In case you were wondering...

...yes, I have lost my mind!  I know many of you have suspected for a long time that I was absolutely insane, but it was confirmed last week when I sent in my registration to run the Chicago Marathon on October 12!  I was awake in the middle of the night laying in bed after putting Elijah back in his crib thinking to myself, "WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?!"  But Sunday, I started pre-training runs with Amy and Reba, and have slowly been convincing myself ever since that this is going to be one of the most amazing accomplishments in my life so far.  But, back to the beginning.  Most of you are probably wondering how this even came about?  I have one word for you: Betty.  I went to meet her for ice cream not knowing anything about a marathon and having zero desire to ever run one and I left ice cream ready to send in my forms and wanting to recruit more people to join our team!  Yes, I said team.  We are running with Team World Vision.  Most of you are familiar with World Vision, but if you aren't, you definitely need to be.  They are the ones that have those commercials with all those pitiful faces of the children in Africa you can sponsor...you know the ones...the ones with the images that just stab at your heart and punch you in the stomach and make you feel guilty the next time you eat a hamburger...the ones that keep you up at night...the ones that make you want to bring all those children home to live with you...ok, maybe not everyone feels that way, but still!  You know the ones I mean.  Well, we are part of Team World Vision and are running the marathon to raise money for their clean water project for Africa.  Talk about a cause!  If that doesn't make you want to run a marathon, I don't know what will!  You still don't want to run one???  Well, we'll talk later...

Anyway, I am excited!  I will keep you updated with how the training is going.  Only 157 days, 13 hours, 1 minute and 37 seconds til the race!  I have a lot to do!!!