Philly Phun

Of course, I cannot escape hockey wherever I go. Even now that the Penguins are out of the running, of course the Flyers are right in the mix. And of course, EVERYONE IN PHILLY was watching that stuff while I was there. There were even outdoor screens set-up and fireworks. I guess there are an unlimited number of seats on the bandwagon....

Back to the point -- I went to Philly to visit Matt, not to be tortured by my least favorite sport. As usual, we had a fantastic time (aside from the very exhausting mile 3 of our race. I would not call that a fantastic time). I was very happy to meet one of his friends in particular, and we became somewhat of a trio for the weekend. I really enjoyed spending some time with one of my good friends from the Pitt days as well. We spent most of the weekend eating and drinking (Philly Beer Week!).

I've become less of a photo fanatic (I won't allow myself to use the fake "ph" prefix more than once in my blog, EVER) these days, but I did manage to get one really good picture of us:

A Running Tally, pt. 3

First and foremost, I would like to announce that I successfully completed an 8k (5 mile) race! On the internet, there is photographic evidence to prove this! I am not posting it here for two reasons: a) the photographer is some kind of Flash genius and made it difficult to obtain the photo without paying a $55 download fee and b) It's probably the most atrocious photo ever taken of me.

Race details:

• 6/5/2010: Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K, Moorestown, NJ
• Time: 43:14.39 / 8:42 minute miles (My actual time was under 43 but they haven't released the chip times yet. I was too exhausted when I crossed the finish line to stop my stopwatch!)
• Course conditions: A few low downhill spots in the beginning, mostly flat, a few inclines at the end -- nothing too extreme either way. We ran through the town of Moorestown for "Moorestown Day", so the entire course was on road pavement.
• Weather conditions: Very muggy and hot. Some citizens watching the race were kind enough to squirt us with hoses en route.
• Ran with: Matt and some of his Back on My Feet friends
• Additional comments: 
• I've found that a nice strategy is to kind a person running a pace close to mine, and hang behind this person for the duration of the race. In this case, it ended up being Matt's friend Abby. Once we got to about the mile mark, I decided that my main goal was to beat her in the race.
• Again, I had too much energy left at the end and was basically able to sprint 0.25 miles.  I need to work on pacing myself better throughout the race.  I'll cut myself some slack this time, since this was only my first 5 miler (and I think only the second time I've ever run 5 miles in a row!)

Upcoming race update:

• 7/17/2010: Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest 2010 (8k), Rockville, MD
• Running with Lauren and some of her co-workers during my visit to D.C.!
• NEW: Now Phill is joining us too! We're making the trip to D.C. together
• 7/31/2010: Run for Roch 5k, Mt. Washington
• 8/28/2010: Run Around The Square 5k, Regent Square
• My co-worker Lauren is interested in participating with me
• 9/26/2010: Pittsburgh Great Race 10k, Frick Park to downtown
• I think Joe has been convinced to sign up, so hopefully I'll be running with him!

A Running Tally, pt. 2

I have an addition to my running tally!

Races Completed

• 5/22/2010: Jaxson's Jog 5k, North Park (Allison Park, PA)
• Time: 25:13 / 8:08 minute miles
• Course conditions: Very nice course, flat overall with a couple of slight inclines. The surface was pavement. I like races where we run half of the way out and then loop around and run back to the starting point. It's nice to have a good gauge on how much farther you have to go.
• Weather conditions: muggy and the potential for rain. Amazingly, it only rained right before and after our race. In a way, it would've been nice to have a bit of a drizzle to cool us down.
• Ran with: Lauren C
• Additional comments: 
• Having a couple of beers with dinner and a burger last night = bad idea. My stomach was bothering me a little from that, and I was getting side stitches too. Next time I need to have a light dinner and NO drinking! I had to stop to walk a bit a couple of times. Thinking back, if I had pushed through a bit more, I could've broken 25 minutes! That is my goal for next time.
• A blonde woman in a blue shirt and I kept passing each other throughout the last couple of miles or so. During the last half mile, I was really hurting (I thought we were finishing right where we started, but it turns out we had to go a little farther). She passed me out with probably a tenth of a mile to go. Was I going to let this lady beat me? I THINK NOT. I'm not sure from where I pulled this extra energy, but I was able to flat out sprint to the finish line and beat her by two seconds. I tend to race against my previous time and also whoever happens to be around me at the end of the race. VERY SATISFYING. I hope you enjoyed the view, blondie.

I'm really, really happy with my results today.  Now let's see how I will do with 5 miles in two weekends.  I'm not expecting to run 8 minute miles in the 5 mile race, but I'd like to at least keep it at 9 minute miles if I can. Hopefully Dr. Dre and Snoop will be able to help me push through the additional 1.9 miles.

YAY GROWN UP SPORTS! I really was starting to feel like I was missing something in my life. I loved athletic/competitive activities throughout my childhood and high school. During college I focused on other things, so I didn't miss it too much. I'm at the point now where running is definitely filling that void for me. Unlike other sports, I feel like it's more of a competition with myself than anything else. It's also something that people of all ages can do.  I hope to keep participating in many more races throughout the rest of the year!

Blah Blah Gah Gah

 decided that I'm over Lady Gaga. That's right, I said it! I was really almost even obsessed with her for a couple of months. And just like she flew into my music charts, she's now flown out.

