Sloth Toe...

So yesterday at Beaker Luv's baby shower I was asked the inevitable question asked of all single girls at social gatherings... "So are you seeing anyone new?"

Ok before I begin this story let me vent for a second here. I love my friends, immensely, but I gotta tell you, sometimes it is hard being the minority. (Single) If it weren't for Ebs, my trusty "old faithful", I wouldn't even have a single friend to hang out with here in Orlando. (Damn you Crazy B for living in Brandon!!!) And although I will admit my tales of dating are in fact hilarious, sometimes it gets depressing to be amongst the coupled and married. Nothing increases the stock of a boyfriend/husband sitting at home quite like a single friends account of a first date gone awry... therefore I am, at the expense of my dignity, providing not only entertainment to my friends but also helping them appreciate their coupledom all the more. I want to be a couple DAMN IT!!!

Ok enough whinning... on to the tale of Sloth Toe. Last friday night I met ST downtown at Happy Hour after work. I was hanging out with some old work croonies and ST happened to stroll by and smile at me. I smiled back. He was cute but not exactly my "type" but I gave him a chance and he proceeded to chat my ear off for the rest of the time I was there and convinced me to give him my number before I left.

Over the rest of the Memorial weekend we exchanged a few texts and Monday night Ebs and I stopped by his work to grab a drink before going to Blue Man Group. He was charming, polite and even sent us over an appetizer. (Score 10 points for ST.) After BMG Ebs and I hit the bars of City Walk in what would inevitably turn out to be a poor decision. One too many fruity drinks and beers later ST meets up with us after his shift... at 12 am. I won't even go into details here but let's say it was not pretty. More like HOT MESS.

The next morning with a hang over from h*ll I had to call Ebs to review the night and decide whether or not it was a total loss. Apparently it wasn't. She confirmed that while I was definitely "tipsy" she didn't think I was that bad and that ST seemed to think I was endearingly cute. WTF?! An hour later a text from ST confirmed this. He wanted to hang out again.

Fast forward to Thursday. I'm at my night job and ST stops in for a drink. He sits at the bar, alone and proceeds to drink 5 beers. (Is he getting me back for Monday night?) He leaves clearly tipsy and tells me he'll see me at his place. (We have plans to watch the Magic game that night.) I get off work and head over to his place where he meets me with a glass of wine in hand and we settle in on the couch to watch the game. It is at this point that he gets comfortable. It is at this point that he plops his feet up on the coffee table, in direct line of vision to the TV and I see his bare feet. Or rather his SLOTH TOES!!!!



I kid you not his toe nail's were longer than his toes and pointy!!! OMG!!! First off I have serious issues with feet, I don't like them, I don't want them to touch me, I don't want anyone to touch mine! Second off I have this issue with toe nails and it grosses me out to almost revulsion if people have long toe nails, mine own cut as short as humanly possible.

And that my friends was the deal breaker. I did my time and left, well more like sprinted, THE minute the game ended.

The ladies at the baby shower erupted in laughter and voted that once again I have the best dating stories ever. I swear I"m not picky but I draw the line at personal hygiene. I mean seriously, even if he were to clip those daggers of death I'd never be able to stop thinking about them. I throw up in my mouth a little just reliving the moment. So that was that, back to the single pool I go... *sigh*

In other news I finally got around to putting together a shadow box showcasing my medal from the Gasparilla Half. Check it out!



20 more weeks til Chicago Marathon! OMG!!!

You never forget your first....

This morning I joined the lovely ladies of the OWR to run a 7.5 miler around Lake Baldwin. We started the run around 7:25 am and I gotta tell ya... it was already a little too hot... hot enough to make me start reconsidering my ambitious goal of 3 laps around. Here's a brief recap of the random ramblings going around my head whilst I ran a very hot 3 laps iPod-less... (I forgot my iPod at work... again.)

