oh PS! We did it!

hey readers! remember how the whole point of this blog was that we were working towards a goal, a big goal, and we were going to chronicle our journey, step by step, until we got there??! so we started blogging about our laziness and our booziness and sometimes our actual training regimens and stuff?

and probably all of you blogfans were like on the EDGE OF YOUR SEAT as the date of the Sfaffy drew nearer to see WHAT WOULD HAPPEN when these three foolfaces finally arrived in san francisco and attempted to actually DO THE DAMN THING?! and then we just vanished into the blogosphere, never to be heard from again!?

well wait no longer. we did it! hooray, hooray. here are a couple of highlights and lowlights of the race and the post-race fun in the sun:

1) no room at the inn: our hotel decides to reject our reservation and throws us on the street the night before the big race. we scurry around and whine and complain and our joints tighten up with stress and pre-race anxiety, but somehow we end up at the ritz and hannahs house. CRISIS AVERTED!

2) morning miscommunications: croat and cube wait 45 minutes for chilena to show up at hotel to head to the start line together. chilena is a no show!

3) the san francisco half marathon: beautiful run along the water and on the golden gate bridge, preceded by AND followed by insane, massive HILLS. everywhere.

4) day one of post-race sonoma wine tour is filled with sun and fun and unplanned matching black/navy strapless cotton dresses + finisher medals for all

5) croat decides that, after a liquid breakfast and liquid lunch, the best idea for dinner is...MARTINIS! (overly aggressive card playing ensues. cube gets bossy.)

6) cube, croat and chilena spend day two in sonoma touring the wineries on bike (helmets ON!) and make all kinds of new townie friends, young and old

all in all, i think we definitely made hal proud and we are all basically ready to pack it in and move to SF tomorrow. the end.

post-script: cube now shuns exercise of any kind, including running. she is desperately seeking inspiration. maybe in the form of a fantastic destination race? suggestions welcome!

croat and chilena, pls feel free to add your own special memories and highlights/lowlights.

the NYC Half

sorry I have been MIA on the blog. truth is, i have been a bit of a delinquent... but between Hal's encouraging words, and NYPolak's inspiring ones i motivated to get back on the training wagon last week! (check out the bump in my miles on the nike challenge-yeah, that's right!!) and i'm proud to say, i've taken the weekend long runs to the next level. yes ladies and gentlemen, i have now run my first double digit run!!! and the big news is that i didn't die trying!! yay! to prove it, here are pictures of me amid the masses at the NYC Half Marathon last sunday (i ditched at 10 miles since it was just a training run). ran through central park (surprisingly tough/lots of hills--good practice for the sfaffy though), times square (v cool) and ultimately ended up on the west side highway. these pics were taken around mile 8 running through times square...and you'll see that i am definitely looking a bit red faced, doing lots of huffing and puffing! HAHA however, please note that my legs and arms are actually moving--i am indeed running! and by the way, it was really hot and humid, hence the red face. actually Cube, in homage to you, at every water stop i shamelessly poured water all over myself and then recklessly threw my used water cups to the ground!! yeah! hardcore!! HAHA

all in all (and i can't believe i'm actually going to say this...) it was ACTUALLY a really fun time. and it made me SO excited for the real deal this weekend... can't wait to reunite with Cube and Croat and "just do the damn thing"! xoxo

Where Has All The Hardcore Gone?

Ladies, Ladies, Ladies.....where has all the hardcore gone? I mean I go to check the Nike Challenge page and see Cube hasn't even run once in like a week. Chilena is talking about drinks and having fun in place of tears and sweat. I don't even want to know what Croat is up to. Probably something so heinously un-hardcore that the mere site of this blog makes her cringe with shame and guilt....

I mean come on ladies. I used to come to A Cube, a Croat and a Chilena for motivation. Now it's Artie who's given the pep talks? Cube I mean I get it you are studying for the most important test of your professional career. I get it. but come on ZERO.ZERO runs. I mean hey I don't mind smoking you by 20 miles but I do like a challenge.

