10Ks are WAY easier than marathons - 2010 RiverRun recap

I ran my first marathon last October, and took most of the winter months off from distance running. You know, you have to take care of your body, and it takes a long time to recover physically from a marathon…okay, maybe I didn’t run because when it comes to cold weather, I’m the biggest baby on the face of the earth. There’s no chance I’m running outside like the crazy people I see out when it’s 5 degrees above zero (I mean come on, stop it). And while I did run indoors on the track on occasion, it wasn’t really doing it for me.

But now that it’s sufficiently warm again in Iowa, I’ve been getting back into the habit of running, and absolutely loving it. I’m pleased to know that the enjoyment I got out of training for the Des Moines Marathon wasn’t fleeting. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to run another marathon this season, but in the meantime, I ran my first 10 kilometer race this past weekend in Iowa City, at the RiverRun.

After some modest training, I felt pretty good about the impending race and was really looking forward to it. After 26.2 miles, 6.2 should be a piece of cake, I thought. And, I’m not going to lie, it really was!

I cruised through the first 5 miles or so of the race, and realized I had a lot of energy left. I feel one should run a race with the intention of leaving nothing in your tank after it’s over. I certainly don’t run training runs like that, but a race is a race, might as well really push it!

Which is kind of what I thought I was doing. But apparently not. With about a mile left, I realized there was no point in holding anything back. I sped my pace by about 1.5 times, and for the last half mile, I basically sprinted to the finish! While I have to admit, it was actually really fun to pass so many people at the end, but it shouldn’t have gone down quite like that. I should have pushed it harder throughout the race. I guess it would have helped to have some sense of the timed miles I was running, but I forgot to start my wristwatch timer. Oops!

So, lesson learned, I have no idea how to run a 10K! I’ll work on that before I run another shorter race. But having said all that, if you’re a long distance runner, I highly recommend running a 10K! It was so much fun. A real breeze compared to the marathon. Though not as great as the feeling after completing a marathon, you still feel a sense of accomplishment after having finished.

I only have one complaint. Okay, maybe two. First, I noticed several people running with their dogs on the course. Really? I know I’ll probably get killed for this by all the dog lovers, but this is a race for humans. If you want your dog to be involved in a race, allow me to refer you to numerous dog tracks in Illinois. The race course was kind of small and crowded to begin with (this is complaint two). But having two runners running abreast, each with a dog, made things even more congested.

And for the race organizers, it really does make race small time if you allow animals to join in. I mean, it starts with dogs, but where does it end? Are squirrels and other varmint going to be joining in next year? Why not a horse like the one Chad Ochocinco raced?

I’m not sure what’s next for me this season. Stick to shorter races? Or do some shorter races, leading up to another marathon? Runners, what are your plans this season?

Photo credit: Iowa City Press-Citizen / Dan Williamson

Dance Marathon: Amazing event, amazing kids, amazing dancers

Say what you want about college-aged people. You can call them self-involved. Shallow. Irresponsible.

But if you experienced the University of Iowa’s Dance Marathon, you wouldn’t call them any of those things. You would call them selfless. You’d call them giving. Mindful. And inspiring.

Before this year, I had always admired Dance Marathon, which is a year-round volunteer organization that raises money and provides company and support for kids with cancer at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital.

In my opinion, Dance Marathon combines the social and altruistic aspects of volunteering better than any volunteer organization I’ve ever seen. And it’s one of my major regrets from my undergraduate years at the UI that I didn’t participate.

But this year, I wanted to do my part to help the dancers get through the Big Event, which is 24 hours, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., of dancing and staying on their feet, interacting with the kids that they work so hard for and the families that appreciate them so much.

I volunteered and worked in the bag check area Friday night. I was honored and proud to be a small, small part of such a great event and organization. While there, I witnessed thousands of dancers, who had already given up many hours of their time to raise money for the young patients of the UI Children’s Hospital who face so much difficulty, giving up their weekend to stay up for 24 hours to celebrate life for the kids.

There’s a real sense of community in the IMU during Dance Marathon. Everyone smiles at each other, everyone is patient and cheerful and full of energy. There’s a palpable buzz. And the kids and families love it. They smile nonstop.

Everyone there is a rock star, but the dancers wouldn’t take any credit. They do it for the kids.

“For The Kids” (FTK) is their mantra, and it’s more than just that. It’s the reason they join Dance Marathon. And it’s the inspiration that keeps them going through all the canning for money; all the time spent organizing and preparing. And all the aches and pains and fatigue that come with staying up and on your feet for that long.

