Gary Allan ROCKS!!

Country singer Gary Allan rocked us out at Busch Gardens yesterday. Of course, Linae and I had a blast--a hot guy with a sexy voice singing to us? Oh, yeah. We are sooooo there!

Here we are: The 1st and 3rd place age group winners (F 30-34) in the Armadillo Run 5K with our celebratory Bud Select!

Gary rises up from beneath the stage. He started his set with "Watching Airplanes," his current #1 song and one of my personal favorites. It gets stuck in your head ;)

Yummmm...

One of my deep, dark secrets: I'm a sucker for a bad-ass tat...

I think it's worth noting that he and a couple other members of his band killed half a bottle of whiskey while on stage. And while we were all holding up our beer to salute him, one dude held up a half-eaten turkey leg. Only in Florida. Welcome to the Freak Show State, Mr. Allan. Please come back sometime.

OMG!! HARDWARE!!

I just found out that I took THIRD PLACE in my age group at my race this morning! My friend Linae took first! And not first and third out of three--there were 11 women in the 30-34 age group! I can barely wrap my head around the fact that I beat eight women in my age group! The last time I won anything in my age group, I was second of two! lol

And my official chip time was 33:54, for 10:59/minute miles! SUB-11:00 miles!! While sick and hacking every half mile! Unreal!!

It was an awesome day!

Armadillo Run 5K, Oldsmar, FL

Subtitle: The Incidental PR

I drove into Oldsmar this morning and eventually found the race site (no thanks to TomTom, but I digress...) Got my number and shirt, found Linae, and we hung around waiting to start in the 25 mph wind. Found Slow Twin Bill, chatted for a few, then we were off. L & B went ahead, as they are speedy, and I trotted along at a nice, even pace. I took my first of three walk (cough) breaks right before I hit the one-mile mark, where I proceeded to hack up a lung. Or so it felt. Passed one mile in 10:29. Huh? All right...ran through the nice neighborhood facing the bay, saw Linae going back the other way, got to the turnaround, and got smacked with a lovely headwind. Walked and coughed a bit more, trying to dislodge whatever the hell has been living at the back of my throat for the past three days. No such luck. Started running again, and made it to about 2.5 miles before I had to walk again.

I looked at my watch after I started running again, trying to figure out exactly how far I was from the finish line and how much time I had to get there. I'm not great at math when I'm NOT running, so this was a pretty neat trick for me. I saw the 3 mile mark up ahead and realized that if I really booked, I could possibly maybe PR. So I ran 'til my eyes bled the last 0.3 miles, crossing the line in 33:59 by my watch. That's a 27 second PR! I somehow managed to PR after being sick for a week and not running for two. At a race where I was just there to get the tshirt and see some friends. How, I may never know. But I'll take it happily and not question the Race Gods :)

Had pizza and half a beer afterward. At 9 AM. How awesome is that?? I love running :)

Tall Drink of Water

Tuesday night, my mom and I went to the Strawberry Festival (aka Redneck Hootenanny, Part Deux. Part Une was the Florida State Fair) in Plant City. Between the mullets, the cowboy hats, and the extraordinarily obese people walking around with a turkey leg in one hand and a corn dog in the other, the festival yet again satisfied the people-watcher (voyeur?) in me.

I was still suffering from The Plague, but the lure of strawberry shortcake and Blake Shelton was great enough to get my crud-infested, germy self there. In the rain. At least it was warm.

In addition to being hotter'n Texas in July and a great singer, Blake Shelton is hysterically funny. He really played up the Redneck aspect of Central Florida, culminating in a cover of the Bellamy Brothers' "Gimme a Redneck Girl." It was a blast!

My mom got a kick-ass camera for her birthday, so the pictures are WAY better than they were at the George Strait concert. Below are some pictures of the super-fine Mr. Shelton, all 6'5" of him. Yummy:

"The More I Drink"

"Some Beach"

Cover of Hank Jr.'s "A Country Boy Can Survive"

"Ol' Red"

Yeah, it's country :)

RR: Mardi Gras Marathon

Friday, 2/22 - Flew into New Orleans Friday afternoon. Kay got in a bit before me, so she waited for me at the airport, and we rode over to the hotel. Headed to the expo, which was about 1/2 mile from our hotel, and wandered around there for a while. We met Mary, Dudley's wife, but Dud wasn't there yet. We wandered around a bit and I spent WAY too much money, including on this cute little guy:

Then we headed off to the French Quarter. We took a carriage ride, which was cool, and very informative.

We wandered around Bourbon Street for a while, then we decided to find something to eat. We were basically dragged into an Italian restaurant called Tony Moran's, which had excellent food, so it was all good. We saw people walking around with these huge drinks called Handgrenades. Kay asked someone what was in it, but all they could tell us was it was melon-y tasting and really strong. I decided that I would have one after the marathon. We wandered around a bit more, then headed back to the hotel.

