Whistlestop Half Marathon

I meant to do this last weekend, but I forgot. I have been away from the blog for a few months now, mainly because I have been ridiculously busy. I have started school again, and I got married! Yay! So, yes, things were crazy for a while.

Anyways, last weekend I ran the Whistlestop Half Marathon in Ashland, WI, and I have to say, I really enjoyed the course. The course was on a trail that used to be railway tracks. It was basically very packed dirt. I was worried about it being a trail run because I don't really run on trails, but it turned out to be quite a nice run. I could tell I wasn't on pavement, but it wasn't more difficult to run on. The course was quiet flat which was nice. It was mostly wooded, and the leaves would have been very beautiful if the wind hadn't blown most of them off the trees. There was still a fair amount of pretty colors though, even though most of the leaves were on the ground rather than on the trees. The rest stops were all at reasonable distances, and there was a large amount of volunteers to help with everything. It was a very well run race, and you could tell that it had been done many times before. The setting was beautiful, so that just added to race.

I did fairly well for virtually no training. My knee was bothering me, so I cut way back on my running a couple months before the race. I had one seven mile run and one four mile run in the two months preceding the race. I told myself that I was allowed to walk at mile eight if I really wanted to. I was really ready to be done after about six mile, but in the end I ended up running the whole thing! I finished in 2:09, and was pretty happy with that time. 

Overall, I would  highly recommend this course if you are in the area. There is a full and half marathon, as well as a 5K. Everything was well run, and the course was beautiful. I will definitely run this race again!

The Park Point 5 Miler

Yesterday I ran the Park Point 5 miler, and actually had a decent time despite the fact that it was almost 90 degrees with air humid enough to drink. The race started at 6:30pm. The whole day I was worried it would be cancelled because it was so hot. I kept obsessively checking my e-mail to see if the race directors had sent out an e-mail to say the race was cancelled. It wasn't! Yay! Five miles doesn't really meet my quota of exercise for the day, so I went to the gym and worked out for a half an hour right when I got done with work.

 Now I know this sounds a bit obsessive, but the day before I didn't get to work out because I got a call saying I could pick up my car! And I had to do this before 5:00 when the car fixer upper place closed, so there just wasn't  a whole lot time for exercise. Now before you all get all judgmental about my driving and everything, I would just like to say that this had nothing to do with my driving skills. We had a flood here last month, and the garage we rent has a flat roof where apparently, a bunch of water started collecting. Needless to say, the roof caved in...on top of my pretty blue car. The repairs took about two weeks, so I had to drive a crappy rental car for that period of time, so I was really excited when I got my own car back. I therefore decided to do some extra exercise on Friday to  make up for the missed exercise on Thursday. Normally I do six or more miles of exercise in a day anyway, so it wasn't like I did more than my body could handle. If I had been able to work out Thursday, I would have been content just to have the race be my exercise for the day. Here is a somewhat blurry, picture of what it looked like.

Anyways, it was really hot for the race. We got there early like I said in order to pick up my packet, and then we found a nice shady place to sit until the race started. There was a really strong breeze that kinda kept things tolerable. The director announced almost as soon as we got there that because of the heat and humidity, the race was only going to be a "fun run." They weren't going to give out awards or anything in hopes of keeping people from going full tilt in order to win their divisions. This really had no effect on me because I'm not good enough to win a race or a division for that matter, and I had planned on taking it easy because of the heat anyways.To compensate for this, the director said we could all get five dollars off next year's race entry. I'll take it! They had races for little kids before the adults started racing, and those were fun to watch. Some kids were really competitive and others you could tell their parents had made them participate haha.

Once the race started, I pretty much wanted to just stop running and go home. It was a very uncomfortable run. It was an out and back course for the most part, and on the way out we were lucky to be running on the side of the road with the shade. On the way back, the sun was brutal. The breeze did help, but it was so humid that the sweat wasn't really going anywhere despite the wind. Some of the people who live on the point had set up sprinklers or they had their hoses and were spraying runners if they wanted to get wet. Normally I avoid that kind of thing because when my shoes get wet, I get blisters, but I pretty much just said fuck it and ran through all the sprinklers I could.

The course itself is very beautiful. There were a lot of views of the water, which I always think are pretty. It was also flat. As a normal rule, I don't mind some hills, but I was happy not to have to deal with any. A lot of people had pretty gardens that we got to run by too.

