I’m trying to get fit to hike Mt Whitney in August. Glad to report that my chances are improving: this Sunday, I ran and finished my first-ever half-marathon. Yay!

My goals had been to 1) finish, and 2) not finish last. Surprisingly, I did quite a bit better than that: although I am older than most participants were, I finished at the 30th percentile of all runners that finished (about 175), and I managed to run the whole thing without any periods of walking except, for safety reasons, a short extremely steep incline covered by loose gravel, and the last hundred yards or so up the reservoir dam before the turnaround point. Humans are not made to run up dams, I’m sure.

Best of all: no real pain during or after, except for my nipples! I should have worn a shirt I knew instead of the new one I got from the event. Amazing what a little friction can do over time!

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