Saturday, 2/23 - Kay and I hung around the hotel most of the morning. Jan from Mississippi and her daughter Caroline, who were staying in the same hotel, dropped in on us for a few minutes, then they went to their room. Kay and I headed back to the expo to meet up with Dud for our group tour. We finally met Dud, and ran into Mary again, and Geri and Moose, so we chatted with them for a while. Then Dud, Jan, Caroline, Jan's other daughter and her hubby, one of Jan's friends from Joy of Running and her daughter, Kay and I took off for lunch. We went to a place called Mother's; the line was pretty long, but it was worth it. The food was FAB-U-LOUS. I had a debris po'boy. Sooooo delicious! After some bread pudding, we went on our Dudley-led tour of the French Quarter.

We went to Jackson Square,



we saw the Faulkner house, which is now a bookstore,

some awesome architecture,


the Lafitte Blacksmith Shop, which is one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans,


and we visited a voodoo temple. Dudley did a great job; if you ever get a chance to tour New Orleans with him, jump at it! We finished up with beignets and cafe au lait at Cafe du Monde. Yummmm. Everybody else took off back to their hotels, but Kay, Dudley, and I walked over to the Mississippi River and walked along it for a while. We walked over to the Riverwalk Mall, bummed around for a bit, then we dropped Dud back at the Hilton, and Kay and I went back to our hotel.

Sunday, 2/24 - Race day! We met Jan and Caroline in the lobby and walked over to the start at the Superdome. We ran into Dud and then lined up to start.

We spotted Moose and Geri, but couldn't get to them easily. I ran with Kay for the first five minutes, then sent her on her way. I planned on quite a few more walk breaks than she would be doing ;) I caught up with Moose and Geri and ran with them for nine or ten miles. They told me about their Mardi Gras parties and their Katrina stories, and about the sights on the course. They're so much fun to hang with. And running with Moose is like running with a rock star! Everybody yelling out his name at water stops and such. He even stopped for a martini on the course. He's quite the crowd favorite! I couldn't keep up with their run pace any longer, so I let them go on just before the halfway point.




I started walking more than I should, but it got me through. I met a Maniac and a 50 Stater once we got into City Park, and hung with them for a while. Both very nice people. I really should become more active on those lists, especially the 50 States list. I stopped to get my picture taken with the local Hashers in red dresses, who offered me my choice of beer or water (I took the water--still had about 7 miles to go.)


I picked up a guy who had run Cowtown in Fort Worth the DAY BEFORE. And he had driven down from South Bend, IN, to do it. He's usually a 3:30 marathoner, so he was having a REAL bad day. He eventually dropped back, and wound up finishing about 10 minutes behind me.


I managed to pass a few people in the last few miles, and I finished in 6:28:47. It was a nice course. The weather was cool and overcast for the first hour and a half or so, then it warmed up and the sun came out, and the back half of the course wasn't too shady. I got a hellacious sunburn because I forgot my Holy Grail sunblock at home and just had some inferior stuff. Won't make THAT mistake again! I'm also thinking of trying a visor to shield at least the top part of my face from the sun.

(No, I'm not drunk. Just loopy from 26.2 miles...)

Shirt and medal. BLING!!

Sunday night - After a shower and a nap, Kay and I headed back to Bourbon Street. We found a steak house, and I found a Handgrenade. For recovery purposes only, of course ;) Quite tasty, but very strong.

We wandered up and down the French Quarter (working out the lactic acid,) and I got my palm and tarot cards read. Interesting....Then it was back to the hotel to crash, and we flew back home on Monday morning.

Monday was my mom's birthday, so since it was just us, I got a small cake. Tuesday it was back to school, Wednesday back to work, and Thursday I got The Plague :-P I currently have a sore throat and practically NO voice. But otherwise, I feel fine.

Cheers!

L.T.

L.T. at the State Fair earlier this month. We were dancing. He obviously loved it :)

A few pics from Gasparilla '08

Mom and me before the race.

The medal. Dig that "Publix green" ribbon...

Front of the medal

Back of the medal

2008 Race Schedule

It occurred to me last night (at about 2 AM, of course,) that I never posted my "official" 2008 race schedule. So, for your reading pleasure (and so you can laugh at my dumb ass,) here it is:

1/20 Clearwater Halfathon, Clearwater, FL 13.1 miles
2/9 Gasparilla 15K, Tampa, FL 9.3 miles
2/24 Mardi Gras Marathon, New Orleans, LA 26.2 miles
3/8 Armadillo Run 5K, Oldsmar, FL 3.1 miles
3/16 Bay to Bay 12K, St. Pete, FL 7.4 miles
4/26 Country Music Marathon, Nashville, TN 26.2 miles
5/17 Hog Hustle 5K, Dunedin, FL 3.1 miles
6/21 Maverick Sprint Triathlon, Siesta Key, FL
7/4 Meese Midnight Run 10K, Dunedin, FL 6.2 miles
8/31 Tupelo Marathon, Tupelo, MS 26.2 miles
10/19 Mt. Desert Island Mar., Bar Harbor, ME 26.2 miles
11/20 SP Times Turkey Trot 10K, Clearwater, FL 6.2 miles
11/22 Seashore Marathon, Rehoboth Beach, DE 26.2 miles
12/7 Gulf Beaches Half, Madiera Beach, FL 13.1 miles

That's a lot of t-shirts, and some bitchin' bling!

