Helllloooo out there

*briefly popping her head up for a breath from her dissertation submersion*

I have hesitated posting since there hasn't been much to say lately.

Here is a brief list describing the past 2.5 weeks:

• I have first drafts off all my science chapters!
• I think my entire dissertation sucks.
• I really hope everyone feels this way when they are a week out from submitting it.
• I'M A WEEK OUT FROM SUBMITTING IT TO MY COMMITTEE!!!
• So much work left to do.
• Instead I'm blogging.
• I started running again, yay!
• But I'm only up to two miles, boo.
• Also, the hills aggravate my butt, boo.
• And the hills are unavoidable.
  
• And they are big ass hills.
• I love my new place.
• Even though sometimes junkies shoot up behind the building and then yell things.
• But in Ames, I lived less than a quarter mile from the fire station and hospital, so my city apartment is overall quieter than my Ames hous.
• I officially no longer have a valid driver's license because this state is a big fat stupid dumb state that makes it impossible to prove residency.
• This is awesomely not a huge deal since I can walk or bike everywhere I need to go quite easily.
• I should probably go back to work.

On edit: I think I shall go to this bar mitzvah on Wednesday, in honor of Joe. This bar is like a quarter mile from me and really is like a beer snobs paradise (I'm looking at you Glaven).

I'm in Seattle!

I'm here!

I took the scenic route through North Dakota.

It snowed in Montana.

I picked up my friend Tamara in Billings and she has been acting as my personal shopper, helping me figure out how to best lay out my room and what pieces I need from a combination of thrift stores, Ikea, and Target.

I got my first new bed ever and it is really nice.

My roommate is really nice. She has a framed award on the wall from when she won her division at the Vancouver Half-Marathon (1/216).

She's fast.

I live half a block from a Wine Warehouse.

I live five blocks from the Theo Chocolate Factory. They have a tasting room.

The weather has been gorgeous and sunny in Seattle every day and we have been able to see Mt. Rainier daily. It really is huge. If you look to the left out my bedroom window, you can watch the sun set over the Olympics.

On the bad side...

I still can't run.

And I have to get back to my stupid dissertation. I have 11 days to finish this chapter. That's not a lot.

Worst. Race. Ever.

OK, it wasn't really my worst race ever. That would be the Rattlensake Master in 2003, when I pulled a DNF due to stomach problems. This may have been my worst race that I finished since high school, though. I ran a 10k and finished with an even worse time than the 2007 New Years' Day 10k I did in Palo Alto after not running for a month due to a sprained ankle and hamstring problems (I didn't even think of that as a race, to the extent that I apparently didn't even blog about it). To be fair, the altitude of that race was about 5 feet with very few hills, and this was a moderately hilly course at about 5000 feet. Forget the time. I got smoked by a girl on a climb. That Does Not Happen.

Well, I won't forget the time completely. I came in at exactly 40:00, in 5th place. The course was exactly the same as the other 10k in July that I ran almost 3 minutes faster. I didn't warm up very well for this race, but that's not why I ran poorly. I just wasn't in good enough shape. I might have gone out a little fast; in the last half of the race my turnover felt good but I was in too much pain to extend my stride much.

Conclusion: I need to hit the track. I don't really like track work that much in the best of circumstances, and it's really hard a mile up in the air, but I need to do it. I have been doing tempo and segment runs occasionally, but I've been doing them on trails where I'm probably using sharp turns and hills to take breaks.