Not Knowing Where We Land

Minnesota had always just been "another place on the map", a place full of people who must be crazy enough to live in the Arctic.  Moving here 3 years ago, I had no real connection to the state, and there was no way it could compete with the Land Shaped Like a Hand.  My, my, how wrong I was.

I can remember the first time I went for a run in Minnesota.  The previous weekend I had watched a friend run the Twin Cities Marathon.  I said to myself: "If Kelli can run a marathon, I can certainly find the motivation to run to Summit and back."  So, I ran to Summit, ran down Summit a bit, then turned around and went home.  Result: 2 miles.  The rest is history, I suppose.

I've really come to love Minnesota.  My days here, though, have become limited.  I've accepted a job offer with a major auto company, and will be moving back to my home state of Michigan.  The details are cloudy right now, but there will be some big changes.  Even though I ran for many years in Michigan, it was part of a team, and I know very little about races, or places to run outside of Harper Woods.  I'll be giving up some of my favorite races around here.  And I'll need a new blog title (Detroit Runner is taken).

Over the next few weeks, this blog will evolve into it's next incarnation—whatever that may be.  Thanks for reading.

Triathlete-ing Just Ain't For Me

That was short-lived.  :)

I suppose I could handle the gizmos.  I could probably handle the extra spandex.  With some effort, I could handle the mentality that it's the gear that makes you faster, not the training.  But I could never, ever, EVER, give up Roy.

BIG Changes

I've been a bit absent from blogging recently, but I hope you'll forgive me as I'm sharing some pretty monumental news here.  I've decided that this running thing isn't for me, so I've decided to become a...

Triathlete.

Yes, you heard me right—time to become a full-fledged multisport athlete and adopt all the characteristics of a triathlete lifestyle.  What's the triathlete lifestyle?  Here's a list to help you out:

1. Change the name of this blog.
2. Shave more.  Yup, instead of just my face, the legs and arms get a shave everyday too.
3. Instead of training harder to get faster, I'll just spend more money on stuff like bicycles and pointy helmets.
4. More spandex.  And by more spandex, I mean all spandex, all the time.
5. Adopting all the gadgets and gizmos to tell me all kinds of things I don't actually need to know: GPS watches, power meters, and heart rate monitors.
6. I'll start riding my bike indoors because riding outside is for wimps.
7. I will constantly concern myself with aerodynamics and weight, even considering ditching Roy for a newfangled bicycle made out of carbon fiber.

Here's an illustration of one of the changes (can you imagine how much cooler my Flintstone-stop would have been if my helmet were actually pointy???):

Sorry to all of you who came here for running thoughts and advice.  I'll only be able to devote 1/3 of my time to running thoughts now, and those thoughts will mostly be on how buying Newtons will improve my form by creating a forefoot strike.  If you still need more running thoughts, check out this resource.