Things about Me

Since I have no race reports and am between goals right now, I thought I’d write a few things about me you may not know.

1. I nuke plain M&M for about a minute on high before I eat them. The chocolate melts but the shell doesn’t. They taste great. I highly recommend everyone try it at least once before you judge.

2. I may not be very fast at triathlons, but I’m very good at my job. Better than good. I’d go so far as to say I’m great at what I do. I’m in a male dominated field and ‘chick’ the guys in my department on a daily basis. They’d probably agree with me too.

3. I’ve never had a cigarette in my entire life. Not even once.

4. As much as I love a good steak, I could live the rest of my life without red meat.

5. The 10 months I was unemployed in 2008 were some of the happiest and stress free months of my life. I was well rested and got to play everyday with my boys – three of those months were in the summer. Then I ended up at a great company that supports my desire to do triathlons.

6. My husband and I were married in Las Vegas. The wedding cost $200 and that included the ceremony, flowers, photographer, videographer, marriage license, a limo ride to the court house to get the license and champagne. We were trying to elope but 40 people followed us out there anyway! It was the best 4 day party ever!

7. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday: The menu is pretty much set, it includes all of my favorite foods, I get to see family I don’t see very often, and it doesn’t include gift giving. I also got engaged on Thanksgiving and my youngest son was born on Thanksgiving. Oddly enough, we named him Tom. We didn’t realize the implication at the time.

8. I truly enjoy driving long distances in my car – especially by myself. I usually listen to a book on tape or XM radio or catch up with family and friends on my cell phone – using my Bluetooth of course. At one point, I was averaging 5,000 miles a month in my car for work. Good thing I enjoy it.

9. I am a total geek. As I always say – you can’t spell geek without the ‘double e’s.’ That is a really bad joke for electrical engineers (My college degree is a BS in EE). I’m completely into sci-fi and can talk Star Trek and Star Wars as well as any guy. On the 20th anniversary of Star Wars I went to see all three movies in one night by myself so as not to be disturbed by anyone else talking.

10. I love the way I feel after I have run or done a triathlon. This is why I’m not bothered by how slow I am. I hope I stay healthy enough to do this a long, long time.

11. The F-word is one of my favorite words. I find it cathartic. However, it is probably not a good example for my boys to hear their mom saying it repeatedly. Oops – sorry guys.

12. I know many mean people, many bad people and many evil people. I can deal with the mean and bad people but cannot deal with the evil people. Luckily, I also believe in karma. So the evil people will be dealt with at a later time.

13. The best advice I was ever given was: Always live east of where you work. My dad told me this when I graduated college. He drove for 40+ years into the sun to and from work because our house was west of where he worked.

14. The next best advice I was ever given was: In a social situation where you know no one, start a conversation with someone by asking them about them self. My husband told me to do this because I’m in this situation frequently. He said everyone’s favorite topic of conversation is them self. It has never failed me.

15. The third best advice I was ever given was: Invest the maximum company matching percentage in your 401K the second you are eligible. I was 22 when I stared my career and was told by a manager that if I saved money only from the age of 22 to 30, I have more than him if he saved the maximum amount from the age of 30 to 65. He showed me the math – its true.

16. I have difficulty doing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in my head but can do integrals and derivatives in my head no problem. This is why my husband has already volunteered me to be the calculus, chemistry and physics tutor for our sons when they get to high school. It is also why I’m never allowed to figure out the tip at a restaurant.

It Took a Village

Sorry I have been such a bum the last few weeks. I have been taking some time off to catch up on the many things I ignored while I was training. Although I can’t say that I’m caught up, I can say I’m making a dent. My house must have had at least an inch of dust everywhere. Thank goodness no one in the family has allergies.

I also haven’t been doing much training either. The blisters on my feet have really affected that. It took over a week to wear shoes other than my Crocs because the blisters caused me so much pain. Then I did something kinda not smart. I ran in the Akron Marathon 5-man relay on Sept. 25th. I had already signed up months ago and didn’t want to let my team down because it is hard to find a replacement person on short notice. I thought I’d be ok because it had been 2 weeks and I wore more moleskin to cover the blisters. I seriously aggravated them and just decided to let them heal more before I ran any more.

Right now I’m kind of floundering. I had been focused on the Rev3 triathlon for so long, that now that it is over, I don’t know what to do. I need to set another race goal, but I need to figure out what I want. I just don’t know. My niece Tracy lives in New York. She ran the New York Marathon last November and is now asking me to join her at the New York Half Marathon in March 2011. I’m thinking about it.

I have received some amazing feed back for completing the half Rev. It truly took a village…. I needed a lot of support and am happy to report that many of my family, friends and neighbors pitched in to watch my boys or provide some advice or fix my bike or just provide words of encouragement. I thank each and every one of you.

Tonight, my friend Aimee (who encouraged me the most throughout this past year) and I are going out to dinner. We are meeting at Michael Symon’s newest restaurant in the Cleveland area – The B Spot Burgers. Yummy! Can’t wait.

The above picture is of me and a fellow team mate. He completed the Full Rev.