Can't think of a title

I mentioned in my last post that I was considering volunteering at the center for the blind and hearing impaired. I emailed them first - nothing. A day later I called only to get a message that the volunteer coordinator was on vacation and won't be back till Monday. I left a message not expecting her to return my call on her first day back but she did. We talked for almost an hour. She was quite intrigued by my ideas and I am quite eager to help in the areas they need help the most. I am very excited!

See, ever since I was a teen there has always been something that fascinated me by the blind living independent lives; it was not even the Helen Keller story, that I read much later; it was a book, which title I do not remember now, I read way back in Poland about a woman who lost her eyesight because of the infection she got after poking herself in the eye with a pen. After a period of deep depression that brought her close to suicide, she picked herself up and ended up living a very active life hiking, skiing, and challenging herself in ways many of us, who can see perfectly well. have no guts to even try.

Since then I would be often encountering inspiring stories about the blind that would move me to tears. Then I saw a short documentary about a body builder who trained a blind couch potato guy and reshaped his body from flabby to nicely ripped one that he was able to participate and win body building competitions. And then there were those blind marathoners at CIM who passed me with greatest ease. And then there was a FB post with pictures from Tatch about blind runners in his training group in Japan. 

The universe kept whacking me on the head and finally I noticed.

I will be away for over two weeks but decided to come back to Bay Area for a couple of days so I can talk with Liz from the center for the blind to get the ball rolling. Oh, in case it did not come across clearly, I am excited. :-)

Training (I will spare you and not write about weights or rowing - this time)

Biking

Cinderella Challenge group is plotting to kill my quads. Some leaders lure me to Saturday rides with promises of easy rides (they deny those promises later) and coffee (that one was true) and then I find out that we have to bike through rain with hail, wind, and did I mention hills? Oh, yes, we had some sun and there were some flat stretches but who would pay attention to those? Not me. I am happy to report though that my rain jacket, my hiking rain jacket, that is, worked out great!!! It sat in my little pack through the entire ride... see, it does not breathe well at all so I did not put it on at the beginning of the ride when it was still sunny. The rest is wet Ewa history. So I am proud to announce that I ordered a biking rain jacket, quite inexpensive and supposedly very, very good. Here is the weather forecast for the next few days. Do I know how to stop the rains or what? 

Running...

is going... well it is going well as long as I stay off the hills. Biking is challenging my quads (haven't I mentioned that before?) so hill running is a bit difficult at the moment. I have a half coming up in April and that is in San Francisco and that, of course, means hills! Oh, well, I'll manage somehow, I can always crawl. At least I don't have to struggle with swimming like some of my virtual friends do (and you two, you know who you are, don't even think of talking me into swimming).

And speaking of hills, it is official.

Jill and Johann are trying to kill me by making me run Pikes Peak Marathon. My suspicions grew even stronger when I found out that Mary is considering joining them. So I am appealing to all/any of you to come to my rescue. The marathon is on Aug 18th and I understand there is nothing to it. It is only 6,000 vertical feet, often sunny, sometimes snowy, sometimes rainy, hot in the lower elevations, and freezing towards the top. Anybody wants to join in the fun? What if I promise a recovery beer after? How about two beers and a pizza?

And now stolen from the internet pictures since I may not live to post my own:

I am hoping this is NOT it. Looks a bit... steep?

I am to run on that? Jill, tell me this is not true!!!