A Benihana Christmas

As any of you who have had a conversation with me in the last month will know, I have recently become obsessed with NBC's "The Office," the hilarious un-sitcommy sitcom with wacky hi jinx, a lot of heart, and a sometimes tragic depiction of the human condition. I don't just watch it because John Krasinski is smoking hot, but let me state for the record, John Krasinski and his character, Jim Halpert, always leave me satisfied and smiling.

I started watching the DVDs over Thanksgiving, and have since finished two seasons, and am currently jumping into the third season mid-stream. After I watched an episode called "The Client," wherein boss Michael Scott holds an important business meeting at Chili's and continually interrupts things by ordering appetizers and several "specialty drinks," I emailed my brother and suggested that when I come home for Christmas we should go to Chili's (as we often do) so and order "an Awesome Blossom, EXTRA awesome," just like Michael did on the show. Then I tuned into this season's Christmas episode, and the chain restaurant featured there was Benihana, where a few of Michael's co-workers take him to help heal his freshly broken heart.

Tonight my parents went to a Christmas party, and my brother and I had planned to hang out--go to a Yoga class and then have dinner. As I was intent on an Office-related food option, we decided on Benihana, as neither of us had ever been there and both of us would probably chicken out from ordering something "EXTRA awesome." Also, Paul informed me at dinner, he will be gainfully employed at the Kerrville Chili's next semester, so he'll probably have his fill of Awesome Blossoms soon enough.

Anyway, our Benihana Christmas turned out to be lots of fun (and lots of food!) (Note: Nog-a-sakes were conspicuously absent from the menu.) Paul was surprised how much he liked sushi with freshwater eel and I was surprised how many puns one grill-master could make. (The word eggroll will forever evoke a different image for me now.) We enjoyed our experience so much, we filled out the comment card with the words "Awesome, extra awesome."


Michael and his "bros"

Me and my bro

Merry Benihana Christmas, everyone!

Finals are Here! Part II

A slightly more thoughtful analysis of the differences between working long hours as a student and working long hours as a lawyer...

When you're a student studying for finals and you suddenly decide that you'd rather sleep/go out/get a mani-pedi/drive to Pinole to get Krispy-Kremes/go see a movie at the Parkway than outline your Fed Court notes, you can if you want. If slacking on your studies has any repercussions when it comes to the exam, the only person it will affect is you. Maybe you'll get a low grade, maybe you won't make law review or get a clerkship, or maybe you'll flunk out altogether--you are the only the only person those things really matter to. But, when you're working on a brief and representing a client, you can't slack off as a matter of professional responsibility.

That said, you still have to make the time to relax and recharge. I've been pretty busy these days, and intended to work a good portion of last weekend, but I just couldn't. By refusing to concentrate on anything work-related, my brain was insisting that it needed a break (or so I justified).

When I was a student, I was pretty conscientious about being good and doing my work, though I did always make an effort not to get too bogged down in the law school minutia. When given an opportunity to blow off studying to do something fun, I often told myself that I'd be more likely to remember that in ten years than, you know, that day I was really prepared for class. That philosophy probably didn't have much of an impact on how I did in law school, because it's not like I was constantly being bombarded with wild social invitations and because of my aforementioned tendency to be conscientious about doing my work.

I guess the reason not to slack off when you theoretically can, is to train yourself for the times that you can't. Like Justice Breyer said in a talk he gave at Georgetown last year, "If you're good student and do your homework, the reward is that you get to do homework for the rest of your life." :)

Finals are Here!

Even though I generally feel pretty removed from the goings-on at good ol' GULC outside my clinic, I can definitely tell that the palpable anxiety of finals has settled upon the law school. My first clue was my difficulty in finding parking on Saturday, and today when I went down to the cafeteria for an evening snack, I noticed that the content in the vending machines has been decimated (well, more like 70-percent-imated) and the hot chocolate machine is woefully low on syrup.

I guess I'm glad not to be studying for finals and frantically finishing up papers, but it's not like I have a shortage of work to do these days. And, at least when you're a student, you have all of winter break to relax and recover. If only being a lawyer came with a month-long break every December...

I have dishevelled life and a ghetto can opener

"Dishevelled" Lady. Bosse, 1640.

