There is an "I" in Favre

I don't know about everyone else but I'm sick of Brett Favre. I was never a Green Bay Packers fan but I always respected Favre as a player and recognized him as one of the best quarter backs of my generation. He has lost that respect over the last several years.

First there was the flip-flopping every year at the end of the season when he was with the Packers. The physical beating that his body took year after year, not to mention the time away from his family had weighed on him. For the first couple of years we all gave Favre a pass. He lost close family members to long term illnesses. His wife had breast cancer. Of course he had a lot of things that were bigger than football to think about. If one of the best quarterbacks in football needed a couple extra months to determine what was best for him and his family then fine.

Well a couple years became the last 5 years of his career with the Packers. The Packers drafted Aaron Rogers to lead the Packers after Favre retired only to have him sit on the bench. Poor Rogers ended up being a very expensive back up for several years while Favre continued to play, leading all of us through the emotional roller coaster of his retirement. When he finally retired after the 2007-08 season we were all relieved (especially Rogers and the rest of the Packers). His tearful retirement press conference was difficult to watch. You could tell that he was leaving something that he really loved. Conversations immediately started about where Favre ranked on the list of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. There were debates on whether or not he would be a first ballot hall of famer or not.

So imagine our disgust when he signed with the Jets just a few short months later. Apparently Brett didn't want to retire, he just didn't want to go through off season conditioning and training camp with the rest of the football players. He had moments of brilliance last season but nothing close to his heyday. And if one thing was clear last season it was that Favre was no longer fit enough to be productive for an entire NFL season, not to mention the playoffs. And maybe Favre realized that too because he retired at the end of the 2008-09 season.

No surprise when a couple months later he announced that he had signed a two-year deal with the Vikings. The Vikings are the main rivals of his former team the Packers. Favre wanted to go to the Vikings in 2008 but Green Bay wouldn't allow this so he went to the Jets. By going to the Vikings by way of the Jets he sticks it to his former team and they can't do anything about it. None of the restrictions from Favre's Packers' contract exist any more. Favre has signed a two-year deal with the Vikings so I suppose we are spared the retirement roller coaster for at least one year.

The worst part of all of this is how he has thrown the New York Jets under the bus. He claims he was injured last year but they made him play. He says they weren't comfortable with their back up quarter back. He confesses that they didn't list him on the injured reserve list, etc. Whatever. So the young head coach of the Jets who had what 2 years of experience being in a charge of a football team bullied this 16 year veteran of the NFL? I don't think so. What kind of turncoat completely rips his former team apart in the national media for no reason? The Jets organization embraced Brett when no one else wanted to deal with him. They defended him while everyone else was putting him down and this is how he thanks them. Are we all supposed to believe that Favre is suddenly going to be back to his form of over a decade ago when he lead the Packers to a Super Bowl win? Are we supposed to blame the Jets for his lack of productivity last season? Gimme a break.

I have selected the Vikings to lose to the Ravens in the Super Bowl this season. You see the Vikings were very good last year and I think they will be even better this year with their younger players being more experienced. I don't expect Favre's body to last an entire season. In my dreams Tavarus Jackson, the Vikings young starting quarterback from last season, will lead the Vikings to the Super Bowl while Brett sits on the sidelines watching.

Are You Ready for Some Football?

I know I am ready. The off season seems to take forever. Last night was a great way to kick the season off with the game between the Steelers and the Titans. Both teams were great on both sides of the ball. It was one of those games that I just knew would come down to who had possession of the ball last. And it did. The Steelers won with a field goal in overtime.

The way overtime is managed in the NFL is a complete disaster. In an evenly matched game like last night's game you know that whoever wins the coin toss is going to win the game. It's not about skill at that point. Its about luck and it devalues both teams. The Steelers know that Tennessee would have won the game if they had possession of the ball. The victory doesn't mean anything.

I'm not suggesting that the NFL adopt the same overtime rule as the NCAA. Playing on a shortened field makes it feel like pee wee football. But at least both teams get a chance on offense which makes it more fair than the NFL rules. Realistically, college athletes in the best physical condition of their lives should be able to play on a regulation football field for a few more minutes but that rule is never going to change. With a progressive commissioner like Roger Goodell, I think the overtime rule might actually change in the next few years. The NFL needs to do one of two things: require that a team score 6 points to win or give each team a chance on offense.

