not a fan of hunter-galvan...

she stole the show and my money.

and i must vent. i seriously cannot stop thinking about the fact that liza hunter galvan cheated her way to a victory over me in san antonio.
as you may or may not recall, i got second place in the san antonio marathon behind this galvan-girl. she has a reputation amongst the san antonio running community as being rude and in her mind- a running goddess. although, the entire city of san antonio views her as this "local celeb"...

i remember when she beat me, she got whisked away to all these interviews...she was on all the news stations and all over the papers. i thought, how lame-- i wish i had won.
well come to find out, she has been taking EPO! i read about this drug and here is what i found::

EPO stimulates bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. For this reason EPO is most commonly used amongst endurance athletes as a higher RB count means better oxygen transportation and so a higher rate of aerobic respiration. The faster the rate of aerobic respiration, the higher the level at which the athlete can work without utilising the anaerobic systems which produce lactic acid and cause fatigue.

way to go, galvan. i'm sure we'd all be super speedy if we took drugs that transported our oxygen in a most efficient way and slowed our fatigue. in fact, maybe at mile 21, when i was dying and your epo was taking over, i could have kicked it into high gear and taken first.

laaaaaaame.

anyway, she has won many races and a lot of prize cash. in fact, in the sa marathon alone she won 3 grand and i only walked away with 1000. i really feel that they should go back and take her titles away because it's not fair that people who play by the rules have to compete against people who are cheating their way to the top.

this is life you say? i know. it's just lame to be personally affected and to be robbed of a title that would have been such an honor to hold. not saying that i would have beat her. she was pretty far ahead of me...but, i would say that everyone else who raced her and played by the rules deserves the title far more than she does.

SO, let's set the record straight san antonio!!! i'm calling randy beamer ;o)

first day of school- FALL 09!

i've always loved the first day of school. i love sitting in the classroom and waiting for all my little students to walk through the door. there i stand and say "are you looking for running class?" and normally i get a "ya, are you too?" and then i proceed, "no no no, my dear little student...i am your instructor!!! and welcome to the best class of your entire college career!!!"
i love going over the syllabus and explaining all the amazing and fun-filled things we will be doing together over the next few months and then for my very favorite-- introductions.
you've all done this, im sure-- every student goes around and says their name, their hometown, and something interesting about themselves. this always creates quite the conversation and a level of comfort that i see necessary for the class environment i'm looking for.

for your entertainment, here are few of my favorite interesting student-facts from the day:
1. one of my students is a 4th generation Kenyan! and was born in mombasa- which led me to my landing in mombasa in kenya story.
2. another girl is from Nigeria and she is here for med school and is going to take her learning's back to her country and help those in need.
3. one boy "tames tigers"
4. another girl was in the circus for a week. i asked her, "and what exactly did you do?" and she said "picked up elephant shit". which may explain her limited amount of time in the circus.
5. a lot of my students are from san antonio and LOVE the spurs
6. one of those students claims that she is going to be the first female owner of the spurs.
7. one girl is a quadruplet! 1 of her siblings is here at UT with her-- and the other two are at tech.
8. one girl said that her running goal is to run a sub 4 minute mile and also claims that she has only run 3 times in the past 4 years. i think she was a little confused about mile pacing and such.
9. i had two students in the same class that were born and raised in romania--they kind of had a small reunion of sorts right then and there.
10. everyone claimed to love their dog...i had to finally say- "ya, hopefully we all love our dogs and this is becoming un-interesting so you're not allowed to say i love my dog"
11. so then, one girl professed that she rescues cat's-- and then said she's constantly picking up cat 'S'. so her and the elephant girl had a special connection. it was neat.
12. one student said that they had gotten badly injured while running last year
13...and then the next student claimed to be an EMT so he says "don't you worry, i've gotcha all covered in case of an emergency"
14. i had a lot of students who love to dance, love to sing, love to cook.
15. one guy brews his own beer.
16. one girls boyfriend is a kappa sig at baylor
17. one girls mom is my dad and stepmom's neighbor
18. and turns out another girl is MY neighbor...in the dorm...and this is when i revealed my interesting fact-- that we live in whitis court dormitory. i think they thought i was joking...and then i told them that we'd just have to have a dorm party and they can see for themselves.
19. one of my students has been a UT student for 25 years and has not missed a semester of taking class. he's also one of the few people left in any of my classes that was born before the 90s.
so there you go-- a little peek into what goes on in the first day of class. i then give them my intro that typically goes something like so-
my husband and i grew up in san antonio, i went to a&m (doesn't always go over so well now that i'm at UT) he went to baylor, i transferred to baylor, we graduated, got married. he was dead set on a masters, i didn't know what i'd do in waco texas for two years so i decided i guess i'd continue my education too. i switched from communications to sport's pedagogy--influenced by my experiences on the baylor cross and track team, they made me teach bowling, i've always bowled granny shots, i decided baylor needed running classes--selfish decision so i didn't have to teach lame classes like bowling, i developed the running curriculum and did that for two years, i also became a more serious runner and ran a series of marathons, trey decided a masters wasn't enough, he got accepted to a phd program at UT, the race was on to find a job so we could move down here to our favorite city and he didn't have to commute, trey won the race and got a job in housing, a few weeks later i got a job in the kinesiology department, i found out that UT didn't have running classes, i changed that, and here we all are loving life and loving running...and you have me to thank ;o) cheers...to myself.
okay, i don't say it quite like that--but pretty much.

