That time I "try-athloned."

For the past couple years, I've been thinking "yeah I should do a triathlon sometime".

It started with buying a bike a couple years ago.  And then last year, I started going swimming about once a week last summer.

The problem?  Well shockingly, I'm not as good of a biker or swimmer as I am a runner, and doing these things once a week doesn't go that far to making me an expert.  And these sports are a little less efficient than running (at least for me), so it was hard to motivate myself to do them before work, etc.  So I never actually signed up for a triathlon.

Until now.  Well...a "tryathlon".  LOL??

(Basically a race with a lot of first timer triathletes, a short distance, and a swim in a pool).

My friends Heather and Sheila were already signed up and I figured, if there was a time to just jump in and do it, now was it.

Because I've been kind of living life by the seat of my pants lately, I didn't really train at all....basically I've biked about 6 miles in the last three months and swam just a handful of times.  But I figured this would be enough to finish, just not put on a great racing performance.  Which...when you're just trying to have fun and get your feet wet (literally?), I guess it's fine.

Staging area with foot?

RUN

The race started with a 5k (billed as three miles and a 5k simultaneously, but the distance was like 3.15 on the garmin so...).    Somewhat hilariously, there were a few super competitive looking girls right at the front at the start of the 5k.  Maybe they forgot there was a "y" in tryathlon this time?  Anyway, we went off on the run and it started on a major downhill.  I tried to run the race as a tempo and not to go out too fast.  Surprisingly, I felt pretty good on the run and started passing people once the run turned back uphill.

I ran into the finish with a time of 20:49 which in retrospect, I am pretty pumped about.  That's not too much slower than when I've all out raced 5ks, and my training has been pretty booze-tastic / lax lately so perhaps this bodes well for some good races this fall?

BIKE

I took my sweet time transitioning to the bike.  Mainly because I didn't want to screw anything up or fall or forget to put on a helmet or something.  The bike was 9 miles and had two loops.  The beginning of the bike ride was pretty funny because I got promptly passed by the real athletes in the race who know how to bike and stuff.  That said, I tried to give the race a good effort but also yell encouragement to the runners on the course.  And not crash.  That too.

Anyways, I finished the bike course in 32:03 which is nothing to write home about but that's ok!

SWIM

This was the part I've been the most nervous about!  I mean...I know it was only 200 meters but still!  There was about a 200 meter run into the swimming pool and then I finally jumped into the pool.  I swam four totally confused laps and came out of the pool to finish the tri!

Yay!

You guys...my swim time was 6:24.  Seriously.  Can someone teach me how to swim?

Final

1:04:22.  20th place.

I had so much fun doing this race!  So much fun that maybe I'm going to sign up for a triathlon with a swim that's not in a pool?  Obviously I have a lot of work to put in if I ever want to get serious about three sports, but for right now, I'm ok just having fun with it.  Heather and Sheila also killed the race, btw.

The only final thoughts I have on this race, is that I would definitely recommend them for someone who (like me) wants to try out a triathlon but is kind of intimidated by the whole process.  I didn't drown or crash into anyone, and in my book, that's a win.

The Airing of Small Small Grievances

Sometimes I think the world would be much better if I could change stuff.  Not the big world problems (although obviously that would be wonderful).  The little things.  I've got a lot of first world problems, y'all.  And you're going to hear about them.  Here's my list:


1)  The distribution of frosting on Frosted Mini Wheats:  Seriously man.  With the massive options in food production these days, you'd think awful pictures like this would be a thing of the past:

But no.   We are left with some mini wheats that are gloriously full of frosting and others that are barely sweet at all.  Thus, I am forced to eat all of the most frosted wheats first leaving a pathetic little pile of "Almost No Frosting" Mini wheats that no one wants to eat.   Terrible.

2) Packages of Herbs:  You know when you want to cook something nice and the recipe calls for something like "four leaves of fresh Basil"?  And then you go to the store and see this?

Why must we be forced to buy herbs in bulk quantity when ALL YOU NEED IS ONE SPRIG?!?!  And then I'm left with about 60 basil leaves that get bad.

Oh the injustice.

3) People Who Speed Up So You Can't Merge:  You know when you're driving to work and need to get on the highway?  And you start merging on the highway and some jackass behind you accelerates as fast as they can to get on the highway ahead of you causing you to have to slow down?  Congrats, acceleration dude behind me, you just saved yourself .02 of a second.

