2011 Blue Cross Broad Street 10 Mile Run – UPDATED

I DID IT!!!

Quick impressions:

• Great course of a mostly a downward gradient with a few gentle hills.
• The weather was pitch perfect for a run.
• I wore a smile the entire course due to the wonderful supportive spectators that lined the entire course. My favorite were the church women dressed in their Sunday finest ringing bells and cheering the runners on.
• Pure awesome moment of the race – rounding City Hall en route to South Broad Street, I spied a sign hung over a balcony that read ‘Go Tania Go!’
• Approaching the finish line at the Navy Yard, I enjoyed reading the chalk messages on the road. If you want to know the content of the messages, I suggest you sign up for the 2012 Broad Street Run.
• Running through open fire hydrants is a guilty pleasure 🙂
• Plentiful water stations along the course which makes for a good distance run.
• I did not hear “Gonna Fly Now” during the last mile of the race. Yes, that IS the Rocky theme song, not to be confused with ‘Eye of the Tiger’.
• Medals were given to every finisher this year.
• My official chip time: 1:47:57. Not too shabby for a first time run, now I have a benchmark time to improve upon next year.
• Should you train for this run? Hell yes! See you in 2012 🙂

In case you are wondering what I’m up to tomorrow, you can find me with 30,000 of my fellow runners participating in the 32nd annual Broad Street Run.

A ten mile run along Broad Street in Philadelphia and ending at the iconic Navy Yard. This is my first time participating in this run, please send happy thoughts tomorrow! Philly news station 6abc will be covering the event.

I’ve trained well for the past three months, and am so ready for this run. Spent today keeping up the time honored tradition of pampering before a big race which includes, but is not limited to, a visit to the hair stylist, followed by a mani and pedi. Oh, don’t forget to carb up with your racing buddies.

Stay tuned for the race recap here on MidnightBlue and on BTR show ‘Independently Correct’ where I will be discussing feminism and the Broad Street Run.

The Royal Wedding will Be Live Streamed

Candidate Obama Reveals Birth Certificate at Press Conference

Barack Obama, Democrat candidate for the 2012 Presidential election, revealed his birth certificate at a press conference today where he quipped ‘we don’t have time for this kind of silliness‘ before jetting off to campaign fund raiser events in Chicago and NYC.

You can view the Certificate of Live Birth and judge for yourself.

Liberals Plan ‘Anti Corbett’ Rally in West Chester, Pennsylvania

Lead by aged West Chester Democrat State Senator, Andy Dinniman, a small rally is planned in West Chester, 7 pm outside the Courthouse, in opposition to Governor Corbett’s recently proposed budget. To read Dinniman’s article in the Daily Local News calling for this rally, one would think the sky is falling.Indeed it is, and Governor Corbett is making the tough choices now for a better future for all Pennsylvania residents. To put into perspective the disaster Governor Corbett inherited , I point to an article written by Chris Freind.  Chris Freind penned a fabulous column outlining the financial troubles our state has suffered under derelict leadership of the previous administration.

Take the budgets of the last two years, which former Governor Ed Rendell championed, and were passed by a Democratic House and Republican Senate.

In 2009, $400 million in revenue was budgeted from the tolling of Interstate 80. Except that the tolling never happened. Put that in the debit column.

And last year, the budget was passed on federal Medicaid dollars that hadn’t yet been appropriated (and ended up being $255 million less than budgeted) and a Rendell-promised Marcellus Shale gas tax that would generate hundreds of millions — but which never materialized. And the forecasted general tax revenue was over a billion dollars short.

But that’s not all. The legislature and Rendell raided MCARE in 2009 — the fund to offset Pennsylvania doctors’ skyrocketing medical malpractice insurance rates — to the tune of $800 million. A Commonwealth Court ordered the money repaid, but the Rendell Administration appealed. Odds are the state Supreme Court will uphold that decision. The hole deepens.

So despite some cuts last fall, we’re still looking at a $3 billion revenue gap which, by the way, is not factored into the acknowledged $4 billion deficit. The fact that no one wants to talk about this is not surprising, since it’s not in the interest of the politicians, and most of the media doesn’t do its homework.

