Saturday was the Formula D drift racing finals.
Mr. W drove me and my parents to the Irwindale race track for that. Wandering around the booths and stuff beforehand with my parents, I grew concerned that my mom would find the loud music, cigarette smoke, and big crowd uncomfortable. She was a good sport, walking hand-in-hand with my dad, wondering what all the shocks, springs, car parts on display were.
I have concerns about the direction drifting is taking. It seemed to me that there were a lot of gang bangers there — more so than at a Nascar race function. It didn’t help that King Taco was a major sponsor; their publicity probably helped bring in a lot of the Mexican gangs from East LA. It was also unfortunate that they served beer. We had pretty cool seats on the grandstand, 3 rows up right in the center, but people started folding their flyers and advertisements they collected at the booths all day into paper airplanes, and trying to fly them down the stand and into the race track. There was a lot of drunken cheering whenever an airplane would squeeze through the large chain-link fence into the track, and drunken laughter whenever a plane would hit an unaware bystander on the head or neck as people tried to get to their seats. I was afraid to turn around and look into the stands for fear I may get an eye put out. I watched a college-age chick sitting directly in front of me get hit on the head by 4 paper airplanes, a beach ball, and a DVD. Her friend next to her got hit with a big pink inflated condom. I couldn’t believe security weren’t doing anything about that; paper on the tracks of a drift race could be some real hazards. I was even more dismayed when my dad threw an airplane, too. Twice. “It’s a strange disconcerting feeling when you realize you’re more mature than your parents,” I said to Mr. W. He thought it was funny. Childhood friend Vicky’s mom was sitting behind us, and at one point she picked up someone else’s paper airplane and handed it to my dad, saying, “Hey, help me throw this.” My dad eyed it skeptically. “This one isn’t going to fly right,” he said, and proceeded to re-fold it into an aerodynamic, ergodynamically engineered ad about some high-traction race tires. And threw it. And accidentally hit someone. GAH.
Anyway, the drift race itself started off disappointing; a few cars spun out and disqualified themselves, or they had technical problems, like one guy’s clutch went out and they couldn’t fix it in the 5-minute maximum time-out. But when it came down to the last 4 cars doing battle, now THAT was some cool stuff.
My mom did have a headache from the noise and tire smoke and said it was going to be her first and last drift event, but it was very spiffy of her to come out with my dad for the experience.
Ballet (age 4) – hate it. Meanie teacher is scary as she goes around the room pushing kids down forcing us to go deeper than we’re able to in the splits. Look forward to mama coming to pick me up in her pretty dresses and fabric flower earrings. Chinese Folk Dancing (age 5) – not too bad. But my brain keeps freezing during the big performances. Jazz (age 7) – slightly difficult as it is hard to understand the nice teacher’s directions when I know so little English. I feel fat and uncomfortable in my oversized leotard that Mom swears I’d grow into. Square Dancing (age 9) – wtf is with these Americans? Why are they making us do this in school? Why aren’t we in PE class? Partner up with a BOY? Gross, cooties! Do-si-what? Modern/Lyrical/Funk (age 15) – at least I’m not in regular PE. And I’m learning lots of French! Pirouette, plie’, porte’ bourre…chaine turns…uh…does spelling count on the final? Whoa, we’re gonna be in the school dance concert? And it’s gonna be televised? COOL!! Cardio Funk/Hip Hop (age 19) – I’m home! I am FEELING this! I LOVE this music! This is MY dance! Street Hip Hop (age 20) – You want my body to go from the floor there to WHERE? How? WHAT? Body roll, body roll, body roll, down, kick up, leg goes from behind me on the ground on all fours to in front of me…*pant pant* Wow, this looks SO cool if I could only breathe. Latin Ballroom (age 22) – …and we’re back to wtf. I can NOT get my hips to move this way. Feet where? I am SO not feeling this. I miss hip hop. And I’m not coming back. Bellydance (age 30) – Okay, okay, I think I’m getting this… not the workout I wanted, but interesting. I’m starting to like the music. Some of these moves look pretty cool. Burlesque (age 31) – I will let you guys know after the class on Sunday…
Forwarded from one of my coworkers, from her heart and my heart to yours!
