Randomness

Some unrelated thoughts that crossed my mind while running:

1. I wonder what I could do in life if I could get over my laziness/motivation issues. I feel sometimes that my running is parallel to how I treat other goals in my life. I research the heck out of it in the beginning. I set a goal. I freak myself out over said goal. I realize that the goal actually *is* attainable and then slack off with the follow through. The context here is that I know I can finish the 10k this weekend and am therefore have slacked off on the training that would make me not only finish the race but maybe improve a time. Kinda like punting my thesis in grad school. I should care more that I do that, right?

2. No matter when I run week days, week ends, morning, afternoon, or evening, I encounter at least one crazy protestor. No, the woman who’s been outside the White House since 1981 doesn’t count. Today it was what I’m assuming a pick up truck absolutely covered in billboards. This guy was ticked off about “Obama-care.” And homosexuality. And bail outs. And wanted us to remember 9/11. And also put in a plug for Jesus/salvation. The kicker was the sign that said, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen. John 5:16.” This was under a photo of one of the WTC towers. Crazy protesters are crazy protesters no matter what their message. I feel like I’m almost seeing more of them under this administration than the last which is impressive.

Ok, that’s my story for now. I’m sure I’ll remember something else later

Running is not normal.

This has been the theme of quite a few posts. The thing that gets me is that I went through a few races and the pain associated with them at this point. I know that I will complain about the training. And will hate my life even more when in the middle of the race. Why then am I sad about not having a race to look forward to? I say this as I jam on the refresh button to see if I can possibly have the timing to stumble across someone trying to unload their bib for the Army Ten Miler in October?

The kool-aid is delicious.

Dome, sweet Dome.

Ok, this one is only a week after the fact.  I’m getting better at the efficiency at which I update this thing.

Last weekend was the long awaited, ND 5 year reunion.  Yes, my alma mater does a 5 year reunion.  I realize it’s not like a thing.  At any rate.  It wasn’t a reunion as much as an excuse for my group of friends to hang out on campus and maybe attend an event or two.

After nearly not getting out of DC Wednesday night courtesy of some of the crazy storms this area is still dealing with, my flight managed to find a magic opening among the other planes trying to do the same thing we were.  I definitely saw way more lightening close up than I felt comfortable with on the take off.  My dad picked me up at the airport per usual.  I did feel some remorse that I wasn’t able to hang out with the parents more that night, but I was wiped and dragged my sorry butt up to my bedroom.

There’s something strange about your childhood bedroom.  I redid it junior year of college and cleaned out a lot of the random stuff.  It still has enough identity of being my room that it’s bizarre to be there.  I digress.  In true fashion for any time at home, mom and I managed to get some shopping in before I met up with my friends.

I digress.  After meeting up with Liz, Eileen and Tim and driving through construction/rush hour/car accident traffic, we finally made it to the Bend and wasted no time getting dinner.  We took it easy Friday morning.  Well everyone except for Liz who managed to get a work out in and pick up her classic stash of Dainty Made frosting.  Instead of doing any of the seminars or meetings, we managed to spend the day wandering around campus.  Part of this was due to Megan’s daughter Emi wanting nothing more than go to to “DOME!”  (emphasis added)  Mind you, there’s nothing much going on in the Dome.  It’s a bunch of offices.   One of those offices being Undergraduate Admissions.  *cue photo op for Emi with a copy of the admissions booklet*  Hee.

We managed to spend all of Friday afternoon at the bookstore before going back to get ready for the Class of ’04 dinner.  And if by dinner, they meant a bunch of random appetizers and a cash bar, then yes.  That was our opportunity to actually figure out who from our class was there to hang out with.  Either I didn’t know anyone I went to school with, or the people that chose to go to the reunion weren’t at all who I was friends with.  At the end of the day, I was fine with it since I was staying with the people I actually wanted to see.  We ended up cutting Friday short since the refreshment tent wasn’t really happening.  We definitely ordered bread sticks and cheesy bread from Papa Johns and went back to the hotel early to scarf it down.  It tasted like heaven.  We headed to bed on the early side (ok, like midnight) so some of us could rest up for our… races.

I’ll admit that this was probably my fault.  Or I at least ignited the spark.  I think the running makes you crazy.  I got wind that the Sunburst Races existed shortly before my half marathon and decided that another race would be fun.  At any rate, when 6:30 AM rolled around on race day, I was questioning my judgment.  Especially knowing that I hadn’t done much running at all since the last race.  Unlike the Indy Mini which had 35,000 people at it, the Sunburst 10k was a little smaller at about 1,000.  It was a luxury to be able to walk up and not fight for a space in the starting corral.  I also started up near Liz and Tim with the 9 minute mile folks.  It seems like hardly time passed between walking up and starting the race.  Luckily they allowed iPods on this course since I lost the fast people (read: my friends)  in about a minute.  Literally.  In exchanging stories after we finished, we all (Eileen included who did the 5k) slugged out the race.  It just hurt.  And while I was running I just wanted it over.  However, we all managed to clock respectable times.  I took a minute off my last 10k.  I think my shuffle knew I was on campus because the last two songs I heard while running were Journey “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Madonna “Like a Prayer.”  I may or may not have pumped a fist or two.  The course was amazing because you finish by running down the tunnel onto the field at ND Stadium.  They even had band music playing in the tunnel so you felt like Rudy (even though you wanted to die).  I remembered why I put myself through that nonsense as I did the last minute of the race and crossed the finish line.  Runners= masochists.

