Seeing Red

So, my dad informed me that I could race today if I wore my work shirt...
I took him up on it...

Nothing like getting paid to run!

I was happy with my results - I came in second (by 7 lousy seconds) in the female category and ninth over all. My time was 21:07; room for improvement, but it could have been worse.

It felt so wonderful to get back into racing. This was me racing to the finish line!

The writing well is dry tonight. I am exhausted as I did a bunch of studying for my midterm on Tuesday and prep for other classes. Time for some brain candy in the form of 90210 and Gossip Girl!

I am off running! :)

Running on a cloud

I am haloed in a type of runner’s euphoria which may or may not be influenced by the third piece of dark chocolate I am inhaling.
Let’s start at the beginning. Say hello to the newest member of my running shoe family:

I admit, I am not a pink girl, but they are custom made for marathon runners and orthotic wearers (of which I am both). I made this lofty purchase on my way home from school yesterday and it was all I could do to wait until running training tonight to try them out.

How did they work? Like running on a cloud! It was also my first time at running club, and I met some amazing people. I am merging into the sister group that trains for marathons and because there are less people you get more specialized training. I am the only female, but I am feeling like I can hold my own. I am just excited for my first half marathon in the spring.

This will make me step closer to stroking the object of “Run a marathon” off my bucket list. I think I am taking a bit of the morning off this Saturday to do the 5K fun run in Wellesley.

I also met with a few people this evening to go over the logistics of a new group we are forming on campus. It is primarily for Believers and we will focus strongly on prayer. I am excited to start it and see where God takes it!

I guess those are the greatest things to note as of today. Tomorrow I have a special technology seminar to attend early in the morning, so I better get all my things done so I can be alert.

I am off running!

Tennyson trumps Twilight

I am back.

I say this triumphantly; it is quite easy to begin to feel as if there is something fundamentally wrong with you during the summer months. These are the months where Twilight trumps Tennyson and you hear more Britney Spears than Beethoven.

However, the fears vanish as I step back on my turf: the classroom, the coffee shop, and the runner’s trails. This is the world where it is expected to consider boycott grocery shopping until they rid their produce section of the excess apostrophe and their signs from “8 items or less” to “8 items or fewer.”The world where Shakespeare and Facebook share working space and where sushi is consider a proper meal. This is where you meet friends that understand your compulsion to re-write an essay until it is PERFECT, and that you really do love to read.

I meet peers at Starbucks in the middle of the afternoon because I can. I question those wiser than me because they are full of knowledge. I utilize the resources around me because they are present for but a season.

I love being back. I love not feeling stupid for my need to learn and grow. I love reaching inside literature and watching the subjectivity of it vanish as I realise what the author was trying to say. I love finding myself in the characters of those that are long gone, but have left their lives inside my anthologies.

I am back to the busyness, the stresses, and noise... and it is wonderful.

I am back!

Projects and Larabars

Writing novels, to me, is basically a kind of manual labor. Writing itself is mental labor, but finishing an entire book is closer to manual labor. It doesn’t involve heavy lifting, running fast, or leaping high. Most people, though, only see the surface reality of writing and think of writers as involved in quiet, intellectual work done in their study. If you have the strength to lift a coffee cup, they figure, you can write a novel. But once you try your hand at it, you soon find that it isn’t as peaceful a job as it seems.
The whole process—sitting at your desk, focusing your mind like a laser beam, imagining something out of a blank horizon, creating a story, selecting the right words, one by one, keeping the whole flow of the story on track—requires far more energy, over a long period, than most people ever imagine. You might not move your body around, but there’s grueling, dynamic labor going on inside you. Everybody uses their mind when they think. But a writer puts on an outfit called narrative and thinks with his entire being, and for the novelist that process requires putting into play all your physical reserve, often to the point of overexertion.


Haruki Murakami

I am quite excited to have found this author. I am going to request this book as soon as possible at the local library. I have become much more serious with my running lately and this book leap off the shelf at me.

The quote is extremely timely as well. Why? Because I am writing a book. I met with my writing coach/editor this past Thursday, expecting constructive critism and recommendations. I left with a promised book offer; I get to write in my jammies next summer.

How am I feeling? Extremely insufficient for the task, especially since it is for children. I have never written a book before, I don't even know where to start! I suppose it is quite a bit like running and the Christian life- rewarding but countless hours of work.

So other than feeling a little anxiety over the looming project, I am feeling truely blessed. My final days of summer vacation have been filled with many meals out with friends, blissful distance runs watching the sun rise, and working to put some funds in my bank account.
I am so very excited to begin classes: to feel the stress, the excitement, and to fill my head with the knowledge found in the many books I have stacked in my room.

Another thing I have been doing is a bit of baking. I am prepping the freezer for the crazy moments when I want something I love, but I have no time. One of my latest projects was recreating the Larabar.

My beloved vegetarian friend introduced me, and I have loved them passionately ever since. However, they are $2.00 a pop, and that is just a little crazy for my student funds, so I found a great recipe!

Behold, the chocolate chip Larabar!

All that I used were dates, cashews and chocolate chips...and they taste exactly like the real thing, except it was a quarter of the cost. I sense the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. :)

Constructive Venture?

To me, yesterday was the last day of summer.
As I biked a country road, the sun felt warm, but there a wind chasing away any thoughts of a hazy day. Leaves were swirling at my feet and the air smelt like...change.
And that is precisely why I am beginning this blog; for change. I journal, I write essays and Facebook notes, but this is a a (hopefully) constructive venture for me. This new semester of school, I want to write honestly and creatively.
I have long wanted to start a real blog, one where I can rely the special moments of my life that should be immortalized, but are lost in the shuffle.
I am totally green at this, but I am going to give it my best shot.
This will be a record of me: living, learning, growing.
Welcome to the life of a Christian student with a passion for running.