Not Dead Yet

That's my new battle cry. My previous one had been "Kicking and Screaming", and I started off the marathon yelling that one. But half-way through the race, I screamed to the cheering crowd of volunteers with balloons, "Not dead yet!", and I liked the ring to it, and so that is my new battle cry. It goes for all situations.

So yeah. Ran a marathon today. And it was apparently a marathon of Katies. I was stretching and this girl screamed, "Hey Katie! You're here!" and ran over and hugged the girl stretching next to me. Thirty seconds later, this guy walks by and says, "Hey Katie, you want some water?" and hands a cup to the girl on my other side. A tenth of a mile into the race, a guy on the sidelines was holding up a sign that said, "Hey Katie! Quit now, let's go get pancakes!"

Just under halfway through, I started seeing the most beautiful lights- like a Ferris wheel of sunlight sparkling over my field of vision. It was the most beautiful thing I ever did see, but I was sane enough to be scared of it, because that's all I wanted to look at. I started feeling dizzy but didn't care because the lights were so beautiful. Less than a quarter mile on, there was a water station. I got some sports drink and some of that gel stuff that all the kiddies are talking about, and that made the lights go away, never to return.

Michael and Daena accompanied me down to the race, and then took a bus or a train up north a bit to cheer me on along the way. I am so glad they came out. It really gave me a burst of energy to see them there. It meant so much to see them out there, and I know it must have been boring to wait around the whole time I was running.

As I crossed the finish line, they cheered me on and the thrill of finishing was very emotionally overwhelming. This guy reached out to put the finisher's medal around my neck and I just started to cry in huge gasping sobs. He said, "Now step over here and they'll take the chip... are you okay?" I just laughed, crying, "Yeah, great!" I fell into Michael and Daena's arms and they helped me walk around, and I got a free massage from a Scientologist.

And the results are in.

(This is actually a bit embarrassing, but I'm going to share it anyway, because I'm proud nonetheless.)

Of the full marathon runners, I came in 920 out of 971. My total time was 5:34:03.

My original super-happy goal was 3:00. So it looks as though I beat that twice!

Also, if you look at my results ( lakeshoremarathon.com -- I was bib number 762), you'll notice that I finished the second half quicker than the first. And the second half *was* easier. A lot more painful, but easier regardless.

There should be pictures up within five days. I'll post the web address when they're up. Free service provided by... um... some sport thing or other.

Details to come.

For now, my knee hurts like crazy, but other than that, I don't think I'm any more sore than you would expect me to be after running a marathon. Which is surprising to me because I had hurt myself earlier in the month and haven't really been able to train that much since just after that long run I did mm... sometime around my birthday. I didn't lose any toenails, although several are hurting. The only blisters on my feet are on the tips of my toes, but they're not that bad.

It's all good.

So I guess, just like I was thinking for the entire second half of the race, "Not dead yet. Keep going."

Birthday Update

Now, Michael is calling me a Siren.

Good Birthday

It all began on Saturday. Michael had been asking me for quite awhile what I would like for my birthday, but I couldn't think of anything, so I told him to take me out for coffee and be really nice to me. He said the coffee was fine, but he couldn't make any promises for niceness.

Saturday we went downtown and walked around for awhile looking for Chinese food. We didn't go to Chinatown for that because our destination was downtown. We just also happened to be hungry, and we also happened to know of a nearby Chinese restaurant that Michael likes. But it was closed. We walked around for half an hour and the only food place we could find open was McDonalds. I was just about starving since I hadn't eaten since my run that morning, so we were thinking about going into a Walgreens and buying snack food until we finally found a locally owned sub shop- with really good chicken subs, as we discovered.

Then we headed to the coffee place and I got this huge espresso mocha mint latte sort of drink that was really good and left me bouncing. They were just about to close, so Michael and I took our things to the library (our downtown destination), and sat in the lobby with our coffee and our zine articles for the editting. The security guards kept glancing our way as though looking for something we were doing wrong. So we smiled politely and continued to read and argue politics and drink coffee. That was one of our favorite pastimes once upon a time, and I hadn't realized how much I missed doing that until we were arguing just HOW MUCH we should stress the irony of Ashcroft starting his term with the intent of ending racial profiling in law enforcement, and then turning around and passing the Patriot Act which legalizes racial profiling in terrorist hunts.

I smiled contentedly.

Then we browsed the library and I got books for the theatre workshop, and I got a book recommended to me by the professor in charge of Loyola's adult literacy program. I couldn't find any of the novels I'd thought I might like to read, so, ah well. No novels for Kati.

That night, we went on a community outing to go see Super-Size Me. I had been hesitant to see the movie until I heard an interview on NPR with the guy who made it. And hearing about how he went about the film and his McDonald's only diet made me realize that maybe he wasn't just some idiotic extremist. And we were quite impressed with the show, although we all felt like we had eaten all that grease right along with him. Ew.

