Happy Birthday, Clare!!

My dear friend, Clare, turns some version of 40-something today.



5 years ago Clare and I walked a marathon. Yes, you read that right. We WALKED. *I* do not run or jog. But Karen wanted us to raise money for a wonderful cause, Teams in Training. Karen runs. Karen runs a lot. I do not. As luck would have it neither does Clare.

So we formed a little team of 2 and trained for 5 months.

While raising the money and helping out that wonderful cause was great and was our PRIMARY reason for joining, I think Clare would agree that the bonding experience became center stage. We laughed. A lot. We cried. We walked. We walked some more. And then we laughed some more.

Did I mention that we laughed? A lot?

That whole experience was just incredible. I don't remember the blisters or the shin splints or the sunburn or the fire in my muscles as much as I remember this stuff:

• the catered hot tub breakfast from my husband
• the Hello Kitty backpack focal point for Clare
• running from the cops who were trying to bus us the last mile
• getting caught making butt-squeeze gestures to a cyclist
• laughing so hard I farted
• laughing so hard we couldn't continue walking
• turning *slightly* psychotic to get Clare to finish that damn marathon
• apologizing to Clare for turning *slightly* psychotic
• laughing about turning *slightly* psychotic
  

and

finishing




Happy Birthday, Clare! I love you!

(wanna do it again?)