Of course, the amount of money raised is astonishing (over $1 million last year), but it’s the impact they have on the families lives that really matters. Just the fact that someone cares about them, works hard for them and spends time with them seems to brighten these brave kids’ lives. The dancers truly are role models for these kids. What kid wouldn’t look up to cool college kids who treat them like they’re the most important person in the room?

Not only the kids and families look up to the dancers, but the whole UI community does as well, myself included. To all the dancers still going strong as I write this: Thank you for all that you do. We’re proud of you, and you should be proud of yourselves. 

Professionalism: A moving target

Consider the following scenario: You’re at a professional function of some sort, related to your work. Maybe it’s an industry conference where most of the attendees are your client base. You are making your way around the room, meet someone new by chance, and begin talking. You really hit it off and end up talking for half an hour. It’s great conversation, the kind with no awkward pauses and everything just flows like a healthy stream through a meadow. You part ways, wishing the conversation didn’t have to end.

The next day you get a friend request from your conversation partner on Facebook. Remember, they are someone in your professional life who would be a client, where you have to maintain a level of professionalism with them. Do you friend back?

Now let’s say you are a journalist, and your conversation partner was someone who would normally be a source to someone in your profession. Now what do you do with the request?

Or maybe the person you enjoyed speaking with so much was a student and you are a professor. Or you are a doctor and it’s someone who would fit your typical patient’s profile. Now what do you do?

It’s important to strive for professionalism, especially in a professional context like the one mentioned above. But professionalism is a constantly moving target. And much like firing an arrow at a moving bull’s eye, your best efforts could very well go awry.

Any number of variables effect how you are supposed to react and behave in a given situation. One variable is certainly your position. A CEO or manager is going to behave differently at a professional conference than an entry-level specialist. Likewise, many people in my profession, public relations, are going to be held to a different standard than an accountant or webmaster who might do most of their work behind the scenes. Our job is to represent something or someone in a very public way, therefore, we should always be aware how our interactions will reflect, promote or contextualize what we represent. Even in semi-casual settings.

Additionally, one’s age impacts how they define professionalism in certain situations. Many Millennials would have no qualms about friending back in some or all of the above situations, equating it to exchanging a phone number or e-mail address, just another means of communication and networking. But Baby Boomers and even members of Gen X would shudder at the thought of letting a professional acquaintance have access to their Facebook profile and their “other,” non-professional self, because they or their contemporaries place a premium on privacy.

As with most ethically sticky situations, common sense seems the best solution when it comes to trying to achieve professionalism. If you’re faced with a scenario where you have time to think at length, consider how your actions will represent your employer; your clients; your boss; your colleagues; your subordinates. When you decide on a course of action, step back and think about what you would think if a colleague acted the way you were planning to. And don’t be afraid to seek advice from a mentor or friend. If you’re faced with a snap decision, trust your judgment; it’s what got you this far.

So, how do you define professionalism, and what tactics do you use in your best efforts to maintain professionalism in your interactions?

Nickles for news? New York Times to begin charging online.

News today that the New York Times is going to start charging for some content on its Web site marks a major shift in the structure of dissemination of news online for major media outlets.

We’ve known pay-for-content models for online news have been coming for some time. Though I love the fact that anybody anywhere can access great reporting at no cost, it’s clear this model is not going to be sustainable in the long run for newspaper companies. The actual printed newspaper is currently dying a slow (although rapidly accelerating) death, and newspapers are hemorrhaging money each year. Unfortunately, so are many other industries, causing the decline in advertising (both online and in print).

More and more people are not receiving any newspaper or magazine at home nor buying them at newsstands. People are getting their news online. And with the rise of e-readers, the physical newspaper is becoming more archaic by the day. As a journalism grad, former newspaper reporter and news junkie, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I don’t get any newspapers or magazines at home. I do pick them up on occasion, but I get the vast majority of my news electronically.

Newspapers have long made their revenue on ad sales, but that doesn’t appear feasible presently. Some of the lost revenue needs to be made up with subscription fees for e-news. The Times is reportedly favoring a metered system, where consumers would be asked to pay a membership fee after reading a certain amount of free content. A model that interests me the most is a pay-by-the-article structure, where you would register with a payment method and pay maybe 5-10 cents per article, similar to an iTunes model.
Lots of questions surround the concept of paying for online news content. After having content for free at their fingertips for so long, will consumers be willing to pay, or will they simply turn to television news and free blogs in increasing numbers? How will this affect the sharing of news on Twitter and Facebook, where an increasing number of people get their news from links shared by media outlet accounts and friends? Can newspapers survive the initial drop in online readership that’s likely to occur, especially if online advertisers begin jumping ship? Nobody seems to have a reliable answer, but I sincerely hope we can find one before we lose more good reporters to layoffs and good newspapers (in print and online) to bankruptcy.