Half #3: check!

Saturday morning may have just been the most beautiful run I’ve ever been on. All 13.1 miles of it.

Let me back up. My dad and I got to Charlottesville on Friday afternoon, where, after checking into the hotel, our first stop was the DG house. I guess that’s what happens when you eat, sleep, and breathe Delta Gamma. After a few pictures with the house and the anchor, we went and picked up one of my best friends from high school, Shannon! It was really exciting to be able to see her and catch up, and she came with us to the expo and to carboload at a local Italian restaurant. Post pizza and gelato, we called it a night so that we could get enough sleep for our race.

With a 6:30 start time, we had the alarm set for 5:00.. which came a lot sooner than I thought it would… luckily, we were excited. See??:

Yes, I wore my Texas shorts. As a side note, it was the best decision I’ve ever made, because I got so many comments on them during the race! I think everyone thought I was from Texas.. Which I’m not, obviously, but it was still exciting to be able to provide some excitement for the Texans who were running – their faces lit up when they saw me!

Anyways, the Charlottesville Half was a really, REALLY beautiful race. While some of it winds through campus (which, side note, is my favorite college campus, and I have seen a lot of them), the majority of the race takes you through Virginia wine country. The majority of the course was rolling hills, which really didn’t feel too bad on my legs until the next morning. I kind of prefer rolling hills? I find the up/down a lot more interesting to race on than just flat ground. Here are a few of the views:

 

For a lot of the race, I ran behind a man who had the American flag (full sized, with flag pole) on his back. Talk about inspiration.

I finished a whole seven minutes faster than I ran my last half in May. I’m not super fast, and I didn’t finish anywhere near the top of the heap, but I’m pretty proud for shaving over 30 seconds off my average mile time. Hopefully for my next one, once I’m settled somewhere, I’ll be able to train exactly how I need to and will be able to cut even more time.

It was a beautiful run and really a perfect way to start my Saturday. I’m already excited to keep building my race calendar for summer, and I’ve got my training plan for the Marine Corps Marathon already in my planner – in pen!

Upcoming races

One of the things I love most about running is participating in races. I’ve run quite a few 5ks and two half marathons. In fact, running in races has been the thing I’ve missed most of this year on the road.

I like races because of the community they allow me to be a part of. The running community is non-judgmental, welcoming, and healthy. Being around the kind of people who get up early on a Saturday morning to do something good for their health are a special breed, and I like being one of them.

So it should be no surprise that I got really excited when I got this in my inbox earlier this week:

That’s right, I’ll be running the Charlottesville Half in just THREE DAYS! I’m preparing by drinking lots of water and making a killer playlist. And I’ve picked out my outfit – I will be running in my Texas shorts and a black running top. And obviously with my Spibelt. Get excited for pictures.

Yesterday, I also registered for another race, a two mile sand dune race on the Fourth of July.  I’ll be spending the holiday with some friends in the Outer Banks, and right now I know six of the nine participants who have signed up! I’m pretty excited for a new experience.

And, finally, I’ve got the big one coming up – my first full marathon. The Marine Corps Marathon sold out of 30,000 spots in under three hours, which is apparently a record for the US! Crazy. I’m not sure exactly what I’ve gotten myself into, but I do know that I’m excited and that I’m looking forward to starting my training.

So there’s my race schedule. It’s a little light right now, but once I get back home, I’m excited to sign up for a few more 5ks… And the Color Run that all my friends took part in in Atlanta is coming to DC in September! I’m super pumped for registration to open.

Anyone have any good recommendations for races in or near the DC area? They have to be after May 7th, but if you’ve got good ones, I’d love to hear about them!

Catching up: from Las Cruces to Lubbock

So here I am again, having promised you several blogs, playing catch up. Here’s what you’ve missed:

A week in Las Cruces, where I ate a lot of green chili (um, delicious), saw some sweet mountains, and got a view of Mexico! I met some wonderful women, was a guest speaker at Founders Day, and saw my first college baseball game of the season.

   

From there, I headed to Sarasota, Florida to watch the Orioles in Spring Training. This was my first Spring Training experience, but my dad and I have already decided that we’re going to make it a regular thing. We got to see the Orioles tie with the Red Sox and beat the Yankees! Plus, I recognized some of the rookies from working with Georgia Baseball, which is always exciting. Can you believe opening day is so soon?!

