Saturday, May 21, 2011

Every time I twitch my toes, they pop.

Yeah, I'm the worst blogger right now. I don't have regular internet, and I've been relying on my iPod Touch to check emails (and play Words With Friends). The people at Caribou are starting to recognize me. But this afternoon is devoted to studying, which means obviously I'm going to stall for as long as possible by writing this blog and catching up on my reading.

I had a good long run this morning, 13.3 miles at an average 7:59 pace. I'm pretty sure I was going faster for most of that, but my stomach started throwing a tantrum in the last mile, mile and a half, and I had to cut my pace way down. It was the first time I really decided to stick with the FSA group for the long run, and I'm beyond happy that the decision didn't blow up in my face.

Oh, FSA - Fast Skinny Assholes. That's what The Librarian calls them. They're those long-legged, lean runners you hate to see when you're out because they're prancing along through fields of daisies while you're about to die.

Usually on these long group runs, we divide up naturally into two pace groups, without any discussion about it. For a while lately, I've been kind of waffling in the middle - if I stay back, then I end up accidentally bullying the second pace group into a faster run than they want, while if I try to hang with the FSAs I worry I'll get left behind. I've been getting a lot faster, though, so I decided to try today.

It occurred to me as we were running down a street that it must have looked pretty funny, five tall guys and little bitty me. Every single one of them was at least 4 inches taller than me. I usually don't notice how short I am but I think my brain was a little desperate for distraction.

Also, I saw and sort of met Molly Nunn at last night's PM in the Park 1-miler, and she's tiny, maybe only an inch or so taller than me (if that). So that got me thinking about size. I still wish my legs were longer, though. I'm all torso, and you don't run on your torso. But I don't think my height in and of itself is what's going to hold me back.

My Fake Boyfriend, The New Girl and I were volunteering, and we got these shitty posts standing at turns and making sure no one went the wrong way. My Fake Boyfriend also had to tell people in cars that they couldn't go through the gate because there was a race on. Apparently people complained to the point of near fisticuffs about this. I have no sympathy for them because I think people who drive cars in parks are going to the Special Hell. With the child molesters, and people who talk at the theater.

So naturally we were all bored out of our minds, except for maybe 30 seconds every ten minutes when a heat blew past us. So we texted each other. Mostly complaining about how bored we were, and talking about how cool Molly Nunn was. She was warming up before her heat and she actually stopped to ask me if it was ok to warm up on the course. I said yes, of course. Because she's Molly Nunn. She can do whatever she wants. She ran one mile in 4:59 less than 10 minutes later. When you're capable of going that fast, what am I gonna do, stop you?

The New Girl was laughing at My Fake Boyfriend and I because we were, shall we say, in awe of her form? If you've ever seen a picture of Molly Nunn, in person she's actually even prettier. And very polite. Actually, both winners, male and female, were excruciatingly polite. I was really happy that David Roche won. He was just so happy and nice to everyone beforehand, even stopped his warm-up to thank me for volunteering. And then he ran a 4:23 mile. The lesson here, I think, is being nice to volunteers who are grumbling and swatting at mosquitoes makes for good race karma.

-GOSLINGS-

I'm having dinner with my dad tonight. Hopefully he'll want to eat early and also hopefully he'll want to eat Thai or maybe Indian food. Though I would also love me some Mellow Mushroom tempeh. I brought a couple of apples to Caribou since I tend to get hungry about 2pm on Saturdays. Not hungry enough to warrant lunch, but too hungry to wait until dinner.

Actually, he just texted me requesting Emma Key's, on Walker Ave. I told him about the place soon after it opened and he really likes it. They have a good veggie burger option, make their own barbeque sauce, and put Tabasco in their ketchup, so I really like them, too. Plus the guys who work there (and perhaps own the place, I can never tell) are really fun.

I told him that he couldn't have ice cream there, though, even though they have great shakes, because I'm taking him to The Full Scoop after dinner. They're new (new to me, anyways, I don't know when they actually opened) and awesome. I love house-made ice cream, in general, and they really seem to hit home runs with their flavors. I've been planning to eat their cookie dough for a week now. I love Cheese Day.

I guess I should probably study something now. Lady Gaga's Born This Way album is released on the 23rd. Are you ready?

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