Shun the Sun

If you just happen to be up and about in the early morning hours this Saturday, say around 7:00-ish, and you just happen to be frequenting downtown Mesa (maybe at the temple or Bosa Donuts - two of my favorite places), look for us. Give us a high five. Or wave. Or you could even blow us a kiss. Just sayin'. Because we'll be in the neighborhood too.

We'll be the cute couple in running shorts, traversing the asphalt and canal banks just north of Brown, starting at HoHoKam Stadium on Center east to Stapley, then up to Main, west to Center, and back to HoHoKam. And then we'll do the loop again. We'll end at home plate, crossing the same plate that so many of the Cubs baseball greats have passed. Yep, Ryan and I (and several hundred other runners) will be there running our 13.1 miles. This is Ryan's first half marathon, which is huge. We're excited. I'm especially excited that Ryan is running. He's made amazing progress this year as he's started really training for this race and chalking up 4 days/week of running. He's lost almost 20 pounds this year, and is fitting into all kinds of clothes that have just been taking up closet space and gathering dust for the last decade. He's looking good. And we're both feeling good, which is what's really important.

So even if you don't just happen to be in the area on Saturday morning, cheer for us from a far. Or better yet, grab your box of Bosa Donuts and a lawn chair and sit along Main Street or Center Street and cheer on all the runners as they pass by. Or even better yet, strap on your shoes and come down and run too. They have a half marathon, 10k, 5k, and family fun run too. Something for everyone. I think my cousin Dyan is running the half with us again this year too, and so is our fellow Rim to Rim hiker, Chuck, and my friend Melissa Lee. And my friend Stephanie is doing the 10k. And I think my friend at work, Richard, is running the 10k too. So it should be a party all the way around. I bet that since they added a 10k to this year's races, there will be a lot more runners than last year.

13.1: here we come!