Thursday, April 16, 2015

Ad hoc-ing

Top of the mornin' to y'all! I was up late last night watching the Blackhawks' come-from-behind, double-overtime victory over the Predators. I won't kid you, I was a little delirious afterwards. Clearly I need to rebuild my hockey fan endurance for watching these 4- or 5-hour playoff games. =D


That being said, the timing couldn't be more perfect for me pump out some rambles and link up with Amanda's Thinking Out Loud Thursdays!


Word Puzzles
On Tuesday night, Adam and I were looking through his high school senior yearbook (he went to Mount Lebanon High School in Pittsburgh).

Check out his yearbook's cover design:


The theme is MTV, with a clever conversion to MTL - which stands for Mt. Lebanon. So ingenious!

Adam and I were flipping through the pages, admiring all the mullets and mall-chick hair. There were a lot of music quotes strewn amidst the pictures, to which Adam commented, "I wonder who gets to pick those out every year?" I mentioned that I thought the altered MTV logo was a neat take-off on the Mt. Lebanon letters.

He looked at me quizzically and said, "Is it?"

I said, "Yeah!" and reiterated the symbolism.

Adam looked very surprised. He said, "You know, in all of the years I've had this yearbook, this is the first time I have ever noticed that."

WHAT?!?!? I thought he was joking. He wasn't.

To put this into context, this yearbook was published 24 years ago. So it has taken Adam 24 years to understand the meaning behind his yearbook's logo and theme.

It's a good thing I'm here to help decipher!!! =D

Spirited
I finally watched Spirit of the Marathon this past weekend. WOW. What an amazing documentary with so many contrasts. As expected, it was very emotional for me to see the personal stories and journeys unfold. The features and scenes on Kenya were very eye-opening, too.


On a side note, it was interesting to see how much has changed since the movie was filmed in 2005. Back then, the marathoners had to return their timing chips after crossing the finish line. There wasn't any security at the starting corrals. Nobody wore compression socks or any fancy gear that I could see. Everyone wore white running shoes.

It's too bad the film didn't get into specifics regarding the training plans. It would have been cool to see how endurance training philosophies have evolved over the past decade. (Does anyone have any thoughts on that?)

Shoegate
Speaking of changing running shoes, remember when I mentioned the new shoes I was considering?!?

Say hello to the two newest additions to my running shoe collection!

L: the Saucony Ride 7
R: the Mizuno Wave Rider 18

I wasn't originally planning on buying two new pairs at the same time. Really, I wasn't. But Amazon had an amazing one-day sale on the Mizunos, and Running Warehouse was running a great promotion on the Sauconys. I couldn't resist.

Can't wait to start working the newbies into the rotation!

Ooopsie
Speaking of that Running Warehouse promotion - it is supposed to be good for a $20 discount off of a future Saucony purchase of $50 or more. However, in reading the gift card's fine print, it looks like somebody goofed! Check it out:


I wonder what Running Warehouse would do if I actually wanted to apply my Saucony gift card to a Mizuno purchase? Technically, they would have to honor it, right?!?

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Allright, I think that's enough nonsense for now. Happy Thursday to all! Tell me what plans you have for the upcoming weekend!?!?

20 comments:

  1. YAY! The Hawks NEEDED to beat the Predators! So happy they did! When I looked at the year book I thought it WAS the MTV logo. Missed the L entirely. So funny he didn't get it until now.

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    1. YES!!! I was so happy and so relieved when they won. My idea of the biggest torture to a hockey fan is staying up until all hours of the night watching a game that goes into ridiculous overtime, only for your team to not pull through. These overtime games are a true test of will!

      LOL on the MTV logo. I definitely wouldn't expect someone that wasn't familiar with Mt. Lebanon High School to pick up on it! But for an alum... that's a different story. =D

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  2. That's definitely an ingenious yearbook cover! And I honestly thought it -was- MTV until you mentioned it lol. I should go back and try to find some of my old yearbooks... I can't even remember what I wrote in my senior year!

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    1. Isn't it a clever word play? I definitely wouldn't expect someone that wasn't familiar with Mt. Lebanon High School to pick up on it! But for an alum... that's a different story. =D

      Oh god, the old yearbooks! I am almost scared to go back and look at mine for fear of how dorky my own pictures and writing will now seem! Isn't it amazing how much things change over time!?!?

      Thanks again for hosting Thinking Out Loud - I really, really love this link-up!!!

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  3. I read this post and all I could do is laugh and say "BOYS!". They are sometimes so oblivious to things it is just funny.

    I'm running the Minneapolis Hot Chocolate this weekend!! Considering I haven't been running regularly since last summer, and my last actual run was at the tri in Feb, I'm sure it's not going to be pretty. But I'm looking forward to it none the less!

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    1. Oblivious indeed! It makes me consider what other things might be obvious to me, but that didn't register for Adam. Ooooh, the mystery unravels!!!

