"Please don't kill it! . . . It's unfair."

Yes, I was definitely the runt of the training group. But the group leader, Johann, was as kind as Mr. Arable and didn't kill me. The other three runners took off at a faster pace, but he stayed back to keep me going. I ran all five miles.

I was feeling a bit down about it, about being so slow. But then today my contact at CFF, Jeremy, e-mailed to see if I'd made it to training. I said I had and that I was going to have to work pretty hard to catch up with the group. He wrote back to tell me "the most important thing is that you run your race." It really cheered me up. I think I may adopt that as my motto for my training. That, and "Keep Up, Runt!"

This whole experience has been really amazing so far. I feel completely surrounded by wonderful people: every single donation has made me cheer and feel supported, every e-mail from my new group training leader and CFF contact has encouraged me, and every run has made me grateful for my health and ability to do something this big.

*Just in case you didn't recognize it, the title is a quote from Charlotte's Web.