Monday, August 2, 2010

Oh, hey, August!

Oh, August. How did you arrive so quickly?

No, seriously. How?

Other than my GRE date on the 14th, August 2010 will be a pretty exciting month. On the 15th, I will celebrate my one year anniversary of living on my own and becoming a somewhat responsible adult. By “somewhat responsible,” I mean that I’ve mastered the important art of budgeting, haven’t destroyed my apartment, can cook for myself, and have made several strides in the realm of professional development....but, I still love the idea of drinking a Whiskey Sour out of a squirt bottle and dancing wildly in Adams Morgan. (Not that that happened recently or anything. I did not wake up on Sunday, as a close friend once described, “feeling like Satan took a crap in my brain,” and I certainly did not skip my 3-mile run.)

On the 24th, I will celebrate my first year of gainful employment.. Even though work was sometimes stressful, I genuinely love my job and what I do. My job has confirmed my desire to stay in the education policy field and has sparked a new interest in Out-of-School Time initiatives (after-school, especially). Once this damn GRE is over, I’ll be diligently working on applications to Vanderbilt, UPenn, University of Virginia, University of Maryland, Columbia, and (hissssssssssssssssssssssssss) Harvard for doctoral programs. Stanford is also on the list, but I’m not entirely sure I want to move out west. Basically, I’m having a love-affair with the Mid-Atlantic (sorry New England) and UPenn, UVA, and UMD are looking pretty good.

But, enough about that – let’s talk running.

Important Development: I’m officially registered for the Baltimore Running Festival. There’s no turning back now. Other than completing the marathon, I'm looking foward to exploring the neighborhoods in Baltimore. I realized that my only impressions of the city come from The Wire and through the window of the Acela train (whoo business trips!). I suppose that ought to change. If you're interested, you can check out the map here: http://www.thebaltimoremarathon.com/Assets/09+Balt+Merged+Map.pdf

Since August and September require that I kick things up a notch, I’ll be running Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday (long run), and Sunday (except when my long runs exceed 13 miles). This week, I have:

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 4 miles

Thursday: 4 miles

Saturday: 8 miles (goal: time 80 minutes or faster)

Sunday: 4 miles

Between running and preparing for the GRE, I say it's about time to kick ass and chew bubblegum. Unfortunately for training and the GRE, I'm all out of gum.

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