Excerpts of communication with Roommate Tina

Selba gave me the "Sisterhood" award!

"The Sisterhood Award is an award from bloggers to bloggers in recognition of a blog spot which shows attitude and/or gratitude."

I'm going to guess that I received it for "attitude" because I am an ungrateful shell of a person. (No, just kidding. Mom, I love my mixer!)

On this 31st day of March, 2009, I hereby bestow this award upon:

• Alisa
• Lesley
• Jessica

As anticipated, I did not run today. In fact, I didn't do much of anything interesting today except see everyone in the French department, now that we're all reluctantly back after break.

In lieu of any exciting tales to recount/narcissistic photos to post, I will share some excerpts from my back-and-forth wall posts with Roommate Tina, beginning with a discussion of her speedy 10K time (46:49):

Me: You are seriously fast, woman! I'm seriously jealous/extremely proud of you! If you come to Illinois, I'll reward you with some sweet spooning!

Roommate Tina: mica, don't even tease me like that. i will run all the way to illinois if you promise me some of that sweet spooning...you got your mixer!!! did you request the artisan or the pro? if you got the pro, i'd really like to know how it is. i'm considering an upgrade. tell me about all the delicious things you make with it, especially if they are peanut butter love monkey cupcakes. [We've decided this will be our signature cupcake when we quit our current positions and open "Asian Girls' Cupcakes" bakery.]

Me: I'm going to open it on Thursday and try to use it at least once this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. Better yet, you should run to Illinois and try it out for yourself. (Bring your Artisan, and we can have a mixer playdate.) After we're done comparing, we can spoon and feed each other PB love monkey cupcakes. Ahhhh.

Roommate Tina: okay i'm going to go put on my shoes and run over to illinois cradling my kitchenaid in my arms. actually, that would be really hard to do. i wonder if anyone has tried that before?

Finally, I'm considering making some kind of baked good to bring to the culture seminar on Thursday. I won't be attempting to figure out my mixer tomorrow, so ideally, it will be something simple and not too time-consuming. Any suggestions? [Dan, Second-String Dan, Rebecca, Liz: Any requests?] It should probably be noted that the professor is a European who prides himself on never having eaten macaroni and cheese...and who probably thinks I'm a culture-illiterate doofus.

Back to the grind.

Am I really back to school after a measly week off? How do I know for sure?

• An undergrad in one of my classes whined copiously about how the break was too short. I almost punched her when she said she'd spent her break in Mexico.
• I woke up early to run. My right shin was really tight, and I got freaked out.
• I went back to work at the running store. Every high schooler and his/her mother came in to the store looking for track spikes. Apparently, the first outdoor meet of the season is tomorrow. Good thing I know almost nothing about track spikes...
• The boyfriend and I went grocery shopping with Dan, who wanted to buy everything in the store. (The downfall of going to Meijer on an empty stomach.)

As I mentioned, my run today was sub-par due to a really tight right shin. I better stretch the crap out of it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't get to run because I have to be on campus early tomorrow. Oh well, maybe another day off will do it some good. Here are my splits (still slow, booo):

• Mile 1 - 9:44
• Mile 2 - 9:28
• Mile 3 - 9:28
• Mile 4 - 8:40
• 0.01-mile nubbin - 0:03
• Total: 37:25

I tried the "Goal" function on the Garmin by setting a test goal of 100 miles for the month of March. Apparently, Garmin can't handle when you exceed your goal because the number of miles on the counter has been fluctuating ever since I went past 100. Good thing I keep an Excel spreadsheet of my mileage. I am proud to report that in month of March (not counting tomorrow, when I won't run), I have run 133.23 miles. Though I rarely counted my mileage in the past, that has to be some kind of record.

In exciting news, Mom's present arrived today. I'm going to wait until my birthday to open it, but the package indicates that it's the giant KitchenAid mixer that I wanted. I'm very excited to [learn how to] use it! (It was delivered when I was in class. The boyfriend told me that he considered hiding it somewhere, but it's too big to be hidden anywhere in our already cramped apartment.) Thanks, Mom!