My time ended up being 43:47. I was pretty happy with this considering the heat. I will definitely be doing this course again. The race itself was well organized, the views were great, and the lack of hills was fun.

I Heart Weeds

I was on a run earlier this week. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. There was a nice breeze. It was a little too hot, but I hadn't exercised for a couple of days in a row, so I felt really good despite the heat. The legs were happy to be moving, and it just felt wonderful to be running in general. I was having a great time, and then, I smelled something rather unpleasant. I was running by a beautiful house, well more like a mansion really, with an immaculately maintained lawn. The driveway had zero cracks in it, and there was a gait that opened to let cars onto the perfect cracks-don't-belong-here driveway. My mother refers to this house as Captain I-Don't-Know's house because when we were little we would always ask who lived there. Anyways, as soon as I smelled this, my throat wanted to close up. I took shallow breaths in hopes of getting away from it without breathing too much of the stench into my nostrils. I still managed to cough anyway. The only way I can think of to describe the smell is to say that it is a chemically deranged fresh cut grass smell. I immediately think of grass when I smell it, but not in a pleasant oh look at the pretty green grass kind of way. It's more like a Frankenstein grass smell, trying to be the real thing but turning out to be a grotesque imitation.

Well, needless to say I soon spotted the tell tale little white flags that inform people to keep small children and dogs off of the lawn for x number of days so they don't get POISONED! The Captain I-Don't-Know and his family apparently spray their lawn to eliminate those ugly little weeds that detract from perfection. I don't know about you, but when I run by a lawn that has been treated, I kind of become personally offended. I just absolutely abhor the smell, and of course, the only reason people treat their lawns is to personally offend me. The world revolves around me in case you weren't aware of this previously. On a more serious note though, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of being willing to potentially harm children and small animals simply to have a lawn that to all outward appearances could be carpet. Is it really worth it? Are outward appearances really that important to you? Do other people really care what your lawn looks like? I mean really as long as you don't let the grass grow a foot high, I think most people could care less whether or not you had weeds in your lawn. It just seems like a poor trade off to me. A perfect and pretty lawn, but screw you cute little animals and kids.

Maybe my preference for having a weedy yard just comes from the fact that I grew up in a house where if we were to have gotten rid of the weeds in the front lawn, there would have been no front lawn at all. So, I really do heart weeds. I don't know, but suffice it say, I think treating your lawn is kind of selfish and highly unnecessary. Think of the CHILDREN people!

Midnight Sun Midnight Run

Yesterday, or maybe rather early this morning I guess, I ran a race called the Midnight Sun Midnight Run. It's a race to celebrate the summer solstice. I ran it for the first time last year, and I thought it would be really fun to do again this year. It starts at midnight (duh), and it is a 5 K distance. The course is right next to Lake Superior on a route I am very familiar with because I use it for my long runs when training for marathons or half marathons.  It's really pretty during the day and at night.

I went into this race with the hopes of a PR. I've been running some lately (finally a decent amount after being injured), and I thought it was possible. My goal was to do it in 25 some minutes, or at least this was the goal I told people. My secret keep-it-to-myself-to-avoid-embarrassment goal was to to do it in 24 some minutes. Well, my official time ended up being 23:47! Boooya grampa! I feel like a freekin' cheetah! Haha. I felt like I was dying the whole race, and my dinner from earlier in the night was like a rock in my stomach, so maybe I could run faster? It definitely a thought to keep in mind.

Bronson was a good sport, and he came along to cheer. At the end of the race he said I looked good, and he told me he thought I was in the first 20 females to cross the finish. I told him that was bullshit, and he amended that to say maybe the top 40. I ended up being the 38th woman to cross the line out of 385! Sweet! I placed 19th out of 132 people in my age group. I like to see that I am getting faster. I started out with 11 or 12 min miles when I first took up running, and I ran that same pace for many years.

I'm hoping that someday I can somehow trick Bronson into doing a 5 K, but he says running is a deal breaker. I had a Runner's World magazine that had an article about how to start running, and for the longest time I couldn't find it. My secret hope wast that he was reading it, but it ended up it fell behind my nightstand...sigh. But that's ok because I couldn't ask for a better cheerleader. He's so awesome for coming to all these races to just stand around and wait for me. I'm a lucky lady!

