Farmers tan

Farmer's tan (adjective/possibly a noun) having a tan from mid-bicep down, but lack of tan from mid-bicep up. One lift of one's short sleeve shirt sleeve will show the amount of paleness one has.

It's that time of year where sitting inside seems almost crazy to think about which is why I have been spending my time outside studying while taking in the rays along with the exhaust from the nearby cars. After a total of 2 days I have already developed a farmers tan that even old McDonald would be proud of! What makes me feel better is that all the other guys walking on campus have them too. So apparently farmer's tans are all in style this season. Usually I would take care of this problem by rolling up my sleeves a little bit, but then I realized how AWESOME I look when I do that (little sarcasm there). When I have my unbearably pale arms I usually go running sometime during the day so I can knock out my run while at the same time soaking up some rays, but the past couple of weeks have been a little unorganized schedule wise.

I am not the kind of guy who would lay out and soak up some sun while sipping on a little fruity drink. I am the kind of guy who would rather cut the grass, play some football or ultimate frisbee, or hang out at the lake in order to get a tan. I would consider running as a "farmer's tan" because running is not about looking good, picking up girls, or having someone else do work for you because running is hard nosed-sweaty-dedicated work. In running you get what you put into your running. Farmer tans for some people say 'hey that guy needs to lay out more,' but when I see a farmer's tan I see someone who has put in hours and hours of hard work and dedication. Maybe nowadays more people should have farmer tans? What I am trying to say is that things in life are not always going to be as glamorous or sugar coated  like everyone would like them to be, but hard work and dedication, just like burnt arms, will show people the person you really are.

Low Expectations, High Goals

Today as I was coming out of my class this morning, I caught up with a guy in my class who was going to the rec center. I caught up to him and asked him if he was going to get a little workout in, and he said that he was and then asked me what I was going to do, and I was like "yea I'm probably just going to run for a hour," and he was like "WOW! Are you training for something?" I was like "Yea I've got a nine mile race this weekend," and he told me good luck and all that jazz and asked if there was a time I was going for, and it took me a while to register in my head that my race was less than a week away so I said "uhhh...probably somewhere along 57 mins for 9mins," which that is around 6:20 per mile. We parted ways to get our SWELL on and I kept thinking 57? 57?! Is that all I'm going to shoot for? So with all the math going on in my head trying to calculate what kind of pace I should and could run. ANYWHO I set off on my run feeling pretty awesome (started off 6:31 pace) then after a few miles in the books I went down to around 6:27 pace then on down to 6:22 pace. I ended up running the 9 miles in around 57:30, and then I began to think to myself that if I can do this all by myself imagine what I can do when I'm racing other guys and adrenaline pumping through my veins!

I feel like every time I try to do something such as run a 9 mile race, asking a lady friend out on a date, or doing something that could possibly knock my self-confidence down a notch I usually expect for the worst, but I have found out that over time I am more capable of doing things if I set my mind to it. I'll stick with the running example, when I thought about running 57mins for 9 miles I then remembered that 55mins won the race last year, and I've gotta be kidding myself if I think I am going to let myself come in second place aka First Loser. Even if I do come in 2nd or 3rd or even last I don't run for the "fame" or "glory" because I do what makes me feel good and running a bad race will never make me hate what I love. What I am trying to get across is that I know that sometimes in order to have something you love, you have to go through the struggles and the pain of your journey to be able to cherish and understand what you have accomplished.