Oops . . . I did it again!

That is . . . neglecting my blog! Sorry, folks. Crapz been crazy lately! Here's the short version--I promise to elaborate more later on (with pictures . . . oooooh yeah):

Worked like a dog; sprinted all over NYC in search of a new dress; went to Italy for a wedding/vacay; climbed up and down billions of steps without the slightest bit of knee pain; wore 4-inch heels for an entire night without knee pain (hot damn!); traveled for 24 hours straight to get back to NYC from Italy; returned to work 10 hours later; started an interior architecture/design class through Parsons; fell all the way down a flight of marble stair at work and busted my elbow/wrist/hand/fingers and bruised/skinned my entire body; was imediately thereafter attacked by the vultures that are my firm's HR department; spent far too long at the ER waiting for an x-ray after being given the wrong medication (um, oops!); returned to work the very next day (today) with my left arm in a sling. Okay, whew! We are officially caught up!

This weekend, the boyf and I are headed upstate to hit up some haunted hayride/house deal . . . and to do some serious hiking. THEN, I owe you all some comments and an explanation as to how on earth I managed to fall down a flight of marble stairs. Oh how I wish we had a video of this . . . because it was GRACEFUL. Let me tell you, being known as "the girl who fell down the stairs"? Sure beats my last work nickname! I kid, I kid!

Congrats to all of you who have rocked it in the race world recently . . . I'm slowly but surely getting caught up on your blogs. Oh, and best of luck to all those with marathons coming up as well! Ah, it's good to be back!

Chicago Marathon

Hey y'all. Just looked myself up on the runner tracker for the Chicago Marathon. Apparently I would have worn bib number 43540 were I actually running. Ha, if you'd like to, you can track me . . . but just to warn you, that start point is going to remain at 0:00:00. That is, unless . . . I hopped on a plane RIGHT NOW! What do you think? Would they still let me start?

On a more serious note, let's pray the weather is kind to the many runners out on that magnificent course right now. I feel like the race organizers HAVE to be more prepared for the heat this year than last . . . it certainly seemed that way based on the sheer number of race-week emails I received. I'm hoping for the best . . .

Throw-back post

As a result of the fact that I have nothing interesting to say . . . um . . . ever, I've decided to post an email I sent to my little sis shortly after completing my first 18-mile training run ever. Yes, friends, this was back in the sad days when I didn't have a blog . . . also known as "the days when everyone I knew set up email rules to automatically filter all mail from me to a folder entitled "more boring running drivel." Ha, it's actually really funny to stumble upon this stuff now. Hope you enjoy my tale of conquering 18 miles and learning a little something on the way.

So I'm not sure how this happened, but I made another "friend" during my long run on Saturday. As will happen in 20-something degree temps with 500 mph arctic winds, my fully-charged ipod died REALLY quickly (we're talking under an hour here). Although this saddened me a bit, I ultimately decided to pull off my headphones and throw the ipod in my pocket, thinking I'd get in touch with my inner naturalist and take in some of the glorious sounds of mother nature (I don't know--for some reason this made sense to me at the time).

So there I was, running along, and all of a sudden this chipper-looking runner man approached from the opposite direction and yelled out to me, "there's a red-tailed hawk up the way, if you'd like." I had no idea what to say to this, so I just responded (way too excitedly) with, "OH really?!" And he was like, "Yep, once you pass the second light-post, take a look up at the top of the tree on the left there." "Oh, AWESOME. THANKS SO MUCH!" (I tend to get really giddy and over-the-top enthusiastic in awkward situations . . . think this is bad? you should have seen my reaction when my (now ex-) boss came to tell me that she was "leaving" the firm--aka, her ass had been fired because we gave her such a scathing "upward review"). But anyway, since I WAS trying to get in touch with nature (and mostly because I was scared the guy would look back and be pissed that I didn't stop to look at the dumb bird), I paused in front of the tree and stared up into it for a bit. The bird just sat there, not really doing anything. I tried really hard to get excited, but to be honest, I had no idea what the heck was supposed to be so exciting about the bird in the first place (was it the fact that it had a red tail? did it have magical Harry Potter-esque powers? was it supposed to be one of my--or the dude's--ancestors?). So after maybe 15-20 seconds, I got scared it might poop on my head and decided to continue on my way (I figured that was long enough to make it look like I was interested anyway).

Later that night, I started to feel badly about not being interested in the bird, figuring it was probably some kind of endangered species or something . . . so I actually got on the computer and googled it. I clicked on a promising-looking entry on Cornell's website and, on the edge of my seat, excitedly read the description of the red-tailed hawk: " . . . the most common and widespread hawk in North America." WHAT?! I was totally pissed. You mean to tell me that I added an extra 15-20 seconds onto my time to look at the most common and widespread hawk on the continent?! DAMN YOU, RED-TAILED HAWK GUY. Anyway, just thought I'd share that experience with you because, frankly, I'm still kind of laughing about it.

Also, please promise me you'll never train for a marathon. Running 18 miles hurts REALLY BADLY, as I learned on Saturday. I can only imagine what running 26.2 will feel like . . . God help me!

A Bit Slow . . . In More Ways Than One!

Hey y'all! As you can see, this post is about the many ways in which I am "slow" . . . or rather, it's about two ways in which I'm slow (I'm too tired/hungry/lazy to come up with more than that--lay off me!). First of all, can you believe I missed my 100th post?! Yeah, well I did. I'm a little--you guessed it--slow. But hey, it only took me until my 101st post to catch on to that one, so I suppose I'm not *that* slow. But yay, happy 100 (and 1) posts to me! :)

The other way in which I'm slow is a tad bit exciting for me to report. Yesterday--exactly nine weeks after suffering the knee catastrophe--I hopped on the treadmill, anxious to see what would happen. Now, I should confess that my physical therapist didn't exactly give me the go ahead to do this . . . but I just couldn't stand it any longer. Plus, all the bikes and ellipticals were somehow taken when I got to the gym (okay, that's a lie--but there were like twelve lonely treadmills in a row, begging me to hop on!). At first, I thought about just walking at a brisk pace at a bit of an incline. But being on that machine was too tempting--I HAD to try running a bit! With a promise to myself that I'd stop if I felt even the slightest twinge of pain, I kicked the treadmill up to a blistering 12:00/mile pace--practically Kenyan, I know. I can't believe I'm about to write this, but I, Irish Cream, managed to cover a mile without any knee pain! :) Oh treadmill, how I love thee (please disregard this rant--I was SO out of line!)

Then? Guess what I did today? I ran TWO MILES, once again at a SLOOOOOW 12:00/mile pace. And? Next to no knee pain! But, of course, being the good little girl I am, I can't help but feel guilty about my secret meet-ups with the treadmill. Thus, I think I'm going to have to tell my PT about them at my appointment on Friday. Or maybe I can get all tricky and get her to say it's okay to run without actually telling her I cheated. Hmm . . . yes. I have some scheming to do! At any rate, it's great to be back!

In closing, YAY RUNNING! :) (someone's feeling the effects of endorphins!)