02 August 2011

success!

Hauled my butt out of bed this morning and ran 8.09 miles CHOCK FULL of hills. I wore my new shoes and my quads do not hurt, take that other shoes.



Whatever bitches. You're dead to me now. And I think dead to everyone else, because I'm pretty sure that Tom said you'd be damaged out. To whomever's quads get saved because of my sacrifice: you're welcome.

Interestingly the new shoes are also Mizunos, but a different model. I don't remember what they're called, I just know they're blue, they were cheaper than the shoes of rage and they don't make me want to die. Two thumbs up!



These men are excited for me! Also I can't even with this photo; and it came from a website called holytaco.com. Win all around.

Anyway, my run was really good. My original route was only about 7.5 miles but I added on extra - and another big hill - at the end. I wanted to be at or close to my marathon pace, which I am hoping will be 9:09 or below; my average pace for this run was 9:08. I did not: get lost, fall down, twist my ankle, want to die or feel dehydrated. I did sweat. A lot. It was humid. And cloudy. And on a conference call this morning I learned that there is YET ANOTHER severe heat advisory for the area, coupled with a forecast that includes large particles of hail. So the fact that I got my run out of the way is EXTRA exciting. Because dodging large particles of hail is not really on my to-do list for today.

I also have news that I did not mention in my last post (on account of it is good news and that post was dedicated to whining): I got a job. :) I will be moving to North Carolina in about three weeks and starting the new job at the end of the month. It is a real grown-up job, with benefits and a salary, which is different than what I have been doing. I work full time currently (I actually work around 50 hours per week), but I am a full-time freelancer. Freelancing is a fabulous way to supplement your regular income but it is not a great way to earn your regular income. This is true for several reasons (no benefits, no job security) but for me the biggest one is that freelance income isn't taxed, so I have to pay my own taxes as a self-employed writer. Being self-employed is horrendously bad from a tax perspective; you pay about 35 percent of what you make to the IRS, and if you don't do it periodically throughout the year, you get slammed on your taxes at the end of the year. I know this from experience, because when I first started freelancing in 2008 I thought it was just all TAX-FREE MONEY WOOHOO! Yeah no. Anyway, I am very excited for a lot of reasons, like the fact that it's just an incredibly awesome job and also the fact that I will finally be getting the F out of Wisconsin. If you are new to my blog, the short story is that last August, I quit my full-time grown-up reporting job in Virginia to move to California with my boyfriend, and then we got to California and broke up. So I moved home. And have spent basically every day since then trying to not be at home. I really love where I am from and I really love visiting here, but I just do not enjoy, at all, living in my hometown. So! This is all happy!

To make the job offer all official-style I had to take a drug test (this is pretty standard for newspaper jobs, at least in my experience). I went to take it last week on a hot day after doing a seven-mile fartlek. After I came out of the bathroom and handed the lady my sample she told me that the testing service would probably reject it for being too diluted. Apparently drug addicts overload on water in an attempt to mask the drugs in their system. I considered calling the testing service to explain to them that I am training for a marathon and it's freaking HOT all the time and I drink a lot of water in general and also how on earth are you supposed to make sure you have to pee when you get to the testing place IF YOU DON'T DRINK A LOT OF WATER BEFOREHAND?! But I did not do this and they accepted my sample and everything was fine on account of I am drug-free.



Anyway, employed! Moving soon!

The end. This is very long. Next up: 6-mile speedwork session on the treadmill, either tomorrow or Thursday. Bring it.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! Congrats on the new job! Way to go! I can't wait to hear more about it. Thanks for bringing me up to speed on your blog. Looking forward to what is to come. ;)

    I've wanted to get into freelance writing, but I don't really know how so I think it is way-cool that you do that! :)

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  2. Congrats on the new job! I'm a teacher and have to go back to work soon :( But I miss it during the summer.

    These crazy heat advisories in IL where I am are killing me! I've barely been outside for 3 weeks! Hope it breaks soon :(

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  3. Y'all are very sweet. (I can get away with saying y'all now OFFICIALLY because I am moving to North Carolina.) (Also I don't know why I bother replying to comments with comments because I don't think anyone ever notices.) (Anyway!) Thank you both for the congratulations! And yes, the f-ing heat advisories are not okay. We had about a week of relief but now it's back to disgusting. I am 100 percent glad I did not check the forecast before I went out this morning; it would definitely have given me an easy excuse to stay inside.

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  4. WOO HOO!!! Way to go, Kate! A kick ass run AND a job - things are looking up for you. :)

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  5. Congratulations on your new jobby-job and your impending relocation. Hope those East Coast typhoons don't carry you away to Oz. B-)

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  6. SO happy about your new job. Pretty dang excited for you.

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