I am a Walker.

Today is Tuesday February 6, 2007. But in honor of Marta, we are backing up to Saturday February 3, 2007.

As a Team in Training for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, we had our first half-marathon training session on Saturday the 3rd. We all met at the Hyatt in downtown Greenville for a two mile walk. Two miles for me is a gimme. I am up to 4-6 miles a day. But we do have a lot of beginners on our team from the looks of it, and they are going to take a while to bring along. We have five months.

The group numbered about fourteen and our coach was among them. She was talking to the majority of the group...But I was anxious to GET GOING. It was 20-something degrees and the wind was blowing, and I was ready to walk. And then we were OFF.

There were three of us in the front that were just gone. A woman on the team named Maggie and another woman whose name I didn't catch but who had trained and done a marathon in another year. She isn't walking this year, only training because she knows our coach Carole. The three of us were way out in front and walking probably about a 16-minute mile pace. I should have timed it.

But the thing that sent me over the moon with confidence happened about half way to the West End. Maggie looked over at me and said, "I can tell you are a walker." What? O-M-G. Are you serious? This woman thinks I am an athlete. And that is when it hit me...I AM!!!

I am a walker, and therefore an athlete. There is still work to do, but I AM a walker. I was over the moon for the rest of the day. No one could have gotten me down. And Maggie, I don't know you well yet, but you will always have a special place in my heart. You called me a walker, and I don't know how to even express to you how WONDERFUL that makes me feel after all the work I have put in the last eight or so months.

Holy Cow...I am a WALKER. And I kept pace with these other walkers, and the three of us were ahead of most of the others. And no, I wasn't panting. I very rarely pant these days.

I hopefully will be a walker for the rest of my life...God-willing. And I am an athlete. I am going to Alaska to be an athlete for those that can't.

Alaska-bound Dawg