what a day

The most amazing things happened yesterday

1.  I ran in the Clarendon Days 5k and 10k, and received my favorite race shirt I've ever gotten.
2.  Joe showed up after the races with Dr. Pepper AND Gatorade!  My two favorite post-race drinks.
3.  I ate the most delicious brunch buffet.  I usually am not a fan of buffets, but they had biscuits and gravy, so I went for it.  They are a very close second to Loveless Cafe's biscuits and gravy.  Definitely the best I've had in DC so far.
4.  I found out that I have $150 of credit at the bike store from my last bike purchase!  Yessss!!!
5.  I got a perfect score on my latest pathophysiology practice test.  Hopefully the same thing will happen on the real test tomorrow.

diva women's half marathon race review

Well, this was without a doubt the worst race ever.  I am still annoyed by it, and it's been a whole week.

On Saturday morning, we left Erica's house at 5:45 so that we could make the hour-long drive out to Leesburg.  We were told that we had to be in the parking lot by 7:15, so we should have been there in plenty of time.  Unfortunately, the race coordinators failed to notice that there was only one road to the winery where the race started, and that road was exactly one lane.  The last 7 miles of our drive took an hour and a half, and we didn't park until 8:30.  (The race was supposed to start at 7:30.  Needless to say, it did not start on time.)  Nevertheless, we smiled and posed because everybody knows that whether or not it's going to be a good race, the least you can do is look good in pictures. (Can you tell that this is my favorite running tank?)

The half marathon finally started at 9:00.  I was still in line for the porta-potties, so I didn't start until 9:10.  The race was on a small, gravel country road, which was gorgeous, but also meant that if two people wanted to run next to each other, there wasn't enough room to pass.  I spent the first 4 miles of the race weaving around people or walking behind large groups trying to find an opening.  Kind of annoying.  At mile 5, I finally passed the 10-minute-mile pacer.

After about the halfway point, we finally got onto wider roads and I got into more of a groove.  This was, without a doubt, the hilliest race I have ever run.  The scenery was gorgeous, and one of the neighborhoods threw a big block party and all came out and cheered for us, which totally made my day.  

Finish time:  1:48.  I am pretty happy with this time, considering the hilliness of the course and my inability to actually run for the first few miles.  As soon as I crossed the finish line, I grabbed a handful of cookies (I was STARVING) and headed over to meet up with Erica and wait for Bethany to finish.

Look at how happy we were to be done!!!  

Now I am really excited for next week's back-to-back 5k/10k (after a 10 mile warmup).  Hopefully those races will run a little smoother than this one!

things I have learned in three weeks of nursing school

First and most importantly, I now know how to properly don and doff personal protective equipment.  (Doff means to take off...  Good thing I am getting such a good education and now know all these fancy new terms.)   I also know how to set up a sterile field.  This is pretty big stuff, I know.

In my abnormal psychology class, I sit behind a girl who has perfected the art of the messy bun.  When I wear my hair in a messy bun, it generally just looks like I have bad hygiene and haven't washed my hair in a week.  (Which maybe I haven't, but I don't want other people to know that...)  So I spent my last class staring at the back of her head and I realized that her secret is making TWO MESSY BUNS and intertwining them.  Don't worry, I was still taking notes and paying attention (the class is actually supremely interesting) but whenever there was a break, I definitely studied her hair just as thoroughly as I will study my notes.  Maybe one day I will do a tutorial so that other people can also have perfect messy buns.  Probably not, though, so don't get your hopes up.

It's a good thing I paid such close attention in abnormal psychology because I failed my first nursing school test before school even started.  I didn't cry, though, because it wasn't a real test, just a TB mask fitting test.  Hospitals make you get fitted for TB masks before you can start working, just in case you have a patient with TB.  They make you stick your head in a plastic bag and spray a bitter-tasting solution into it until you start to taste the bitterness.  I stuck my head in the bag, and they sprayed thirty squirts of the solution in, and I tasted nothing.  I was even breathing as hard as I could with my tongue sticking out, and still nothing.  Apparently this has never happened before because the lab techs had no idea what to do and just told me that I failed.  All that means is that if I happen to have a patient with TB (which is unlikely), I will have to wear a big fancy ET-type mask, which I think will be pretty cool.