I never in a million years...

If it's not comics, tv, or movies, this is the place! Talk about anything and everything else right here!
Post Reply
User avatar
NachtcGleiskette
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 3173
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2003 6:45 am
Title: The Ragin' Cajun
Location: NY

I never in a million years...

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

...thought I'd be a runner. I've hated running my whole life. If I were being chased by a maniac I'd find a way to speed walk instead of run. Running sucks.

Then I found a calling. My brother wanted me to join him in a triathlon to benefit Leukemia Lymphoma Society. It was gonna be a brother/sister bonding thing. But a little thing happened on sign up day. There were a few events signing up that day and one called to me. It was like a sign from God. Rock & Roll Mardi Gras Inaugural 1/2 Marathon. And suddenly, I was training to run 13.1 miles.

The incentive of a trip to New Orleans was enough to get my ass up and running. It was hard, it was scary, and the day of it seemed impossible. But it was the best thing I've ever done. From beginning to end, what an incredible experience. People rushed up to me on the course to thank me for my service, because their mother, father, daughter, son, neice, nephew, grandmother, etc had this disease and the money donated through LLS saved them. What an incredible experience that was!

It was incredible enough that a month later I did a 5k in Flushing, and 8 months later the Diva Half Marathon on LI. Not the same as with LLS TNT, but still a fun experience. It's amazing how things are on the course. You make best friends that last only the 13.1 miles you are on the course together, and that's enough. You support others, and they support you.

So, yeah, I never expected this would be me. Right now I am gearing up for a 10k in Central Park in October. And I am getting pumped to again join LLS's team, as someone very special to me has recently been diagnosed with Leukemia (a beautiful 4 yr old). I want to run for her, and I can't wait to get the opportunity.

I guess I just wanted to share this. Anything you've done that was so outside anything you'd ever think you'd do?

PS: Here are my medals!
Image
Image

And here's me on the course in New Orleans:
Image
"If you live your life to please everyone else, you will continue to feel frustrated and powerless. This is because what others want may not be good for you. You are not being mean when you say NO to unreasonable demands or when you express your ideas, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from those of others.â€
Ferguson
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 2447
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:26 am
Title: Fergie the Unjust
Location: I'm in the hick-land playing the spoons

I never in a million years...

Post by Ferguson »

Now that is pretty awesome! I've a friend that did much the same thing around here, slowly but surely getting involved in various marathons until he's more than a little bit obsessed about it, got to love the levels of passion it can stir up in people.

And I'm pretty sure everyone that knows can say nobody thought I'd take up teaching kindergarteners for a year. It was stressful at times, hilarious most of the time, and I never thought I could get so very sick of cutting out parts to make a stuffed bear in all of my life. I loved living abroad, of course, but teaching small children was a good deal more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Sure, I had to get through to Ji Eun about being a tiny little Rosemary's baby bully and I had to keep putting Yong Joon in his seat instead of the sink he kept climbing in but it was worth it just for how fun it was. There's nothing quite like giving your students a speaking test and when one little boy doesn't know the answer says "Teacher...zombies!" or having a room full of tiny children trying to mimic a British accent because they had a sub the day before. If I hadn't gotten a new job here finally I would be back over in a second. Not that I didn't love my older students but I definitely never saw myself enjoying Kindy kids near as much as I did.
Image
Ult_Sm86
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 5810
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:59 pm
Title: Passive Antagonist
Nightscrawlearth Character: :hellboy :r2
Location: Boogie Wonderland

I never in a million years...

Post by Ult_Sm86 »

I'm slowly getting into getting out more to do exercising. It's difficult. I wanted to go to a gym and even joined for a month but went once. I found gyms impractical to my lifestyle and quit pretty quickly after I realized I was blowing 12 bucks a month.


Getting into biking now. Not heavy duty, wear the skin-tight suits and speedster helmets, with biking-specific-shoes-made-for-gripping-pedals-better, but just getting out on my little Schwinn on the various RI bike paths.

Unfortunately with the busy summer I've had I barely got out, but I guess that's okay 'cause the weather didn't really permit amateur bike riding (especially for a cardiac patient :sick :LOL ) so now that it's cooling down and transitoning into Autumn, I'm pretty excited to get out there.

I wanna try to move to Boston and get on that new HUBWAY.... sounds impressive.
R.I.P. Ultimate Peter Parker :spidey 6/22/11 USM#160
Read my reviews on SuperiorSpiderTalk.com! I'm a real, honest-to-goodness, published comic reviewer!
"It's not your fault. Listen to me. It's NOT. YOUR. FAULT." - a seismologist getting all territorial
┗[© ♒ ©]┛ ROBOT HAS NO USE FOR FEELINGS
Crawler
Navigator
Navigator
Posts: 1279
Joined: Thu Jun 27, 2002 5:05 pm
Title: I'm Back, Baby!
Location: Spokane, WA
Contact:

I never in a million years...

