Alta, what can I say? You are such a wonderful person!

I don't even know where to begin. You have such a generous spirit, like fresh water flowing down cold and clear from the mountain on a hot day. You refresh my soul. Thank you!
Sorry I haven't visited your diary for a while; I've been working my way through other people's! But thank you so much for your encouragement, everything you said was
SPOT ON!!! We DO only have today; and we can treat it like it's nothing special, or we can treat it like it's the beginning of all good things that will happen in our lives from now on. I see now! Every day is the ONLY day! (I've been operating on the silly assumption that I'll live forever and forever will always be a long, dull, hard road stretching endlessly in front of me, leading nowhere...). Life does NOT have to be a big, boring ride, made up of lots of meaningless days, right?? It can totally be a party, a party of our own making.

What is more REAL than the energy and will that gets us out of bed in the morning? If we don't have that, it doesn't matter if we're the thinnest, richest, whateverest people out there... we won't have a purpose in life and we won't commit to anything or anyone, we'll just drift...
Anyway, to spit out the ramble lolly, I am certain that you'll achieve your goals, especially with your running. Your enthusiasm and motivation are contagious! If you talk to yourself like you talk to others on this board, I know you'll have nothing to fear, you'll kick some hot ASS...
I can see you flying past thin, muscly, sexy bods one after the other on that half-marathon ... grinning over your shoulder ... your hair flying in the wind ... and some dude behind you gasping to his partner, "WTF was that? I thought NASA only tested stuff down in Houston!"
So thank you again for your support and I'll leave you with one of my favourite quotes from a movie which kind of reminds me of what you said and which I think may be the secret to winning this battle:
"Pressure... and time. That's all it takes, really." -
The Shawshank Redemption