We made our way back to the car/hotel and cleaned up.  Our reward for the race was a big lunch of cheeseburgers and fries at CJ’s.  I think we spent 3 hours there just hanging out.  I managed to get a nap in (and not go back to the bookstore again) before we went to campus for the reunion Mass at the JACC.  Fr. Hesburgh said the homily.  That man is a rockstar.  The same part of me that likes Disney World and fairy tales and being patriotic loves to hear people articulate on what makes Notre Dame so special.  I don’t think you’d find anyone better than that than Fr. Ted himself.  He even got a standing O after the homily.  Not many priests have that kind of game.  It was amazing.

We made our way to the BBQ on the library quad.  Again, it was a chance for the group of us to hang out with each other.  It was super laid back and a beautiful night.  I couldn’t have asked for more.  The tone was definitely different this night as we knew we didn’t have to race the next day so we were going out.  One of the funny moments came after Megan left and her younger sister Erin came.  Erin and her friends just finished their freshmen years at ND.  Clearly they wanted to crash the reunion.  After confirming that they didn’t have a car on campus and had a non drinking driver picking them up, we proceeded to make our way to the refreshment tent to load them up.  It was kinda awesome to see the Class of ’04 turn the tables that once held our dinner into flip cup tables.  On the quad.  Definitely one of those bizarre moments when you realize that people are playing drinking games outside on campus.  God bless Notre Dame.

We left Erin & co on campus so they could eventually crash the cups game so we could go to the ‘Backer.  Because you have to visit the Linebacker Lounge.  The best part was that we were able to take one the shuttles (read: ND students who had minivans to schlep reunion attendees around all weekend) to the bar.  Tim got her phone number and instructions to call her before 2 AM.  Awesome.  We then proceeded to go in, get Long Islands and dance for 2+ hours.  It was amazing.  I love the types of experiences you only have at that bar.  Like a crowd full of drunk people who all magically know the words to Prince’s “Pussy Control.”  The 80′s called.  They want their playlist back.  The rest of the night read like senior year as we left the Backer to go to Nick’s Patio for late night diner fare.  We then managed to hail a cab back to the hotel.

4 hours of “sleep” later, we woke up to make our way back to Chicago/ORD and the real world.  It had been 2 years since I got to see all those kids at one time.  Luckily the weekend didn’t disappoint at all.  Here’s a photo of the reunion crew:

The half marathon… a month later

So the catch is that I’ve been a lot busier since the race so I have more to write about… but less time to do it.  Ah well.  Since pretty much every post for 2 months was about running, I figured I’d be remiss to not actually write about the race.

The race itself was fairly well organized.  Due to some construction around the start line and my not getting into the starting corral until 10 minutes before the gun, it took me a full 40 minutes to cross the start line.  It was a bit frustrating to look around and realize that you are surrounded by people who were assigned to corrals X, Y, and Z.  Most of the race was a bit of a blur.  I was concentrating on weaving in and out of this group or that.  Some of the “entertainment” along the route was really special.  I especially appreciated anyone with a boom box, or that covered some song you would actually want to run to (like anything by Metallica or Freebird).  I didn’t so much appreciate the lame singer songwriter types with acoustic guitars or the guy reading the bible… or the bagpipers.  The race course through Indianapolis itself provided much amusement as we definitely went through some of the less comely parts of town.  the drunk old guys outside of the liquor store drinking forties out of paper bags at 9:00 AM: priceless.  You get the drift.  The best part was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway– not surprising.  While I knew we were on it for about 2.5 miles, I was still surprised by how long it was.  Mostly because it is unimpressive when you first enter in.  It wasn’t until the last mile on the track that you see the huge grand stands, bleachers, jumbotron and the brickyard itself.  You couldn’t help but get pumped up for that part.

I finished a full hour after Jay and about half an hour after Ashley.  It was still really fun to see them waiting for me in the family reunion section with their similarly fresh endorphin highs.  I also didn’t remember the last time I was in that much pain.  Pretty much everything hurt at that point.  We hobbled over to have our pictures taken together, got our stuff and then headed out.  While Ash and Jay were pretty functional that day, the after affects hit me a little harder I think.  I reached a point around 7:00 PM that night when it was physically impossible for me to eat or drink anything else because of all the water/gatorade I consumed that day.  It’s amazing what 11 hours of sleep can do for you, though.

I took a full 2 weeks off of running (read: any exercise whatsoever) after the race.  I’m trying to get back into the yoga habit as well.  I knew I shouldn’t have stopped that last 6 weeks of training and I’m reminded of that fact by the pain in my hips I have now.  I really haven’t done more than 4.5 or 5 miles since then.  For whatever reason, signing up for a 10k the weekend of the reunion seemed like a good idea.  It’s all relative, right?

