2 Marathon PR's in 1 Week

This past Sunday I participated in my first full marathon. More details on that to follow, but first I want to commandeer the photos my mom took from her camera. Trust me, there are some great action shots that are going to show just how dorky I was during this whole adventure.

Yesterday morning I woke up to find this in my inbox:

My first thought was, gee, the course did feel a little long.

I was timing myself with my Nike+ chip that syncs to the watch. I know that a marathon course is calculated by the runner taking all of the shortest trips around corners, and if you are on the outside of a turn you are going to add on distance.

So at that point I just figured that I took all of the outside turns a little wide. I did not even think about the course being mislabeled.

And thus I learned that my original PR (since I had never run a full marathon before) of 04:54:58 was now slashed and changed to 04:53:18.

I PR'ed for a marathon twice in three days!

And now I will do a little victory dance, because that must mean I am pretty much a superhuman. Along with about 8000 other participants, but who's counting?

Weather Control Center

Every day for the least two weeks I have religiously been checking the weather channel to see what the forecast would be for my marathon this weekend. With the extremely rainy and cold spring so far, my expectations were low.

At this point, I am fairly certain the forecasters are playing tricks on me though since every morning the little weather ticker moves from partly cloudy, to showers, to hold your hats your going to blow over winds, back to sunny.

I don't ask for much, but today I am asking for at least a reprieve on the rain for about five hours on Sunday morning. Maybe six, who knows how long it is going to take to finish this thing. Then the skies can go back to their normal dreary self.

Kay? Thanks!

In other news, after taking a massive blog hiatus, I have finally picked my February giveaway. Sorry! And in this case, it pays to be first, because Random.org came up with:

Which means the winner of the handcrafted Peridot Glass Earrings is:

Congrats Tonyne, you are a winner! Shoot me an email at amadia.clark (at) gmail (dot) com with your shipping address and these will be off to you shortly.

And the correct answer is: a little bit of (A) and (B). A couple gathered around my office for a moment, and then one asked me for help on a client report. She was probably too nervous to call me out on my sporadic behavior. The other just asked if I planned on joining her at lunch later.

I think that speaks volumes about how used to my antics my office mates have become.

Peridot Glass Earrings Giveaway

Could I get away with doing this in my office?

I am going to give it a try and see what happens. These are my speculations as to possible outcomes:

1. Coworkers walk by and ignore me. Nothing I do shocks them anymore.
2. A crowd gathers around my office and they begin to take bets on how long it takes before I fall on my derriere. This is a possibility since my chair has wheels, and the one she is using is stationary.
   
3. My boss runs in and restrains me assuming that I am having a breakdown.
4. Create your own--Bonus entry for creative answers!
   

I'm pretty poor right now, my niece snatched my last $5 when I drove her to youth group last night. But I can make stuff, so you could win a pair of handmade Peridot Glass earrings:

Selling it like Bob Barker, these little beauties are made from 10mm faceted round opaque peridot glass beads suspended on kidney bronze wire. Simple and pretty, and oh--I made them. Wear some Clarkie love.

So here are the rules because I feel like dishing them out like a schoolmarm. You can do one or more of the following:

• One entry for leaving a comment with how you think my office mates will react.
• Bonus entry for coming up with something creative that makes me laugh.
• One entry for tweeting about it. Something like: Check out @Clarkie_Runs fanTABulous #giveaway for some rockin' handmade earrings http://tinyurl.com/4v63ca6
• One entry for following my blog or linking my giveaway from your blog. Leave a note in the comment section. I'm not above buying your love.
  

I'm good with spreadsheets, so I can keep track of the list. Entries will be closed on 2/4/2011 at noon CST and picked via Random.org.

My goal is for six entries (Fingers crossed!) Anything more than that is totally a bonus. Sorry guys, next time I will think of something more masculine. Unless you like wearing dangle earrings, and I'm totally cool with that too.