Thursday Thoughts

It's Thursday and time for my weekly question and answer session. Please respond in the comments. If you're visiting the site for the first time, feel free to comment--anyone can. It's free! It's fun! It's addicting!

1. Under what circumstances have you ever or would you ever pose nude?

2. What is the best bargain you ever found?

3. What would be the title of your autobiography?

4. Who was the best teacher you've ever had and why?

5. What was your most vivid dream?

Why do I waste my time? (And other stuff)

One of my guilty pleasures is reality TV. I try to stop, but it's so darn addicting. But, at the conclusion of each of these reality shows, I seem to never be satisfied with the outcome. Why do I waste my time?

I have to admit, I watched this last Bachelor. Not because I wanted to; but more because it was hilarious and I really thought this one was real (I am so stupid). And after watching the two hour season finale last night, I was severely disappointed. He didn't choose my girl. She lost and I lost.

I HAVE GOT TO STOP WATCHING REALITY TV!!!

In other news...I might actually start running soon. I've run a whopping 35 miles since the marathon. I just haven't been in the mood. But now that I've gained a solid 5 pounds and the pants are starting to not fit again, I think it's time to get my lazy, large ass out on the pavement and burn some calories.

And finally, a certain significant other of mine is having a very large birthday in a week (THIRTY!!!!) and I am a little short of gift ideas. Anybody got any brilliant ideas? Anything you got for birthdays that you just loved? Any help is appreciated. :)

Thursday Thoughts

It's time for Thursday Thoughts. You know the drill...I'll ask 5 questions and you answer them. Simple as that.

1. Which would you rather watch on Saturday--the OSU/Michigan Game or Tom and Katie's wedding?

2. What's your favorite tailgate food?

3. If you could pick any other name for yourself, what would it be and why?

4. What are your Thanksgiving plans next week?

5. What are you thankful for?

This is Buckeye Country

In case you've been living under a rock, there's a big football game this weekend. Of course, this weekend every year is a big game when you're a Buckeye fan. And when you live in central Ohio, the world revolves around Ohio State.

There is a hotly contested senate or congressional seat that is still being decided and it was announced this morning that the ballots will not be counted until after the game on Saturday. I also heard that the governor-elect who is to be sworn in on January 8th will not celebrate his inauguration until another date because we're all hoping OSU makes the national title game that day.

And as an Ohio State fan, I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Harriers: The Making of a Championship Cross Country Team

A few months ago I was contacted by a publishing company to read and review a book. I was a bit nervous about doing this because I did not know if this offer and/or person was legit and I am not sure my writing skills are really good enough to merit a book review. But, I figured the review was only going to be on my blog and being that it is my blog, I can pretty much review the book any way I want.

The book is called Harriers: The Making of a Championship Cross Country Team and was written by Joseph P. Shivers and Paul Shivers. Cousins, not brothers. The journey follows Salem High School’s boys cross country team from a respectable team to a state championship team. Each team member is profiled along with the coaches and displays the emotions of being part of a highly competitive team.

There were a few things I did not like about this book. First of all, I thought it was way over detailed. While communicating with the publisher, I was informed that this book was most appealing to high school runners and former high school runners. There were two different places in the book that describe how to score a race, but it was very detailed and was more information that I thought the audience needed. If this book truly is geared toward people who run or have run cross country, I do not think this level of detail is needed. That category of people should already know how to score a race. Only a high-level breakdown would have sufficed.

Another thing I thought was a bit weird in this book was that the two writers of the book, who were members of this team, referred to themselves in third person. I think I would have preferred if they had told the story from their point of view. I would classify this book as non-fiction and I think it would have been better as a memoir. It needed to be more personal.

But the book was personal, which makes for the third thing I did not like about this book. For a book about winning a state championship (twice!), I thought the overall tone of the book was pretty negative. Even when the team won the championship, it still seemed that the teammates had negative things to say about their individual performances. Winning a state championship is a huge deal. Can they not be happy with that?

There were some interesting coincidences, though. Salem High School is in Ohio and is in the same division as the high school where I coach. The state championship where Salem wins their first championship was in 2003, and I was at the state meet that year. I remember the scoring glitches that were talked about in the book. Another six degrees twist to this book was that Salem’s biggest competition is/was Walsh Jesuit High School. A close friend of mine, his brother and sister are the coaches at Walsh. Weird!

