13.1 Thoughts

Someone que the Chariots of Fire soundtrack because this girl is officially a half marathoner! With no further ado, I present to you my 13.1 thoughts on the matter.

1- Dr. Scholl's Blister Protector, you saved my life and for that I will be eternally greatful.

2- I think God has a sense of humor. How else would you explain Outkast's song Bombs Over Baghdad coming up on my iPod just as I was running past a group of men dressed in traditional Arab attire? I specifally chuckeled when the lyrics "Bob your head, rag top," started blaring in my ear.

3- More people should dress up in costume to run races. A special shout out to Fred Flinstone who provided me with some much needed comic releif as he sprinted by me at mile 8.

4- Rock and Roll Half Marathons have entertainment in the form of crazy bands at every mile of the course. But who needs cool bands when you have creepy Indian men, complete with their video recording cell phones, to cheer us all on! And by us, I mean only the girls.

5- I cheated. I walked for approximently 11 minutes of the race. Following the Jeff Galoway run/walk method, I rotated between running for 4 minutes and 30 seconds and walking for 30 seconds. I was able to consistantly stay with the group who was also running about a 9:45 mile. I'm a big advocate of walk breaks!

6- Saucony Hurricane 14's...it's been real yo. Asics Gel Kayano's...I'm sorry I ever strayed!


7-  In my humble opinion, the invention of Body Glide, was far more genius than anything Bill Whatchamacallit or McSomething Jobs ever created!

8- I'm fairly certain the Kenyans completed the entire race before I got to mile one.

9- In the words of Forest Gump, "I just felt like running!"

10- My very carefully calculated and planned race day diet consisted of one sourdough roll, a spinach omelet inside a wrap, two original glazed Krispy Kreme donuts, a bag of Skittles, one slice of carrot cake, and an entire pepporoni and mushroom pizza courtasy of my beloved 800-PIZZA. Being able to eat all of this and know that I'll actually burn it all off tomorrow is the real reason I love running!

11- The night before the race, I was trying to be all deep and write my favorite scripture "Isaiah 41:10" on the bottom of my shoe. I wrote it on one shoe, only to discover that I had written it backwards. So I reattempted on shoe number two....and spelled it wrong. 

12-Technology is cool, but my family is even cooler! They were able to see me cross the finish line from thousands of miles away by watching the live web cam!

13- I didn't know another single soul at the race. Regardless, I did a victory dance at the finish line. Despite the warm temperatures, I was apparently a little chilly on the right side...

 

 

13.1- Check out the bling, baby! And the extreme red face syndrome I'm working with.

 

Official Chip Time 2:05:02

 



 

 

Twas The Night Before Valentine's

So true life confessional time: I just spent the last hour of my life cleaning my apartment with a Valentine's Day play list, courtesy of YouTube, blaring in the background. I'll try to keep this post as non mushy as possible, but I Can't Help Falling In Love With You  it if my musical choices From This Moment On  the past hour have rubbed off on me a bit, and effects The Way You Look I write Tonight.

This past week I was supposed to go to the one of the hottest tourist destinations on the planet, Dhaka, Bangladesh! Never heard of it? It's up-and-coming (if there were a font to use specifically when I was being sarcastic, I would have just used it). Luckily, the Flight Gods were looking out for me, and  I received a last minute schedule change and flew, instead, to Johannesburg, South Africa!

My cousin spent several years living in South Africa, and fell in love with the country. She liked it so much, in fact, that when she returned to the U.S. she brought back a souvenir in the form of a husband! Over the past few years my family has come to know and love my cousin's husband, Marco, and his family, and have learned a lot about South Africa and it's culture. Naturally, it has been one of the countries I was most looking forward to visiting!

With most every experience in life, you have expectation when entering into a new situation. In my mind, South Africa was hardly even a part of Africa. I have been to Uganda and Ghana and seen the extreme poverty that exists in these African countries, but knowing that most South Africans I am familiar with are very westernized, I assumed that the country itself was completely westernized as well. I was extremely surprised to see, at least in Johannesburg, that people living in third world and first world conditions literally share this city.

We stayed in the downtown area, in a very posh hotel, and went out as a crew to a very upscale area for an awesome steak dinner the first night we arrived. This was the side of South Africa I was expecting. The next morning a group of us ventured off with a tour guide to see the Johannesburg Lion Park. As we drove out of the downtown area I was amazed to see that beautiful subdivisions, and villages filled with shacks existed only blocks away from one another. It was very interesting to see, and it was quite different than any other city I've ever been to before.

Jo'Burg Hotel Room

The country itself was gorgeous, and after being trapped in the sandpit for nearly two weeks, I thought all of the greenery was exceptionally beautiful! I had an amazing time at the Lion Park, and was able to get way closer to some species than I had ever hoped or even wanted! I was all about keeping my distance from the lions. Baby lions are still lions in my book!