• It's really effing hot.
• How is it that I couldn't find the motivation to get up this week and run my daily 3-milers but come hell (like weather) or high water (for once no rain in sight) I was finishing this 7.5 miler?
• I'm definitely going to shave today... after the conversation with Crazy B yesterday I have no desire to have the nick name "La Bouche"
• I can breathe "Just keep running" as a rhythm - Just Keep (breath in, breathe in) Running (long exhale out)
• I wonder if that cooler full of glorious water just sitting on the bench is for anyone in particular?
• I think I need to trim my toenails... I kinda feel like one is stabbing another toe
• My shorts aren't riding up! I wonder why it took me so long to utilize that drawstring?
  
• It's really f*%$ing HOT!
• Only one more lap to go...
• Alright that's it... I'm drinking some of this random water. I hope I don't die of arsenic poisoning... or kharma.
• Ok so I'm totally ahead of everyone running and I'm almost finished and I still haven't found a running friend for the summer. I suck.
• When Crazy B and I run next weekend we have GOT to get up earlier than this
  
• THANK GOD THE GAZEBO IS IN SIGHT... THE END IS NEAR!!!
  
• WATER, WATER, WATER

And then I was done. Not so bad after all. :) Even 10 minute pace for the entire run (toot, toot) That was me tooting my own horn for being so awesome. LOL!

After the run I headed home, made a few; "It's baby shower day!" phone calls to friends (Today I am throwing my best friend, Beaker Luv, a baby shower) and finally arrived my sweat soaked @ss home to shower. Upon taking off my shoes I find a little surprise: bloody toe. My first ever bloody toe. I called B.o.B:

Me - "I just thought I should share this moment with you... I have just officially gotten my first bloody toe from running."

B.o.B. - "I am so excited for you! Guess what everyone... my friend Morgan just got her first bloody toe!!! Everyone say yay!!!! "

BRA (Brandon Running Association) - "YAY! WOO!"

And that... is how I started my day.

7.5 miler in the books by 9am... no on to baby shower mode.

Do you believe in Magic?

It's official, I have jumped on the band wagon and allowed myself to get swept up in the fan fury of our little Orlando Magic kicking some serious @ss. I'm not all that in to basketball, for all the games I've gone to since moving here I can honestly say I remember little of any because I tended to just drink myself in to oblivion and not care a bit who won or lost as long as I had a full beer in my hand... but I gotta say, this season has actually been interesting. I've found myself genuinely excited for the next game and getting riled up during. So in honor of our dear Magic I say this... I BELIEVE IN MAGIC! GO MAGIC!

On the running front let me tell you how I had to give myself a stern talking to last night before I went to bed. Sad but true. I sat myself down and expressed my frustration with myself for not getting my butt in gear and sticking to the training plan. Skipping runs this week was unacceptable and if I didn't get up tomorrow morning and run I was in big trouble! As I lay there begging for sleep to take me away I envisioned my alarm clock going off and me enjoying a morning run... at 12:35 am a text came through and I was still laying there envisioning said run and wishing for sleep. I ignored the text... until 12:50 am when I realized sleep wasn't happening and maybe whoever was texting would offer some entertainment to my otherwise restless night. Thinking it was a drunk friend I checked it. Not a drunk friend. Imagine that. I spent the next hour on the phone chatting it up like it was 1 pm and not 1 am. Finally enough was enough and I made myself attempt sleep again. Still envisioning running I finally drifted off somewhere around 3 am. 5:45 am came and fearing serious repercussions I indeed dragged my sorry sleepy @ss out of bed and hit the pavement. It was worth it. Time to get back on track.

In other news Crazy B and I had a serious in depth conversation about building an ark. We've decided that although we'll be sure to collect two of all animals as prophesized we will be eliminating the arachnid race. Also all things creepy crawly. (i.e. snakes, bugs, the stupid lizards that are all over Florida, etc...) Hopefully the man upstairs doesn't mind too much. Also we've decided to bring more than two men... not because we're greedy or anything but because we need options in case we get bored with the first two. When will this wretched rain end???