People who argue that both teams have an equal chance of winning with the current format are wrong. With some kickers able to boot the ball 60 yards, getting halfway down the field puts a lot of teams in field goal range. Even if you have a great defense, it would be difficult to hold a team that is your equal to less than 40 yards between the kick off return and yards gained over three downs. Sure, sometimes the kick gets blocked but this isn't' something we should count on to even up the game. I paid $185 dollars a ticket to see my Dallas Cowboys play against the Buffalo Bills last season. If that game had gone into overtime I would have been pissed off that I had spent that much money to see a game decided on a coin toss.

In regulation, if a team scores a field goal instead of a touchdown the announcers praise the team on defense for holding the line. Then they change their tune in overtime and praise the offense for getting into scoring position when they get a field goal. Come on. If Tennessee had a possession after the Steelers' field goal in overtime I suspect they would have scored at least 3 as well but it would have been nice to see it. The possibility for multiple overtime periods exists if you let teams play for an additional 10 minutes with each team getting at least one possession. But if you had to score 6 points to win, two field goals or a touchdown, then every possession would actually mean something. The outcome of the game would be decided fairly and it would be much more enjoyable to watch.

This debate comes up every year but not usually after the first game of the season. I think Commissioner Goodell is great for football and like many of the changes that he has already made since taking over. I hope that he fixes this rule after this season so football games can be decided on skill and not luck.

Day After Labor Day Is the Best

Goodbye summer.

Goodbye to the children running and riding their bikes aimlessly at the park, getting in the way of the people trying to work out. Goodbye to their parents talking on their cell phones and not disciplining their children.

Goodbye to the tram that drives lazy people who don't want to walk the paved fitness trail around the lake loop. Goodbye to swerving into the grass to avoid getting run over. Goodbye to able-bodied people sitting on their butts, staring at people working out.

Goodbye to malls and stores full of children with nothing to do but run around in circles. Goodbye to their parents who seem to think Target is a day care center and sit at the Starbucks in the front of the store for 2 hours complaining about how difficult their lives are while their children make life for shoppers and employees miserable.

Goodbye to the county sponsored morning fitness program at the park that offers free yoga classes to local residents every summer. Goodbye to the hundred people who stand around and chat on the path and socialize while blocking the rest of us from working out. Goodbye to the elderly people who shouldn't be allowed to drive anymore who almost kill people in their quest to attend a free yoga class.

Goodbye to RVs and out of state license plates. Goodbye to state fair traffic.

Hello to school buses and children in the morning when I'm walking Chale and in the afternoon when I get home from work.

Hello to increased morning traffic from college students and teachers going back to work.

In a couple months, hello to the 200 inches of snow that we get every year. Hello to trying to work out when you have limited sunlight and it's -10 degrees and icy out.

Who am I kidding? I will wear a reflective vest and walk Chale an hour earlier. Even on the worst days, my 10 mile commute will never be that bad. I love winter and all the hot chocolate and campfires that come along with it. I have a treadmill and snowshoes, I can still work out. The day after Labor Day is the official beginning of the good life for adults and I love it!

Black Cat Rescue

I heard a horrible statistic on the radio this afternoon. Three to four million cats enter shelters every year. Of those only half will be adopted and the rest will be euthanized. White cats are the easiest to adopt out followed by tabby cats. Black cats are the least popular with only 20% being adopted.

Most rescue groups blame this disparity in adoptions on the superstition that black cats will bring bad luck. That's just crazy. When I went to my local shelter to adopt a cat 10 years ago I was looking for a black cat. Unfortunately, all the black cats that were available for adoption were very skittish and nervous. I ended up adopting a large orange tabby cat because he was very vocal and was purring and rubbing his head against the cage as I held my hand against the bars. If I had known this statistic then, I might have been more diligent in my search for a black cat and come home with two cats that day.

In some countries black cats are considered good luck. I can't believe that a developed nation like ours would be so full of stupid people that they wouldn't adopt an innocent cat just because of the color of his fur. Well I guess I'm not that surprised. There is discrimination against people of different races, sexes, social class and sexuality along with biases against certain breeds of dogs so why not cats too.

