Today 5.01 km in 37:01 minutes. Pace 7:22 min/km
Tag: running (Page 5 of 5)
Bellesouth says that I tagged her on facebook for this meme but she is sadly mistaken. I haven’t done this meme anywhere and since it’s Holidailies, I thought I would amuse you with these snippets.
The Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 16 random people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.
- I actually keep a large and annotated bucket/things to do before I croak/goal list. There are hundreds of things on there
- I want to finish a marathon
- Even though I am from Arkansas which considers itself the South even though the coasts consider it the Midwest (these are some fighting words y’all), I do not like fried catfish, sweet tea, boiled okra, deer hunting, the Arkansas Razorback football team or watermelon. I’m afraid the state might revoke my driver’s license, “Sorry hon but you’re no Arkansan of mine!”
- Once upon a time, I had a website and I wrote an entry about how I was so horny I could cry. A reader sent me a vibrator for Christmas. God bless the internet
- I love the writing of William Faulkner and want to read everything he has ever written
- I was able to name 111 countries on this website
- I was inspired to take piano lessons from a Bugs Bunny cartoon involving Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
- I still want to be able to play that song
- One of the most amusing memories of my brother is when he put an egg in the microwave to cook it. I believe I was 12 and he was 10. The egg exploded and blew the microwave door wide open.
- I have straddled the equator in Kenya
- When I’m on my own accord and not bound my societal conventions or legal obligations, I curse like a sailor.
- If it’s possible to have a diet Dr. Pepper addition, then I definitely need join Diet Dr. Pepper Anonymous.
- I want to ride on camel while looking at the pyramids in Egypt. I need to hurry up, I hear acid rain is making them erode away
- I’m scared of snakes
- I like taking photographs. In another life, I would be a photojournalist
- I turn into a babbling baby talking idiot whenever I see a kitty cat or a tiny puppy dog. Seriously, someone is going to shoot me someday.
- I lost 30 pounds this year. GO ME!
This isn’t actually facebook so I’ll just tag anybody who reads this and needs a holidailies prompt.
After my Jingle Bell 5K experience with hills, I decided to enter the Little Rock Half Marathon instead of the marathon. With that adjustment, I decided to incorporate some hills into my training regiment and see what happens. So far so good.
Today was an 8 mile run. It’s not the longest run I’ve ever done (that would be 12) but it is pretty far and still a little intimidating. There was 10 mile an hour winds that seemed to be blowing in my face. It didn’t matter which direction I was running, the wind seemed to adjust to be blowing RIGHT IN MY FACE. It was hard enough that I felt it was slowing me down. My short goal is to manage to jog up this hill without stopping to walk. It’s pretty steep. I didn’t make it this time. Maybe next time.
No one tried to run me off the road.
I did however meet another runner which surprised me. There doesn’t seem to be that many bona fide runners around here.
So when it was all said and done. (according to the Nike + iPod)
8 miles
1:40:31
average pace 12:33 minute/mile
My favorite song for this run was “When I Grow Up” by the Pussycat Dolls.
My friend Jennybee is a new Aunt. Even though I am not only old enough to have a child and am old enough to start worrying about the freshness of my eggs, I still don’t feel old enough to actually have a kid. I’m stuck in some sort of adolescent mindset. When I get bonafide big wrinkles, I am going to faint. I have friends who have teenagers and they weren’t teenage moms. Lord have mercy, when did I get old?
Today I heard that in this town, an African American woman who lives in a prominently white neighborhood had her house vandalized and the police did nothing. I mean people literally spray painted “N&****” on the front of it. It didn’t even make the local paper. How the hell does that happen? in 2008?!? I am stunned. Completely stunned. Of course, I had to call my friend to apologize for making jokes about her Fort Knox style security system on her house.
My post Jingle Bell 5K soreness and hill running problems during the race have convinced me that instead of signing u for the Little Rock Marathon, I am going to sign up for the half instead and do more hill training and pace training instead of just trying to finish. I think my legs will thank me.
As a business owner, I can attest that I am feeling the economic fallout of everybody being broke. It’s a sad sad day in Melissaland.
A few weeks ago while running in the dusk, a guy turned his headlights on bright and swerved toward the shoulder where I was located. Seriously, some mother fucker tried to “pretend” to run over me. What if he had lost control of his big ass truck and not been able to swerve back in time. I had on the big hunter orange vest with reflective tape that promised to be seen from 1200 feet away. Who does that?
I woke up bright and early for a Saturday to run in Craig’s Jingle Bell 5K. Craig is Craig O’Neil of KHTV Channel 11 fame. He has big eyes and big lips. Think Mick Jagger but replace rock star sexy with goofy and that’s about it. This is the first race timed race I’ve run. It’s also one of the first larger races I’ve run. By larger, I mean large enough where I would have to worry about hitting or getting hit by other people in the beginning due to the crowd. Since running a marathon is one of those life goals on the bucket list, I figured I should get used to it.
