Well according to the calender it is official and according to the weather, it is official. Fall has arrived and it's actually been pretty nice, cool, but nice.
I have to say that the cooler temps does make it much easier to run. I've concluded that these are my elements for an awesome run:
1) Getting a good nights sleep - I got about 8 1/2 hours of uninterrupted sleep so check!
2) Getting enough nutrition - I have to drink a protein shake before I run. It doesn't leave me feeling too full but provides enough sustenance to keep me going so check!
3) Wearing warm undergarments - Spent the $40 for an under armour long sleeve shirt and it is so worth the money. It's like a second skin and definitely keeps me warm so check!
4) Gotta have tunes - I almost never run without my ipod. I know it can be dangerous but it seriously helps me not focus on how hard I'm running (not that I run fast). I love listening to old school house music so check!
5) Running on relatively flat surfaces - my knees are pretty wrecked so I pretty much cannot do inclines. Luckily my neighborhood is all flat so check!
6) The weather has to be mid to upper 50's to mid 60's, mostly overcast skies, and little to no wind. Wind is my nemesis, really it is. I do not like running if the wind is more than 10 miles per hour. 5 miles or less is just perfect. This I cannot control but when it does happen, I am eager to get outside.
Today all these factors aligned perfectly and I had a great run. I think I did a little more than 5 miles and I felt great! Now if we could keep this weather for the next 6 months I'd be more than happy! But I know it won't but for now I will enjoy it while I can. I do love the changing color of the trees. Fall is probably one of my favorite times of year if it wouldn't get so cold so fast. Feels like we get one month of fall (september) and then all hell breaks loose and we're into 30 degree weather. Crossing my fingers that this year is an exception!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
September 11, 2011
Never Forget. That is the mantra for this date in American History. No, I'll never forget, I remember it like it was yesterday.
Sept 11, 2001
I was sitting at my desk like any other Tuesday morning and one of my co-workers, Jeff, announces to nobody in particular that the news is saying that a small plane hit one of the twin towers in NY. He was looking at Yahoo or CNN. My immediate reaction was that it couldn't be that serious, how much damage can a small aircraft do to the towers. I thought it was just an accident (although in the back of my mind I was questioning how can a pilot hit the towers? You would have to have a poor sense of judgement). Some of our offices had tv's mounted on the walls and the IT group across the hall managed to get one of the local news stations to come on (the tvs were meant as an internal medium, not to watch national tv).
At this point it became apparent that this was not a small aircraft but a large Boeing. I was in utter disbelief. I was mesmerized by the dramatic images showing on the tv. That day there was not a cloud in the sky, clear blue as far as the eye can see. All you can see was smoke coming out of the towers where the plane struck. Then there was talk of two more hijacked planes. One headed toward the Pentagon in Washington, the other was over Pennsylvania headed to DC as well. At that point I was truly scared. I had no idea what was going on or whether or not Chicago could be targeted.
I called my husband at the time (we'd been married for a little more than a year) just to see if he knew about what was going on (he worked midnights at the time and was usually sleeping at this point in the morning). I contemplated going home but my employer was not making a big issue out of it. The rest of the day I spent the majority of my time in the IT office watching the live coverage. I can't remember witnessing the 2nd plane hit so I think I heard about from the guys across the hall. At that point it all seemed surreal. Watching both towers burning and all the chaos on the ground. Then the one tower collapsed. I watched it live. It looked like a movie. I was frozen. The devastation was incredible. I couldn't believe that one plane took down this building! Then the second tower fell. My heart ached for all those people and for our country. In the midst of this, another plane struck the Pentagon. I didn't really know what to think. Why is this happening? What's next?
The FAA obviously grounded all flights as this was happening. I just couldn't believe that the government didn't or couldn't do anything sooner to prevent it. Are we (the U.S.) that vulnerable and unprepared for an attack? Obviously we were.