Gasparilla Distance Classic 15K

I've been neglectful yet again. Here is the race report that I posted to my lists:

Well, it was not my day to PR today. I missed it by about 2 minutes. Finished in 1:50:13, according to my watch. But I JFR'd, I ran like hell, I ran till my eyeballs bled, I did my very best, and it's difficult to be disappointed with my time. So I'm not. I figure I must have been in WAY better shape last year to get 1:48 and change.

My mom came in about 3 minutes after me.

It was a gorgeous weather day, in the mid-60s at the start, not terribly sunny. I was in my Geek Hat, which got lots of cheers. I felt kinda bad because one guy wished me a happy birthday. I just said thanks and kept running. No birthday--I' m just wearing a pink tiara because I'm a dork ;)

Got my picture taken with a pirate afterward, got some delicious goodies, sang along to Taylor Swift with the lady at the WQYK truck, lost my dad (our chauffeur) for about a half hour after the race. The medals are kinda lame; last year's were WAY better. I'll post a picture later. Bright green ("Publix Green" as I call it) and it has the Publix logo great big on the ribbon. Blah. I'm a complete medal ho--I want the awesome bling! I saw a picture of the Mardi Gras medals online, and THOSE look like some awesome bling!

Anyway, another Gasparilla is in the books. So now I'm gonna go shower and take a nap, then maybe catch a movie later this evening. And next year? 1:48 will be annihilated :-D

1:48

That is the time I need to beat to PR 15K tomorrow. It's going DOWN!!

Week in Review: Jan 28 - Feb 3

Well, another moderately uneventful week. Getting closer and closer to passing my speed at school. I've got five weeks. I think I can do it. Worked Wednesday night and Saturday morning, as usual. Saturdays bring out all the jackasses for some reason. Maybe it's just because I'm there longer to notice it.

Of course, there was the Super Bowl. A disappointment to me, but it's just because I don't like the Giants. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't care. I'm just bitter about them beating my Cowboys a few weeks ago. Even though it's the Cowboys' fault because they played like a bunch of middle school girls. But whatever. Tom Petty was okay (do they pre-record the halftime show like they do the Anthem? He sounded pretty good...) He sang three of his lamest songs, but I guess "Refugee" and "Breakdown" (my two favorites) wouldn't have fit in given the event. There were some funny commercials. The e-Trade baby was pretty funny. The Justin Timberlake Pepsi ad was funny. The Planters commercial ad with the unibrow chick was hysterical. But my three favorites were The Clydesdale Beer Wagon team (where the dalmatian trained him)
the Life Water dancing lizards (brought back memories of teaching ourselves the Thriller dance!)

and, of course, my future husband Will Ferrell's Bud Light ad ("Bud Lite--Suck one!")


Mardi Gras Marathon Training: Wednesday - 8 miles; Friday - 4 mile hill program on treadmill; Sunday - 18 miles LSD. Ran the first 9 mile loop with my mom, who is running the Gasparilla 15K on Saturday. It was warm and soupy out, very gross. Also gross was a lovely smashed possum in the road around mile 7. When I came back around on the second loop (by myself,) there were five vultures picking it apart. Two were circling, two were dining, and one was sitting on the median with his wings spread, making himself look bigger. I didn't see any way to avoid them (other than cutting across the golf course, but I didn't think of that until I had already passed,) so I started making a lot of noise, hollering, "Shoo, buzzards! I don't want your roadkill!" They got out of my way, one flying up to perch on a road sign, another up on a lamp post. I didn't like the way the one on top of the sign was looking at me, so I lit outta there like a bat out of hell. Creepy ginormous birds...ugh.

Next race: Gasparilla 15K, Saturday, February 9. I need to break 1:48 to PR.

Super Bowl XLII, Part Deux

Evil is victorious. I expect the world to implode at any moment :-(

Next year, the Super Bowl will be held here in Tampa. The Cowboys will represent the NFC, and they will win.

Let it be said, let it be done.

(And I will stalk Tony Romo while he is in town.)

Super Bowl XLII

GOOOOOOO PATS!! The Giants are evil. They must be destroyed.

I'm also really looking forward to halftime. I love Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. I hope they don't sound as bad as the Stones did last year...

Got Delaware?

I don't. But I will by the end of the year. Thanks to Nancy, I've got my fifth marathon on the schedule for 2008. That is, it'll be my fifth provided that, A) Bar Harbor actually happens--the girl I'm planning on going with has been MIA for the past month; and B) I actually finish the four marathons I have on tap before Delaware. You know, without dying and all...

So I put a feeler out to Kay, who's also collecting the states. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, I guess I should be worrying about Mardi Gras, which is but three short weeks away. That one's going to be fun, anyway. I *heart* New Orleans, and we're staying an extra day beforehand to do some sightseeing. We'll get to meet some Penguins, eat some awesome food, and run on an historic race course that's flat flat flat. Can't wait!

