I got up at seven o’clock this morning, ate my oatmeal, suited up in my running gear, grabbed my gloves and walked out the door to go to my half-marathon training group. I made it literally one step out the door when the frigid 30-degree air hit my face, feeling colder than I remembered 30-degree air being. That’s when I said, “Fuck this shit,” and walked back inside. It’s the end of March and there should not be frost on my car in the morning. There have been enough “PastaQueen battles the elements” entries. It’s about time for a “PastaQueen goes to the YMCA with her shiny new MP3 player” entry.

There is a surprisingly large amount of people at the YMCA on a Saturday morning. I spent most of my life asleep on Saturday mornings, so it’s odd to think there are thousands of people around the world who get up that early on purpose to take part in painful exercise, and that I am now one of them. Today the schedule called for [...]

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I need to start running with electromagnets strapped to my legs. Then when my MP3 player’s battery dies after 37 minutes, with 23 minutes of running left, I can power it myself. I’ll have lightning thighs instead of thunder thighs!

Today my half-marathon training group ran for 60 minutes. I have only run for that long once before. It was a Sunday in September. I ran 5 miles and I developed Achilles tendonitis shortly thereafter because I had increased my mileage too rapidly. Sixty minutes. The cast of Law and Order can investigate a crime, arrest a perp, and send him to jail in that time with an extra 16 minutes left dedicated to selling you erectile dysfunction pills. It’s a long time. It’s a long run. Looking at it coming up on the calendar freaked me out a little.

The only thing that freaked me out more was seeing my 10K run coming up in two weeks. Since my 5K and 10K were a month apart, I figured I had 4 weeks between them to prepare, [...]

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