kentucky

I checked off my 23rd state! After a brief detour to Texas (#22), I made my way to Kentucky to visit my friend Katie. The last time I saw her was at her wedding a couple of years ago. It was time to see her again and why not do it in her home state.

I spent 4 days doing lots of fun things, including those specific to Kentucky. First up was the Derby miniMarathon. This was the first big race since my marathon last October. It was difficult to assess how this was going to go. I got my long runs in but some of the training was a bit sporadic. But I went out and ran consistent 8-minute miles. I finished with 1:45:46, so I was pretty happy. Later in the year I would like to PR, but will have to see what race would be best for that and where I'm at with my training.

The race started in downtown Louisville, where I passed the Louisville Slugger Museum (which I went to later in the weekend) and made my way down to Churchill Downs. After seeing a horse running on the track, I turned back towards town while passing some of the U of L campus, and later on, Katie at mile 12. After the finish I celebrated with a beer (or 2) and a fried twinkie at the Chow Wagon. Delish.

On Sunday we made our way to the Museum where I tried out Jeter's bat. If there weren't any nets I'm positive I would have hit a HR. I got to see the bats being made—including the Mother's Day commemorative pink bats—and got a mini bat to take home with me.

On my last day, I had to try some straight bourbon whisky. We drove to Loretto, KY where we took a tour of Maker's Mark Distillery. It was very nice. We walked around the grounds to the various buildings to see the full distilling process. And of course tried some of the bourbon, including Maker's 49 and Maker's White.

All in all a very good trip. Catching up with friends, running, seeing new things, enjoying great weather (minus the hail storm), and so on. What more could I ask for?

 

march book update

I of course got some more reading in last month, but only got through 3 books. I was very busy with work, and took a vacation where I didn’t spend a lot of time reading.

Faithful Place by Tana French

I finally read Faithful Place, the 3^rd book in Tana French’s Dublin crime squad series. I read the last one a few years ago and really liked it. I do enjoy reading crime novels and especially like the Irish aspect of them.  

An undercover detective is drawn back to his childhood neighborhood when his old girlfriend’s suitcase turns up in an abandoned building. It was thought she had run off to London to start a new life. As the investigation starts, it’s quickly established that never made it to London. Since this is a murder mystery, I couldn’t put the book down. Now I need to get my hands on the 4^th one in the series.

Entangled by Barbara Ellen Brink

I read Entangled while on vacation and it was perfect for it. It was a quick read. Not the most well written book (I guess that’s why it was free on my kindle), but it did the job. This woman inherits her uncle’s winery and old childhood memories start to crop up. They had been blocked out for a few decades since it was pretty traumatic. Definitely some heavy stuff, but I thought it could have been a much better book.

Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I decided to re-read Scarlet Letter since I remember liking it in high school. It took a little while to get through the old Puritanical English. Parts of it infuriated me and it’s kind of amazing that this is what it was like when our country was born. Damn Puritans. I don’t condone adultery at all. But I didn’t appreciate Hester taking all the slack for it. It was nice to read this book again. I enjoy having a new perception on books that I read over 10 years ago.

Now it's time to read The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet!

12/30 books in 2012.

sxsw

I made it to Texas! First new state of the year checked off and now I've gone to a music festival. In typical spring break fashion, I met up with my college friends. Our friend Sara lives in Austin, so 5 of us invaded for SXSW—oh and to celebrate her 30^th and St. Patty’s Day.

It was 5 fun-filled days with music and beer. Just about every venue or open space had bands playing all day and night. Luckily we were staying walking distance from downtown, so we just music-hopped (or bar-hopped) all the way through Austin. The weather was super nice too—so shorts weather and drinking outside!

Band outdoors in Austin

Some highlights were General Fiasco—an Irish band—playing Wednesday night at a local bar. We also checked out an outdoor Shins concert. And even though it sucked getting up early, we went to the live broadcast of KGSR on Friday. We saw ZZ Ward, Graffiti6, and Fun. perform a a few songs apiece as we enjoyed chicken and waffles. I was a bit sleepy, but it was worth it. There were many other good highlights and a small number of not-so-good highlights. Overall good music all over the place.  

The Shins

My local Texan thing was going to Shiner, Texas to visit Spoetzl Brewery. My friends suggested kissing a cowboy, but all I saw in Austin were hipsters. It may have been possible that Brooklyn transplanted for the weekend. So instead of kissing a cowboy (or a hipster), I decided that drinking a new and local beer totally counted instead. Oh and we had some delish Texan BBQ to go with it.

Shiner, Texas

I spent the whole time goofing off with old friends, listening to music, eating Mexican and drinking too much beer. Bring on next year!

