Laughter is the Best Medicine

Have I mentioned that I love the Onion?  Today, I stumbled across this little gem:

New York Marathon Winner Tests Positive For Performance-Enhancing Horse

Maybe I've been going about this training this the wrong way...

Competitive Sign Making

As I mentioned before, my friends as I went out Sunday to cheer on the New Orleans 70.3 Half Ironman.  The goal was to make people smile.  Anyone that has competed in endurance events appreciates the brief reprieve that can come with a good laugh mid-race.  Someone in costume, a funny sign, or people enthusiastically cheering can buy you a minute of energy, laughter or distraction from pain.  So we parked ourselves around mile 10.5 on the run and began our own competition in a lesser known sport:

Competitive Sign Making 

It's hard to tell but in addition to laughs we were handing out pretzels and ice.

Notably, we got about as many chuckles from the experience as the runners did.  Quite a few people threw some zingers our way, so we started keeping track.  Among the best hits were:

1. (After shouting "Keep it up!")  "I can keep it up all day.  You always leave me smiling & satisfied!"  <wink>
2. "You sound like my wife."  (VERY popular response)
3. " 'This hurts.'  Is that what she said?"
4. "This is so hard!"  (Points at us to get the "That's what she said" response.)
5. (And after grabbing some ice) "Ooo!  Big hunk!  I'm a big hunk!"  <winks>

We were told by a bunch of people we had the best signs, so I'm gonna chalk that up as a win.  Sweet!  We also came up with some great ideas for next time.  What's your favorite spectator sign?

Sense of Humor

The Cleveland Marathon's facebook page recently polled people for the best humorous running shirts they've seen.  I got a good laugh from a few of them.  My favorites?

I thought they said "Rum"

I like "I eat miles for breakfast" better, but this was the
only picture I could find.

And last but not least:

"If found on ground please drag across finish line"

Seen any good ones lately?

Open Mouth. Insert Foot.

Minutes after I posted yesterday about being in a wonderfully good mood I realized I was missing my wallet.  Ha!  Talk about a challenge.  I wrote how I was going to smile fanatically all day no matter what and then... whoops!  I find myself retracing my steps from the morning, making police reports and canceling cards.

The good news is that I don't keep much in my wallet.  Just my drivers license and a couple credit/debits cards.  And no one had attempted to make any charges.  I don't think it was stolen.  Most likely it fell out of my back pocket when I took the scenic route biking to campus yesterday.  (Of course I took the scenic route!  It was nice out.  What can I say?)  So it wasn't tragic.  The episode is most accurately described as a major hassle.

But every time I got frustrated about the situation, I thought about the post I put up earlier in the day challenging everyone to smile & improve their mood.  "Fake it 'til you make it," was the message.  And you know what.  Every time I thought about it, I laughed at myself and the uncanny timing of it all.  And then I would force myself to smile.  You know what?  It actually did make me feel a little better (which then made me actually smile.)

Story of my life.

The other thing that made me feel better?  Getting in a spinning workout last night since yesterday was my day off from running!  And now I'll make sure I go for a run and a long bike ride today.  <sigh>  Well...  You gotta be able to laugh at yourself.

Have you had a good laugh lately?