# of days until the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll 1/2 Marathon: 88
# of dollars it costs to run in the 1/2 Marathon: 140
# of miles I ran on Saturday: 4
# of minutes it took me to run 4 miles: 48:11
#, in degrees, of the average temperature in Vegas this time of year: 98
# of times I thought to myself, "Dear God, what have I signed myself up for?" in total panic: 27
# of years it's been since I bought new running shoes: 4
#, in minutes, the sales clerk at the shoe store spent telling me, in fairly graphic detail, about the dangers of ill-fitting running shoes and how runners are prone to lose toe nails due to this: 6
#, in seconds, it took me to decide to buy new shoes after hearing about toe-nail loss: 1.2
# of pairs of shoes I bought, in an effort to avoid losing my (still blue-painted) toe nails: 2
#, in minutes, I've spent thinking about toe-nail loss since Saturday: 45
# of people I knew running the 1/2 marathon 4 weeks ago: 0
# of people now I know running the 1/2: about 12
# of times I've asked Brian to run with me: 5
# of times he's emphatically said, "No, you are crazy, woman!": 5
# of miles I've run since Saturday: 10
# of times I've played Lady Gaga, J Lo, Ke$ha, or Britney on the iPod while chugging along: 3,000
# of "Hill Day" boot camp sessions I've attended in an effort to cross-train: 3
# of hills employed on Hill Day: 2 (aptly named, "the Big Hill" and "the Little Hill")
# of times we run up and down these stupid hills on Hill Day: 15,000*
# of times of times I think to myself, "I can't do this, I can't do this" while huffing and puffing and trying not to throw up last night's dinner: 15,000*
# of times I've failed to complete a run or finish Hill Day: 0
# of times I've finished a run or Hill Day and felt strong, powerful, and like I could take on the world?
Too many to count. :-)
Editor's note: With that said...
#, in terms of slices, of coconut cake I'm about to consume having successfully completed Hill Day this morning:
1.
Yum!
*approximately