Grandma's Marathon--Father's Day Edition

This past Saturday was Grandma's Marathon, and it was the first time I wasn't taking part in any of the running festivities since 2005. It sucked! I pretty much moped around the house most of the day. Bronson wasn't really sure what to do with me. It was hard to go to the gym and then watch finished runners walk around with their new shirts and shiny medals. This race holds a special place in my heart. It is my favorite race in the world, and I think I've referred to it as the greatest event on the freakin' face of the planet more than once. I love the atmosphere, I love the view, and I love how the city embraces the race.

The race has been a part of my life since I was very young. I remember my mom dragging us on a short walk from our house to the race course to watch my dad and my uncle run by. We would proceed to get sweaty high fives from them as they ran by. I thought it was gross. I remember my dad coming back from training runs, and I would inform him that he stunk and was icky. What a nice daughter right? As we got older sleeping in was more of a priority to us kids than watching Dad run by.  I wouldn't have been able to tell you how far a marathon was, and I wouldn't have had any concept of it even if I knew the distance. Running didn't really become part of my life until I was in high school, and even then I didn't do track or cross country or anything like that.

Then, I started increasing the distance I ran, and I got it in my head to try and run a half marathon. The Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon run in conjunction with Grandma's Marathon was the obvious choice because it was in town, and my dad had run it before. Dad promised to run it with me. We trained separately, but we ran the race together, and I had a blast! Dad told me all the secrets. Be sure to drink at least a little at each water stop. Don't dump water on your head. It will get on your feet, and you'll get blisters. Don't run through the showers for the same reason. He made sure I got through my first race in my entire life alive and well, and then we celebrated later that night by eating steak and shrimp, which came to be a tradition after finishing the race. Soon I was running the race without Dad and he was cheering me on and driving me to the starting line. He made sure I got through my first marathon (Grandma's Marathon of course), and told me to trust my training. I think he was more nervous for my first full marathon than I was though, and I was really nervous. It was about 85 degrees and really humid, but the whole drink at every water station thing got me through the race (thanks Dad!).

So you see why I was bummed about not running this year. I know there is always next year, but running the race brings back all sorts of good memories for me. It's kind of an emotional thing. Maybe next year (I plan to run the half) my dad will run with me again. That would be awesome. Thanks Dad for getting me into running!

June Goals

So, I accomplished my goal! I lifted weights twice a week for the month of May! This is the music I got as my reward! I'm not sure if I feel any different for it though....I don't know if I feel stronger or if I feel like I look any better. I have decided that I really like this goal setting thing. I have been trying to come up with goals for June now. I think I want to buy a special little notebook where I can write down my workouts for the day and possibly what I have eaten for that day too. I want to be able to see improvement in my workouts. I also want to look at what I have eaten. I know I can improve my diet.

I think for June my goals will be as follows:

1. Continue to lift weights twice a week.
2. Run (hopefully) 3 times a week.
3. Write daily exercise and food entries into a fitness notebook.

I say hopefully run 3 times a week because my sacroiliac joint has been giving me problems if I run too hard on it. I did really well in May by running twice a week like I wanted to, but at the end of the month I ran a really fast five mile run, (when I say fast, I mean fast for me...about 44minutes) and it was really sore after I finished. It has been bothering me a little ever since.

I want to work on my running because I am tentatively planning on running a half marathon in the fall called the Whistlesop. I really want to PR at this race. My best HM time is 2:04. My easy goal would be to just beat this time. My realistic yet harder goal would be to get under 2 hours. I feel like this is a good one to shoot for. I have to work hard to reach it, but it's definitely not impossible. My super hard goal would be to finish in 1:50. This is really an out-of-the-park kind of goal though, so I don't know if I can accomplish it. More of a wishful thinking kind of goal.

Oh! I went to the cabin last weekend and tried out an app on my phone for exercise! It was actually pretty cool. It's called Endomondo. It uses GPS to track how far you have run. Every mile it tells you the distance you have run and how fast you ran it. At the end it saves your workout and gives your splits for each  mile so you can compare them. You can also compare different workouts with each other so you can see any improvements! You can use it for other things like biking too, but I'm not a huge fan of biking. My butt always gets sore! I have the cushiest seat possible on my bike too, so you would think I would be comfortable! Anyways it was really cool and fun to use. I'm not sure how accurate it is though. I think it might make the  miles slightly shorter than they really are. Some of my times were a little fast for me. I plan on taking it on one of my normal runs here at home where I know the distance to see what it says about how far I go. I just haven't done it yet because I have to carry a fanny pack to put my phone in, and I feel kind of dorky doing that when I'm only running four or five miles. If I run 14 or more miles  I don't feel dorky at all wearing a fanny pack with water, but for some reason if I'm running a short distance wearing a fanny/water bottle, I feel like a loser. Weird right!? I mean who's going to know how far I am running anyway? They can't  judge!

