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Posts Tagged ‘meme’

It’s All About Me and My Liebster Award Nomination

Posted in Blogging, Books, Family life, tagged , , on November 30, 2012| 6 Comments »

I do enjoy a chance to go on and on about myself (define:blogger), so I was pleased to see that recent half marathoner Wendy from slowgirlfastdog nominated me for a Liebster Award! With such a thrilling honor comes the great responsibility of naming 11 random things about myself and answering 11 random questions from the nominator.

Without further ado, I give you 11 random things about me:

1. In high school I appeared on the television game show Wheel of Fortune. I came home with consolation prizes including a 3-foot high chocolate Santa and more Rice-a-Roni than I ever wanted to eat.

2. It took nearly two years for me to conceive my first child. Infertility stinks and it’s a lonely, hidden sort of condition (so if you’re going through it too, know you have my sympathies). I was lucky and figured out the cause of my infertility (see random fact #3), and now I have three lovely girls ages 10, 7 and 4.

3. I have Graves’ Disease. That sounds more grave than it is. Basically, after the birth of my first daughter, my thyroid went into overdrive. I lost a lot of weight, my heart rate went up, and I developed insomnia. Once I figured it out, I went on anti-thyroid medication. Then my thyroid burned itself out completely, and now I’m on thyroid supplements. Thankfully, my thyroid levels have been normal for years now.

4. Over the course of having three young children, I breastfed for a total of about 9 years, sometimes tandem nursing a toddler and a baby at the same time. I loved it and blogged about it for three years on a breastfeeding blog that eventually had 100,000 pageviews a month. Sadly I’m no longer part of a blogging network that can drive in that kind of traffic!

5. I don’t like being called Angie and only a few close friends and family members can get away with calling me Ang. Call me Angela or better yet, Hey You Yes You the Girl Who Finished a Marathon.

6. I’ve lived in Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts and California. For one fun summer I lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and that’s my favorite big city (although I enjoyed living in Boston too).

7. I’m a lawyer but I choose to call myself a born-again non-lawyer. I graduated from University of Michigan law school in 1997 and went on to practice estate planning law for three years. It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 years since I’ve practiced law. I do not miss it one bit.

8. I want to write a novel one day. The problem is that I really want to have written it. I don’t actually want to write it.

9. I love to read and have read over 50 books this year. I am not joking when I say 18 of those books are audiobooks that I listened to while driving my kids back and forth to preschool and elementary school. I am currently reading Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, S is for Silence (Kinsey Millhone Mystery), and Running Doc’s Guide to Healthy Running: How to Fix Injuries, Stay Active, and Run Pain-Free, and I am listening to Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. I never used to read multiple books at once but my tolerance for that has increased.

10. I think the public library is the best invention ever. So much so that I make many monetary donations to the library each year (so what if the library calls them “overdue book fines.”)

11. As part of the Liebster Award I am supposed to nominate 11 other bloggers. I don’t wanna. (This is in keeping with my Official Policy Rule 10.4.1: Do not send chain letters.) If you want to participate though, I’d be happy to read your answers to my 11 questions. Either post the answers in the comments or a leave a link to your blog post with your 11 answers.

And now for my answers to Wendy’s 11 questions.

1. What was your favorite comic strip as a child? It’s a tie between Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes.
2. Do you own any pets? If so, what kind? I have a cat named Camo (she’s a calico cat with camo-like white, black and orange patches. I didn’t name her — she came with the house when we bought it!)
3. Why do you blog? Because for some reason my friends and family refuse to listen to me go on and on about running and triathlon and training and injuries and me me me me.
4. If you could only own one book, what would it be? Pride and Prejudice. Sure, you think I might say the Bible but I’m not religious (I’m spiritual).
5. Do you color inside the lines or outside? Inside. Who do you think I am?!
6. What word would your mother use to describe you? Delightful. Right Mom?
7. What word would your best friend use to describe you? Wife. Right Mike? I’ll let him come up with another word for me.
8. What is your biggest pet peeve? People who do not give cyclists and runners proper respect on the roads.
9. Have you ever been in a bar brawl? No. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to a bar.
10. Do you believe in ghosts? No. Wait, what was that sound?!
11. What have you done to prepare for a zombie invasion? I keep an earthquake disaster kit of water and supplies in my garage, does that count?

And now my 11 questions for you all:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
2. What book are you reading right now?
3. What’s your favorite book?
4. What’s the farthest distance you’ve ever gone under your own power (racing or training or hiking or walking or whatever your definition of farthest distance and “own power” is)?
5. How many days a week do you work out?
6. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Explain.
7. What’s the most exotic place you’ve ever traveled to or the most interesting site/tourist attraction you’ve ever seen?
8. Do you think money can buy happiness?
9. How often do you eat fast food (I’m talking traditional fast food like McDonald’s, Taco Bell etc.)?
10. Do you buy organic?
11. What is one thing you’d like to work on changing about yourself?

Now you go!

