Things That Make You Fat, and Another Contest!

I’ve had a lot of things to say about running lately, but somehow I haven’t had the time to tell you about all of them.  I’ll try to remember them all for you, but no promises.  I’ll start with one that’s really easy to remember, because I just thought to say it a moment ago.  Even easier, it’s not a thing I personally have to tell you, just an article from MSNBC.com to pass on.  It’s called, “Snooping On People is Making You Fat.”  You don’t actually have to read it, I’ll summarize it for you here: snooping is stressful, stressful things make you fat, therefore, snooping makes you fat.  Then it talks some about how if you need to snoop you have trust issues, and you should get therapy.  After reading this, my question is, who is writing this stuff?  Once you’re in with MSNBC.com, are you allowed to write entire articles inspired by idle observations?  It’s clear that everyone else thinks it’s a stupid article too, because at the end the author invites people to give their own input about their snooping/getting fat habits on the facebook page, and only one person did it.  Her name is Valerie Gunter, and she wrote:

Its crazy how people snoop. Im guilty. Ive done it but as to y ive done it idk. Im not one of the people thats obsessed about. I stop myself and think. Wht am i doing. Lol

I may not have such unique insight as Valerie here, but I will list a few more things that make you fat and then talk about vaguely relevant things:

Things That Make You Fat, or How to Not Get the Ultimate Hard Body

1. Sleep-Related Eating Disorders
2. Pregnancy
3. Chicken Pot Pie

This list is not all-inclusive, but it’s close.  I’ve been pretty good about avoiding numbers 1 and 2, but I have had a few chicken pot pies in my lifetime, which explains why I haven’t achieved the ultimate hard body yet.  I am still working on it though, in case you weren’t sure, and I have gotten slightly closer.

My own personal method of gauging how ultimate-hard my body has gotten, is by how fast my race times are.  Up until last week, my fastest 5k in eight years (or something), was around 21:30.  On Sunday the 4th I did the Jingle Bell Run in downtown Portland, and ran a 21:02, which is less than 30 seconds away from my all-time PR!  I’m convinced that if I had known how close I was to 21, I would have run it faster.  It’s okay though, I have a good feeling that I’ll be getting down to PR time pretty soon, so I’m not going to worry about not breaking 21.

Speaking of breaking PRs… at the beginning of this year I mentioned I would be trying to get my mile time down.  I did a beginning of the year mile, and ran in 6:11.  This mile also involved a contest to see who could guess my time, which Vincent Rupp won, but he never gave me his address so he never got his prize.  That’s sad.  But because I haven’t even given out one prize this year, I’m going to open the contest back up and see who can come closest to predicting my mile again, now at the end of the year!  I expect that the competition might be fiercer, now that I have a better idea of my abilities (you can too, if you read through all of my blog entries and make educated guesses based on my race times).

So don’t be shy, guess my mile time!  To be ran by the end of 2011 at some point… and not for at least another week.  One more hint: I’m probably going to run with a pacer, which usually increases my chances of running faster.  Good luck with your guesses, and remember not to snoop!