 (you know...the kind your dorky uncle wore with knee snocks and shorts) or a $75 one that quite possibly has a higher IQ than I do. There is very little in between.

I did find one decent one by North Face, but it was bright red. Personally, if you have to carry a fanny pack (even if it is in a race), there is no reason to call additional attention to it. So I think I'm gonna have to head to Sports Chalet this weekend and drop about $45 on a decent one. Lovely. 'Cause I have sooooo much extra dough laying around in December.

It's the most, wonderful time....of the year!!!

Christmas time is here! We've decorated the tree, put the Clay Aiken Christmas CD in the stereo and finished most of our Christmas shopping... That can only mean there is only one more thing left to do- write the annual Christmas letter!

Each year Roy and I contribute to the letter equally, and each year someone ends up sulking and pouting, claiming that their artistic integrity has been compromised. Typically I get pissy because Roy's sections are always much funnier than mine, and he in turn gets insulted because I edit the hell out of his grammar and spelling. Ahh, what holiday cheer!

Because we have no kids, cute pets, or any real accomplishments to speak of, you'd think it would be a pretty easy (and short) letter to write:

Hi Everyone!

Merry Christmas! Not much has changed in 2005! Roy is still in school, so we're still poor as hell and can't afford to eat out unless it's Chili's (since we have Roy's 50% discount)! I still eat like a horse.

Hugs,
Josie & Roy

That's how it should look. But since we're both attention whores in our own way, we still manage to come up with plenty. The good news is, our Christmas letter bickering has decreased substantially each year so that now we're down to the typical old married couple 30-second fight:

Roy: I can't believe you changed what I wrote so much.

Josie: Screw you, hippie.

Roy: Hey what's for dinner?

Josie: I want pie.


Married life is great.

In other news, I had my second day of jury duty today. It went okay. I had to park a mile away and hoof it to the courthouse again, but was excused around 2:30 when the case failed to go to trial. I was happy. I had pretty much expected at least one crazy thing to happen since you gotta figure that there were over 400 pissy people of all ages, races and income levels crammed in a tiny room...but all was (disappointingly) calm.

The only wierdo I encountered was at the liquor store. I suppose you might be wondering what I was doing at a ghetto liquor store in the middle of my jury duty, but you've gotta keep in mind, when I'm distressingly bored and unhappy, I head to the store. So there I was, waiting in line to buy some pretzels and the newest issue of Cosmo (it was that or chic porn), when I felt some guy standing behind me, breathing down my neck. I wasn't too worried (since I know most liquor store clerks are just itching to use those shotguns under the register). Plus, I do Tae Bo DVDs. So I knew I could take him.

Anyway, I turned around to face Stinky (I call him Stinky because I swear to god, he smelled exactly like a fresh pile of poo) and saw a drunk bum staring inquisitively at me, his mouth hanging open, with what looked like no pupils... Creepy. I immediately felt bad for him when I saw that and instinctively gave him a polite half smile before I realized that such politeless often invites stalking 'round these parts. So mid-smile I tried to contort my face into a growl, which probably resulted in me looking like I was Sybil with Tourettes syndrome. Perfect. He backed off instantly and biked away. So consider this my early holiday gift to you- if you're being stalked by a drunk bum who smells like poo, smile and then look crazy angry a second later!!! Let me know how that works out for you.

The Mt. Baldy Hike

Today Roy, my brother Joseph and I went on a wonderful hike with three of Roy's nursing school buddies. Though Roy had done his best to prepare me in advance by telling me that they were all in extremely good shape (you don't spring that sort of thing on a chubby person), I hadn't expected three lithe, Olympic track and field hopefuls to emerge from the car either. Crap.

As if that wasn't enough to make my chubby knees knock in fear, once we got out of the car, my brother and I quickly noticed that without exception, every single hiker around us looked like they were about to hike up a glacier. All had on thick down-filled jackets, ski caps, gloves, hiking boots, walking poles, etc.

