<b>Why do you run?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Ha! Some of you may have heard me say that I don't run. I kinda don't. I started running 2.5 years ago because I wanted an activity I could do outside of the gym. I'd always been an athlete of some kind.. track and swim teams as a kid, tennis team in high school, and collegiate rugby for 4 years. All of those involved running as part of a match/meet/training, but I'd never run just to run really. So, I looked up the c25k and became really good friends with some folks in the Newbie Cafe at coolrunning with whom I'm still in touch. After about a year, i ventured into the clubhouse and met new faces. Early in my CH career, CharlesRiverBlowfish invited me to a CH gathering, which was to become the first of many. I now have met dozens of people from the site which has been a blast.</span><br><br><span style="color:#008080;">Oh. Back to running. So, i've realized what the problem is with me and running. I don't like running cold. So, if I go out for a run, it takes about 3 miles (that's about 40 minutes for all you faster people!) to start to feel good. But then about an hour into it, I'm bored. So I end up with 40 inutes of crap then 20 minutes of good times. I overcome this easily in the gym by biking or doing the elliptical for 30 min or so before stepping onto the treadmill.</span><br><br><span style="color:#008080;">My sis (BiahMarie on this site) had started doing triathlons a while back. Since I was regularly swimming and biking, or biking and running at any given workout, I decided to give it a shot. We did a race together in the Spring of 2006 in the caribbean and it was amazing! I had a good time, reached my swim goal, and enjoyed the whole feel of it.</span><br><br><span style="color:#008080;">I've done exactly 4 races in my life, one of which was a DNF Olympic tri. I find that I don't really care much about racing. It's fun and I have a good time, but I'm not motivated by races and don't yearn to PR in a next one. I'm toying with a half-IM later this year, but i'd need to get a road bike and for now I'm too lazy.</span><br><br><span style="color:#008080;">So. I don't really run and I don't really race. But I'm all about a brick workout!</span><br><br><b>What is your greatest accomplishment?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">So far, I'm going to say finishing grad school. I have been incredibly fortunate in that my family is great, I didn't have to overcome any struggles, and school comes very easily to me. That being said, doctoral programs are incredibly challenging. I can only speak for my field (biomedical sciences), but it's a great deal of work, very few success interspersed with an overwhelming number of failures. I was a bit of the ugly step-child in my lab in that no one cared much for my project and I spent the better part of 4 years begging for attention and guidance. So finishing it and feeling solid about the work I'd accomplished a disaster project makes me feel quite accomplished.</span><br><br><b>What is your motto/theme song?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I'm not sure that I have one.</span><br><br><b>How do you deal with bad runs?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Ha! I think all my runs are mediocre with an occasional good one. If one is truly bad, I just move along.</span><br><br><b>Do you reward yourself for good runs? How?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I generally reward myself with purchases. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"> It used to be that when I was feeling really great or really low, 90% of the time I'd celebrate/soothe with food. I'd say that now it's more like ~ 15% food, 65% shopping, and 20% other.</span><br><br><b>Who do you admire most?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I don't admire people really. I fin people to be incredible or have wonderful stories or to posess characteristics that I find important and inspiring.</span><br><br><span style="color:#008080;">I admire in a visual sense all the time though. Living in the city, there are lots of sights to admire. A tender moment between a parent and child on the subway, the quiet intimacy between two lovers, the devoted attention a dog pays his owner...</span><br><br><b><span style="color:#000000;">What is the greatest advice you have ever received?</span></b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Trust the data. They are what they are. It's your job to figure out what it all means. A research advisor told me that and it helped a great deal while in school. But I also think it applies elsewhere. For example, people are who they are. If they are in my life, I need to work to understand and deal with them rather than trying to change them.</span><br><br><b>What do wish you had learned younger?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I wish I had learned more about my mom's birth mother (she passed when my mom was 5). I ask questions about her now but I wish she had been more present in discussions when I was a kid.</span><br><b>What do you wish you could do but can't?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I can't roll my Rs. <img alt="sad.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/sad.gif"></span><br><br><b>How would your friends describe your personality?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Sarcastic, outgoing, everybody's therapist, generous, sometimes bitchy, impatient.</span><br><b>What do you wear running? favorite outfit?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Black capri pants, heavy duty sports bra, black man's undershirt and something on top.</span><br><br><b>What has been your favorite race?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">My first tri.</span><br><br><b>Do you have a goal race right now?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Nope.</span><br><b>What makes you happy?</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">Doing nothing special with special people. Seeing people learn. Shopping.</span><br><br><b>Tell us one interesting thing about you that you haven't said (at least not often) on this forum in the past.</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I went to Dakar, Senegal and Casablanca, Morocco when I was in the 6th grade. It was a fun trip that I don't remember too much of since I was 10 at the time, but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor%C3%A9e" target="_blank">Goree Island</a> still stays in my mind. But the best part of the trip is that I won it in a magazine contest!</span><br><br><b>Tell us one interesting thing about another user of this forum that has not been posted (at least not often) on this forum in the past (make sure the other person will not object to posting the info!).</b><br><span style="color:#008080;">I have more CR/Kick secrets than I've ever felt comfortable with, but I'll take them to my crematorium. <img alt="smile.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/smile.gif"> I will say this, because she doesn't post many pictures of herself. Diane95 is stunning. It's a very subtle thing and perhaps she's not even aware of it. But it's true.</span>