1. DON’T SWEAT THE PETTY THINGS AND DON’T PET THE SWEATY THINGS.
2. ONE TEQUILA, TWO TEQUILA, THREE TEQUILA, FLOOR…
3. ATHEISM IS A NON-PROPHET ORGANIZATION.
4. IF MAN EVOLVED FROM MONKEYS AND APES, WHY DO WE STILL HAVE MONKEYS AND APES?
5. THE MAIN REASON SANTA IS SO JOLLY IS BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE ALL THE BAD GIRLS LIVE.
6. I WENT TO A BOOKSTORE AND ASKED THE SALESWOMAN, “WHERE’S THE SELF-HELP SECTION?†SHE SAID IF SHE TOLD ME, IT WOULD DEFEAT THE PURPOSE.
7. WHAT IF THERE WERE NO HYPOTHETICAL QUESTIONS?
8. IF A DEAF PERSON SWEARS, DOES HIS MOTHER WASH HIS HANDS WITH SOAP?
9. IF SOMEONE WITH MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES THREATENS TO KILL HIMSELF, IS IT CONSIDERED A HOSTAGE SITUATION?
10. IS THERE ANOTHER WORD FOR SYNONYM?
11. WHERE DO FOREST RANGERS GO TO “GET AWAY FROM IT ALL?â€
12. WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE AN ENDANGERED ANIMAL EATING AN ENDANGERED PLANT?
13. IF A PARSLEY FARMER IS SUED, CAN THEY GARNISH HIS WAGES?
14. WOULD A FLY WITHOUT WINGS BE CALLED A WALK?
15. WHY DO THEY LOCK GAS STATION BATHROOMS? ARE THEY AFRAID SOMEONE WILL CLEAN THEM?
16. IF A TURTLE DOESN’T HAVE A SHELL, IS HE HOMELESS OR NAKED?
17. CAN VEGETARIANS EAT ANIMAL CRACKERS?
18. IF TE POLICE ARREST A MIME, DO THEY TELL HIM HE HAS THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT?
19. WHY DO THEY PUT BRAILLE ON THE DRIVE-THROUGH BANK MACHINES?
20. HOW DO THEY GET DEER TO CROSS THE ROAD ONLY AT THOSE YELLOW ROAD SIGNS?
21. WHAT WAS THE BEST THING BEFORE SLICED BREAD?
22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT EGOTISTS: THEY DONT TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE.
23. DOES THE LITTLE MERMAID WEAR AN ALGEBRA?
24. DO INFANTS ENJOY INFANCY AS MUCH AS ADULTS ENJOY ADULTERY?
25. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE A CIVIL WAR?
26. IF ONE SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMER DROWNS, DO THE REST DROWN TOO?
27. IF YOU ATE BOTH PASTA AND ANTIPASTO, WOULD YOU STILL BE HUNGRY?
28. IF YOU TRY TO FAIL, AND SUCCEED, WHICH HAVE YOU DONE?
29. WHOSE CRUEL IDEA WAS IT FOR THE WORD “LISP†TO HAVE “S†IN IT?
30. WHY ARE HEMORRHOIDS CALLED “HEMORRHOIDS†INSTEAD OF “ASSTEROIDS�
31. WHY IS IT CALLED TOURIST SEASON IF WE CAN’T SHOOT AT THEM?
32. WHY IS THERE AN EXPIRATION DATE ON SOUR CREAM?
33. IF YOU SPIN AN ORIENTAL MAN IN A CIRCLE THREE TIMES DOES HE BECOME DISORIENTED?
34. CAN AN ATHEIST GET INSURANCE AGAINST ACTS OF GOD?
This afternoon my supervisor came up to my department and pulled me out of my trial to have a discussion in the back hallway about the trainee. He wanted to know what I was implying on the phone to him yesterday. I told him in detail (minus the part about her email with another clerk about my being “rude”, as that’s hearsay anyway) what transpired between us in the first morning she was in here, but was clear that she more than made up for it in the next day and a half, proving to me that she’ll be fine as Judicial Assistant/Courtroom Clerk. I turned in my training report, he looked it over and noted my backhanded compliments. I told him that I had no problem telling him about our tiff off the record, but that I didn’t want it to come up in our meeting with the trainee on Friday and I don’t want it to negatively impact their assessment of her skills.
A few minutes ago, the trainee popped into my courtroom and handed me a small white envelope with my name on it. I opened it and it was a cute thank-you card that even matched my suit today. She wrote:
Cindy
Thank you for my experience in Dept. E. I really appreciate all you did for me and for the information/handouts you gave me. I know we didn’t start off on the right foot, but I’m glad we worked it out and I got the chance to sit in with you.
