"...The water thing is fucking ridiculous."
- Mumbled in line at Cafe Duke
Welcome to For A Limited Time Only: Nyree's 3 Week Blog. I'll get back to the water thing in a minute. Let me just start by telling you what you're getting yourself into.
Well, actually...let me start by telling you that I am not an original person. Anyone who really knows me...knows this. At any given moment, I'll use a quote from a movie, song, book(1), or anything else I think should be included into my own life. So with that said, I stole this "blog my progress" idea from a friend/co-worker who's running a marathon (2).
I tune in every day to see if he actually ran. And I'll be damn...he did. And I'm pretty sure keeping in the moment...logging his progress, has something to do with it.
So I figure, if I put my potential failure out there for everyone to see...I'd be less likely to fail, because I don't like people laughing and pointing at me. Nope. Not at all.
So if you DON'T know, at the time of this post, I'm only THREE WEEKS away from my very first 5K race. If you want to know more about it...here's the page link. http://www.komennyc.org/site/TR?px=1278907&pg=personal&fr_id=1130&s_tafId=8732
But this blog has nothing to do with the fundraising efforts. This blog is straight up about me trying to be able to kick out 3.5 miles with no problem.
And I've done ...pretty much jacksquat to prepare for this. Sure, I can run a mile and a half...maybe kick out two. And I'm sure everyone will appreciate this...but no.
I need to finish this race. I need the "I DID IT!" moment. However, before I can get to the "I DID IT!" moment...I need to suffer through The "training" montage.(3)
So yes, this is my training montage. And at the end, I expect some sort of glorious "I DID IT!" moment when I see my coach(4) cheering beside his wife ...who left him at the start of this three weeks... but she came back...forgiving him (straight up off the euphoric strength of my victory). My deaf(5) friend Mo-Mo can suddenly hear again! "Sam the Cat" (we learn) is still alive (6) , and jumps out of a tree, landing in my arms as I cross the finish. (A mended realtionship, a handicapped person and an animal. You'll need all three for a tear jerker finish.)
But I can't get to that moment if I can't kick out more than a mile and a half.
So I've been running, but not how I want to.
Day one of my wack-ass training, I could barely make it a mile before my lungs called it quits (7). Day three or something, my co-workers son died in a tragic drowning accident, and while mid-stride, I got the news. Messed me up something awful. Calling my Mom to say "I love you" seemed so much more important.
And then beer, hanging out, catching up, work, relationship beef...it all went apeshit at the same time and calling my Mom to say "I love you" seemed much more important.
But now I'm back. Focused. Ready. And today, I head down to my company's gym to kick out no less than two miles. The workers there will heckle me...but this is bigger than them.
Cuz I just bought some water. (Told you I'd get back to it. )
Smart Water. Made from clouds where actual angels chill and strum harps (8), which must explain why this shit costs $3 per bottle. 50 Cent owns this company, if you didn't know. And I buy it, because why knock his hustle? Unlike Kool G. Rap and Dana Dane, 50 knows his hip-hop hustle only lasts as long as his people can stand the bass and child support payments aren't real. He's gonna need a side hustle. Introducing: Vitamin Water and Smart Water. Don't believe me? Read the bottle to "Formula 50" and then thank me for the useless info.
So anyway, I'm mumbling/bitching about the price of water, when somebody behind me starts talking about Katrina(9).
It's the one year anniversary of the levee's breaking (10). I'm working on a project about the levees...so I'm familiar. Very familiar. And I start going through something on the inside. Finally. Though I should have gone through this already.
While floating down the Shenandoah River in a inner tube this past weekend with 10 other phenomenal folk (I'll just call them PF from now on...) , we float right past a river camp...with a huge...HUGE confederate flag flapping in the wind. One of the PF's said, "Bet he'd rather see us floating in the river...than on it." And our silence co-signed.
Now here's the crazy thing. Last year, we WERE floating in the river.
For days.
Four days.
...without help. No food for man, woman or child. No water, no sanitation...
I was in my office crying. Angry. Really fucking angry. Partially because though so much has changed, nothing has. I went broke last August giving away my rent to anyone who needed it. Fuck it. I can do some overtime and be late on a bill this month. At least I have a place to live.
I'm not going to preach about Katrina or the levees...but this is giving me my motivation today.
I'm working for that moment of silence. A two mile moment of silence for all the lives lost...their only crime being that they weren't economically stable enough(11) to get out alive. They died for being poor.
http://www.katrinapictures.blogspot.com/
And on that note...I gotta go run.
Goal: 2 miles
Hot beat for today's training montage: Inner City Blues - (Make Me Wanna Holler) - Marvin Gaye
-Nye
1.These references are harder to catch. For instance, I just stole...I mean, borrowed this bit from
Chuck Klosterman's "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa-Puffs". Read his book. You'll be convinced I'm a sham.
2. And he stole it from his friend who's running the marathon with him. Circle of life.(a)
3. Netflix (new way of saying "rent". Renting is so late 90's...) the following bad/good movies to get an idea of a "training montage": G.I. Jane, Rocky, The Karate Kid, Million Dollar Baby, Remember The Titans, Breakin' (they trained too...), Sister Act (Them nuns couldn't sing in the beginning. 'Cept the little skinny one who whispered and then turned in to Tina Marie at the end.) Roll Bounce, Drumline...you get the point.
4. I don't really have a coach. So this is really a fantasy sequence.
5.I know that seems cruel, but she's cool with me calling her deaf. She just hates when I say she sounds like "Chewbacca", because she's never actually heard "Chewbacca", so she doesn't know what that means. However, I'm sure if she ever heard "Chewbacca", she'd be pissed. But then again, if she could hear, I guess there wouldn't be a joke in the first place.
6. I accidentally pushed Sam the Cat out of the window when I was five. I'm over it. Sam, however...
7. I'd quit smoking and now I fully understand why smoking is BAD.
8. Not to be confused with those clouds the cartoon ladies make toilet paper out of.
9. The hurricane has hit "Luther" status. No label needed. You know what I mean when I say "Katrina" , don't you?
10. Katrina actually didn't touch New Orleans. It was the levees breaking that caused the destruction.
That's why I'm not marking the anniversary of the hurricane. A level 2 is what breached the levees...not the full fledged power of Katrina.
11. Yes, predominately black. Sure. However, let's not forget there were others that were killed as well. The government didn't come and get the poor white and latinos on day two and come back two days later for the blacks. They left poor people to die. Poor has no color.
a. From "The Lion King." See my point?
Post workout comment: The hair thing. Yeah. It's going to be a problem.
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