And one final note... I FINALLY finished reading Gone with the Wind. "The epic novel of our time" was the longest book EVER! My literary friend told me it was a must read... and while it was a helluva story I gotta say I want to crack Scarlett up side the head for being such a stupid greedy woman and not realizing that Rhett Butler was the love of her life. He had me at Hello. *sigh* Crazy B and I also got in a huge convo about this yesterday and it ended by stating... "How sad is it that we are discussing the demise of fictional characters?" We are so lame.

Running with a Running Group and Random Acts of Running Stupidity...

Bright and early Saturday morning I set out on my first adventure with a running group. The ladies of Orlando Women Runners (http://www.orlandowomenrunners.com/index.html) were nice as can be and Wendy, the organizer was a doll! She was seriously so freaking cute! She took a group pic before the run, gave us goodie bags of water, banana's and a granola bar after the run and had such a bubbly personality despite her broken toe and inability to join us in the run. I love perky people like that! :)

The run was a 2.5 mile loop around Lake Baldwin and we seperated up into how many laps we were doing and then seperated further into buddy systems based on pace. The trail we ran was scenic and if it hadn't been for the humidity it would've been a perfect run. It was still a great run, it's just that we've had this wretched rain for over a week now and in Orlando the air is HEAVY with humidity before rain! I finished up my two laps looking like I had gone for a swim rather than a run!

All in all I rather enjoyed the change of pace and plan on joining up with them for their last two runsof the season; a repeat of Lake Baldwin this weekend and a downtown Lake Eola timed race next weekend. I'm hoping that I can manage to break out of my shyness enough to befriend a few fellow marathon trainees to run with over the summer.

Speaking of running during the summer, want to know what's not very intelligent? Deciding to run at 11 am... in Florida... on a bright sunny day. This random act of stupidity is thanks in part to the wretched rain that has kept the city afloat since last week. That beautiful sight of sunshine was so inspiring I couldn'thelp myself! Needless to say the last 1/4 mile of my 3 mile run was an uneasy drunken stumble as I tried not to faint.

Lesson Learned. Running during the day in Florida = FAIL!

Slack Attack

I haven't ran since last Thursday morning. Typically speaking it would be due to some physical ailment that was impairing my abilities. Typically speaking I would be whining on and on about how unfair it is that I couldn't run and praying to the running gods that my legs, knee, hip, etc would start working properly again so I could run.

This is not typically speaking. I have a severe case of Slack Attack. I could blame it on the cruise... Although for the record I did attempt running on the cruise. It just didn't work out so well. This wretched storm that has been dumping gallons of water on Florida started rolling in the second day abroad so between high winds and a rolling boat it wasn't exactly ideal conditions. (Not to mention I never fully gained my sea legs) I could blame it on the rain. (yeah, yeah...) I mean I got home Monday and it hasn't stopped raining until today. But ultimately it's my fault. I've been a slacker. I haven't even gotten my lazy butt out of bed until at least 7:20 am all week!This is so unlike me. I NEVER go more than a day or so without running! Even when I was down and out on rest I was still doing cross training or something! But I flat out have not exerted any energy since last Thursday. What the eff? Chicago is less than 6 months away!

I'm hoping tomorrow morning gets me back on track. I am, for the first time ever, running with a running group. B.o.B has been advising me to do this for months but I have been apprehensive. I am a lone runner. I like to run my own pace, get lost in my thoughts and just run. I am also scared that if I run with other people I will push myself too hard trying to keep up with stronger runners. ( I swear I'm not competitive... yeah right!) But I finally found an all women's running group and I think it'll be a good place to start. The group ranges in experience, pace, distance, etc. They meet prior to the run and match everyone up with a partner based on your pace and intended distance and then you just go run. I'm hoping to befriend other women training for Chicago, or any marathon for that matter, that can help keep me motivated and maybe to swap some training advice. I'm a little scared though. It's almost like the first day of school when you're scared you won't make friends! LOL!

Wish me luck! And keep your fingers crossed I get out of this slack attack because Chicago is right around the corner!!!

Gone Cruising...

