For the Love of Coffee

It’s coffee time again. Grab a mug of your favorite steamy beverage and join me for some coffee talk.

If we were having coffee I would tell you about the experience I had trying to register for the Marine Corps 17.75K race.

In a recent post, I wrote about my friend Nancy inviting me to run the Marine Corps Marathon this fall with her, my hubby, and our mutual friend Dennis. Dennis, at 76 years old, has run the Marine Corps Marathon 30 times. After undertraining for his last one, about 10 years ago, he said he would never run another marathon.

Runners, more than any other group, should never say never. Dennis, following a significant weight loss and fitness regimen, has decided to run MCM again this year. Nancy has visions of us all crossing the finish line together.

For those of you unfamiliar with this marathon, it is so popular that to get to run it, you must first win entry through a lottery system, unless you have run it more than five previous times. Both Dennis and Nancy fall into the latter category; Bill and I do not.

The Marine Corps, however, guarantees access to their marathon if you register for and complete the Marine Corps 17.75K race, run each March near Quantico, Virginia. I decided to enter this race so that if I decide to run the marathon, I will be assured of a spot.

The website for the race, run on a hilly course through Prince William Forest Park on gravel and paved surfaces, warned that this event sells out quickly. Armed with this knowledge, I set a notification on my calendar for noon on February 20, the designated time for registration to open.

At exactly noon, I logged onto the site and clicked on the registration button. And got an error message. Ugh! I tried a few more times and was eventually directed to the registration page. After filling out all of my information, I got a message, complete with a spinning circle, that said my registration was processing. Success, or so I thought.

I quickly opened another tab and attempted to register my hubby for the race. I tried for another 10 minutes without success to get to the registration page. Panicked, I called to Bill. “I can’t register you! Get on your laptop and try to get to the registration page for the race.” We both tried unsuccessfully for an additional 10 minutes to get onto the correct page to fill in Bill’s registration data.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to access the page. I quickly filled in Bill’s information and got the same “processing” screen as I had gotten for my registration. The processing screen quickly turned into a “Congratulations!” screen and a confirmation email was sent to Bill.

“Wait a minute!” I thought, “I never got a confirmation email for me.” Sure enough, when I clicked back onto the page that had been processing my registration, I now found a blank registration page. My data was no longer there. I had never actually successfully registered myself! So many Type A runners (me included) had tried to register at precisely noon, the system was overloaded.

My fingers flew over the keyboard as I resubmitted my registration information and again clicked “register“. I finally got a confirmation email. Both Hubby and I are officially registered and have begun training. Whew! Compared to the registration process, running the 11-mile race should be a snap.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about a recent program Bill and I listened to on NPR called the TED Radio Hour. This particular program was titled “A Better You“.

One of the guests on the show, technology guru Matt Cutts, talked about a quest for self-improvement he has implemented. He tries something new for 30 days. Yes, every 30 days he tries a new “something new” and he does it every day for 30 days. 30 days has been found to be approximately the time it takes for a new task to become a habit.

If he enjoys the new activity, as when he learned the ukelele, he continues doing it; if he doesn’t enjoy the undertaking, like when he tried meditation, he discontinues it after the 30-day trial period.

As Bill could tell, the longer I listened, the more excited I got. “I want to do that!” I exclaimed. He was not surprised; I love trying new things.

I am planning to begin in March. My first new undertaking is to try adult coloring. There are tons of coloring books available for purchase, but there are also free downloadable coloring pages online, which might be a good starting point. I plan to borrow a new set of crayons we have at our house for our grandchildren to use.

I’ll let you know how it goes. Maybe over a cup of coffee.

 

I am linking up with Coco from Running With Perseverance and Deborah from Confessions of a Mother Runner for their Ultimate Coffee Date, Kooky Runner for Tuesday Topics, and Fairytales and Fitness for Friday 5.