get ready to waste your day

this is so addicting it infuriating!

>> funny farm

i love boston in the fall

(tried to post this yesterday and couldn't so i'm trying again - pretend it went up on monday.)

hey ho! so, i'm in boston today, for 2 short days and 3 short nights -- after a VERY whirlwind weekend with conor's family & friends in nyc and connecticut. i haven't been back here in many moons, as i've mentioned in previous posts, and i have to say... it's great to be back!

seeing the charles river this morning made me completely giddy.

i drove by the MIT boathouse on mem. drive while on my way to the media lab, and saw good old tom the boatman out on the docks -- and it made me even MORE giddy with glee... if only he could have heard me screaming hi through the car windows!

seeing my old professor briefly, talking to his new students, having lunch with a good friend, running along the esplanade during the afternoon, meeting old friends for dinner and drinks... all of the above has made me more happy than i can express here in words. i've always loved this town and always will.

top that off with the changing colors of the leaves, the glow of the brick and ivey and everything "harvard" during sundown, and being in my sisters' awesome apartment surrounded by all sorts of comforting knick-knacks i recognize from childhood, and you have one happily nostalgic girl.

and its only been 24 hours.

i want this cake.

this makes me so happy that it exists. click to see it in full glory.



>> super mario cake

is it ok if i copy them?

i hate..

... sealed plastic containers that you can't open without scissors and then which threaten to cut your innocent hands with their sharp, rigid edges as you try to pry out your poor electronic gadget from its vaccuum-sealed tomb.

yargh!

bananas!

>> bananas!
(a bunch)

this morning, conor ran in the banana chase 5K. he beat his time from last year by over a minute (we think - official results not yet posted), and as usual, the event was a hoot!

check out pics of conor, the impalas, and the gorilla brigade... though i sadly only got shots of less than half the impalas who ran, and i was missing a few members of the gorilla brigade too --

stinking almost-dead-camera battery. grrr.

montreal pictures!

hi! here are some pictures from montreal:

>> pictures

bright spots

mmm. there are some mornings when my tall latte from starbucks tastes particularly scrumptuous, and today was one of those days.

i am in the process of posting pics from our trip online and will point you all to them once they're up.

i feel like i should blog a little more in detail about my race, but instead of boring you with most of the nitty gritty, i will let you in on a little thing i did. this was inspired by an article i read in 'runner's world' magazine a few months ago.

i decided to break the marathon up by kilometer (in the article this was done in miles, but since i was in canada i wanted to be metric) -- and then i dedicated each kilometer to someone or something that has inspired me during all my traning or in my life in general.

then, as i ran, i would think about that someone or something during their kilometer. the idea is that thoughts of all the people and things that inspire me would keep me running strong!

it worked great up until around kilometer 16. the rest of the race i blurred everything together because i was feeling too crappy to take out my piece of paper and look at what was next. but i still thought of everything/everyone at some point... just not necessarily during THEIR dedicated kilometer!

but that's ok. these k's still belong to you.

i'm posting the list below. but although i did not explain WHY things made the list, i did explain why some of them are on the specific numbers/kilometer that they are. there isn't necessarily any correlation between the number and the reason, though sometimes there is.

also, to be clear -- i did not specifically call out everyone in my life individually because, well, there are way more than 42 people that inspire me! but many people are inherent in a general category. i did it that way for brevity on my note paper pinned to my jersey... that way, when that topic came up, i could think about the specific people related to that inspiration.

for example, when i thought about #1, i thought not only about chocolate in general, but about places where i like to eat it, or people who share a love of it with me. and when i thought #2, i reflected upon the people with whom that joke was particularly funny... friends from MIT, my pal at work who has him on a shirt, the time in my life when it was funny, etc.

that way i could think about lots of people in lots of different capacities that have all inspired me recently or with my athletic training specifically.

enough blather. here are my dedicated k's:

