I do not know you. But I still like you….

Happy New Year!

It is day #3 of 2010, and I decided today would be the day I start training for Boston. I ran 5 miles the other day (that was so last year, ha!) and the goal today was to get up and get out for a slightly longer run with the L Street running club and my neighbor/famed traffic guy Jeff.

Alas, Mutha Nature had other plans and dumped a bunch of snow on us overnight. The run was canceled and Jeff ditched me (in the nicest way possible) to run with some fast dudes in Quincy.

So, I did what any runner flush with New Year’s determination would do. I spent 30 minutes shoveling my car out and drove to the gym. Yep, pigs are flying because I did my first run ** of 2010 on the treadmill!

** In full disclosure, I broke the run up into three segments interspersed with two 5-minute intervals on the arc trainer.  But, as Coach Nate told me last year, it doesn’t matter how you get the miles in, as long as you get the miles in. All total, I did 7.09 miles in 65 minutes.

Feeling all virtuous and ready to blog that I actually ran instead of complaining about not running, I came home and shoveled a little more and then opened the package my landlady had dropped at my door. 

Sometimes the running and blogging stars align.

The package was a bunch of letters from my friend Steve’s school in Derry, NH. I agreed (like a million years ago) to be a marathon running penpal to kids in his school. Here are some excerpts from the letters:

“Dear Ms. Forman (yikes, that makes me feel old; please, call me Judes), I do not know you. But I still like you Ms. Forman. Do you like to run? I like to run too.”

“Dear Ms. Forman, Do you have any pets in your home? Are you married? How fast can you run in one hour?”

“Dear Mrs. Forman, I wonder who is going to win the marithon (sic). I bet you will be good at the marithon.”

“Dear Mrs. Forman, I play video games a lot. Are you really fast at running? Can you jump high? Can you climb good?”

And the kicker….”Hello Ms. Forman. I can’t run that much because I have really bad bad asthma. Sometimes I have to go to the hospital. (Hey, me too!) Good thing you don’t have asthma. Trust me asthma isn’t fun.I like the colors red and blue. I am 4’8″.”

If those don’t motivate me to run, then, hell, I don’t know what will. **

** OK, Magners does, too.

So, it’s a new year and a new start for me. I have a new pair of Sauconys ready to go and a new resolve to get back into this training thing. The 16-mile Boston Prep is in 21 days, and I know I can do it. Er, I hope I can do it.

The first Dana-Farber team run is next Sunday and I will be there with bells on, ready to crank out some miles with BFF. (He is in amazing shape, has lost nearly 20 lbs and doing silly things like running half marathon distances in sub-2 hours on the treadmill regularly. Ew. Kidding, of course. I love him and his maniacal ways.)

On the fundraising front, I have raised just over $1,000 so far for Dana-Farber. Thank you all! Keep those donations rolling in! You can donate online at www.runDFMC.org/2010/judithf.

And I am so excited to have added a second fundraiser to my game plan this year. The first, as you may recall, will be a kick-ass party  at the Rattlesnake on Jan 29 featuring mighty delicious food. And on Feb. 9, the peeps at MiniLuxe, a very cool nail and beauty spa, will donate TEN PERCENT of their sales from their THREE locations to Dana-Farber. So, go get your hands and feet all pretty on Newbury Street, in Newton Centre or in Lexington. (You can book appointments online at www.miniluxe.com)

HOORAY!

So, I have 3 months and 15 days and 21 hours and a bunch of minutes until I line up in Hopkinton. I’m feeling a lot better about this 10th marathon in 2010 thing today.

It’s going to be a good year. It has to be. The Bachelor returns to TV tomorrow (I am so lame, I know), a bunch of third graders who don’t know me like me and the resolve that has been in me since my first mile in 1995 is bubbling to the surface once again.