Well folks... I'm out of here til Monday... after which I will be a Cruise Virgin no more!!! YAY!!!

Leading up to Gasparilla I decided I had earned myself a little vacation... considering I spend every single solitary vacation day going up north to visit my family and I've only taken one other vacation entirely for myself 4 years ago, I thought it was high time I finally went on a cruise. So when tax time came around I took a small portion of my return and put it towards a cruise with my only other single friend Ebs. We set sail for Keywest & Nassau today!!! We were supposed to have gone to Cozumel but thanks to the swine flu madness we were rerouted. No matter, either way I am so excited I can hardly stand it! A real vacation! For myself! No freezing up north in the frozen tundra's of Michigan, Colorado or Illinois! (Not that I don't love visiting the Fam it's just that sometimes you want to take a vacation where you actually relax and soak up some genuine sun!!!) But you know what I'm most excited about? Running around the track to this view! Yup I am a running nerd.

What's worse... Ebs sold me on the cruise by boasting about the fitness facilities and the running track. LOL! She was like, "Look Morgan they have this great work out room and there's a track so you can run and it's outside on the deck, look at the view... but you have to promise that you'll still get drunk with me!" Yup my friend whored out the running track to me. Gotta luv what a freaking running nerd I am.

Bon Voyage!

Muddy Buddy Race Results

The big finish! Straight out the pit...

Is it just me or does the guys arm behind me look like it's my arm only severly deformed?

I'm a dirty, dirty girl.

Official Chip Time: 59:37

Be sure to read the Race Report

Muddy Buddy Race Report

Friday after I got out of work I loaded up the mountain bike (aka ghetto rigged it into the backseat & trunk McGyver style... Lola the Corolla was not meant to have a mountain bike in her back seat) and headed over to RB's. After I added a few minor feminine touches to my race shirt I headed over to Ebs' place to crash. (She lives across the hall from RB) After a torturous night of trains going by (why on earth anyone would want to live that close to the train is beyond me!) and a vivid nightmare that had me wake up with a start at 2:13am thinking that we had overslept the whole race, it was finally time to get ready. So at 4:30am Team Dirty Quickies were geared up and headed for Muddy Buddy Orlando at Disney Wide World of Sports. PJ didn't make it as it was far to early for her so I only have shots we took before and after until the site uploads the course shots.

On the way over I told RB about my pondering which shorts I should wear and he laughed at how I didn't know how to wear the lined shorts. (Which is what I ended up going with to minimize the amount of mud in the va-ja-ja) After a quick pit stop at the Sevy (go figure, me and my nervous bladder) we finally arrived, got some rockstar parking and headed over to packet pick-up. I was bummed because they only had medium sized shirts so I officially swim in my totally cute Muddy Buddy shirt. BOO! :( So now all we had to do was hurry up and wait... so we checked out the mud pit, the costume contest and used the facilities about 10,529 times...

At 7:15am - Wave 6: Coed Group A was unleashed! RB on the bike and one minute later me bringing up the rear running. I lined up further back then I normally do because I wasn't sure how I was going to do but just a few minutes after starting the run I was already passing people left and right. My leg was feeling good and I was exhilarated. By the time I got to Obstacle #1, a rock wall that you must scale and then climb down the other side on a rope net, I was hot but having fun. I was amazed at how many people were already walking that first leg. I vowed that wouldn't be me! So onto the bike I went and it was a fairly uneventful trek to the next exchange. I knew I was riding slow but the terrain was difficult to maneuver and I was so scared I was going to run into another biker or runner.

At Obstacle #2, a 25ft rope wall and slide, I handed off the bike to RB and went to scale the rope wall. Things were going fine and dandy until I reached the top and went to slide down... *RIP!* Yup.. that was the sound of my brand new super cute Nike shorts catching on a hook and ripping... right on my @ss! I seriously just laughed. This is just the kind of luck I have in life and it's best to just laugh... and thank the heaven's I'm wearing the LINED shorts! No @ss flashing to worry about so after I unhooked myself, I slide down and start my second run of the day on leg three.

