Running and then blogging about it
Relay 4

One Day to HTC

By Colleen @colleenalicia · On August 27, 2010

Before every big cross-country meet in high school, my team would go to the Old Spaghetti Factory and eat ridiculous amounts of food. It’s true that carb loading (maybe) helps before endurance events. Like endurance events lasting at least two hours. It’s not really necessary for events in the twenty minute range, but that never stopped us. We were a boisterous crowd though, so these dinners were more of an excuse to play the penis game in family establishments, and to dare each other to eat giant globs of butter.

Portland to Coast (the high school version of Hood to Coast) was probably the one athletic event we did in high school that even slightly validated pre-race carb loading. This is where being in Van 2 is great, because while Van 1 is starting the relay and/or sitting in the van, we got to go over to OSF, which was conveniently located right next to the PTC starting line, and eat food. Being in Van 1 has advantages later of course – like they get to have their long break approximately between 2 and 6 AM, which is a time that you might actually want to sleep during. Van 2 always got the first break around 9 PM, which I find is less conducive to fitting in any sleep. Blah blah blah.

What I’m really getting at here, is that the Hood to Coast is tomorrow, and I didn’t have a huge pre-race spaghetti dinner, and now I’m hungry.

I also finally bought a printer for my new place, and it comes with a scanner so I can show you an actual picture of my high school Portland to Coast team that isn’t a Christmas picture with Kathayoon crossed out. Team Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking:


Now that I’ve finally taken care of that, I can move on to what’s really important: how much everyone loves my blog. I’m sure I mentioned a while back how I monetized my blog, meaning I have ads up and can make large amounts of money off of having them. In theory. It turns out that this has made me no money at all, but it has allowed me to see how many hits I get on my page. Last week it reached over 2,000!

I can’t really tell you what time span this is from, I’m thinking sometime in March. Maybe. And a lot of those hits might be from the same people, but I prefer to imagine that 2,000 people have looked at my blog one time each. I guess maybe 1,000 people looking at it twice is better, because that means that people like it enough to come back for a second go. We’ll go with that theory. My question is, who are these 1,000 people looking at my blog? Only about five people comment ever, which is weird because I write about such controversial and thought-provoking topics. This must mean that I have 995 readers that are so blown away by my innovative ideas that they lose the majority of their motor skills, and are no longer able to type in the word verification required to leave a comment. That’s too bad, but at the same time it keeps the mystery alive – the mystery being who these 1,000 people are, of course.

Goodnight, 1,000 friends, I have to go rest up for my run (but mostly I’m late for the new Jersey Shore).

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Colleen

I must confess, I started running at a very early age. Sadly, my runs were unblogumented until around age 23, so you'll have to use your imagination for all the runs I went on before that. Running has always been my go-to sport, but sadly, I spend a good amount of my time with chronic injuries. I have learned to entertain myself athletically with other pursuits such as kettlebell, yoga, and bikini competitions, when I can't run. In addition to my unique talent for working out and then blogging about it, I am an amateur puppy stylist and photographer, television enthusiast, and I'm usually CPR/AED certified, but I would still prefer if you didn't pass out when we're together.

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4 Comments

  • Winston says: August 30, 2010 at 9:18 pm

    Good post Colleen! How did your legs go? Which leg did you end up taking? The whole carbo loading thing for HTC does help, but not like it helps for the marathon. If anything, I say that it gets you through that midnight second leg. Anyway, we use to do the same thing in HS with the Olive Garden and it was always a good time. Thanks for bringing up good memories and I hope your run went well!

    Reply
  • Jenny says: August 18, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Your comment comment made me laugh. I came here to get some tips for H2C. Turns out you have none for a first time long distance middle aged woman like me. But that’s okay, you made me laugh and I won’t be shy about getting in line first at the bathroom, maybe even if it’s not an emergency. AND I’m on a really fast team. So great. 🙂 See…maybe you don’t want comments.

    Reply
  • Jenny says: August 18, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Especially to blogs you wrote four years ago. HA! Just noticed that!

    Reply
    • Colleen says: August 19, 2014 at 12:13 am

      Haha – somehow you ended up replying to one of my most recent posts on a very old H2C post. I love comments no matter where they end up. For some actual advice for someone like you… well I maintain that the not taking too much ibuprofen thing is essential if you have a sensitive stomach, that can ruin the whole thing. But if that’s not a concern, my second attempt at advice for you would be: 1) take it super easy on the first leg, no matter how good you feel, 2) foam roll / tennis ball roll / make someone massage you between legs, and 3) make sure you bring a comfy pillow for the van or sleeping outside. Good luck!!

      Reply

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    About Me

    I’m Colleen. I started this blog when I was 23 years old and training for my first marathon. I was single, semi-employed, generally directionless in life, and had a lot of free time on my hands. I have a lot less free time now, but I still love to come here and dump my rambling, unedited thoughts after a workout or race once in a while.

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