The 5K schedule is filling up PLUS I'm making progress at training for 30 mile bike ride

I've just registered for the Disneyland 5K in September. I was reticent about signing up because they have a pacing requirement that you be able to maintain a 16 minute mile, and I'm doing something closer to 20 minute miles at this point. However, with encouragement and participation from the same folks that are making my crazy idea of riding a bicycle 30 miles to cure diabetes a reality, I'm convinced I can do it. To cement that resolve, I've registered AND booked a non-refundable hotel room at Disneyland. In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

Speaking of crazy, my training for the 30 mile Tour de Cure bike ride on May 7 continues. Sunday afternoon featured a 13 mile ride in some pretty cold/blustery conditions. This week the schedule says 13.5 (last week's was only supposed to be 12 miles), but the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, so that will be nice. My backside hurts almost the entire time, even with padded bike shorts, but I suppose that's to be expected when you're morbidly obese and sit your big backside on a little, tiny bike seat.

And then there are times when I stop - mentally, not physically - in wonderment as I realize that I am challenging my own ideas about what I am capable of when I'm fat. I've always challenged myself physically as part of a weight loss effort or when trying to maintain a loss, but I've never managed to push myself while not dieting. I've been saying for a while now that what I really want is to lead an active lifestyle, to be active physically, and that's what I'm doing. Fat and all. Not because I want to lose weight or because I'm punishing myself for being fat, just because I want to see what I'm capable of and maybe, just maybe, to make others who judge fat people as being lazy stop and re-think their prejudices. (And maybe I'm in that category, too.)