Will you need a cane now?

Today we celebrate as Joe enters a new age division for races.

Happy Birthday Joe!

They just don't get it

Conversation I had at work today:

Co-worker: Why are you wearing sneakers instead of regular shoes?
Me: My knee aches a little lately from running.
Co-worker: Why don't you stop running for a while? Then you can wear normal shoes again.
Me: I like running more than my job. Given the choice, I'd rather run than work.
Co-worker: [blinks a few times and gives me a "you're the short bus kind of special, aren't you" look that I seem to get a lot]

So that's what doing volunteer work gets me...

My roomate Sam and I mentor two girls at a residential treatment facility for kids with serious behavior problems (as in, they have been removed from their homes by the state). Every Wednesday night we hang out with them. They are good kids, but have issues. Anyways, tonight one of the girls had been bad today (she hits when she gets angry), so I had to stay on campus with her and hang out there in the unit where she lives (about 10 kids live in each unit and they have a common area and kitchen and dedicated staff).

So why on earth am I writing about this here? Well, in the middle of our Crazy 8s marathon, the woman who works there says to me "Make sure you use the Germinex before you leave. There's highly contagious influenza A and hand-mouth disease going around the unit." So thanks for telling me after the girl who was apparently supposed to be quaratined in her room with the flu spent five minutes looking over my shoulder and coughing. And after I spent an hour playing cards which I am sure are just riddled with kid germs.

I better not get sick. I am supposed to start to try running again on Sunday. It will have been five weeks by then! Also, I am actually going through with it, but I haven't registered yet. I know a battle with the flu will most likely make me wuss out, even though I already convinced Chrissy to do it with me. Also, I am pretty sure that if I get hand-mouth disease, they won't let me near the pool :-)

I have no clue how teachers survive being around germy kids all day.

All your baton are belong to us.

So at the Wild West Relay, the "baton" was actually a Livestrong bracelet that got passed from sweaty wrist to sweaty wrist (that's team solidarity!) But this year, I have found the perfect baton for us to carry, even though we don't need to:I guess you can't really tell, but that is a squishy stress ball. I just think that would be a riot to run (at least the first legs) with a corn cob. In Colorado, we would be representing for the midwest in the Flatlanders division. And if we do the GRR, well, we can be representing for Iowa. Because even though I know they grow corn in all those other states, everyone knows that Iowa is the quintessential corn state, at least from my East Coast perspective. People think "Wisconsin! Cheese!" And I know there are generations of detasselers that have emerged from Minnesota, but with all due respect, I hear Minnesota and I think of snow, lakes, and Lutherans (I admit that I listen to a Prairie Home Companion a little too much).

In other news, Lisa has recruited us someone who might even be able to up the badass rating of a group of scientists - her friend Andy who is a tattoo artist. So after the relay, we can all get our team name tattooed on our bodies :-) That's all I know about Andy except that he lives in the Grand Cayman Islands (which in my book must mean his side job is laundering money) and he mentioned the Canadian Death Race (which makes Canada seem a lot scarier than it is).

Please not that weekend!

Real Madrid has decided that they do not want to renew David Beckham's contract, so today, Beckham announced that he has signed a 5 year, $250 million dollar deal with MLS's LA Galaxy.

So why is he rambling about soccer on the running blog, and what the hell does the title of this post mean anyway, you might be asking yourself. Well, it has been also reported that Beckham's first game in MLS will likely be when the Galaxy face off with DC United at RFK, here in DC, in August.

I mention it here, because the game is just said to be in "late August" (the season schedule is not finalized yet). There are 4 dates that in my mind qualify as late August that the game could be on. One of them is Saturday, August 25, the weekend of the Great River Relay. (Last year, the Galaxy played at DC on Saturday, August 26th) I am hoping that it is not this date. It would be extremely cool to see this game, though since I would rather run, if I had to choose, I would choose the race.

Also, MLS Cup is in DC this year, so I will be going to that, too. For all you soccer fans out there, froth with jealousy!

Edited 2007-01-12: Rumor has it the game will not be that weekend; from what I've heard, it looks like I will be in town for the game. Sweet.

I fell in to a burning ring of fire...

