I love my karate friends. I have two sets of "friends" -those who do endurance sports, and those who do karate. If you take karate, chances are that you hate running, biking, swimming or any other "moving" sport, so you would rather just stand there and beat the crap out of things. Why run away from bad guys when you could just stand there and pummel them, right?
I fell into the karate catagory for over 16 years, but then one day I discovered that I could travel quite far on a bike, and it wasn't that difficult. Thus I was introduced to the world of endurance sports.
The title of my blog today is courtesy of my karate friend Wendy. We did breakfast on Saturday morning and she almost made me shoot milk out of my nose when she asked me that. Wendy states that she and running are like oil and water. She hates it and you couldn't pay her enough to get her to run. I giggled again over her comment as I treked a lonesome 9 miles on Saturday afternoon all by myself. Unfortunately, no one was chasing me, and no one is paying me anything to take this journey (they are paying LLS, though). I seem to be shelling out lots of dough to run comfortably. On Friday evening I went to Dick's (I prefer to call it Richard's) sporting goods and I got a water bottle belt so I could provide my own fuel and water during my run. That stupid thing cost $45 dollars and I was grumbling about it all the way home. I figured for that price it had better do the run for me and let me sit on the couch.
It turned out to be a good investment though and I ran comfortably and hydrated-ly (that's totally a word, I promise) on Saturday.
I have been running the same route around my house and I'm afraid I'm going to get bored with it pretty soon. Technically it isn't the EXACT same route because I go a little further out-and-back each time, but close enough. I will have to force myself to start branching out in order to stave off boredom. Or worse yet, anticipation. There is nothing worse than dreading a certain part of a run because you know the "big hill" is coming. -And there are quite a few big hills on my route. Blech!
I returned from Hawaii on Tuesday afternoon. You can envy me if you want, but I promptly got a sinus infection the Sunday of our bike ride, and I've been miserable ever since. I guess that is my punishment for doing something good for a good cause ;). Guess that'll learn me!
Hawaii was nice but super hot. It was about 90 each day and pretty humid. Courtney and I tried running on Friday morning and we just about melted. And it was only 6:30am!! The event was hot, but I was unaffected. Some of my cyclists had to get packed down with ice or sagged forward in order to finish safely, but I'm happy to report that everyone arrived at the finish line safely and without major incident. So back at home now I have been trying to sleep and recover a little bit. No antibiotics for me, just rest and hopefully this will clear up in a few days.
Saturday evening I had my first Bingo experience - and also my first Bingo-ago-go experience. Yes, I played bingo with drag queens at the Hyatt on Saturday. It was a blast and it was a benefit for people living with HIV/AIDS. Party with the gays! I enjoyed hanging with some friends that I don't get to see too often, and also I enjoyed the exposure to something outside of my comfort zone and cultural norm.
Sunday I watched the TC marathon in the pouring rain. Originally I was going to run in the TC marathon as my TNT event, but since I got asked to coach the cycling team for Hawaii, I postponed my marathon to the Phoenix event in January. Best decision I ever made. As I got stuck in a downpour I had the dawning realization that instead of being under an umbrella, I would have been standing at the startline getting wet. Did I mention that it never rains in Phoenix?...
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