I think it's time to bust out the good ole Catalunya flag story to motivate some butts onto the concrete. You see ladies there is a legend in Barcelona about the Catalan flag and it goes something like this:

There once was a Catalunian Count by the name of Guifré el Pilóss also known as Wilfred the Hairy, who had a mighty Golden Shield, and was also known as a tremendous marathon runner*. Old Willie loved his country so much that he would run around defending it against all invaders to his dying breath (Much in the same way hardcore runners defend their hearts against the invading forces of Sloth and Laziness). Soon his beloved Barcelona came under attack from the Moors and he was killed in an intense battle defending his homeland. As he lay there dying, his fingers covered in blood he reached for his Golden shield which lay next to him and with his dying breath he smeared his bloody finger tips onto the shield and cried out "I may die now...but I gave those Moors one hell of a RUN**". That is why the Catalan flag is gold with red stripes you see. Now young ladies the lesson we take away from this is: Even though you may be attacked by the forces of Ease, Laziness and Drinking Good Times you must fight on and RUN. Run until you are bloody and dying and smearing your finger tips onto your racing bibs. The Count and Coach Hal would be proud.


*Was not known as a tremendous marathon runner. We all know the Spanish hate all forms of physical activity. Let's not kid ourselves.

**Not actually said by Count Guifré el Pilóss. He probably said something about courage or freedom or something.

a letter to hal

dear coach hal,

there's something that's troubling me. i don't know what's happening but i'm turning into a slacker. it's, well, all quite disturbing and i feel awful. the truth of the matter is that i've only run 3 miles in the past week. shameful, i know. no doubt you are both surprised as well as very disappointed. as you should be. but let me explain, see, it all started about a week ago when i took this trip to hong kong--the 15 hr flights there and back along with a 12 hr time difference were not at all conducive to training runs. but while i was slacking in hong kong, i promised myself i would make up the mileage when i returned to nyc...but upon my return, i just kept coming up with more and more excuses. "is it really a good idea to go running during an oppressive heat wave?"..."i'm still trying to get over this jet lag, surely it's more important to sleep an extra hour?" and i am still tempted to argue that these actually were not excuses but valid reasons why i had to put my training on hold. but now here's the problem. now i just can't stop making excuses. tonight was the limit. tonight the excuses started to border on rationale for slothfulness. unacceptable! what happened is, i left work on the early side to be sure to make it home in time for a 9-miler. i had promised myself that tonight i was going to get right back on that training wagon. and then... i made it home from work...and after almost 2 hours of chatting on the phone (a good chunk of that chat time was with cube might i add) i realized it was 8:30PM and night had fallen...and so, a new excuse: "it's dark, and absolutely not safe to run in the park now, right?" now, i'm sure you could help me rationalize that it would have been irresponsible to go on a run under those circumstances. this might be true, but enough is enough. no more excuses. i want to get out of this rut. i need to be held accountable! i need some pressure. hal, i want to be a good trainee again. when you say run, i want to shout "how far hal? just tell me how far!" so here, right on this blog, i will commit to you, and to all our loyal readers, that tomorrow morning, before work, i WILL run 9 miles. no more excuses. i'm no wimp. i'm hardcore. i can be the best trainee ever. i mean, i was kicking cube's butt in the nike challenge and now...!!! well, no more! watch out. la chilena is back!

all the best, from your loyal trainee...

is it festivus yet?

Airing of Grievances

The celebration of Festivus begins with the Airing of Grievances, which takes place immediately after the Festivus dinner has been served. It consists of lashing out at others and the world about how one has been disappointed in the past year.

