I made it - 365 days without a cigarette.

I took the day off work to celebrate my Pink Lung Anniversary. I had planned a nice, long bike ride at Terry Hershey, and then play a bit of tennis. Basically, doing anything that would allow me to be outdoors doing things I couldn’t do a year ago. Unfortunately, it’s been pretty rainy so instead, I slept in, dropped by a day spa for a bit of self-pampering, got some crack (catnip) for the cats and caught up on errands. The rest of the day was spent doing major cleaning and organizing around the house. A closet in the guest bedroom has gone from being the Closet of Chaos to the Closet of Calm. I love the feeling you get after a good, thorough house cleaning….all I can say is shyun-hada! - which basically means ‘ahhh, refreshing’ in Korean.

Other news: After contacting Jon Walk at houstonrunning.blogspot.com to ask if were OK to link to his site (Hi Jon!), escapevelocity was mentioned in yesterday’s entry. ooooh - I feel like a celebrity, yo. I’ve seen quite a spike in traffic to escapevelocity, which means *real* runners are visiting my humble pages. It’s great, though - if anything, it’ll keep me motivated and accountable to my running/training.

Speaking of running and training, tomorrow morning is Week 2 of HoustonFit. We’re meeting at Memorial Park at 7:00am for a 3 mile run. Not bad. I think the rain’s really cooled things down. I didn’t run a time trial last week, so this will be the first time I’ll be meeting my fellow Red group runners.

Time for bed - gotta get up hella early.

July 15th, exactly 14 days from today, will mark my one year anniversary of being smoke-free. (woot woot)

To celebrate my improved lung capacity, I’ve decided to run the 2006 Houston Marathon on January 15, 2006. For a while, I had decided to aim for the Half Marathon…..but I figure, why not shoot for the whole thing?

This past January, I volunteered at the 21-mile waterstop to pass out water and Gatorade to the Marathon runners. It was quite an inspiration seeing thousands of people of all ages, shapes and fitness levels running the entire 26.2 mile course. I realized not everyone has to be like Paula Radcliffe in order to run a Marathon (thank god).

So, I’ve joined HoustonFit - a 27 week running clinic that focuses on Marathon training…..renewed my membership with HARRA…..and will start pilates (and maybe yoga) classes at Luke’s Locker. Aside from the 6am (ouch!) group runs scheduled for every Saturday morning until the Marathon, I’m really looking forward to the training and meeting other running peeps.

A while ago, I threw a party. Amongst the aftermath was a case full of really crappy beer. 19 cans of crappy beer. Unable to muster up the courage to throw away these beers, I’m giving them away for free on Craigslist, my favorite place to waste oodles of time during the day.

In other news:

• I have yet to see Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Can’t seem to find anyone who’ll see it with me. Why the hate for Brad & Angelina? *sigh* So wrong.
• The temperature situation in my office has reached crisis level. I spent the entire day wearing a sweater, a sweatshirt AND a wool scarf. It’s fuckin’ three days before July in HOUSTON, and I’m digging into my winter clothes. Craziness.
• Please, someone, Free Katie.
• I’ve decided to run the 2006 Houston Marathon. There. I’ve said it.
• My laptop no longer turns on. I’m hoping it’s a faulty power cord. Since Dell no longer makes power cords for my ancient laptop, I had to purchase one off eBay from some “company” in Hong Kong. If I can’t get into that computer, I’m fucked.