Too Hot!

Well, I signed up for this Ridgewood 10K about 2 weeks ago and never expected 90-some-odd degree weather on May 28. It felt more like July!

Anway, there were 2 races, a 5K and a 10K. I figured since the 10K started at 8:45 AM and the 10K at 10, it would be cooler, right? Wrong...it was STILL hot as hell but hey, I managed to do my best 10K of the season at 51:28! Not a PR (a PR for me would be 50:11 or better) but hey, like I said, it was hot as hell. One of my friends actually had to drop out of the 5k because she felt faint. Another elite one-miler also passed out. Geez.

Out of the blue on Saturday, Tom says, "Hey, let's go the beach on Sunday." So we headed down to Bradley Beach. He picked the best day of the 3-day holiday, in my opinion. Warm, but not HOT, very little humidity, faint breeze...ahhh!

Today, after the race, me and Tom and couple of our running friends ended up at the Verona Pool. Too cold to swim (for me, anyway) but we had a great time just sitting around blabbing. I do have great friends; I am blessed.

But back to work tomorrow....bleh. I think Tom is really pushing for me to start looking for work in Jersey again. He's been leaving the Jobs section of the Ledger out for me to find. Hey, if I could find a job in NJ, I'd be there like shareware. Problem is, everyone thinks I am over qualified (I am not. I don't even have a master's degree, I just happen to have a good title), or that I want this tremendous salary (I don't. I can live on much less than I make in NYC). I really have to work at "dumbing down" my resume. I hate to do that but if it means getting what I want, I will.

Just Can't Get Enough of Chiefy!

Oh God, it's hot!

Off to "da shore"... see ya.

Clueless in Portland

Don't get me wrong, I love my sister-in-law in Oregon but sometimes, well, she's a mite clueless.

I kept bugging her and my brother to send me more photos of my beloved god dog, Chief. She kept promising and promising but nothing ever arrived. So, I decided to be proactive and I mailed them a disposable camera and $$$ towards development so there would be no more excuses.

Well, I waited and waited and predictably, it was always something: "It's been raining out, I've been sooo busy, blah-blah-blah." But FINALLY, yesterday I got letter from them which I opened up with great anticipation...only to find 6 pix? WTF?

There was a nice card enclosed stating, "Thanks for the camera! Sorry it took me so long, but here are the pictures of Chief. We refuse to let you pay for development so here is your $10 back. Hope all is well."

She obviously thought the camera I sent her was for her own pictures since there are 24 exposures on a roll and I only got 6 of the dog. I should add that only 1 or 2 of them are any damn good. I mean, he's a black dog so you have to use the flash, even when you're outdoors but certainly indoors! How can you goof up a goof-proof camera? So, I have one of his with his "birthday bone" and another one with his girlfriend, Mojo, (a chocolate Lab) and an unidentified golden retriver, which I framed. I will post them here once I scan them.

So, I had a good laugh about this but it only means one thing: I have to travel out to Oregon myself to get any decent pictures!

On Rabbits

Rabbits,
creatures of habit,
co-habit,
but don’t blab it.

Mortal Combat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yia7CbTn__4

Pain I Haven't Used Yet

Ever hear the expression, "Ugly she/he hasn't used yet?" Well replace the word "ugly" with "pain" and that describes my visit to the masseuse to a T.

I always rave about this woman to my running friends and she is worth every penny. I wish I could afford to visit her every other week but for now, it's just when I have a problem, which lately, has been a stiff lower back and the back of my quads.

Well, she literally found pain that I didn't even know I had! I mean, we're talking the minute she laid her big, strong hands on me. I don't recall the last time I had so many knots. They were mostly located in my buttocks and lower back areas and the back of my thighs but she found some in my upper back as well, especially around the neck and shoulders! I guess it HAS been a long time.

She asked me a few times if she was hurting me. I answered "yes" but I told her to keep on keeping on because that was the only way to bring the knots to the surface. Trust me, I know from experience.

She said it my discomfort was mainly due to overuse but she also asked me if I had taken a fall recently. As a matter of fact, I had: Last week on the trail, I slipped on a small rock and landed on the ground. No biggie, no skin was broken, just a little scratched up. But she said that as a result of falling on my right side, my left was trying to overcompensate and that was causing a lot of my distress.

Well, today I feel about 90% pain-free and tomorrow I should be golden. I really need to try to visit her more often. Maybe if I cut back on my Guinness tab??

1:48 and counting!

Last night, I went to the track near my house to do some speed work. After warming up for a- mile-and-a-half, I decided to clock my laps. At the beginning of the running season in March, I was doing a lap right around 2 minutes which, to me, sucks, but it IS the beginning of the season.

Well, my first lap--are you ready for this?--was 1:48! That is the fastest lap I have ever done! Needless to say my additonal 3 or 4 laps paled, averaging around 1:52 but still, not too shabby, considering I wasn't feeling my best last night. I was cold (what else is new?), tired and my lower back stiffness was acting up (I'm getting a much needed massage in Thursday, though).

A 1:48 lap translates into about a 7:12 minute mile, providing you can keep up the pace. That's where endurance comes in. But still, that's encouraging for this early in the season.