Always better.

spring training

I checked off another thing off my 2012 list! I went to a spring training game… well make that 3 of them. I’ve been to many Yanks' game and I try to visit ball stadiums when I get the chance. I do have a goal of going to all of them—assuming they are all still around. I figured it would be fun to go to spring training—and Florida was even better.

My friend Andrea and I made our way to Tampa this past weekend with the purpose of stalking Jeter, Swisher, and all the rest of the Yankees. We were somewhat successful. We left cold and sunny NYC and arrived in warm and cloudy Tampa—yes something was wrong with that picture. We relaxed a bit and had some delish brunch at Daily Eats to prep for the upcoming days of baseball.

Game 1

First game was against the Phillies. It was split team, so unfortunately Swisher and his fellow outfielders weren’t there, but we were able to get in some quality Jeter, Cano and A-Rod time in. And when I say quality time, I mean they ran by us very quickly 10 feet in front of us. Hey—I’ll take it. We got to George Steinbrenner Field about 2 hours before the game to scope it out and try to get some autographs. We were unsuccessful with the autographs, but did get some photos. We made our way to our section to relax in the hot Florida sun with a beer in hand. We went on to beat the Phillies 3-0.

Game 2

Second game up was against the Astros. Yeah, not too exciting you’d think, but it ended up being much better than the day before since we got some Swisher goof-off time and A-Rod’s autograph! We were literally right next them during batting practice. I got so many photos, it was ah-mazing. Unfortunately the Astros beat us 3-4. Even with the support of the 8-year old boy who was screaming his head off. He did get upgraded to first row though. I should try that at Yankee Stadium.

Game 3

Big game against the Red Sox. Ok… it’s not post-season, so not that big. Especially given we lost—in the 9^th inning. It was a slow start, but we got some batting practice time with Cervelli and Cano. It was another good night for ball. Granted the foul balls provided a lot of the excitement. But I’m now ready for April!

Next up—new state (Texas) and a little SXSW fun!

february book update

Time for my February book update! I had a nice mix of classics, young adult and comedic books to round out the month.

Bossypants by Tina Fey

I started Bossypants towards the end of January and finished it pretty quickly. It was pretty funny. I mean it is Tina Fey. Of course it was going to be funny. But as someone who doesn’t really watch 30 Rock or followed her SNL career too closely, I wasn’t too familiar with her as much as others. I of course have seen a few SNL skits, including her impersonations of Sarah Palin. You would have to live in a bubble if you've never seen them.

Tina puts a comedic spin on various points of her life and how she got to this point in her life. I did think she was funny before reading the book, but now I definitely need to catch up on 30 Rock. I guess it’s time to get my hands on the last few seasons.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I borrowed Slaughterhouse Five from a co-worker. This has been a book that I kept seeing at the bookstore and on various lists of books to read. I saw my co-worker Dan reading it, so I figured it was time to do it.

It was a pretty good book. Like with any book that has time travel or flips back and forth between different decades, it takes a while to adjust to that style. Billy Pilgrim is a POW of WWII and experiences time travel, or so he thinks, all the way from his childhood to the point when he is murdered. The murder isn’t really that exciting. Just some dude who vows revenge for his war buddy that falsely states that Billy had something to do with his death.

Not only does Billy time travel through his life, but he is also captured by aliens. Yup. Aliens. The story mainly centers on the bombing of Dresden during the war. Apparently this was supposed to be funny. I didn’t find it too humorous. I seriously considered Billy was experiencing post-traumatic syndrome. Or at least somehow it was a dream.

Fall Girl by Marybeth Smith

My theme has been reading a classic, and then reading some random easy book that I downloaded for free on my kindle. And this was one of them. This definitely wasn't a classic, and didn’t require much thinking. A bunch of teenage drama that was slightly entertaining. An interesting element was one of the characters had bipolar disorder. At the end of the book, I found that that author actually has bipolar. It was free and super quick to read so I didn’t mind it too well.

The Queen of Kentucky by Alecia Whitaker

This was suggested for my book club since one of the members knows the author. Again, this was another Young Adult book with some teenage drama. However, less drama that the previous book. It takes place in small town Kentucky, where a teenage girl is trying to fit in her high school. The small-town girl in me could relate to some of the aspects of the story.

We actually had a Q&A over Skpe with the author a couple of weeks ago. Which was pretty cool. It was nice to hear a bit more how the book was related to her own life. And I’m now headed to Kentucky in April. Bring on Derby Days!

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Ok. Enough with the teen drama. Time for another classic. Another dystopian book. I didn’t realize there were so many of them. All futures are apparently very bleak.

I enjoyed reading this book and it was also very quick read.  Literally, it was one page=1%. The shortest book so far on my kindle.

Like other Ayn Rand books, I liked it. I do feel it is time to re-read The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. I will plan to do that soon, since it’s been more than 6 years.