Okay, apparently people decided to update their blogs 32940284032 times today, so I'm going to get catch up on reading. (Sorry if I don't comment. I have like 489320489320432 to get through.) Have a good night!

I will leave you with this dorky conversation with Liz about one of our teachers. (I'm the Andrew McMahon icon. I don't know what her icon is, some blonde lady.)

In case you don't get the joke.

Photos and cupcakes

After my bullet-style post yesterday, I finally got out for a six miles on Chicago's lakefront. My quads were pretty tired, but after the first mile and a half, they calmed down and shut up. I ran into the wind (gusting to around 30mph) on the way out, but I managed to push through and actually have a half-decent time. Here are my slower-than-usual splits, which I will blame on tired legs and wind, as well as my Garmin's inability to auto-pause in fewer than 12 seconds:

• Mile 1 - 9:58
• Mile 2 - 9:49
• Mile 3 - 9:46
• Mile 4 - 9:36
• Mile 5 - 9:26
• Mile 6 - 9:38 (Garmin, why didn't you pause at the stoplight?!?)
• Total - 58:19

I feel guilty saying that this was "slower than normal" because just a few months ago, that was my fast speed. I'm not sure what prompted my sudden increase in speed. Therefore, I'm going to attribute it to 1) having a Garmin and being able to accurately time myself and 2) being neurotic and competitive with myself.

Jordan and Maria also went for runs on Saturday morning. Maria and I both have awesome Nike capri tights. Also, this picture makes me look like I have a deceptively juicy bum:

After the run, Jordan, Maria, the boyfriend, and I hit up our favorite Swedish breakfast joint, Ann Sather's. (Okay, it might not be Maria's favorite, but she did enjoy her sweet muffin. Thanks for agreeing to go, Maria!)

The boyfriend loves their cinnamon rolls:



My (delicious) omelet came with two enormous biscuits. I considered saving one for later...after I had already crammed it into my mouth. Too late.


The cold weather of doom was already setting in, so we headed for Premium Outlets outside of Chicago in hopes of finding some good deals. I didn't find a bathing suit, but I did find Lena, who also happened to be scouting out running outfits at Nike. (Hi, Running Buddy!)


I suffered some kind of brain aneurysm at the outlets and purchased a J.Crew argyle sweater in some prep-tastic combination of colors. I think I was partially distracted by the intricate pattern, as well as the fact that I've never fit into an "Extra Small" before. Maybe I'll take a picture of it later...

Jordan and Maria got fancy Nike socks with arch support and left-right markings:

As we headed home, the weather turned quite rainy and brutally windy. Good thing we stopped for McDonalds' milkshakes, fries, and chicken McNuggets (Don't judge, they're delicious!) on the way. Despite the fact that the lake was really choppy and looked indistinguishable from an ocean in a hurricane, we saw this crazy lady going for a run:


While waiting for our homemade pizza to bake, the boyfriend creepily watched the tournament on someone else's large television elsewhere in the apartment building:


I ate grapes and was generally confused:

At 8:30pm, we turned off the lights (and three of Jordan's four computers) to participate in Earth Hour. We lit candles and played Scrabble by candelight.



At some point, the boyfriend and I faced a rather poor selection of letters, so we just started spelling out stereotypical pirate utterances:


Eventually, the evening devolved into Jordan wearing the Threadless bag and pretending to be an executioner.


Then we ate brownie sundaes, because sugar makes things better:


Earth Hour was kind of an overall failure, as evidenced by all the bright lights gleaming from the surrounding high-rise apartment buildings on the lake front. Though we were happy to have participated (unlike Rush Limbaugh who turned on Christmas lights), we were grateful to turn the lights back on. In short, "Boy, it would suck to be a pilgrim!"

This morning, I was greeted with my favorite sky cocaine. I didn't run, but it was my day off anyway.


