Run, Rabbit, Run

Hello, Hi, Welcome, Bienvenido, Ni hao, Konnichiwa, Bonjour...so on, so forth.

I'm going to level with all of my viewers here: I got completely bored of the blog. Which is why, once again, it's been over two months since the last post. South Korea gave up on me. China gave up on me. Even David gave up on me. We haven't had one of his snarky comments in a long time (which, by the way Dave, you're off comment probation. You can come back now).

I ended up running the half marathon here in the great St. Louis city on Sunday April 10th, 2011. It was exciting, terrifying, electrifying, mind blowing, etc. etc. For those of you who are even the least bit physically inclined, I STRONGLY recommend running in any sort of race like this. It is an unforgettable experience. Yes, there is a lot of pain and hard work involved, but it is worth it. People are constantly cheering from the side lines of the race. You're running with thousands of other people who also trained and worked hard to reach this point, and there's a sense of unity. You're not racing against them but with them. The only thing you could be racing against is time and yourself. I guess that's the reason I never liked team sports. You're always working against somebody, and for me in gym class it was generally more against my team mates. Super competitive people made me feel inadequate. That's the reason why I hate playing football. I could never understand the game, we always played it in gym class, and I was always hounded by meat head jocks when I missed the ball (if they even bothered to throw the ball at me, that is). But I'm not bitter or anything. I think I'm pretty much over it (says my psychiatrist).

Running, biking, swimming...this are things that don't need competition. You can just do them. I guess you can just throw a ball back and forth instead of playing an actual game, but I'm going to be honest here and just flat out say it gets a little stale after awhile. At least running and biking have some change in scenery.

I'm getting a little off track. Enough about team sports and my scarred teenage years.

Yes, the race was great. I finished in 2 hours 28 mins. I regretfully didn't drink enough water along the track, took one of those Gu energy packets (these make you sick and ruin your life. Especially when you need something sustaining like water) around mile 8 and started to lose stamina a little after mile 9. I had trouble just moving at the same pace and ended up walking the rest of mile 9. After that I intermittenly ran/walked until the last mile. I had to finish that last mile strong, so I ran it and sprinted the last hundred feet or so to make it in under 2 and half hours. I didn't get my sun shirt out of the deal, but I got a lot of snacks, a neon green shirt, and a medal, which was good enough for me.

Other than that, things have remained pretty quiet. Not a lot happening and that's not okay but I can deal with it. Summer is here, or at least in my professional opinion. So, no more snow storms with ice, no more chapped lips, no more dry knuckles. Just sweat and sunburns for me.

That's all I have. I didn't really have anything loaded for this issue of The Living Blog. I'll whip up some good material for next time. Thanks for stopping in.