In addition to the unfolded laundry, the dishes in the sink, the cluttered piles of junk mail, etc., etc., my valient attempts to (semi-) cook the last couple nights (i.e. heating a can of chili on the stove as opposed to microwaving a delicious frozen treat) have been hindered by a can opener that doesn't actually open the can all the way around, but only allows two crescent moon shaped slips on either side, and requires me to use a knife to pry the Hormel goodness out.

Items to purchase this weekend? One of these. And perhaps, this. Maybe if I clean and organize my apartment, I'll treat myself to a trip to IKEA.

P.S. Don't worry, Mom. I do best to drink juice and eat vegetables at work so I won't get scurvy.

Interview-een

I’m happy to report that I've scheduled my first interview this job-hunting season for the first and only job I’ve applied to so far – a tenure-track teaching position in the Southwest Indian Law Clinic at the University of New Mexico. It’s a thirty-minute telephone interview on speakerphone with the entire hiring committee, which sounds super-scary, and it’s on Halloween, to boot! My co-workers have offered to crowd into one office on speakerphone and call me in my office for a practice round, so hopefully that will help.

I’m nerve-wracked about the interview, but excited about the position. Wish me luck and go lobos!

Half-Assed, but not Half-Bad

As my final race of 2006, I ran the Baltimore Half-Marathon last Saturday. I had originally planned to run the Army Ten-Miler, but when an opportunity to party with my girl, et al. in NYC presented itself, I (rightly) decided to bail. (Technically speaking, "Emma Garrison" did run the Army Ten-Miler with a time of 1:24:04, but that wasn't actually me. It was some chica named Courtney who is training for the Marine Corps Marathon and who I allowed to impersonate me for the day.) Since I knew as early as mid-summer that I wouldn't be able to run, and I thought it would be good for me to do one last long-run race before year's end, I registered for the half-marathon instead.

Though it sounded like a good idea at the time, once fall arrived, things got busy and I started to lose interest in going out for long training runs. I figured all I had to do was one 10-mile run before the race, and it wouldn’t take many runs to ramp up to that as I can run 5-6 miles fairly easily. The problem with an easy training plan, however, is that it’s also very easy to blow it off. And, boy did I. I did make it out for a couple (literally two) 7-9 mile runs about a month before the race, but mostly my training consisted of lounging around the house, going to pilates and spinning as per usual, and sneaking out for the occasional 3-5 mile run during the week.

The main motivation I had for actually going through with the race was to not let the $80 registration fee go to waste, in addition to the registration fee I had already wasted on the Army Ten-Miler. I got kind of annoyed with myself for the self-imposed pressure to do race after race after race. As a compromise, I decided to go through with the half, pledging to walk or do whatever I had to do just to finish, and then I would take a break from races and not even considering doing another before the Cherry Blossom Ten-Mile Run next April.

It’s seems silly, because it’s not like I was even training that much, but something about feeling like I should constantly be running, swimming, biking, or doing some activity that supplements my training efforts was getting to me and starting to take away from the enjoyment I usually associate with exercise. I thought it would be good for me to forget about what I should be doing and give myself the freedom to do whatever I feel like doing. Lift weights, go to kickboxing, try out Zumba and Hip-Hop.

The Thursday before the race, I actually ended up going to Step, which I haven’t done since law school, and, I have to say, it was tons of fun. Probably not smart, because I was definitely still sore on race day, but it reminded me of the benefit of getting back to basics. What initially got me into making physical activity a regular part of my life was group exercise classes, the fun music, the peppy instructors, and getting to know the other regulars in the class. That’s always something I can go back to whenever I get sick of training alone.

Anyway, long story short (too late!), I had a BLAST in Baltimore, and I’m so glad I did it. Baltimore is one hilly city, but I ran the entire way and even beat my marathon-time-cut-in-half by a good 20 minutes. (My time was 2:23:03, which means I ran at a 10:55/mile pace.) The crowd support was also great. My faves included a woman dressed up like a pirate holding a sign that said “AAARGH you ready to run!?,” a pee-wee football team called the Longhorns, and various locals offering runners free beer.

In conclusion, the excitement of the Baltimore Running Festival reminded me why I love participating in these kinds of events and why the training bug bit me in the first place. I’m still going to take that break, but I’m glad to end the season with a positive impression of races. It will be all the more exciting when I get back into it.

Why do awesome job opportunities keep popping up in not-as-awesome places?

I must say, Grand Forks, North Dakota is starting to make Tulsa, Oklahoma sound pretty darn appealing.