There was nonstop media coverage on the terrorists attacks. To see people hanging out of the windows of the World Trade Center over 100 stories in the air was gut wrenching. To catch glimpses of was looked like paper falling from the towers only to be told that those were actually people was horrific. It brings so much sadness and raw emotion for me to think about it. Trying to imagine the panic those people felt and how they were forced to make the decision to either burn alive or jump to their death is unspeakable. There is a now famous picture taken by a photographer for the AP Press that shows a man falling to his certain death. He's headfirst, almost stick straight, arms by his side with one leg bent at about a 90 degree angle. He's wearing regular work clothes. What was going through his mind as he free falled for 100 stories? Was he even conscious that whole time? He had to be falling for at least 10 or more seconds. It sends shivers down my spine thinking about it.
For the last week the tv stations had a ton of shows commemorating the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. I didn't watch a single one. I don't care to relive it. Even though I didn't know anybody who died in those attacks, it still breaks my heart to see the work of pure evil. I pray for all those who died, for those who survived and are suffering mentally or physically from the aftermath, I pray for the families and friends of those who died. I pray for our country. At that time, 10 years ago, I had no clue about radicals in the middle east and their hatred for the west. I was never interested in history. I was 27 years old, just married, bought my first house and thought life was awesome. So much has changed in 10 years. At least now I have a better understanding of why it happened. The saddest part is that the US has been involved in a war with Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years and so many soldiers and civilians have lost their lives. For what? Is being over there really preventing another attack on US soil? The billions upon billions of dollars spent to fund those wars is insane. Now our economy is in disarray, not only because of the wars, the unemployment rate is over 9%, the housing market has tanked. Nobody wants to admit it but we are in a depression. We are no longer the #1 economy. The rest of the world is now losing faith in us. Scary thing is that there are so many other countries on the brink of bankruptcy as well.
But I still believe whole heartedly that America is the best country in the world. I thank God that I was born and raised here. I thank God for my family and friends. I thank God for my job. I'm incredibly blessed and I thank God everyday for it. The future is uncertain as it always is. But things seem to be much worse nowadays than in the past. Lots of civil unrest in middle eastern countries (Libya, Yemen, Egypt, etc). It sounds cliche but I pray for peace in our world. I pray that our country is never attacked again.
Sept 11, 2001
I was sitting at my desk like any other Tuesday morning and one of my co-workers, Jeff, announces to nobody in particular that the news is saying that a small plane hit one of the twin towers in NY. He was looking at Yahoo or CNN. My immediate reaction was that it couldn't be that serious, how much damage can a small aircraft do to the towers. I thought it was just an accident (although in the back of my mind I was questioning how can a pilot hit the towers? You would have to have a poor sense of judgement). Some of our offices had tv's mounted on the walls and the IT group across the hall managed to get one of the local news stations to come on (the tvs were meant as an internal medium, not to watch national tv).
At this point it became apparent that this was not a small aircraft but a large Boeing. I was in utter disbelief. I was mesmerized by the dramatic images showing on the tv. That day there was not a cloud in the sky, clear blue as far as the eye can see. All you can see was smoke coming out of the towers where the plane struck. Then there was talk of two more hijacked planes. One headed toward the Pentagon in Washington, the other was over Pennsylvania headed to DC as well. At that point I was truly scared. I had no idea what was going on or whether or not Chicago could be targeted.
I called my husband at the time (we'd been married for a little more than a year) just to see if he knew about what was going on (he worked midnights at the time and was usually sleeping at this point in the morning). I contemplated going home but my employer was not making a big issue out of it. The rest of the day I spent the majority of my time in the IT office watching the live coverage. I can't remember witnessing the 2nd plane hit so I think I heard about from the guys across the hall. At that point it all seemed surreal. Watching both towers burning and all the chaos on the ground. Then the one tower collapsed. I watched it live. It looked like a movie. I was frozen. The devastation was incredible. I couldn't believe that one plane took down this building! Then the second tower fell. My heart ached for all those people and for our country. In the midst of this, another plane struck the Pentagon. I didn't really know what to think. Why is this happening? What's next?