Well that's the update!  I mostly just didn't know what I wanted to write about, so another goal entry seemed appropriate haha. I think the next entry will actually be something interesting.

I could never do that...

"I could never do that." This saying is one of the greatest annoyances in my life. People say this all the time. It drives me up a wall. I go crazy. I'm pretty sure my eyes go all beady, and I get ready to pounce and attack whoever may have said it. I get this saying a lot when I mention, or my lovely fiance mentions, that I run marathons and half marathons. People always say "Oh wow, I could never do that!" Well guess what!?! You can stupid!

This makes me so annoyed because I feel like anything is possible. I mean, there are people out there without legs running marathons with their prosthetics. I think if someone missing legs can run a marathon or half marathon, then by all means, you can too, you two legger. Suck it up and get on with it.

It's not as though I expect you to just get one morning and go for a 26.2 mile run. Nobody in their right mind does that without training. The key word here is training! I did not start running by jumping out of bed and going for 10 mile runs. I could barely run a half a mile when I started running in high school. I would say to my parents "I'm going for a run," and then I would drag myself a half a mile and then march my sorry butt back into the house. My mom would ask "Are you back already?" "Yes, yes mom, I am." It was quite frankly embarrassing, but I kept at it because I knew I could become better. My dad was a runner, and he ran marathons in times that I can really only dream of, and mom was used to him being gone for hours on end, and here comes Stephanie five minutes after she left saying she is done running. I was so proud of myself when I ran my first mile without stopping! I was even more proud when I did my first three mile run. It seemed to me that was an actual distance. I didn't realize how good running made me feel until I didn't do it one day! That is when I think I may have thought of myself as a runner.

Nothing makes me more excited than when I here about someone who has just started running. We are all part of a community no matter what level we may be at, and the camaraderie is amazing. The more the merrier! There's something special about being able to run up to a complete stranger and having a conversation with them, and they are perfectly okay with it! There was a time when someone who was running just a little faster than me, passed me on a run, and I decided to try and keep up with him. I tailed him right on his heels for about 10 minutes before we each turned in different directions, but before we split ways, we both gave each other a nod and a wave. No conversation necessary. Running races is great too, because everyone seems like they want to talk to people at those. You hear some great stories. So when new people start running, you can't help but want to encourage them. You get to hear their story, and watch it evolve into something new.

So, when you say you could never do that, whether it be running a block, a 5K, or a longer distance race, I am going to pounce on you, and maybe smack you upside the head, and tell you to put your grown-up shoes on (the ones without the velcro) and give it a try. Your body is capable of amazing things. Your mind is the only thing holding you back.

May Goals

I am quite aware that I missed my April blog. I kept meaning to write something, and then I just ended up too busy or too stressed out to write anything. I had planned on writing about future brides using feeding tubes in order to lose weight. I read about it briefly in a recent article, and it was quite fascinating and appalling at the same time. However, I have been stressing out about my own wedding plans, and every time someone even mentioned the word wedding, anxiety and stress started to kick in. I am not the "bride" type of girl. I have not been planning my wedding since I exited my mother's uterus, and quite frankly I'm not really enjoying any of it. Top that off with the fact that I get major anxiety when it comes to being in front of people, and you maybe start to get why I am stressed out. I am just not cut out for all of this. I would much prefer to just have a civil ceremony and take our immediate families out for a nice dinner. That is not happening, though we have made modifications to our wedding plans over the last week in order to help make it less of an ordeal for me and more a good time.

Anyways, I will probably write about this weird feeding tube thing soon, either this month or next month (maybe two blogs in one month? Eek!). However, in order to avoid wedding topics, I simply decided to write down my fitness goals for the month of May. So here they are:

1. Lift weights twice a week.--This will be very difficult for me. I abhor weight training. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it (this little mantra probably doesn't help matters either. I will have to be more positive.) In fact, I dislike this activity so much that I am giving myself an incentive to do it. I have wanted the new Trampled by Turtles album for a while now. If I can get through this month with lifting twice a week, I will by myself this album as a reward. I very rarely need to find an incentive to achieve exercise goals because just accomplishing them gives me a good high, but weights are evil.