Tulsa v. Grand Forks

Population: 382,457 v. 56,573

Distance from Austin: 452 mi v. 1,396 mi

Average Temp. in January: 26 low/47 high v. -4 low/15 high (degrees Farenheit)

Number of America's Next Top Model contestants produced: 1 v. 1

Number of America's Next Top Model winners produced: 0 v. 1

If my head weren't screwed on, I would probably leave it at the gym

First it was a hair brush (my keroppi hair brush that I've had since high school). Then it was another less exciting hair brush from CVS. Then it was a pouch with little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Then it was two full-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Then it was a plastic bag of sweaty clothes, including my fun yellow shorts from Target.

The times I've asked to go through the gym lost and found previously, I've never recovered anything. Today, I went in to search for the sweaty yellow shorts, et al. A gym employee took me down to lost and found proper, but the bag of clothes was nowhere to be found. Then he took me around to a few other places where lost and found items might be. During this trek, I found the aforementioned lost pouch of shampoo and conditioner lying on a random table in the lifeguard area at the pool! After more poking around, we went back up to the front desk. He decided to double check to see if my clothes were there. And they were.

So, yay to the return of shampoo and shorts! You are welcomed back with open arms. Now that I know what a treasure hunt it is to recover lost items, I'll try to be more careful about not losing you in the future. Well, I can't promise to try. But I'll try to try.

Should I Move to Tulsa?

Everytime I start a job search, I get this overwhelming "the world is my oyster" type of feeling that I can do anything and move anywhere. This is, of course, closely followed by intense, anxious thoughts along the lines of "but, if I move there, I won't know a soul and I'll have to find a new person to cut my hair!" I'm not searching in earnest yet, but I am keeping my eyes open and am starting to see opportunites that might interest me. In Albuquerque. In Chapel Hill. In Charlottesville. In Tulsa.

Since I've been in DC, my thoughts have run the gamut in terms of what to do and where to go next. I've gone from wanting to stay in DC, to wanting to move home to Texas, to wanting to go back to California, to wanting to blindfold myself, point randomly at a map, and move wherever my index finger leads me. If I had to limit myself geographically, I'd say I've narrowed it down to DC and the western half of the United States. But I'm pretty much open to whatever, or, more accurately, wherever. I feel like Shakira.

Would I be happy in a place like Tulsa? I'm definitely not a geographic snob. I'm a firm believer in "Wherever you go, there you are." As long as you have friends, a good job, and something to do for fun, any place is bearable, right? I felt hesitant about moving to Corpus Christi, but ended up really liking it there, and was sad to leave. The idea of picking up and starting all over again is scary, but also exciting, like starting a new adventure.

The original focus of this blog was a log of my job search during my clerkship. It seems that things have come full circle and a similar theme may well pervade many of my future posts. :)

Bag Lady: Emma's Dilemma

One of my students this semester has the cutest tote bag ever. I asked her about it and she told me that you can customize your own on the LL Bean website.

I've sought advice from Evita and over at Global Wage Slave, but I thought (on the off chance that anyone is reading this) I'd pose my dilemma here as well. I've decided I want a small tote with a long strap, a zip top, and a front pocket, but when it comes to picking a color scheme I can't decide on the right permutation.

Color options I like: yellow, natural, cocoa, olive green, blue, red. Color options I'm so-so on: true teal, mulberry, dark green, cayenne. Color options I'm vehemently opposed to: black and foliage.



Any thoughts?

Transition to Blogspot Bloghood

Apparently myspace is out and blogspot is in.

Sunset Triathlon: Not Sunny at All

Around 5 am on Saturday, I hurried about shoving my pajamas and toiletries into my duffle bag, grabbed my bike, and opened the door to my hotel room only to reveal a torrential rain storm. Though definitely not ideal race conditions, considering that I had already spent time and money to get to Bridgeton, NJ (well, actually I stayed the night in Millville), and that the race was clearly advertised as a rain or shine event, I figured I might as well go to the race site to see what was what.

The drive there was not particularly fun. I hate driving in the rain, especially since I'm still recovering from the trauma of driving back from my visit with Lauren in Delaware during the huge storm a few weekends ago. But I arrived safely and by the time I did, the weather had cleared up a little. It only sprinkled intermittently in the time between packet pick up and the race start. At the race meeting, the officials announced that they had checked with whatever authorities youre supposed to check with, that the swim was a go, and that the storms would be cleared out within the half hour. One of the race organizers joked that he was going to check with the USAT officials to see if we could get a few minutes off our time for showing up in bad weather.

