11 Random Things

You have to TRI tagged me for this blog chain.  Normally I do not do these but what the heck.

11 Random Things about Me

1)  I would be a great cast member in the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."  Sadly, I think I would fit right in. 

2) See #1: For some reason I think the nerdy girls on the show are attractive.

3) I am a horrible speller.  When Triston was little he use to ask me how to spell something.  He soon realized the hopelessness and went to his mother.

4) I taught East and West coast swing dancing for may years.

5) I a Rotarian and you should be too. I am a two time Paul Harris Fellow and have 7 years perfect attendance.

6) I was hopelessly in love with Winnie Cooper from the Wonder Years when I was a kid.  See #2.  I must like nerdy girls

7) I was also hopelessly in love with Alicia Silverstone and Alyssa Milano (I am STILL am).

8) I have an seriously deep, innie belly button.  I think it does not stop.

9) I can cross my pinkie toe over the next toe over.  I use to keep it that way "just because".  When I met Bonnie she thought I was stuck that way.

10) I love bad 80s bands and music.  I am a serious Queensryche & Dio fan.  Next month I am going to go see Tesla in concert.

11) Yoda is my homeboy.

  

Here are the answers to my the questions she asked me.

1. Name a blogger you would like to meet and why?
Hum.. I think I would like to meet Katie from Will Race for Carbs because she has the same strange sense of humor as me.  I like reading a blog that is funny, informative and sarcastic.

2.      Do you log your workouts? If so where or how?

No, I do not log my workout.  Sometimes I will roughly plan out what days I am doing what on my work whiteboard.  I am not that organized when it comes to training.

3.      What is your favorite thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night?

Sleep!! 

4.      What are you addicted to?

Sleep!!  Lately I have been addicted to homemade spicy peanut butter.  Yummy.

5.      Do you share your blog with everyone?

No, not really.  People just seem to get to my blog while searching for Silly Girl Running, race/equipment reviews, and other strange things.  My top search terms for people who have found my site are: piranha, spandex, pvc bike stand, Run EMZ, Silly Girl, 80's pics and 1980's half shirt.  That is no joke.  Strange!

6.      Tell me one way you are different then you were 10 years ago.

More grey hair!  I'm staring to pay more attention to the Grecian for men hair dye commercials. 

7.      Hot, medium, or mild, how spicy do you like your food?

Hot to darn hot.  Tabasco is my ketchup.

8.      I’ve met people who barley break a bead when they workout and I’m always amazed at this! Which are you sweater or not?

Very little sweat her.  That was a strange question to ask.

9.      I’m thinking of doing a marathon, tell me which one you would do if you were going to do one and why? Or tell me about your favorite one you have done.

I would do the "ET Full Moon Midnight Marathon" at Area 51.  I think that would be awesome.

10.     Music or no music when you work out?

No music.  I like to know if a car is about to hit me.

11.     I need a book for my trip to Mexico to read on the beach. What would you suggest?

Put down the book, stop reading and go see the country.

Ocala Marathon 2012 Review

Ocala Marathon 2012 Review

Previous Year's Race Review
2010 Ocala Marathon Race Review
2011 Ocala Marathon Race Review

Other Friends Race Reviews
See Kitzzy Run
Out For A Run

The race artwork

I always love this race.  It is a small (about 500 runners), pretty, cheap and always well ran.  You can see my previous years reviews of this race in the links about. 

Before the race on Saturday I met up with Tommy from Out For A Run blog.  He and his son met me at a restaurant/pub to say hello.  I have never met Tommy before so I did not know what to expect.  I was not sure if I was meeting a stalker, a blog groupie (just kidding I wish I had those) or just a cool fellow blogger.  Tommy ended up being a really cool guy and had a really nice son.  It was a pleasure meeting up with him and hope to see him at some later races.  I did feel bad when I told him I expected to finish at 2:15 but ended up passing him at about mile 12.  I can still hear his son saying "Dad it's that guy.  Dad don't let him pass you!! Dad!!"  LOL.  I actually did not realize it was him till just as I was passing him.

Tommy and I after the race

Tommy's pre-race "meal"

Tommy had the “pleasure” of signing up for the pre-race pasta.  He was not impressed.  He got green tea, salad, pasta a roll and cake.  The picture did not look to appetizing so I am glad I did not sign up for it.  This wonderful dinner was served in the local mall.  His review of the food was less than stellar.

The”expo” and packet pickup was not at the hotel conference room this year.  It was held at the local mall.  There were virtually no vendors and looked really low budget.  It was much better when they had it at the hotel.

My friend and I ate at the Horse and the Hounds restaurant and pub.  I had the two 8oz pork chops, grilled and topped with a rosemary, cranberry and port wine reduction ($12), mash potatoes and a cabbage/bacon soup.   The food was awesome!  But I was not sure if pork chops, cabbage soup and a few beers was the best pre-race meal.  I later found out my stomach of iron had no issues with it.

This race is held through the rolling hill, horse country.  It is a really beautiful country race course.  It is also very challenging.  Tommy drove the course and said he lost count of all the large hills.