[trainee]
Now I feel like a shithead for even writing the backhanded compliments in her evaluation! And I already turned it in! Waaaahhh!!
Maxim, the premiere junk magazine for men, has recently published a Top 5 list of women. But unlike other pop magazine lists, the women who made the top 5 are the current MOST UNSEXY WOMEN, in Maxim’s educated opinion. And the winners are…
5. Britney Spears
(Ouch! Sure she’s nowhere near her previous “Slave 4 U” rocking legs and body half-nekkid onstage dancing pre-babies self, but even in her heavily criticized recent MTV Music Awards bikini, she had an hourglassy figure, her stomach didn’t jiggle when she jumped around, and I didn’t see any stretch marks. Her body still kicks my never-pregnant body’s ass.)
4. Madonna
(She’s a bit manly for me, but I’m not sure what this is about since she’d mainly stayed out of the public eye for awhile — did she lose points for all the baby adoption back-and-forths? If that’s it, then geez, it’s not like she’s angelina freakin-jolie.)
3. Sandra Oh
(I have to agree with this. I get that she’s a great actress and is making her mark for Asian Americans in popular media, but can they find an uglier Asian chick to represent us? For some reason, there are a lot of non-Asian people who think she’s just gorgeous, but every Asian I know, and among people who are familiar with Asians in general, think she’s just awful on the eyes.)
2. Amy Winehouse. Weinhaus? Whinehouse?
(I have never heard of this person, but apparently she’s a talented musician who’s always getting crap for being physically unattractive. I’d look her up if I knew how to spell her last name.)
1. Sarah Jessica Parker
(WHOOP WHOOP! Take THAT, SATC! I hate that show. I consequently and unreasonably hate all people who act on it. I don’t get what all the hype over SJP is about. Okay, she’s skinny [emaciated], she’s got boobs and legs and maybe even an ass, but that wirey big hair and fuschia streak of blush up her cheeks? Ick! They also dress her character horribly on SATC. Adam Carolla [previously of KROQ’s “Lovelines”, TV’s “The Man Show” and current KFI Talk Radio’s “The Adam Carolla Show”] refers to her as “one of those women that YOU women love and want US to love or find attractive, and we just DON’T.” Right there with you, Adam. I don’t, either.)
I’m open-minded to change. Doesn’t mean I’m not surprised by it. Which is why I’m surprised that my work trainee totally redeemed herself the day and a half following my last post. (I only get her 2 days, yesterday and today.)
I’d written that last post at noon, and it seems that at lunch, my trainee did some thinking and came back a different person. I had her swear all the witnesses yesterday afternoon and today, which she did without referring to her oath cards (which she probably didn’t have on her anyway), and the oaths went smoothly, including her directions telling them to be seated, state and spell their first and last names for the record, etc. This morning, she returned my notepad and showed me she’d brought her own, so she was prepared today. Despite her feeling mentally unprepared to take over our big ugly messy trial by herself (so I didn’t force her to), she did everything else I told her to — took correct notes, did the minute order, corrected the things I asked her to, filled out the exhibit labels, etc. And as for attitude, there was none.
She handed me her evaluation for me as a trainer (I was surprised I was even allowed to see it before she turned it in to a supervisor, but *shrug*), and then had the balls to say, “Thank you so much for these two days. I learned a lot. I’m sorry we started off on the wrong foot, but I’m happy we got past that and I want you to know I appreciate everything you showed me.” Gah. I smiled and said something about being glad she was cool about our tiff yesterday morning, and then she left for the day.
Her evaluation for me rated everything, on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much s0), 5s across the board for being well-informed and explaining the job, for exhibiting work skills she felt she should pattern after, for being available or giving a resource when she felt in doubt, for allowing her to observe and then perform courtroom tasks. In the comment section, that requests her to write both positive and negative experiences, she wrote:
Positive part of this experience was finally getting to sit in on a trial. Negative part was that I came in mid trial and was unable to view a trial from beginning to end. Cindy is a great trainer, she gave me information that will definitely help during my training.
So I marked her “Acceptable” (as opposed to “Unacceptable”, my only other option) on all categories being evaluated. Here’s my attempt at honesty in back-handed compliments:
1. PRODUCTIVITY:
No calendar these days, but trainee did an extensive trial minute order on day 2 using her own notes, with minimal significant corrections. Minute order was completed before day’s end.