1. chocolate
2. trogdoooorrrr!!!
3. catfoo(d) - 3 because we lived together for 3 years
4. laurel - 4 because she is 4 years older than me. during her kilometer, we were running by an amusement park (closed) and they were testing the roller coasters. this made me smile because laurel loves roller coasters.
5. grandpa doyle
6. breast cancer - 6 because my mom has been healthy for 6 years almost
7. my company & my co-worker friends
8. to infinity & beyond! (& other funny inside jokes with people)
9. cookies - ever heard that joke about 7 ate 9? i associate eating cookies with people at my company -- cookies and coffee breaks. get it? 7 ate 9? :) but cookies also relate to other things like baking (for my bookclub, for instance! hi ladies). and coincidentally, one of my favorite hip hop songs mentions cookies in the lyrics -- and it came on during this kilometer.
10. clearwater, florida & all my high school & childhood friends from there - again, another coincidence with this one, as my ipod started playing CCR's down on the corner, which i not only associated with my childhood but, well, the group has clearwater in their name.
11. achieving my goals
12. my cousins - 12 of them (amber, zac, parker, mikey, lindsay, brooke, brittney, kelsey, sage, kirstin, adrienne, and doug by marraige)
13. not making excuses - 13 is unlucky and i didn't want to blame it for anything
14. boston - my friends there, the seasons, my upcoming trip
15. my soon-to-be-new family - sarah, shahn, robert, ed, dan, elizabeth
16. colin & sarah - 16 because colin and i shared that soccer number for many years
17. grandma mary - i think i was 17 when she passed away
18. megan geer - 18 b/c she helped me finish my first 18 mile training run, encouraging me the last few miles on bike
19. numbers! - i love them. i do math while i run. 19 is my favorite number.
20. parutronic - 20 b/c i met her for a swim and dinner after my first 20 mile run which made things much more pleasant
21. my crew team & all the bitchy b's - 21 because the morning after that birthday, i was told by my coach i wasn't a real athlete... heh. who wouldn't be hung over the morning after their 21st birthday? she should be happy i showed up at all. :) oh well. that still cracks me up to this day!
22. my dad - 22 is the day of his birthday
23. poppi
24. my mom - 24 is the day she gave birth to me
25. christmastime - my favorite holiday & time of year! why its 25 is obvious
26. our upcoming wedding - conor and i have been together for 26 months at the time of this race
27. conor - he turned 27 two days after the race
28. growing up! and how much fun it is - 28 is my next birthday
29. my apartment, bed, plants, etc. - our street address is 29
30. having my first kid - i'll be popping it out when i'm 30. i'm really excited to have kids (and for conor to take care of them)
31. allison - my sisters age more gracefully than anyone i know. you'd never guess they are 31. they'll probably look just as amazing at 91!
32. grandma sally - if i'm a fraction as in shape as she is when i am her age, i will thank my luck stars!
33. aunt bev - her memory helped me climb a mountain (ok a large hill) in colorado nearly a minute faster than i normally did. i knew her memory could help carry me in at the end of this race too!
34. my aunts & uncles & extended family
35. wine, cheese, steak
36. meditation & breathing exercises
37. happy music
38. oceans and mountains
39. vintage mustangs!
40. the impalas - my running team & my coach
41. kicking ass and taking names
42. me!

saint hubert = "sain ew-bear" & other enlightening oddities that prove i'm not francophone

it's decided! "mon-rrreal" is a really fantastic town. anyone wishing to go to france some day should use it as their "warm-up" trip to begin partial-immersion in the french language.

granted, you might pick up a few quebecquois accent oddities (oui vs "whey") but it's not nearly as scary as actually going to france is, if you're a french-newbie like me (or rather, illiterate & dumb). everyone there can roll seamlessly between french and english like they may as well be the same language. it's magnificently fascinating. i guess thats what happens when you force all non-locals to put their kids in french school as soon as they set food on montreal soil.

but language-enchantment aside, the food was awesome! and the shopping was perfect - a blend of funky, progressive boutiques from local designers + all your usual name brands (that i find boring when i travel, but which hints that people in the area must have some semblance of taste & a little money to spend frivilously).

the architecture was a cool mix of really old european + super modern + an underground city + lots of above-ground funky streets to stroll up and down while sipping coffees + tons of parks + a variety of cultures & classes. i loved it all.

the weather was gorgeous -- hints of fall mixed with blindingly sunny days. we only suffered one bout with clouds and rain. it was one of those "cold in the shade, hot in the sun" kind of weekends... which turned out to be not-so-great during the race, for my stupid body (which has no ability to regulate temperature)... but which made for some perfect site-seeing conditions overall.

the marathon was really fun. conor's stepdad & one of my developers both ran it with me and we were a site for sore eyes later that night. but it started on a really awesome bridge, and to get to the starting line we wandered through a quaint park, past a dixie band, and up onto what felt like the top of the world. then we ran all through some great parts of town - some poor, some old, some nice, some flat, some hilly. the race really helped me get a general feel for the spatial plan of the city and the variations between neighborhoods -- all things i love to study and explore when i travel.

and i'm surprisingly not really very sad that i didn't qualify for boston! i gave the marathon my all and i have zero regrets regarding my preperation or performance from the day.

for one thing, due to the zero-shade factor for the first 3/4s of the race, i got overheated - i know, totally annoying considering that the air was cool. who gets overheated when it's not scorching outside? but direct sun + humidity kills me. my legs & feet were blisteringly hot to the point where i was running on the white lines painted on the road to keep my tootsies as cool as i could.

