Wednesday, January 30, 2008

fears

Today I ran farther than the Pi Mile. It's about time I add some distance on to my runs...this is how it went:

Started off at Turner, walking towards campus. There's a guy walking a couple paces ahead of me.

Security guard: Where are you sleeves?!
Me: Huh? Oh! I'm going for a run, I won't be cold.
Security guard: Oh no! You need sleeves!

A couple more paces and I catch up to the guy, who turns around and looks at me.

Guy: Aren't you cold?
Me: Yeah, but I'll be running soon, and then I won't be cold.
Guy: Ah...I guess when I go hiking I don't wear sleeves even when it's cold or then I'll just be wet and cold.
Me: Yeah, see you get it!
Guy: Are you an intern?
Me: No! I work here (notice that he's looking at my GT shirt). I graduated from Tech so I like to run here after work.
Guy: Ah, so you must have gotten that shirt a long time ago.

Then he asks me what sorority I'm in, I find out what fraternity he's in. We figure out what networks we work for. We part ways at 10th and Fowler and the Pi Mile begins. It is so painful. My legs feel like bricks! But I can do this!

It's pretty slow going til I get to the CRC and a nice long downhill. Then I discover I have a big pet peeve while running. People asking directions! This car pulls over, and some girl beckons to me. I'm like....hello!!! I'm running away from you, I'm breathing heavily, I'm trying to focus on running. Ask someone else!!! She's like, where's the library? You really think I can give you detailed directions to the library while I'm running past you and breathing hard. All I can muster is a point to the left and "the other way." I hope she found it. But I hope no one ever asks me for directions again while I'm running!


After this, I feel pretty good, guess my legs finally warmed up! I make it back to 10th Street and decide, today is the day I am going to go past the Pi Mile. 10th & Fowler is approaching...I turn the corner to keep going!

Then, I immediately hit a wall. Mentally mostly. I guess I just got too used to 10th & Fowler being the end. First, my brain said, no way. Then my legs said, do we really have to? My hands said, we are so numb we're going to fall off. Yeah, my hands were frozen. I don't need sleeves but next time I definitely need gloves!

So I ran another mile or so and approached 10th & Fowler again to finish. Phew! My legs were hurting so bad! I don't know why...it was just an extra mile but it was a doozie. A pretty big hill & getting colder by the minute. But I made it! But...can I do it again tomorrow?

Which brings me to my fears...my first race is just a few weeks away. I'm only up to 4 miles - can I really do 6.2? Should I push myself harder? It's for a good cause, so I know it doesn't matter if I I run the whole thing or not, but if you know me, you know I hate to do anything without putting in 100%. I want to run the whole thing, I want to complete it. I hope that I can!

Then I have this other irrational fear. Can I run a race without music? I hate hearing the sound of my feet pounding the pavement and my breath all heavy...I love to hear music and drown out the fact that I'm working so hard.

These fears...so silly. But so real! Do you ever feel like the little fears are more real than the big fears we have some times? Or the little fears are just indicative of our secret big fears. Because I think about these silly fears - I'm really just scared of failure! Scared of not completing things. I like closure, I like feeling like I finished & accomplished something.

funny

When talking about the economy, a picture is worth a thousand words.



So, Giuliani really couldn't pull out a surprise win. Too bad...I probably wouldn't have voted for him BUT at least he was "uplifting" and not attacking like Romney & McCain. I respect that. Interesting that McCain won in a closed Rep. primary. What does this mean for the party?

Monday, January 28, 2008

who do YOU think will win Florida?

This guy seems pretty confident that John McCain will NOT win Florida.

What do you think?

I know from one Florida Republican that Rudy Giuliani has his/her vote. It will be interesting to see if he can win the state after spending all that money. I know, I know. All the polls are saying Romney/McCain are battling it out. But...it seems to me you can never really count on those polls anyway (Hillary in SC??). Maybe Giuliani will pull out a "surprise" win! But then...is it really surprise? The media wants you think so, makes for good ratings! Looks like next post I'll have to pull out the Baldasty.

Fried Chicken

Here's one thing NOT to mess with in the South...

funny :) who knew politics were so dependent on food?

Thursday, January 24, 2008

What is my blog about?

