I have no title

It's late and I should be going to bed. By 'late' I mean it's 9:45, technically I should have been in bed by now. My alarm is set for 4:15 so I can go to the gym before getting to work at 7 a.m. I'm tired and I just got back home after leaving this morning at 5:15 a.m.

I don't have any profound thoughts today. It's been a tough week at work and on top of that I saw the orthopedist and she told me that I shouldn't run the myrtle beach marathon, or the 15k this weekend, or the half marathon next weekend. My plan is to go to all of the packet pickups and get my frikkin shirts that I paid for. Normally I am determined to not follow the kind of advice that involves the words 'no running' or 'don't run'. But physically,right now, I am unable to run. For the first time in 3 years I have an injury that I can't run through. It really puts a hurting on my belief that I am invincible.

I've had musical montages go through my head of me running. Running outside, running on the treadmill, running in races, running the marathon. I have mixed feelings about the marathon. I still want to do myrtle beach but on the other hand I have to wonder, was it worth it? I ran 26.2 miles and I haven't run since. If I could go back I'd have to think really hard about whether the accomplishment was worth the aftermath. I miss the runners high, I miss how relaxed I feel after a run. It could be 6 to 8 weeks before I have to start all over again. How difficult is that going to be?

In the end though, I think about all the stories that I've read of people who have been hit by cars, or had their legs blown off in Afghanistan only to come back and run marathons, or do Ironmans. I guess in the end my measly shin splints/stress fractures are mild in comparison. I'm trying to look at the bright side but it's going to be a long road to recovery. Wish me luck eh???

How biting my nails keeps me healthy

If you don't know me personally you should know that I am an AVID nail biter. I've tried quitting but honestly I really don't care. My nails are horrible and kind mutantesque (i just made up that word and that is the correct spelling of it). I bite my nails at work, while I drive, while I bowl... it really doesn't matter. I don't bite my nails while I poo.

Additionally, if you don't know me you should also know that I don't really get sick very often. I don't take precautions to avoid germs, I don't care if someone is sick around me, I don't use antibacterial gels, I DO wash my hands before returning to work. I have come to believe that the relationship between biting my nails and my super-human immune system has everything to do with my nail biting.

My belief is that through biting my nails I end up ingesting little bits of viruses and bacteria, not enough to make me sick but enough for my body to create an immunity to whatever is it.

So if you're sick and tired of being sick my recommendation is to lick some germ covered items on a regular basis. I'm going to bite my nails now I hope to see you doing the same.

Vacation

Who in life can afford to go on vacation? It's ridiculous. I just got back from the money sucking pit called Disney World and now I'm trying to look and see where we can go next. I was hoping it could be later this year, maybe Boston or Chicago but geez, it took me a year to save up for Disney. Hotel, plane, food, souvenirs (or SILVERnirs as my dad calls them).

Now all of you out there (or perhaps just my one follower HI KATRINA)may be thinking "just put in on a credit card" but Homey don't play that. I believe that if you don't have the cash for something then it's God's way of saying "Yo, you can't afford that shit". (Sometimes God is a Homey too..although no one says Yo or Homey anymore. God is old school) Then what about when you have frikkin kids? Who can afford to have one of those little money grubbers? It's cool up until they are 3 and then you have to start paying for their shit and then they grow out of that stage where you can take them to restaurants for "kids eat free" night.

What happens with Progeria kids at kids eat free night? Technically they are kids, but health-wise they are adults. (Do they qualify for that Senior Citizen 1% discount you get a Publix or Harris Teeter?) I believe that meals at restaurants should be divided into categories of people, not age. I have the stomach of a mouse but when I try to order off the kids meal I get charged more. Why? Restaurants should classify you as 'small', 'average', or 'large' and then they should have menus to fit the category in which you fall. You should be able to deviate from your chosen category to allow for people who are dieting or binging. I don't need an all you can eat buffet, I need the one plate buffet. I hate buffets but that's beside the point, sometimes my husband wants to go and I have to with. I pay 15.00 for one plate or I try to gorge myself to get my moneys worth and then I immediately feel like purging.

I am happy to see that Applebess and Logans now offer meals that are less than 550 calories. I had one of these meals at Logans and it was extremely tiny but I was satisfied and I felt good afterwards. I think Applebees is the shit stain of chain restaurants but this new menu might get me back in the door.

That's all I have for now...

Testing out the Wii Fit

I originally created this blog so that I could chronicle my experience using the Wii Fit and the Wii Active Trainer from an 'already fit' perspective. This lasted all of a day. The bottom line is: I'm too lazy to play the Wii. I know this seems to be contradictory since I wake up at 4:15 each morning to go to the gym for 1.5 to 2 hours and then later on I will go back to get my run on. Those things inspire me. The Wii Active Trainer and her annoying pauses between reps and 'encouraging' attitude don't.