2. QUALITY OF WORK:
Day 2, trainee completed exhibit labels accurately and neatly. Trial notes are legible and complete.
3. WORK HABITS:
Trainee stayed late the evening of Day 1 to finish training. Very receptive to instructions and direction, but is honest in advising me when she’s not ready for a task (e.g. doing Day 1’s minute order or taking over courtroom prematurely at Day 2).
4. APPLICATION TO DUTIES:
Asks good questions to heighten her understanding of court proceedings (and computer system) and applies her learning immediately to her work.
5. ADAPTABILITY:
(no comment)
6. COURTROOM DEMEANOR:
(no comment)
7. ADMINISTRATION OF OATHS OR AFFIRMATIONS:
Despite not being prepared with her oath cards on Day 1, trainee nevertheless administered oaths to various witnesses from memory, even with stage direction, clearly and authoritatively.
BEFORE you all call me a wuss, lemme first tell you that in addition to the fact that she put in 100% today, lost the attitude, and apologized about yesterday morning, I also got this email from my supervisor today:
[Trainer 3] and Cindy,
enclosed are the instructions and Evaluation forms. Please get an eval to me either separately or jointly by Friday in the morning. I will go over it with the trainee that afternoon.
Thanks for training.
[supervisor]
I emailed back:
My understanding was that the trainee would not see our evaluations?
He replied:
No, it will be discussed with her on Friday. You can opt not to be in the room at the time. Your presence is welcome.
Gah! I can write a bunch of shit and not be there to deal with it, but then I also won’t be there to defend myself if her answer to my evaluation is, “She’s a psychotic bitch and has hated me right from the start for no reason. In fact, I think she’s racist.” My supervisor followed up his email reply to me with a phone call asking if I think she may not pass, because if it’s as serious as a no-pass grade, he and I can talk about it first. I told him no, it’s probably not that serious, I’m not comfortable being the one to determine whether someone passes or fails based on 2 days with me so I’ll just write my evaluation honestly and let the supervisors decide whether they want to delve deeper into it with me or the trainee.
I walked off the elevator this morning toward my courtroom and bumped into my supervisor. “Well HELLO!” he said in mock sarcastic joy. “ConGRATULATIONS! You have a trainee.” I walked in and so I did. =P
I set up all my stuff, and then turned to her (who was seated too far away, really) whether she knew anything about jury trials. She said, “A little bit.” So I told her we’ll just start with her taking notes in our trial today and we’ll compare notes at the end of the day so I can see if she’s noting the right things and picking up on the important things in trial that will need to go into her minute orders. She agreed, but just sat there. “Do you have a notepad?” I asked her. “Not today,” she said. Who doesn’t bring a notepad to an on-the-job training? But I got a notepad and had to walk it over to her as she seemed content to just sit there and let me keep getting up and handing her stuff or to talk to her.
A few minutes later, I got up and walked to her again (as court was in full session and I had to whisper) and asked her whether she knew her oaths. I know from my training classes that I had to memorize all my different oaths and recite them on command from the instructors. She said, “I don’t have my oath cards on me today.” She was dependent on note cards for her oaths? We were told that you needed to know them when you hit a courtroom. They stressed this over and over, that they’d fail you immediately if you didn’t have your oaths down. And who goes to on-the-job training without their oaths on-hand? So I asked her whether she had memorized her oaths in classroom training. She got defensive and said, “YES I learned my oaths in class and I PASSED my oaths but on a daily basis I am not required to HAVE my oaths — ” She was wrong, but I cut her off and hissed in a loud whisper, “You don’t have to get defensive on me. I’m just trying to see if you know your oaths because if you do I’m going to have you swear in the witnesses in our trial today. I’m not accusing you of anything, I’m not trying to make you defensive, I’m just trying to see what you know from class because I don’t know whether they’ve changed the class.” Jeebus! She backed off and said, “No, that’s fine, they didn’t change the class. I can swear in the witnesses.” I was TICKED.