I can understand shelters holding on to black cats around Halloween because of the cruel things that some idiots do to them to "celebrate". But that month of not adopting out black cats shouldn't result in such low adoption numbers for the rest of the year. A lot of shelters are setting up special events to bring attention to the black cat population to try and encourage adoptions. I have heard of the following events taking place to try and increase black cat adoptions: Black Cat Friday (day after Thanksgiving), In the Black (tax season), Black Tie Love Affair (held in some Petsmart locations one weekend a year) and Black Christmas. I have heard of black cats being available for 50% off at some of these events. A lot of people that come to these events are looking at the black cats first because they are on sale. While a lot of these people leave these events with non-black cats these events bring people out to the shelters and increase the likelihood of more cats of all colors being adopted. Any event that brings visibility to the high volume of cats that are available for adoption, particularly black cats, is a great one in my book. Please check your local rescue organizations and pet stores if you are thinking about getting a cat and consider adopting a black cat.

If I didn't have a 12 year old angry tabby cat in my house, I would be adding a black cat to our household. I hope that Tiger lives to be a very old cat but when he passes I know the following: 1. We will adopt two cats at once next time and 2. One of those cats will be black. Happy Labor Day. Don't forget to spay and neuter your furry friends so we can try to control the animal population.

The Biggest Loser

I am totally obsessed with all forms of weight loss, make over and surgery reality shows. My perfect show would start with someone losing 100 lbs, then having plastic surgery to remove the excess skin and then have a fabulous style and life makeover to fit their new healthy body. When the Biggest Loser first came out I was obsessed with the show. But, like most things, I have found that I don't enjoy it any more and the show has definitely lost its purpose.

What I don't understand is why people have to be kicked off these shows. What would be so terrible about letting everyone stay in the house and benefit from the expert advice for as long as they can? You have a better chance of teaching these people how to lead healthy lives if you have them for 12 weeks rather than 1 weeks. Then they can take what they've learned home to their families. If I got kicked off the first week on the show and still had 100 lbs to lose I would feel like I was no better off then when I first started. What had they taught me? That I wasn't fit or popular enough as the other fat kids so I needed to go home? Well that's a great self esteem boost. These people know they are a mess. That's why they come to the show. And you just confirm that they are not good enough by kicking them off and telling them to go it on their own. Well if they could go it on their own they wouldn't have needed to sign up for the show!!

If no one got kicked off, the show would still reward the person with the most significant weight loss but it would get rid of the popularity factor. Alliances are formed every season and people are often kicked off the show because people don't like them or are threatened by them. These are people who have been ridiculed for most of their lives and feel horrible about themselves and all this show does is turn contestants into the same jerks that used to ridicule them. I find myself routing against many of the contestants by the end of the show because they have become such miserable people.

I remember in the earlier seasons that everyone was pulling for the success of all of the participants. Yes, it was still a competition but more importantly it was about not being morbidly obese and taking control of your life. Even the trainers have turned into children, forming cliques with certain contestants, talking about other contestants behind their backs. It is just sad. And the overly staged product placement is completely out of hand. Clearly you are making a ton of money off endorsements. You don't have to shove it in our faces so shamelessly.

And why isn't there a therapist on this show? No one gets to be morbidly obese and doesn't have any emotional issues that caused it. By treating the symptom (being fat) and not the cause you are just setting that person up for failure long term. I remember seeing an Oprah Show several years back about people who had developed new addictions after having gastric bypass surgery. There were sex addicts, alcoholics, compulsive gamblers, etc. The bottom line was that whatever had caused their food addiction or emotional eating in the first place had not been cured. I've heard that you're not ready to tackle any diet plan unless you can truthfully answer these three questions: Why are you overweight? Why do you want to lose weight? and Why haven't you been able to maintain weight loss in the past? Without showing the contestants and the viewers at home that losing weight is more than just starving yourself and working out they are setting everyone up for failure.

The saddest part of all of this is that many of the former winners and contestants who lost a lot of weight have gained the weight back. Because the show didn't teach them how to maintain a healthy diet and exercise program for life. It taught them how to eat much less most normal people eat and then has them work out for 4-8 hours a day. There is no job, no family, no responsibilities to schedule your eating and workouts around. No taste of any of the factors that derail us in the real world. They don't talk about these failures on the show. They just keep bringing back the successful losers to motivate the current losers with the illusion that what they are doing at the Biggest Loser ranch will translate to real life. It's not much of a reality show at this point.

