I’m not a runner, I just run.

so my work has challenged (or been challenged, I’m not sure who did the challenging but either way there’s a challenge) a homeless shelter that we’re sort of affiliated with to a health and wellness competition.  teams are judged in two categories over twelve weeks, amount of weight lost and number of steps taken.  there’s free food!  and a free tshirt!  and a free pedometer (ok so I could care less about the pedometer but it’s a perk I guess)!

so anyway we have to keep track of how many steps we take per day and get weighed once a week.  but our pedometers are cheapo ones of course so I was concerned that it wouldn’t register my running and then all my running would be for naught!  or at least, not count toward the competition.  can’t have that.  so I went up to the woman overseeing my team for the challenge and explained, you know, I’m doing a lot of running and I’d like for that to count.  and she said oh, we’re training for the flying pig (the cincinnati distance race), have you thought about running the pig? and so then I had to say I’m running the one in columbus and she said “oh that one’s fun I did it a couple of years ago.  I’m working on the pedometer thing cause I’m a runner too.”  I wanted to say “wait lady, I’m not a runner, I’m just an overly ambitious sucker” but thought that might be inappropriate.

so then I was thinking about it, and I’ve been running regularly since October, so four months.  I could now run and finish a 5k without walking or dying, albeit rather slowly.  I like successfully completing runs.  so when comes the point when I feel like a runner instead of just a poser?  maybe never.  maybe by next October.  or April.  hopefully by April.

running, day…I’ve already lost count

my right elbow HURTS. I’ve lost a level of mobility that I’m afraid I will never regain.

so mairead and I decided to do this gliders/pilates class on sundays, our stretch and strengthen day of the week according to half-marathon training. so we went on sunday, and were forced to run relay races, lift weights while sitting on rubber balls (which caused me to have to sit out during part of the weight lifting portion as I kind of almost blacked out from my face being so close to rubber), use these awful heavy pole things, and in general cause a lot of self-inflicted pain. In fact, we’ve been in pain all week from this class, so much so that yesterday we took an unscheduled rest day and watched the office instead of running 2 miles (or cross).

Today I was back on, ran my three miles without incident, and told Mairead that I don’t believe I’ll be returning to the class. She was relieved, as she felt the same but didn’t want to seem like she was wimping out. my body can only take so much! it already hates me for this running insanity!

but seriously, my right tricep hurts still. a lot.

the warm fuzzy feeling of volunteer work

once again, tuesday night ladies are my favorite.

today I taught them how to use a standard ruler, which I didn’t know they didn’t understand, but now it totally makes sense to me why they were confused about general measurement work. so once I got that they’d never really learned what’s going on with a ruler, we went back to the very beginning and broke it down, working for an hour on understanding what all the tick marks mean and how to use the ruler to measure stuff. it was productive. one of my ladies had come in totally frustrated, confused, and defeated because she’d tried to work on the problems at home and not gotten anywhere. I felt good, cause at the end of the hour she was answering questions correctly and said she understood what was going on (and she always is comfortable enough to tell me when she doesn’t understand). she was feeling more positive and ready to go because she accomplished something in our session tonight. she learned how to use a ruler!

as she was leaving tonight she stopped and said “I just want to say thank you, I really appreciate you.”

ah, the voting

so according to glassbooth, an online tool to help you choose a candidate for the upcoming presidential election which claims to match your beliefs with that of a presidential candidate, Mike Gravel is the candidate that has most of those qualities I am looking for in a president.

unfortunately, their simple quiz is a bit too simple. I like the way the results are set up, so you can see how you line up with your top three candidates overall (mine were Gravel, Edwards, and Obama) and then see how you rate in each of the arbitrary areas. and they give quotes and voting histories to show where their rankings are coming from, so that’s interesting. One of my problems is that one of their subject headings is Iraq and Foreign Policy. I am extremely interested in Foreign Policy, but I think that Foreign Policy means a heck of a lot more than just Iraq and the war on terror. so they put a bit more emphasis on terrorism than is actually evident in my personal politics. AND in Trade and Economics, Mike Gravel and I are only 56% compatible. Edwards and I are like this with regards to economic policy, apparently. And frankly, trade and economics is my big issue right now (I mean really, it’s almost everyone’s big issue this time around).  so, while this is a fun way to waste some time and think about how I share 100% similarity on civil liberties with Ron Paul, it doesn’t change my vote.

Blog Challenge: the results.

so the results are in, and I have been beaten.

in email form, pham got 4 votes and I got 1.

then in blog post form, I got two votes and he got one.

which means pham beat me 5-3!  unless we count Aunt Nancy and Uncle Mick, and then it’s tied.  but I don’t think we are.

so I concede, Pham, you are a bigger nerd than I am.  congratulations!  I like to think I put up a good fight, but I’m afraid the chips were stacked against me from the beginning.