the art of living

I decided this morning that it's been far too long since I updated my blog. Where have I been? Much of my time these days is being spent training for a half-marathon taking place in October. I've always thought of artist and athlete as two separate entities, but I'm learning that there's room for both creativity and activity in my life. I've never been a strong runner, so I've always wanted to challenge myself with an organized race of some sort. My sister and I have been talking about running a 5k together for years now, and this talk somehow found us signing up in January to run 13.1 miles in the Denver Half Marathon on October 14.

The course should be spectacular. It starts in front of the beautiful Denver capitol building with the gold dome roof, winds throughout the Denver city skyline you see in photos, goes past a number of major sports venues downtown like Coors Field, and through a handful of parks. In addition to my Ipod- which has been essential to training this summer- one of the things that helps me get through long training runs is taking in the scenery. On the rare occasion that I run inside on a treadmill, I go crazy because I'm lacking visual variety. When I run outside, I distract myself by taking in all the sights- everything from the mix of colors in a beautiful flower bed or the start of a sunset to the unique curve of a tree branch.

Speaking of the half marathon- my sister and I are running to raise money for her workplace, the Easter Seals Day Stroke Program, which provides therapy and cameraderie for stroke survivors. In addition to my regular fundraising, I'm having an online auction starting next week, selling some of my latest jewelry designs to raise money for the program. 100% of proceeds from the auction will go to the Day Stroke Program. More details coming soon!