Instead, we stayed inside and made breakfast. I made banana crumb muffins, with slightly more brown sugar that normal (whoops). They were still good, if not a little more ethnic looking:

Finally, everyone was nice enough (READ: tired of my whining) to go back to Molly's Cupcakes so I could finally eat one. ("I had no idea you'd be so sad!" said the boyfriend.) I forgot my camera, but the boyfriend and I split a peanut butter-Nutella cupcake. Here are pictures from Friday's cupcakes:

The boyfriend's berry cupcake:


Maria's tiramisu cupcake:


Jordan's cinnamon roll cupcake:


Here's another picture from Molly's on Friday. I have a stomach ache, but I'm smiling through the pain:

A big "Thanks!" to Jordan and Maria for hosting us, and I'm very sorry that I broke your tablespoon this morning. They are both fantastic guides to Chicago, and I'm sure they'll take great care of us when we run the Chicago Marathon in the fall, and our legs fall off.


...and the boyfriend loves the cars in their apartment building's garage:


Back to school tomorrow. Boo. I wasn't as productive as I hoped to be.

Chicago-style bullets

Just a quick update before I head out for a run:

• I tried to do an easy four yesterday. My quads were not very happy with me, but I still had a hard time pacing myself and ended up running too quickly. As a consequence, my quads were even less happy with me for the rest of the day.
• Here are my splits: 9:38/9:26/9:13/9:10
• The boyfriend and I took the train up to Chicago where we met our friends Jordan and Maria, who both went to UVA with me. They are hosting us for the weekend in their fabulous apartment.
  
• [Currently, the road outside their apartment is blocked off because the city is dropping off some kind of pipeline with a helicopter. I can see/hear it outside the window. It is loud.]
• We went to Molly's Cupcakes which was frickin' adorable. Unfortunately, I got a really ill-timed stomach ache either from eating Thin Mints (Stupid Girl Scouts!) or from swallowing too much air (???). Either way, I am really, really sad that I couldn't eat one of the cupcakes, and throughout the rest of the day, I'd turn sadly to the boyfriend and say, "I'm sad I didn't get a cupcake!" in a really, really pitiful voice.
• We went for Indian food at a tasty place called Raj Darbar, which none of us pronounce correctly. Then we sat around all evening saying, "Ohmygosh, I'm painfully full!"
• After dinner, we played some board game called "Settlers of Catan" which I kept calling "Lost Settlers of Qatar", much to everyone's amusement. I am really bad at board games that involve strategy (So Candyland is okay.), and I was also pretty exhausted. I think I ended up with the lowest score, but in an amazing turn of events, I was a really good loser. I didn't get huffy or knock the board over in a fit of rage. Hooray! I also realized that I'd be really bad at founding a colony of settlers. Good thing I'm not a French imperialist.
  
• Check out the awesome excerpt from Chicago's forecast for the next 48 hours:

"RAIN OR WET SNOW... OCCASIONALLY MIXED WITH SLEET... WILL DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON... THEN CHANGE TO ALL WET SNOW TONIGHT. SNOW COULD FALL VERY HEAVILY AT TIMES WITH SNOWFALL RATES OF 2 INCHES PER HOUR POSSIBLE AT TIMES... ESPECIALLY WITH ANY THUNDERSNOW THAT DEVELOPS. SNOWFALL TOTALS ARE EXPECTED TO VARY GREATLY ACROSS THE AREA... HOWEVER SOME LOCATIONS WILL LIKELY PICK UP TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW BY MIDDAY SUNDAY."

"STRONG NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON AND CONTINUE TONIGHT... WITH GUSTS OF 40 TO 50 MPH EXPECTED ALONG THE SHORE OVERNIGHT. THE STRONG WINDS BLOWING DOWN THE FULL LENGTH OF THE LAKE WILL RESULT IN WAVES INCREASING TO AROUND 12 FEET ALONG THE ILLINOIS AND INDIANA SHORES. THE LARGE AND BATTERING WAVES WILL LIKELY RESULT IN MINOR LAKESHORE FLOODING LATE TONIGHT INTO SUNDAY MORNING."

• I guess I better get my run out of the way today. Hang in there, quads!
• Today, Maria and I are going shopping, maybe for bathing suits. I will probably regret my decision to stuff myself with Indian food last night when I try on the spandex torture suits. Then we might go to the Nike outlet, yippee!
  

Also, best of luck to TFH on her first marathon this weekend! As I type, she's running 26.2 miles of switchbacks in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Props to her on all accounts!