 

 

And then, I made my way to Delta Gamma’s oldest chapter – Eta, at the University of Akron. I really loved getting to spend the week in Ohio, especially with this group of women! I got to attend their Mother-Daughter Day, meet with alumnae, attend a cookout at a neighboring fraternity house, and bond closely with their chapter president, Danielle. They also included me in one of their chapter’s traditions, called Watershed. I also ate Chipotle twice in a week.

  

Finally, I got to reconnect with the women of Gamma Xi-Texas Tech for a week! When I arrived, I was greeted by a chapter standing and applauding/cheering, which, of course, made me cry. That’s how I am – I get moved to tears. It’s fine. I got to present to the chapter, meet with officers, attend a baseball game, eat some really delicious things, bawl at both Inspiration and Initiation, and really just catch up with a group of women who I’ve missed since October. Plus, I got to shamelessly listen to “Texas Country…” read: all the Josh Abbott Band I ever wanted to listen to :)

There’s your recent summary. Tomorrow, be on the lookout for an update on my running life!

On hazing

This article was brought to my attention yesterday. Featured in Rolling Stone, it covers alleged hazing that took place at Dartmouth. Essentially, a young man who had been a member of a fraternity at Dartmouth exposed everything that he had gone through in an opinion piece in the school paper. I had already come across his column last week, but the Rolling Stone article covers more of the response from the school’s Greek community, which I’m more interested in writing about.

Dartmouth, unlike many Ivy League schools, boasts a large, and historic, Greek community. While other Ivies have eating clubs, many fraternities and sororities have some of their oldest chapters at Dartmouth. It’s unsurprising, then, that the Greek community is fairly tight knit. That being said, the response to hazing allegations against the school’s chapter of SAE are extremely disappointing.
Following allegations, the Greek community banded together to voice their disapproval of the young man’s “whistle-blowing.” They fought back by insisting that he had lied, and emphasizing that he was a “disgrace” to their community.

That response makes me sick.

You would think that in some of the oldest chapters of Greek lettered organizations, someone would understand years and years of values. Where in any chapter’s ritual is hazing okay? Did anybody’s founders intend to foster an environment where sisterhood/brotherhood is built through binge drinking and abuse? Mine certainly did not.

How embarrassing for the Greek community at Dartmouth, and the Greek community as a whole, that young men and women ostracize someone who has been treated in a way that doesn’t align with organizational values and ideals. Why isn’t the Greek community leading the charge to uncover the truth, and to reprimand organizations that do not follow their founding principles?

His allegations are just that, allegations. But if there is truth to his story, shouldn’t members of the Dartmouth fraternity and sorority community want to put an end to abusive behavior that in no way, shape, or form reflects the deeper meaning of Greek life?

Like I’ve written earlier, it takes one person in one chapter on one campus to deal a significant blow to the credibility of our organizations. More importantly, how we, as young men and women, choose to respond to things like hazing that threaten our deeper purpose, impacts how we are viewed. Holding collegiate chapters and members accountable for their actions, especially when they go against everything the organization stands for, is vital to the health of our organizations.

Hazing isn’t just a Greek problem – it’s a cultural problem. We make fun of rookies who are hazed publicly, even writing about it in major newspapers. But when the Greek community refuses to hold our members accountable, we make it a Greek problem, and it reflects poorly on all of us.

It's time for the Dartmouth community, and the International Greek community, to stand up for what our founders believed; to stand up for what members have preserved for over a hundred years. Hazing doesn't build respect, it destroys it. Until we can hold our own accountable, how will we ever be able to make a truly positive impact?

Master-mix Monday: What I’m running to this week

Because all of us need new jams in our lives sometimes. And by sometimes I mean on a weekly basis, clearly:

1. Suntan City – Luke Bryan
2. American Girl – Tom Petty And the Heartbreakers
3. International Love – Pitbull ft. Chris Brown (I feel like if you beat a woman, you lose the right to be mentioned)
4. Uncharted – Sara Bareilles
5. She Got the Honey – Mat Kearney
6. Moodswings and Melodies – Parachute
7. How ‘Bout Dem O’s – Warning Track Power (Okay this one is a lie. Kind of. Okay it’s not a lie – I enjoy running to this. It really puts me in a good mood.)
8. What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction (If you’re reading the blog, you’re not judging. House rules.)
9. Summer Candy – Ben Rector
10. Moves Like Jagger – Maroon 5
11. The World’s Greatest – R. Kelly
12. She’d Be California – Rascal Flats
13. Only the Good Die Young – Billy Joel (This is a staple. I literally play it every time I run. EVERY TIME.)

