Not a resolution, just a plan

It's early January. I'm still thinking about what a wonderful combination orange juice and amaretto can be, sipped while watching back- to- back episodes of Intervention on New Year's Eve. Oh, and how those fig and goat cheese appetizers were a great combination with champagne. And Cindy's clever combination of Stilton, pecan, and endive. And... the phone rang. It was my younger sister Barb. Apparently while I was getting moderately loaded the night before, she and a friend of hers made a plan. They were going to run the Vancouver Sun Run on April 20th. Their younger selves had done it before and they knew they could do it again. It's one of the biggest 10K runs in North America. http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/sunrun/index.html

"Hmmm, good for you!" I enthused and then I coughed from the effort of trying to simultaneously fend off her next comment and sip my grande mocha (no whip) at the same time.

"So, hey, you and Nancy should do it, too!" I knew that was coming. Barb is tall, almost willowy, really, with a flat stomach and the sort of boobs that don't need a sports bra for any activity more strenuous than getting out of the car at Tim Horton's. Nancy and I, on the other hand, are more dumpling shaped - about 5'5" and well, curvy. Okay, we're curvy because we're fat. Quite fat. Probably the stats would categorize us as obese, even. Despite that, we are actually quite fit and do love the outdoors.

To my surprise, I didn't reject the idea out of hand. "That's a lot of training. I might not... " She cut in before I said no, and gave me enough info to look up the training site online. It did look do-able. Run a minute, walk a minute, run a minute, walk a minute.

And then she threw in the kicker. "I'm going to quit smoking." Well, gee, if Barb could quit smoking, I guess I could run 10K.

"Okay, I'm in. I'll do it, too."