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!