Ultramarathon Man

I entered my name into a raffle at the library and won a VIP ticket to see Dean Karnazes, and also gained entrance to the reception before the presentation.  I was totally excited.  I have read his book and seen the documentary that is advertised below.  At the reception, I waited in a long line and finally got the opportunity to take a picture with him.  He's kind of a short guy.

After the reception, Mom and I were waiting for the presentation to start and were taking pictures.  An usher saw us and noticed our VIP tickets.  She showed us to some much closer seats reserved for us.

Dean Karnazes has now written two books.  I have read "Ultramarathon Man."  I have seen the documentary that the other book is based on.  I plan on reading "50/50" once I get ahold of it through the library.

Can I say that the lighting at this presentation was awful.  Dean was in the dark much of the time.  

Now that is a runner.  Running does well for him.

I took some video at the presentation, but it didn't turn out very well.  I mostly liked his spot on the David Letterman show.  You can see it at his webpage.  The video below is also from his website.  Check out the site.  It is pretty cool.

Most of what he talked about was stuff I had read in his book, but it was really cool to see him in person.  He is a very inspirational person who advocates for healthy living.  I would write more about it, but I can't really remember what he said.  I should have brought something to take notes in.

One thing I do remember is:  He had everyone in the audience who had run a race raise their hands.  I ran a one-mile turkey trot race a few years back, so I raised my hand proudly.  Haha!  Then he asked everyone who has run a marathon to stand up.  He proceeded to say that 1/4th of the people in the US have a mental illness, and these must be those people.  Haha!  I thought that was pretty funny.

There have been many people who have inspired me to start running.  Dean Karnazes was one of them.  Also, thank you to Hannah Hopkin, Mindie Wirth, Rochelle Brecek, George and Kamian Gille, Heather Tanner and my mom.

My New Toy!!!

Pretty sweet huh?!  Do you dig it?  This is my new favorite toy...a brand new Buddy 125 Scooter.  I currently drive it illegally because I don't have a motorcycle license.  Shh!  Don't tell.

My dad seems to think that it is his bike...because he was the one who got it.  Whatever.  We know the truth.

Here is the Scooter in action.

Bye Bye

Hi Hi

In truth, my dad got this scooter for free through some reward points from his work.

A snake in the house

I walked out the door to work on finding a job. I realized that I forgot to get a water bottle. When I came into the kitchen I saw a snake, measuring about a foot long. I thought it was really cute, so I called to my mom to come see it. She started jumping around and screaming like a little girl.

She was terrified of it, so afraid that it would bite me or her. I just had to get a picture of it before we somehow got it outside.

I also got a video of it.

From further research, I learned that this little fellow is a baby rattlesnake. And now he is growing up in my backyard. I should have thought this through. Haha!

Who knew jogging could be dangerous...

Monday, September 28, 2009 7:00 AM (Approximate Time)

I was on a run with my mom and her friend.  They were both 20-40 feet behind me.  We were running up a hill just past the middle school, past the park and past the water retention basin turned into a field.  That was several feet below us down a steep rocky hill.

I saw a woman in her blue car drifting over the center lane coming around a turn.  And then I noticed she was slumped over her wheel, appearing unconscious.  Headed the opposite direction (the same direction I was jogging) was a woman in her truck.  She noticed the blue car headed directly towards her and started to honk to alert the other driver.  This was to no avail.  To avoid a head-on collision, the woman in the truck swerved into the bike lane.  The blue car hit the truck's back fender and continued on up over the curb.

I was standing 10 feet away from collision as it happened.  The crash left me dumbstruck.  I stood there and just stared.  The blue car was headed towards me.  My mom yelled, "MEGAN, RUN!"  I pivoted in place and started to take off down the rocky hill towards the water retention park.  The blue car was still close behind me.  My mom watched in horror as the blue car was headed right towards me, as if it were following me.  "RUN THIS WAY!" Mom shouted.  I changed direction and ran over towards the side walk, a right angle direction away from the direction the blue car was heading.  The blue car continued on down the rocky hill into the park and finally came to a stop.

My mom and her friend chased the blue car down the hill to help the driver.  She was unconscious still when they got down to her.  The airbag had deployed and the woman had received a minor cut on her lip from it.  This was the only injury from either women.  I believe this to be a miracle based on what had occurred.  When the woman in the blue car came to, she was very disoriented and claimed that she was not driving.

I called 911 as the blue car was still heading down the hill.  There were some other witnesses that were horrified at what they had seen.  The rushed over to me to make sure that I was okay.  There were surprised at how calm I was despite what could have happened to me.  It wasn't until about 15 minutes after the accident that I came back down to earth and realized what had happened and what could have happened.  I shook and cried.

I am very grateful to Heavenly Father for keeping me safe.