10 day forecast

This is the day I've been waiting for ages—the 10-day forecast. Lame, right? No. In less than 10 days, I'll be running the Chicago Marathon. It can pretty much go 2 ways. The weather can be crappy, I may not eat enough, or my body just won't cooperate and I'll do worse than my PR of 3:39. OR, the weather will cooperate, my training will pay off and everything will go well for a sub-3:35 (or at least a PR) time. 

 

Now I'm not saying the weather will drive any of these other factors. But I think I have enough control over them, that assuming the weather is good, everything will go well. Now the weather is another story. In this link, you'll find a mini history of each race since the race began. I don't want to bore you with all the details of the weather, but will give you a quick snapshot of the last bunch of years, starting in 2007 when I ran my first marathon.

  

2007: Temperatures soaring into the high 80s combined with high humidity forced organizers to halt the race for the first time in history

2008: With another year of hot temperatures predicted on race day almost 33,000 runners started the race and 31,344 recorded official finish times.

2009: In a welcome departure from the past two years, race day temperatures were in the low 30’s

2010: The participants in the 33rd annual Chicago Marathon were no exception Sunday, as runners experienced the third-hottest race in 20 years.

2011: Climbing temperatures slowed thousands of runners in Sunday’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon

 

So yeah, you can see why I'm a bit nervous about the weather. At least NYC in November is predictably on the cooler side. Early October in the Midwest—not so much.  

 

And now that it's 10 days away, I can stalk weather.com daily. Today, the forecast for October 7th is a high of 60 and a low of 47, mostly cloudy. Not terrible. And definitely not in the 80s. Here's hoping for an ideal race day—weather-wise.

 

trivia

Last night I checked off trivia night! I've been wanting to go for ages and just never got around to it. I love trivia. If I can get home from work in time to watch Jeopardy—it's a good day. Obviously I missed Jeopardy last night, but instead met up with a couple of friends and my sisters at Professor Thom's (yeah, yeah it's a Red Sox bar—boo) to participate in 5 rounds of trivia. Wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it was actually quite organized. Each round was a bit different with question/answer, true/false, and multiple choice with a wide range of topics. In total, around 25 teams competed. We didn't place in the top 3, but there were a lot of teams behind us.  We could have done better, but the last round was tough and we guessed most of them. For the most part, we were able to pool our knowledge ranging from politics to sports. In this link, you'll see the questions and answers they gave us. How do you fair? No smartphones!

Oh and we got to come up with a team name to see if we can win something with our creativity. Well apparently we weren't that creative, but at least there was a theme amongst everyone playing. From now on, we'll be known as Honey Boo Boo Child & The Replacement Refs.

My only complaint was the length of time it took. Since it was a Tuesday, I wasn't looking to stay out too long since I started coming down with a cold and I'm not as young as I used to be. I just can't stay out that late. I'm now going to make my way around Manhattan doing trivia. Let me know if you have any good places!  

 

Honey Boo Boo Child & The Replacement Refs

Oh and if anyone is insterested in testing their trivia knowledge, go to sporcle.com. It's loads of fun.

delaware

Dewey Beach

I’m halfway through the United States of America! My plan is to get to all 50 before I turn 50. It would be cool if #50 was Hawaii, but I don’t think I can wait that long.

So Delaware was #25. I spent Labor Day Weekend in a new state. Like with RI, I've also driven through Delaware a few times, but never lingered. A group of us drove down to Dewey Beach and pretty much spent our time at the beach, playing games, and consuming food and drink. A pretty good weekend if you ask me. I of course had to get my long run in, so did that first thing Friday morning. I didn't want to get lost, so I made my way down the Coastal HIghway for 10.5 miles and turned around. Let's say I was tired and ready for a beverage and a dip in the ocean when I finished.

Delaware is the First State and home of tax-free shopping. I didn't do much shopping, even with the outlets so close, but did have a few 'firsts'. First Grotto Pizza, first Capital Ice, and first Dogfish Head beer.

 

Besides the beach, Delaware has a ton of microbreweries and wineries. So of course, we went to Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats fo dinner one night. Instead of choosing 1 beer to go with my dinner, I decided to go with a 5 4-ounce selection of beers. They were all pretty good, with Midas Touch and Raison D'Etre as my favs.

Doghead Fish Sampler

 

My first trip to Delaware was a success. I officially checked off 4 states so far this year. I don't have any other trips planned, so that may be it for 2012. Twenty-five more to go!

august book update

In August, I only got through two books (one of which I started in July). I guess that's what happens when you decide to read Three Musketeers, which is approximately 715 pages.

Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The book was pretty good. I liked The Count of Monte Cristo better, but this has a series of books that follow the Three Musketeers through decades. The book was quite long, so it did take me a while to get through it.

I saw the movie when I was younger, but don't remember much except there were 3 men always getting in sword fights. Obviously the book goes into much more detail and chronicles how the 'fourth' musketeer, D'Artagnan, joins the ranks of the famous trio. In a few months, I'll read Twenty Years Later to continue D'Artagnan's story.

Until We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
This is another book club book, about working in an office. I figured it would be interesting since it takes places in a Chicago ad agency and it was. I definitely understood a lot of the happenings in the office since that's what I do every day. The book goes into various characters during a series of layoffs, which hopefully won't ever happen to me.

I'm glad I read the book and there were some funny parts (but only in the I-understand-this-from-working-in-an-agency POV), some sad parts, and some shocking parts. It really got me thinking about my old company and the people I used to work with. I spent about 4 years there, the longest at any job. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about the book. There are some parts that will be interesting to discuss, and others that made me question what I'm doing day in and day out. I guess this is meant to be thought-provoking.

As I'm writing this, I'm anxious to get back to Gone Girl, which has been a suspenseful hit so far.

27/30 books in 2012.