Its my Birthday, Its my Birthday.... OK, not really. My half-birthday. I have been trying for YEARS to get the half birthday thing to catch on - 2008 was the year! My Dad got me a Wii a few weeks back (I think he was just humoring me...) and today I got the wait staff and fellow diners at my local Hibachi restaurant - the Kirin House - to sing Happy Birthday and give me ice cream! (we did tell them it was my half birthday but they did the singing thing anyhow - it was pretty funny.)Finally, after 39 years, someone celebrated my half birthday! Tres exciting....
My scheduled long run this week was 11 miles. I have tennis both Saturday and Sunday so wasn't sure how to fit it in. I decided to get up at 4:00 this morning and make the run. I started off from Lifetime at 5:00 and ran from there to Peachtree Ridge High School, in and around a few parking lots, ending up with a couple of loops around Discover Mills. All in all, a little over 11 miles in around 2 hours and made it to work on time! :) It is funny how once you get over a certain mileage point it just doesn't seem all that far. Training for the half in March, 10 miles seemed HUGE, today it seemed like no big deal. I was more worried about the time frame and getting to work than whether or not I could make it. I guess that is a sign that my training is paying off in endurance. I may lose a couple of toenails but will be able to run forever!
One more Olympic related story... If you have not seen Hitler's Pawn on HBO, you have to watch it. It is the story of Gretel Bergmann (later changed her name to Margaret Lambert) who was a high jumper in 1930s Germany. She as used by the Nazi party as a means to ensure that the United States would not boycott the Olympics on 1936. The Nazi party sent her to training camps and led her to believe that she was going to be on the Olympic team. They kept her in training as a way to prove that Germany was not discriminating and that they had Jews on the Olympic roster. Once they had convinced the U.S. to participate in the games, in fact the day after the U.S. team got on the ship to travel to Berlin, she was sent a letter telling her that there was not room for her on the team and she could not participate. The official story was that she was injured and could not participate although that was not really what happened. I have always been fascinated by the history of WWII and Nazi Germany. As a kid, I read The Diary of Anne Frank and The Hiding Place several times. It is just so hard to believe the things that were endured during that time. I am not sure if it is still showing on HBO, it was on last week. If you have a chance to see it, it is such an interesting and heartbreaking documentary.
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