Sunday, I got to talk to Molly and Eric and Ian, and Ian said Happy Mother's Day to me, and made sure to mention that he wanted to go to Chicago again. Loves the museums here, apparently. Smart boy. He's doing great.

I also got to talk to Mom, but then dinner was ready early and I had to cut our conversation short. So I'll call again. Maybe tonight.

Then Daena and Eduardo and I watched Harry Potter, and there was a storm. We went outside just before it began and the sky was scorched-looking, and indeed there was the smell of... well, it smelled like burnt rain. Love it.

The weather warmed up just in time for my birthday. We've had days of warmth now, and it's just a bit humid, so it's perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, yesterday I went to work, and I got commitments out of at least four young adults that they will be at art class on Wednesday. Elena had made me a cake and I went over to Casa Romero with some of my coworkers to partake of lunch and cake. Elena gave me a glass as a present. She's one of those people who will give you what she has. They deal with a lot of donation things there, and she'll grab odds and ends that she thinks you might like and laughs with pleasure at giving them away.

I headed home. One of the guys said, "Don't drink too much." I said, "No promises there." That was a joke with us because everyone laughs at how I get all rary after one drink. Most people don't believe it though, til they see it.

So I walk into the house, and they've already started dinner, because I wasn't supposed to be home until late. I walk into the dining room and they sang Happy Birthday to me, and I tried to make a speech, but I was feeling rather uninspired, so I ate a super-tasty burrito that Michael made- instead. Daena said, "Eat up, you need a good base for your stomach when we go out later." This was news to me, so I looked up and Fabian grinned and said he was taking Tuesday off. Daena was going in late, and Michael was just going to suck it up and go out with us even though he had to work normal hours. Daena had made (and I assisted a litte) an ice cream cake, and damn was it good.

After a failed attempt at going swimming, Daena got online and started looking for a place to go. And she found an open mike up north in Lincoln Park, starting at ten at this place called the Tonic Room. We took public transportation up, and had an adventure finding the place when some jerk gave us wrong directions. And he was a jerk and probably did it on purpose. Jerk. Daena's foot's been hurting, so it was really bad when we walked a mile out of our way.

But anyway, we drank and laughed and listened to music and talked to people. Daena cut me off after 1 1/4 beers, and I can't say that was a bad move on her part, as she cut me off right after I nearly knocked over our table. I played, and got a good reception. The moderator guy, I think his name was Ernie, went over and talked with my roomies while I played and seemed interested in having me back. Oh, and the whole bar wished me a happy birthday when I got up onstage and Daena screamed out that it was my birthday. (Technically, my birthday had ended an hour earlier, but what are you gonna do?)

While waiting for the train, there were these three very drunk people across the tracks who yelled for me to sing them a song. So I pulled out my guitar and started to play. This one guy holds out a dollar, then, no really... He jumps down onto the tracks and starts making his way across.

I stop playing and we're all yelling at him to get off the tracks, but this one voice drowns us out- CTA security. He climbs back up and she says she's trying to go easy on him because he's up there drinking, and that's illegal, but he'd be dead if he hit that third track, and... wow.

Daena kept saying that I almost killed a guy.

My music is lethal.

Updated Goals

My previous goal for the marathon was something along the lines of:

Super-happy goal: 3 hours
Reasonably happy goal: 3 1/2
Reasonable goal: 4 hours
Lowest Goal: 5 hours

But, I did a super long run the other day, and have therefore updated my goals to:

Super-happy goal: 3 1/2 hours
Reasonably happy goal: 4 hours
Reasonable Goal: Finish the damn race
Lowest Goal: Don't die.

Off the subject, I have a guestbook here now >>>>>
And, I have an Instant Messenger account. I'm not really sure how it works, so if anyone wants to enlighten me, please do. It's with my hotmail account (katicorlew@...) I don't feel bad about posting that on the internet for the following reasons:

1) The FBI already knows my email addy, I"m sure.
2) I could use the entertainment of a good stalker (bad stalkers need not apply)
3) No one reads this anyway except for people that I know
4) I didn't write out my whole email, webcrawlers won't target me for SPAM
5) I'm too lazy to scroll back up and erase it.

Well, it's nearing my birthday, and I've decided just to go ahead and turn 25 this year. I was considering 30, but I really don't think I've earned 30 yet, so 25 it is.

And I dyed my hair black. Everyone keeps asking me "who did it?" and when I tell them I did, they get all surprised. I mean, it's a simple one-color dye job. I can't afford the $70 tints and highlights and fine cuts- and I don't trust other people with my hair anyway.

I used "natural black for women of color" because I have a sunburn from my run the other day, so now I"m red. Plus, it was the cheapest natural black dye I could fine- and from what I could tell from reading the box, the special formula really only applied to the conditioner- which was yellow and fantastic. My hair is so soft now.

Michael's seen my hair a variety of colors since we've been together, including:
-brown
-blond
-red
-pink
-orange
-green
-blue

But he's only seen black in pictures from high school. So when it came time for my obligatory springtime dyejob, black it is. I don't think pink or green would go over here very well anyway.