13.1 for practice

Lena and I did our last official long run before we begin tapering for the Half Marathon on April 11th. When we turned on our Garmins at 8:11am, it was 40ºF, overcast, and drizzly, which more or less reflected my excitement about this run.

In preparation for the Half, we ran the course to the best of our abilities, though we had to start from the apartment and run parts of the course out of order. We were both pretty nervous about successfully getting through the 13-mile run, especially since our last long run was a rough 11-miler in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, today was rather successful. The Garmin kept signaling completed miles while we chatted away and got huffy at all the pedestrians (Read: One really confused Chinese lady) getting in our way. I think it was the fastest run that we've done together, which is a testament to how much better we've gotten at running our feet and our mouths:

• Mile 1 - 10:37
• Mile 2 - 10:12
• Mile 3 - 10:14
• Mile 4 - 10:05
• Mile 5 - 10:12
• Mile 6 -10:05
• Mile 7 - 10:20
• Mile 8 - 10:10
• Mile 9 - 10:12
• Mile 10 - 10:01
• Mile 11 - 10:31
• Mile 12 - 10:01
• Mile 13 - 9:53
• 0.1-mile nubbin - 1:06

At Mile 8.5, my legs were starting to feel fatigued, so I ate a honey packet. Then between miles 9 and 10, we did our water stop at Lena's apartment. There, I sucked down my first TriBerry GU, while Lena took pictures of my unhappy face. It was fairly inoffensive, though I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy getting it down while running and without water. I didn't get the amazing surge of energy that I was expecting (I envisioned hurtling over trashcans and park benches.), but I guess the GU kept me from feeling too crappy. Unfortunately, my stomach took forever to digest it, so I felt like I was on the verge of a stomach cramp for the last three miles of the run. I might have to try another GU next weekend to determine my plan for Race Day.

Overall, I'm very proud of this run. I feel like I've put in a decent amount of training for this race, and I definitely feel better than I did about my first Half. Today marks my longest succesful run to date, and my body doesn't hate me too much for it. My quads aren't thrilled to go up or down stairs, but I made sure to stretch a lot when I got back. I usually don't stretch because I walk into the apartment and immediately get distracted by something (the boyfriend, the Internet, the cooing dove in our chimney, etc.). I guess I better work on that for Marathon training this summer...

Also, my stomach makes an incredible amount of noise during long runs, as if it's going to jump out of my abdominal cavity and head for Steak 'N Shake. Instead of growling, it makes a weird burbling noise that's pretty loud and irritating. At one point, I said to Lena, "OHMYGOD, I'M GOING TO PUNCH MY STOMACH...in the face!" at which point, I realized I was uttering nonsensical threats. Instead, I just started jabbing my abdomen violently with my finger, but nothing could calm the disconcerting burbles issuing forth from my stomach. I guess I don't have to worry about missing my iPod during the Half; I'll just have a two-hour conversation with my own tummy...

Here's what we looked like post-run (excited):



After attempting to get work done this afternoon, Lena took me as a guest to her fancy gym, and we went to a BodyFlow class, taught by a cute, hairless Asian guy. It was my first real attempt at yoga, but without all the weird granola-eating, in-touch-with-the-soul parts. Best of all, I didn't fall over, though I was given ample opportunity to make an ass of myself. Though I almost fell asleep during the meditation part (I think I was supposed to be releasing tension in my mercifully silent stomach.), I think the class did a hella good. I don't feel nearly as tight in my hamstrings and hip flexors, so hopefully, I won't show up like a cripple in Chicago tomorrow to visit Jordan and Maria.

In short, I'm very glad to have found a running buddy. It has made training infinitely more fun and enjoyable. Thanks, Lena, for being such a good running buddy, even if we turn a little dyslexic after 13.1 miles...

As a reward for the successful (running, not academic) day, the boyfriend and I went to Jarling's Custard Cup, which has been closed since October. It was delicious and midwestern.



Finally, a huge thank you to Pearl who sent me a very kind, thoughtful, and unexpected gift today. It is much appreciated, and I can't wait to use it!

Edit: I will be in Chicago for the weekend. Posting may suffer as a result.

I am volatile.