Frank Costanza: I got a lot of problems with you people! And now, you're gonna hear about it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

HOLA SFAFFERS!

now indeed, YOU'RE gonna hear about it.

chilena! are you in the business of training any more? i see NEGATIVE movement on the nike challenge charts, and yet i continue to receive texts in which you claim to be "at dinner" and "at a bar". where are your priorities?!

and croat! you have fallen off the face of earth as well. you were last spotted by me guzzling wine at cafe iberico into the wee hrs of the night. i also receive various texts from you discussing "dinner with your bf" and "bday parties" you just have to attend that preclude you from running. where is the discipline??

and to the both of you: WHERE IS THE BLOGGING?!

thankfully, C3 has been capably maintained by our very talented and funny guest bloggers, Nypolak and Bex, during your absence. (we love you, guest bloggers! besos!)

but i am troubled by the fact that both of you seem to think that things like "work" and "work-related travel" and "boozing" and "love lives" are more important than "running in the heat" and "subsequently blogging about it". FOR SHAME!!!

LOVE,
~CUBE

hot time, summer in the city

omg. it is ridics outside. of course i stayed in this morning doing some work etc, and finally, very intelligently, decide to go out for my run around, oh 2pm (aka hottest time of the day).

it was BAD.

i forced myself to get through 3 miles, but i swear it felt like i had run 3 back to back marathons, all uphill. whew!

after i finally (FINALLY) hit 3, i called it a day, turned off the nike+ (thats for you, doubting schmalvy) and made myself at least WALK 4 more miles. so i strolled and let myself get crazy sportsbra tan lines and listened to lectures (woohoo! double tasking!). bought a slurpee with the little bit of just-in-case money i had tucked in my shorts and called it a day. the end.

The start of it all....

So Miss Cube so nicely invited me to be a guest blogger, probably thinking as a fellow runner I might add some good motivation or insight. Sadly, running a marathon, even two, doesn't prevent a person, okay maybe it just happens to me, from becoming a total lazy bones.

First let me take a little credit. I do think I may justifiably take responsibility for inspiring Cube to train for her first marathon. And I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure she had never had the courage for a half before then either. And I think, definitely may be wrong here, it has been known to happen, that neither Croat nor Chilena have run a 1/2-er (or longer) before. So if I am correct that I got Cube going, and Cube got Croat and Chilena going, then I like to think that even without great words of wisdom, I deserve to be a guest blogger since without me, there may not have been a blog at all :).

Okay before I give a little background to how I so nicely inspired this domino effect, let me say, that I am not sure I am technically savvy enough to do this blogging thing. It took me way to long to figure out how to post, and then when I saved it, took excruciatingly too long to then find where it went. So I must say, that I am pretty excited to be back on a roll.

So one my wonder what exactly did I do to inspire Cube. You must be thinking it was some eloquent, heart-moving speech or perhaps just persistence that wore her down (i.e. Cube-style in terms of getting others to join a race with her)...but no...I must admit that it was my sheer former patheticness that really inspired the Cube...Truly. Because after spending 4 years at college with me when she saw that in the entire time, I worked out maybe all of three times total, Cube fully knew that I was by far the least athletic person ever. So when she heard that I was going to train for a marathon, she like everyone else, didn't really believe me (my boyfriend basically fell off the bed laughing trying to picture me doing this, since my lack of any physical exercise definitely continued up until 4 months before the scheduled marathon). So I am pretty sure, since Cube has since confirmed, that once I completed a marathon, she realized anyone could complete one. So thanks to my prior non-athleticness, you are all running a half marathon!!!

Now sadly, I need to somehow kick my ass back into gear since I have signed up for the Philly marathon in the fall and have absolutely no motivation to do a single run (haven't run, except one pathetic attempt in the blazing sun) since May (when I managed to get running for a month).

So...if anyone has any words of inspiration for a former marathon completer, who tends to relapse to her prior laziness...(maybe shame works?), feel free to send some motivation my way as well ;). If not, hopefully my current state of laziness (interrupted by a spurt of athleticism) will inspire a whole new generation of distance runners.