Mental Preparation for a Half Marathon

In little more than 30 hours I'll be lined up at the starting line for the Moab Other Half. Usually I'd be a bit more excited than I am right now, I'm not so excited because I have not been training for a half marathon very well. Also because the forecast is calling for rain/snow tomorrow and lingering into Sunday morning. The race won't be all bad though. I am looking forward to just race again, its been quite some time since my last real race. I am hoping all goes well for Erika, being that this is by far the longest race and probably run she has ever done. I'll report on our results and experience next week.
I bought a new running headband tonight, that makes me feel better about running in the cold. I think it is the little things that help me prepare for a race like this the most. I learned that during High School. I was always one of the fastest runners in cross country and track during Jr. High and High School, but I was terrible when it came to actually running a race. I got anxious and stressed out before every race to the point that I usually finished 3rd or 4th on my team. That trend of excelling in practice and failing in races continued until my senior year. I finally figured out that if I relaxed, made sure I was comfortable, and having a good time with friends or just enjoying where I was that I could race as well as I practiced. My overall finishing placements rose from the mid 50's to the top ten finishers that year.

Fantasy football

This is my second year playing fantasy football. It is fun. I like voting on other people's weekly matchups and writing football themed poetry. I don't know if everyone else like my poems. That is okay though.
What is it exactly about football that lends itself to poetry? The competition? The camaraderie? I can't pin down, but I can pen it down AHHAHAHAHHAHAH! That was a little play on words.
Well its now Wednesday this week and I wish it would go slower, I don't feel like I'm getting near enough done. I need to somehow create another me in a holodeck and then using newly developed teleporter technology beam the new version of myself out of the holodeck into the real world where the new me can help the original me do stuff. The new me couldn't go by the same name of course, so he'd have to be named Gary. Oh wait, maybe he could get corporate sponsorship and be named Johnsonville or something awesome like that. Its times like these that make a person want 24th century technology more than ever.
A girl just walked by the computer that I'm typing on at SLCC that walks like a chicken. Not wing flappin' or anything, she was just kind of chicken bobbing her head with each step. Needless to say I was and am still amused. How wrong is that of me to be amused by things like that? After all, do I walk weird and people laugh at me? You know the more I think about it I hope that if I do walk funny that people recognize that and take a moment to chuckle. Life is better when you're laughing about something, or at someone.
I received a comment on my second post, it seemed like an subtle insult about the quality of my bloggin' thoughts. I don't really know what other people blog about, or if their blogs are any more poignant. So if you would like to share with me what you blog about that would be useful.

A Friday to end the monotony

Its Friday today... I like Fridays as much or more than the next person but not for all the same reasons. I like Fridays cause I get to use a martini glass to drink water from at the office, I guess I never really checked with anyone if that was okay to do, but no one seems to mind. Plus sometimes people bring in treats or ice cream and cake for their birthdays, and if you are eating an otherwise average ice cream from a martini glass it suddenly morphs to an extrordinary desert. I'm not sure how to explain it really, you just feel more sophisticated that way. The other thing I really like about Friday is its casual day so everyone in the office dresses more like me. Don't get me wrong I'm no slacker, I'm just an intern thats why I don't typically dress up during the regular ho-hum days of the week.

I'm going to Frightmares at Lagoon tomorrow, thats pretty exciting for me cause I haven't been to Lagoon yet this year and I haven't been to a haunted house for several years. I wonder if there is some way to make haunted houses as scary as they were when I was younger. I just don't see that happening now that I'm old enough to know that vampires can't live in North America, and I checked the phase of the moon so I know real werewolves are not an issue. Further more Zombies aren't so much scary as they are rockin' in bands, case in point Rob Zombie. Maybe an actually scary haunted house would be filled with green-house gas emissions, rising costs of gasoline, and clowns. Those are the scariest things I can think of.

Introductions

Well I did it, I started a blog. I have been putting this off for quite sometime because the term 'blog' just sounds so lame to me.
Anyway my name is Benjamin Shewell (not BenJams). I live in Salt Lake City, UT. BenJams is a nickname of mine... one that I'm not particularly fond of either. I recieved the nickname a few years back when a co-worker of mine tried to call me by my whole first name, Benjamin, and somehow blurted out 'BenJams'. So, like most people I didn't like that very much that someone had just mis-said my name to my face, and my other friends at work thought it was so funny that they just kept calling me BenJams. For some time I protested the usage, but I have given up on that, and have come to terms with the fact that I might never be rid of it.
Oh yeah, back to my introduction, I am 6'1.753". Some people would say 6'2", but they are just rounding up, and I don't do that. Well I guess I do round up in some instances, like in math and science classes, or anytime I'm adding up money. I have red hair and freckles, I am pretty much the poster boy for Americans with Scandanavian heritage, and Ron Howard's doppleganger. I am 26. My wife's name is Erika, we have been married since 04June2004. I am a student at Salt Lake Community College right now, but in the spring I will be transferring the the University of Utah.
Well thats all I can think to write about today. There will be more though, lots more.