Let’s put this type of maneuvering into perspective. What would happen if a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company, in an attempt to placate Wall Street, added billions to its books to reflect a medicine it hadn’t yet produced?

People would go to jail.

But in Harrisburg, it’s called Business As Usual. Instead of solving the real problem, the state’s leaders have resorted to what they do best: bury their heads in the sand.

I find it ironic that Andy Dinniman and his ilk who treated the taxpayer checkbook with careless abandon are now crying that it’s raining in Pennsylvania.  Speaking of useful fools, I’m quite certain the usual suspects will make an appearance at this small rally tomorrow night:

Check Out Trending Right

John Hawkins and Doug Ross latest blog project Trending Right has recently launched with an interesting twist on news gathering for the right side of the blogosphere:

Trending Right shows the most linked conservative stories on Twitter for EACH HOUR. So, if you want to know what’s hot on the Right, RIGHT NOW, then you read Trending Right.

Careful, it can become quite addictive…

Easter 2011~He Has Risen

There is magic all around us,
You can feel it in the air,
For the lovely signs of springtime
are unfolding everywhere.
It’s a time of fulfilled promise,
It’s a time of hope and cheer,
Joyful time of resurrection
Blessed Easter time.

Wishing My Readers and Lurkers a Beautiful Easter

Philly City Council at Large Candidate Forum

From Left to Right: Malcom Lazin, Joe McColgan, Elmer Money, Dennis O’Brien, Steve Odabashian, David Oh, Frank Rizzo (Incumbent), Michael Untermeyer, not pictured: Al Taubenberger

Thursday night I had the opportunity to attend a meet the Republican candidates running for City Council at-large and the two Republican candidates for Mayor event hosted by the Loyal Opposition and Philadelphia Tea Party Patriots in the beautifully decorated hall of the German Society.

The moderator for this event was Larry Mendte,  who deftly handled the questions and candidates throughout the evening. You can read his thoughts on the debate at The Philly Post

Friday Blend

Less than two weeks till I participate in the nation’s largest 10 mile race – The 2011 Broad Street Run.  If I’m not eating, sleeping or working, I’m running. The training has been great and I’m looking forward to participating in this event.

Of course, the world is not stopping in awe of my achievement and there are so many stories to touch on, so once again, I am turning to ‘The Blend’  to quickly cover stories that caught my attention the past few days:

Steven Crowder explains why liberal democrats of Wonkette and elsewhere hate disabled children – they are all cowards.

Two senseless deaths in a war Obama should not have dragged the U.S. into in the first place.

Ahh, is this the peace we want to support in Egypt? Egyptian rioters: ‘Christian governor must go!

Apple and Google collect data on smartphone users whereabouts. Honestly, I would be concerned if I had a good 3G signal with my iPhone4. For those that do, it is interesting to note that the location data collected will help you with your purchasing needs:

These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services—expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

Got your social media fix for the upcoming British royal wedding? Will and Kate and their wedding are mentioned on social media sites once every ten seconds. Wow!

Your McSandwich just got a price makeover:

McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD – News) forecast higher prices for beef, dairy and other items and said it would cautiously raise prices to keep attracting diners, who are grappling with higher grocery and gas bills.

I’m trying to recall the last time I ate McDonald’s fare, hmm, perhaps years ago? News like this is a great opportunity to remind folks of the benefits of  growing their own.

Have you checked out DaTechGuy’s new blog? No? Click HERE.  Oh, now would be the best time to tell my readers and lurkers that the curtains will be changed on MidnightBlue. A redesign is in the works and details will follow.

My Bliss is a PR Run

Great day for a 10K run! In fact, I beat my previous time for this distance by nearly 10 minutes. I’m feeling quite rockstar-ish as I type this brief post.

Bring on Broad Street Run!

Vote Count Gives Win To Justice Prosser

Via Wisconsin Radio Network:

The official statewide results in the race for the Supreme Court show Justice David Prosser winning re-election. The results certified by each county over the last two weeks show Prosser received 752,323 votes and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg received 745,007 votes. That leaves a margin of 7,316 votes, a margin of 0.488-percent.

For the record I called a Prosser win on election night. It took a bit longer for the votes to confirm my statement.