Race Results to date

Papa John's 10 Miler
Time:
Finish = 2:12:22
Pace: 00:13:14 minute mile
Run Speed: 4.53 miles/ hour

Goose Creek 5k (3.1 miles)
Time:
Finish = 35:58
Pace: 00:11:34 minute mile
Run Speed: 5.18 miles/ hour

Derby Festival Mini-Marathon (13.1 miles)
April 26, 2008
Times:
5k = 1:17:10
10k = 1:55:51
15k / Finish = 2:43:33
Pace: 00:12:29 minute mile
Run Speed: 4.81 miles/ hour


Next Year's Goals for the Papa John's 10 Miler and the Mini Marathon:
Papa Johns: finish in 2 hours or better with a pace of 00:12:00 minute miles and running speed of 5.0.
Mini Marathon: finish in 2:30:00 or better with a pace of 00:11:27 minute miles and runing speed of 5.23.


I really think that I can easily do better than that, assuming I can further strengthen my weak knees. I plan to continue training and reevaluate this later

Beating a Dead Horse

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in todays environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that "No horse is too dead to beat."
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is "better, faster and cheaper" dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

from: http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Beating_a_Dead_Horse

Earthquake...

Writing with a purpose for a change ...

So .. this morning we had an earthquake. The epicenter was in Illinois but it was about a 5.2 and we felt it pretty good here.

It was literally at 5:38 this morning and I know that because at 5:39 I sent a 'Holy shit! Was that an earthquake?' text message out then called someone to make sure it wasn't a weird dream.

I figured it was so because I remember the last earthquake and here is a quick recap .. I was in between classes so I came home take a nap. Into the napping part it felt as if they were jackhammering in my street. Oddly enough they WERE actually doing construction at the time .. but were gone to lunch, so it wasn't unbelieveable until I looked outside and saw no one. Hence .. the earthquake ..

This morning when I woke up and things were rattling I knew right off the bat what was happening. My front bedroom window rattled and creaked pretty bad so it had to be decently stronger than the last quake. I think it may have lasted about 15 - 30 seconds but I was barely awake.

I hate to say this but I will... earthquakes are fascinating to me and I ONLY say this because I don't live near them and I am ignorant of first hand knowledge in regards to how dangerous they are. I'm guessing it is the same with a lot of people who don't live in an earthquake zone because all I heard today was 'did you feel the earthquake? wasn't that cool?' Again .. to us it's a little rattling and a few crooked photos about once every 5 or 6 years .. we are fascinated because of ignorance .. but at that same time that is one of the reasons that I don't live close to a fault line ... so I prefer the ignorant fascination to knowing how bad they can be. Same applies to hurricanes ..


Here's the best part ..

In my opinion we humans get so self absorbed into thinking that we are the ultimate dominant force on the planet. We have completely taken over this place and our hands have removed the natural element from just about everything that we can. We're ruining the planet and doing damage that we haven't quite grasped the extent of.

This quake and every other natural disaster like this, as bad as they really are, send a painful reminder to us that we are NOT invincible and that everything is NOT within our control. While for some people this reminder wipes out their comforts that they had yesterday, for distant people like myself, that little shake was a gentle reminder to quit taking things for granted.

Now combine that with the weather that we've had for the past few months (and tonight) and I'm, as always, concerned with where things are headed..


Sorry for any typos .. thiis is from my babytop.. :)

A Few Updates .. :)

I need to get on here more often ...

1.) We did the Papa John's 10 Miler this past weekend. For 3 reasons I'm not 'allowed' to do the races anymore, but I decided to test the waters and see how it goes. Needless to say we're doing a 5k on the 12th of April (with the intent of running the whole thing) and then the mini - marathon on the 26th (i think .. it's that saturday). I came in at 2:12:22 and came in 12 minutes ahead of the 3 people I was with. Considering one is consistently WAY ahead of us and I am not a runner by a long stretch, I was pretty pleased.

2.) I got Derby press passes for myself and two others. I am thrilled about that!! This is my 3rd year shooting the Derby events and I can't wait to take advantage of the additional access!!

3.) I ordered myself the Nikon D300. I needed a longer lasting 2nd camera and the D1X batteries are shot lived. This is supremely rated and will be very loved in my house. I think it will be great because we all know that I won't put down the D50 for a second, so now I'll just consistently carry two cameras ... I can't wait until it arrives!

4.) We're up to going to the gym 6 days a week now and putting in 1.5-2 hours. I'm really pushing myself on the weight training .. at this point I'm going for getting my upper body and mid section in better shape.. look good now but there's always room for improvement. I'm pretty pleased with things right now but while I'm using the gym as a work de-stress tool I may as well make the most of it .. :)

5.) We had a flickr meet this past weekend and it was a pretty good time. I definitely learned that it's better to not announce that you hate your photo being taken because that causes people to take more of them. I probably should have just went with it .. but if you saw 90% of the photos of me you'd know why I hide .. I know I know .. we all hate photos of ourselves but I can't help but think mine are just awful!!