RR: Clearwater Halfathon 1/20/08

On Sunday, I ran the 3rd Annual Clearwater Halfathon. After a stormy night, it was super-windy and c-c-c-c-cold (for us Floridians--Yes, I'm from Michigan, but I'm naturalized now ;) ) with actual temps in the mid-40s and a wind chill of near freezing. As Linae and I were standing in the tent to get our bibs and chips, a strong gust of cold air ripped through the tent. I looked at her and said, "Do you wanna just go get breakfast?" I guess she thought I was kidding, because we got our stuff and went and sat in my car until just before the race start. We huddled up behind a van near a couple of guys, one of whom was running the 5-miler (WAY smarter than us!) Linae's job was to pace me to a PR, and she felt that, based on some of my previous marathon times, that 2:45 was within my reach at this race. Going over two big-ass bridges TWICE and with a wicked cold wind, I was a bit skeptical, but I left it to the professional. We don't call her Dr. Ironman for nothing, you know.

We had decided if we were completely miserable and didn't warm up by the 5-mile turnaround, we would just do the 5-mile option. When the turnaround came up, of course the decision was mine to make. I kept running straight. No IHOP for me...

We held steady with 10 minute run/1 minute walk intervals through about 7 miles, which is a bit further than I had previously done them. I'm confident now that I can hold them through the half of my upcoming marathon in New Orleans. Linae took a quick potty stop and caught back up to me pretty quickly. After the 7-mile turnaround, the idiot cop made us get on the sidewalk, even though we were well within the time limit of course closures. Linae said, "When did it change?" The cop just looked at her and turned around. Jerk. And about a mile and a half down the road, we watched as the cops there abandoned their post, leaving us with no traffic control or directions. Thank God we saw another racer up ahead. The Clearwater PD did fine during the first half of the race, but I can't say much for them in the second half. I've run several races in St. Pete, and the cops there are awesome, from the first runner to the last. But, whatever. Linae sent out karmic daggers to the jerky CPD cops, and I happily promised to bail her out of jail should she feel the need to smack one of 'em down. You know, if I wasn't sitting next to her in the pokey.

We hit a lovely headwind for the last five miles, where we switched first to 5/1 intervals, then to 2/2s, after walking to the top of the Sand Key Bridge. I felt like I was going to puke a few times, even after taking a couple of Lava Salts halfway through, but I managed to run (mostly) when Linae told me to. Not realizing how close we were to the finish, I wanted to walk for a minute, but Linae said, "If we keep going, we're going to beat 2:45." That was code for, "Move your ass, woman!" Huh. Okay. So we ran it in. Both of our watches said 2:44:28, but our official results said 2:45:29, or something like that. No matter; it's still a 12-minute PR for me. WOOOO HOOOOO!!

Overall, it was a nice, scenic, challenging course. The bridges were a bitch, but you expect that :) We hit the park afterward and chatted with "Slow Twin" Bill, who ran a 2:02 half a week after doing Goofy at Disney (a half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday, for the uninitiated.) Drank a little beer, ate some pasta and oranges, tried to warm up in the sun a bit, then headed home.

Linae, thank you again, soooo much, for your pacing and sherpa duties. You got mad skills, girl! I doubt I could have done it without you! You ROCK, my friend!

So I'm well on my way to a PR at every distance this year! Yay! Next race: Gasparilla 15K in Tampa, February 9, where I need to beat 1:48:37 to PR.

Bring it!

George Strait Concert

So I got awesome kid points for getting my mom tickets to George Strait, her favorite singer of all time. I like him, too, so it was no hardship on me ;) It was a fantastic show, and the seats were actually really good. It's my camera that sucks. I apologize for the blurry crappiness of most of the pictures.

Disclaimer--I look like this because we got rained on during the 1/3 mile walk from the car to the St. Pete Times Forum.

The first opening act was a girl named Sarah Johns. I hadn't heard of her, but she was pretty good. I *did* vaguely recognize a song she sang about how she wanted to give her boyfriend the finger on her left hand used for a wedding band, but now she's giving him the one in the middle. Very clever song.

I was really excited about seeing Little Big Town, the second opening act. They absolutely ROCKED!! I would pay to see them headline any day. This was during their cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way," which was fabulous.

Their best-known song, and first hit, was "Boondocks." GREAT song, and it really got the crowd going. Even my mom was singing along with the chorus. They closed their amazing set with this song. I was kinda bummed to see them go, even though it meant King George was coming out.

Ahhh, here he is. Fifty-five years old and just as gorgeous as he was twenty years ago. He sounds awesome live, and he sang quite a few of his 55 #1 songs.

I was thinking of my friend Dawn in Calgary when I took this photo. Enjoy!

George sang for just over two hours and did a three-song encore, which included Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues."

He always ends his shows with "The Cowboy Rides Away." Unfortunately, I was not among the lucky bastards who got to shake his hand ;)

After the show, we wound up at Denny's eating pancakes until 12:30 AM. Of course, I had a half marathon in Clearwater the next day and had to get up at 4:45 AM, so I knew it would be interesting. More on the race later.