2. Run twice a week.--I am coming off an injury, and I have not run for almost two months. I was supposed to be running Grandma's Marathon in June, but I am very doubtful I will be able to whip myself into proper shape for that event. But run twice a week. That I can do I think, provided my injury's status keeps improving.

So yes, two goals for this month, maybe not very ambitious to some people, but this whole weight lifting thing is going to be an awful challenge, so mostly I am concentrating on that. Bleck!

Working Mothers are the Cause of Childhooh Obesity

In continuing with last month's rant about stupid shit said by dumb people and men, I will today discuss the issue of working mothers and their responsibility for childhood obesity. This was also one of those cases of severe mouth diarrhea at work. It was, however, not said by anyone of the male persuasion. It was actually an older woman. I was having a discussion with her about the importance of staying active as we discovered we had exercise habits in common. Now don't get me wrong, she is a nice older woman. She is friendly to pretty much everyone, and is most certainly not dumb. The comment just sort of threw me off balance when she said it. Basically she believes it is the mother's job to be at home with the children, thus making sure they get healthy food and nourishment as well as keeping them out of trouble. She informed me that women should wait to find work that they enjoy until after their children are old enough to take care of themselves. She then insisted that there would be less cases of childhood obesity, and all the negatives that come along with it like childhood diabetes, if only the mother was there to make good homemade meals for her children. Mothers today just don't have time for that because of their careers.

I was quite angry about this when she said it, but I kept my thoughts to myself. She grew up in a very different time than I did. She has already raised her children, and she is doing exactly what she believes right by working now that they are grown ( and I suspect they have children of their own now). If she were one of my grandparents, I may have argued with her, but I get that we grew up in different time periods.

Childhood obesity is an increasing problem here in the United States as well as in other Western nations around the world. A couple of facts about childhood obesity courtesy of the CDC: childhood obesity has more than tripled in the last 30 years. In 1980, 7% of  children from ages six to 11 were obese. In 2008 about 20% of the children in that age range were obese. Childhood obesity can cause a number of problems like high cholesterol and blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. It can cause diabetes. It can cause damage to children's joints and bones. Also, children who are obese tend to be obese as adults as well. The main question of this of course is why is it happening? Why are children, and grown adults for that matter, more obese  now than they were before?

I think the main answer to that question would be we just eat more and are more sedentary now than we, as the human race, were in the past. Food has changed drastically now as well. Food high in sugar and fat are far more available than they were in the past. It is very easy to pop a few quarters in to a vending machine or to stop for fast food. We, as humans, also evolved in very different conditions than we live in now. Food at the time we evolved was scarce (there was little energy or calories). We had work very hard to find nourishment at that time period, so humans weren't really at risk for obesity. Now we have more food available than we know what to do with. The body evolved to store as much energy as it can in order to survive. Now we don't necessarily need our bodies to store energy like that because we have so much food available.

Now I'd like to examine whether or not working mothers are responsible for this. I do think it is true that people these days just don't have as much time to cook healthy meals as in the past. I do not agree that this is due to mothers working however. Most households need the extra income. It is very difficult these days to provide for a family with just one parent bringing in an income. It is for the most part necessary for mothers to work. However, even if a family is able to survive off of one income, should a mother still have to stay at home if she doesn't want to? Absolutely not! I don't understand why we as women should have to sacrifice our interests and careers just because the baby popped out of our uterus. Men are quite necessary for creating a baby too. They can help raise the child.

Not to mention the fact that generally speaking, if a child has obese parents, the child is most likely to be obese as well. I don't think it matters whether the mom is staying at home taking care of the children or working, if a good example of healthy living is not being provided, the child will probably grow to be an unhealthy adult as well. If a stay-at-home mom stays home and cooks, but makes unhealthy food, chances are her children are going to be unhealthy, and her staying at home won't help that at all. Not to mention ,there are many more healthy items at fast food places now than there were in the past. There are salads and grilled items you can choose instead of fried things. You can get apples too for crying out loud. So, not cooking homemade meals doesn't mean that you can't still make healthy choices when it comes to food for your family. Plus there are a lot of cookbooks now that provide fast, healthy, and easy recipes for people who have little time to cook, so you really can't blame working mothers for being the cause of childhood obesity.

