Dang, I can't turn down a challenge

This past weekend my nephew, Mark, and his girlfriend, Sarah, accomplished a pretty amazing task.  They ran their first marathon together and finished it in just over 4 hours.  I'm seriously impressed.  Mark sent me his race results (shown below), along with this comment: "Janet, it's time to bump up that 5K to a 42.1K."  Oh snap!   Someone just threw down a challenge.  I'm a tad bit competitive, so it's not going to be easy to ignore this.  In no way am I in as good a shape as those two are, but I think I can get there over time.  I've definitely seen improvements in my endurance over the past year.  Last night I asked Jer to run outside with me, and we mapped out a 5K in the neighborhood.  Our path even included two long, steep hills.  We finished it together without stopping, and it really wasn't that difficult.  Granted, this is only 1/8 of a marathon, but it gives me a lot of hope for what I can achieve with dedicated training.  If the weather will cooperate, I hope to run this path consistently in the coming months and gradually increase the distance.  I've already got the Warrior Dash on the calendar for May (3.51 miles w/obstacles) and the Komen 5K in June, so hopefully I can put a 10K or a half-marathon on my agenda for later this year.  I know I've got Jer's support and he'll be running by my side, so this is definitely an achievable goal.  In related news, my weight loss total has reached 6 pounds, so that's encouraging.  Gotta keep truckin!        

Congratulations, you two!  You should be very proud.  We all are!