4) Maid Of Honor Speeches:  I've been to a lot of weddings.  I attribute this to the fact that I lived in Texas at a time when everyone there was getting married (ages 22-26) and now live in California where everyone my age is getting married.  And I'd say that about 2% of the Maid Of Honor speeches are any good.  They usually consist of someone talking about their best friend for 10 seconds and then bursting into tears and saying declarations of love that make no sense.  Hey lady, I know you love your friend because that's why you're the maid of honor.  Now get it together and tell us some funny stories!

5) Gaining Weight During Marathon Training:  This is one of the world's greatest mysteries to me.  How on earth is it possible to run SO many miles and have your pants be tight?  I am convinced that I exists in some weird universe that running more than 10 miles at a time actually makes my hips absorb energy from the atmosphere.

6) Parking Signs In Santa Monica:  Sometimes parking is just parking.  Other times?  It's a freaking logic puzzle.

That's right folks.  No need to study those LSAT books.  If you can figure out whether or not it's legal to park in Santa Monica, you're on your way to a perfect score.

7) The Intersection of Nice and Badass:  I feel like there's a misconception in life that people who are nice can't stand up for themselves.  That they can't be successful.  I would like to put this idea to rest.  You can be nice to everyone AND not a pushover.  And in my perfect world no one confuses niceness with a lack of badass-ness.

8)  Ticketmaster:  Tickets to an awesome show are $35 dollars.  Not bad, right?  But somehow when I buy them they are $48?  How did this happen?   Mysterious ticketmaster fees.  I will never know what actual service is being provided here but I don't like it.

So your turn to be a grumpy cat:  What are the little things that get you?  Are you with me on the mini wheats???

Ragnar Tahoe Trail (Review/Recap!)

Hi there!

Quick Updates Before the Recap:

1) The OC Fair 5k.  I'm doing it next week.  (probably as a workout, not really in racing shape). You should too.  Why?  Because it runs through the OC Fair grounds so it's flat, fast, and fun.  It's also the first place I ever broke 21, so it has a special place in my heart.

2) The iTryathlon: My friend Heather is doing this and I think I'm going to copy her.  It's high time I do a triathlon and this one is about as low key as it gets.  So low key the swim is in the pool and I probably won't drown.  Yay!

3) WatchCo:  I want to give them a mention.  They sent me a gorgeous watch (don't ask me why, but I am not questioning!), which was awesome because I've been thinking I needed a "big girl" watch for a while and they made my dreams come true.  They have a pretty huge selection (I would have gotten the wood watches if I didn't just need something more all-purpose), so it's worth hunting to find exactly what you want.

Ragnar Tahoe Trail Recap (and thoughts on the trail)

This weekend I did a whole new kind of Ragnar.  In Tahoe.  With people I'd never met on a Nuun team.  (yay Nuun thanks).

Ragnar Tahoe (and I think all Ragnar trail relays) are made up of 8 people (unless you're doing the ultra, which IMO would be really hard) and three separate loops.  Each member of the team does three loops.

In the case of this Ragnar, there was one 2.7 mile loop, one 8ish mile loop, and one 6.8 mile loop.  All of the loops were no joke and each ended on an insane uphill.  I am convinced that the race director is an evil evil person.

Here are the elevation maps, although I'm convinced they look nothing like what I ran!  Not sure why?

Despite the difficulty of each loop (I ran none of the loops faster than 10 minute mile pace!), they were truly the best part of the race.  Sometimes I would look while I was running and be amazed at how beautiful it all was.  

The first loop was short and beautiful but extremely crazy as far as elevation.  I had to talk myself down some of the downhills because it was so steep and rocky.

The second loop (that I had the pleasure to run at 3 AM) was crazy because it took us up a ski lift and dropped us up at the top of the mountain.  It was a little bit scary running on such a remote trail so late at night.  I may or may not have spent much of the time on the trail wondering if I would get mauled by a mountain lion.  That said, the experience of being taken up a ski lift all by yourself at 3 AM was eerie and pretty unforgettable.

The third loop was my favorite.  I ran/walked it with one of our teammates, Mackenzie and we both were able to take in the great views, and the gradual downhill on the tiny trails through the forest were unforgettable.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually missed the Ragnar Vans that you don't get on the Ragnar Trail.  There's something really special about hanging out with strangers (or best friends) that you HAVE TO hang out with for the next 24 hours.  In some ways, camping takes away some of the insanity and bonding experiences.  However, I did get 4 hours of sleep which is pretty insane for a Ragnar.

