week 26: marathon week 26.2 miles (40km)

mile 24.86 or the 40km mark...that lady is walking faster than i'm running. i'm the yellow shirt on the right, not the lady in the blue coat.

after the finish line, getting my 24th annual firenze marathon medal "bling-bling"!

hello everyone,

i'm back from italy and from running the firenze's 24th annual marathon. it was the most exciting and physically challenging experience i've ever undertook, thus far in my life. i thought i

was going to cry several times before finishing the race. the only thing that kept me from totally bawling was that i needed to focus and keep running forward. i kept thinking about the great words of dory from finding nemo, "just keep swimming," it was a strange but helpful mantra i kept repeating to myself so i would keep from falling over and cramping up.

lighting a candle at the duomo cathedral before the marathon, doesn't hurt to pray a little.

it was a really amazing feeling to cross that finish line and have an overwhelming rush of gratitude, achievement and love come over me. i know

without the love and support i received from kayla, my friends and family i would have never made it to the start line let alone to the finish.

i will never say "i can't" ever again, no matter what challenges or obstacles that may come my way. i want you all to know, that you can surpass and exceed everyone's expectations even your own. 6:18:24 hrs.min.secs., who would have ever thunk it!? i do have to add that i have never liked running and i still don't.

italy is a beautiful country and florence is a really great city to visit. we spent 7 unexpected days there since we were only suppose to be there for 6. we got delayed from leaving because of fog on monday. tell that to san franciscans..."fog what"! we had to leave out of bologna the next day tuesday, we also got food poisoning the last night we were there, so lets just say i'm not a big fan of pizza anymore.

i took this picture hiding behind a pillar, no flash photography!

we saw, brunelleshchi duomo, michelangelo's "the david", botechelli's "the birth of venus" & "springtime", walked across the ponte vecchio, ate dinner along the arno river and enjoyed some gelato and vino with my partner and marathon running friends. i saw big beautiful old buildings, made out of big old stones, and big beautiful old paintings, painted by really famous old dead painters. i walked along cobblestone streets, saw pizzaria's, latterias, and trattorias everywhere. strangely enough the streets were not littered with mcdonalds wrappers and starbucks togo cups, there were no garbage cans overflowing

with trash. i think what i like about europe is that they take time in enjoying their food and not rushing out the door to eat it in their car. isn't it wholly american to take what is good from another country and using it for our own advantage. why is a 2 hour lunch not a good idea? what is up with a middle-eastern peace conference?

brunelleshchi's famous architectural marvel "the duomo".

it's good to be home!

no caption needed...sigh!

i want to thank valerie bradshaw $20.00, gabrielle stevenson $40.00, gretchen grathwohl $25.00 & geeta makhija $50.00, and the congregation at skyline community church $86.00. you are all heroes in my book and you have all helped to bring my goal total to:

today's total as of date 09/23/07 - $3618.00
my goal - $4200.00
$582.00 - from goal