Kate O’Neill: Cabin Fever
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #4)
Posted March 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 PM by Kate O'Neill
Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill
Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark http://kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com/ and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!
According to holidaysforeveryday.com, March is Cabin Fever Month. I go to this website often in search of something fun to celebrate. I don’t observe all of the mini-holidays. (For example, January 2nd is Swiss Cheese Day, but that is one of my least favorite kinds of cheese so I bypassed that holiday. January 19th is Learn to Ski Day, but I think I will have to wait until my running career is over before picking up that sport.) At the end of January when my roommates and I were searching for a reason to throw a party, we were ecstatic to find that January 26th is Australia Day! All the guests had to bring an Australian dish. Most approached this challenge with their whole-hearted enthusiasm, procuring crocodile meat, whipping up egg whites to make Pavlova, and building an Australian salad (a hard thing to do in the dead of winter since Australia’s seasons are opposite to ours.) One person, who shall remain nameless, just bought some Teddy Grahams and taped the word Koala over the word Teddy. While this did not require a great amount of effort, we were impressed with his resourcefulness.
Other holidays have included Cold Cold Cold Day (January 23rd). This marks the day of the coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States. This record low (it was minus 79.8 degrees Fahrenheit!) occurred at Prospect Creek Camp, Alaska in 1971. While we didn’t have a party for that one, it did make me feel grateful that Mammoth Lakes’ temperatures hadn’t dipped into the negative digits and forced me to stop complaining about being cold (for a day at least.) The following day is the anniversary of the day that gold was discovered in California at Sutter’s Mill in 1848. While I’ve never been to Sutter’s Mill, we do often run past an abandoned mine shaft outside of Mammoth. Running past the shaft is somewhat exciting, but the excitement is usually tempered by the fact that it is at the top of enormous hills with rough footing.
Some more lighthearted holidays have included National Chocolate Mint Day on February 19th (I treated myself to some York Peppermint Patties) and National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day on February 1st (in honor of the day I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch, but that wasn’t really out of the ordinary).
Anyway, so here we are into a new month! Right now the sun is shining in Mammoth Lakes, the snow is melting, and we can actually run outside with just one layer of clothing! It seems like we may be past the days of cabin fever. Until the last few weeks, I might not have even felt like cabin fever was something worth celebrating. Our most recent snowstorm, however, taught me otherwise.
Heavy snow came down almost every minute of the weekend. I kept thinking that the sky would run out of snow, but every time that I looked outside, it was still coming down. It was definitely not a good time to celebrate Golf in America Day (February 22nd) or Tennis Day (February 23rd). If the golf courses or the tennis courts had not been buried under six feet of snow, the strong winds would have made playing either of those games difficult.
The heavy snow kept us inside most of the day between runs. For our workouts, we had to drive down to 4500 feet. We often do this during the winter, but it took even longer than usual because only one lane of the highway was open and the roads were slippery. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a boring weekend at all! Only a few of my teammates were up here. Some were at Indoor Nationals and some were training at sea level at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. Even though we were a small group, we managed to keep each other entertained. Often this involved one of us telling a story that we soon regretted sharing with the group….this seems to happen often when people spend too much time together! I can say with certainty that I got to know everyone much better during that weekend. I have promised to keep most of the stories secret, but I’m not very good at keeping secrets so we’ll see how that goes…
On Sunday afternoon, we all met up after our long run to watch Indoor Nationals on television and then played the board game Apples to Apples. For anyone who isn’t familiar with it, this is a fun and interactive game that forces you to think about how well you know your opponents. This of course provided another chance to get to know my teammates even better! I had never played before, but now I am hooked.
Tomorrow (March 3rd) is Alexander Graham Bell’s birthday. Take the time to call someone that you haven’t talked to in awhile! It might be a good way to fight cabin fever.
- Kate
To comment on this entry and to send questions & feedback to Kate, please click here.
***Note: We encourage EVERYONE to see a doctor before altering their diet, taking a supplement and/or performing athletic, fitness or other strenuous physical activity. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, instruction, opinion or advice contained in the content. Please also see our complete disclaimer.***
Tags: cabin fever, elite athlete, elite athlete blog series, elite runner, kate oneil, kate oneill, Mammoth Lakes, marathon, olympic hopeful, Olympic Trials, team running usa, tfs elite athlete blog series, the final sprint elite athlete blog series, thefinalsprint.com elite athlete blog series, track and field, u.s. olympic track & field trials, u.s. olympic womens marathon trials
Like what you see? Subscribe to our feed!
The Final Sprint
[…] Kate ONeil created an interesting post today on Kate O’Neil: Cabin Fever (Elite Athlete Blog - Entry #4)Here’s a short outlineIt was definitely not a good time to celebrate Golf in America Day (February 22nd) or Tennis Day (February 23rd). If the golf courses or the tennis courts had not been buried under six feet of snow, the strong winds would have made … […]
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:59 pm[…] Als Verstärkung des Ristes ließ Dassler zunächst zwei, dann drei Lederstreifen anbringen; 1948 wurde die Firma Adidas gegründet. Zusammen mit dem in Stein gehauenen Schriftzug “Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt euch!”, der dahinter am heutigen Haus der Oberfinanzdirektion in vier Sprachen prangt, hat er die Wiedervereinigung unbeschadet überdauert. Der Star ist das Ensemble Zudem arbeitet sie mit Felix Adlon, dem Sohn des Regisseurs Percy Adlon, an weiteren Drehbüchern für die Verfilmung ihrer Romane. Es gibt nun Gott sei Dank auch die Verleihung des Hessischen Filmpreises während der Buchmesse, der in den letzten Jahren auch sehr an Bedeutung gewonnen hat, Kate ONeil: […]
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pmI love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, but I add another bit of razzle dazzle to it: honey. Wow. I know exactly what I’m eating for lunch tomorrow.
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:45 pm[…] Seine Eltern lernten sich in den 70er Jahren an der Uni Köln kennen. Beide engagierten sich in der Studentenbewegung. Ich frage mich warum?Der Reporter nahm den gleichen Standpunkt wie die Soldaten ein und teilte damit zwangsläufig die Sichtweise der Militärs. Viele der heute mehr als sieben Millionen Einwanderer der ersten, zweiten und dritten Generation haben nie begleitende Integrationsangebote (insbesondere Sprachkurse) erhalten, die heute als notwendig und selbstverständlich erachtet werden. Sie fürchten Willkür und Enteignung, Kate ONeil: […]
March 4th, 2008 at 6:22 am