When we (non-elite women 44 years and younger) stood there in our pink caps waiting to start, the thunder started. And it started raining again. There was lots of yammering about whether we would still be allowed to go, whether there had been lightening, etc. We were the second wave starting five minutes after the first. The aforementioned race official leaned in and said, "Ladies, if you want to know your time, subtract five minutes from the official race clocks. And, if you want to subtract more time, just let me know." Hee. Soon enough, the race started, thunder, rain, potential lightning, and all.

The swim was a good course--basically a straight shot out and back, with calm water. Basically the closest you could get to a pool swim in open water. The bike went fine as well. I was probably more cautious (i.e. slow) than usual (if that's possible) because the ground was slippery in places and my brakes were wet. It was a good scenic route--not how you picture New Jersey, but this was quaint farm country. I rode by a sign next to someones mail box: "Fresh brown eggs--$1.25." I wondered to myself if that meant $1.25 per egg. Whats the going rate for fresh brown eggs? Or, non-fresh brown eggs for that matter? This is the kind of thing I think about during these races.

I was chatting with a woman before the start and we agreed that rain during the swim and the run would be ok, but we were hoping it wouldn't rain during the bike leg. Luckily, that wish was granted and it did not rain at all while I was biking. It did start to rain again lightly during the run. It was a pretty course through the woods and eventually across a baseball diamond (the race is put on each year by a local high school). I even ran by some adorable fuzzy yellow ducklings. About two minutes after I crossed the finish line, the torrential downpour started again. Luckily it was only a one and a half mile walk back to the car in the pouring rain with my bike and all my gear. J

All in all, Im glad I weathered the storm. It was an adventure and the race was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, it was the third triathlon in a row where I had to rush back to DC to spend the afternoon and evening working. Everyone cross your fingers that this won't be the case when I do the New York Danskin with the girls in September.

Results: 184/221 overall; 62/88 woman's division
Overall time: 1:58:16; 1/2 mi swim: 17:29; 16 mi bike: 1:02:22; 5k run: 32:41 (note: the run time includes a detour at the port-a-potty). What was that again about getting time taken off for showing up in bad weather?

Race Review: Two thumbs up. Well organized, pretty scenery, flat course, fun and homegrown. Definitely on my list for next year's race season.

I'm Breezy!

So I went down to the Breezy Point Triathlon last weekend and . . . (drumroll please) . . . I finished all three events! I rode to victory on my brand new fancy front tire. (And by victory, I mean I finishing 39/63 in my age group and 440/593 overall with a time of 1:43:07:30.) My favorite part of this tri (besides NOT panicking in the swim and NOT getting a flat tire on the bike) was wearing my new DC Tri Club uniform. People who don't even know me would yell things like "Go DC Tri!" It's so much more fun when you have people to cheer you on.
My swim time was 20:49:80, which actually is a vast improvment from my 19:38 time at Luray. The swim course there was only a 1/2 mile (750m), while this one was a full 1K. According to this swim pace calculator, my time for a half mile would have been about 16:00 minutes. Additionally, I paced myself and sited properly this time so I didn't panic and actually felt good when emerging from the water.

In my age group, I finished 30th on the swim, and was ranked 40th on the bike and 47th on the run. Since my final rank was 39, only 9 fellow female 25-29 year olds passed me once I got out of the water. I guess that's not too shabby.

I remember chatting with a woman I worked with briefly in Corpus Christi right before I did my first race in Austin last year. She was a hard core triathlete -- she started doing ironmans on a whim and didn't take long before she qualified for Hawai'i. Anyway, she coached swimming before going to law school, so the swim was obviously her best event. She totally cracked me up when she was telling me that during her first ironman, as she was starting the bike ride everyone who passed her would yell "Nice swim!" She said that she must have been really slow on the bike ride (well, comparatively) because at Mile 75 people were still yelling out "Nice swim!" I always think of that when the usual hordes of people pass me as soon as I get on my bike. So whenever someone whizzes by me at mile 8, I think to myself, "Wow, I must have really kicked your ass on the swim if you're just now passing me!"

Small world report -- this hardcore ironwoman triathlete, Heather, worked for one of the magistrate judges in CC and left around the same time as I did because her husband was in the service and was transferred to somewhere on the East coast. Anyway, when I checked the results for Breezy Point, I noticed that she was there and won the open women's division!
Next race: Sunset in New Jersey on July 22, 2006.