My Love Hate Relationship with My Hair

This is nothing new. I hear tons of black women complain about their hair on a regular basis. This is my own personal story. It only represents me and not the millions of other women who may love/hate their hair more/less than I do for different reasons.

I have very thick hair. I have all of my life. I inherited it from my mother. My mother will tell you that her hair is the only thing that she ever got from her father. Most of the women on my maternal grandmother's side of the family have thin , shiny black hair. I remember my grandmother calling this Indian (Native American) hair when I was little. I was always so jealous of this Indian hair because it seemed so easy to maintain. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that most of my relatives wore wigs because they hated having thin, delicate hair and felt they had few style options. The grass is always greener I guess.

As a child, I would sit on the floor while my mother parted my hair into four sections and put my hair into 4 thick braided ponytails. I remember the rubber band like hair accessories with large globes on each end that my mom used at the base of the ponytail. It looked like I had gumballs in my hair of all different shapes and sizes. And then at the end of each ponytail, there were these little barrettes that were alligators or fruit or some other crazy design. I looked like a Christmas tree. This was the standard little black girl hair style in the 80's (it is still pretty common). Depending on how thick your hair was or how creative your mother was you may have more of less braids but it was still the same basic style. I remember feeling sorry for some of the other girls whose parents split their hair into 8 or more ponytails. I'm sure if the parents knew their children were teased with the nickname of Medusa at school they would have changed the hair style but kids are so evil they probably would have found something else to tease them about.

I attended private school until 7th grade. I can remember being one of only a handful of black children in my school and I was almost always the only one in my class. I remember people would frequently touch my hair or pull my ponytails sometimes out of cruelty but usually out of ignorance. Like most black women I know, my mom greased my hair every day to prevent my scalp from becoming too dry and to keep my hair healthy. So in addition to the unwanted attention that I was already getting for being different there were usually the yells of "Eew what's in your hair" that made me want to disappear. I was paranoid that if I leaned against a chair or laid back completely in the doctor's office I would leave behind a greasy mark (because sometimes I did) . I was always careful not to lean back too far or to wipe any where that I sat after I got up before anyone could see.

On special occasions my mom would straighten my hair. This involved placing a hot comb on the burner for 10 minutes and then slowly combing my hair with it to make my kinky hair straight. I can still remember the sound of the hair grease sizzling as smoke rose from my head. The smell of burning hair is a very common memory from my childhood. This step was followed by using a curling iron to curl the ends under so my hair wouldn't stick straight out from my head. I loved having my hair straight because I looked more like my white friends. My hair appeared to be thinner and longer and it moved when my head moved. I loved whipping my head around fast when people called my name because it felt like my hair moved just like the white women in the TV commercials. Unfortunately a little bit of rain or sweat was all it took to ruin my hair. I used shower caps, swim caps and coats with hoods to try and protect my hair but inevitably it would get wet and return to it's naturally kinky state.

My mom washed my hair once a week so we had to deal with the wet hair party on a regular basis. After washing my hair, it usually takes 20 minutes to comb all the tangles out and then another 60 minutes to blow dry it. Then it's back to hair grease and ponytails or on to the curling iron and straightening comb for another hour of styling. My mom started having my hair put in cornrows in the summer when I was swimming multiple times a week and maintaining my hair was too much to deal with. This drew even more attention because of the Stevie Wonder beads at the end of each braid that clicked every time I moved my head. Inevitably I would lose a line of beads on the school bus or in the middle of class. I would try to sink as low in my seat as possible as the beads clanked loudly on the floor.

I got my first relaxer in 4th grade. A relaxer is chemical hair straightening that you have to do every 6-12 weeks to fight the naturally kinkiness of your hair. It makes the hair much easier to maintain and eliminates the need for a straightening comb. The hair is less kinky when its wet but still a pain to deal with and the blowdry and styling time are virtually the same. The attention that I got when I went from the globed ponytails and the cornrows was nothing compared to the attention that my new hair do received. Imagine a 9 year old girl with Oprah Winfrey's early hair style at a mostly white upper middle class private school in Virginia. I looked like a young professional. Most of the comments were "Is that your real hair", "What happened to your hair" or just plain laughter. For some reason this hair style made my classmates, teachers and complete strangers feel like they had the right to touch my hair even more. Because I was different and they wanted to focus on how different I was I suddenly became an exhibit at the zoo. The "Eew what's in your hair" comments were still there along with the "Oh your hair is so soft/coarse/thick" comments. Did people really think that comparing my hair to steel wool, a horses tail and doll hair wouldn't permanently damage me?

