why it is good to live in texas

a month or two ago a friend of mine offered me some sage advice: stop evaluating your days as good or bad on your ultimate scale of good or bad and stop comparing the days to days in other places. start evaluating them on a texas scale he advised. i feel that as i have become a glass-is-less-than-half-full person since coming to texas my new year's resolution is to be more positive (and as a consequence, mind my friend's advice).

so onto today's positive thought about texas. i got out of work today and it was 81 degrees. yep, that's right, 81. it was awesome. i was so warm, and it was fantastic. much better than the 18 degree nyc weather.

and now for something completely different. my race went pretty well this past weekend. i was the 4th female overall (actually i think i might have been 5th, but one of the women was over 40 so she got a master's award), and finished in just under 6 hours. the first 10 miles were rough--up and down hills. i like running up hills, but coming back down hills on crappy trails with lots of crumbling rock is not my idea of a good time. the last 20 miles were pretty awesome because i actually got to run. but back to the first 10 miles...as i was struggling down the hills and getting passed by everyone i started thinking about various races i'd done. people told me that ironman would be an emotional roller coaster. i really only remember it being 12+ hours of bliss. ultramarathons, on the other hand, seem to be able to elicit the roller coaster effect. for all intents and purposes, i was crying in the first 5 miles of this race, had blood all over my legs (from the brush scraping me) and it is a real blow to the ego to see large men blowing past you on the downhills. but the terrain evened out a little bit, and there were rolling hills...and all of a sudden, i was the only one running. i started passing people left and right...and then the sun came out...and then i tripped over a rock and faceplanted in the middle of the trail. overall, it was a good experience. i'm not sure if i'll do that specific race again, but it might be fun. i suppose i have to keep doing them now though to figure out what i'm made of...it's those dark moments in the middle of the race where you really don't want to be there but you know you can't quit that you learn something about yourself. i'm not sure it's good to keep going after that, but i feel that i come out a stronger person in the end.