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Angela’s 10 Running-Related Personal Questions

Posted in Blogging, Injury, Running, tagged , , , , on September 18, 2012| 3 Comments »

It was bound to happen sooner or later — my first meme! Thanks to the ladies at anothermotherrunner.com for the inspiration. Feel free to play along in the comments or answer the 10 questions on your own blog. I’d love to read the answers!

Here goes:

1. Best run ever: It’s hard for me to say what I consider the “best.” The one I’d most like to repeat is a 2.7-mile trail run I did in Zion National Park. It was just one month after I’d gotten back into running about a year and a half ago, and this was one of the first runs where I felt strong, powerful, and free. I was distracted by the spectacular views and by watching my footing.

Zion National Park

The view at the start of my run in Zion National Park.

It hardly felt like I was running. I was using my leg power to travel along the Emerald Pools trails to see some of the most beautiful places in the country. I was cheered along by the comments of the few people I saw on the trail. “She’s running here!” and “Either you must be in great shape or you’re in a hurry!”

The run I’m most proud of is the OC Half Marathon last May 2012. It was my first and only half marathon. I pushed myself hard to achieve my goal of a sub-2 half, and while I didn’t exactly enjoy the effort, I was extremely happy and proud with the result.

My best run ever in terms of fitness and confidence-boosting was the 13 mile run I did with my half marathon coach and friend Stephanie last August. The first six miles went smoothly and I felt so great when I met up with Stephanie at the half way point that we ran faster than my target training pace. Not only did we run faster, but I was having so much fun chatting with her that I forgot to keep track of the mileage and we ran a bonus mile to make it 13. If I’d thought about it I would have tacked on another 0.2 for a personal distance record!

2. Three words that describe my running: Challenging, rewarding, powerful.

3. My go-to running outfit is: I just got some Under Armour 4″ compression shorts that are my new summer favorites. I do like wearing running tights in the California “winter” because it means I don’t have to shave my legs! (Truth be told I will run in shorts without shaving my legs — I care more about getting the run in than I do about pleasing others with their highfalutin leg-shavin’ standards. Call me a hippie.)

4. Quirky habit while running: I am a mouth breather, but that’s not so unusual is it? Sometimes I run while listening to an audiobook, but I typically run without a book or music.

5. Morning, midday, evening: If I have my way, I run in the morning, preferably before my husband and three girls are awake. I love coming home to find them all still sleeping. They haven’t missed me, and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment at having checked off my training for the day before my family’s day has even started. That said, I have been known to run at 8 p.m. if that’s what it takes to get my training run in.

6. I won’t run outside when it’s: Hmm. There hasn’t been a time yet when I wouldn’t run outside. Southern California is pretty weather-friendly for running and I don’t let the heat stop me. I try not to run in the dark. I’d prefer not to run in a thunderstorm or on icy roads. I do like to run in a light rain though — it’s a nice change for me!

7. Worst injury—and how I got over it: Plantar fasciitis. It’s been a few weeks and I’m still getting over it, physically and mentally. Send healing vibes! I feel like my feet are my new job — stretching, strengthening, rolling with the tennis ball, icing, massaging with arnica gel, resting, and wearing the Strassburg sock(s) at night. I just read that American Olympian Ryan Hall has dropped out of the New York City Marathon due to plantar fasciitis and other problems. If an elite runner can be sidelined at this point by plantar fasciitis for his November 4th marathon, maybe I shouldn’t feel bad about missing my November 10th one.

8. I felt most like a badass mother runner when: In the middle of my half marathon training plan, I went out for a Saturday long run on a local trail. I could hear a guy running behind me, but I kept up my pace and he did not catch up to me until we had to stop at a road crossing. He asked me what I was training for, and I practically burst at the seams with pride. I looked like a runner! A stranger knew I was training for a race! I told him about the half marathon and my sub-2 goal, and he told me exactly what I needed to hear at that point: “You can do it! You’ve got it!” Amazing how people come into our lives out of the blue and offer us such wonderful little gifts. It didn’t cost him anything and yet his words gave me so much.

9. Next race is: My next race is the SheROX San Diego sprint triathlon in October. My next running race on the calendar is the Santa Barbara International Marathon in November, but that’s looking to be my first DNS in light of the plantar fasciitis. I’m proceeding with my training by aqua jogging in the pool (and biking and swimming), and I’ll either try to downgrade my registration to the half marathon, or skip it altogether and set my sights on another marathon. I’ve been reading Ironman champion Chrissie Wellington’s new book A Life Without Limits: A World Champion’s Journey (book review spoiler: I love it!) and I found it pretty inspiring to read how she had to miss the 2003 London marathon due to a hematoma in her left thigh. Instead of running the race, she enjoyed watching it live as Paula Radcliffe broke the world record. That story reminds me to keep a positive attitude and stay in the game for the long haul. There will be another race for me.

10. Potential running goal for 2013: If I cannot start/complete the marathon in 2012, I will look forward to 2013 and the chance to try again. Perhaps the LA Marathon in March?

Answer one or more of the questions in the comments or come back and post a comment with the link to the answers on your blog!

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