For anyone who wants to chat with a librarian, here's the link to the site. Enjoy!

Secondly, for all the nerdy homemakers/bakers, here's a link to a site selling the Pi pie plate. Maybe I'll get it and bake pies in it, though pi isn't really my thing. Maybe I can find a French pie plate. This one will do, I suppose.

Sad news! For lunch, I was really excited about eating my leftover Thai food from last night's take-out. I was in the kitchen, chopping up some extra vegetables to add and about to make some more Asian-ish sauce. Then in one fell swoop, I knocked the entire affair onto the floor of the tiny kitchen.

Upon seeing the sopping heap of rice, vegetables, tofu, and sauce on the kitchen floor, I started an accelerated version of the grieving process:

• Anger (Copious profanity, banging dishes around, snapping at the boyfriend that the kitchen floor is too filthy to eat off.)
  
• Denial (Briefly considered the boyfriend's suggestion to scoop everything back into the bowl and eat it.)
  
• Sadness (Crying and sniffling as I made a substitute lunch.)

In short, I am a really hard person to live with, and I feel pretty guilty about it. As I was crying over spilled lunch, the boyfriend told me that it was not worth getting so upset over things like this, which is true. Unfortunately, I have such a short fuse that I freak out about things before I have time to remember that it's not worth it in the first place. In short, I will try to recognize these situations before they happen and not lose my temper/act like a spoiled brat. Sorry, Harrison, who doesn't read this...

Today, I feel like freakin' Mount Vesuvius, about to erupt at any moment and bury poor Romans (=the unfortunate boyfriend) in hot ash and volcanic rock. I'm also really embarrassed that I cried over cold Thai stir-fry... :-X

[Dear Parents, I'm sorry for any times that you have had to deal with my impetuous behavior as well. Please don't disown me.]

Fortunately, I was able to go for a run and let off some of that excess volcanic steam that had been brewing all day. (Library site, you will be the death of me!) Here are my splits:

• Mile 1 - 9:47
• Mile 2 - 9:30
• Mile 3 - 8:57
• Mile 4 - 8:50

Yippee! Negative splits! Unfortunately, my right shin was a bit tight. I hope it doesn't stay that way because tomorrow, Lena and I are planning on doing a long run on the Half Marathon course. We're both going out of town this weekend, so it seemed like a good idea to push the long run to tomorrow. It will be the longest run to date for both of us. Whoaaaa.

In amusing news, the boyfriend and I looked up blackstrap molasses today on Wikipedia because we were curious as to how it is such a good source of iron. Then we found out about the Boston Molasses Disaster which is kind of tragically hilarious. Now, I'm just crossing my fingers that a 40-foot wave of molasses doesn't rush through the streets of Champaign-Urbana on Race Day. That might kill my chances of a PR...

MicaPie attempts pie.

Today was a day off from running, so I spent most of it cooped up in the apartment, grappling with the university's frustrating, blood pressure-raising library website. I spent so long wrestling with it and yelling at the computer that I didn't physically get to the library. Oh well, there is tomorrow. And thank goodness because I have a ton of articles and books to locate and copies to make before I can formulate anything worth turning in.

Fortunately, our library does have an "Ask a Librarian" chat function, where you talk to a real librarian. Pathetically, I had to ask how to find certain bound volumes of journals, but she was very nice. (I've discovered that I have no qualms about asking for help when it comes to libraries.) Here is an excerpt of our online chat:

librarian: it looks like the MLL currently has volumes 23-25
librarian: do you see that at the bottom of the record?
me: yes, i do. i feel stupid.
librarian: no! not at all!
librarian: there's a lot of information in these records, and it's easy to miss things!
me: (i swear i'm not dumb, i'm just not used to this system compared to my other school's)
librarian: I believe you (smile)

One of my friends in the Physics department, Stephanie, invited me over to bake my first pie tonight. We decided on something called "Walnut Cream Pie" from her Killer Pies recipe book. (For the record, I think "killer" in this sense means "awesome" and not "homicidal".) Oddly enough, the recipe involved no cream, so it was basically like a pecan pie.

Oh...and there were 9 eggs:

Fortunately, the nine eggs were for two pies.