Next concert: Blake Shelton at the Florida Strawberry Festival on March 4. Woooo Hooooo! First was Keith Urban/Gary Allan, then George/Little Big Town, and soon Blake. All that's left is Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, and Rascal Flatts, and I can die a happy girl.

2008 Goals

1. Lose 30 lbs. Give it one more shot. At least I'm working at it now.

2. Run four marathons: Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Country Music in Nashville, Tupelo, and a fall race, probably Mount Desert Island in Maine.

3. PR all race distances. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

4. Complete my first (and possibly only) triathlon. How the hell did I let myself get talked into THAT one?? Ahhh, yes. Crazy Dick's. The things I'll do for a t-shirt.

5. Weight training/yoga. Seriously. I *want* to do these things.

6. Six hours of sleep per night. The ever-elusive goal, much like #5.

7. Finish school. I really think this can be done with hard work. I'm over school. I'm over retail. I'm over living with my parents.

8. The damn credit cards again. Pay off the smaller balance (and leave the friggin' thing ALONE!) and pay the bigger balance down by 1/3.

9. Read at least 12 books for pleasure. This is a gimme goal. I just want an excuse to keep doing something I love.

10. Keep up with my blog reading and posting. Even if only a couple of people read mine. I know, I'm not real exciting. Which is fine :) But it's nice to have the race reports all in one place.

11. Become more organized and keep my area neater. I'm already kind of behind on this one. My biggest problem is clutter. Everything has a place, it just doesn't always make it there when I'm done using it, sometimes for a couple of weeks.

2007 Goal Recap

1. Lose 30 lbs. >> Didn't happen. Guess what will be on the top of my 2008 list?

2. Run three spring marathons and a fall marathon. >> I ran Mercedes, ING Georgia, and Flying Pig in the spring, thus earning Marathon Maniac status, and then Marine Corps in the fall. I had a late-summer marathon in Tupleo, MS all planned out, but I messed up my foot two weeks before, so had to scrap that one.

3. Weight training/yoga. >> Nope. Think I'll EVER do this one? I don't know *why* it's so hard...

4. Six hours of sleep per night. >> Not always, but I've gotten better.

5. Get to 180 wpm steno. >> Got to 140. Slowly but surely getting up there.

6. Pay down big balance credit card by half. >> Nope, but my smaller balance will be gone by the end of March.

7. Read at least 12 books for pleasure. >> Of course. Read 13.

Slacking already

Hmmm. It seems I owe a weekly report. But it's kinda late, so I'll get to that tomorrow. I should also post my Annual List of Failures, 2007 Edition here. Followed by my Annual List of Future Failures, 2008 Edition. You'd think I'd just stop making the damn goal lists. But I guess I gotta have something to shoot for, right?

I can't imagine *how* I forgot to post this (uh, maybe because I'm a blog-slacker?) but I'm registered for Country Music Marathon in Nashville on April 26. Or right around there. Whatever that Saturday is. Anyway, WOOO HOOO, Nashville, Baby! And Linae is going, and I'll finally get to meet the awesome and wonderful Lisa in person. So I'm pretty stoked. That weekend is gonna kick ass!

Umm, what else? Oh, I have a busy weekend coming up. No Hellhole for me on Saturday (yay!!) because my mom and I are going to the George Strait concert. Even though it'll be a WAY different crowd and vibe from the Keith Urban concert Linae and I went to last month, I'm still really looking forward to it. I got the tickets for my mom for Christmas, and it was nice getting her a cool gift that she was NOT expecting.

The day after the King George concert, I'm running a half marathon in Clearwater. With a little luck, good weather, decent preparation, and an awesome pacer, this will be my PR half. So everyone send fast vibes to me on Sunday morning!

Lastly for the evening, I got a down-alternative fiber bed to put under my mattress pad. This gives me about an additional 4" of fluffy softness to sleep on. Add that to my down-alternative duvet, my down-alternative (notice a theme?) pillows, and my 600 thread count sheets, and I may never leave my bed again.

On that note, I'm going to get into it right now.

Back to "Real Life"

Well, vacation is over, and it was pretty craptacular. Just more incentive for me to finish school (which I WILL do by the end of this year!! Oh, sweet Jesus, PLEASE...) and finally start my own life. I guess the reason I don't feel my age is because I'm basically living the life of a 16-year-old.

My sister and her BF and their baby left Saturday. I actually enjoyed the baby, Little Tony (or L.T., as I nicknamed him--it sounds cool, like a football player!) in spurts. He's only three months old, so he doesn't really do much; I enjoyed him for about 15 minutes at a time. He's a cute baby:


Okay, not the *best* picture of him, but he was very cute in person. Here's one of Steph, Tony, and L.T.:


They're on their way back to Michigan now, but they're moving back to Daytona in February. Close enough that we'll get to see them, but still a 3-hour buffer for me ;) I can't wait until L.T. starts talking--I've got LOTS of stuff to teach him....mwahahahaha!!