And this week, I’ll be getting my miles in in Lubbock, Texas! I’ve been looking forward to being back with the women of Gamma Xi since I left the last time! Five months away was way too long.

Be on the lookout for a blog post about Spring Training/Why I love baseball/etc etc and also another one about my visits to Eta Lambda- New Mexico State and to the oldest continuously operating Delta Gamma chapter – Eta at the University of Akron!

I’ve got a lot to catch up on.

“It’s just hair”

Sorry for my lack of blogging recently.. My life update in a sentence: I’ve gone from Las Cruces, NM to Sarasota, FL to Akron, OH, which is where I am now.

In that time, I’ve also gone back to my signature blonde locks. It’s amazing what something as simple as a hair color change can do for your attitude.

Basically, this time last year, I had hair that I loved – I’m naturally a dirty blonde, but I have been highlighting it for a while, typically several times a year. I loved it because it was low maintenance and it made me happy.

Then, one hair stylist set me on this nine month ordeal by bleaching my entire head when I went in just to get simple highlights. I spent three months trying to correct the blonde, before I finally gave in and just dyed my hair brown. To say my mom was not happy is an understatement.

Since October, my hair has faded through all sorts of colors. See?

  

Anyways. When I first dyed my hair brown, and the fact that I did it finally set in, someone told me everything was fine because “it’s just hair.”

Well, I finally got sick of my always-changing-color hair, and I went to a salon and got it fixed. It took the stylist four hours and cost more than I’d like to discuss, but my hair is finally back to where it was last year.

Here’s what I learned from the whole ordeal: It’s not “just hair.” And I don’t mean that in a superficial, materialistic way. Not at all.

For me, my blonde hair is something that has always been pretty central to who I am. Not because it’s sooooo cool to be a blonde, but because it has always been kind of my identifier. In my immediate family, I’m the only blonde. It sets me apart, and it makes me unique. Here’s proof:

It’s also a link to my heritage; my dad’s entire side of the family is blonde, so it’s something that I get from them.

So, yeah, it may be “just hair.” But it’s also been my hair for so long that being a blonde has become a part of my identity. I’m certainly not arguing if that’s a good or a bad thing, it’s just how it is. And having it back? Having it back makes me feel like my old self again.

What do you think? Is it silly to count a physical feature as part of your identity?

What I learned this week – 3/13 edition

Today’s facts are sports-heavy. What can I say, it was a sports-filled week!

1. That your chance of achieving a perfect bracket for March Madness are 1: 9.2 quintillion! Those are terrible odds. None-the-less, I love taking part in creating a bracket with absolutely zero background knowledge, and then talking smack like I know everything there is to know about college basketball. What can I say? I’m a competitor :) If you want to at least fake that you know what’s going on, check out blindfold brackets from the Wall Street Journal, which lets you easily compare stats of teams that are playing each other without seeing which team is which!

2. Sometimes, pandas ride airplanes too!

3.That Juarez, Mexico is literally on the other side of the road from El Paso, TX. I flew into El Paso and then was driven to Las Cruces, NM, where I am now. While we were driving, they were explaining to me how past CDCs had been in shock at how close Mexico was.. so of course I asked how close! Their response? “Look to your left. That’s Mexico. This road was actually shut down a little bit ago because there was a shoot-out by a Mexican drug cartel.” Oh. Okay. Thanks for that, guys.

4. The average ERA of the Baltimore Orioles’ starting five is over 4.00. Oh boy, it’s going to be a long baseball season. But hey, when it’s been 14 straight losing seasons, you learn to really just love watching the game and following your team. And I am so excited to get to go to spring training this weekend! Especially since my dad will be coming down for games with me!

5. Teachability is not a word. What? But teachable is. So what word would you use for the characteristic of being teachable? Any thoughts?