Remembrancy

When my friend Leigh and I were training for our first marathon, she had some issues with her knees and our coach suggested we spend time in the pool (both aqua jogging and swimming as our cross-training). During this time, I also had some car problems and was spending a lot of time riding my bike around town. Because we were already running and I was already biking and we were now going to add swimming to the mix, I suggested we give a triathlon a try.

For me, the beauty of triathlon was that I could do two things I love (biking and swimming) and mix them with something I really dislike (running). Now, when I set my mind to try and do something new, I research it to death.

One day, when I was in the book store looking at all of the triathlon books, I came across a book called “Slow Fat Triathlete: Live Your Athletic Dreams in the Body You Have Now” by Jayne Williams. Let me tell you, I LOVE this book. It was so great to read a book that wasn’t written by some elite triathlete. This book was written by someone like me, someone who was overweight but didn’t let that stop her from getting out there and trying a triathlon. Williams told her story with a great sense of humor and I really related to her.

After reading this book, I was ready to give some triathlons a go. And I did. In the summer of 2007, I did a super sprint tri, a couple of sprint triathlons and attempted an Olympic distance triathlon (which I was not prepared for). In 2008, I started the season with Team in Training with another Olympic distance triathlon (which, thanks to a great coach, I was totally prepared for) and a few sprint distance triathlons. In 2009, I completed another really rough race. My first ever half Ironman triathlon (for those who don’t know what a half Ironman is: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run and yes, those are all completed back to back to back in the same day).

Triathletes are some of the greatest people. You are cheered along the whole race by others out there with you. If they see you are struggling, they are going to encourage you. We love this sport and we want to see it succeed and we want to watch it continue to grow.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that another half Ironman is in my future. Right now I’m working out a schedule for what races I will be attending in 2010. I love triathlon season and I am proud to say I am a triathlete. Even if I don’t win my age group, even if I am not at my ideal weight, even if I am the last one across the finish line, I AM A TRIATHLETE

Ok, I admit it, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had a runner’s high :). But I do try and run. In January 2007, I ran my first (and only) marathon.

I had attended a meeting in June 2006 with a group called “Team in Training (TNT).” I really liked what they were providing for a destination race. They would give you a coach, a training schedule, they paid for you hotel, race entry and airfare and they provided weekly group training sessions. In exchange for all of this, if you signed up with the group, you agreed to raise a set amount of money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The fundraising amount was a little scary (it was almost $4000) but TNT did have what they called recommitment where you reach the halfway point in your training and determine whether or not you are going to continue on to the race and continue with your fundraising or you could drop out. If you dropped out, 100% of what you had already raised would go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I learned several things while training for my first ever marathon. The first was that running is 80% mental. It was amazing to see how far I could continue to push my body when my mind was telling me I couldn’t continue. I think too often we let our mind dictate what is going to happen in our lives. Sometimes we have to block out what our head is telling us and listen to our bodies or our hearts.

Another thing I learned is that right now, I don’t ever want to run another marathon. Of course, I know there is a possibility that this could change but right now, I say no way. It’s funny because our coach told us that when we were done with our race, we would know right away whether or not we wanted to do it again. One of the girls I trained with (who is a great friend now) finished strong and when I saw her right after, she said, “I want to do that again!!” I said, “That was tough and I am not ready to commit to another one.”

Finally, I learned that it is a lot more fun to run in a race than it is to train for that race. When you are training for a marathon, you are commiting huge chunks of time during your week to training. The race does make the training worth it but it is a very big time commitment.

My actual race was a tough one. I live in Tennessee and the race we chose to go to was in Arizona. The temperature on race morning ended up being the coldest they had seen in sixteen years. It did warm up, though as the sun came out. Because I was not used to the elevation, I hit a wall about mile eleven and could not get my breathing under control anytime I was running. I ended up walking over half of the marathon and finished in 6:24:42.

Mom & Dad had come out for the race and my dad met me about mile 21 and kept me company for a little while which was very helpful. And I was happy to finish under the seven hour cutoff time for the race (we did have a couple of people on our TNT team who did not make the cutoff).

I am proud to be able to say that I have completed a marathon and every so often I think I would like to try and beat my finish time but then I think about all of the training that has to go into it. At that point, I decide to stick to half marathons and my favorite–triathlons (for more information on these, you’ll have to read my “S” post tomorrow).

I am a reader. I enjoy reading (I’m sure you couldn’t tell from my book reviews). My absolute favorite books to read are those written by Jane Austen. I love the manners, the dancing, the struggles and the end result. “Pride and Prejudice” is the one book I read at least once a year and “Persuasion” is my second favorite writing of Austen’s. I love that it takes almost eight years before the hero and heroine of this book get their happy ending because not everything in life goes as we plan.

Now, I am definitely a bigger fan of fiction than I am on non-fiction. I love the escape from the real world and the ability to live in someone else’s life for a little while. Some of my favorite authors are Jude Devearaux, Nora Roberts, James Patterson, John Grisham, Ted Dekker and Robert Ludlum. And I am always looking for other authors I enjoy reading. I have a tendency to find an author I like and then read through all of their books.

Quidditch was mentioned in my “Q” title but I have not yet read the “Harry Potter” series. I plan to get to it at some point but right now, with the popularity and the movies, I feel like I know too much about it. I would like to be surprised when I read it.

Who are your favorite authors? Any recommendations?

It’s official. We are into the NHL playoffs. There is something so great about playoff season in any sport but I think this is especially true in hockey.