I was mostly offended by this comment because both of my parents worked while raising my siblings and myself, and I feel like they did a pretty damn good job with it. A woman should not be tied to her home raising children when she wants a career and a life. I'm not bashing stay-at-home moms either because I respect that choice. I just feel that if a woman wants to work or wants a hobby or a life outside of children, she should be able to have one. And that's that!

Women Should't Even Bother with Sports

"Women shouldn't even bother with sports." This post falls under the category of "stupid shit said by dumb people and men." I overheard this conversation at work, of course, while typing something up on a computer. (Along with working mothers are the cause for childhood diabetes, a blog for another day.) You know, actually doing my job rather than having a severe case of mouth diarrhea, which surprisingly a lot of people have there, but that is another story altogether. It was just a passing comment by someone I really don't work with, but he works in the same building as I do. I work as contractor for the EPA. The building is full of other contractors as well as federal research scientists. In any case, he's pretty lucky I didn't punch him in the face, but I'm not a barbarian, and I have manners, so I just stewed angrily at my computer for awhile, and decided to seek revenge by writing a blog about the whole thing.

First off, this person is fairly young, probably younger than me; I don't know his exact age. Maybe I'm just too much of an optimist, but I was kind of hoping people (men mostly, but definitely including a lot of women) of my generation would be a little more able to see women as equals, as capable people. I was clearly wrong. Apparently we are just so weak and sub-par to men that we should just stay at home and have babies and cook meals for our clearly physically and mentally superior counterparts. He, quite frankly, is a moron.

This isn't the first time I have heard something like this though. I have plenty of male relatives who chuckle at the mere thought of a woman playing hockey.  Women are simply too weak, and they lack talent for that particular sport. Blah, blah, blah. This brings me to the question though, of why men's sports seem so much more exciting than women's sports to many people. This is evident by simply turning on the TV. There is far more coverage for men's sports than there is for women's. We didn't even hear a thing about the Minnesota Lynx  until they were in the WNBA finals! But we sure as fuck heard all about the Vikings needing a new stadium even though they only won what three games this entire season?! Oh yeah they really deserve our taxpayer dollars for new stadium. There are two reasons for this lack of interest for women's sports in my opinion. The first one has to do with the fact that women's physiology is different than men's (duh). The second, we simply have not been allowed to participate in sports for as long as men.

1. Now, just to be clear on the situation, I have no illusions that at elite levels women can compete with men.There is a reason there are women's and men's divisions in high level athletic competitions, such as the Olympics, for example. This starts with the fact that men have more testosterone, which promotes muscle growth. The more muscle you have, the more you can do physically. Women, while producing small amounts of testosterone, do not have as much as men do, and therefore have a higher body fat percentage than men. The reason for women to have more fat in their bodies is that women have children, and the fat helps protect unborn babies, as well as prevent a mother from dying while raising children, but that my friends is a story for another day because going into evolution and sexual selection will be quite a long blog by itself, and I may just do it sometime to bore you all to death. An example of this would be Grandma's Marathon. Last year the first man to cross the finish line did so in 2hrs and 12 min. The first woman to cross the finish line did so in 2hrs and 30 min. The man was in first place overall (obviously), and the woman was in 40th place overall. Quite a difference 18 minutes makes huh? Now she beat a shitload of men, but there were still 39 men to cross the finish before her.


Things change though when distances become longer than a marathon. When you start getting into ultra marathons, women actually finish at higher rates than men do, and women can actually win these races overall. Why? One reason is women are smaller and therefore there is less wear and tear on the body. Another is because of that extra fat we have due to lack of testosterone. We have larger fat reserves than men, and therefore have more energy to draw on in long endurance races. So BOOYA grampa!

2. We have not been allowed to compete in sports as long as men, so how can we be at the same level? I remember (and I'm not that old) when girls were allowed to start playing hockey in high school! I watched the first time women's hockey officially became a sport in the Olympics, 1998! How ridiculous it took that long! The first woman was officially entered in the Boston Marathon was in 1967, and she didn't specify sex on the entry form, so officials tried to get her off the course when they realized she was a woman. Lucky for her she had some friends running with her and they simply surrounded her, not allowing officials to get near. Women were considered too fragile and delicate to be able to run long endurance races! How many women run marathons now?!? I've even read some things that say doctors, DOCTORS, were afraid a woman's uterus would fall out if she tried to run that far! Ummmm...excuse me? Are you people for real? Give women some time for crying out loud!

