Another post on the Olympics

I am sitting here watching the Women's Olympic marathon, because you know, it's hot as balls outside. Once upon a time (in 2010) I made the dumb decision to run a marathon. I don't regret it, I am super proud of myself for doing it, but I am 99% certain I will NEVER DO IT AGAIN. That 1% is a part of me that would like to get a better time, and maybe not do it in pouring down rain. Anyway, watching this marathon and thinking back to my own, a few thoughts popped into my head...

1) The announcers just said that the runners were keeping a "comfortable 2:25 pace." That would mean running the ENTIRE marathon in under the time it takes to watch Hunger Games (plus a couple minutes of previews.)

2) 2:25 is NOT a comfortable pace. That is a 5 and a half minute mile. I can't even do one mile in 5 and a half minutes, much less 26.2 of them.

3) Its raining in London today. It was raining in 2010 in Portland when I did my race. That's like the same.

Me after the 2010 Portland Marathon

4) Each runner had bottles filled with "their own concoctions" at each water station. Would it be against the rules to have a crystal light/vodka in the water bottle?

5) The women are essentially running in bikini bottoms and a sports bra.

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Chaffing much? I guess if you have -3% body fat you don't have to worry about your thighs rubbing together.

6) The winner just took a victory lap, holding the Ethiopian flag above her head. (She was from Ethiopia so it wasn't weird or anything.) When I finished (in 6 hours 10 minutes) I could barely walk to the car, much less hold anything above my head.

7) Does anyone else think they should give more than 3 medals in the marathon? How is it fair that these athletes who are running 26.2 MILES get the same number of medals as the athletes running 100 meters. Yeah, they run those 100 meters super fast, but come on, even the slowest person was still done in under a minute.

The Olympic athletes are continuing to amaze me. The runners, the gymnasts, the swimmers- all of them. The Mister is less than amazed. Equestrian was on earlier, he watched it for a few minutes and then announced "This British rodeo is boring." (I kind of agreed. But the show jumping is fun to watch.)


Are you still watching the Olympics or has it lost it's luster? Would you run a marathon?

How the Olympics Helped Me Pass Anatomy and Physiology

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In January 2002, I was in my second year of college. As a health major, one of my required courses was a 300 level biology class: Anatomy and Physiology. In all honesty, I really liked that class. The human body is super interesting to me, and poking around a cadaver is also really neat to see how the parts work together, and to see what my insides look like. (We had 2 cadavers, a man and a woman. However, the woman previously had a hysterectomy so it was missing the lady parts. Boo.) I also really liked the professor. She was originally from Estonia, and had been teaching/researching in the states for a number of years. What was really hard for  me, was remembering all the names of the different muscles, tendons, bones etc. Memorizing stuff like that isn't my strong suit. It also didn't help that the class met at 8:00 am twice a week.

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What also didn't help was a serious case of insomnia I was dealing with. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn't get to sleep before 4 am most nights. 4am bed time+ 8:00 super hard class= no bueno.


The Winter games of 2002 were held in Salt Lake City. Being in Oregon, that meant most of the coverage was live, or pretty close to it. Not like this year where I have to avoid certain web sites so I don't see any spoilers.

Actually this one isn't as bad as my home town newspaper that shows the headlines of who won what race. Like the 400 IM with Phelps and Lochte. Grr.

Anyway, like I was saying, in 2002, most of the coverage was live, however some of events just don't get prime time coverage (or even day time coverage), and they get replayed at 2 or 3 in the morning. In the summer we are looking at events like cycling, badminton, race walking, shooting, etc. In the winter, the events you see in the middle of the night usually involve cross country skiing or shooting or a combination of those two events.

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Being that I wasn't sleeping anyway, I stayed up and watched a ton of these events. Estonia happened to be very good at these sorts of things. One morning after watching Estonia win the gold in some sort of skiing and shooting competition, I went up to my professor before class and mentioned how good Estonia was doing in the Olympics and that I had watched the big win. She said that she had stayed up to watch it as well. After that, the class didn't get easier, but she knew me, and always said "hello" after that. At the end of the term, I was confused as to why I had gotten the C that was on my grades, and I went to talk to her. She looked back at her records, and saw her mistake, and I was actually supposed to get a B-. As she was filling out the grade change form, she decided to make it a B+ for my troubles. I also believe it was because I watched Estonia in the Olympics that year.

Have the Olympics ever helped you out? Do you watch the middle of the night events?

My love letter to the Olympics

I love the Olympics. L.O.V.E. Every two years my life goes on hold so that I can soak in as much Olympic glory as possible. When I was little and we were living in southern California, the summer Olympics were in LA ('84). My parents went and watched some track and field events. They brought me back a photo of a bear going over the hurdles. That thing hung in my bedroom until I went away to college. I have know idea where it is now, but I will now be on a mission to find it.

It's hard for me to pick which games I like better: summer or winter. Like 99% of little girls, I wanted desperately to be a figure skater or a gymnast. I also loved watching ski jumping and the diving competitions. So pretty much, if there is flipping around, I love it. But don't worry sports without flipping, I will watch you too. Except basketball. I mean basketball is okay, but my attention span during the Olympics is short. A basketball game takes too much time. But, I will watch both indoor and beach volleyball.

I love the back stories of the Olympians. I love hearing about how they train, their families. I love hearing about the Olympic village. I especially love the opening ceremonies and when the athletes march in. I love seeing the countries that only have a couple athletes. I love the athletes that know they won't medal, but they are proud to be there and live out there dreams. I just love the Olympics.