We didn't really do much over the holiday vacation. We went to SeaWorld in Orlando last Friday. I have tons of pictures to go through, which I will get to soon. I had never been, so it was interesting. I love aquariums, but I'm terrified of open-water swimming. And my fears were not lessened after going through the shark exhibit at SeaWorld. But I decided (read: let my friends coerce me) into doing a sprint triathlon in June, and I'm going to do it, Jaws or no Jaws.

Well, that's it for now. My life is way too boring to post daily, but I'll try to get at least a weekly recap up, and post if anything exciting happens (don't hold your breath...) One of my 2008 goals is to keep up with my blog-reading, which I've already started, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Happy 2008, y'all!!

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

It's official--Marathon #12!

This message is generated as confirmation of your recent registration on Active.com. You have been successfully registered for the following:

Registration: New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon
Purchase Date: 12/07/07
Category: New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon
Event Date: 02/24/08
Name: Shawn Newton

More YouTube goofiness...

Best. Wedding dance. Ever.

Sadly, they busted out some of my best moves...

Have a Happy Happy Happy Happy Chanukah

I'm sorry, but I still laugh at this even all these years later. Thank you, Adam Sandler!




Drink your gin and tonicah, don't smoke marijuanica...

PR Goals

Since one of my running-related goals for 2008 is to PR every distance, I looked up my previous PRs and when I set them. Here's what I'm looking at:

5K 34:26 (2002)
10K 1:10:23 (2006)
12K 1:25:33 (2007)
15K 1:48:37 (2007)
Half 2:59:05 (2003)
Full 5:42:27 (2006)

Let the training and weight loss begin!

St. Pete Times Turkey Trot 10K

This is the race I PRd at last year. It wasn't to be this year :(

It was cool and kind of humid on Thanksgiving morning, and overcast, which was nice. I saw all the usual stuff at this race: a mariachi band, bagpipers, a steel drum duo, a guy quoting scripture at us, tons of turkey hats, several dogs (my favorite was the Rhodesian ridgeback in the Gators shirt,) and a guy in a viking helmet with horns and the whole shot. Can't quite figure that one out, but okay...Oh, and I don't know who they were, but the band playing at mile 5 ROCKED!! I'm going to have to email the RD and let them know how awesome they were. They were singing "Wild Night" as I was running by, and they were fantastic. They got a really loud "wooooo!" out of me and a Rock On hand signal. I got both back from the spectators near them, and a thumbs-up from the girl singer.

I moseyed my way to the finish line in 1:21-ish, which is 11 minutes slower than my PR and about seven minutes slower than my typical 10K time. Here are my excuses: I worked until 11 PM the night before, I hadn't run much since Marine Corps, I've put on a few pounds since last TG, and, uh, I'm lazy ;)

I looked for Slow Twin Bill, but I didn't see him this year. I did see one of the assistant managers at my work. He and his wife and 6-month old baby and in-laws were walking the 1-miler. Baby's First Turkey Trot! So I talked to them for a while before they took off.

So it was a pleasant way to spend the first part of my favorite holiday. I burned off about 1/6 of the calories I had planned to eat, then I gorged on turkey and stuffing (my mom's stuffing ROCKS!) and then I watched the Cowboys spank the Jets. So it was a fabulous day :)

Heaven in a Pie Plate

Okay, so I realize that I've been extremely negligent to my own blog as well as all my bloggie friends. Allow me to apologize yet again. I just lead an incredibly boring life :-D

I also am aware that I owe a race report for Marine Corps Marathon and a spectator report for Linae's Ironman victory weekend. I promise that those will come THIS WEEKEND.

But for now, this is how I spent my late morning/early afternoon:




That's right, it's my Nationally-Renowned apple pie (by nationally-renowned, I mean people in four states know it and love it.) I only make this once a year (twice if someone asks nicely/guilts me into it at Christmastime.) Once a year for the same reason I only make my sugar cookies once a year: not because it's difficult; it's just a huge pain in the ass working with the dough :-P

If anybody wants some, most of you know how to get here ;)

Doing a 10K Turkey Trot in Clearwater tomorrow, so I'll be back and regale you all with the details of that tomorrow! Betcha can't wait!

He's playing my song!

We're country music fans, and a big joke around the house is that Brad Paisley's song "Online" is pretty much my life (sadly.) This song is hysterical. Here's the lyrics, and I've added my own unique circumstances in parentheses:

"Online"--Brad Paisley/Chris DuBois/Kelley Lovelace

I work down at the Pizza Pit (BBB)
And I drive an old Hyundai (I drive an '06 Hyundai)
I still live with my mom and dad
I'm five foot three and overweight (I'm 5'7)
I'm a sci-fi fanatic (no), a mild asthmatic (exercise-induced)
Never been to second base (well, it's been a while...lol)
But there's a whole 'nother me that you need to see
Go check out MySpace (www.myspace.com/shawnchristine)

CHORUS:
'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood
I'm six foot five and I look damn good
I drive a Maserati, I'm a black belt in karate
And I love a good glass of wine
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat
With two women at one time
I'm so much cooler online, I'm so much cooler online