She did chill after that and at breaks and during sidebars, I was able to bring her copies of forms to explain them to her, bring her the trial file and go over it with her, basically I had to bring everything to her, kneel by her on the ground and point things out. She never moved her fat ass out of the chair. But I’d rather do that than to have her breathing down my throat in my desk area, so I didn’t tell her to move closer. She told me she had a doctor’s appointment she’d leave for at 11:45a, and I said that’s fine. And then it started looking like a new witness was going to come in before lunch. I told her she can swear in that witness, and she cut me off with, “Well actually, I was gonna tell you that I’m going to leave at 11:30 instead. And they’re going to finish up with this witness first before the new witness.” Fine. Whatever. She was still sitting there at 11:26ish when our witness concluded early and the new witness was walking in. I turned to her and told her she can swear in this witness before she had to leave, and she stood and said, “I’m just going to leave now,” and left.
And then later another clerk emailed me to tell me the trainee told her I was rude to her and told her to just take notes all day.
Is she AWARE that I am going to write her training evaluation?!
…that people were protesting Columbus Day parades with violent bloody demonstrations, i.e. pouring fake blood all over paraders and stuff, cuz they’re saying Columbus was also a slave trader so he shouldn’t be celebrated? Slavery in today’s official opinion was a very bad thing, but it was not illegal back in the day which, yes, was a horrific unfortunate thing, but I don’t understand how you can protest 500-year-old history. How far back do we get to go? Do I get to protest the way the US turned its back on Chinese immigrants after they blew us up on the railroad construction? On Japan taking over Taiwan in my grandparents’ generation? On the Communists overthrowing the Republic government in China? On the invasion of the Mongols on the Great Wall back in Qin Dynasty? On predatory birds, dinosaurs and stuff that had stomped on or eaten my pre-human ancestors? What does protesting history accomplish? I bet the protestors are enjoying their day off today on Columbus Day anyway. (Or maybe I’m not getting the full story of what their issues are.)
…that some of you guys have to work? I’m sorry. I got up about half an hour ago and I’m going into the living room to continue watching DVD episodes of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with my fiance now. *yawn* *stretch* *scratch*
After the Boot Camp race, Mr. W and I joined Vanessa and Jay at a nearby shopping outlet and had lunch, swapping stories and licking our flesh wounds. On top of bruises on both knees and down both shins, I was missing two strips of skin down the length of my left shin. I’d been dubious when Vanessa told me to wear pants, especially when I was in duo-layered jogging pants watching all these women walking around in cute tiny running shorts before the race. I pointed that out, and Vanessa whispered, “You’ll thank me later.” My GOD was she right. She said one girl was crying toward the end of the race, but I didn’t see her. Jay was amused at the guys who powered through the beginning of the race, showing off, as those were the same men who were hyperventillating and dying after the first obstacle, having run out of juice.
We did a little shopping, and Mr. W bought 3 tubs of protein powder at a VitaminWorld outlet. Jay bought a bottle of calcium supplements because the topic of milk products came up over lunch and he expressed emphatic distaste for milk, cheese, etc. and Mr. W said, “Really? Then where do you get your calcium from?” Jay had shrugged, and I told him that Asian (me) and black (him) people are genetically predisposed to osteoperosis, and it’s easier to pop a pill a day to stave off a later problem, than to have to take precribed medication or be hospitalized for brittle bones and broken hips later on in life. I’m a strong believer that it’s easier, more painless and cost-effective to prevent a problem than to have to fix a problem later on. So at VitaminWorld, Jay (with some more prompting from me) bought the bottle of calcium tabs.
When Mr. W and I were driving home, there was a bit of silence in the car, and Mr. W suddenly chuckled and said, “I wonder if Jay felt pressured to buy the calcium.”
“What?”
“I mean, he didn’t seem like he really wanted to get calcium until you said all that stuff outside the store.”
“I don’t CARE,” I said flatly. “I absolutely believe that he needs to be taking those calcium supplements and whether he felt pressure or not, I still think I may have saved him some big grief in the future. Besides, he can always NOT take them, and it only costs him like $6 bucks.” My dad’s a new osteoperosis victim and is taking prescribed medication for it. The medication is causing havoc on his liver and now he’s dealing with a liver issue on top of all this other problems, and trying to figure out how to balance medications so that he can get the effectiveness of one without counteracting with the side effects of another, and hoping the side effects of one or the other isn’t going to kill him instead. Being lactose intolerant like most Asians, I bet my dad wishes he’d just taken a calcium tablet once or twice a day in his youth.
But maybe that WAS too imposing of me for Jay, I mean, I HAD just met the guy for the first time that day… But he makes Vanessa happy, so he needs to stick around for as long as possible to keep doing that for my friend who is so loyal she didn’t leave me behind in the dust during a hard race when she was clearly physically able to have recovered and shaved minutes off her time had she just thought of herself before thinking of me.