Post by Crawler »

Wow! Great job, Lisa! I can't imagine running that far, especially in New Orleans. Humidity and I are not on speaking terms, ever since I discovered that he wants to drown me with air and keep me from being able to cool myself down. Seriously, Humidity, what's your problem? And 13.1 miles? Yesterday I ran roughly a quarter mile and wanted to die afterward. :p

Now, as for something I never thought would be me in a million years? Well, I guess the closest I have to that is the fact that I've made the Dean's List every quarter since I returned to college. For those that don't know, I got a 31 on my ACTs in high school, have repeatedly tested on a large variety of IQ tests as "Genius level," often scoring in the 150 range when using the Terman scale. I also FLUNKED out of college the first time, having a cumulative GPA of less than 1.5, and I graduated high school with a 2.23. Basically, I'm lazy, I hate homework, I hate busywork, and I often do very poorly in classes that put emphasis, grade-wise, on assignments. Good at tests (I'm not REALLY a genius. I'm just good at tests.), but bad at keeping up with assignments and practice.

Yet here I am, just over one year from graduation, on the Dean's List, with a 3.72 cumulative GPA and a 3.96 average within my major. (Spanish is totally hard.) I never thought I'd be the guy with good grades.
This message brought to you by the letter C.
Zack: I'm pretty sure our soul is composed of a series of toy commercials that ran from 1984-1988. When we die Hasbro does with us what they please.
Angelique
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 2882
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:27 am
Location: sailing under the Jolly Wagner

I never in a million years...

Post by Angelique »

Sweet! Great fun, great exercize, and yes, I'm a runner too. (Kind of because I have to be, but that's beside the point.)
Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6 ... &ref=share

www.heroesfallenstudiosinc.webs.com

http://hubpages.com/hub/characterdriven
User avatar
NachtcGleiskette
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 3173
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2003 6:45 am
Title: The Ragin' Cajun
Location: NY

I never in a million years...

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

We're all very ambitious! I can't believe some of the things I've done in the past 4 years. It's been an amazing ride. If you want to hear something wonderful, but not board appropriate, ask me about my OTHER New Orleans story :P
"If you live your life to please everyone else, you will continue to feel frustrated and powerless. This is because what others want may not be good for you. You are not being mean when you say NO to unreasonable demands or when you express your ideas, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from those of others.â€
Ferguson
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 2447
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:26 am
Title: Fergie the Unjust
Location: I'm in the hick-land playing the spoons

I never in a million years...

Post by Ferguson »

Well now, that's intriguing. :shifty

Another never thought from Korea, dancing on the stage in one of the local dance clubs. As it turns out once you've made friends with the people who regularly do this at Club FF it's sort of difficult to not be pulled up there, as well. Turns out it was pretty fun, even attempted swing dancing with one of the bartenders.
Image
The Drastic Spastic
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Posts: 1846
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 3:01 am
Location: ROK

I never in a million years...

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

I never thought I could learn another language. I made a half-assed attempt in university which failed miserably and decided that being from a monolingual place and over 14 I was hopeless and doomed to being crappy at other languages forever. Then I finished paying off my student loans and needed a new hobby so I started studying German at age 25 as a complete beginner and now I'm about level 4 (where level 6 means completely fluent) and still getting better all the time. It has been completely amazing. I read that learning a new language is like getting another soul, and that describes it best.
Ferguson wrote: And I'm pretty sure everyone that knows can say nobody thought I'd take up teaching kindergarteners for a year.
For me, teaching at all. I never ever wanted to do it. Everything about it seemed bad to me, except for the tax breaks for working in Korea of course. Three and a half years now. I can't say I love it and wouldn't have quit in a second at any point if I'd had the money, but... I still did it. I'm reasonably competent at it by now too! Just in time to get enough money to quit and do something else.
Und die Sonne spricht zu mir
Angelique
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 2882
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:27 am
Location: sailing under the Jolly Wagner

I never in a million years...

Post by Angelique »

I never thought in a million years that I'd have to learn any Korean, but work just may call for it.
Meddle not with the heartstrings of fans, for we are powerful and hold your pursestrings.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6 ... &ref=share

www.heroesfallenstudiosinc.webs.com

http://hubpages.com/hub/characterdriven
Ferguson
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 2447
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 5:26 am
Title: Fergie the Unjust
Location: I'm in the hick-land playing the spoons

I never in a million years...

Post by Ferguson »

Ange, my Korean is terrible still but I have plenty of people that could help me translate things for you if you ever need.
Image
The Drastic Spastic
Swashbuckler
Swashbuckler
Posts: 1846
Joined: Wed Oct 09, 2002 3:01 am
Location: ROK

I never in a million years...

Post by The Drastic Spastic »

I took a month of Korean but I realized that I don't want a Korean soul so I quit. :toothy
Und die Sonne spricht zu mir
User avatar
NachtcGleiskette
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate
Posts: 3173
Joined: Tue Jan 14, 2003 6:45 am
Title: The Ragin' Cajun
Location: NY

I never in a million years...

Post by NachtcGleiskette »

The Drastic Spastic wrote:I took a month of Korean but I realized that I don't want a Korean soul so I quit. :toothy

Image
"If you live your life to please everyone else, you will continue to feel frustrated and powerless. This is because what others want may not be good for you. You are not being mean when you say NO to unreasonable demands or when you express your ideas, feelings, and opinions, even if they differ from those of others.â€
Post Reply