I certainly had some issues rolling pie crust for the first time, such that I told Stephanie that my dough was shaped more like England than like a pie crust. Unfortunately, Stephanie only had one round pie plate, so we decided to use a square baking dish for the second pie (mine). It was significantly deeper and thicker than the traditional round pie:

(Below the pies is my failed first attempt at rolling dough.
We covered it with sugar and cinnamon for snacking.)

Unsurprisingly, the rhomboid pie monstrosity took much longer to set than the round pie, so it had to stay in the oven. We took the traditional pie out and set it on the windowsill to cool. I'm not going to lie; I sort of felt like a housewife, waiting for a pie to cool in the windowsill. (Except that I was impatient and kept prodding it.)

Meanwhile, Stephanie's rabbit (named "Bunny") gave me the stink-eye for invading his kitchen domain. And he probably wasn't too thrilled that I kept pointing out that he was too big to hide in his little hutch:


Overall, the pie turned out decently, albeit not that pretty. For some reason, it was a little liquidy, but the flavor was good. It ended up a lot like flan (That's what 4.5 eggs per pie will do, I guess.) I wanted to bring some home, but we have 234930243 Girl Scout cookies to eat, plus the boyfriend hates nuts with a passion. And since I'm hoping to go bathing suit shopping with Maria this weekend in Chicago, I do not want to be left with delicious pie in the apartment.

Pi! Get it?

[And for those of you who are curious about my "inappropriate" high school teacher, it sounds much worse than it was. We went to a fairly laid-back high school, and Roommate Tina and I are pretty un-PC ourselves. Though this particular teacher had a gruff and forward demeanor ("You all are a bunch of jerks!"), I think he liked us. Whenever we go back and visit, he likes to ask if the boyfriend and I are engaged yet. Then he shakes his head and walks away.]

Being unfaithful to shoes.

I dragged myself out of bed at 6am this morning to start my reading and research for my seminar papers, but after getting through an article and a half, I walked back into the bedroom and fell asleep. Whoops. My "two-days-for-one-paper" plan is not working out. At all. Failure.

I woke up an hour later, did more reading, and then went on a painful five mile run. My legs felt fatigued and a little sore, not to mention my upper-body is punishing me for putting it in the hands of Trainer Dan. Once I saw that I was running negative splits, I put in the extra effort (and maybe one ten-second "I do love running, I do! I do!" break) to finish strong. Here are my splits:

• Mile 1: 9:47
• Mile 2: 9:41
• Mile 3: 9:34
• Mile 4: 9:12
• Mile 5: 8:54
• Total: 47:13

Not bad, not bad.

I worked at the running store today, fitting some shoes, putting labels on socks, hanging up wicking shirts, and trying on shoes that I want to buy when it was slow. I took advantage of the sale price and discounts to get myself a pair of the Asics 2130's because 1) they've been recommended to me as an alternative to the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's and I've wanted to try them 2) it's almost my birthday, and I wanted to buy cute shoes! [My fashionable friend Ashley is probably dying of heart attack reading that last statement.] I probably won't try them out much before the Half, but in the event that they don't work, I'll just wear them as my "work shoes".


Nevertheless, I feel like I'm cheating on my Brooks, which is Number 1 on the list of "Stuff Asian Girls Like" that Roommate Tina and I have been trading back and forth on Facebook. Also on the list of "Stuff Asian Girls Like":

• XL Beer shirts (Apparently, Tina won one at a raffle too!)
• KitchenAid Mixers
• The "boot-shaped" Chicken McNugget
• Spooning (with each other)
• Crazy Joaquin Phoenix
• Baking disasters
• Being creepy

[Note: "Asian Girls" here refers to the title our high school government teacher gave us in fifth period, not necessarily to Asian girls in general.]

In other news, the store was nice enough to give me a racing singlet and shorts so I can be part of the team. I'm not sure if the employees always wear the uniform during races. I guess I'll find out soon since almost everyone is running either the Half or the Full Marathon on April 11th! When I received my fancy singlet, I was told not to disgrace the uniform, which means I'll have to cover up the logo if I'm having a bad race. (They said if I did something hardcore, like drag my bleeding body across the finish line, that would be okay.)