The Marine Corps Boot Camp Challenge Obstacle Course kicked my ass. I was going to do a blog post where the title is “Marine Corps Boot Camp Challenge” and the body of the post is “I don’t want to talk about it.” That’s it. But Vicky told me to blog my experience because in the very least, I did it, I finished the course, and how many people could say that? “Uh, like a thousand this year,” I told her. =P Mr. W pointed out that of the thousand, there were many who finished after me, and even some who had to be taken care of by the paramedics on-site.
This was the worst race I’d ever run. I’ve felt bad in my own practice runs in the past, but I was never this far off the game in an actual race before, and that includes the Disneyland Half-Marathon that I ran without training for in which I developed a blood blister under a toenail and eventually ended up losing that nail. THIS race, I had to run while my period was going on. THIS race, I was anemic AND out-of-practice for after a week doing nothing in Hawaii. If you’re a distance runner you know about the first minutes of feeling like crap during a run, and then establishing and maintaining your rhythm where your body works efficiently with your breathing and you feel like you can run forever. I never got there in this race. After the first eighth of a mile, you hit three consecutive hay stacks you’re supposed to leap over as drill instructors yell at you to move it you lazy slow maggot. Mile two, you hit the obstacle courses all the way until you have about a half mile left of the race. The first obstacle was a series of hurdles, made of thick round logs and at a height of about my chin level, so I had to hurl myself over the top with one leg, swing my other leg over in a pirhouette and twirl off the log onto the next log, for about 5 consecutive logs. And then there were the over-under-over-under obstacles, and tunnel crawls. There’d be a 6-foot stack of logs you had to go over, then upon landing after jumping off, you run 5 feet to crawl under a cargo net as instructors scream at you to hurry up on the other side with encouraging words like, “Well you aren’t FIRST, let’s just put it THAT WAY! That’s great, just HOLD UP EVERYBODY ELSE! THAT’s a good strategy! When I talk to you I need to see your MOUTH OPEN IN A RESPONSE! It’s SIR YES SIR!” They pretty much didn’t pick on me, but one did yell at Vanessa, “TODAY, ladies, TODAY! Get OVER it, TODAY!” and with her Navy military training, she yelled back, “SIR, TODAY, SIR!” as I rolled my eyes at the drill instructor. Good thing he didn’t see me, I could only imagine what he would’ve said to me, considering this other time when one was yelling at another girl, Vanessa smiled and the DI caught her and ran next to her, yelling, “What are you smiling at? DO YOU FIND THIS FUNNY?!” “Sir, no, sir!”
It was a very, very humbling experience. I had an incapacitating pain in the midst of the course that felt like sharp cramps on either side of my stomach, and a few steps farther, the pain permeated my body and I felt it through to my back. I was afraid my kidneys were going to burst. All my organs were twisting inside of me. I had to slow to a walk as I gasped. Vanessa never left me. I remembered back to the beginning of the race, when we were standing by the start line after all the individual men had started and we were waiting for the individual women to start 15 minutes later. She turned to me and said, “If I die out there for ANY reason, keep going.” I’d told her, “If I die for any reason out there, call 9-1-1!” Little did I know how close I’d come, or so it felt.
Oh yeah. Fox holes. Deep holes in the ground, about 3 feet deep, 5 feet wide, you simply jump in and then jump back out the other side of and then continue on the course. There were water hoses and sprays, but no mud in the fox holes. The freakin easiest thing on the whole course was the pushup stations. You do 10 boy pushups (on toes) or 20 girl pushups (on knees). All the women around me did boy pushups cuz who wants to waste time doing 20 when you can do 10 and move on?
Vanessa’s boyfriend Jay and Mr. W kicked ass. They crossed the finish line together in about 25, 26 minutes. Vanessa mentally prepared me for a sprint-ending with “You ready? You ready?”, which we did and we turned the corner and burst through the finish line at full-on sprint when the clock read 45 minutes, so taking into account the 15-minute delay at the beginning of the race as they held all the individual women back to give the men a 15-minute lead, Vanessa and I did the 5K course in 30 minutes. Ouch.
I never did see Dwaine, tho, and as of right now, he’s still missing. I’ve left him a ton of voice mails on his phone and did not get a callback all weekend. =P
