I have to say that I love this week’s Friday Five theme. While I really am an upbeat person, I do like to bitch vent to get things off my chest and clear the air.
I also have to admit that the theme song is on my “Treadmill Tunes” playlist. It’s such a fun one!
Five Things That Make Me Go Hmmm
1. Race Photos. I’ve shared before why you should pay for your race photos and explained that it could be a copyright violation to use the “proof” versions you may be able to clip from a preview page. That said, I feel the pain of pricey pictures. This year I’ve seen better deals from Marathon-Photos.com, although they still cost enough to make me “sleep on it” before I make a purchase. I think $20 would be my no-hesitation price, but I purchased my Army Ten Miler photos for about $35.
Smiling for the photographer on the 14th Street Bridge
Driving for the finish line
2. The Weather. Apparently we were really lucky to have “fall” weather for our anniversary century ride on October 1, but one week later we had “tropical conditions” during the Army Ten Miler. Looking ahead, we are supposed to get into the 80s this weekend, and even next week it will still be much warmer than average.
I would like some fall running weather this fall, please!
3. Weekend Business Trips. Last weekend I had a business trip in Milwaukee from midday Friday to midday Saturday–and the “earliest” flight back I could get didn’t get me home until 10 pm the night before the Army Ten Miler. I’m used to business travel, but wasn’t exactly saying “Hmmm” when the organizers admitted they planned it over a weekend to test our commitment.
At least I managed to get in a run before the meeting started.
I have another business trip the fist weekend of November, but I’m reclaiming that lost personal time by tagging on some girlfriend time at the end.
4. Fitbit Tattling. Not that I have anything to hide, but I found this article about the use of Fitbit data to poke holes in alibis both fascinating and frightening. Even if you don’t use an activity tracker, there is so much data available on where you were when and what you were doing from license plate cameras, personal and public closed circuit cameras, cell phones, IP addresses, etc. Big Brother is watching whether we are aware of it or not!
5. Health Appointments. I finally had a long-overdue physical, but left with reminders that I need to take care of my long-overdue mammogram, long-overdue PAP smear, long-overdue dermatologist appointment, and long-overdue ophthalmologist appointment. I hate scheduling appointments, and hate even more that I have to carve out a half day for each one since I never know how long I’ll be kept waiting for that 15 minute appointment.
[Tweet “Things That Make You Go …. #FridayFive #runchat”]
And with that, I’ll leave this for you to enjoy!
Thanks to Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for hosting this link up!
What’s your price point for race photos?
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There are cameras EVERYWHERE! I shouldn’t be surprised when I see one, but I am.
I’m saying Hmmmm about your work testing your commitment by scheduling weekend business trips? That’s just mean.
I agree! Especially when the organizers didn’t have to travel. I guess I’m not over it yet!
You’ll be proud of me: The race pic I bought from Berlin arrived the other day! I think it was $25. Those pics of you are amazing! The Caveman is traveling almost this entire month. Got home Wednesday night and leaves tonight for a freaking weekend of work. I don’t get it. Happy Friday!
I run so many races when I don’t get any race pics. I saw the cameraman and made sure he had a clear shot of me. 😉 I know you will treasure you Berlin pic!
Those cameras are everywhere especially around DC. They don’t bother me bc I feel like I am not doing anything that anyone would care about. I hope that it helps them find the bad guys faster
I can’t help but feel that Rosie is giving me the side eye when I’m staying at Starbucks for too long!
Appointments. Blech! I do the eye dr every year because I have to to get my contacts. The rest . . .
Our weather isn’t quite as nasty as yours, but it is going back & forth quite a bit. Makes it hard to put away those summer clothes.
Yeah, since I have glasses I can skip a year, but I shouldn’t it. They are promising fall weather by the end of next week. I hope they are right.
Hmm I never thought of those cameras being everywhere. I don’t live in a big city so I wonder if they are in my area anywhere?
I use to purchase race pictures but then I found that I really don’t do anything with them but maybe post one or two on the blog. So I admit to being a person who “borrows” the proof just to put in a blog post to break up the text when I have no other photos from race day!
You might be surprised at how many cameras are around.