See Emma Tri

This morning I competed in my first triathlon of the season, which was kind of a bust (literally) but definitely still good fun.

I registered for the Luray Sprint Triathlon, a race nestled in the heart of the Shenandoah, about a month and a half ago on the suggestion of my co-worker Kristi. Despite our original grand plan to spend the weekend camping and hiking before the race on Sunday, we ended up just driving down there for the day, departing DC at 4:45am.

I've been really busy at work lately, and only finally decided to go yesterday afternoon. On the drive down, I was reflecting on the difference between doing this race and my first triathlon last June. When I did the Austin Danskin, I made sure to go to bed early two nights before the race, I spent the day prior carb-loading and hydrating, and even took Monday off of work so I wouldn't have to drive the three and a half hours back to Corpus Christi following the race. This time it was just like, can I squeeze in a triathlon to my schedule this weekend if I work 11 hours on Saturday and go straight to work after the race on Sunday? I also didn't really have much riding on this triathlon, nor had I really been gearing up for it. (Apologies for the cycling puns.) Rather, I thought of this race as a beginning of the season diagnostic.

See Emma Swim

Swimming is definitely my strongest of the three events, but I was a little disappointed in my performance this time. I started out swimming way too fast and got tired before I even swam past the first buoy. In other races I've done, it was difficult to swim quickly at the outset because tons of other bodies are around you and on top of you. This race was not as crowded and I easily pushed ahead. Not only did I swim too fast, but I also got disoriented and had to swim extra to get back on the right course. Because of this, I spent a significant portion of the first quarter mile in panic mode and had to stop frequently to do an easy breast stroke. Luckily I calmed down and pulled it together in the second half. I think my time was about 18 minutes, which is about 2-3 minutes slower than my usual half-mile open water time. I am a little disappointed, but at least I learned the value of pacing myself.

See Emma Bike

My bike got a flat a couple weeks ago when the innertube in the front tire randomly exploded when my bike was in the back seat of my car. (A friend suggested this was likely due to the tire's rapid change in temperature when I put it in the hot car.) When I replaced the innertube last night, I noticed a small tear in the tread of the tire itself. I read on the internet that you can prevent a puncture in the tube by placing a piece of fabric or a dollar bill in between the tube and the tread. I did this, using some left over fabric from IKEA, but I was definitely nervous about my tire holding up during the race.

Sure enough, the front tire blew out around Mile 3. I didn't have an extra innertube (I had used my last one the night before), and assumed that the problem was with the tire itself and replacing the tube wouldn't do much to prevent another flat. I started to walk my bike back to the transition area, but stopped at Mile 2 where another woman had stopped and was fixing a flat on her bike. Shortly after this, a woman rode by and declared that the she was too tired from the swim to finish the bike ride, and offered to help us with our tires. The three of us pooled our resources and did our best to fix the two tires. The woman who stopped to help was really fun -- a lawyer who works in Reston and a fellow member of the California bar. She was cracking me up the entire time. We used her patch kit to mend my tube and tire, but to no avail. The tire deflated immediately after it was inflated. The other woman wasn't able to fix her tire either. I finally hitched a ride back to the transition area with a friendly local in a pick-up truck.

Going back to my earlier comparison between this tri and the Austin Danskin: if I had gotten a flat during my first triathlon, I would have been devasted! But since I was doing this race just to do it and the preciousness of my first race was not at stake, I wasn't too disappointed by the turn of events. Even though I didn't finish the bike ride, I actually had fun attempting to fix my tire with my new friends. And, at least I got some exercise and got to spend time outdoors (in the Shenandoah, no less!) I also learned that in the future, it's probably best to carefully inspect my bike sooner than 7pm the night before a race.

See Emma Run

Even though I didn't finish the bike, I decided to pick up with the run. I was most likely DQ-ed for failing to complete the bike, but the race volunteers let me keep my chip so I could still get my split for the 5k. The run course was actually really pretty -- around Lake Arrowhead, through the woods, with the mountains in the background.
When I was training for the marathon, I had to slow my pace way down in order to handle the distance. I'm worried that in doing so I some how programmed my body to always go that slow, regardless of the distance I'm running. I'm eager to see what my time is and will be ecstatic if I was able to get back into my usual 10 minute mile-ish pace.
Work permitting, I'm going to San Francisco to run Bay to Breakers next weekend (yay!), so I'll probably devote my work-outs this week to running and work on improving my speed.