The book was not bad, especially considering it was written by two high school students. I just thought it could have been better. I appreciate the opportunity to read it and write about it. And maybe, you will check it out for yourself.

Thursday Thoughts

Yep, it's Thursday and it's time for the weekly question and answer session I like to call Thursday Thoughts. I'll ask the questions; you supply the answers. Fun and interactive...exactly what this blog is all about. :)

1. Did you vote on Tuesday? How long did you wait in line? Or if you're not from the USA, when is your next election?

2. How do you know me (i.e.--thru the internet, personal friend, married to me, etc)?

3. Are you crafty? If yes, what kind of crafts/hobbies are you into?

4. What's your favorite food to eat at Thanksgiving?

5. What would be one way you would not want to die? (I know, kind of morbid, but an interesting question nonetheless).

A Million Thank Yous

A great thanks to everyone out there who voted yesterday. I would like to say a million thank yous to the Ohioans who voted for our state-wide smoking ban. I couldn't be more excited.

Make Your Voice Be Heard

Hey get out and vote today! There are important candidates and issues out there, so let your voice be heard and take a stand.

I went at 6:30 this morning and voted. The person in front of me need to vote by provisional ballot and there was some confusion surrounding that, but I think he finally got to vote. And then my precint split the alphabet in half, so this woman in line went to the line with the back of the alphabet and then got in line to vote. This other woman yelled at her to get in line. The clerk had to step in a let the woman know she had told the other woman to be there. People, this was at 6:30 this morning!

Damn Ohioans screwing everything up! Just kidding. I think that was blown way out of proportion with the last election.

And now for my soapbox. Ohioans--Vote no on Issue 4 and yes on Issue 5. Let's get the correct state-wide smoking ban in place!

Soapbox has been put away. Happy election day!

What about Boston?

So now that Lance has run his sub-3:00 marathon (without training, mind you), do you think he'll run Boston? From the looks of it, he didn't have very much fun in his first marathon. Imagine what he could have done had he actually trained.

For anyone else out there running Boston, have you made reservations yet? I'm finding that ALL the hotels are booked or if they're not booked they're crazy expensive. I found one today with availability but the price was over $1000 per night. I would pay that much for Michigan-OSU tickets, but not for a hotel. :)

Thursday Thoughts

Good Thursday to y'all! You all provide great responses last week. Hopefully participation will again be high this week. First I'll throw out this general question. Does anyone know when NBC is doing their coverage of the 2006 Ironman World Championships? I want to make sure I don't miss it. Now, on with the questions....

1. Are you allergic to anything? If yes, what?

2. What is one fear you might be able to conquer? How would you conquer it?

3. Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? If not, when do you think you'll start?

4. Have you started your Christmas wish list yet? If yes, what are some of the things on it?

5. If you could only get one gift over the remainder of your life, what would you want?

October Totals

For the month of October:

Running: 104.45 Miles
Swimming: 2000 yards

Now that the marathon is over, I'd like to increase my swimming yardage and I'd also like to get back to doing some spinning (maybe) and yoga (maybe). My schedule is pretty busy and now that I'm tackling the 365 Days art project it's hard to find any more time to add activities. That being said, my gym I currently go to is adding a second location in Columbus and it's going to be really close to work. I should be able to swim or do yoga on my lunch hour or before work. I think the second location is set to open in early 2007.

Have a good first day of November!

Happy Halloween

Last week I got huge response on this blog. And I LOVED IT! But, now I don't have anything creative to say. :( Aren't you supposed to keep people coming back to your site with frequent posts and creativity?



Yesterday I went running for the first time since the marathon a little over a week ago. I felt the most awkward, like a tubby hippo trying to run. It wasn't working left foot/right arm. It was like left foot....right arm....right foot...left arm. It just wouldn't all work together! I even had to walk a little and it was only a 3-1/2 mile run.

Anyway, Happy Halloween y'all. Here's some of us from work...


I went as a cynical Carrie Fisher. He he!

