Let’s talk about Jen

Home in Valhalla, pre-race

Our heroine is number 266!

She’s my best pal—my sister. We’ve been pretty much inseparable since she was a wee lass of 23 and I was a theoretically mature adult of 35. In our 22 years of friendship we’ve been by each other’s side through surgeries (six of mine, four of The Amazing Bob’s and three of hers), cancer, chemo and recovery (hers and TAB’s), home buying (Valhalla!) AND this strange turn we’ve both taken into fitness.

While I’m the Recumbent Triking Queen (that’s what it says on my biz cards, dammit!), Jen has become the Empress of Running. She’s out there in the pre-dawn hours every damn morning, getting in ten miles (or so) before she heads into work. Wow. Yes, the broad just kills me.

Today, for the first time ever, she’s running a half marathon. In fact, she’s out there bouncing along AS I TYPE! She’s doing the 3 Beach Minimum Half Marathon. It started on Nantasket Beach at 7:30. The runners will pass Black Rock, Pleasant and Sandy Beaches before turning 'round and heading back to Nantasket. I, naturally, drove down to join Oni in cheering her on at lift off.

Nantasket before the race began

Two things you should know:

1. DAMN the beach’s cold and windy at 6:30 in the morning in late September!
2. Still, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

We waited in the car until it was time for our zooming heroine to queue up. As we sat in the car's warmth, Jen pointed out the young women in the giant black SUV next to us. She said that she sees runners like them all the time. They start out with perfect hair, makeup, their skin flawless and, of course, they’re not a big sweaty mess. At the end of the race or their daily run? STILL with perfect hair, makeup, their skin isn’t flamingly flushed AND they don’t seem to be sweating…AT ALL. In fact, they appear utterly refreshed. Conversely, Jen looks and feels her morning run or the race she’s just done. Like the rest of us humans after mondo exercise, she’s dripping perspiration like Niagara Falls leaks river water.

Oni pointed out, in a totally NON-judgemental way (no really!), that these women probably didn't spend their 20s drinking a six pack a night. *cough* OK, OK, we're guilty.

My take? These babes are clearly cyborgs. I must remember to tell Jen that when she comes across the finish line.

We'd like to find a race that accepts cyclists and wheelchair racers too. That way we can both do it. FUN! At the rate she and I are going, how long before we do the Boston Marathon?