Philadelphia Marathon

On 20 November 2011, I ran the Philadelphia Marathon.  I died just a little and questioned my sanity a lot. This wasn't my first one but it might as well have been because of the time that had passed since my first marathon (March 2010).  I had been plagued with injuries (another first) that included a bad ankle sprain, a collapsed arch, and pain on the top of my feet.  However, my stubbornness prevailed and I finished the marathon without walking.  My time, while not as good as I knew it could have been, was a PR (personal record).  Beggars can't be choosers so I'll take it.  If anything, it's made me more determined to run another and to keep PR'ing.  I'm already planning the races I'll run in 2012 in the hopes that I'll continue 2011's tradition of nothing but PR's.

Thanks to Cait for a respectable running photo!  

Jim Henson exhibit

This past Friday I drove up to Queens to visit the Museum of the Moving Image.  The museum currently has a few exhibits that I had wanted to see, mainly the Jim Henson exhibit and the Behind the Screen collection.  I've been a huge fan of Jim Henson and the muppets for as long as I can remember- Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, the Muppets, etc.  I also some other really neat stuff but didn't try to take pictures until I got to the Henson exhibit.  I was too enthralled to even remember to take pictures on my cell phone that does not have a flash.  Here's a few that I did take: 

Rowlf

Miss Piggy gets married

Such a great quote by Henson

Fraggle Rock

Yoda

The body double of the chick from the Exorcist (scene when the chick turns her head around)

Single girl living in a lonely world

Granted, I've got a few years to go before I'm this age but she hits everything on the mark:

Sometimes, Its Not You

Philly rocknroll half marathon

Just a few observations from this race.

1. There were a ton of buttchecks, tattoos on said buttchecks, and people talking on cellphones.

2. I really enjoyed the race up until mile 9. Then I died.  Up til then I was able to keep my 9 min/mile pace exactly.  Then I got slower, things got harder (thats what she said).  Part of the issue I think is the fact that I had sprained my ankle the previous Monday.  I RICE'd the crap outta it and didn't run at all.  Which made me extremely testy with everyone- sorry! At the expo Saturday I was able to have an expert tape my ankle for me using KT Tape which is the stuff the Olympic athletes used so I felt legit.  The stuff definitely helped.  But forgetting to eat breakfast did not.  I still managed to PR but not as good as I wanted with my final time being 2:03:05.

3. Even with all of that, I think that I'm still on track with my projected times of 1:30 for the Army 10 Miler and 4:00 for the Philadelphia marathon.  Granted, as long as I PR I should be happy but I know that there's always room for improvement.

And another term bites the dust

So I just finished up my fourth term here at Drexel.  One more to go- totally in the home stretch & not ready for it at all.  If I was smarter, I would have slowed things down some.  Oh well. Hindsight's a bitch.  Anyways, I just got my final grades for the summer term - A-, A-, & A+.  Unfortunately the A+ is the only one that doesn't affect my GPA at all. :( However, I did realize that I tend to do much better in the classes that I actually enjoy.  The A+ was in the content representation class in which I developed a thesauri & indexed images.  So much neater than learning how to manage or develop a collection.  In the spring, the same thing happened, with my cataloging class. So much more interesting.  Actually, if I think about it, I could trace this pattern back to high school.  I've always done much better in classes where I'm more motivated because I enjoy the subject area or because I know I'm going to have a very inspiring teacher.  As students start back, it makes me wonder if I'm the only one that learns in this manner in a constructed learning environment.  

12 Miles

So the other day I was asked how I run. As in, how I keep moving.  And well today, as I ran 12 VERY SLOOOOW miles, I pondered.  My answer? I'm stubborn.  Like disgustingly stubborn.  Some people might call it determination or perservance but it's not.  I know myself better than that.  Also, I enjoy practicing my chugging skills by practicing chugging water.  I also don't run with an ipod or watch or anything.  I know my distance and I move.  I know that I won't be the first one but I also won't be the last person.  And c'mon, lets be serious.  The people watching at these things is fantastic.  Even today, on my run during an overcast Sunday morning when normal people are either sleeping off their mistakes from last night or at mass repenting for their bad decisions, I saw some great things.  Not knowing what I'm going to see next makes me want to move that foot. But really, it comes down to wanting the bragging rights and knowing what my body is capable of.  I might not like the way my body particularly looks at times but knowing what it can do- it's an amazing feeling.

Pick-up lines

Since moving to Philly last year, I have encountered some of the best/most original pick-up lines.  The two best are as follows:

Setting: A small diner turned bar in winter. 
Scenario: This guy is chatting up my friend so his friends start talking to me. One of them asks if I'm French because of my eyebrows. His thought was that my eyebrows looked so good I must not be American. 
Still working my way through this one.

Setting: A crowded bar usually full of undergrads during the summer. 
Scenario: I'm hanging out with a just a good guy friend of mine, stupidly matching him beer for beer.  This very intoxicated kid comes up to me and starts talking, saying something along the lines of: you should dump your boyfriend and come hang with me because I love you.
Three things (at least) wrong with that particular sentence: 1. I don't have a boyfriend, I have a friend that happens to be male that I'm hanging out with 2. Why would I want to hang out with a hammered college kid that I don't know and is trying to stand up straight by himself? and 3. I definitely don't love you.

I wish I had had my notebook with me so I could have written what these guys said verbatim.