Rookie on the Run

And the Lazy Slug Award goes to... SARA JONES of Running through Life! Acceptance Speech "Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! I- I can't believe it! I don't know what to say except, er... um... thank you? There are just so many- so many others I'd like to thank for helping me achieve this... this... honor? First, I'd like to thank my 'right hand man'... Left Foot! I couldn't have done it without you. You've been there for me since before Right Knee Pain left me. Every time the sun comes up, there you are! Your multiple visits with me throughout the day are constant reminders that I can't get out there and run. So, I owe much of my Lazy Slug success to you. Next, I'd like to thank Sleep Les Ness . Sigh... What can I say about Mr. Ness? You usually travel with others when you come to visit. You especially like to show up with my sons when they sneak into my bed in the middle of the night. Or when they wake up early. Sometimes you even surprise ...

In my previous blog ... the revised version... I wrote about a runner who carelessly tossed their half-full cup of Cytomax right next to my feet. As a result, I ended up with a wet, yucky shoe for part of the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. Since lots of us rely on visuals to fully comprehend a point, I sketched out the whole incident for you. Note the lack of about 19,998 other runners... that's because I have a life. In spite of many missing details, I hope this helps to clarify my point. If you happen to recognize the runner who Cytomaxed me, please let her know that I have no hard feelings toward her. Even though I refer to her as "Evil Runner". And gave her bad hair. And fangs (which are easier to see if you click on the picture). Copies of the above masterpiece are available for sale. All proceeds will be donated to the purchase of extra trash bins for next year's Rock 'n' Roll Marathon.

I am most likely dating myself here, but I can't help but think of Woodsie the Owl for this next blog post. Like some of you, I grew up with Woodsie's wise admonition, "Give a hoot. Don't pollute!" I practically lived by those words as a child... pollution and litter were BAD! Bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD! There can be no question that Woodsie's brain-washing techniques worked. At least they worked on me. To this day, I cannot litter. I cannot pollute our land with my trash. When I find myself considering disposing my trash inappropriately, that owl Woodsie sings to me... speaking words of wisdom,"Give a hoot, don't pollute." So, my question is this: Where was Woodsie during the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon? We could have used his big-eyed, feathery figure glaring down on those runners who had no problem at all tossing their disgusting trash all over San Diego. Seriously folks... at every water station there were plenty of w...

“The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them, and then make our plans with confidence.” -Henry Ford Now that I've done my marathon and I don't plan on doing any half marathons until the fall, it's time for me to reflect on my running up to this point and where I want to go from here. Half Marathons & Me I've mention before that I plan to stick to half marathons from now on... I still hold to that. The only for sure half I have on the calendar right now is the Surf City Half Marathon. That race is not until February of next year, however, so I really hope to fit another in before that. I'm hoping for either the Big Sur Half or the San Jose Rock 'n' Roll Half. If I don't do those, I will try to get in on the Silver Strand Half Marathon. Meanwhile.... I joke a lot about being slow. I laugh at myself, but it's true... I am slow. Slower than I want to be. I really want to wor...

As a stay-at-home mom, there are days when the monotony and the isolation make me crazy! Yesterday was one of those days. I made a quick decision that getting out of the house would be good my grumpy four year old, me, and my mental health. I picked up my first-grader from school at his lunch time and we played hooky for the rest of the day. As a former teacher, I know how wasted these last few days of school are in terms of education. My sons and I went to McDonald's for lunch and headed downtown to the amazingly beautiful San Diego Zoo. It was just what we needed! I used to get out of the house with the boys all the time... before my oldest started school. After that, we had to cut way back on our local tourism. The current economy has also played a big role in staying close to home. I've missed our spontaneous little excursions around the county. Our San Diego Zoo & Wild Animal Park annual membership passes are the only memberships we've kept going since ou...

OK... Maybe Not "Improved" In case you haven't noticed, I changed the name of my blog. I still consider myself a "rookie" and probably always will. But I figured this would be a great time to make changes. I started this blog in order to share my challenges, triumphs, and failures as I trained for my first marathon. Now that that I have accomplished that goal- and find I am still a runner- I wanted to shift the focus of the blog to running in general. I wanted the title to reflect running's permanency in my life. So, ta-da !! Introducing... Running Through Life ! New title, new look (eventually), but still the same old Rookie... wait, isn't that an oxymoron? Sort of, maybe?

Lobster Head No, that is not the name of a garage band (although, it's a good one). That was just one of the many names I came up with for fellow runners during the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. I love people-watching and this was a great opportunity to do so! There were lots of Elvises Elviss Elvi . There were superheroes. There were wigs. There were people in funny hats. There was a man wearing a hat similar to the one below. I ran behind and/or ahead of him for enough miles that he earned the nickname "Lobster Head" . I can only imagine why he chose this particular hat to wear for 26.2 sweaty, grueling miles. Maybe he is from Maine. Maybe he loves lobster dipped in butter and that butter has made his arteries so clogged, now he has to run. Maybe his kids gave him this hat and expected him to wear it during his big race. I don't know. All I know is that he was not going to beat me to the finish. I lost track of him around mile 18. He was probably c...