My next triathlon is in Norfolk on June 4.
If at first you don't succeed, tri, tri again. :)

UPDATE

The results are in. My swim time was 19:38, my "bike" time was 1:29:40, and my run was 33:07, meaning a 10:37 pace per mile, and an overal "time" of 2:28:42. Even though I should have been DQed, I ranked 11/15 in my age group, and 55/71 overall. (Had I actually completed the bike, my time probably would have been a little faster, but not much.)
Kristi suspects that the run course was actually longer than 5k, given how many people's run split was just around 30 minutes (unusual). Similarly, I'm wondering if the swim course was also a little longer than a half mile. In other races I've done, the top swimmers all clocked in at around 11 minutes. Here, however, although one woman finished in 11:47, the other top swimmers' times ranged between 14 and 17 minutes. Heh! Blaming the course instead of my own performance is fun!

I'm a "Friend"

Well, I at least look like one.

I was watching Best Week Ever this morning and learned all about myheritage.com, a site where you upload a photo and it tells you what celebrities you look like. Intrigued, I submitted a picture of me and Eva from a few years ago.

As it turns out, the celebrity whose features are most similar to mine is Courtney Cox. Other close matches included Martina McBride, Kate Beckinsale, the O.C.'s Rachel Bilson, Halle Berry, Anne Hathaway, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicky Hilton, Cindy Crawford, and Cheryl Tweedy.
The celebrity recognition process was not limited by gender, and determined that Eva looked most like Annette Bening, Mariah Carey, Harry Houdini(!?!), Nina Hagen, Jake Gyllenhaal, Grace Kelly, Missy Elliott, Douglas Fairbanks, Primoz Peterka, and Harrison Ford.

Click here to see our results complete with side-by-side comparison of the celebrity photos. You may have to register, but it's free and definitely worth it if you're dying to upload your own photo for celebrity recognition, or, you know, if it's rainy outside and you're bored.

I Heart LA

I just wanted to report that I had tons of fun in LA last weekend and also managed to cross an item off my life's to do list by completing the 21st Annual Los Angeles Marathon. Here's my best shot at summarizing the 5 hours 27 minutes and 53 seconds spent on the course in addition to the days, hours, and months leading up to the big day. (Sorry so long!)

Marathon Striptease

Although I carefully picked out my race day outfit a couple weeks before boarding the plane and brought back up clothing in case the weather was cold, there was an aspect of dressing properly that I had not prepared for. LA has been having a bit of a cold snap lately, meaning that it dropped below 70 degrees and has been raining some. But on race day, the weather was perfect sunny and around 65 degrees. However, this was still a little chilly for shorts and a tank top and I would likely be too cold while waiting for the race to begin and when running the first few miles. Deborah, who has run two marathons, suggested wearing extra clothes at the beginning and ditching them during the race. It's a common enough phenomenon that the clean up crews collect and donate the cast-off clothing. So we went to Goodwill the day before and I bought a "disposable" warm-up outfit for around nine dollars. (The pants and top were even the same brand and looked pretty darn cute even though I picked them exclusively based on functionality and cost.) I ditched the pants right before the start line (I almost tripped taking them off, but not quite) and I lost the long-sleeved shirt around mile three. I wonder if they'll end up back at the same Goodwill from whence I bought them . . .

Strength in Numbers

The Marathon Expo the day before had lots of exciting booths with free samples, demonstrations, race gear, etc. And, it was LA so the Expo included a contest to win plastic surgery and a Scientology consultation table. Although I didn't win free implants or learn the ways of L. Ron Hubbard, I did chat with the people at the Clif Bar Pace Team booth. I talked to Sharona woman who said she would be leading a group that planned on finishing the Marathon in 5:30and she seemed really cool and encouraging. I had trained alone and planned to race alone, but after talking to her, I figured I might as well meet up with the group at the starting line and give it a try. Even though I decided to join the group on a whim, I'm so glad I did!

The Big Day

The night before, we met up with Karen for a relaxing carb-loading meal at an Italian place in Pasadena, stopping off for some yummy frozen yogurt before heading to bed early. I didn't get much sleep that night, but more than I usually do before big events like these. (I didn't sleep a wink the night before the first day of the bar exam or the night before my first triathlon.) I at least slept long enough to have a really dorky dream wherein Chief Justice Roberts yelled at me for buying clothes from Goodwill with the intention of throwing them away during the race.