Hockey teams play 82 regular season games (41 at home and 41 on the road). They have spent five months of the regular season trying to get one of the elusive playoff spots (top eight teams in each conference get a playoff spot). Once the team has secured their playoff spot, then it’s a waiting game to see who they will end up playing in the first round.

Once the playoffs start, it’s a best of seven series. So, my 7^th seed Nashville Predators are playing the 2^nd seed Chicago Blackhawks. They played the first game of the series on Friday night and what a game it was. The Predators pulled away with that win (in Chicago).

I knew that the Chicago Blackhawks were going to come in and play hard because they were going to be mad about losing that first game and home and they would not want to come to Nashville and play with no wins under their belts. And play hard they did, after a period and a half of no score, the Blackhawks finally put one in net and pulled ahead. Final Score in last night’s game was Nashville 0 Chicago 2.

Now, Nashville will welcome its team back with excitement for the next two playoff games (Tuesday and Thursday) and we root them to their first ever first round victory. We are ready for the team to make it to the second round!!

LET’S GO PREDATORS

About three years ago, a couple friends and I decided that we would give E-harmony a try for a year. We weren’t meeting guys at church and we each knew a couple who had met through an online dating website.

After about three months, I had emailed back and forth with a few guys and had even talked to one guy on the phone a little bit. I had just started talking to one guy (let’s call him M) and he told me that because he had two children, it would probably be kind of tough to meet in person. I was fine with the because I am able to express myself a lot better in writing than I am on the phone or in person with new acquaintances. Plus, it was really important to me to become very good friends with someone before a relationship would go any further.

We had been emailing back and forth for about three weeks when I got an email from M and he informed me that his parents were coming to town to visit and they could watch the kids if I wanted to meet up with him. I agreed to meet because I was trying to give this whole online thing a chance and taking a step like this was good for me. He then asked me for my phone number so he could call me before we met up.

When I hung up the phone after that phone call, I knew I had made a mistake. The biggest clue was when M told me that he had been on E-harmony for two years and this is the first time he had talked to someone on the phone. BUT, I wasn’t going to stand the guy up and I wanted to still give him a chance. I mean, I am awkward on the phone when I first talk to someone.

We had agreed to meet at a restaraunt at a local mall. We were going to have dinner and then afterward, walk around the mall and chat. So, Friday night after work, I headed over to the mall with the plan that one of my co-workers was going to call me at 9:00 (when the mall closed) to make sure everything was alright.

M and I sat down to dinner and he proceeds to tell me that his parents really want him to get married and they have been paying for his E-harmony membership for the past two years (by the way, this guy was 40). And then the conversation just got weird. Because M’s parents paid for his membership, he let them see all of the pictures and read the email conversations. He told me that as he was showing his parents the pictures of me that we online, he came to the full body shot and his dad said, “Is she naked.” M. then started telling me that his parents practically had us married already and he wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to follow us around that night. (Guys, please note, these are NOT the things you want to say to a girl when you are meeting her for the first time). There was also quite a bit of conversation about money (and how he didn’t have any)

We finally made it through dinner and M. started talking about what a great cook his mother was and how she had brought these amazing cookies with her for he and his kids. And then he pulls out some cookies wrapped in plastic wrap and said that she told him he could bring some as long as he promised to share them with me. This little stunt has earned this guy the nickname of “Cookie Boy” with some of my friends.

As we were leaving the restaraunt, M. says (loud enough for several people to hear), “Dessert was the cheapest part of dinner.”

We decided to go ahead and walk around the mall a little bit. M asked me if there were any stores I wanted to look in. I said, “No, I don’t like to shop and I especially hate to window shop.”

We made one turn around the mall when he asked me if he could go into the Apple store to look at a new product. In retrospect, I don’t know why he wanted to look at this because with all of the talk at dinner, I knew he wouldn’t be able to afford it. So, we went into the apple store so he could window shop.

After this, we sat down on one of the benches and he asked what I thought. The conversation went something like this:

M: “So, what do you think?”

Me: “What do I think of what?”

M: “Do you think this could work? I thought this went really well.”

Me: “As I’ve been saying, I really want to take things slow and before anything happens, I want to develop a strong friendship.”

M: “Oh, I totally agree.”

Intercom: “The mall will be closing in ten minutes, please make your final purchases.”

We got up to leave and M asked me what I was doing the following Tuesday (which happened to be around Valentine’s Day). I actually had plans for that day. He told me that a local restaraunt was having a couples dinner thing. He then asked me if I liked Astronomy. I told him he wasn’t really into it and he proceeded to invite me to the observatory to watch a meteor shower with him and his kids. He couldn’t remember exactly what night it was so he was going to email the information.

When I got to my car, I called Shannon and told her that I had made it and proceeded to tell her all about the night I had just had. We still laugh about this night.

An hour after I got home, I had an email from M telling me that he really enjoyed our time together and he wanted to pass along the information for the meteor shower to me. He suggested I come to his church and he and his kids and I could go out from there. He then told me that he really wanted me to meet his kids and asked if I could come to his apartment for dinner and to watch a movie.

I had to tell him once again that I wanted to take things slowly and going to church with him and, especially, meeting his kids were really huge steps in a relationship that I wasn’t ready for. He told me that he was used to the one wanting to take things slowly so this was weird for him.

Nothing more ever came of this. I ended up telling him that I didn’t feel this was something I wanted to persue and I have not heard from him nor seen him since.

While one of my friends ended up marrying a guy she met on E-harmony that year, I just ended up with a couple of stories. But they are some pretty good (bad) date stories.