At many times in my life, I've been pretty into running and other ATHLETIC pursuits. I'm actually really proud of my marathon and triathlon finishes, especially the ones I logged after the children were born. It wasn't easy to exercise with those c-section incisions, I'm telling you.

In the last year or so, however, I've been on another break from ATHLETICS. Instead of running and stuff, I wore a pedometer to collect steps and did my Zumba Wii game. It was fun, and I feel like I stayed in pretty good shape.

However, I'm ramping things up just a tad right now. My friend Molly asked me to be on a four-person marathon relay team with her. It's Minneapolis Marathon on June 3rd. I only have to do like 6.6 miles, but Molly said the time goal is 3:30. That's 8-minute miles. I'm pretty sure that's beyond the realm of possibility for someone in my situation. So, I said I couldn't commit to the time goal, but I could commit to the team. She said that those ATHLETIC efforts would be enough.

Thanks for the inspiration, Oakland! I'm going to dedicate my Minneapolis Marathon leg to you.