I get home, I kiss my mom
And she fixes me a snack
I head down to my basement bedroom (no basement)
And fire up my Mac (PC)
In real life, the only time I've ever even been to LA
Is when I got the chance with the marching band
To play tuba in the Rose Parade (No marching band)

But online I live in Malibu
I pose for Calvin Klein, I've been in GQ
I'm single and I'm rich and I've got a set of six-pack abs
That would blow your mind
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious
I tell them I don't want nothing serious
'Cause even on a slow day I can have a three-way chat
With two women at one time
I'm so much cooler online, Yeah I'm cooler online

When you've got my kind of stats it's hard to get a date
Let alone a real girlfriend
But I grow another foot and I lose a bunch of weight
Every time I log in

CHORUS


If you really listen to his songs, the funny ones as well as the serious ones, in my opinion, Brad Paisley is the best songwriter in any genre in the past 20 years. And he's the best damn guitar picker in music today!

Bad Blogger and Bad Blogger Friend...

I haven't been keeping up with either writing OR reading blogs, and I apologize to all of my bloggy friends. I will catch up with you all this week.

As for me not blogging, well, not much has been happening. My toe is healed, and I'm back to training for Marine Corps Marathon. I'm still plugging away in school, going for the so-far elusive 140 wpm jury charge (still working on 120 in literary (my nemesis) and Q&A. Getting close on those two.) Still working at the Hellhole two days a week. And my two favorite managers are leaving, so THAT should make things fun :-P Basically, my life is school, work, run, repeat. But I'll try to check in here at least once a week, just for grins.

Big Sur has been postponed for our group, so I'm going to Mardi Gras Marathon in February in New Orleans with Kay from Winter Garden instead. And then I'm going to run Country Music Marathon in Nashville at the end of April, the same weekend as Big Sur. I'd also like to do a fall 2008 marathon, of course, but I'm not sure which one. My friend Kirsten from Indy, who we met at Kiawah last December, is trying to raise interest in Mount Desert Island Marathon in Bar Harbor, Maine. I must admit, I'm intrigued...Damn, I hate when people put little nigglings of ideas into my head!

Dixie, my semi-evil kitty, is doing very very well. She's fat (sorta) and healthy and currently sleeping on a plastic grocery bag that was laying on my bed. Weirdo.

I'm currently reading Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm not quite a quarter of the way through it. I haven't had a ton of free time to read lately, but I try to get a few pages in every day.

Over my summer break, I became obsessed with The Office. I watched all three seasons in a two-week span of time, so I'm really looking forward to the new season this Thursday. Yeah, I need a life...

I went to Orlando with Linae on Sunday to watch Nancy do the Disney Triathlon. Nancy was fabulous! Took third in her division! Awesome, as always. And I'll be cheering Linae on in just a few weeks in Panama City Beach at Ironman Florida. Which reminds me: I need to pick up some kazoos...

Smooth Move, Ex-Lax

That's what we used to say whenever someone did something particularly clumsy, especially if it resulted in injury. Or, we would say something along the lines of, "Nice landing, Grace," if the clumsy person fell. Let's just say I'm not the most graceful creature on earth, and here is photographic evidence:

I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but the bruise extends about halfway down my foot.

It's kind of a lame story (according to Wilson, tonight's closing manager at the Hellhole, who said I should change it to something more exciting.) As I was getting ready to go to work, I tripped over one of the several baby gates we have in the house to keep the animals contained to whatever rooms they're supposed to be in. I trip over these gates all the time; that's nothing new. However, I caught my pinkie toe just right on this one (I was wearing socks but no shoes.) It hurt so bad, I had to sit down, and then I took my sock off and saw that the toe was cocked way out to the side. THAT'S when I started to cry! I think I freaked out a little--I thought it was broken, and I had never broken a bone before, and I was thinking about that damn marathon coming up in two weeks, and the one after it in October. So my mom helped me tape it up, I called work and told Wilson I'd be a little late, I washed my face, put on a slipper, and went to work.

Just thought I'd share with all of you before I go ice it and then tape it back up ;) I don't think it's broken as I can still move it and bend it like normal. It just hurts like a bitch when I do it. So I'll give it a few days rest and see what happens. Hopefully Tupelo is still in the cards for me.

So that was my excitement for the day...

Ewwwwwww!!!

I was sitting on the couch earlier this afternoon, and my mom, who had been working out in the yard, went to take a shower. She was almost out of the kitchen when I heard, "HOLY SHIT! SNAKE!!" She didn't have her glasses on, so I thought there was some string, or maybe something from one of the trees one of us had tracked in. Nope. Sure as shit, there was a goddamn SNAKE in our dining room! Of course, we're a bunch of sissy-girls, so we're freaking out, saying, "What do we do? What do we do?" Then Mom went across the street to get our neighbor, Jim, who swept it out the front door. That's what I do to the lizards when they get in the house; I don't know *why* I didn't think about doing that with the snake. Panic, probably ;)

So now, we're looking around all the corners before we walk anywhere in the house. Ick.