i dodged for every shady spot i saw, which means my nike+ ipod system clocked me doing 28 miles instead of 26 in the end (granted, i also think the callibration is off, or very UN-trustworthy). my cheeks were burning early in the race, but all the while -- my hands and arms were freezing cold. go figure that out!

so -- i had to stop for water more than i would have liked due to the (aforementioned) sun exposure. which means that most of the 15 minutes over my goal time (3:55 actual vs 3:40 goal) was very likely attributed to those stops. they were often (roughly every 3 miles for the entire 2nd half of the race) and they pissed me off. but when you feel dizzy, you have no choice otherwise you might not even finish, and that's a worse fate than anything.

my splits are interesting. i felt FANTASTIC to start out. i easily averaged the perfect just-sub 8:00/mile pace that i wanted to, and was cruising steady there until i got almost exactly halfway. thats when i deteriorated into a dazed & pathetic excuse for a runner, over the course of about 2 miles. and i never recovered. thankfully my deterioration plateaued and i finished steady... but the initial dip was too much to salvage my boston dreams. whatever. there are other races i can run!

conor met up with me at kilometer 31 (about 6 miles to the end) and was my beacon of hope that steered me home. he also had the fortune of jumping in when we finally got some shade/tree coverage and the clouds simultaneously came out (phew!). he ran the entire 6 miles to the end with me, instead of the planned 3 miles that he was originally going to do. usually i'm the one encouraging him along during a run so it was fun for us both to have the tables turned. and i have to say, it's a great feeling to run down the shute at the finish line when you're arm in arm with your fiance... particularly when you aren't sure how you're still standing up & you are so happy he's there to help support your weight!

not long after donning my finishers medal, i stumbled into first aid and a very very kind doctor took my vitals, wrapped me up in a blanket on a cot, and informed me that i wasn't dehydrated like i thought i was. the naseau, blue lips & finger nails, pasty tongue and shaking was mild heat stroke instead. lovely. but oh look - there's that guy i ping-ponged with for the last half of the race... apparently he can't move his legs anymore... somehow i felt better seeing my commrade. it was like we were fighting the same war and had just returned home from being on the front lines of battle.

marathons are HARD.

done casually or not, well-trained or not, they beat the shit out of your body, and i'm still paying for it today. yes, it's wednesday, and i'm just now finally able to walk down stairs without doing push-ups down the railings!

the quads? still sore. the calfs? super tight. the tendonitis in the left knee? back in force.

the euphoria that i:
a) finished a marathon and
b) did it in under 4 hours?

very high.

oh yeah, for those who reassured me a few months back that puking after a run is hard-core? well, you'll be happy to know that i've maintained my hard-coreness through all this. you would have been quite proud.

so i decided to treat my hard-core body with a lot of wine that night and plenty of chocolate. i think i'm digging this whole marathon vacation concept...

day of reckoning

we leave tomorrow morning for montreal!

i'll be back online next week - but here is where they should post results, theoretically:

http://www.festivaldelasante.com/en/accueil.php

if you see my name next to a time that faster than 3:40, i will be a very happy person when you hear from me again.

but, assuming that isn't going to be the case, i'll try not to be too mopey when i blog next week. i promise i won't reskin this place in all black or anything like that.

ship shape shop

random thoughts about two stores i shop at.

1. for the most part, i really hate going into anthropologie because usually i get super annoyed at the flimsy cotton tees they sell for 90 bucks a pop. lame.

but i go back every blue moon in hopes of finding a super great deal on something fun -- like i did with my long black wool coat. it's long, warm, adorable, and i got it on sale for a great price. it's a coat i never grow tired of, and which i still get compliments on, nearly every time i wear it out the door.

so -- i dropped in on friday, for kicks, as i haven't gone in that store in many many months... and i emerged with an adorable pair of jeans. they fit great, they feel great, they're a great color and style -- and they were less than 1/2 the price of my "awesome jeans" (which i got at AB Fits -- the only pair of jeans i have ever truly Loved.) plus - they were 1/2 off their original price, too. go me!

2. i know i'm 27, but i can't help but love the store forever 21. i don't care that it's a disaster zone when i go in, with 16 year olds running through the store squeeling and throwing the clothes around like its their bedroom. i don't care that the place is chaotic and ridiculous and loud and i feel like i'm 90 years old when i walk around it. that store rocks. why!?

- $6.80 tees that are cool colors & fit perfect. oh & did i mention if you buy 2 they will only cost you $10?

- pants/slacks that fit better and feel more comfortable than any pair i can get at a nicer store... for less than $20.

- i don't feel guilty buying dumb trendy stuff that i'll hate in 3 months because it's SO FREAKIN CHEAP.

- i miss the days when my bedroom was a mess. its nostalgic being in there.