      Ooooh, Hot Chocolate! Have a GREAT race! I am very seriously thinking about running Hot Chocolate in Chicago, so I can't wait to hear what you think. You're going to get one of those sweet chocolate-themed medals, too. Rock on!!! (And I don't think that many folks go for PRs at a chocolate-themed race, either, so all the more reason to just let loose and enjoy yourself!!!)

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  4. That is hysterical that Adam never noticed that!! Now I wonder if I missed something on one of my yearbook covers.

    I remember getting the yearbook every year and going through every single page to see if I was on it and see if they missed adding something to the index. Maybe I should have been on the yearbook committee.....

    By the way, I don't know if you saw, but Leah, one of the runners featured in Spirit of the Marathon, passed away earlier this year. There's currently a fundraiser to try and create a college fund for her daughter: http://www.youcaring.com/tuition-fundraiser/leah-caill-memorial-for-her-daughter-addie/317061

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    1. LOL, as apprehensive as I am about reliving my high school dorkiness in my yearbook, I should go back and check mine out, too. Although, my school's yearbook staff wasn't nearly as creative as Adam's school's staff, so I probably didn't miss anything. I think you would have been fantastic on the yearbook committee! You have such great attention to detail, write well, and take fantastic pictures. Incidentally - I was on the newspaper staff when I was in high school, and there was always a bit of a rivalry between the newspaper and the yearbook. =D

      Oh my goodness! I had not heard about Leah's passing. That is SO SAD. I'm glad I didn't know this when I was watching the movie, otherwise I would have REALLY turned on the waterworks every time I saw her scenes. Thanks for passing on the fundraiser webpage!!!

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  5. Ah, Spirit of the Marathon. The finish line scene makes me ugly cry every time. (I also always and only watch this movie on the Friday night before the Chicago Marathon, so there may be some nerves/taper crazies that play into that haha). I really love that movie, though, especially with the Chicago connection. I LOVE seeing what's changed and what hasn't! I think Chicago Marathon history is so interesting.

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    1. Don't worry, when I watched it last Sunday afternoon, I was crying uncontrollably even though I have no marathons on the schedule! It was just the raw emotion of reliving all the ups and downs of the experience, and fully relating to everything that was being shared. As runners, we all share that bond, and we always understand! I LOVED seeing all the Chicago scenes, too, plus realizing how prominent of an event the Chicago Marathon is in the running community. It'll be interesting to see how much things will change ten years from now compared to today, too!

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    2. I get emotional watching Spirit of the Marathon, and I've never even been to Chicago! It's the power of endurance running that I think touches us. We know how much work it takes, how rewarding it is, and I can't help but get choked up watching it!

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    3. Completely agree, Amy!!! I get choked up watching anyone in their moments of challenge and triumph while training for/running a marathon. We are all runners and we all understand SO MUCH what that feels like! And that enables us to share even more in the glory when we see others achieve their goals!!!

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  6. I pulled out my high school year books a few weeks ago to look for a teacher I was trying to describe to Mike. There was definitely something on the cover of one of them that I hadn't gotten the meaning of back then but made sense now... and of course "now" I can't remember what! But on the side note, the teacher was a NPH doppleganger.... and was somehow fully photographed in the two yearbooks I had!

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    1. So random and coincidental that you were just looking at your high school yearbook with Mike, too! A NPH doppelganger, eh? I would love to see those pictures of him for that reason alone! And once you remember what it was that had recently made sense, please do share - would love to hear about it!

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  7. Love that film. A few years ago, I bought a VHS copy of "The Terry Fox Story" and transferred it to DVD and have yet to watch it. I will probably need a box of tissues on standby when I watch that one! Anyway, your post made me remember the bad old days when after a race you had to wait for someone to cut the timing chip off of your shoe?! Think how many volunteers had to be on-hand for that job for a massive marathon? After a grueling race (of any distance) I simply wanted to sit down and not have to stand there while they removed it. Sometimes progress is good!:)

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    1. I've actually never heard of the Terry Fox Story - I'll have to look it up! Wasn't it awful when you had to stand in those chip-return lines? I can imagine that it wouldn't be the most fun job as a volunteer, either, to be faced with endless lines of tired, sweaty runners and their dirty shoes! I actually remember some races when they didn't even use chips - there would be volunteers at the finish line manually marking down the bib numbers as folks crossed. Can you imagine!?!?!? Progress really is a good thing!!!

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    2. I am glad you watched Spirit of the Marathon. Terry Fox was a Canadian with cancer that wanted to run through Canada (with one leg having been amputated) to raise money. I did not know that is a movie. I would like to watch it.

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    3. Oh wow! Very inspirational!!! Thanks for sharing the background - it sounds like it would be an amazing tearjerker of a story, too!! *getting out the box of Kleenex*

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  8. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Mizunos are cute. :-)

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    1. Thanks Zenaida! I saw a whole bunch of folks wearing them at the 10-miler yesterday. I was eyeing them up, thinking, "So that is how they look from an external perspective, eh?" =D

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