I also found an article in which someone had done all of my work for me already. Basically the article said that doing the Wii fit burns LESS calories than Wii sports because of all the breaks they require you to take in fit/active trainer. You kind of lose interest in something when you find that someone else has done the work. Why re-invent the wheel??

I don't support the Wii as a method of working out unless you fall into one or both of the following categories:

1. You live in an assisted living facility/nursing home
2. You have recently had a hip replacement

There is argument that some movement is better than no movement. But you can get this with Wii sports. Have you ever tried the boxing? Holy crap, that shit sucks! Please don't try to use wii bowling as a calorie burning exercise. Bowling in reality is a lazy sport in which you can drink and eat while you do it. I know this because I bowl league twice a week and have done so for about 6 years. I never find myself to feel good about bowling when I leave after having scarfed down half a pizza and 1 Mich Ultra. Bowling on the Wii is not much different from real bowling, calorie-wise, instead go with tennis or boxing.

A blog about running the Disney Marathon on the coldest day in Orlando history

Yes. I finished the marathon. I'm not going to blog about mile after mile because honestly I don't remember much of the shit that went on, not to mention that no one really gives a shit. It was kind of like a cold, bad dream that you are happy to have had once you wake up.

I am back in Charleston now and away from that frozen tundra known as Florida. Cold was the theme of the 'vacation'. Coldest day in Orlando history, sleet at Disney world, cold temperatures causing orange juice to cost more. These were the local news stories I watched every night as I shivered in my fine Disney Motel Resort room. (Really? Double beds was the ONLY option?)

Okay, I'm not blogging about the marathon, but I am going to blog about the pre-marathon events. What did I learn from getting up at 3 a.m. in 25 degree weather, being shuffled to the start area on on bus, and waiting over an hour and a half for the race to start? I learned what it would be like to be in a post-apocalyptic refugee camp. I learned what it would be like if aliens attacked New York City and we were all forced as survivors to leave the city carrying everything we had on our backs. I can now totally sympathize with Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds" and could possibly forgive that gnome Dakota Fanning for all of that annoying screaming.

As I stated we arrived at the start area at 4 a.m. We were kicked off of the buses and forced to walk so far in the freezing cold that for a while I wondered if I had accidentally ended up in the Iditarod. We were herded to refugee camp designated for us to wait in until we could be allowed to make our way to the ACTUAL start. I would like to note that before we were kicked off of the bus in the Alaskan glaciers, the bus drive made a cruel stop at the CLOSEST point to the refugee camp so we could all get a look at where we were supposed to be and then drove halfway across the parking lot so we could get out and walk.

In one area was a massage tent intended for people to get massages either pre or post race. Instead, on the inside of this tent was a bunch of metal tables with what appeared to be covered dead bodies, I think they were trying to stand their ground by tricking the aliens into believing they were dead. Please, that's the oldest trick in the book. These people were surely doomed and thus this area was dubbed "The Morgue".

Next to the Morgue was a 10 x 10 tent enclosed on 3 sides. We figured that this must have been the mosh pit because there were about 50 people huddled into this area apparently waiting for the music to start pumping. (Sidenote, the music was pumping... it sounded like a techno club and we wished we had brought our X, glow sticks, and that fist pumper douche from Jersey Shore). These people represented those stereotypical assholes who have "hurricane parties" or celebrate the Alien arrival, only to be completely annihilated for their stupidity. (This type of people also ran into the empty ocean crevice to collect fish and shells before the tidal wave in Tibet)

At 5 a.m they finally opened up the corral to let us go to the Start line. It was at this point that we realized that a mob of people suddenly emerged from their warm spots in the port-o-lets. We were greeted with a mass opening of port-o-let doors, a smell of methane, and 'whoosh' we were shuffled through a tiny gate and towards the start line. It was this walk that really set in the refugee feeling.

The small, narrow path was crowded with blanket people, and we were blinded by huge spotlights along the way. People huddled around the generators to soak up the heat (apparently they had no concerns about carbon monoxide). Abandoned Disney rail cars along the way created a feeling of total world destruction. It was about a mile walk to the actual start, which was kind of cruel considering that: A. The buses had dropped us off as far as possible from the refugee camp, and B. We were about to run 26.2 miles. Seriously?

Once we got to the starting area, we were divided again into corrals which were most likely based on age, gender, fertility, and genetic possibilities. These corrals would later be used to repopulate the world in an attempt to defeat the aliens and regain control of New York City.