Boomer Sooner

Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner;
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner;
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner;
Boomer Sooner, Boomer Sooner.
x2

I'm Sooner born and Sooner bred,
And when I die I'll be Sooner dead!

Rah Oklahoma,
Rah Oklahoma,
Rah Oklahomaaaaa
O.K.U!



Sung with much spirit to this tune.

Nasty Little Blighters

This is a zebra mosquito. It also has a fancy Latin name but what really matters is that it is evil and dishes out the most evil of mosquito bites that ever were dished out. OK. So maybe I don't have malaria. I don't even have the West Nile virus that these little blighters have a penchant for infecting their victims with. Heck, I don't even have Dengue Fever (or break-bone fever to old school mosquito-borne-disease watchers) but goodness me I itch!

Look! Just look at the state of my pegs!

These Oklahoma mosquitoes are mean. I thought that Portugal had it all as far as really itchy insect bites go (minus the diseases). I thought I'd experienced the pain of itchy bites at their full-force... but no! These bugs are the meanest of the mean and this photo of my legs wasn't even taken with the bites at the height of their purpliness. One friend even thought I had ring-worm and I can't even shave my legs for fear of nicking a bite and dying a terrible death like Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamen curse fame...

Frankly my legs look a fright which is largely easily avoided by covering up. However when I'm in my running get-up I'm afraid that, rather than a marching band, my run may soon be accompanied by the sound of a small child screaming and running in the opposite direction. I'm trying to be tough and put on the facade of super-tough running girl who runs despite horrible infestation but it's tough. The itching is driving me up the wall and I don't think my constant wriggling is doing much for Amanda's sleep either so I have a solution. Mosquitoes of Norman listen up: I know I am a tasty morsel but I think perhaps you will find Amanda to be exceedingly tasty too. Why don't you pick on her instead?!

Keep on Running

So, for those of you who have been present for my long rants about the wonders of running (those of you that haven't are missing out on great conversation!) will be relieved to find out that I am indeed still running. I am actually even training to run (notice the word "run" and not "race") a half-marathon in November along (a very little bit of) Route 66. This week my training regime, courtesy of runnersworld.com has had me running an "easy" run for 2 miles, a tempo run for 5 and tomorrow it's decreed a 7 mile long run. Up until the last couple of weeks my runs have either had to be at the break of dawn or inside due to the ridiculous heat of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Summers are HOT they don't call 40C a heatwave, it's just Summer and at night 21C is cool. Coming from London, where at 30C the tubes stop and air-conditioning in cinemas breaks down, I was in for a bit of a shock and there was no way I could fall out of bed at 10am and hope to run anywhere without dying of heatdisease*. Still, gradually I managed to work out a regime involving the university's incredibly fancy gym and daybreak. Now it's cooler 530am starts are no longer necessary and I don't have to resort to the gym for afternoon runs.

Last Tuesday I went for a post-class run at the previously inconceivable time of 7pm around the campus taking in OU's 82,112 seater football stadium, the 2,700 capacity baseball stadium, the enormous multi-sport training facility at Griffin Park and the crazy aircraft hangar known as "Everest Training Center" which is an indoor football field rumored to be able to recreate many weather conditions. Sport is big here at OU and as if all the buildings weren't enough to dwarf my achievements, on the last leg of my run (which at this stage of sporting prowess is starting to feel a bit lame and I'm hot and tired and want to be at home) I pass by a field where the percussion section of the Pride is practicing for Saturday's game. The drumming cheered me on a little and I'm sure if I'd actually been taking my split-times would have propelled me into a 9 minute mile great! Which made me wonder again about the lack of cheer in British schools. Maybe if we'd have had a band in my extremely nonchalant high school I might have been a bit more encouraged to take up a sport and participate in school life a bit more and I would never have made it to 25, fat and wheezing at a 100 meter lope and having to train my body for the first to time to cope with a raised heartrate. Even if I hadn't been part of the sports team I bet I would have been part of the band. Have you seen their outfits?! They get hats and sometimes even capes and the geeks of the school get to participate in the life of the school rather than skulking in the recesses. Either way I don't think participating can be bad and making a place for everyone in sports, be it on the team (which between the offense and the defense of a American football team can be 50+), the cheersquads, the band or just being part of the crowd, wearing your school colours and screaming for all it's worth can possibly be a bad thing and British schools could learn a lot. If we had a bit more cheer in our highschools maybe we'd have a few more spectators and support for our inter-university clashes. Maybe we'd even need to build stadiums, or at least borrow them.

As for me, I'll just keep on running. My goal for the half-marathon is just to finish it without walking (except maybe to pee or drink) then who knows? I fancy the New York Marathon in 2007 and thankfully I have my own one-woman cheer squad. She's even promised to take care of the foil blanket and jelly babies.



*Heatdisease is (I think) an overdramatic term for Heatstroke used in a running book I read one afternoon in a Borders Books where Amanda and I sought refuge and air-conditioning on a particularly hot day.

More of a Short Red Rally

So much for the Big Red Rally. My classes are all in the evenings and this unfortunately clashed with the 630 pm start of aforementioned Rally. I did think that, what with the rally being "Big" it would go on for more than half an hour. I guess that no matter how Big and Red the Rally is Sooners just don't have the stamina to be perky for more than half an hour, or at least not without some sort of competitive sporting action...