What were Roy, Joseph and I wearing? The equivalent of jeans and a sweatshirt. Within three seconds of exiting the car, I ceased to have any feeling in my arms and legs, nose or lips. Thankfully I had brought some emergency provisions (a pair of long johns and a jacket). One of Roy's friends also lent me some gloves and a wool cap. Even with all of this clothing and my ample layers of subcutaneous fat, however, nothing was able to adquately insulate me from what felt like a 30-degree wind chill factor.

The hike itself was beautiful. Even though we live in Butthole, California, I felt like we were in the Ozarks, if only for a moment. The hike was eight miles round trip up Mt. Baldy in Upland, CA. There was a stream running about half the length of the hike with many beautiful little water holes and waterfalls. We got to stand at the top of a large canyon, and best of all- got to see the remnants of tiny stone houses that people lived in during the 1930's (before they were washed out by a large flood). There were still a few that people still lived in, all of which were straight out of Cold Mountain. I kept expecting Jude Law to come staggering up the path at any moment, babbling crazy talk and digging for grubs.

Tomorow I'm relectantly heading back for my second day of jury duty this year. I was called to serve about a month ago and dutifully went, smugly thinking I'd be able to get out of it due to my demanding work schedule. Instead, I was reassigned to return tomorrow. Ahh, another fun-filled day crammed like veal with 300 other grouchy civil servants. Can hardly wait.

I am lion. Hear me roar!!!

It's been a solid 8 months since I started exercising regularly. Knowing that it might get old at some point, I've been hoping to spend more time engaging in fun, active sports that I enjoy and am good at. And I gotta tell you, when you're a short, stumpy, overweight Japanese female- this can be a challenge.

Do you know any professional Japanese athletes? Yeah, neither do I.

Over the summer I started to do a lot of swimming, but since our pool isn't heated, swimming is out until it warms up again. And while I do love hiking, it's not something you can do when it's already pitch black by the time you get home from work. At one point I even gave tennis a try, not because I'm good at it (I've never played), but because Roy loves it.

Unfortunately, we both quickly discovered that because I have over a decade of muscle memory that's geared toward a golf swing, I had an annoying habit of swinging my tennis racket like it's a golf club. Add when you combine my sucky swing with my dear husband/coach's notoriously short temper, well you get the picture... although in his defense, I did lob the tennis ball twenty feet over his head about fifty times in a row before he had his meltdown.

And then about a week ago...it hit me. The clouds parted, the lights shined down, and I swear I heard the angels sing! While I was at work I saw a stack of brochures on the Front Desk for the LA Marathon. As soon as I saw them I thought, I'm going to walk that thing.

Key word- walk. Not run. Chubby people can't run a marathon.

Do I think I'm crazy? Hell yeah! I'm still technically 30-40 lbs. overweight and in no shape to walk that far. Though I can walk 7-8 miles with no major problems, it's still quite a far cry from 26.2! I have no proper equipment- no good shoes, moleskin, body glide, fanny pack, etc. I certainly haven't been conditioning for it, and there are only three weeks until my first race (a half marathon to start off with). The race is on Jan. 15th, but because we'll be in Egypt for three of the next six weeks before race day, that only leaves me three weeks to get in shape.

But I've always enjoyed walking long distances. And I've never felt more inspired or more capable than I do now. So to hell with all the reasons why I shouldn't do this, I'm going to give this marathon-walking thing a try! I really hope I like it.

Here are my goals for the first part of 2006:

1. Finish my first half-marathon (13.1 miles) in 4 hours (Jan. 15th in Carlsbad, CA);

2. Finish my second half-marathon ten minutes faster than the first race (Jan. 29th, this race is being sponsored by my employer in Highland, CA);

3. And depending on how I do after the first two races- I may or may not enter the LA Marathon (26.2 miles) on March 19th. Big if. But it's something to shoot for.

This weekend I had hoped to start conditioning and walk ten miles with my brother/husband (who have also decided to do the challenge), but we're going hiking with some of Roy's nursing buddies in the San Gabriel mountains instead. This is awesome. Where else can you collapse from exhaustion (and trust me, I will be the first one down) and be confident that someone will know CPR?

If anyone else is marathon walker and knows of any good tips or webpages besides www.marathonwalking.com or www.thewalkingsite.com, please let me know!