This Just In: Liz Declares End of "this staying up until 3 am bullshit."

So, actually this supposed to be a blog to log the Women's Fitness Celebration, but that race has since been overtaken by more recent events.

As I'm sure you'll read in everyone's blog, the celebration itself was rainy and gloomy and awful. We runners stood in the rain for several minutes waiting for them to let us run, hardly even pysched by the female-inspired, peppy music they were playing. Finally, they moved the gates and let us run.

The race was a mental challenge. I didn't have the best of attitudes. Even so, I tried to focus on form and reducing tension and found that I wasn't exerting nearly as much energy as usual for the first 1 1/2 miles or so and was actually having fun! (Yes. This is sort of a first.) This lasted until the base of the hill. I got up the hill just telling myself to continue. Physically, it didn't take nearly the energy it did mentally to keep chugging along. The second 1 1/2 miles were mentally much more challenging. I find that I'm afraid of pushing my body past a certain point of exertion -- where it starts to be really uncomfortable to run -- because I really don't know how long I can continue doing it without crying or freaking out. So, as usual, I kept pushing myself to just under the "Aaah. Too scary!" level and focused on keeping myself at that pace.

I made it down the hill and started on that long stretch to the turn-around. About half-way to the turn around, I saw Dave on the side and he started screaming directions at me. I sort of tried to do what he was asking, but was already carrying a mental load, so I only tried to a point. Glad Dave was finally out of earshot, I turned the corner and just focused on getting to that finish line, remaining just at that stress/exertion equilibrium. Finally, I crossed the finish line and the girl took my timing chip.

I have come to know my body. And one way I know I have exerted myself is when I desperately have to pee after a race. (This happens every time I do dots or pick it up at all. It's my body's way of responding to exertion.) Well, the brilliant designers of the women's fitness challenge thought to put bathrooms only a football field distance away from the finish line. By the time I had managed to find a free port-a-potty, I didn't need it anymore. Gross? Yeah. But a good sign. (Don't worry, Dave! Your car is safe. I was wearing Monica's pants at that point in the game so your car seats are well-protected!)

All in all, the race was really fun. I actually really enjoyed running in the rain because it kept the temperature down and it made me feel like a die-hard.

After the race, I went home, did some cleaning, accepted three huge crates of my old grad school crap from my parents' house, and, eventually, made it over to Mike and Monica's. We had a lovely dinner and, upon finishing our food, had a frat-boy movie party extravaganza. We started by watching, "Animal House". Pretty funny. Then we watched "Eurotrip". Also somewhat funny. Finally, we got to "Beerfest" which, in spite of myself, I found myself giggling at.

Hanging out exclusively with men (and Monica) is a pretty new thing for me. I think this testosterone-inspired evening has taught me a couple new things and reaffirmed a couple of old understandings of how men work.

Man Stereotypes I feel were Reaffirmed Last Night

1. Men are just like teenage boys, only with a lot more responsibility.
2. Men like to see boobs, lots of boobs, tons of them, even though (in my opinion) they mostly all look the same and they have no function at least 90% of the time.
3. Drinking is funny!
4. Drinking a lot is funnier.
5. Men like to see movies about their relationships with their buddies because that's important to them.
6. Burping with buddies is a bonding experience.

Don't get me wrong: I love these guys. But every now and then I am led to wonder why and whether that's really such a good idea. :)

After a long night without much sleep, I looked on my training schedule and noticed a 6-8 mile "hilly" run scheduled for today. I called Mike and he suggested I do a 4-6 flat run instead and Monica will work it out. Now that I have new, fangle runs on my schedule, I definitely want to get together with Monica and go over routes and whys and wherefores. Can we do that, Mon?

I will have pictures of the 5K as soon as Dave e-mails th em to me. (Please, Dave?)

Liz