The

Undeniable

Ruth

®

…and the Ruth shall set you free!

  • Americans = People Who Don’t Move

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    I have a huge pet peeve about Americans – we have become a society of people who don’t move!   I’m talking about people who are perpetually sedentary.  It really bothers me to see people getting winded from walking across a parking lot.

    Everything that's wrong with America
    Image by msmail via Flickr

    As a country, we have huge obesity problem.  It’s one thing to have a medical condition or to be on medication that result in weight gain, but another situation when people are eating way more than they need and then never moving to the point where they become incapable of doing it.

    I get really sad when I see this in children.  My cousin took dance classes since she was little and I used to go to the big  recital in the spring that featured every level from the toddlers to the advanced teens.  One year I saw a four year-old who could barely skip because she was so chubby.  You could see every hop for her was an effort.  I wanted to find her parents and ask, “What are you doing to your child?”

    We didn’t used to be this way.  I think a big part of this problem is the fact that modern conveniences have allowed too many of us to adopt a lifestyle where we never need to leave the couch.  Instead of washing, chopping, and cooking food, we have microwave meals or order in.  Instead of sweeping or vacuuming the floor, we have the Roomba do it for us.  Instead of playing outside, our kids play video games.  We used to have to at least walk through the mall to go shopping, but now we can buy everything we want online.

    I remember as a kid, our Saturday morning family tradition was walking to the park to play.  It was simple and fun.  I think a lot of people have forgotten how much fun these simple things are.

    Without having to go more than five blocks from my house, I can buy groceries, go to the pharmacy, get fast food, eat at a real restaurant, bank, mail something, have my clothes dry cleaned, rent a movie, buy running shoes, and visit a park.  It’s a little eerie when I walk to do my errands and I hardly see anyone else on the sidewalks.  This summer, I’ve made a commitment to myself that if I have to go to any of these places, unless I need the cargo space of my car, I’m walking or skating there.

    My end-of-the semester gift to myself is going to be a bike.  My hope is to ride to anywhere that I want to go within five miles of my house, if not seven miles, and where it’s ok to arrive sweaty.  Did I mention that I live in Arizona?  I plan to carry a fresh t-shirt and a stick of deodorant in my Camelbak.  Please feel free to send me sunscreen because I hate having tan lines.

    This proved to me that no one who lives near me uses the sidewalks.  I live near the Arizona Canal – one of the man-made waterways that bring water from the Colorado River to sustain central and southern Arizona.  Many ducks live along the canal and there’s a wonderful path for running and cycling that’s separate from the roadways.  There are tons of places for ducks to make their nests, yet the other day I found a pair of ducks nesting under a fallen construction sign that was only six feet away from the sidewalk and major Phoenix street.  I figured the volume of foot traffic was so low that it seemed like a safe place to start their family.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

  • Half Marathon Recap Part II – The Legal Side

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    When I signed up for the half marathon back in August, I knew my fee was non-refundable.  I have no recollection if I checked a box for a waiver at that time. 

    Description unavailable
    Image by g. rox via Flickr

    Fast forward to January – I got my confirmation email with a link to get my “Packet Pickup Confirmation Sheet.”  I needed to sign and turn it in at the pre-race health expo to get my race number and microchip.  On this form was a “Release and Waiver of Liability Agreement” that was over three inches of small print.  It seems pretty sneaky for the organizers to get us to pay our money and then tell us what we had to agree to in order to participate. 

    Here’s what the waiver said:
    (You/your = the runner; We/us/our = the organizers)

    • Neither you nor your heirs can sue the organizers, sponsors, or municipalities for any reason related to the race.
    • You can’t sue if you’re injured or die during the race, even if we’re negligent.
    • We can use your name and photo without paying you for it.
    • If the event is cancelled or delayed, we won’t give you a refund.
    • You will pay all expenses for your medical care related to doing the race.

    Past research of Arizona case law taught me that signing a waiver that releases an entity from liability, even if that entity is negligent, will be upheld by the court.  So basically, if you sign the waiver and get hurt, you can’t sue and win.  All the runners I talked to before the race said that they signed the waiver without reading it.  However, I remembered something from contract law that said if you cross out the terms of the contract that you don’t like before you sign it, that it removes those terms from the agreement.  I went through the waiver and crossed out the clause that released them from liability for their negligence and the clause that said I’m responsible for all race related medical expenses.  I used a bright royal blue ballpoint pen to cross out the clauses so they couldn’t claim that my marks could be mistaken for a bad print job from my printer. 

    When I went to the pre-race expo, I brought clean copy of the waiver in case they didn’t accept my version of the agreement.  It ends up I didn’t need it.  The volunteer accepted my agreement without any questions. 