Ragnar did a pretty good job organizing the event for a first time go-around and the trails were marked really well.  There was always water and Nuun available and some snacks as well (smores at night!). That said, most teams took way longer than expected due to the difficulty of the trails, and having to double up so we could finish on time took away some of the fun of the competitive aspect of the event.

So in the "Regular Ragnar versus Trail Ragnar" fight I would say:  

Positives:  BEAUTIFUL views, more sleep, the opportunity to camp, don't have to pay for vans, super challenging runs.  

Negatives: Less team bonding, less variety on the course (only three loops), you're not actually traveling anywhere, and you can't allocate easier / harder / hillier legs to difference runners as needed. 

All in all, I loved doing the trail relay, but I think Ragnar is still ironing out some of the details.  I think if I had to choose, I'd still pick the Ragnar Ultra event, but I'll never forget some of the beautiful views I saw this weekend.  

Seven Highly Ineffective Habits of Online Daters

Hi there.  I hope your first half of July was amazing.

Mine was...good?  In case you were wondering if this is still a running blog, I ran a 10k as a tempo and ran it like a minute per mile off of my PR.  Oops!   So now I'm looking for a 10k redemption run to wipe that shame out of my mind.   I also revived track party Tuesday mornings with SarahOual and it was glorious.

I've also been not running.  Between my (gloriously hot and single!) roommate and myself, we have been exploring the online dating world.   Some of the profiles we've seen and emails we've received have been a little...strange...(Not all!  Some are lovely!).  So here is Margot, Marissa and Laura's guide to the "Man-Profile".

Seven Highly Ineffective Habits of Online Daters

1) Name Time: When creating an online dating profile, one must choose a screen name.    The problem is that it's pretty much impossible to have a cool sounding name.  However, there are various ways to really go big or go home.  If you really want to impress a girl:
A) Put something like "Doc" or "MD" or something otherwise braggy in your name.   She will be impressed!  The more brags you can fit in the better.
B) Turn her on with Sexual Innunendo.  While a number of these have been spotted, I believe "phrankandbeanz" takes the cake.

2)  The Tricker: How do you make yourself stand out in the sea of daters?  Trick her.  Email something like "Hey, I know I'm not in your age bracket but I wish you the best!"  And then when she writes back to thank you, write  "Soooo...how are you?".    Gotcha!

3) The Ashamed: Here's the thing:  you're much cooler than the other people on the site.  I mean...it was your friend/mom/dog/cat who convinced you to get on it to began with, so it's important to make sure everyone knows how cool you are.  Before writing anything about yourself in your profile, write a paragraph that says "OMG I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M DOING THIS.  Let's say we met at the mall!" in about five different ways.  Bonus points if your profile pictures feature you with a bunch of slutty looking girls.   

4) Fancy Car (or Boat!) Guy: We get it, you want a down to earth girl who isn't materialistic.  But you also have a kickass car!  Worth TONS of money.  And...people need to know this.   Profile pic of car/boat instead of you?  Check and check.

5) Never Accept Failure :  If at first she does not respond, try try again.  You just didn't try hard enough.   Here's a good example:  If your lady friend does not reply at your first attempt, send another email that says "looks are not everything".  No response still?  She's playing hard to get.  Send another one that says "Welll....?".

6) Getting Your Foot In The Door:  A few white lies are totally fine.   You're 4 inches shorter than you'd like to be?  Make up your height!  You are a police officer but you think the girls you want won't like that?  Say you're an architect.  Clearly once you've met in person these tiny differences will pale in comparison to how charming you are.

7) Grammar is for losers:  No need to bother with this when you say things like "your hot".  In the words of Ross from Friends, "You're" is "you are" and Your spells YOUR.   But does it really matter?  Nah.

What are your favorite ways to impress the preferred sex?   Anyone have any battle stories to share?

*No online daters were harmed in the creation of this blog post.  As I mentioned, many people are lovely and do not brag about their cars or pretend to be seven feet tall. 

I'm still alive. In pictures.

Hi dudes.  I hope you're doing well.  I am doing....ok.  A LOT has happened in the past couple weeks so this post will just serve to update you.  You know...if you care.  (hi mom?).

