health fairs and rain

I didn't go for my usual run in the morning because I was fasting for a cholesterol test at our university health fair. I was alarmed back in October when I donated blood and saw the cholesterol was already at 200. Here I am, thirty years old and fairly thin, but high cholesterol runs in the family. I was eating OK, but with the marathon training I started being more careful-- cutting out the occasional binges at McDonald's, which were probably happening too frequently. (Especially after going through a couple hurricanes, when our power would go out for days and everything in the fridge went bad, the one restaurant in Orlando that would have power was Mickey D's... it ran on the same generator as the local hospital.) So, no more junk. I rarely eat chips or junky snack foods, I try to avoid processed food at home, and I never, ever drink soft drinks, so really my junky weaknesses are for take-out Chinese, pizza, cheeseburgers, and any appetizer platter involving buffalo wings and fried cheese things... Mmm.

Cholesterol was down to 193. Woo-hoo! Felt like celebrating. I wanted to go for a run but there was too much to do at work. I came home and went running near my house just before dark. Running in my neighborhood is the worst. In New York, I didn't mind running in an urban setting, but there's something about running alongside suburban strip mall boulevards that is incredibly depressing. Mixed smells of car exhaust and fast food burger fumes. I took a road less traveled that also did not have sidewalks-- it was raining and my feet got all mucked up. I still managed to feel pretty good doing four miles.

I also tossed my name in the hat for the New York Marathon-- the lottery, at any rate. I think I was on that website the minute they posted the application. I must be crazy.