The first week of Earth Day Half Marathon training is in the books, and I have to say, it hasn't been as painful or humiliating as I feared. I even managed a slow five-mile slog along the River Road - my first outdoor winter run in two years.

The other workouts were on my bike in the basement or on the treadmill at our gym. We belong to the newly-constructed and totally tricked-out Leonard Center at Macalester College. We joined for next-to-nothing because I'm a member of Macalester's Class of '99. It's not open to the public, so it's the college kids, the faculty and staff, and some alums. There has been maybe one other person over 25 in the fitness center on each of my visits.

And that's really the only trouble with the gym: I feel tremendously old and saggy in the locker room, changing with the 18-22 set. Between the stretch marks, the "abs," the craggy double-c-section scar, and the nursing pads that I stuff into my jog bra, it's pretty obvious that one of these things is not like the others.