Notice my strategic placement near the wall....

 

Before we left for the Lion Park, I squeezed in a four mile run in at the hotel gym, and following the Lion Park, worked an eight hour flight back to Dubai, so when the plane touched down I was exhausted! I spent the next 24 hours in my signature after a flight look: leopard pajama pants, a large t-shirt with the slogan God Made Policemen So Firefighters Could Have Heroes printed across my chest, coke bottle glasses, and my long hair caked in 10 hour old hair sprayed tied messily on top my head. Needless to say, I didn't leave my apartment. I also have officially entered into my February mope. Seriously, besides a few awesome people being born in this month, what good ever happens in February?! Thankfully, God only made this stupid month with 28 days, and only once every four years they (I don't know who they are), try to be funny and throw in an extra day to the suckiest month of the year, and well, you can ask my mom how well that worked out last year! Oh wait, that's right, YOU CAN'T.....

Dying on Leap Day is for fools, I tell you, FOOLS!

I'm Talking About You, Gail Schutz!

Rant over.

Anyways, I woke up yesterday, and thought, "Schutz, get your shit together," and ended up having a great day! Attitude really is everything. Who woulda thunk it!? I spent the day at a resort pool with my friend Paula, and went with another group of friends last night for dinner and to see Dralion by Cirque Du Soleil! The show was absolutely amazing! After the show, one of the producers saw me striking this pose, and offered me a lead part, on the spot. I obviously had to decline, because I'm really busy and stuff, but I was flattered (again, where's that font when I need it).

Have a great week and enjoy celebrating Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Valentine's Day, and Kelsey's First Half Marathon Day!


 

Victory All Around

Greetings Friends and Foes!

Today is a bit of a celebratory day in the book of Kelsey Schutz as I’ve not only successfully completed my certification exams for work, but I also completed my final long training run my half marathon preparation. Waahoo!

I’m sure most people laugh at the thought of flight attendant training being tough, I mean how hard is it to ask if someone if they would prefer chicken or beef, right? However, the safety and emergency procedure’s training and well as the general medical training we are tested on is very in depth and detailed. Most of my colleagues began studying the exact locations of the fire extinguishers, signs and symptoms of a heart attack, and fire fighting protocols weeks before their recertification exams. Being the procrastinator that I am, I begun studying the day before. Despite by minimal effort, I still managed to skim by, and am happy to announce that I am once again legal to hold people’s lives in my hands at 30,000 feet above the earth. Mwahahaha

To celebrate my flight attendant victory, I woke up at the butt crack of dawn, drank my black coffee, ate my banana and peanut butter pita wrap, read everyone’s facebook rants concerning the Superbowl (no such showings on Arab TV), through on my running clothes, and hailed a cab to the Dubai Marina to run my final pre race 12 miler.

I’ve kept a log of my training runs, and it’s fun to not only look back at how far I’ve come in terms of conditioning, but also where all I have actually run. I’ve ran on treadmills in Milan (Italy), Accra (Africa), and Dallas (Texas). I’ve ran on trails in Zurich (Switzerland), along the ocean in Los Angeles, through parks in Dubai with fellow joggers wearing their abayas, and, one of my personal favorites, down the mean streets of White Hall, Illinois!

Al Barsha Pond Park (Dubai)

While I usually run on a padded track at a park near my apartment, I decided that for today I might die from physically running 12 miles, so why up my chances of death from boredom after running the same 1.5 mile loop for two hours? Running on the roads in Dubai and hoping you won't get hit by a car, is pretty much the equivalent of walking through East St. Louis with a sign on your back reading "I HAVE CASH" and hoping to not get robbed. The drivers here are insane, therefore running along the roads is out!

The Dubai Marina has a great walkway surrounding the water that is filled with cool cafes the entire way around, and is very jogger friendly. It is even complete with a bridge that overlooks the sea. Running with a view of the ocean is always a bonus! The jogging path even had tons of motivational signs (sponsored by Reebok), and kilometer markers, which is great if you understand the Metric System....

Dubai Marina

I started my run a little after 7:00, and 1 hour and 56 minutes later I had completed 12 miles. The entire run actually went really well, but I was also completely ok that it was over! Since the entire run burnt a few calories, or a hundred, I decided I could treat myself, and I devoured a ginormous mushroom omelet and toast, and didn't feel even slightly guilty about it!

 And now for more exciting news, I'm off to the grocery store. I've been alternating between brussel sprouts and frozen pizzas for the last 4 nights of dinner. Unfortunately, I'm not joking.

Have a great week!