So you see why this little cockroach of a man at work angered me. We enjoy challenging ourselves physically just as much as men. We enjoy participating in sports just as much as men. We enjoy competition just as much as men. On a non-elite athlete level, we can certainly kick men's asses in many sports. Where do you get it in your small peewee head that women shouldn't bother with sports? I think more people need to give women's sports a chance. You may actually be surprised at what great athletes we can be! Take the time to at least try it. Don't be a cockroach.

Morning People and General Morning Cheerfulness

There are people in this wide world who thrive in the morning. They do not need caffeinated beverages to start their day. They are cheerful even before they have a warm shower. They enjoy watching the sun come up. Early birds is what they are referred to as. They wake up all bright eyed and bushy tailed ready to greet the world with enthusiasm. I don't know about you, but the description "bright eyed and bushy tailed" brings to mind squirrels. I think of a cute baby squirrel with bight, happy eyes and a well groomed tail that is all fluffy. This squirrel is giving a little squirrel smile and holding an acorn it will probably share with you because it is such a happy, cheerful little squirrel with a good attitude. This squirrel makes me sick. I hope it goes and plays in the street for a little while, but then alas, it probably would do this in the early morning and face no consequences because there is just not that many people driving around at that time of day.

In case you have not guessed already, I am not a morning person. Don't get me wrong, I have tried. I even get up ridiculously early right now, but that does not mean I have to like it. I have tried caffeine to make me happy. Warm showers do moderately well in helping me face the early morning when it is still dark, but I find it depressing getting up before the sun has decided to grace my little part of the world with its presence. If I was a squirrel, I would not wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed. I would wake up more along the lines of bleary eyed and scraggly tailed. My acorn would probably have a parasite in it, and I would be glaring at the world, plus I would not share my parasitic acorn with anyone, at least until I had my warm shower.

I am writing this because just a little before Christmas, I got it into my head that it would be a good idea to workout before work. I would be a the gym before 5:30 in the morning and get my workout in and therefore be on a happy cloud of endorphins for the rest of my working day. In principle, it sounded like a fantastic idea, but oh how wrong I was. I found out my body just doesn't want to function at such a level in the wee hours of the morning. An hour and half of exercise is too much at that time of day. I would find myself saying, "It's ok to take it easy! It's ridiculously early! Don't worry about going all out for this workout! Why push it?" Plus, I was mostly just exhausted afterwards, and though, yes, I did have an endorphin high, I was also wiped out for the rest of the day! So work was not any better. Plus I never realized how much working out after work helped me to be chill for the rest of the night.

It also did not help, that at such early hours in the morning, I was surrounded by happy, cheerful morning do-gooders at the gym, all happy to be in each others' presence. That and they are really cliquey. It felt like high school all over again...uhg, no gracias. I do not need to repeat that little episode of my life. So though they were happy to see each other, they totally ignored anyone new. This may have to do with time of year in which I decided to do this little experiment, right before Christmas and so close to New Years. They may have thought I was a resolutioner, so I can hardly blame them for that (previous blog). Needless to say, my experiment at being a morning person did not work well, and I have retreated with my scraggly tail between my legs back to being an afternooner where I have friends who like to talk to me and who are fairly willing to talk to complete strangers working out next to them.

Now I am not evil in the early morning. I really don't want morning squirrels to be hit by cars either, that was a bit rash of me to say. I wish them well in their morning squirrel squirrellyness. I do fairly well. I know some people that will glare at you with such an angry loathing that your heart stops for a second just for asking them to pass the cereal your way. They will then proceed to slam the box down next to you. You cannot avoid this by just taking the box either because that is their territory until they deem it yours, and you will still get the heart stopping glare of death for that as well. Nope, mostly I just look at the clock, moan and groan about waking up, and then go about my business.

I guess what this comes down to is that everyone functions on their own clock. I wish I was a morning squirrel, but it just doesn't work for me, so kudos to all those who are. I will continue to try at least a little, but it is just way easier to stay up late than it is to wake up early. Sorry for the long winded blog and all that, but thanks if you actually read it!