1) I moved.  Back to Orange County!  I love the OC.   The good news is that my roommate is a lot of fun.  Also, she has a big dog.  Also, the place is probably the nicest place I've ever lived (that is not saying much but still).  And the view is great.

Also, the pool is great.  There goes my excuse for not doing a triathlon due to lack of water facilities!

I am excited to be back with my running friends in the OC as well!

2) Car:  I got a new one one!  Well ok I sort of got a new one.  My mom has had two cars for a while (since my dad passed away) and I finally convinced her to let me ship out car #2 from Virginia.  It's a 2002 but now I have automatic locks.  And no one can take that piece of beautiful automation from me!

3) A Promotion:  I also got one of these at work.  It was really great because it happened about ten days after my breakup and really helped me to get through the week.

4) A Nephew: One more thing I'm lucky enough to have!  My sister in law unexpectedly gave birth last week to a beautiful baby boy.  I think this anecdotally says how I feel:

To me, most baby pictures look the same (sorry parents.  Janae's baby is the one exception for me).  It's just not that exciting to me.  But when I saw the first picture of my nephew I thought, now that is ONE CUTE BABY.  I love him already!

I can't wait to travel to New York to meet little Theo.

5) Google:  I got to go to Google headquarters for work.  This feels silly to mention but I mean...I've always wanted to go.

You know what though?  They closed the cafeteria at 2 pm so I never got to eat dessert!  Sadz.  

6) Online Dating:  I'm on it as of this morning.  I've been trying to convince myself to do this for a couple weeks but the main impetus was finding out that yesterday (while at Google) my ex is now dating his lady friend from our relationship and not trying to hide it at all.  At first I didn't care and then I wanted to stab myself in the eye because I moved out THREE WEEKS AGO. But you know, I'll continue moving on I'm better off and all other things  blah blah blah (insert cliche even though I still want to still stab myself in the eye).

The most hilarious email I got via online dating today was someone looking for me to hook them up with an ecommerce job.  Imagine that conversation with HR if I tried to follow through:

"Where did you find this guy?  LinkedIn?"

"Nah man, Match."

7)  Running:  I'm getting back into workouts.  Sort of.  I think I'm going to run a 10k on the 4th of July as a fun run with friends!  Also, Mizuno sent me this beauty today:  It's the Wave Sayonara!   The Sayonara is a lightweight trainer with a slightly lower heel drop than a traditional shoe (10 mm).

It has a tall order to match up with the Wave Elixir that is being discontinued (and is my FAVORITE shoe ever).   But I am excited to try it out and run fast in it.   And it's hot, let's face it.

Now what will end up being hotter, my online dating prospects or my runs in the Wave Sayonara?  Well, you'll have to stay tuned.  The best is yet to come, my friends.

Well, at least The Most Ridiculous Stories Are Yet To Come.  That, I can promise you.

On finding the one

I don't know if you've been following the NCAAs but in the 5000 meter women's race yesterday, Abbey D'Agostino took first, Betsy Saina took second, and Jordan Hasay took third.

I know there's probably too much hype around Jordan Hasay (partially because she is blonde and cute but also more legitimately because she is smart, seems sweet, and is damn fast), but I must say, I love her just like everyone else does.  She finished up her college career with this quote:

“I was trying to believe in storybook endings. But that’s life. You can script it all you want, but it doesn’t always work out the way you would like it to.”

Indeed.   Thanks for being real.

Come on, what's not to love.  source

Along this line, I find it very hard to stomach inspirational phrases that say things like "If you can dream it you can do it", etc..  There are inspirational stories every day of people overcoming hardship but at the same time, you see stories of heartache and despair just as often.

I also find romantic statements about "finding the one" and "you'll know when you know" to be very frustrating.  Unless you are very religious, I don't even know how anyone can believe in "finding the one".  It is statistically nearly impossible!  Calculate the odds.   They are not good.  Look at divorce rates.

Even "Everything happens for a reason" is frustrating to me.  Try telling that to someone dying of a terrible disease.  If there is a reason for stuff like that, it sure is lost on me.

How about "If you dream it, you can work extremely hard towards that goal, do as much as you can, and thank your lucky stars you haven't gotten mixed up in some mass shooting or something, maybe you'll get there.  Head down, eyes forward.".  (Sorry, still reeling a bit from this week's Santa Monica college shooting).  

