so i skipped a few weeks, but here's the update. i spent the holiday with my family for two weeks, saw a lot of friends, ran through parts of newport news park that i never knew existed, the noland trail, and a long run at the yorktown battlefields. all of those runs made me so much more appreciative of the 757 area. i always had plenty of bad things to say about the area but it's about time i started seeing things i really enjoyed. we were blasted with a little over a foot of snow the day after christmas but my parents gave me some grippy things to put on my shoes for christmas so i could run through the icy roads without busting my ass. i went to richmond for new years eve and started the trek to cincinnati new years day. 9 hours through virginia, west virginia, and cincinnati wore me out! but the countryside was wonderful and there were so many times i wanted to stop and get out to explore an abandoned house. that's a pretty dangerous idea, i know, but exciting nonetheless. i stopped to get gas in west virginia at this tiny local convenient store with two verrry old pumps. i went inside to ask if they even worked because there was no advertising for gas outside. the woman rolled her eyes at me, which immediately made me feel like a spoiled brat for asking. but seriously, these pumps were the dialog kind where the numbers flip.
anyhow, so now i'm in cincinnati and it's hump day; midway through my first week. i have been trying to make it through the hills with each run but they are quick to beat me up. i went to a running store yesterday and joined their training team for a marathon that i'm not going to run but i needed a way to meet people more than anything. the guy that was in charge of it all was pretty much an asshole and charged me $30 dollars to join them for 2 months of training in which i don't receive any of their stupid perks: a tshirt, hat, socks, and a store discount. so what the hell am i paying for? his greediness, that's what. i don't know how to deal with people that are unbelievably unpleasant so after going back and forth with him, i had to go out to my car, get a little upset, go get gas, come back, and finally agree to sign up. looking at the training schedule, their long runs are no where near what i'm doing now. the guy says there is a smaller boston training group that does their own thing so, by god, they better be there and they better as hell be doing something more similar to my long runs, and not half the distance like the other group. the first meeting is tonight and since the temperature is guaranteed to be at least 10 degrees warmer at night than in the morning, i think i may end up running at night from now on anyhow. this morning it was 18 degrees so that quickly convinced me not to head out there and just wait to meet with the group later.
i would love to start bitching about how disappointed my clinical here has made me so far but i'm trying not to dig this ditch of despair so early in the game. i'm here for 2 months so i might as well at least pretend i like it so it goes by fast. i'm still getting the feel for what the culture is here. cincinnati is so spread out and each exit looks different from the next. at least i haven't been in an area where i felt unsafe. i think living in richmond has prepared me for the slightly rougher areas anyhow. i do know one thing, i would have been able to relate to pretty much everyone here so much more here if i had followed football. but i like other things and they are just going to have to deal with it! everywhere i go, people are talking about and watching football. i don't get it. i try to explain to them that vcu nor richmond have football teams so i don't really care about football and they just kind of make this awkward look on their face like they're not sure what to talk to me about in that case. there IS a world outside of the nfl and it's a hell of a lot more interesting.
the people i'm staying with are wonderful hosts and have been extremely helpful. they have this cute little dog named kona who is probably going to be my lifesaver here. he is always so happy and get so excited when he sees me so at least i feel like i'm getting love from someone... even if it is small and fluffy.
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