Somehow I managed to con my extraordinary homebody of a sister into leaving her husband, three boys, and myriad of furry creatures to visit Key West in January, with the pretense of her (and her running buddy) flying down for a long weekend to escape the Philly cold and run around the island for the Half Shell Half Marathon. After all, they needed another goal after completing their first marathon in November and who can object to Key West in January? Slacker that I imitate at times, I was nowhere near ready to tackle 13.1 miles on foot so I played the part of shoe-swap and protein-bar crew. The 10th Annual Half Shell Half Marathon is most definitely on my calendar for 2008.

Belated Merry Christmas, Diane! Despite the absurd humidity you persevered with a 11:16 pace and earned a very cool medal. Big sis, you’ll always kick my ass on a run. I do, however, challenge you to a triathlon. You pick, anytime, anywhere. See that little Comments link under the headline? Click it. I dare you.

With a refreshed vision of the course, I’m mailing in my registration for the 7 Mile Bridge Run in April. I have three months, a few 5k’s in between, lots of biking and running, and hopefully no bus for me. I’ll have to match or beat a 10:00 pace, which I’ve not done even on a 5k yet. But that was up north and somewhat hilly, and this is fast and super flat, minus the hump in the very middle of the bridge (it’s the one on the right, the one on the left is the old bridge to Pigeon Key).

Do I have a problem with running sentences and commas, or am I so used to thinking and visualizing in bullet points that any statement with double-digit words looks absurd?