We got to the start of the race in plenty of time, I didn't forget anything (except to put sunscreen on my legs), and I found my Pace group after only a slight detour through the group of runners in the sub-4 category (hard core!). The other people in my pace group seemed nice and the crowd was pumped up with opening words by Cruz Bustamante (I guess Arnold was booked) and continued blasting of the song, I Love LA (which is still in my head.)

The race started out fine. The group was to keep about a 12:30 minute / mile pace and take two walk breaks every mile. (I didn't train this way, but it actually ended up being a really good way to do it.) Sharon ran while holding up red and yellow balloons so we could always find the group in case we fell behind.

The first bit of drama I endured during the Marathon was, as always, the result of my worst enemy during events like thesemy bladder. I figured that it would just get more annoying the longer I waited, so I left the group around Mile 2 to wait in line for a port-a-potty. Unfortunately, this took at least 15 minutes! After leaving the bathrooms, I was worried that I was too far behind to catch up with Sharon, but I decided that I should at least try. I ran at a faster pace with no walk breaks, peering frantically into the distance for the red and yellow balloons. When I hadn't found them by Mile 5, I started to panic a little. I knew that at some point I would have to slow down and settle into a steadier pace, and I started to stress myself out trying to figure out when to give up on finding my group. I managed to calm down once I starting thinking about what I had just done. I had just run five miles like it was no big deal! This in itself was a huge accomplishment from where I was a year ago.

I kept running and soon enough I passed a group holding a sign for a 13-minute mile pace, which meant that I couldn't be too far behind my group. I finally found them somewhere between Mile 5 and the 10k marker. When I spotted those balloons, it literally felt like I was six years old and had just found my mother in the supermarket after losing her in the cereal aisle. It was such a relief! I'm sure I could have finished the race without the group, but having someone else in charge of the pace made the mental aspect so much easier.

Overall, I thought the first half of the marathon was very enjoyable and doable. I chatted with people, enjoyed running through LA's various neighborhoods, and engaged in my favorite pastime of people-watching the spectators and other runners. I high-fived the pom-poms of a local cheerleading squad and ran through a tent that was blasting the theme song from Chariots of Fire. I wouldn't say that it was easy, but the first half was well within my comfort zone.

Finishing Strong

It started to get harder around mile 14-15, partially because of some uphills and partially because the reality of what I was actually doing started to sink in. Jason and Aura live around the Mile 16 marker and they stood outside their house to cheer me on. I stopped long enough to give Jason (from my small section first year of law school) a big sweaty hug, and then kept on going.

I felt a second wind around Miles 18 and 19, which were breezy and partly downhill, but I started to panic again around Mile 20. At first I was like, "Oh, 20 down, 6 to go, no problem." But then I started to freak out when I realized that 6 more miles meant more than an hour left of running. How could I possibly run for another hour? I also started feeling weird, sharp twitches in my calf muscles, which made me worried that I was going to hit "the wall." I thought eating might help, but every banana, pretzel, or balance bar I took a bite of just made me feel like I wanted to puke.

Jessie, Julian, and Deborah were standing and cheering at Mile 22 and, when I passed by, Julian joined me for a bit. I kept telling him that I was doing fine with my Pace group and he didn't have to run with me, but every time he tried to leave I was like, "Julian, don't go!" He cheered me up, telling me a few stories and instructing me to just listen and pant and I finally released him around Mile 23.

Shortly after this, I was worried that I might start balling at any minute for no reason other than I just felt so overwhelmed by everything. But I held it together, smiled for the cameras, and kept putting one foot in front of the other. I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel once we finished Mile 24, and during Miles 25 and 26 I was in a state of total disbelief. Even though intellectually I thought I would be able to finish, I don't think I really believed it or appreciated it until those last few miles. I took it pretty easy during Mile 26, but after passing that last mile marker, my legs just started moving independently from my body. I surged ahead of my group and finished with a chip time of 5:27:53.

All in all, it was a fun race and it was so nice to have friends cheering me on along the way. My parents followed my progress from Austin over the internet and when I called them afterwards, they seemed even more excited than I was.

Final Thoughts

I feel some obligation to wax philosophical on what these six months of training and five hours of running have taught me. Of course there's the cheesy and the obvious: trust in yourself you can achieve anything and when times are tough, just take a deep breath and put one foot in front of the other. More importantly, this experience has taught me to not be ashamed of mediocrity and that doing something is better than doing nothing.

