Tales from La La Land

Well, I put another half marathon in the books this past weekend. When I started training, I set a goal to finish in under two hours. Basically, I would have been happy finishing at 1:59:59. I just wanted to see a 1 at the front.

I finished in 2:00:05.

That six seconds hurt. A lot.

But, I have proved to myself that I can push myself harder, and survive. When I ran the Eugene Marathon and every other half marathon, the goal was simply to finish. And, believe me, I am very proud to have finished. The time for the marathon doesn’t matter much to me. However, after each of the previous races, I was sipping beers right after crossing the finish line. Yesterday, I couldn’t have had a sip of beer if you paid me. I wanted to barf. I had finally pushed myself to accomplish more, and when it was over, I can honestly say I left it all out there. I was unable to get off the couch the rest of the day.

So, I will do another half at some point, and I will make sure to shave a few seconds off that goal.

Many people hate running. Many people say to me that they don’t know how, or more importantly, why I would want to run 13 miles on a Sunday morning. I don’t always love it, that’s for sure. But, what I love is crossing the finish line. What I love is meeting up with friends at 6 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and watching the sun rise over LA. I love having run 7 miles before Laef is even awake.

I didn’t start running to lose weight. I started running when I lived in Eugene because I needed a hobby besides Jägermeister.  I wasn’t really happy with my life, and I had no hobbies. I would work and party. That was it.

I will never forget the first time someone took me running. It was literally a small loop around Autzen Stadium. I bitched the entire time. I tried to quit at least a dozen times. I hated it. Running sucks in the beginning. I had never run before.

And slowly that loop around Autzen progressed to a 3 mile loop. And then we incorporated hills and 6 mile runs. And, soon, running was a part of my life. I could leave work and go for a run along the river and just enjoy the freedom. It made me feel so much happier.

At some point, I decided to run a half marathon to see what it would be like. There’s no better feeling than crossing that finish line. I never even entertained the idea of a full marathon because I always told myself, “No way. I can’t do 26 miles”. And then one day I realized that I actually can run a marathon, I just need to do it.

If you want to do something, all you have to do is do it.

And, if you don’t believe that, watch this video.

Running can change your life.

This post has absolutely nothing to do with Antoine Dodson , but ever since I saw the AD Halloween costume, I’m thinking I really need it.

Anyway, I did not fall of the ship. I can’t believe I haven’t blogged it out since going on the cruise.

Highlights:

- After a day at the pool, and a few shots of Patron, Brooke ripped Stephanie’s bathing suit. Apparently she did not like the style and took the Peta approach, “You should go naked rather than wear this old thing!”

- After said day at the pool, I found a place to watch the Oregon vs. Stanford football game. Unfortunately, I was sitting among a gaggle of UW fans who showed no mercy when Stanford went up by about 3 touchdowns. These people were not nice. I guess that rivalry travels to the high seas. Luckily for me, the Ducks tore Stanford a new ass in the second half and the Huskies were silenced.

- The Casino. I won exactly enough to cover my bar tab for 3 days. That makes explaining a bar tab to Bossman a LOT easier.

- I can’t decide if this is a highlight or what, but every evening there is a sit-down dinner. You are supposed to dress up and act fancy. On the first night, we’re all playing along, trying to be on our best behavior when out of nowhere someone gets on a microphone and tells everyone to stand up and get ready to dance. And before we know it, Get Low is BLASTING. First of all, explain to me how sweat dripping down yo balls is appropriate dinner music. Second of all, I don’t care how old you are, how sober you are or how prudish you are: This song will get under yo skin. And there we were – my mother included – getting low in front of a bunch of strangers who were trying to finish their crab cakes. It. was. horrifyingly. wrong. And so much fun!

- Family. Between my mom and Art, all of their children and grandchildren were present with the exception of Laef, Neil, and Steph’s and Neil’s kids, Nico and Elisa. It’s probably the first time that all of us have been in the same room in…well, ever.

Lowlights

- Ship music. I don’t think we heard any music that wasn’t from the 70s or 80s EXCEPT that first night at dinner when we heard Get Low. There was no Gaga. No G6 song. No Biggie Smalls. No Madonna. On second thought this might have been a good thing. No one needs to see a bunch of strangers dancing to Blow The Whistle in broad daylight.

- Sushi bar. So, there was one tiny sushi bar. Of course the line was super long. My sister and I decided to wait in line anyway. When we got to the front, there was no ordering anything. They handed us each a plate with 3 rolls on it. Ummm….three rolls does not a dinner make. If you want more, gotta get back in line. WTF. Sake for dinner, it is!

Other than that, it’s hard to point out lowlights when I was chillin’ on a boat instead of being at work. There was the hairy chest contest on Sunday though. This was the lowest of lowlights. These dudes were so proud to flaunt their huge guts. Then at one point they decided to up the ante and include a hairy back contest. Come on people. Why?

Don’t forget to hide yo wife, hide yo kids and hide yo husband this halloween. Cuz they rapin’ errbody.