I'm not sure what did it exactly. Part of the problem: I put two Lady Gaga songs on my workout mix that just did not work out (ha ha) for me. I kept forgetting to remove them, though, so after awhile I got really annoyed even hearing the first few beats of these songs.

I was also angry that I couldn't purchase reasonably priced tickets for her September concert. It must be nice to know that people would pay >$100 to see you perform. I couldn't possibly justify this, though, since I didn't even pay that much to see MADONNA! (Side note: I forget how much I actually paid to see Madonna, but I think it was closer to $50. We purchased pretty crappy seats at the FU Arena in Philly. The venue happened to be under renovation, and we got upgraded to the 9th row. It was the most amazing concert ever. I was so close that I could see Madonna's thigh muscles ripple as she danced on stage! Not Madonna on the Jumbo-thron -- actual Madonna's legs!)

Back to the point.... sorry Gaga. GAME OVER.

A Running Tally

My major goal for this year is to be more active, get into great shape, and get my weight down. I do admit that's been my goal probably for the past 5 years, but I've actually been acting upon it this year. I've lost about 15 pounds since January, which feels great (ideally I'd like to lose 15-20 more pounds). 

Running has been my passion lately. In order to keep track of my races, I'd like to start writing them down in here (NERD ALERT: I also keep a spreadsheet of my daily/semi-daily runs).

Races Completed

• 4/10/2010: Teach for America 5k, Schenley Park
• Time: approximately 28:48 (it was very unorganized w/no official time posted) / approx 9 minute miles
• Course conditions: ROUGH.. last stretch included a very steep incline. I doubt 5ks planned by non-college students would generally involve hills like this.
• Weather conditions: a bit chilly (maybe in the 50s) but sunny and comfortable once we started running
• Ran with: Joe
• 4/25/2010: Burgs Pizza& Wing Pub 5K, Montour Trail
• Time:  27:07 / 8:45 min miles
• Course conditions: Relatively flat on a limestone surface.
• Weather conditions: Rain was in the forecast, but we had nice weather. I think it was in the mid-60s and sunny
• Ran with: Phill

NOTE: At this point "dear old Dad" (as he calls himself) asked me if I was ever going to run a race with a heterosexual... I know he didn't mean anything bad by this. It was a situation where I both rolled my eyes and laughed.

•  5/9/2010: Race for the Cure, Schenley Park
• Time: 26:26 / 8:31 miles
• Course conditions: much better than the other course in Schenley. There were a few hills, but nothing was terribly steep. In addition to running through the park, we also ran on some city streets in Sq Hill (unlike the other race in Schenley, traffic was actually blocked from using the roads. I have to say, that felt a little safer to me!!)
• Weather conditions: quite chilly, so the what-to-wear question was a bit tricky. I think it was around 40 degrees for the start of the race. I ended up wearing capris, a t-shirt, and a track jacket for the run (and I was definitely over-heating to some extent during the race)
• Ran with: Lydia (I promptly called my dad to tell him that I ran my first race with a heterosexual...)

Upcoming Races

• 5/22/2010: Jaxson's Jog (proceeds to go Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia research) 5k, North Park Boat House in Allison Park 
• Running w/my co-worker Lauren or doing my first solo 5k!
• 6/5/2010: Scott Coffee Moorestown Rotary 8K Race, Moorestown, NJ
• Running with Matt (and possibly some of his running friends) during my visit to Philly!
• 7/17/2010: Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest 2010 (8k), Rockville, MD
• Running with Lauren and some of her co-workers during my visit to D.C.!
• 9/26/2010: Pittsburgh Great Race 10k, Frick Park to downtown
• I think Joe has been convinced to sign up, so hopefully I'll be running with him!

I've already signed up for the races above; they're in the books! I'm hoping to do a few more as well. I'd really like to do the Father's Day 5k (if I can convince my sister to do it with me. It occurs on the weekend my mom and sister are visiting) to support prostate cancer research.

More running updates to come!

Kid to Adult: Transition 87% complete

I attended my first bridal shower yesterday. I feel like this is the tip of the iceburg and there will be more to come soon. (ADULT THINGS)

After hearing horror stories about other bridal showers, I was kind of dreading this one. In all honesty, I actually enjoyed myself though.  They didn't really have any games, which is probably why it didn't make the bridal shower horror story list.

The closest thing to a game was an adult drink sampling.  The maid-of-honor made several drinks, and we were to vote on our favorite. The drink with the most votes will be the featured drink at the wedding. One of the girls at my table coined the name "The Dreather" for the drink (marriage of Heather and Drew).

Heather's fiance is in the Navy. I am really hoping the singles table will include some unattached Navy men....

Back to the Blogosphere

Here I am - another attempt at a blog. In this day and age, the one-liner is making some great headway. While I enjoy letting the world of Facebook know my thoughts one at a time, I've missed documenting my life's amusing and traumatizing experiences in paragraph form.

I stuck with this pretty consistently as a high schooler (Xanga) and a college kid (Livejournal). Now I'm a grown-up, so I've graduated to Blogger. How mature!

And now, I'll wrap up my first post. I'm heading to bed early(ish), as I'm waking up early to go for a jog in the morning. The Xanga/Livejournal blogger inside me probably would never have believed that one!