idrunner11's blog

Decisions play a critical role in today’s society. Some decisions are simple and easy to make, with little or no future repercussions resulting from it. However, some choices lead to a definitive fork in the road, an option that is so vital that it will impact the rest of ones life forever. In fact, most people cannot even recognize this ultimate result until it has already passed and is being looked back upon. These carefully selected choices that one made, though, would not only determine what the initial decisions’ outcome was, but also subsequent things off of it. In my own accounts, the moment that I can look back on and definitively say that it was a decision that shaped my life the way it is today occurred in the eight grade when I was persuaded to join the high school cross-country team. At the time, deciding to run seemed like an insignificant decision to make, but it has not only given me an addictive passion for running, but it also has opened my eyes to a whole new, interesting group of people, and impacted my views on life.  Read More »

They say that a person’s eyes are a window into their soul; I believe to get a real glimpse at a person’s “sole” and personality, however, we must look at their shoes. There are hundreds of thousands of different types of shoes, varying in everything from colors, shapes, designs and prices. Likewise, there are many different personality types, ranging from the eccentric and youthful, to the dark, cold, and complacent. Society often labels its outcasts by the clothes that the sinner wears, or the music, the devil’s chainsaws pounding away at an inaudible melody, that they listen to. Rarely, however, do we judge by a person’s shoes and make rash, harsh, generalizations about their personality. We don’t realize it, but we put a lot of thinking into picking our shoes. Subconsciously, we understand that our shoes do indeed reflect our personality, as sad as a realization as that is. Writers put themselves into their work, we put ourselves into our shoes; in fact, our personalities can be broken up into three main shoe categories: Converse, Nike, and Brooks.  Read More »

The issue of equal rights for all has always been a hot topic in the American culture. In the late 1800’s and the 1900’s it was about equal rights for blacks. It took over 100 years and even a war before the issue was even somewhat resolved. We are facing the exact same problem now, only instead of blacks being looked down upon, it is the homosexuals. Back in 1896, the court case of Plessy v. Ferguson discriminated against blacks by being the grounds for justification for the racial segregation over the next 50 years (Zimmerman 1). It would not be until 1954 when Brown v. Board of Education would overturn the Plessy v. Ferguson outcome (Zimmerman 1). Today, homosexuals face the same problems here in America as the blacks did in the 19th century.  In Plessy v. Ferguson, eight of the nine supreme court justices said that blacks and whites were politically equal, meaning that they had the same political rights, but were socially unequal, meaning that blacks were not as socially advanced as whites (Zimmerman 1). This relates to the homosexual struggle with the case in 1986 of Bowers v. Hardwick, which says that states could enact laws forbidding private homosexual acts, which paved the road to allow states to make gay marriage illegal (Weinberg 307). This discrimination against homosexuals is immoral, wrong, and a disgrace to our country. Homosexual couples should have the same rights as heterosexual couples to marry, whether or not the government believes it to be wrong. Marriage should be about love, not politics.  Read More »

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America, and prostate cancer is the number cause of cancer related death in American men. According to Dr. Mark Kawachi, director of the prostate cancer center and Dr. YuNing Wong of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, older men are more prone to receiving this cancer, and least likely to receive treatment for it. They believe that it is better to treat prostate cancer in elderly people aggressively rather than to wait and watch for signs of progression as is commonly done. Experts believe that age should not be a factor in treatment for prostate cancer.  Read More »

Why do I continue to post blogs about running?

A better question:Why do I even continue to post blogs?

Reality continues to ruin my life. That's my excuse.

Anywho, I will start with today's adventure...

I had to wake up at 4 am this morning. I despise waking up early, especially in the summer, so I resembled a drunken hippo and was a wee bit irritable to start the day. I left my house at 4:30 am (pst, of course), and I go and pick up Kris, who promptley answers the door in green swimming trunks and a sweater.  Read More »

So last Sunday I ran the Cda Marathon. And as promised, here is a "brief" runthrough(ha, I used a clever pun) of the day. Enjoy!

So, the night before the race I'm feeling very anxious and very nervous. I go to bed at 7:30 intially where upon I learn that I needed to clip my timing chip to my shoe. I run downstairs when to my horror I learn that I forgot my race packet (which had my number and chip) at the Cda marathon. I freaked. So, it turned out that I had to get up at 4 that morning to go see if I could find it. I got up, took a quick shower, ate a huge breakfast and drove down to find my packet. Thankfully, I got lucky and one of the volunteers had picked it up for me. So then, I went outside to the start line where hundreds of people were and got ready to go. My nerves were through the roof at this point, very anci and jittery, a feeling I would wish I had after the race. So then the gun goes off, and my nerves and adrenaline got the better of me. I sped off towards the front of the pack and pull of a 7:48 for a first mile, which was much too fast. The first few miles went well, I felt fine, but I was a little bored since I had nobody to talk to. My first person I got to meet came during mile 6 where I met an old guy who was running his 208th marathon. He was a crazy old guy, I enjoyed every second of his company. I ran ahead of him on mile 8, but he was fun to talk to. Then on mile 8 I ran into another guy who was really really odd. He had a split watch and at that point I was hitting 8:25 miles, 2 minutes faster then I wanted to go per mile. This guy I swear was a child molester. We would pass groups of people on the side of the street and he would look at the little girls and say "Boy, she's a hot one, isn't she?" I just kinda nodded and wondered what the hell was wrong with this man. Whenever we passed an old lady he would comment onher looks or body and I am happy to say that I could no longer keep the pace he was keeping after mile 10, so I let him pass me.  Read More »

Ah, prom. The climatic point of high school for most people. Excitement flows through the halls as people anticipate the magical night. How much does this extravagent event cost, though? Is it really worth it? I researched the cost of some basic necessities:

Prom Dress- $200 (at least)

tux: $75 (again, that is just a basic tux)

tickets: $45

Limo: $200 (4 seater)  Read More »