On to Obstacle #3... a bunch of balance beams. Easy enough right? Not quite. Going from running to biking to running again is a lot harder than what it sounds like and then throw a balance beam in the mix. I almost fell like 5x. Apparently I need to go hit up the local elementary and work on my balance skillz. After my pathetic excuse for balance was over it was back on the bike for leg four... which sucked! The sand was so deep and powdery and then there was a fair amount of wood chips in some places that I almost lost the bike twice. I came up fast on someone who did face plant and I felt so bad for him! He took it in stride so I didn't stop but man... that had to hurt.

Obstacle #4 was an army inspired belly crawl thing-a-ma-bob... I got a little scraped up there and RB was waiting for me after I crawled through to check and make sure I was still doing ok. We both were exhausted at that point, it was getting really hot and the terrain was a bit rougher than we expected but all in all we were still having fun. I hydrated with some G2 and then he took off on the bike and I fell into place with another runner and we finished up the last leg together. I was so glad I did that! It made the last leg fly by as we swapped stories of running and how we ended up doing Muddy Buddy, etc... That last leg was murder and I felt bad that I stuck RB with it but there would've been no way I'd have manged it on the bike... there were steep inclines, exposed tree roots, tons of sand and finally a steep set of stairs you had to carry the bike up. Mountain bikes aren't exactly light either! I finished up that last leg and met RB at the bike drop/Muddy Buddy meet up before the pit. Obstacle #5 - The Mud Pit. Here it is in all it's glory:

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun that pit was to crawl thru, but I can tell you this... it was the dirtiest fun you can have with your clothes on and I don't think I've laughed that hard in my life!!! Race results still aren't up yet so I can only guesstimate that we finished in under an hour. Here's how we ended up...

Team Dirty Quickies are hard core!!!

We make mud hott! (Don't you just love my one stank eye? LOL!)

Heading to the showers.

SO MUCH FUN I TELL YOU! I think everyone should do this if they're able to! I know I'll be doing it again next year for sure! After we snapped a few pics we headed over to the "showers" aka a whole bunch of garden hoses and spent the next 20 minutes attempting to clean off the surface mud. That was a trip in itself... swamp things surrounding you hosing each other down. Definitely a site to see! LOL!

After getting sorta, kinda, but not really clean we headed over to the beer tents to get our free beers...

"Cleaned" up and sporting the pimp race shirts

Mmm Free Beer!

After that RB got a haircut (random I know) and I ran into Jon from Track Shack and thanked him again for looking out for me with the Chicago Marathon registration and then we finished the day watching the Mini-Muddy Buddy races which was the cutest dang thing ever!

What a blast! Muddy Buddy was so much fun!!! Can't wait for next year!

Race result time and action shots HERE!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow... Muddy Buddy is TOMORROW!!!

I am so beyond stoked for Muddy Buddy tomorrow!!! It's only a day away!

RB picked up our shirts for tomorrow, they're pretty bad @ss if I do say so myself... I'll be needing to put a feminine touch on mine though.... (Read: Needs Pink!) I'm stopping over to his place tonight to pick it up and alter it as needed. We're going to strategize and then I'm heading home to load up the bike, eat a hardy dinner and get to bed early. We have to be at Disney Wide World of Sports before 5:45 am!!! WTF?!?!? Our wave doesn't even launch until like 8:10am! So we have to hurry up and wait... not excited about that... or getting up at 4am tomorrow morning to get over to RB's and then trek over to Disney. But it'll all be worth it when we get to do this:

I picked up my race helmet earlier this week from Target, we have to wear a bike helmet because part of the race is trail riding and they don't want us cracking our noggins. I ended up having to get a little boys helmet. First off, I have a small head. Secondly, the girl helmets were gay. So this is what I ended up with:

On the other side it says "ROCK" in old english. I'm so pimp. LOL!

Also I'm thinking I should wear the new running shorts with the built-in drawers to keep mudd out of the neither regions... but I also don't want to ruin them as they are new and super cute... do you think the mudd will wash off?

