Welcome

"The timorous may stay at home."
~ Murphy v. Steeplechase Amusement Co., 250 N.Y. 479, 483 (N.Y. 1929)



Friday, January 20, 2012

Mission: Unknown

If you looked up the definition of "creature of habit," I would be highly surprised if there wasn't a picture of me sitting there. My alarm goes off at 4:22 a.m. every morning, I hit the gym, I go to work, I come home, I eat, I sleep.

Repeat ad infinitum

If you asked my parents how I handled change or the unknown growing up, they would answer: "Simple. She doesn't." I admit--you threw me off my routine, and I would kick and scream. But at some point, during some strange event of maturation, I began to crave the unknown. I began to want to take risks. Perhaps years of routine have finally pushed me over the edge...

Friday, January 13, 2012

Volenti non fit injuria


To the consenting [willing], no injury is done. In the law, the Latin  maxim of "volenti non fit injuria" is typically used as a defense in a tort action--voluntary assumption of the risk.  To most of us, it's what we so lovingly know as the Death Waiver.

Lately, however, I've realized that this maxim applies with equal weight to the abuse I inflict upon my body: when I injure myself doing stupid things, I have no one to blame but myself. I have only become painfully aware of this in the last year, and especially in the few months leading up to, and post, World's Toughest Mudder.

Let's take inventory:

Sunday, January 8, 2012

On Girl Crushes and the Interwebs

A tangential conversation that took place between my girlfriend and I a few weeks before WTM:

GF: "So how are you getting out there?"
Me: "We're driving. 12 hours or so."
GF: "We? Who are you driving with?
Me: "Two guys also racing."
GF: "Have you met this guys?"
Me: "um, I met one at TM Wisconsin." (lie. I haven't met either.)
GF: "So you are driving to New Jersey with two strange men? Please don't tell me you met them on Facebook. Where are you staying?"
Me: "In a house on the Jersey shore with like 15 other racers."
GF: "Have you met this people?"
Me: "Some" (also a lie)
GF: "You are going to end up raped and murdered in a ditch."

(Little did she know that I carried a switchblade in my bra the entire way there. Smart girls always come prepared.)


Monday, January 2, 2012

Adventures in Urban Training: Hills

I do love my view
I live in the middle of a concrete jungle. Picture downtown Chicago, and insert me right there. I live on the 15th floor of a 24-story condo building, and I walk a mile to work to my office on the 32nd floor of a 46-story building.

I am, by definition, a city girl.

Which totally and utterly sucks for training for these types of races.