$20 is my no hesitation price for photos too – for the Navy-Air Force half marathon, they offered a pre-purchase price of $19.99 and I immediately jumped! I thought that Fitbit article was very interesting!
I’d worry about a pre-purchase price because I’ve had races with no pics of me. Maybe they let you off the hook if that happens?
It’s going to be harder and harder for people to get away with crimes due to security cameras and of course cell phones and other electronic devices! I like when race photos are free as part of your registration. I think smaller races do this more often, but I could be wrong. I normally look terrible in race photographs and then I wonder… hmmm, maybe it’s just me and not the photograph!
I just think if we had Ring when my kids were younger they never would have been able to try to sneak friends over if we were out! I rarely like how I look in race photos, but hopefully there’s one that at least makes me laugh.
I like free race photos! The only race photo I’ve ever looked good in was during a race that provided free photos. All my other photos didn’t look good.
I’ve had bad race photos and race with no race photos, so I tend to buy them when they’re decent.
Your photos are great! I have only ever bought one official race pic…and it was over 10 years ago LOL Besides, most of mine would look the same…the jazz hands (or hands in the air), open mouth (resembling gagging…with no teeth), and (usually) with my long legs at an awkward angle. I guess I’d be wearing different outfits in all of them, so there’s that LOL
I think you are way more critical of your photos than we would be. There’s nothing wrong with jazz hands!
Thanks for the reminder… I need to schedule those dang appointments too!
I’m with you on the doc appts. It’s never ending. Getting old is for the birds!!
I like free race photos! More and more races offer them. But personally I won’t pay more than $20 for a photo and it’s gotta be pretty spectacular (which is rarely is). I feel like if MarathonFoto charged $5/photo they’d make more money overall because they’d have way more sales.
Not sure if they’ll ever be that cheap, but I did get 4 pics for my $35 …. but I couldn’t buy just one.
I’m wishing this hot weather would go away too! I’m so ready for it to be cool outside!
I feel like a lot more people would buy race photos if they weren’t so darn expensive!
I’m with you on the “fall” weather though, haha. I feel like the weather can’t decide what it wants to do!
It really can’t! Just when you think it’s made up its mind …. it’s summer again. ;-/
I have never once paid for a race photo, so I guess my price point would be quite low. 😀
All of those things make me go Hmmm! I usually don’t buy race photos except for my marathons. Otherwise it just gets so out of hand.
I can see how marathons would be worth remembering!
Lol. These were great! Love the photo of you running the 10-miler. And boo to doc appointments and weekend work trips.
$20 to $25 would make me hit the buy button if they look good.
Usually I have pictures that look so crappy, I wouldn’t dare pay money for it, but I will snag the preview to share sometimes on my blog. I know I shouldn’t but sometimes the bad picture captures the moment better than my words.
Your picture looks amazing, muscles popping and you look strong despite the conditions, that is a keeper 🙂
Aw, thanks! I wasn’t feeling strong, but I was laughing at finally seeing a photographer ahead of time!
I love it when races offer free photos- that’s the best! But for the bigger races I think I would pay $20. I would like a package if I could buy a few for like $30 or so. I guess it also depends on how good the pictures came out:)
Scheduling a work trip specifically over a weekend is just cruel. Its one thing if a week long conference, or long travel, requires you to travel over the weekend. But simply scheduling a conference just to test your employees’ commitment is just cruel.
It was pretty obnoxious to tell us that!
I don’t like when my job “asks” me to work over the weekend or on my regular days off. They make it so you look like an a-hole if you try to refuse, but then expect you to drop everything at their beck and call when they need you to do something for them. Anyway…
I’ve only ever purchased race photos once, though I’ve never used the “trademarked” versions. My friends all have runDisney season passes that include pictures so they can log in and download mine for me for free. I bought the ones from the West Coast race I did because apparently the season pass thing only works for the park you have passes at. But it only cost $40 so I wasn’t too put out over it. The ones at Walt Disney World in Orlando usually go for $75+ so I don’t like to dish out for those!
I am torn on race pictures. I have never bought them, because they are so expensive, but I don’t like to “borrow” them for my blog or social media. In my mind, the photographers own this pictures and it’s their work. But I think larger races should give them out for free, specially when one is paying anything higher than $70.