3/11/01

Ha! Tonight I finally got my digital camera to download to my new computer! So now I can finally look at all the pictures I've taken since December. This one below is really old--it's from the day I got my new computer, which was sometime a few days before Christmas. Jay took it. Note my cool Disney Quasimodo mug and my ever-present giant bottle of ibuprofen in the background.

And here's a picture of my sister and her boyfriend from when we were all home at Christmas. We were trying to balance spoons on our noses, but none of us could do it, so my sister just stuck the spoon in her mouth. My dad is there in the background playing with his new stereo.

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I've been working like a maniac. Yesterday (that would be Saturday) I got to work at 6:30 a.m. and I was there until 10:30 p.m. Of course, I did take a couple of hours off in the morning to run 18 miles, but that doesn't really count as a break to me.

Why, you may ask, was I running 18 miles yesterday? Well, I've had this crazy idea in my head for a week or so now. I'm planning to run the San Francisco Marathon in July.

After I ran my half-marathon, people kept asking me if I was going to run a marathon now, but I never seriously considered it. I've heard so many horror stories about people getting injured during marathon training and racing, it seemed foolhardy to undertake a marathon when I've only been running seriously since November. Also, I didn't have time to do all those long training runs (especially with my orals coming up at the end of May). And I'd heard that the San Francisco Marathon isn't very good--it's a slow course, it's hilly, and since it's in July, it can be hot and oppressively sunny. So, I told everyone I was going to focus on speedwork for a while.

But then last week, I decided to completely disregard all those very valid reasons not to do this marathon. I still might not do it--I haven't registered yet. But this week I started training for it, hence the 18-mile run yesterday. The run itself actually wasn't too painful, but I stupidly wore a sports bra I'd only worn a few times before, and it was a warm day, so I sweated right through it and the result was horrific chafing under my breasts and in my armpits. Now I have big red welts to remember my run by.

So, while it may be a stupid thing to do, and while it is definitely a bad time for me to be doing it, I'm going to try and do this. Maybe it'll even be a good thing to have another thing to focus on while I prepare for my orals.

Speaking of which, I finally did put together an orals committee this week. My committee has three people on it who've never been on an orals committee before (you're only supposed to have one person) and my committee chair doesn't really know much about my topic (your chair is supposed to play an integral role in helping you write your thesis proposal), but I'm happy anyway. Now I need to start writing my thesis proposal. And finish my experiments, and start putting together a presentation I need to give on Thursday, and clean my apartment, and do my taxes.

Maybe next weekend I'll do something fun...

In the forum: Marathoning.