I love Lent for a few reasons, but this is the best: Holden Evening Prayer. Every Wednesday at 6:30pm. Non-Lutherans and anyone else unfamiliar with this Holden whatchamathingy, this is a beautifully reflective & musical worship service. My church holds it every Wednesday during Lent. It's a highlight.

One of my favorite runner/writers is Lauren Fleshman (I know her from Runner's World, but she also has a blog and does other things). She's a pro runner and so, naturally, you'd think she has this awesomely chiseled body along with killer self-confidence. (She has both of those things, in my opinion.) Last fall she posted a few pictures of herself during New York Fashion Week, at which she was a runway model (three cheers for muscle on the runway!). Read that blog and see her fab photos here.

Fab photos? Yes. The one of her on the runway AND the ones of her belly overhanging and of her thigh cheese. Because Lauren did something great and included pictures of her being her everyday, real-life, not-on-the-runway self along with the picture of her from probably her best. day. ever. on the runway at NYFW. Because what we see in magazines and in movies and on TV is not real life. Because it would be a lie to only show the best doctored and photoshopped images of ourselves. Because when you're a role model to countless girls and women of all ages, you want to make sure they're getting the real deal.

Even though much of what this site is about is me sharing a piece of my mind, it's also about sharing what's in my heart. That's not easy. It's easier to just say what's on my mind than share what's in my heart. I think that's true for a lot of people. And it's not just easier, often I think that it's necessary. I think it's necessary, mind you. It isn't actually necessary most of the time.

Anyway, as I'm lying in bed, wide awake but incapable of movement, I wondered what other people might have to say about battling sickness during race training. My gut reaction (Ha! Gut reaction. See what I did there?) is to not do anything at all. Just getting up to refill my water bottle is a carefully calculated maneuver. If I'm listening to my body, today it's telling me "DON'T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. MOVE AND I'LL QUIT."

Training begins today for my 2nd half-marathon - the Door County Half-Marathon. I can't wait! It's a beautiful course, up in Peninsula State Park. Hilly. Gorgeous views of the bay. Since it's Wisconsin you never know what the weather will be like, but hopefully on May 3rd it'll just be sunny and nice. Not snowy. Snow is totally possible.

...been a runner. In fact, if you knew me in high school (or, let's be honest, anytime before I was 30) you might be fairly surprised to see that I call myself a runner. That girl, a runner? The one who, you know, never ran? Huh. But I am. I'm a late bloomer. (In fact, discovering running at 31 is one of the many reasons I'm excited about my 30s. How many other kick-ass things am I going to discover the older I get?) Anyway, yes, I'm a late-bloomer runner. A lot of things held me back over the years...