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling

Another funny book! So I don’t watch The Office. I know lots of people who do. And apparently it’s funny. I believe them. However, I had never heard of Mindy Kalning before my friend recommended it for book club.

It was funny. Definitely some very humorous parts. My friend thought it was way funnier. She was laughing out loud when I was reading Slaughterhouse Five. Very rude I thought. I was reading something depressing and she was laughing out loud. Anyway I do recommend this book for a good laugh.

I’m currently in the middle of Faithful Place by Tana French. Another Dublin crime drama. The 3rd in the author's series and it’s a page turner. I’ll let you know how it goes next month!

9/30 books in 2012.

new state update

I haven’t done too much on my list yet and we are about 2 months into 2012. But no worries. I’m a bit more relaxed about this year’s list since there are only 12 things I’m going to do as opposed to 30! And some of these will have to wait for warmer weather. However, I do have #1 planned out.

I’m a big geography nerd. Especially when it comes to the US of A. You know that game that Chandler plays with the group on Friends where they have to come up with all 50 states? I love that game and occasionally play by myself. I also like to guess the capitals. When it comes to the world I like to try to get as many countries as I can, but there are just too many and there is like a new country every day. Whenever there is a map laying around, I have this urge to study it. I'm a nerd.

A life goal of mine is to visit all 50 states. I made it more interesting by setting a goal to visit all 50 before I turn 50. Good thing I have 20 years to go. So far I’ve visited 21 states in 30 years. Only 29 to visit in the next 2 decades. I think I can do it. And 3 of them will be checked off this year.  

It looks like I have my 3 new states planned! Next month I’ll be hitting up Texas in a big way. In April, Kentucky will get celebrated Derby-style. And in August, what better way to get to know this small state, than to run 13.1 miles around it. I’m hoping to add a couple of more states, but for now this is a good start!

Stay tuned for how these (and other trips) turn out!

2012 race plan

I haven’t blogged too much about running this year. Only to complain about stupid guys who have a problem with girls being faster than them. It’s all good. I’ll just keep running faster.

Moving on… a couple of weeks ago I signed up for my 6^th marathon. I can’t believe I’m running another one. Coming from the girl who said she’d never do one—ever. It’s in my DNA to keep trying at something until I get what I want to achieve. And since Boston has continued to elude me, I gotta keep trying. And it’s too late now. I paid the $150, so I’m running Chicago this October with my friend Lindsay.

My goal is to obviously BQ. Even though I checked if off my 30 list last year, I didn’t technically do it. Shocking I know. I broke 3:40—which was my goal at the beginning of 2011, but then Boston decided to change their standards later in the year. I now have to get 3:35. So that is my running goal for this year—again. Except Chicago is notorious for having non-ideal running conditions. For too many years there were ridiculous heat waves in October and one year it was incredibly cold. And since I’ve been lucky with pretty good running weather for the last 5 races, this year is the one that is bound to be not ideal. Knock on wood. Seriously. Do it. Given that, I'll try my best, but I will also acknowledge that some things are out of my control. As much as I would like to think they are.

Last year was a bit nutty with traveling for work, but this year, hopefully it won’t be as much. I should be able to get into a nice running routine, which may or may not include a running team. For my last 3 marathons I’ve pretty much trained on my own. I’ve gone to a few speed classes, but due to work it didn’t happen as much as I would have liked. I also didn’t make it a priority. This year that will change. I’ll also explore joining a running team that will take me. I would like to find a team that will take me and my slow ass, but will also challenge me. I think NYAC is out of the picture. Last I checked, I won’t be competing in the 2016 Olympic Trials.

My yearly marathon is usually the big race that culminates my year of running. Usually it’s the last major race I do—minus our local Turkey Trot of course! In the months leading up to it, I usually do a bunch of shorter distances, including ½ marathons. So far I’m officially signed up for three ½ marathons.

First up is the Vermont City Marathon Relay Memorial Day weekend. Since it’s a relay, I plan to run ½ the distance of the full marathon. As of now, my sister Emily will be the other leg. A couple of friends may also sign up and run the full marathon. I’ve never done a marathon relay, so this should be fun. And as a celebration, I decided that I will be visiting Magic Hat Brewery.

I also plan to do a couple of ½ marathons with Rock ‘n Roll and in August will make my way to Providence. In September, I will run Philly for the 6^th year in a row. When I first ran that race in 2007, I didn’t realize I would be running it every year since then. Let’s see how long I can keep the streak going.

Other than that, I may sign up for the Brooklyn ½ in May and do a bunch of smaller races. I’d like to get a faster 5k or 4-miler at some point. I would also love to another relay similar to Ragnar. Let's see what 2012 brings! .

Check back for more updates! And I leave you with this: