• I still have not seen Rent. *sob*
• Strider’s Holiday party!! I was running late (surprise?), and didn’t make it there until dinner was almost over but it was really great to meet so many Striders. I knew the club was big, but the number of people filling the banquet room reminded me why the Striders is one of Houston’s biggest running clubs - wow. I tried looking for some fellow Houston Running Bloggers, but couldn’t see anyone and I felt too shy to start wandering around the tables…..though as I walked into the room I heard the MC announce Cassie’s name as a winner of one of the door prizes. Yay Cassie! They gave out awards to the top runners and a good number of the awardees had 6 to 7 minute mile paces for half and full marathons. Hello - those are some seriously FAST people. I sat through the award portion of the evening in general awe. Afterwards, I chatted a bit with Yong, Jessica, Steve, Judith and her husband.
• Project Runway! Love it. My favorites so far are Santino and Diana.
• I’m skipping my usual HoustonFit run to join the Houston Running Blogger’s Run the Woodlands 5K tomorrow morning. Since I’m also doing the Houstonian 30K on Sunday morning, I’m planning to run tomorrow’s 5K really slow and easy. There’s a post-race Blogger gathering where we’ll hang out and do blogger-y things. Yay.

Ok. I’m crashing in Kingwood to save some precious morning commute time to The Woodlands. I’ll probably save just 15 minutes, but those 15 minutes are precious at 6:30am.

 

• I have YET to see Rent. I know, it’s a crime. *sigh* Anyone interested?
• Well, it appears the answer to whether or not there are any safe, well-lit places to run in Kingwood after dark is: NO. Oh well.
• My long run on Saturday (10 miles) went well. Nothing out of the ordinary. My knee seems to be improving, since I haven’t had any IT band issues lately. Yay for stretching. I’ll post my times later (when I get back to my watch).
• Speaking of - I think the battery in my Polar watch is going out. The battery can only be replaced by Polar themselves, which means I’ll have to send it in. If I can’t get the watch back by the Marathon, I may just stop wearing it on my long runs in order to save the battery. Maybe there’s a cheap-o $10 stopwatch I can wear in the meantime…
• I spent 5 hours at the Galleria on Sunday, braving thousands of holiday shoppers. I counted that as my cross-training activity for the day. heh.
• ONLY 41 MORE DAYS TILL THE MARATHON!!

Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day. I stopped by Thomas Street Clinic (the largest freestanding HIV clinic in the US) to catch some of the World AIDS Day ceremony. Our office had an information booth set up in the lobby. Watch Channel 26 tonight for coverage of the Tree of Remembrance and a beautiful ornament made by Tammy G., as well as some Houston Chronicle coverage.

Every year, our office (aka me, heh) prepares a written proclamation for Judge Eckels to present at Commissioner’s Court, officially designating December 1st as World AIDS Day in Harris County. The proclamation includes statistics and facts about HIV/AIDS worldwide, as well as in Houston and Harris County. Here are some excerpts:

Worldwide:

• It is estimated that as many as 45 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, with up to 6.6 million new HIV infections worldwide during 2005 � about 18,000 new infections each day. This is the greatest number in any one year since the beginning of the epidemic.
• Up to 3.8 million people died from AIDS in 2005.
• The number of children orphaned by AIDS is expected to reach 44 million by 2010.
• Approximately 11 of every 1,000 adults are HIV-infected worldwide.
• In June 2005, UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 6,500,000 people in developing and transitional countries were in need of antiretroviral (ARV) drug treatment for AIDS. Of these, only 15% had access to treatment. That leaves 5.5 million people not receiving drug treatment for HIV/AIDS.

United States:

• As many as 1.6 million American adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003, with as many as 24-27% undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV infection.
• The HIV epidemic in the United States is continuing to grow with 41,000 new cases each year.

Houston & Harris County:

• The CDC estimates that as of December 2004, more than 20,000 Houston-area residents are living with HIV.
• The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that in 2004, Houston had a higher proportion of HIV/AIDS due to heterosexual exposure compared to other areas in the State.
• Compared to other cities in Texas, Houston has the highest number of people living with AIDS who are not receiving medical care.