Dave went as Han Solo. Shelby and Jared went as Buzz Lightyear and Minnie Mouse.

Ew, gross!

I told y'all that my dad got a nasty blister in the marathon. Well, I've got the photo to prove it. WARNING! It is disgusting.

Thursday Thoughts

Here's the rules....

I ask questions, you supply the answers. First time visitors and fellow lurkers, feel free to play along. You can answer anonymously or use any identification. You don't have to have a Blogger account to post. I have only gone over 10 comments once in almost two years of this blog's existence. Let's do it again today!

1. What did you want to be when you grew up?

2. Now that you are grown up, what do you want to be?

3. What have you learned about yourself in the past year?

4. What kind of candy will you be handing out for Halloween?

5. If you had tickets to any Olympic venue (summer or winter), what would you choose to go watch?

Shout Out!

I know there's a lot of you out there who read this blog and some of you will leave an occassional comment. People, I love the comments! It's one of the highlights of my day to get a comment on my posts.

So, today I'm declaring this Meredith Shout Out day!

What does that mean? That means, leave me a comment today. Just say hi or tell me what you like about my blog or what you don't like or what you'd like to see more or less of.

I'm waiting to hear from you.....

Chicago Marathon 2006

What I should title this post is....How the most totally awesome thing happened to me not at the marathon, but at the airport! Read on....

This is my second marathon in which I have followed the Pfitzinger Advanced Marathoning plan. I ran Boston this year and had a great race, but that is a hard course to determine if you could have PRed. Again this summer I followed the plan, although not to a T, and set my goals to run between a 3:30 and 3:35, realistically knowing that 3:35 was obtainable. Despite all the training I did, I really was not looking forward to this marathon and spent most of the weekend in a terribly bad mood as the start time came closer.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) the start time did come and with it wind and rain and cold weather. Dave, Dad, and I walked to the corrals together. Dave was in the open corral, and Dad and I were in the Preferred II corral. We said our goodbyes and then headed to our areas. The gun went off and I was able to cross the start line in about 3-1/2 minutes. That was great compared to the last time I ran Chicago when it took me 20 minutes to get to the start line. And because of the preferred start, I was able to get up to speed pretty quickly. My first mile was 8:47, which is a pretty quick start for me. Although unspoken, I think Dad and I were planning on running together, but within the first mile he stopped to relieve himself and I was alone. But, he caught back up to me and we ran the first 13 miles together.

Not to brag, but I run water stops really well. I'm quick to grab my cup and cut back to the middle and never lose pace. Everytime I went through a water stop, I would lose Dad and then magically he would reappear. We ran together for about 13 miles and then we went through a water stop and I didn't see him again. He said to me that he had a blister that had formed in mile 5. I didn't see Dad again until after we were both up in the hotel room. He had a blood blister the size of a silver dollar right on the back of his heel. I'm surprised he finished the marathon at all. It is nasty!

Most of the marathon I was ticking off times that I figured were too fast. I wanted to be running around an 8:15 pace, but spent most of the run around 8:05 pace. After the midway point, I picked it up and dropped it down to around an 8:00 pace until late in the race. I got really tired in the last 3 miles, but just tried to hold on. I ran the race without taking any walking breaks.

I PRed BIG! My time was 3:35:05. I'm pretty excited about it. Here were my splits:

Mile 1: 8:47
Mile 2: 8:31
Mile 3: 8:29
Mile 4: 7:57
Mile 5: 8:08
Mile 6: 8:22
Mile 7: 8:07
Mile 8: 7:58
Mile 9: 8:06
Mile 10: 8:05
Mile 11: 7:59
Mile 12: 8:14
Mile 13: 8:08
Mile 14: 8:10
Mile 15: 7:59
Mile 16: 8:01
Mile 17: 7:59
Mile 18: 7:53
Mile 19: 8:01
Mile 20: 8:07
Mile 21: 8:10
Mile 22: 8:09
Mile 23: 8:11
Mile 24: 8:24
Mile 25: 8:34
Mile 26.2: 10:27 (8:37 pace)