So here I am, modeling my fancy singlet and barely-there shorts (Hello, inner thigh!), as well as my cruel mistress Asics 2130's:

[The framed document behind me is a disciplinary note to my dad who got caught dressing up in a non-PC costume and burning a friend in effigy during his college years. Love you, Dad, you make me proud!]

Also, here's a conversation I had with Dan, who is now in Cleveland visiting his ethnic family, about Le Creuset cookware:

Me: omg, i love the enamel so much

Dan: inorite

Me: it's like creamy and shiny and soft all at the same time, and it's a goddamn piece of cookware

Dan: we are dreamers mica, DREAMERS. And your cooking skillz go up 10 points just for using it.

For lack of anything better...

Race photos from the Soaring Eagle!

Find the boyfriend, or rather, one-half of him:


We're looking strong at Mile 2, and Lena's about to mow down this lady in front her:


Funny story. On Friday, Lena came into the running store to get her Garmin. She told the guy helping her that she was my running buddy. He apparently told her something like, "You're kind of tall to be her running partner." Because, you know, I'm a height-ist, and I only run with other vertically-challenged individuals. (For the record, I am 5'3" which is a perfectly respectable height for women...in Korea.) :)


The final sprint photos weren't so good. Apparently, the boyfriend had a creepy out-of-body experience:


And I decided to close my eyes and waddle blindly towards the finish line. (Do you like my cute sweat necklace?)


Fortunately, Lena looked like she was finishing strong:


I saved my best photo for last, even though it came around the 2-mile mark. I actually look like a runner, with a legitimately strong leg. (Just ignore the intense grandma about to bulldoze me from behind.) This makes up for my Turkey Trot photo of shame. I think I might actually shell out the dough to buy a print of this one and put it in my office as motivation, right next to my eagle bust.


I suspect that I need to work on my facial expressions during races. Yesterday, I'd pass a fairly quiet group of spectators or volunteers, and upon making eye contact with me, they'd begin yelling various words of desperate encouragement, like "Come on! You can do it!" or "Just a little bit more to go!" Do I really look that much like death in locomotion?

Also, I'll leave you with the boyfriend's commentary on my T-rex running arms:

Also, I forgot to mention that I had a mini-blogger meet-up today. Jessica took a detour from Friar Tuck's liquor store in Savoy to visit me at work. Thanks, Jessica! Now you know what I look like in person, and you can accost me on campus (on Grounds).

Soaring Eagle, I won stuff.

Today was pretty awesome, which made up for the giant failure that was yesterday evening. I'm too tired to do a full report of the Soaring Eagle race, so I'll just type disjointed commentary and post pictures. (That's more interesting than reading my mile-by-mile account anyway.)

After picking up Lena at 8am, we headed to Kennekuk State park near Danville, IL. Check out this artsy picture of the beautiful scenery on the way:


We picked up our race packets before most people had even arrived, so we sat in the car for 45 minutes to stay warm. Most of those 45 minutes were spent either pinning our race numbers on or commenting on people's legs as they walked past the car:



Lena just got a Garmin 405 yesterday, so she got to try it out today during the race. First though, we had to take a gratuitous shot of Garmins. Guess which one belongs to whom:

At 10am, we got out of the warm car and jogged a nice warm-up mile.

The Half Marathon training group had us run the "Soaring Eagle" race today as a "practice trial" before the actual race, which is three weeks away! The race itself was eight miles, spread over two four-mile loops in the park. Unfortunately, we started with the two-mile and four-mile races, so it was a bit crowded at first, with people dropping off in successive waves. By the end, it was pretty spread out, but initially, there were a lot of fast people crowding me and Lena. Boo.

I felt kind of tired by mile 2, which was a bit disheartening, but I managed to push myself at a manageable level of discomfort, such that I finished the race feeling tired but not puking. (I also managed to pass two women in the last quarter mile, yippee!) It was a beautiful day for a race: no clouds and abundant sunshine, with temperatures hovering between 45º and 50º. (And wind, of course!) The course was part-road, part-trail with some rolling hills. It was certainly nothing like Charlottesville, but I felt a little fatigued, as I am used to running in the land of pancake-flat terrain.

