Congratulations to Jess for running her first half marathon! She has been training for months for this moment & her hard word has finally paid off. She woke up in the wee hours of Sunday morning to congregate at Union Square up in San Francisco at the starting line & ran all through the City through the frosty morning.

When we met up with her at mile 11, it was pretty wild to see her full of vigor & with a great big smile.

The above photo is with Jess & her fellow Team in Training peer—the lovely Cindy.

The reward of finishing a half marathon would make any first-timer proud. Just to make it official, they rewarded all the finishers with a really fancy Tiffany’s necklace at the finish line:

We are very proud of her!

Jess's first half marathon

Angela's Angels. Show your support for these ladies!

As a sign of support for Ange and for everyone else who have battled this disease, a group of our friends have decided to join the Avon 2-day Walk this July. While I am unable to join them on the actual walk, I am doing everything I can to show them support.

To those of you who think a walk is no big thing, I can say only one thing: try it. Last weekend, I went on an 8 mile walk with two of my friends who will be participating in the event and it was no cake walk. Our legs were aching and we were beat. I couldn’t even make it out to dinner; for those of you who know me, that’s a really big deal.

Walking is not so different from running 8 miles. In fact I think walking may have been harder. I don’t know what it is, but it takes a lot of discipline to keep moving at a steady pace. Never thought I’d say that running might be easier than walking!

For the Walk, my friends have committed to walking 39 miles over 2 days (that’s a marathon the first day and a half the second day!) and raising $1800 each. I know times are tough, but if this is a cause that you believe in and want to support, please check out the team site for Angela’s Angels.

I can’t say enough about how great I think it is that they’re doing this and I am really proud of all of them for doing such a wonderful thing.

Ian's sweet loaner bike (taken from my iPhone)

It’s my aunt’s old bike & since she hasn’t been using it, I’m gonna try it out for a bit.

Why the sudden interest in biking? My uncle convinced me that my 10-mile commute to work is totally bikable, especially since most of it happen on the bay coastline. In fact, a part of the commute has me riding through SFO…pretty neat! The decision to ditch the car for a pedal-powered machine is simple:

1. Saves gas. If the forecast says I have five days of good weather, I save 100 miles in gas a week.
2. Good for the environment. One less car on the road, less carbon emissions.
3. Daily exercise. 20 miles a day will definitely bring the heart rate up! My goal is to look foine for my wedding. I’ll make sure to wear super-fitted Ts so everyone can notice.
4. Promotes good health. Cyclists (from what I read online) need energy to burn. If I want to take this seriously, I may need to reconsider my eating habits.
5. Good exercise in zen. You need to build nerves of steel trying to compete with 2,000-lbs. cars on the road. Obviously, the bike doesn’t win in weight, but it’s important to build ‘road presense’ so cars don’t overlook me on a two-lane road. Also, you have to get past that you need to dress the part, which is probably totally different that what I’m used to wearing:

Jazzy French cyclist (found on Flickr)

Of course, I have yet to commute to work, but everything above is very appealing to me. The next step? Actually taking it for a test spin. Wish me luck!