I used to have a "blog" of sorts. Looking back on it, it was probably waaaay too personal. But I heard it was pretty enjoyable reading (haha). But now that I am grown and have been in the "real" world for almost 2 yrs now, I decided to start a new little blog. I'm going to focus on 4 areas of my life that are pretty important to me: food, politics, running, and spirituality (that was in no particular order). For food, I'm just going to review various restaurants (services, attractions etc - anything I try basically, but mostly food). For politics, I'll give my 2 cents about this whole thing we call an election year. For running, I'll give you updates on my marathon training. And for spirituality, I'll just write whatever comes to heart/mind.


So for my inaugural post, I'll start with food and running.


For food I will use a rating of 1 (worst) to 5 (best). And I will measure in kiwis, since I love kiwis. I will rate in the categories of food quality/taste, service, and overall ambience. I will try to rate things currently rather than going into the past, although there are some things about New Orleans I'd like to dish about. (get it? dish?) So first up, I will rate...(drum roll please)


Johnny Rocket's
visit: today 1/24/08
taste: 3 kiwis
service: N/A - zifty
ambience: N/A - zifty


This is only a half review really because I ate Johnny Rocket's for the first time today via Zifty. For those of you who don't know, Zifty is this awesome service that delivers restaurant food to your door in an about an hour. The place I work uses Zifty...it's pretty nifty!

But I digress...I've been in ATL for 6 yrs now and have never eaten Johnny Rockets. It's certainly not the best, and certainly not the worst. I think going there would probably help me decide since I hear the decor is diner-like. I had The Original with cheese, chili cheese fries, onion rings, and a cookies & cream milkshake. I promise that all my food reviews will not be as heart attack prone as this one. But I am a firm believer that no matter how healthy you are, you should pig out every once in a while! The cheeseburger was everything I hoped it would be, perfectly melted cheese, thoroughly cooked patty that was still juicy and flavorful. The chili cheese fries were just ok. They're probably much better hot & fresh rather than traveled. They were still tasty, although the chili was a little dark & average tasting. The onion rings however were amazing! The batter was so tasty. And they traveled pretty well. And the milkshake...mmmmmm. Creamy & wonderful. My co-eater had a vanilla shake and the St. Louis burger that he thoroughly enjoyed as well.


Marathon Update


Back in December, I made a list of things I want to do for sure before I die. Life is short and I really want to make sure I leave nothing undone! So one of my things is to run a marathon. I decided to do the Disney marathon b/c I figure for my first time running 26.2 miles straight, I better be in the happiest place on earth! I have not decided yet if I will be running the marathon in '09 or '10. I'm waiting til the summer to see how much progress I make. If I'm feeling great, marathon in '09. If I'm not, I'll start with the half-marathon in '09 and then do the marathon in '10.


So far I'm up to at least 3.14 miles. For you GT fans, yes, that is the Pi Mile. Every day I don't have plans after work, I run the Pi Mile around Tech. It's pretty much the perfect little run. Up & down hill, not too crowded, nice distance. I'm running it pretty comfortably now. Then, it started to get cold again :( So I decided to buy an alumni membership to the Campus Recreation Center. I've started running around the flat indoor track there. Not as much of a physical challenge. I only have problems counting how many laps I've gone!

Today I ran about 20 laps...maybe a couple more than that. I was going a pretty slow, but even, pace. Then at the end I thought, I'm going to sprint the straights and walk the curves. And just see how long I could keep that up. Well...I thought after 20 laps I'd at least be a little tired. But man, I could sprint! I was so surprised at myself. I went a couple more laps doing this sprint/walk thing. But I just am continually amazed at how far we can push ourselves if we really try. Two years ago, I was running all the time, in shape, etc. but I don't think I could have done what I did tonight, the whole run-over-3-miles-and-then-sprint-a-lot thing. Let's just hope I can keep surprising myself!


I am now less than a month away from my first real race since high school. And really...since 9th grade. And it will be longer than any race I ever ran in track. 2/23/08 - my first 10K. Save the date & come cheer me on!


It's for a cause pretty dear to my heart, and also to my boyfriend, who's going to volunteer at the race. It's the Charles Harris Run for Leukemia. My cousin Shawn died of leukemia as a boy, and my boyfriend has lost 2 of his college friends to this disease. The race has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past 20 yrs for leukemia research at Atlanta's own Emory University. So, I know I certainly won't be the fastest and may not even be able to run the whole 10K (since I'm only up to 5K right now) but it is for a great cause! Check it out here

Wednesday, January 9, 2008