Here are my all-over-the-place splits:

• Mile 1: 9:22
• Mile 2: 9:20 (We got caught up in the mass of 2-, 4-, and 8-mile racers.)
• Mile 3: 9:33 (I left Lena behind here. Sorry, running buddy!)
• Mile 4: 9:21
• Mile 5: 9:06 (I took a honey packet out from my sports bra at this point and spent a good tenth of a mile trying to rip it open with my fingers and teeth. I eventually got it down, but then I was stuck with a sticky packet for a half a mile because I didn't want to litter. You're welcome, Mother Nature. Now stop being so cold!)
• Mile 6: 9:20 (Hello, again, Mr. Hill! Get out of my way!)
  
• Mile 7: 9:09 (I was feeling pretty tired, but I was determined to pass the couple in front of me. I started thinking things to myself like "This is my race!" and then things like "Crap, I have to do over three times this distance for the Chicago Marathon!")
  
• Mile 8: 8:07 (I actually only have 0.94 miles for this, but the race said I finished. Maybe I cut a few illegal corners at the end or something...)
• Total: 1:13:21 (average speed 9:14)
  
• Official race time: 1:13:26.2
• Spring Six-Miler Time: 54:36 (I added up my last six splits, including the fast one.)
  

After the race, we lined up by height for a "We did it!" picture:


Then it was time to consume the "free" (=we paid for it) food. Lena confirmed that we are perfect running buddies--she loves chips too!




I especially enjoyed the cake even though I was cold. (One piece was for the boyfriend. I'm not *that* much of a glutton.)

Random, but here's a weird picture where I look like an alien:


There was also a big beer truck, with which Lena relived her college days:


And from which the lightweight boyfriend and I shared one drink:


After stuffing ourselves, we headed inside the Big Red Barn for raffle prizes and race awards. After standing around complaining that "I never win anything", I got called up for a raffle prize! I won...[drumroll please]...

...an Extra-Large Coors Light "Drinking Department" shirt from one of the beer sponsors. Irony, it gets me every time.


I also took a picture with Kona, this giant St. Bernard that was wandering around the barn. She gave me presents in the form of shed hairs:

Because this is a low-key Midwest race, more about fun than about times, there were plenty of age division prizes (Overall, heavyweight, age division, for male and female). The boyfriend came in 13th overall with a time of 54:16.07. He didn't win an overall award, but he did win first in the Male 20-24 division!


I was already so pleased that I had won a free, huge beer t-shirt that I wasn't even jealous that the boyfriend had won in his age division. Then they called my name as the first place female finisher in the 20-24 age division! The race director announced the awards from the barn's first floor, so I had to sprint down the stairs to claim my trophy. I literally bounded into the first floor room saying, "THAT'S ME!! I NEVER WIN ANYTHING!!"

Best of all, Lena got second place for the 20-24 female age division! We were surprised:


I will mention that there were only three girls in the 20-24 age division. I say this not to downplay today's achievements, but rather to point out how excellent it is to run in a generally low-key running community in Podunk central Illinois. I freakin' got first place with an overall pace of 9:15, which would certainly not happen in Richmond or Charlottesville! Nevertheless, I think Lena and I earned our awards fair and square: there were only two female 20-24 awards, and three male 20-24 awards. (Four boys ran.) It's not like everyone won a weird eagle-head trophy...


Here's a close-up of the trophies. Lena accurately likened them to "White Elephant" Christmas gifts:


After I got home, Dan decided to spend a few of his last few hours in Champaign at the gym teaching me a strength workout. Obviously, I didn't want to work on legs, so he helped me do an easy arm and core routine. ("Easy"=hard for me, easy for him) A sign of a good trainer, I didn't hate Dan for making me do hard exercises. He said things like, "You have amazing calves!" while my muscles were shaking from exertion and I had a huge grimace on my face. I will most likely be sore tomorrow. Stupid plank exercises.

And in case you're wondering how the beer shirt looks:

I think I'm going to wear it to bed, or maybe I'll belt it and wear it as the world's ugliest heather-gray dress.