Back to being cold. I want to have my thyroid checked out. I have been cold a lot this spring. Tom says it's because it has been, uh, cold. Very astute observation of his, LOL. But I don't remember being this distressed by it before. I think the 10-pound weight loss MIGHT have something to do with it. I noticed that after I lost the weight that heat didn't bother me as much, either, which is a good thing. But I will have the thyroid checked out just in case. It would help if I had a GP, though. Haven't had to see one in about, 25 years! I'll ask my sister-in-law for a referral.

Also need to talk with her about Las Vegas. T has a birthday coming up (65th-yikes!) and I would like to take him to Vegas for a long weekend. He would LOVE it! But I have no clue how much it will cost, which travel agent I should call, et cetera. Pia and my brother have been out there several times so she's the one to ask.

A Poem for My Late Mom

TILT-A-WHIRL

One hot summer night in ‘65
we all went to Palisades Park,
"swings all day and after dark,"

me, Mommy, Daddy and Bobby.
I couldn't get enough
of the rides, the rides, the rides!

Oh, I wanted to be turned upside-down,
spun like cotton candy
until I was pink with dizziness,

holding onto my father for dear life,
while screaming faster, faster, faster!
We stopped at the Tilt-a-Whirl

where you're chained up
inside a cage
and the bottom drops out

while you're spinning,
upside-down, around and sideways.
No one wanted to try it,

except Mommy.
We couldn't believe it.
The same woman who shuddered

when I did wheelies down the big hill
on my bike, who wouldn't put her head
under the water at the town pool,

this same woman was being
transported to another dimension,
where lights danced

in myriad of colors, where
swirling white and silver metal rims
danced above people's lollipop heads.


No one wanted to try it
except Mommy.

We looked up, all of us
never taking our eyes
off that magical silver cage, glowing against the night,

spinning into eternity, cutting
its own path through outer space
with our mother inside.

Oh Yeah, Sign Me Up to Have Kids...

Amazing how many of the psychopathic little bastards there are, isn't it?


Teen Gets 12 Years for Poisoning Milk
By Associated Press

LAKEVIEW, Ore. - A 13-year-old girl convicted of attempting to kill two classmates by slipping rat poison into their milk was sentenced to up to 12 years in a juvenile detention center.
Holly Sweeney was ordered Friday to remain at the Hillcrest Girls' School in Salem until she is 25 with early release possible if she responds to treatment, the judge ruled.

Earlier this month, the judge found the Lakeview girl and her friend, Stephanie Quesnoy, 12, guilty of plotting and executing a plan to kill two classmates they disliked. Quesnoy is to be sentenced May 22.

Running and "Ruggles"

There are as many reasons to run as there are runners, I suppose, but I’ve never met a runner who didn’t enjoy it. The bottom line is that whether you’ve run a marathon in all 50 states, have run for 30 years, or just completed your first 5K, the thing that all runners have in common is the love of the sport.

Try explaining that, however, to my non-running friends and family members, (I refer to them as Ruggles, such as in Harry Potter, where non-magical folk are referred to as Muggles). Don’t get me wrong, most of my friends and relatives (the ones I still speak to anyway) support and encourage what I do. But more often than not, you hear things like: “The only time I’ll run is when someone is chasing me.”

My dear mother told me years ago that if I ran track, I would get muscles in my legs. Heaven forbid!

Or what about the portly relation in Houston who asked me why I run so much? “Because it allows me to eat what I want,” I replied. “But I already eat whatever I want and I don’t have to run for it,” he said, patting his rotund belly. “In fact, they bring the food to me.”

In 2002, I excitedly told a friend in Seattle that I completed my first half-marathon. Without missing a beat, he asked, “What happened to the other half?” I THINK he was kidding. I’m not sure.

And then there’s, “You run in this cold weather?” “You run in this heat?” “You run in the rain?” Yes, yes, and yes!

I have a nephew who’s an orthopedic surgeon down in Houston. While some part of me likes to think he’s proud of his aunt, he always makes “tsk-tsk-ing” noises when I tell him some of the distances I run. “You keep that up and you’ll be coming to see me in few years and it won’t be for a social visit,” he said.

The kid (he will always be a kid to me) has a point, since he tells me that more than half of his patients are athletes or former athletes. But, you know, you can end up in the orthopedist’s office after having spent your life as a couch potato, too. That being said, I prefer my life off the coach and on the roads.

To me, running is as much a part of my life's routine as is brushing my teeth, although running is much more pleasurable and far less routine. Yes, there are some risks (to joints, tendons, muscles, vertebrae, etc.) involved but that can be said of ANYTHING in life that’s worth pursuing. The benefits far outweigh any of the little aches and pains I may encounter along the way.

Best Quote Today

Best quote I heard all day, from a techie friend of mine:

"I'm giving up IT and going into something less stressful, like anally penetrating homophobic male tigers or shit like that."

Guess You Had to Be There

From a friend of mine in The Lone Star State, on Cinco de Mayo:

I’m a failure. The biggest drinking day in the Southwest and it came to nothing. Nada.
I didn’t wake up in another town in a stall with a donkey, a broken piñata, two hookers, used condoms [ribbed, for her pleasure], half a twelve pack of Modelo Especial, empty margarita pitchers and a film crew from Telemundo.

Maybe I have high standards. This is subject to debate.

Instead, I woke up this morning in my own bed, alone.
Next year, I will plan better.