Another lunch time post.

While I was finishing some delicious home made tamales, I decided to peruse the Indy Mini Marathon page to see if there was any useful info, etc.  I was greeted with the following: http://www.500festival.com/marathon/.  Eeep.

Which then in turn inspired me to look up this:

Jay figured out the corral designations for him and I.  As I suspected, I’ll be lining up for the race somewhere around Terra Haute with the pace time I estimated during my registration.  Since I’m ultimately only really racing myself, I’m not particularly phased.

A little of this. A little of that.

I started blogging (well started blogging again technically) as an outlet to rant, editorialize, post photos, amuse myself and maybe amuse others.  I’ve encountered some problems I’m not quite sure how to remedy.

1.  Time.  I’m too guilty to update at work.  Even then, I strictly speaking shouldn’t be on blogs, social networking sites, etc while at work.  Blah blah blah.  Network security.  Blah blah blah.  Chinese hackers.

2.  Inspiration.  Unfortunately the topics I want to write about only occur to be at inconvenient times.  And I have the short term memory of a rabbit with ADD.

That means that when I get the time to actually write, I have no recollection of what I actually wanted to post about in the first place.  C’est la vie.  Today’s entry will be a bit of a hodge podge.

I’m 2.5 weeks out from race  day.  I’m generally really excited about it.  Only every once and awhile do I think that maybe I didn’t prep enough, get enough miles in, etc.  And then I remember that I’m in it for the experience.  If I walk half of it, I walk half of it.  The end game of the race itself sufficiently motivated me off my couch.  That and events like a big race are too fun to miss out on by stressing out unnecessarily.

I think the worst side effect of running has been how absentee I’ve been in the past month or so.  Unless you are employed by OFAC or are named Ashley or Felicia, chances are I haven’t really seen or talked to you much.  It’s made my realize that I have this bizarre need to fill my free time with some big goal.  It used to be grad school.  Now running.  After that, to be determined.  My default is to claim exhaustion.  Really I think it’s a cover for indulging in my (at times) overly introverted tendencies.  It’s not that there aren’t people around and things to do.  I just say no.  I’m not letting myself use the same old excuses, though.  I consequently booked up my entire weekend already to try to not be a recluse.

And yes, paintballing is still on for Sunday.  I’ll do anything (almost) once.  I just hope it isn’t reminiscent of Laser Tag from way back in the day. If that’s the case, Ashley and I are screwed.

Other things I’m excited for: Charles moving to DC.  This should definitely do good things for me being social.  My liver is a different story altogether… With that, I leave you with a photo from his most recent trip up to DC.

Poor little giraffe...

Reunions.

This theme seems to be reimerging in my life quite a bit lately.  Some of them are more low key.  For instance, seeing the group of AU kids all together for something.  We all surprised Fred at happy hour on Monday.  We see each other fairly often (relatively speaking), but the sentimental in me gets nostalgic when we are all together.

Tuesday was Chris.  The reunion analogy is a bit of a stretch here.  It’s still always such a nice breath of fresh air when I do finally get to see him that I’ll count it anyway.

I saw Charles for the first time in more than two and a half years yesterday.  I was slightly nervous since we had only emailed or chatted (never spoken on the phone) since July 2006.  A lot of life has happened to the two of us since we last met.  At the same time, he was still Charles.  I am still Leslie.  We are different people than we were but still fundamentally the same.  It was an awesome moment to look at him, have him look at me, and see the genuine excitement at it.

A couple weeks back I got to see Becca.  We had the realization when I was in St. Louis that we hadn’t seen each other in almost two years.  Yikes.  Same thing applies, though.  You pick up where you left off.  You spend some time catching up and telling stories.  Mostly you just revert.

The few people reading this know that I don’t have an endless supply of friends.  I do, however, seek out quality enclaves in the various parts of my life.  Once I’ve decided to put effort into you, it means that I’ve decided you are quality.  I think those same characteristics make me able to pick up where I’ve left off with a given person.  I’m a very loyal person.  However, I don’t do high maintenence.  If you need to speak with someone on a weekly basis (with few exceptions), then you probably don’t need to be my friend.  *shrug*

My 5 year college reunion is fast approaching.  Yea, it’s a weird, ND thing.  I won’t explain.  I’m excited to see my friends.  I of the group of us have been not fantastic at keeping in touch and/or attending events everyone else is at.  For those reasons I know I need to make it a priority.  And I want to.  There’s also that part of me that’s more than a little nervous.  It’s not really my friends I’m worried about.  It’s the whole thing of being on campus, seeing other more misc friends, etc.  Events like these make you revisit a former version of yourself.  Past Leslie, if you will.  It also highlights all the old insecurities you used to have and thought you had gotten rid of.  I digress.

Ok.  I’m starting to ramble.  I think I need to hire an editor to work for my blog.  And yet, I strangely don’t care.

PS- On a so unrelated note it’s ridiculous: I officially have my first bruised toenail courtesy of my running.  I’m apparently part of a large and illustrious club.  According to Runner’s World at least.  I thought I was done with physical activities that destroyed my feet when I stopped dancing en pointe….