I ran 4 miles this morning; it is something I love to do, and although I have been running for the past 27 years, I still don’t consider myself a “runner”. Runners, to me, are those amazing gazelle like creatures whose feet don’t seem to hit the ground and who finish a race long before the rest of us have hit the first water station. Do they even break a sweat? My first experience with running was a painful one. Remember the Presidential Fitness Awards in middle school where you were required to run ONE WHOLE MILE? I do. I thought I was going to die! I could barely walk the next day, every muscle in my body ached. I hated it. I think I met whatever requirements were necessary but I made a promise to myself that I was going to do better the next year—-and I did. By the time I was in high school, I had worked up to TWO miles every once in a while. Our tennis coach didn’t require a whole lot of running from us, just some sprints here and there. We were a good team, but far from great. In college, I was running five miles on a regular basis and it was not long before I ran my first half marathon. I must have been 21 or 22 at the time. I figure if I just ran really slow, I could probably finish and not die. Despite my best intentions to run a marathon by the time I was 30, it actually took me another 10 years to complete that goal. So what does any of this have to do with photography? Indirectly, quite a bit. Here are some reasons why I run:

1. BECAUSE I CAN. I am not built for speed, my legs are much too short but they work. My goal is to run the Carlsbad Half Marathon as long as I can for the rest of my life. It always takes place around my birthday, it is my present to myself.

2. IT’S CHEAPER THAN DRUGS, ALCOHOL, AND THERAPY. I don’t know if I have ever experienced a “runner’s high” but I know that 9 times out of 10, I feel much better than I did before I started. Plus it keeps me from eating/drinking too much the night before.

3. ALL YOU NEED IS SHOES. That’s it. Run in whatever clothes you want. If you run at the beach, you don’t even need shoes. If you run at a nudist beach…..

4. PARTY OF ONE TO TEN THOUSAND. You can run by yourself, which I usually do, or you can run with 10,000 other enthusiasts. It is something to witness, a sea of heads bobbing up and down for miles and miles.

5. IT KEEPS ME YOUNG. When I first started running, I remember seeing the “older women” of 40-something who ran and thinking to myself, that I wanted to be like them someday, old and still be able to run! Sheesh. I can honestly say that I can run farther and have more energy than many younger women…

6. I HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO. Every year I keep thinking I should take up some other form of exercise but I never do. Any suggestions?

Lately, I am training for the La Jolla Half Marathon which takes place at the end of April. It starts off in Del Mar and finishes in La Jolla. Should be amazing. After that, my last (scheduled) half marathon for the year is in August, America’s Finest City Half Marathon, which starts at Point Loma and ends up in Balboa Park. At the end of that race, I will receive an additional medal for having completed the Tripple Crown (everyone who completes the race in the alloted time gets a medal). It is the best part of running a race, that little piece of shinny metal. Silly, but it’s true. You also get a shirt. And a banana. Really.

My first (and last?) marathon. It takes a lot of time to train for a marathon! Been there, done that.

My best friends. We have a date every weekend and a couple of times during the week, if possible. They, or their brethren have seen me though good times, bad times, and a whole lot of in-between times, through rain, snow, sleet, hail…. actually, I love the rain but I don’t like getting wet (it makes me cold) so I am mostly a fair weather runner but I have ran in single digit temps in MN. I couldn’t breathe but so it goes!

These are my running medals, mostly from the Calsbad Half Marathon. I usually only do one half marathon a year and just run 4-8 miles for fun on the weekends and whenever.

This is where my medals live, on my messy desk. The small photo is of me completing the LA Marathon. My family was there to greet me at the finish line—it was great!!

The gorgeous man in the photo is Jim Bunke. I will write more about him one day… but not today.

…..ends up on my blog! Sort of. Last week I attended WPPI in Las Vegas, along with 10,000 other photographers. That’s a lot of photogs! For the second year in a row, I was joined by my fellow crazies, Patrice and Jo, and newbies Mary, Ruth, Jennifer, Gina, and Matt WPPI is a huge event and it’s hard to do/see everything but we tried anyway. We left for Vegas on Sunday and it was snowing in the pass which was awesome! I haven’t seen it snow like that since I left Minnesota 5 years ago…This was the first time I have ever seen snow on Joshua trees- we were trying to get to Vegas early so there was no time to stop for photo ops but I tried to take some anyway. Check out the blurry pics taken from Jo’s killer mommy mini-van. You can also view a slideshow of our trip (click on the word slideshow and hopefully wonderful things will happen….if not, click your heels three times)

As much would have loved to remain outdoors, WPPI takes place inside the Bally and Paris hotels, where time is warped, and it is alway “night” in the casinos. I love all the visual stimulation (and there is a LOT) though every so often found myself in need to reconnect with the “world” outside, even if it is was Vegas version of reality! But I came to WPPI to be inspired and learn as much as I could squeeze into my mommy brain so I back inside I went. It never ceases to amaze me how brilliantly talented some photographers are and just when I thought the bar was high enough, some genius goes and raises the bar even higher for me. Every once in a while, someone in the group would say, “my stuff is better than that,” and it is, which is awesome. We joke about which one of us will be presenting/winning an award next year….as speaker after speaker said, “Dream BIG, Baby!” (they didn’t actually say “baby“, I added that, this being Vegas an all;-) So here are some more of my favorite pics:

Gina, Mary, Patrice, Jo, Matt, Me and I forgot her name…..oops! But she’s really nice!

The Belagio front desk. No we didn’t stay there, maybe next year:-)

Hotel Paris

Jo’s sister hooked her up with this room! It had three badrooms, a pool table, 4 flatscreen tvs (none of them worked!) and one bed. LOL This is Vegas, after all!

Our room at the Paris hotel…

Me Ra Koh, Pepper Nix and Jules Bianchi, our LA PUG leader. Way to go Jules!

The Tiffany that nobody broke…..

The brilliant Mathew Jordan Smith who makes it look so easy.

Ever watch the Bilagio water show at dusk while listening to Frank Sinatra sing “Fly Me to the Moon”? Magic, pure magic.

Me and David Jay, the nicest guy in the world. I stalk him at every convention and he is kind enough to act like he knows me!

Robert Evans and David Jay. Robert is the rockstar that shot Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding. Like David, he is very kind and generous with his time and talent, and he does know my name:-)

View from the Planet Hollywood room…not too shabby.

When in Vegas….if only I had remembered to pack my red Wonder Woman boots. Rats!

Miracles never cease! I’ve been dreaming of having my own blog for a while now and with help from my wonderful friends at Pyromedia Studios, my dream is now a reality. Whoo-hooo! I can hear my friends gasping, “Uh-oh, what is she going to write about me?” It’s all good, I promise.

A little about myself…I love photography, it has been my passion for as long as I can remember. Everyone says that it begins with the magic of watching your first image develop in the dark room and then you’re hooked. It was that for me, but more so when somebody first said, “hey, that’s pretty good!” After a lifetime of hemming and hawing, I took the final leap of faith and decided to pursue this as a full time venture, never mind that it is as scary as it is exciting. As with most self-employed photogs, I am constantly bombarded with thoughts of “did I do the right thing?” but then someone will say, “hey, that’s pretty good!” and so onward I go. Thanks mom!

I have so many images that I want to share with you! I guess it should start with my family, whom I adore, though they do drive me crazy at times. My kids are my everything so it would be best to start there. These images were taken by my good friend and awesome photog Rowena Curtis last December. Thanks Ro! Introducing Peter “Pete” and Sarah.