Seconds From Disaster

Behold, the incident to which I referred in my last post.

Here he comes! About one second after this picture was taken, the crash landing occurred. I looked for a picture of the guy sprawled on the pavement, but alas, there were none.

A normal picture, no sprinting goobers in sight, even though I have my "serious race face" on.

In other news, recent weather forecasts have the daytime temperatures zooming past 70 degrees over the next few days, with a high of 79 projected for Friday. All I have to say about that is: WHAT THE HELL. I'm NOT ready for that yet. I'm going to break a sweat just walking to my car at the end of the workday.

On the other hand: SKIRTS TIME!

Additionally, tonight I am going to hear two good bands in concert: Spoon and Deerhunter. I have been waiting for this for months!

Spoon - "I Turn My Camera On"

Deerhunter - "Neither of Us, Uncertainly"

OUCH!

From FAIL Blog

Come to think of it, this is exactly what happened to the guy who SPRINTED past me in the closing meters of the Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5K in Ann Arbor on March 14. He blasted past me on the left with about 10 meters to go and when he was only a few feet in front of me he completely lost his footing on the damp pavement (it had been raining that morning) and crashed to the ground so hard he actually skidded for a few feet. The sound of his bare skin scraping across the asphalt was rather...gruesome. I was hoofing it to the finish and when that guy went down in front of me I had to do a little zig-zag and hop to avoid stomping on his outstretched flailing arm. The assembled crowd emitted a collective gasp. I crossed the finish line and looked back to see him hobbling to the end.

On one hand, man, that must have hurt, and sucks to be him. On the other hand, really, dude, did you have to channel Usian Bolt in the final moments of the race? What was that all about anyway? There's finishing strong, and then there's doing so little for the entire race you have enough energy to sprint like a madman. You looked like a GOOBER.

In other news, tonight I am going to a live show featuring this fine band. I am quite excited.

Cave Singers -- "Seeds of Night"

Thursday Thought

That's right, I only have one thought:

The weather for the past two weeks has been absolutely PERFECT for running outdoors. Each time I step outside, no matter what time of day it may be, I sigh with pleasure.

I had to put that out there before we get hit with the dreaded "wintry mix" this coming weekend.

What March in Michigan giveth (64 and sunny), March in Michigan taketh away (34 and snow).

32 days to Boston!

Thursday Thoughts: Some Pictures are Worth a Few Words

Saturday, February 20, I headed for Jackson to do my first 20-miler on the Falling Waters Trail. This was the same trail on which I ran my stellar half marathon PR (1:43:01) last October. The day was cold (19 degrees) and brilliantly sunny and I was in good spirits. I ran the entire length of the trail from Jackson to Concord and back. How convenient that it's 10.2 miles one way! I even negative-split the second half, pulling out 8 sub-9:00 miles in a row to finish in 2:58 for an 8:55/mile average. I was pleased.

Mile 15 of 20 on the Falling Waters Trail in Jackson.

A week and several snowstorms later, I peeked out my window Saturday morning with the futile hope that the 13 inches of snow on the ground might have magically vanished overnight, leaving me bare, dry sidewalks and streets on which to run my 16 miles. Sadly, this was not to be. I conceded defeat at the hands of the elements and knew my only course of action was to run the miles on a treadmill. I ran the mile to my gym, ran 14 miles on the treadmill, and ran the mile home. It was dreadful. There are no words to describe how awful running 14 miles on a treadmill are. By mile 3 I was ready to quit. The thought of 11 more miles made me want to cry. I devised a plan to ease the pain: break the distance into four 3.5-mile segments and take some kind of break after each segment. That helped a lot. I went to the bathroom, walked and ate Gu, drank some water. Nevertheless, the final 2.5 miles felt like a death march. I was just so done with it I sped up the treadmill until I was running a sub-9:00 pace just so I could GET IT OVER WITH FASTER. Finally, FINALLY, I was done. But wait, there's more! I had only run 15 miles. I STILL HAD TO RUN ONE MILE HOME. And you know what, folks? That one mile outdoors was easier than the 14 which preceded it.

Thirteen inches of snow on Friday means I'm not doing my long run outside on Saturday.

The very next morning I was inside the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit, staring up through the glass ceiling of the atrium at this:

70 flights, 1,050 steps.

Yes, it was Climb Detroit time again! I participated in this event last year and had so much fun I came back for more. I want to thank especially my run-blogger friends who donated to my stairclimb fund: Redhead, Mike Fox, Zoomylicious, Mr. Loser, girlrunningaround, and JoyRuN. Thanks to you I totally crushed my goal AND helped my workplace team be the number one fundraising team this year! We raised over $8,000 for the American Lung Association.

I surprised myself by turning in a time of 11:02, which was only 9 seconds slower than my time from last year. Despite my nearly identical time, competition was much stiffer, and I finished 12/65 in my age group and 27/212 for women.

I prepare by scratching my arm.

Today for lunch I met one of my favorite run-bloggers and all-around awesome dude and great friend Spike. Not only that, I finally got to meet the one and only Redhead who is braving the tail end of this Michigan winter to hang with Spike for a few days. I am happy to report that 1. Redhead is indeed as funny and effervescent as she is on her blog and 2. They really are the cutest couple ever. I was very sad when I had to go back to work.

An epic run-blogger meetup!

Finally, when I stopped at the New Chelsea Market after my group run tonight, I saw this bottle of Malbec and knew I had to get it for the sole purpose of taking a picture and posting it here:

Sure to make Nitmos and Spike squeal in terror. Clearly, llamas are taking over the world.

SIX WEEKS to Boston!