My worst memory is a sleepover at my best friend Lisa's house. I think I was about 8 years old at the time. Me and five other girls went swimming and ate junk food and fell asleep watching stupid movies. I remember Lisa's mom struggling to do my hair in the morning and eventually just giving up and pulling the frizzy air-dried chlorinated mess into a very bushy ball at the top of my head. She didn't have the tools or the knowledge to deal with my kinky hair. My mom was mortified when she picked me up. It took twice as long as normal to tame my hair. It was around that time that I learned how to manage my hair on my own.

Imagine my surprise when I entered public school in 7th grade and found that there were hundreds of people who looked just like me and had the same hair issues as I did. That seemed to be the only thing I had in common with most of my black classmates. I don't remember it being a conscious choice but I would assume that my early education or my social class or a combination of the two lead me to go through life with most of my friends being white. So I continued to be one of only a handful of black people in my advanced placement classes, in the marching band, in the honor society, on the lacrosse team.....you get the point. Luckily most of my peers had grown up around people of different races in public school so the ignorant comments were less frequent but they were still there and I can still vividly remember ever single incident when someone said something.

I spent most of my life living with relaxed hair with the occasional months of cornrows with hair extensions in the summers because it was easier to maintain. By my sophomore year in college I was starting to gain a better sense of who I was as a person and I realized that I didn't have to wear my hair like everyone else. During my freshman year in college I had let go of my high school boyfriend and many of the labels that people had placed on me over the years. I felt reborn so at 19 I cut off my shoulder blade length hair so pixie length. My high school friends and ex-boyfriend freaked out. "You were so much prettier with long hair" actually became a common phrase among people who had known me for years. But I noticed that my newer friends loved my short hair and I got lots of compliments on how great it looked. For the next 10 years I would alternate between letting my hair grow back for 2 years and then cutting it all off. The shock value of cutting off a foot of hair was fabulous because each time there was a new group of friends who never saw me with short/long hair and each reacted to the changes differently. The main thing for me was that I had control of my hair and did whatever I wanted whether society thought it was appropriate for me or not.

When I was 21 I stopped relaxing my hair. I started braiding it when it was wet so that I would have big wavy hair when it dried, almost like it was crimped all the time. The years of relaxing my hair had destroyed it so, to truly go natural, I had to cut it all off. I loved how curly my hair was naturally. I couldn't believe that I had spent years killing what I was blessed to have naturally. Of course, natural hair is just as different to many people as my ponytails, cornrows and relaxers were in my childhood. People think its okay to touch my hair all the time and I get really pissed off when they do. How would you like it if every day someone pointed out what makes you different by patting you on the head like a dog and making ignorant comments? How would you feel if something that was part of who you are was all some people could focus on whenever they saw you? I wish I could say all this ignorance came at the hands of white people but many black men seem to think this is an acceptable thing to do as well and it pisses me off.

The problem with short hair is that you have to do it every day. If I put on a baseball cap or bandanna I was often mistaken for a boy from behind. I missed being able to put my hair into a ponytail or being able to straighten it for special occasions. So I have let my hair grown since 2005 without a significant hair cut. At this point my hair is near the middle of my back when its straightened but is typically right around my shoulders when wavy. If I'm feeling really motivated and really do my hair the curls can tighten up to make my hair chin length. This of course leaves the none-curly haired folks to think that I have gotten a hair weave or am wearing a wig which leaves people to touch and pull my hair to check if its real.