Expect a full race report tomorrow... and if you haven't figured out what Muddy Buddy is yet, check the link: http://www.muddybuddy.com/events.php?id=1

IT'S TIME TO GET DIRTY! Look out Muddy Buddy cuz the Dirty Quickies are headed your way!!!

3 Things I'm Thinking on Today...

• Muddy Buddy

http://www.muddybuddy.com/events.php?id=1

4 more days till Muddy Buddy! Team Dirty Quickies are ready to rock! I'm stoked!

But am I really ready? Honestly I'm nowhere near where I thought I'd be at this point. After Gasparilla RB and I thought we'd finish in the top teams... but with my injuries and RB's traveling for work and not really training I think we might finish somewhere in the middle. Not that middle is a bad thing... it's better than last for sure... but RB and I are of the competitive sort. (In case you haven't figured this out yet.) I hope the girls aka the legs, can handle the terrain and the course, I've gotten in one successful 5 miler, one semi-successful 5 miler and a string of 2-3 milers throughout the course of the last two weeks. I haven't cross trained at all because I've just been too busy and never got around to trail riding either! Plus I'm borrowing a friends bike... Recipe for disaster???? We'll find out!

Honestly... I'm just going to go and have fun. I can't wait to get to the mud pit at the end and crawl through the mud! Time to get dirty!!! LOL!

• Hills

If you know anything at all about Orlando, you'll know that Orlando is one big sinkhole in the center of the state and it's flat as a pancake. Not really conductive to the whole training and getting faster process... Anyway, I am fortunate enough to randomly have a "hill" aka overpass I can run over near my house and have been meaning to scale it. So yesterday after work (and in 90 degree heat.. what on earth was I thinking?!?!?) I decided to run over my first "hill." Isn't it amazing how many different places your body can feel pain? Oh the joys of running... and yet... I plan to start incorporating this "hill" into my tempo runs at least once a week. Why do I do this to myself?

• Underwear in Running Shorts

I just don't get it. I had to hit up Crazy B and ask her if I still wore underwear with them or not. I chose to still wear them but I still don't get it... On the plus side; the other pair of shorts stayed in place as well! So I officially own 2 pairs of shorts that don't flash my @$$ to the entire greater Orlando area when I run. YAY! (It's the little things)

Another successful 5 miles...

Well after a quiet friday night catching a chick flick with the girls (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past - Definitely a renter) I called it a night to get an early start on the Cady Way Trail Saturday morning before heading to West Palm for my friends' baby shower. I woke up around 7am and headed over to the track to calibrate my Nike+ (again) and made the wake up call to "Deputy S" to meet me at the Cady Way Trail for an 8am 5 miler. He regretfully declined, a third shift cops life doesn't really accommodate for an early morning 5 miler, so I headed over to the Cady Way alone.

(I've recently decided Cady Way might be my second most favorite place in Orlando after Lake Eola)

I had the trail to myself except for some early morning bikers and oh what a beautiful morning it was to break in the new shorts! (Ghetto booty stayed covered the entire run! Woo hoo!) I was determined to make it the entire 5 miles this time... mission accomplished! It took me 47 minutes to complete the run, just under 10 minute splits and only a few minutes off from my normal time for a 5 miler. I'm slowly but surely getting back to my old running self! Life is good! :)

You know you're a runner when...

...you spent your lunch break rushing over to Lady Foot Locker to use the 30% coupon you got to buy new running shorts.

...you "test" out the shorts by running laps around the store to make sure they don't ride up.

...you come back from lunch telling everyone about your "sexy new running shorts" and everyone smiles and nods... and then rolls their eyes.

...you instant message Crazy B and she is excited for you and you send her links of what they look like and then she sends you links of new shorts she's gotten and you both realize what nerds you are.

...you decide to blog about said new shorts...

Aren't they cute? Now let's hope they stay put on my ghetto booty so I can run without flashing the ba-donkay-donk to the world!