Before the race I met up with some fellow Half Fanatics, Marathon Maniacs and fellow bloggers.  I am friends with Kitzzy on the Run and her boyfriend, Jason.  Jason is a photographer and took some great pictures which can be found here.

Some friends of mind.
Kizzy on the Run is on my right

 

Half Fanatics and Marathon Maniacs

Half Fanatics and Marathon Maniacs

The run was great.  I went out strong and stayed that way the entire race.  I met up with some runners from Jacksonville and we talked and paced each other the entire race.  They were great people. 

  

Having fun with Kizzy's boyfriend

Me being "gangsta"
Jason was laughing when he took this photo.

 The volunteers were a little disorganized this year but were still great.  There was a rest stop every mile with Gatorade, water, oranges, bananas, and power gels.  It was not the buffet of previous years but it was great.

At the end of the race there was pizza, cookies, bagels, fruit, etc.  There was plenty of food and it was all great.

The top finisher medals/trophy’s are works of art.  They are the best awards I have ever seen (see below).

I finished with a new PR 1:52:41 and this was in the challenging hills.  I felt great and I feel great now.  I guess that my new focus on run training is paying off. I now run 3 days a week (about 24 miles).

I HIGHLY recommend running this race.



The race swag was not great
but was much better than Disney

 

The best swag was the dried plums, Jif magnet and the
1980's yellow Chiquita banana headband

  

The race tech shirt

The placer medals



The placer medals were in several different designs



Grand prizes

After the race

 

The Bling

A horse showing us how to run fast.
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"I wonder if they have carrots"
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Pretty race view
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The horse country
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Wine Weekend

Wine Weekend



No problem!!
Just add yeast and sugar.
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Yesterday Bonnie and I went over a friend’s house for some wine making.  We bottled some of his finished merlot, start his new pinot noir and racked one of his red wines.

While we were their Bonnie made her first wine.  I went to the local homebrew store and bought her a 5 gallon Raspberry Zinfandel wine kit that she had fun putting together.  She plans on giving it away for Christmas at the end of the year.  One quality she will soon have to learn is patience.  Wine making takes lots of time before you have a drinkable product. J

I figured I would have some fun and try some experimental wines.  I decided to make coffee wine and a praline dessert wine (both 1 gallons).  I love 1 gallon experimental recipes.  The good thing is if they come out terrible you are only out a few bucks.  The bad thing is if are great you only have 4 bottles (but you have a recipe you can use later on).

The coffee wine required me to brew 1/2 lbs of coffee.  The house smelled fantastic.  The coffee I used was Joffrey’s Angel’s Kiss (“chocolaty coconut with a heavenly hint of nut”).  I am not into flavored coffees but it sounded like it would make a great wine and smelled AWESOME.  The recipe below is adopted from Jack Keller’s wine site. See here 

This should make for an interesting wine
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Coffee Wine

• ½ lb freshly ground coffee
• 2½ lbs dark brown sugar
• 1½ tsp citric acid
• ¼ tsp tannin
• 7½ pts water
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• Wine yeast

I also made a praline dessert wine.  It sounded good and was REALLY easy to put together.  Jack Keller has won a few awards with it so I decided “what the heck” and tried it out.  Its recipe can be found here.

Praline Dessert Wine

• 1 25-oz bottle Savannah Mixes Southern Praline Mix
• 2-3/8 lbs granulated sugar
• 1-1/4 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• 1 crushed Campden tablet
• 6 pts water
• Sauternes wine yeast

I will tell you in a few months if they have potential.

The coffee wine needs a name.  Does anyone have any ideas?

2011 Year End Review & Random Holiday Stuff

2011 Year End Review & Random Holiday Stuff

 

The 2011 Bling
(Not a bad year in my book.)

This year I:

• Completed one Olympic distance triathlon
• Completed twelve half marathons
• My first ultra trail marathon (30 miles). This was also my first marathon
• My first 70.3 triathlon.
• Finished four 70.3s before the year ended
• Did not die at the Tampa Tough Mudder
• Completed my 100th lap (100 kilometers) at Lucky's Lake Swim.
• Lost 28 lbs and am in the best shape of my life
• The blog now has over 100 completely bored followers.
• I posted my 100th boring blog post.
• Blog had a record number of spelling errors and grammar issues.
• Last years "year end review" can be found HERE



First cold day of the year in Florida



Highs in the 40s and winds at 20 - 30 mph.
No running for me today.



Burr!!
Still beats living in Michigan or New York.



Chewie crawled under the covers for warmth.


More Organized Bling

My bling holder only had one level and was very small so I had to come up with a way of enlarging it.  So I went to the shop and cut two dowels and hung them on chains from the medal holder.  Now I have two more layers to hold my bling.

One level is now three.
This picture is from the proof of concept.
Later I shortened the dowels and painted
the chains and dowels white.

Much better organized. Now I can see all the bling
and I still have one empty level for 2012.
Sorry for the poor photo quality.  The light in the room is bad

New Years Party

My Sing-a-ma-jig got plastered and sang
"Oh My Darling" all night long till he past out.

 

Chewie after a long New Years night
of benadryl and scary fireworks.  Poor thing!
He is teriffied of fireworks

  

Maybe Sing-a-ma-jig shared his bottle with Chewie.