So here is the coolest thing that happened to me all weekend. Yesterday as we were in the Midway airport in line at security, one person behind Dave was a man who looked just like Bono from U2. I turned to Dave and was like "oh my gosh! That's Bono." And Dave was like, "No, he'd be taller than that." Then they opened a new security line and this Bono-looking gentleman went to that line and I grabbed Dave and we filed in with two people in front of us and then Bono. So, the girl in front of us turned around and mouthed, "Yes, that's Bono." Her brother asked him and he smiled and patted him on the shoulder and then said "Yes, I am, but let's not make a big deal out of it." OMG!!!!! The amazing part was he didn't have any security; he waited in line like the rest of us; he took off his shoes like we're all supposed to do; and he was flying out of the Southwest terminal. He seemed so normal. I wanted to ask to get a picture, but I was afraid he'd say no and then it would cloud my outlook of how admirable he is. But you better believe I called everyone I knew as soon as he was out of sight.

Totally awesome day or maybe I should say, "It's a beautiful day."

Thursday Thoughts and The Upcoming Marathon

Yeah, my marathon is a mere 3 days away, and yeah, I guess I'm ready. My short and slow runs this week have felt completely effortless and I'm thankful to be carb-loading (I do love me some carbs). So, bring on Chicago! My last name is Gordon if you want to track me or look up my results online before my official Chicago Marathon post. My goal time is between 3:30 and 3:35 chip time, of course.

Now on with the Thursday Thoughts!

It's been a few weeks since I've done Thursday Thoughts. Mostly because I'm running out of questions. I might have to buy a book to help me out, but I thought I would ask the Internet first. So, today when you answer the following questions, please, if you can, start your response with at least one question you'd like to see asked on Thursday Thoughts. And it is my recommendation that you ask an open-ended question so we don't get just yes or no answers.

1. Have you ever been arrested for anything? If yes, what? (You don't have to reveal it if you don't want to).

2. Do you plan on dressing up for Halloween this year? And if yes, what?

3. If you could be any animal what would you be and why?

4. What would you be willing to do for a million dollars?

5. If you could ask one question to a current person in politics, who would it be and what would you ask?

My Confession

I have a confession to make. I don't like myself very much. I never really have. I am my own worst critic. Anytime someone compliments me, I think they are lying to not hurt my feelings. I use competition as a way to be better and self-validate, but it usually leaves me feeling empty.

Recently I stumbled across a blog that I found intriguing because it contained a link to this. This woman is participating in an art project of 365 self-portraits. I thought this art project might be a good thing for me to do to maybe explore myself. Find out what I like and don't like about myself.

So, check it out. You can find the pictures here, and I'll also post it in my blogroll on the right side.

My Big Political Message

As I am sure you are all well aware there is an election coming up in a few weeks. And here in Ohio, the candidates are just running horrible smear campaigns with awful television commercials and I know personally, I'm just about sick of it.

But there are two issues statewide on the ballot in Ohio that I would like to point out. I have a lot of readers who live in Ohio and I wanted to get the message out to them. So, if you're not from Ohio, you don't have to read this, but maybe you'd also like to chime in and give your opinion or personal experience.

Issues 4 and 5 both present themselves as smoking bans, but don't let the advertising deceive you. Issue 5 is the real smoking ban. It will ban smoking in almost all public places and places of employment. Issue 4, on the other hand, is disguised as a smoking ban, and it does ban smoking in some places. But what Issue 5 isn't saying upfront is that it will bring back smoking to restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys, something Columbus voters have voted on three times and each time it has been decided that we don't want smoking in those establishments. Issue 4 is backed by RJ Reynolds and other big tabacco companies, so there you see what kind of "ban" it is! Issue 4 also prohibits any other smoking bans from ever being put on a ballot again as it changes the state constitution. Most importantly, Issue 4 trumps Issue 5, which means if they both pass, Issue 4 will be the new law and truly there will be no smoking ban.

So, if you want the smoking ban, vote YES on Issue 5 but more importantly you MUST vote NO on Issue 4.

Want more proof of the deception Issue 4 is trying to pull? Check out these articles from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Columbus Dispatch, and the Dayton Daily News.

Shout Out!

A childhood friend of mine is in the band Shirock. Their song, "I'll Take Rain" is going to be featured on this Monday's "What about Brian" on ABC.

Shout out!