But when I stop being quite so damn pessimistic, sometimes I can try to relate to some of the magic other people seem to feel.  The main thing I can really relate it to is my job.  Is that sad?

Here is why.   I've gone through a huge number of attempted career paths (even internships) that are diverse as horticulture, oil and gas engineering, environmental consulting, education reform, and now...yes...digital marketing in the fashion space.

I wouldn't say that every single day of my life, I jump out of bed excited to go to work (there are ups and downs), but in general, I really like my job and am excited about my career path.  I can't really explain it, because I'm not THAT into fashion, or marketing, but I love the combination of data analysis, fun people, constantly changing technologies, reacting to customer behavior, and come on...who doesn't like clothes.  In times like these, when my personal life is a bit of a mess, I almost can't wait to go into work on Monday morning.

I have family connections in the business, but still, without a number of weird hardships, there is no way I would have ended up in digital marketing.  So maybe everything doesn't happen for a reason, but sometimes out of bad stuff comes good stuff.  Right?

And I don't want to fool myself into thinking that this is the only job I will ever have, or the only thing that would give me fulfillment, but I know that I am very lucky to like my job.

So maybe that is what you crazy dreamers are talking about when you say you found the one.  Or that you're reaching your dreams.  Logically, you know that the stats are stacked against all of your dreams coming true and finding THE BEST person in the world for you.  But you sure are thankful that you found things that you love and love you and want to believe you're on the right path.

And that's where I am right now.  Listening to my instincts, trying to be thankful for what I have, hoping that I'm on the right path...and oh yeah...maybe trying to take inspirational phrases a little less literally.  I think that will work better for me :).

This Week

I'd like to preface this by saying that I'm aware that there are people in the world with MUCH greater problems than me right now.  Unfortunately, this is the problem I am dealing with right now so it feels very central to my life and thoughts.  Hopefully this won't be the focus of my blog for too much longer, but it may be.  We'll see. So uh...sorry. 

This week has been harder so far.  More normal, but more real and emotionally harder.   Guess I was just running on adrenaline last week.

What's Going Ok

The good news is that in about 82% of situations that have arisen in the past week, I have taken the high road.  I've done a couple things that I'm sure I'll look back on and not be proud of, but I've tried to keep yelling, screaming, and revenge plots (beyond just in my head) to a minimum.  The thing is, in a way it's selfish.  Anything nutty I have already done has just made me feel bad in turn and anything decent I do makes me feel better.

I've also returned to some semblance of productivity at work.  I'm maybe at 71%.

Some other good news is that I have moved all of my things out and have actually put in an application on a place to live in ORANGE COUNTY!!!  Back to the burbs, my friends.  I've tried LA twice now, and it's just not my favorite.

Getting ready for dinner every night at Macaroni Grill.

The reason why I found a place to live so fast is 1) I don't want to be a deadbeat with all of my stuff in plastic bags forever.... 2) I found some girl looking to move from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom who I really like.  I felt "omg I hope I'm not misjudging you but I think we could be really good friends" like.

I didn't want to let her get away.  So I told her "sure I'll live with you" after about 5 minutes of researching the place.  Call me stupid, but for some reason it feels right and many of my best decisions in life have been made by trusting my gut.

The Bad News

I thought that getting my stuff out of my old apartment, getting off the lease, and filling out an application for a new place would make me feel better.  Which it does, but it's also been surprisingly hard.  The sad finality that I feel is unexpected.  And it's a weird experience essentially evicting yourself.

The worst part about all of this, is that I've passed the "SCREW YOU I HATE YOU ALL SO MUCH" phase and am now moving into the phase of "But remember all the good things...ahhhh what am I going to do without you?" part.

Or at least the "But remember all the good things....MARGOT CALL YOUR BEST FRIEND SHE WILL COMFORT YOU YOU NEED TO MOVE ON NAAHHHHH I am not LISTENING!!!!".  This is the conversation I am having with myself.

 It's much easier when you can think of people who hurt you as solely comic super-villains.  But unfortunately that only exists in Batman cartoons.

Things are complicated and situations are complicated but I am just trying to take it all one day at a time and stay around people who I know to be stable, nice, and trustworthy.   One thing I know about life is that no situation, no matter how bad or good, ever lasts forever.  So I am just trying to wait this one out.