It was exciting. Crazy exciting. I invited my mother to come with me to watch the action. It turned out she hates the cold and sat in a restaurant to keep warm the entire time. Oops. She was a trooper otherwise though.
It was chilly this morning. I hadn’t registered beforehand so I got to be there before 10:30 to get in. It was windy and chilly.
When I picked up my race number, I also got a temporary tattoo and some tiny jingle bells to put on my shoes.
ME and my TATTOO!
JINGLE BELLS!
I wasn’t expecting the big push of adrenaline waiting in the crowd at the starting line right before the race. It is a “I wanna go! I wanna go NOW!” feeling. Also, my training runs on the high school track and the shoulders of roads didn’t prepare me for the pounding that is running on the street. . Also, I didn’t know you could wear your iPod during a race so I had no music. There weren’t tons of spectators cheering you on like there were at the Race for the Cure.
My calf threatened to shut the race down on me at the first hill so I had to slow down my pace and walk up most of the hills. My time, therefore, sucked really damn hard. I had to remind myself this was my first race and the goal was to finish. This was a FUN RUN dammit. It wasn’t like I had any chance in hell of coming in first.
This 5K run/walk had the distinction that you could walk your dog in the race. There were lots of cuties. Some wore Christmas-y garb and some didn’t.
Here’s a picture of me looking like a dork at the finish line. (Dear Lane Bryant, Can you pLease make some jogging pants that don’t want to go up to my boobs. Seriously those are some Steve Urkel style highwaisted jogging pants from hell. I might send the other pair of pants I have unopened back.) Craig’s in the background.
My post race lunch was a gyro platter at Leo’s Greek Castle. YUMMY!
Okay so I jogged 3 miles yesterday and 4 miles today as was dictated by my marathon training sheet. Both seemed to be relatively easy runs. I wasn’t able to time them and did them on the track since I can’t find my Nike plus ipod white piece that connects to the ipod itself. OH the tragedy. I might have to spend some money to replace that.
I cannot tell a lie. I was a little bit nervous about meeting the “team fabulous” team and going out with them. The last time I met a large group of people that I mainly didn’t know, I was forced to listen some guy talk about his “Italian sausage” for 45 minutes at a sit down dinner.
But this was not that event. This was fun.
We loaded into the hotel shuttle and took our fabulous butts to La Hacienda on Cantrell. There was booze.
That’s a raspberry Margarita. It was orgasm good.
Since it was also a double birthday party, there was cake.
If you celebrate your birthday at La Hacienda, you get your picture taken with a sombrero and blanket, a serenade and a shot of tequila (if you’re over 21).
There was laughing and practical joking. I think we scared Mitch, the shuttle driver.
I didn’t get the memo about dressing like a Transvestite hooker for the Race but considering that I was called Man Woman in college (damn you Frank and Ken!), I think I can definitely pull that shit off. Nextyear, girls. NEXT YEAR.
It is quite awe inspiring to see 40,000 people gathered in one place to support one cause, no matter what the cause is. The Broadway bridge was bouncing. That was a little bit scary.
The other interesting thing is the groups that line the race route along the way. There are bellydancers, firemen, politicians, regular guys (or the Three miles of men), Bikers, line dancers, cheerleaders, a high school marching band, etc. It’s touching. Really.
I ran 6 miles on Saturday. That’s right 6 miles. That, to date, is the furthest I have ever run. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I didn’t feel like I was going to fall down from exhaustion. I couldn’t believe that my pace didn’t slow down a whole helluva a lot. I couldn’t believe I wasn’t crazy sore. I did have a slight ache that made me very aware of my legs when I was trying to go to sleep that night but that was it.
I am amazed. RAWRRRRR..
Of course, now I’m feeling all proud of myself and am considering doing the Little Rock Marathon in earnest. There are some hills and that will be a challenge but it seems doable. Crazy but doable. I will be ridiculously slow but it seems feasible that I can finish the thing.
WOW! I’m amazing myself over here. Of course, running a marathon has been one of those “BUCKET LIST” type goals so I’m a little psyched about the whole thing.
I have officially signed up for Race for the Cure. Here is my fundraising page. . I have put it in the sidebar under my personal stuff (called Melissa stuff).
I love running. I am not sure exactly why I love it so much but I find that I am more relaxed and more fun after I have been running. Also, I like going out, putting on the iPod and just concentrating on one step at a time. For me, it seems like running is a type of meditation where you are moving, concentrating on breathing, and possessing a certain level of focus on what you are doing (running). For some reason, everything else seems a little bit easier after a run.
Also, there is the pride that results from accomplishing a goal that you set out for yourself. I remember the delight after I crossed the finish line after my first 5K.