I'm not a fast runner. I never have been. Even though I work out a lot, even though I do triathlons, I suck at running and I'm slow. When I started training in October, I thought maybe that I would work up to running the marathon at a 10-minute mile pace (which is my typical 5k pace). It didn't take me long to realize, however, that this was an unrealistic goal. It was very discouraging to read books about marathons (even those aimed at beginners) that would casually describe an 8-minute mile as taking it easy. But these books also had very helpful advice: when running your first marathon, finishing should be your only goal . I kept training and pledged to finish, even if I had to walk the last ten miles of the race, per my Mom's suggestion.

I decided internally that finishing was my only goal, but I still avoided telling people my actual anticipated race pace. I just downplayed it and said that I was going to run really slow. And, I figured that after the race I would similarly avoid revealing my slow time and focus only on the fact that I finished. But, you know what, I ran the LA marathon in 5 hours, 27 minutes, and 53 seconds, and I am proud! I hereby proclaim to the world that I ran 26.2 miles at a steady pace of 12 and a half minutes per mile! (By "world," I mean my two loyal readers who wouldn't care if it took me ten hours to finish.)

The point is that I ran my own race, I did my very best, and there is nothing to be ashamed of because all I can be is myself. I could have shrugged and said, "I'm not a very good runner, so why bother," but I didn't. I could have spent the last 24 Sundays sitting on my ass instead of braving the cold for a long run, but I didn't. Emma, you ran 26.2 miles in 5:27:53. This is hardly an occasion that requires wearing a bag over your head!

Thanks to everyone for their support and good wishes! Hopefully, I'll post pictures soon!

Eighteen [Miles] and a Life to Go!

There's nothing like a Texas girl . . . who can actually adapt to her new surroundings. This time last year I could barely run three miles and I classified weather less than 50 degrees as "fucking freezing." Today, however, I ran 18 miles in "17 degrees feels like 1." Literally, my water bottles froze shut and I almost broke my tooth while eating my Snickers Marathon Energy Bar.
My last two long runs--both 16-milers--for lack of a better word, sucked. During those, I spent half the time walking and the other half wishing I would break my ankle so I would have a good excuse to quit. But this time I ran almost the entire time (not freezing to death is a good incentive to keep running) and I actually enjoyed myself. It took about a mile and a half for my toes and fingers to thaw and I was able to stay motivated almost the entire time. The last three miles were really hard, but I did it!

I ran the Capital Crescent Trail from Georgetown to Bethesda. I think it helped to run a trail with mileage marks rather than guestimating the distance and dodging tourists as usual when I start my runs from Captiol Hill.

Afterwards, I treated myself to a yummy sandwich from Dean & Deluca, a bubble bath with the Lush-icious grapefruit shower gel from Matt and Laura, and a viewing of Tivo-ed 12 Angry Men. Excellent flick.

I only have one more looooong training run next weekend (also 18 miles) and then I taper off before the real thing on March 19. Now to more important things. What does a girl wear when running a marathon down Rodeo Drive . . . ?

Ready to Run!

If I were a savvier myspacer I would have the Dixie Chicks playing in the background...

As many of you know, I'm training for this. (I love the way I say that considering I only have 6 "friends" and I doubt any of them are reading this.) For the past month or so, however, I've been wondering to myself, "What have you gotten yourself into?!" In an effort to get the spring back in my step, I devoted part of my Amazon Christmas gift certificates to purchase this. (On a random side note, I got two gift certificates, one for $20, one for $30, and after selecting all my purchases, my total with shipping and tax came out to exactly $50. Cool, huh?)

Anyway, the book suggested running without wearing a watch and leaving the headphones at home. These are two crutches I've been very dependent on! But, for my shorter week-day run this evening, I decided to try it without music. I also couldn't find my watch, so I ran without that too. The results were amazing! I ran faster, I got annoyed whenever I had to stop for traffic lights, I enjoyed myself much more, and I when I got home I just wanted to keep running. Rather than running for a set amount of time, and counting down the minutes until I could stop, I just ran to the Lincoln Memorial and back home. That's five-point-six miles according to G-map Pedometer. (Google Maps is the best. True that! Double True!)

For the first time in awhile, I'm actually looking forward to my long run this Sunday. 16 miles this time!