Ten

Hello from the Mighty East. Soon I'll be home with lots of Iowan and Massachusettsian tales to tell.

But this post is a digression, because I happen to be rather proud of myself, and what's the point of having a blog if you don't get to tell all 15 or so of your readers (you guys are the best!) when you do something you think is worth bragging about?

So . . . I ran 10 miles yesterday! All right in a row, without even stopping to remind my legs what blood circulation feels like. It took forever, but I didn't actually die, so I'm counting it as a triumph.

My favorite place to run is the Smith College track. It's down the road from my mom's house and surrounded by beautiful trees, and it lets me exercise outside while keeping a close eye on distance. The reason I usually run on treadmills—other than the gnarly impact of pavement on my joints—is that I'm terrible at maintaining pace. On city streets, I always start too fast and then get tired before the end.

But treadmills are weird and unnatural, as everyone knows, while running in neatly labeled circles on a slightly rubberized manmade surface is just one step away from nature.

It's only three weeks and counting until the half marathon, so this was an important milestone. I figured it wasn't the best idea to try going twice as far as I'd ever run when there were thousands of other people around to watch me keel over. But 3.1 miles farther than I've ever run . . . that should be okay.

Woo hoo!

bo knows half marathons