Bolder Boulder

I have decided to run the Bolder Boulder this year. I just couldn't live with myself if I lived in boulder for 8 years and never did it. Thus, I decided to get my feet slapping against the dirt again so that I can actually make it through all 6.2 miles (10km) without stopping. I went online to find a novice training schedule that would bring me up to a level that would be sufficient. Seeing as how there are only 6 weeks til Memorial Day I figured I would have plenty of time. Unfortunately, all I found was an 8 week schedule. So I thought, "No big deal" I'll cut the first two weeks off and jump right in.

Bad idea!

I've haven't been running religiously since last summer. In fact, I've only been doing 1 - 1.5 mile run every other week. When I added in the strength I have from Ballet and I figured I'd be fine. The training recipe called for a 3.5 mile run my first day (which should have been the beginning of the 3rd week). I knew it was going to be tough but I figured I could do it. I was wrong. I only made it 2.5 miles (with a couple of minutes of walking in the middle) before my back and my knees were screaming at me to stop. I went back to the schedule and it turns out that if I had started two weeks ago, the first run I would have had to do is a 2.5 mile run. So I'm just going to have to accept being two weeks behind and hopefully gain a little ground as I progress through the next couple weeks.

Bittersweet News

Tor has official announced the release date for the next Wheel of Time book.

http://us.macmillan.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=12669&publisher=torforge

On one hand, I'm realy excited to see more of those beloved characters. On the other,I'm bummed they are splitting it into 3 novels. It'd be nice to finally read the end. I'm also not very happy about the idea of a movie. Especially after seeing what they did to "The Sword of Truth."

Unique Names

I am a big advocate of unique names.

I have a certain pity for individuals who are so accustomed to hearing their name when they aren't the one being addressed that they don't even look up. I, on the other hand, look up whenever I think I might have heard anything remotely like my name. For example, I have a sister named Malea. Our names don't exactly rhyme but they sound similar enough that sometimes I respond under the assumption that I was the one addressed.

(There are also the (frequent) occasions when a family member (i.e. mom) uses the wrong name and it saves time just to respond.)

Another example of times when its fun to have a unique name is when you go to google and search for yourself. For me, the first 2 complete pages are entries that are directly connected to events in my life. (Even though you would think they were two different people! Engineering and music?!?!) But there are those of you out there that can do a google search for yourself and not find anything that is connected to you until the atleast the 5th page of results.

I ran a little experiment. I inserted the name "Julie Smith" through the search engine just for kicks and giggles. Its a name I pulled out of a hat. The top few hits were a website for an author. But the results quickly begin to vary from a state farm agent to a jewelry maker to a travel photographer. Obviously, they are not the same person.


The only downfall of having a unique name is not being able to find your name in the keyring selection at a miscellaneous gift shop while vacationing in some location where the local population is dominated by tourists. Actually, on second thought, that's not a downfall...

I guess the point of the story is that I like my name. I like having my own identity in a world of almost 7 billion people. I'm grateful for the time my parents took to figure out a name that fit me and that isn't common or redundant. I plan on doing the same for my children.