The FAA obviously grounded all flights as this was happening. I just couldn't believe that the government didn't or couldn't do anything sooner to prevent it. Are we (the U.S.) that vulnerable and unprepared for an attack? Obviously we were.
There was nonstop media coverage on the terrorists attacks. To see people hanging out of the windows of the World Trade Center over 100 stories in the air was gut wrenching. To catch glimpses of was looked like paper falling from the towers only to be told that those were actually people was horrific. It brings so much sadness and raw emotion for me to think about it. Trying to imagine the panic those people felt and how they were forced to make the decision to either burn alive or jump to their death is unspeakable. There is a now famous picture taken by a photographer for the AP Press that shows a man falling to his certain death. He's headfirst, almost stick straight, arms by his side with one leg bent at about a 90 degree angle. He's wearing regular work clothes. What was going through his mind as he free falled for 100 stories? Was he even conscious that whole time? He had to be falling for at least 10 or more seconds. It sends shivers down my spine thinking about it.
For the last week the tv stations had a ton of shows commemorating the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. I didn't watch a single one. I don't care to relive it. Even though I didn't know anybody who died in those attacks, it still breaks my heart to see the work of pure evil. I pray for all those who died, for those who survived and are suffering mentally or physically from the aftermath, I pray for the families and friends of those who died. I pray for our country. At that time, 10 years ago, I had no clue about radicals in the middle east and their hatred for the west. I was never interested in history. I was 27 years old, just married, bought my first house and thought life was awesome. So much has changed in 10 years. At least now I have a better understanding of why it happened. The saddest part is that the US has been involved in a war with Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 10 years and so many soldiers and civilians have lost their lives. For what? Is being over there really preventing another attack on US soil? The billions upon billions of dollars spent to fund those wars is insane. Now our economy is in disarray, not only because of the wars, the unemployment rate is over 9%, the housing market has tanked. Nobody wants to admit it but we are in a depression. We are no longer the #1 economy. The rest of the world is now losing faith in us. Scary thing is that there are so many other countries on the brink of bankruptcy as well.
But I still believe whole heartedly that America is the best country in the world. I thank God that I was born and raised here. I thank God for my family and friends. I thank God for my job. I'm incredibly blessed and I thank God everyday for it. The future is uncertain as it always is. But things seem to be much worse nowadays than in the past. Lots of civil unrest in middle eastern countries (Libya, Yemen, Egypt, etc). It sounds cliche but I pray for peace in our world. I pray that our country is never attacked again.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Labor Day
Labor Day...the unofficial end to summer. That's depressing to me. It is about 57 degrees and sunny right now which feels like 30! I do enjoy a little bit of cool weather but it seems to come on so fast. It was 97 degrees and hot and humid on Saturday and by Sunday it had cooled down to 75 degrees which was perfect. But today is calling for MAYBE 70 degrees if we're lucky.
It didn't start to get warm until June and now it's getting cold in a matter of a day the first week of September. Hopefully there's an indian summer in the works to help ease me into the cold months ahead.
Although I do admit this weather is great for running. I have one more half marathon in October in Indy so I'm hoping it doesn't get too cold too fast. I am grateful that we had an awesome summer and I kept up with my running throughout. I feel like I have been slowing down some over the last few weeks. I try not to beat myself up too much over that. I am dreading having to run the treadmill in the winter. I jumped on it a few weeks ago when it was raining out and I was miserable. It's just not the same as running outside. Plus the fact that I can't watch tv while I'm on it makes it even worse. Oh well.
The skies are clear blue today and I plan on enjoying this holiday while I can. Today's weather reminds me of Sept 11th 10 years ago. It is hard to believe it's been 10 years already. I am a little nervous about the anniversary. I just continue to pray for us. Like my Mom says, keep your heart right with God and you have nothing to worry about. Amen :)
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