Nine Miles in Sonoma

So, I've already posted about walking 9 miles- time-warpy weirdness.
I've already walked this course in Sonoma- hard and crying.

Today was totally wonderful, I tell you. It's awesome to see how much my body has changed in the past month or two. I'm stronger, I have more energy, hills are better- it's all improving. Whereas the first time I did this course, I had to seriously pray for strength the whole way, this time it was a breeze. I'm not saying it wasn't work, because there were still some hills, but compared to last time, it was like skipping through the park.

I walked most of the way with someone I've never walked with, Shelly, and that was nice. It always makes things go faster when I have company.

We had another honoree picnic after training, which was fun. The honorees didn't speak this time, so I don't really have new stories, but I did learn a new statistic from Shelly: in 1960, there was a 14% survival rate five years out for leukemia, but now children under 5 with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia have an 88.4% survival rate! Survival rates for other types of leukemia have also doubled and tripled over the past 45 years.