I have no idea how to style my hair because no one ever taught me. I usually wet it and then put in conditioner or defrizz serum and then let it air dry. Of course this continues my aversion from sitting back all the way in chairs or leaning back at the doctors office for fear of leaving a wet spot. It takes a few hours for my hair to dry if I wear it down. If I wear my hair in a ponytail it will still be wet by the end of the day. If I lean back against my hair before it is dry it will ruin my style and my hair will be flat on that side. The problem with having thick hair is that it quickly takes shape so the 10 minute drive to work is long enough to ruin my hair if I lean all the way back in my seat. I have been keeping chiropractors and massage therapists in business for years because of my chronically sore shoulders and neck from leaning forward for half of my life. I have yet to find a hair stylist who specializes in natural hair and often get the recommendation that I should relax or at least blow dry my hair on a regular basis. I have only recently discovered Curly Nicky's blog and NaturallyCurly.com and am starting to experiment with different styling options. I wish that I could get the fabulous waves that I see on celebrities like Mariah Carey or Alica Keys but am reminded by my friends that these women are of direct mixed race (white mother, black father or vice versa) where as my mixing is dispersed through previous generations and the kinky hair gene is apparently too dominant to overcome. So the only way to get nice waves is to get a relaxer and then have rod curlers put in every week (like Oprah wears her hair these days) and go back to the miserable days of blow drying and styling my hair or to change my DNA. Neither are very likely.

I consider myself low maintenance and have no desire to go back to the high maintenance lifestyle of long relaxed hair or the frequent trips to the salon and daily styling that are required for short hair. I am happy to see so many black women around me have embraced wearing their hair naturally so I don't stand out so much. Just like everything else in life I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually but please, don't pet me. I'm not a dog. And I have so many years of baggage built up that I just might punch you.

44 seconds

So my recent visits with friends who have successfully lost tons of weight definitely dinged my self esteem. Not one of my friends noticed that I had lost weight because they were focused on planning their weddings and having babies. And realistically, my body hasn't changed that much even though I've dropped 15 pounds. A size 14 is generally still too tight and a size 16 is too big so my clothes still don't fit me quit as well as they should.

My husband and some of my co-workers notice because they see me every day but that's not enough. I guess I was expecting people to be like "Omigosh you look so good, have you lost weight?!?". But there was no mention of my weight or any questions about how well my diet is going even though some of them knew I started Nutrisystem back in May. I think that hurt my feelings more than anything else. Even if no one noticed a difference they could have asked me how things were going. That's what I would have done. I went out of my way to tell them how good they looked (and truly they all look great) and to compliment them on sticking to their programs. I just wish they were being as supportive a friend to me as I feel like I have always been to them. And yes, I'm jealous that they were successful and I wasn't.

So imagine my surprise when I ran a 5K this weekend in 34:19. That's 11:04 pace. That's 44 seconds faster per mile than my pace at the 5K that I did in June. At first I thought maybe the June race was an off day but that wasn't the case. Looking back at my previous race times, I haven't run at that pace in more than 3 years. Three years ago I was probably around 185-190 lbs (5-10 lbs lighter than I am now) so that made me feel really awesome.

I started running road races in 1992 and have kept a record of my finishing times for most of the races that I have run over the years. Initially I would randomly sign up for local races but once I graduated from college in 1998 I started running in road races more frequently and eventually started the trend of running one race a month. I miss a month here and there but I definitely run 8-12 races consistently every year. My goal when I started signing up for these races was to become a serious runner. It thought I would be forced to stay in shape and keep running between races. Sometimes that's what happened but, more often than not, I would show up for these races not having run much since the last race and huff and puff my way to the finish line. I have had bursts of motivation before big races where I ran 3-4 times a week consistently over a month or two but this usually fizzled out after the race.

So what is different this time? For one thing, my husband is running these races with me and we keep each other motivated. I have gotten used to being a solo runner over the years. Signing up for most races by myself and then heading straight home after ward. It's nice to have someone there with me rooting for me and commiserating with me. We have also befriended a uber-fit couple who run marathons. They sign up for a lot of the same races that we sign up for and occasionally want to meet up to run together. Not wanting to hold them back or embarrass ourselves every time we see them is keeping both my husband and I going on days when we might want to be be lazy.

I think the most important thing that has changed is that we are setting mini goals and milestones for ourselves. Either running a certain pace or a certain number of miles per week by a certain date. So we are always striving to get better and achieve that next goal. I am becoming a serious runner in a very healthy way and my body is responding to that. I am getting stronger and faster even if it doesn't show that much in my appearance.

In a perfect world, I will get down the to 9:40 per mile pace that I ran my very first road race in back in 1992 but that is more of a long term goal. Right now I am focusing on consistently logging 15 or more miles a week (even if I have to walk some of it) and getting my pace down under 11 minutes (even during the longer runs). And whether I lose 15 more lbs or maintain the weight that I'm at now, I know that I will continue to grow as a runner and that just rocks!