I decided that since the last new thing on this blog was a comment telling us to throw away our science books or else God would cast us into a lake of fire, that a new blog entry was in order. That's the last time I mention being friends with an evolutionary biologist on this blog :-)

Anyways, so far I have fourteen people who are up for a relay this summer, and it appears that the Wild West Relay and the Great River Relay are the leading contenders and people are pretty much split between the two of them. I personally think doing both is totally doable, since the GRR is so close to here and the WWR is old hat by now.

I have to say that I am sad there wasn't as much interest in VT, since I heart VT, but on the plus side, I have more time for this hamstring to heal. And now that I am sorta thinking that a spring marathon is out of the question, maybe I'll actually do the Cornman Triathlon this year.

Whatever. I always wuss out. I just need to sucker someone else in to signing up for it with me - that'll make me do it...

GRR. Argh. This is totally going to be on our GRR t-shirts! :-)

Poll

Hello blogosphere fans of BoM,IaS!

We've begun deliberations regarding relays for this summer. So while the magic is going on behind the curtain, I am curious -- which race do you think looks the most fun?

(for the purposes of this informal survey, don't worry about considering dates and crap like that; just overall, which do you think looks the most fun)

• Wild West Relay

• Green Mountain Relay

• Great River Relay

Remember to vote early and often...

Who would run in this crap?

The other day, when I was trying to find a picture of my new running shoes on the Adidas site, I stumbled across their new line of sports clothes. Designed by Stella McCartney. The running outfits are ridiculous. Who thought this crappy idea up?

I wouldn't be caught dead running in any of these outfits! I mean, this girl is wearing a parka! She looks like she is running to lodge for a hot toddy! To admit my prejudice, I can't stand matchy matchy runners. Sometimes it happens by accident, like I like blue, so I buy a lot of blue stuff and occasionally it matches. But the pink Nike outfit?

I only won't make fun of you if you are blowing by me. And you know what? The women blowing by me are rarely all matchy matchy. Oh Adidas, I am surprised! At least your running line could be functional, even if fugly! On the website there is a girl running through the snow in a singlet and a girl running with a massive backpack on her back that doesn't look like it even has a waist belt.

I just had to rant about that. Happy new year!

Happy 2007!

I am apparently on the cutting edge of fashion now.

Not being in love with the Nikes I bought in August, I took advantage of being home to go to my favorite running store and get a new pair of running shoes. After trying about ten pairs, the woman comes out with a box and says "We just got these in four hours ago - you are the first person I have tried these out on."

And I fell in love immediately with the Adidas Supernova Cushion 6:Well, I should say back in love. I used to be in love in Supernova Cushions a couple of years ago. Ran my first distance race in them. But then they changed and the relationship couldn't go on.

I have had a few romances in between, the most serious being with the Asics Nimbus, but they changed too! And so I had to move on.

And in the meantime, my lovely Supernovas had improved. And now we have reunited and all is bliss. The best part is that the Supernova is totally a cheap date in comparison to the Nimbus - $35 cheaper.

Oh and here is a Runners World story from yesterday. On my flight from Detroit to Des Moines, while my friend Chris was in the back of the plane being harassed by the old lady next to him because he made the mistake of saying he was an evolutionary biologist, I was sitting next to nice little old lady myself (one who had to be escorted in on a wheelchair).

I had taken my magazines, including RW and put them in the pocket in front of me. I was reading another magazine, and this woman apparently didn't realize that these were my magazines. Obviously bored, she reaches right in front of me and picks up my RW.

I thought she might just pick it up, flip through, and then put it back. But she didn't. She started reading. For a while there, I was concerned I might not get it back - I kept thinking "Oh no! I haven't read this one! But I would be embarassed if I took someone else's magazine without knowing, so I don't want to point out this fact!"

So I sat reading my other mags, trying to to peek to see what sort of articles an old lady in a wheelchair reads in Runner's World. Eventually just as I was beginning to accept that I might not read this issue, right before we started going down into DSM, she put it back (phew!) and we chitchatted the rest of the flight (that was my offensive tactic to ensure that the magazine stayed in my pocket until I could grab it discreetly :-)).