"There is Life Outside Your Apartment..."

"... there's a pigeon squashed on the street. Eew."

Sorry, I'm listening to the "Avenue Q" cast recording again.

Anyway, on with my life. :)

I played waitress at our TNT water station today, and I was absolutely jealous of those running. It was freezing cold, overcast which is my favorite kind of running weather. ARGHHH. All I could think of was, "Damn my Achilles tendon." Then I started to think... hmm...

I went home after the torturous watching and I decided to go running. I donned my running gear and headed to Rice. I went one loop around Rice (2.9) and tacked on the ENTIRE Hermann Park (including the golf course, not just the zoo area - which is at least 3 miles). I did my jog in 1 hour, 17 minutes, which is great, despite the pain that kept coming. Then, I decided to go to Luke's Locker and sign up for the 10k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. I want to run it, even if I hurt. It's all about the bib collection.

A funny thing happened at Luke's Locker. 104 KRBE was there for promotion purposes. I went to their "Meet Market" singles even with Tracy on Wednesday. I'm not a bar person, I'm not a drinker, but I went anyway for the hell of it. They had a drinking contest - a spelling bee. If you spelled the word correctly, you got a shot and continued until you spelled two words wrong. I'm an English teacher. Guess who won. Anyway, Reno, one of the KRBE producers/on-air personalities, was the host of the spelling bee. When I won, I won 40 shots and got to pass them out to cute guys. Unfortunately, the guys kept insisting I take shots with them. I think I had a total of 9 shots. Plus the rum and coke I had before the spelling bee. For a non-drinker, that's a lot of alcohol. Yes, I felt it the next morning.

Anyway, Reno was there. I looked horrible - in my running gear, hair pulled back, no make-up. I signed up for the Turkey Trot and while I was there, I bought some new running shoes (I'm starting to hate the brand I've been running in for a year). As I walked to check out, I paused by the KRBE table. Reno looked up at me and immediately said, "Hey teacher, how did you feel after Wednesday?" Shit. He recognized me. So I laughed it off and we chatted for about 30 minutes. One of the tech guys came over, stopped and said to Reno, "Isn't this the teacher?" Dear lord. What a way to be remembered. Winning a drinking contest. But I had a good time.

So I've signed up for the Turkey Trot. I want to sign up for the Houstonian Lite 30k, but that's an 18-miler and I'm not sure I want to hurt that bad (although finishers get a medal). We'll see how my Achilles tendon feels in a week or so. But I'm thinking the 18 miles is not a good idea.

But I have new running shoes! And they're lighter! I'm an over-pronator and the motion-control shoes I was wearing (Brooks Ariels) felt like boats. So the guy at Luke's Locker introduced me to some Asics that are more flexible and light. I can't wait to try them out tomorrow!