Posted May 9th, 2009 by Meg
Apparently, I have owned Shuffley for over a year and it was no longer under warranty. Sad for the retirement of Shuffley, I bought the 3rd generation shuffle and named him Mr. Shuffles (I am not original, but I love to personify). Here is a picture of Shuffley and Mr. Shuffles hanging out on my table.
I didn’t register the fact that there would be differences between 2nd and 3rd iPods until after I used Mr. Shuffles. As you can see, Mr. Shuffles has a monolithic stature making Shuffley look short and stout in comparison. While all the buttons on Shuffley are located on, well, Shuffley, that is not the case for Mr. Shuffles. The on/off and music sequence order button are both still on the iPod itself, but the volume and track control buttons are located on the headphone cord. This detail is going to take awhile for me to adjust to since I am so accustomed to using Shuffley. Overall, I am very excited for Mr. Shuffles and am hopeful that he will be a great replacement.
Posted August 20th, 2008 by Meg
Sunday, August 17th, the race day had finally come. For months, I have been training for America’s Finest City Half Marathon. I had invested many hours, running upward of 25 miles a week. The training required a combination of physical discipline and social sacrifice to accomplish the long distance runs that prepared me for the race. Although I followed my training by the book, I was still nervous about the race.
I slept so lightly the night before the race that when 5am came along I practically jumped out of bed. I ate breakfast, put on my big dorky watch, pinned on my bib number, grabbed Shuffley (my iPod Shuffle) and headed out the door. I sat down on board the freezing shuttle bus, wishing I had stopped at the Starbucks for coffee. A woman in her 40’s sat down next to me and as if we had been awake for hours and known each other for years, we immediately started up a conversation. I found myself more outgoing and talkative than I usually am, especially towards a stranger, to distract my thoughts from the race. We were dropped off at the starting point, Cabrillo National Monument at around 6am. My new friend and I hung out for the hour that remained before the race started. At this point, it started to feel surreal to me; the many months of training alone had made running become a personal outlet for me, but now I was surrounded by hundreds of people, all in it together with the same purpose and goal.
At 7am, the runners began to slowly move forward meaning the race had begun. I said my final words to my new friend, put on my headphones, and went on my merry way. The merriness quickly came to a halt when I realized Shuffley would not turn on. Months of training and preparation to the sound of music, only to have the next 13.1 miles without a song or a beat. Within a few strides, I realized that being upset about it was useless and nothing could be done. I had no place to store the headphones, so I kept them on, secretly hoping that maybe Shuffley would start working throughout the race. In the meantime, I listened to sneakers hitting the pavement, conversations, and cheers from the sidelines. I was surprised by the number of people who stood outside their homes in their pajamas, with a cup of coffee in their hand, cheering everyone on with words of encouragement.
I ran across the finish line to Coldplay’s Viva La Vida playing on the speakers, a song I never thought would become so important to me. My finish time was 2:21:04, which means I was running at a 10:46mins/mile pace. My overall place was 4169 out of 6474. In comparison to all females, I was was placed at 1787 out of 3335. And finally in comparison to all females between the ages of 20-24, I placed 185 out of 303. As you can see with these results, I am not a very fast runner. However, the race for me was not about speed and competition, but instead more to do with finishing. Although very tempting, I never stopped and walked, but only pushed myself through to the finish line.
In the end, I enjoyed San Diego and it’s half marathon; it certainly is a fine city. I love running and I have come a long way with it, which makes me happy. I definitely plan on doing another half marathon again, along with hopefully someday completing a full marathon. However, I am in no immediate rush right now to start training again for long distances, but will continue running regularly.
Note: Shuffley started working again while driving to the hotel on the shuttle bus (!)