and since i'm sure you are all just sooooooooooooooooo interested in my non-sense life stories stay tuned for day 2, or any other hilarious mishaps that occur under my supervision as instructor guinn. ugh, too bad for F.E.R.P.A or i would copy and paste some very very humorous emails that i've recently received.

alright, that's all i've got for today. over and out.

blame it all on my roots.

"cowboy homecoming" is a tradition that my family takes part in annually. the event is held in our hometown - pleasanton, texas. for as long as i can remember, the gossetts have always made a showing. it is held in the heat of august and always consist of live bands (country and tejano, of course), BBQ cook-offs, the cowboy gallop 5k, a parade through the heart of downtown, a carnival, and a whole lot of giddy-up-ing.

i must confess, i've missed out on all the fun these past few years and it sure felt good to be back. although nothing could do justice, below is a little re-cap via pics and video. there's something about country music and the simple life that remind me so much of my childhood--being out on the farm with 'ol ned and embracing my roots. this little town holds a special place in my heart, as it truly is the very place that my family has thrived and survived for over 100 years... and this weekend was an opportunity to give thanks and be reminded of where i came from and the blessing that pleasanton texas, williams hardware, and williams farm have been to my family.

Eli Young Concert!!! we LOVE eli young band!

i snuck in... rebel without a cause.

we were able to make friends with security and get "back stage"

next morning was race morning! i was able to take first with a time of 20:49...clearly, not the stiffest competition ;o)
when you win, they take your picture and put it in the pleasanton paper and my grandmother "dodo" used to always cut out and mail it to my brother and i...i told ned he must carry on this tradition.

Here's papa joe serving up tj's breakfast taco's - post race yet still only 8:00am.

and here's the fine chef himself--A&M flag... necessary.

and now, for the best surprise of my weekend-- they added GUINN to the farm gate!!! Dad has been wanting me to see this for months and finally, we were pulling in (just after our joyous sing-along drive) and there it is...guinn on the gate! i jumped out of the truck and said "ahhhhh take my picture take my picture" i knew guinn would be sooooo excited!" and then dad threw me his hat for special effect, of course.

i guess that's a wrap...of cowboy homecoming '09. if it wasn't for dorm move-in weekend mr. trey guinn would have been there too.

on that note, 200 students are arriving to our house- and it is an exciting time for sure!!

there's something about jellies.

my favorite shoe from childhood made a comeback last summer. urban started selling the perfect jelly-by fary tales are true. here she is-- in all her glory.

by the time i caught on there was only two colors left (white and gray). i bought both pair and am so sad that they've discontinued making these little gems!!

in my younger years, jellies were the only thing i would let my mom put on my foot and i owned them in just about every color.

so, i guess i'll just have to sit back and hope that urban realizes the greatness of the jelly and brings it on back for a round 3!!

announcing-- tucker richter (pipers bestie)

Trey and I had the pleasure of watching little tuck for a night before handing him over to his new parents, ben and mg. Meet piper's cousin and best friend!

dave was in our backyard and somehow we missed the memo.

...here i sat, inside my little a-p-t...excited about kathy griffin on larry king, while dave was having a jam session on the rooftop of trey's phd building....right out side our house.

about midnight, guinn discovered (via a facebook picture post) that dave had recorded a live acl taping. [here's the pic trey discovered of his classmate who, unlike us, was on top of her dave-game]

can you believe that?! so a little acl taping low-down....these free concert and ticket giveaways are quite secretive and low key. you have to be following the acl and klrn blog to get word of it. had we known that this was a possibility we would have done everything in our power to have been there!!
i am now following the blogs religiously and can guarantee you if an opportunity like this presents itself again, we will not miss out. hopefully, we will be redeeming ourselves in the very near future.