In other news, my alarm didn't go off this morning for the second day in a row, so I'm guessing I need a new one. So I got up 45 minutes later than I had intended, making my 7 mile run start at 7:45. I did 6 miles instead. I probably could have eked out another mile, but I was starting to feel wiped out and I really didn't care anymore. Tomorrow, I attempt 16. I'm supposed to be at 18, but I got sidetracked by the hotspot I had to let heal. So we'll see how that goes... :-P

I *AM* a runner, dammit!!!

Since I haven't run for almost a week and a half, I have really NOT felt like a runner lately. I came across a list of "You Know You're a Runner When..." entries on a website, and I had to laugh. I'm sure y'all have seen all these before, but I copied down the ones that I identify with:

*You carry a water bottle everywhere
*You can use the words "easy" and "10 miles" in the same sentence
*You return from vacation more exhausted than when you left
*Your shoes have more miles on them than your car does
*Ibuprofen is your recreational drug of choice
*You have hundreds of safety pins scattered around your house
*You can correctly pronounce names like "Khalid Khannouchi" and "Meb Keflezighi"
*You shower about 12 times a week
*You have a watch tan line that never goes away
*You own spandex in more than one color
*You have chafing in strange places (aaaaaaaand how!!)
*You haven't bought new work clothes in two years but you own running shorts by every manufacturer under the sun
*Your heart rate is below 50 and you are not dying
*You try to convince people to run a 5K because it's "only" three miles (guilty...)
*Your watch is more expensive and more complicated than your car

I *WILL* run tomorrow. I have a marathon to prepare for in less than a month.

Cheers!

Geeeeeek....

I stayed up almost all night last night to finish Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I thought it was an excellent and appropriate way to end the series, and J.K. Rowling answered the questions and mysteries she had set up in the six previous books. Well done, Ms. Rowling!

Decided to take this week off from running due to my most recent Injury of Idiocy. Hopefully I won't lose much fitness. Let's pray to the Running Gods that this thing is healed enough by at *LEAST* next Tuesday. I need as much training as I can get...

I'm halfway through the second of five weeks off from school, and I'm already going insane with boredom. Thankfully I haven't been grazing. I'll probably wind up going to the movies at some point, which I haven't done in forever. I'd like to go bowling, but not sure if I want to go by myself.

I've been watching the Tour de France a lot. I'm not a cyclist and I don't have a favorite rider, but it *is* fascinating nonetheless.

Big plans for tomorrow: Watch a movie from Netflix and a trip to Target! Yeee Haaaaw!

Harry Potter Madness!

Okay, I'm a complete geek, but I'm soooo excited about the new, and final, Harry Potter book. I was going to head over to Borders tonight because it's fun to people-watch during a Potter Party, but it's not so much fun by yourself. You know, no one to make snarky comments to :( So I'll just go to sleep, get up, run my 14 miles, and head to the bookstore tomorrow morning.

Well, that's it for now, Muggles! I'll catch all y'all later on :)

So broke I can't even pay attention...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Like my title says, I'm broke. My former car insurance company debited my bank account despite my closing the insurance account, and then took their sweet time refunding the money. And then they only refunded part of it. Moral of the story--never have your insurance taken directly out of your checking account unless you're POSITIVE you're never going to cancel the account. Insurance is a racket, anyway... :-P

However, I got a happy surprise. In August of 2006, I found $50 in front of the service desk at work. I gave it to the manager, per BBB procedure, and he put it in an envelope with my name on it and put it in the safe. He told me if no one claimed it in 30 days, it's mine. Well, I had forgotten about it, and it somehow got stuffed to the back of the safe. Long story short, the closing manager found it Monday night while we were counting the safe, and I have $50 more in my race travel fund! Only 10 months later, but hey--it's better than a stick in the eye! WOOOO HOOOO!

I'm off school for five weeks for summer break. I go back August 21. I haven't touched my steno machine since last Thursday. I am making it a priority to get on it starting tomorrow. I want to pass my 120 wpm tests when I go back. I'm pretty close, but if I don't practice for five weeks, I may as well go back to 100 wpm. <>

Training for Tupelo is not going well. It's so hot and humid out, I don't want to even go out and run. Even at 6 AM, it's about 80* and the air is so thick, it feels like you could cut it. But I gotta do it.

I'm currently reading Evening by Susan Minot. Next up is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which I will go pick up from Borders in north Tampa on Saturday morning. Last time a HP book came out, I did the whole go to the bookstore at midnight thing. It was cute, but it would be no fun by myself. They'll hold it until the end of business Saturday, so I'll just get it then. All I can tell you is, if Harry Potter dies, I will be one pissed off girl!

Other than that, not much else is going on. Talk to y'all soon!

AAAAARRRRGH!!!

My fingers are all over the damn place this morning! And it doesn't help that I'm distracted by the guy dictating my online testimony practice. He sounds like a gay Al Gore.

I put a deadline on myself that I **MUST** pass my 120s by summer break, which starts July 14. I'm kinda close, but on days like this I wonder what the hell I was thinking when I got into this.

Rant over. Back at it.

Mississippi!

I'm going to Mississippi! Kay and I are running the Tupelo Marathon on September 2. This will be state (and marathon) #11 for me. Yay!

I am an addict.