Armchair BEA Kickoff!

This week is Book Expo American in New York.  I've been finding more and more reasons to visit New York City and this might be the top of my list...maybe after the Scholastic store!  So the question for today is, "Who Are You and How Do You Armchair?"  I'm sitting here contemplating this after putting down Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reasons Why Women Run by Kristin Armstrong.  I haven't run for about a year and a half now since I stopped running with I got pregnant with my second kiddo.  Little Bird is now almost 11 months old so I probably should get back to running soon!  Now that the weather is warming up (finally) I'm really itching to get back to running.
I would have never considered myself a runner until I took up the sport/pastime when I was in college.  I would walk a little and run a little until I was running 3 miles without stopping every day.  After that I found races to run in and eventually signed up for the Chicago Marathon.  My husband and I ran it in 2003.  It is one accomplishment in my life that I am so proud of.  I love the feeling of running and I love to be around other runners for a race.  I also love the feeling of being up early and being the only only one out on the streets when everything is quiet and I can actually hear and appreciate nature in the midst of suburban life.
Before I got pregnant with baby number two, I was running with my iPod and listening to books while I ran.  I hadn't done that in the past because I like to focus on myself and my running when I run, but I was excited to listen to a book I had checked out from the library and finding it hard to find time to read with Peanut at home (the book was Gods Behaving Badly: A Novel by Marie Phillips).  Getting out of the house early in the morning with my running shoes and my iPod let me embrace both of my favorite hobbies: reading and running.
Finding time to read, like reading while running, has been the secret to being able to read as much as I do.  I squish reading in however and wherever I can.  I always have a book on audio with me.  I take my iPod from my car in to the house and if I get the chance to sit for a bit I've got a physical book or Henry (my Nook Color) with me.  I urge my students to always have a book with them.  You can never be bored if you have a book with you and any kind of wait, even 3 minutes, is worthy of a book to read.
That's a little bit about me as a reader and as a runner.  Hmm...maybe if I could qualify for the New York Marathon, that would be another reason to get to New York.  Too bad BEA and the New York Marathon don't coincide.  Since I'm not really that competitive or that fast of a runner to qualify for New York...maybe I'll stick to sidewalks and books for now!