    I emailed my personal injury attorney friend and he said what I did would probably hold up in court.  Looking back, I’m surprised that the agreement didn’t have a clause that said that participants couldn’t alter the waiver before signing it or that the organizers didn’t tell the expo volunteers not to accept waivers that had been altered.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

  • Half Marathon Recap

    ·

    Ruth Carter

    Sunday, January 17th, 2010, I ran my first half marathon.  My goals were simple: finish the race without dying or being horribly injured and finish the race without stopping or walking.

    The P.F. Chang Rock n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon in Arizona is one of the biggest races in the world.  They had over 5000 volunteers working the race to take care of the nearly 30,000 runners plus their entourages.  I must have seen over 300 port-a-potties to take care of everyone’s needs.

    This race was not like any race I’d ever seen.  All along the route there were interesting things to look at to keep myself entertained and not focused on how much further I had to go.  Sometimes I was so entertained that I wasn’t really paying attention to how much I was running. 

    The Clothing Drive
    Even though Arizona is known for its warm weather, it’s still cold on January mornings.  The marathon started at 7:30am and the half started at 8:30am.  Many of us arrived at the race in extra layers that we wouldn’t need by the end of the race.  A lot of us wore clothes to donate to charity.  As we began to warm up during the first few miles of the race, we took off our extra sweatshirts, hats, and gloves and threw them to the side of the route where volunteers with huge garbage bags gathered them up to give to the homeless.  I purchased a hoodie at Goodwill for $4 a few days before the race to keep me warm pre-race and donated back.

    2010 PF Changs Rock-n-Roll Marathon_09
    Image by azchef101 via Flickr

    The Costumes
    I dressed for comfort in my running pants and wicking t-shirt, but some of my companions dressed to impress.  We had some wild outfits on the course.  I was amazed that they could run comfortably running, and running pretty fast, in their outfits.  We had a duo running in the orange and baby blue tuxes from “Dumb and Dumber.”  We also had a guy running in a banana suit and another guy running while dressed up like Elvis.  There was also a pair of women who were running in matching argyle knee socks with fuzzy pink cowboy hats.  They made me grin.

    The Signs
    I was so grateful to everyone who came out to cheer us on.  Even if they weren’t there for me (and most of them weren’t), I changed my name to correspond to whatever sign I was looking at.  I pretended to be “Mom,” “Nicole,” and “Uncle Ashley” during the race.  There were also some awesome signs of general encouragement along the route:

    • “Hurry Up.  We’re Hungry.”
    • “You Are Almost Done” (next to 4-mile marker)
    • “5.6 Miles to Free Beer. And the Finish Line.”

    The Vaseline
    Chafing is actually a big concern for runners.  They can get chafing wherever their skin rubs together or against their clothes, like their arms, inner thighs, and even their nipples.  Apparently some people finish long races with bleeding nipples because they’ve been rubbed raw by their shirts.  I usually only put Bodyglide anti-chafe stick on my inner upper arms so my sports bra and ipod strap don’t tear up my skin, but on race day, I decided to be extra careful and put it on my inner thighs too.  I laughed at my friend who had a canister of Vaseline at the starting line and was slathering his inner thighs with it.  Around mile 9, we had volunteer standing at the end of a water station who had sticks with gobs of Vaseline on them for anyone who was having chafing issues during the race. 

    Other Things That Made Me Smile
    I’m not going to deny it, running 13.1 miles is hard.  Sometimes it felt like all I could do was put one foot in front of the other.  I was grateful for anything that made me smile along the way.

    • Water Station Volunteers in Costume: It was obvious that some of our water stations were manned by groups of friends who coordinated their outfits for their enjoyment and ours.  One water station was run by people dressed up like hippies.  Another station was run by a bunch of kids dressed up like nerds – with the taped glasses, suspenders, and pants pulled up to their chests.  It was awesome.
    • I Rickrolled my ipod: I created a special playlist for the race and added Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” to the mix and set my ipod for shuffle.  It came on somewhere during Mile 10.
    • The Cheerleaders at Mile 11:  We had various cheerleading squads dispersed between the live bands along the route.  I’m sure they had to be there super early in the morning due to street closures.  To pass the time until the runners starting coming by, the cheerleaders at Mile 11 wrote motivating messages and drew pictures on the ground with sidewalk chalk for us.  I especially liked the manhole cover they turned into a flower.   

    I finished the race in 2:09:16, without stopping and without major injury.  I couldn’t be happier about my finish, and oddly I’m planning on doing it again next year.  This race gave me a good lesson in humility.  The half marathoner lined up before the race based on their expected race time.  I started with my friend who finished in 1:42:47.  Needless to say, I was a passed a lot.