Joined
·
7,717 Posts
<b>1. Why do you run?</b> I don’t really know the answer to that - how embarrassing! <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.kickrunners.com/forum/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Very Happy"> I was a miler in high school, and had jogged off-and-on since then for fitness, never more than a mile or two. Then, in 2003, someone told me that I could train for a marathon in 16 weeks, so I did it. That was a huge mistake in many ways, but mostly because now, whenever I <i>don’t</i> run, I feel like a slug.<br><b>2. What is your greatest accomplishment?</b> Getting bugdude to start running – even though I didn’t have to do much, I’ll still take credit for it. He’s probably added 10 years to his life this year, and that’s 10 more years I get to be with him!<br><b>3. What is your motto/theme song?</b> Motto: There is no such thing as last. In every race, there is an invisible crowd of thousands behind you who didn’t have the guts to start. Theme song? I don’t know – I could name about a dozen. I’d say Boston’s <i>Don’t Look Back</i> comes closest.<br><b>4. How do you deal with bad runs?</b> There are no bad runs – the only bad runs are missed runs.<br><b>5. Do you reward yourself for good runs? How?</b> The run is the reward, although often I’ll indulge in some ice cream, or maybe a beer.<br><b>6. Whom do you admire most?</b> I know it seems like a pat answer, but I’d say it’s my mother. She was the ultimate feminist, without ever calling herself one, just completely independent and self-reliant. While my father spent most of my childhood being, literally, the town drunk, my mother managed to raise 5 kids, never asking for help from anybody, never complaining or making us feel like we were a burden to her. To this day, she clearly feels that there's nothing she can't do.<br><b>7. What is the greatest advice you have ever received?</b> I guess I never listen to advice, as I can’t think of anything here.<br><b>8. What do wish you had learned younger?</b> I wish I’d learned younger that brains don’t get you anywhere without drive and determination and hard work.<br><b>9. What do you wish you could do but can't?</b> Sing like Patsy Cline. Do acrobatics. Understand advanced physics.<br><b>10. How would your friends describe your personality?</b> I’m rather pushy, I think, and have a weird sense of humor. Sometimes I can’t shut up.<br><b>11. What do you wear running? favorite outfit?</b> My favorite running shorts are some nice black ones that they gave out at the Hospital Hill race in Kansas City. I’m not too picky about what I run in, though, as long as I’m not too hot or too cold.<br><b>12. What has been your favorite race?</b> I always enjoy the Groundhog Run, which takes place in the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis, underground, in KC. The best race for me, though, was Grandma’s Marathon, where I actually “ran” my first marathon. (The first one, in Wichita, I walked close to two miles in, so I don’t count it.)<br><b>13. Do you have a goal race right now?</b> Topeka to Auburn Half Marathon in January 2008 (with Bugdude!)<br><b>14. What makes you happy?</b> Camping in the mountains. Laughing with my kids. Jogging/talking with my husband. Eating chocolate cake. Snuggling with purring kitties. Driving down the road by myself singing with the radio. Reading Dick Francis novels.<br><b>15. Tell us one interesting thing about you that you haven't said (at least not often) on this forum in the past.</b> For a short time, I ran a small-town newspaper, with the help of my first husband. I really enjoyed it, and if it hadn’t meant certain poverty and bankruptcy, I would have liked to continue doing it.<br><b>16. 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> I know lots about bugdude, obviously. Here’s something: Bugdude and I both lived in the same dorms at Wichita State, at the same time, for a year, but we never met until years later when we worked for the same IT company.