Thankful Thursday: inquiring minds - another 20 questions

I'm thankful for all of my readers and friends on FB and twitter.  Since 20 Questions part 1 is a bit old, I decided to write part deaux!  I've been working on it for quite a while and finally have enough questions for another post.  Here we go:

How did you decide on your chosen profession?  I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and I sorta came upon the profession by accident.  Back in high school, I had to take one of those "career" tests and this was one of the professions that came up.  I didn't give it much thought, other than observing a therapist in a hospital once.  In college, I took a speech/language class as part of the psychology program and loved it.  Never looked back.  I worked in a private practice doing neurologic rehab (think strokes and traumatic brain injuries) then a rehab hospital.  For the past 8 years or so I've been in the public schools and I love it.
Have you ever chosen Dare in a game of Truth or Dare and what was craziest dare you ever dared? Yes, I've chosen the dare and probably the craziest dare was skinny dipping.
What got you into running / races / marathons? Most of this is answered in the first 20 questions page and the about me page here.  Since writing those pages, I've completed my first marathon and a few more half marathons.  I also have been struggling with my first real, side-lying injury.  I'd say the marathon was just the natural progression   I loved training for the half marathon on 25k, so I decided this past year was as good a time as any to go for a marathon.
Did your moms death impact / influence your healthy living?!  My mom died of skin cancer when I was 14.  At the time, I'd say it didn't impact my desire to be healthy at all.  But now?  I want to be around to see my own kids graduate and get married, have kids, etc. etc.  I really do try to stay out of the sun or use sunscreen.  Also, my weight loss and foray into running has been an effort to get and stay at a healthy weight.
Has running changed your social life? and how? Oh my word has it! I wouldn't have ever pushed myself to run past 3 miles if it weren't for social media.  Also, the majority of my closest friends are runners who I've met through twitter or races I've done.  I love running with these friends now. 
If you could PR any distance by 20% which distance would you pick? Aka, which distance would you live to excel at?  These are really great questions.  Tougher to answer now.  When I received this question last fall, I was healthy and training for my full marathon.  This was the answer I had in my files. "I've been chasing the elusive sub-30 5k, but if I had to pick, I'd want to PR the 1/2 mary by 20%.  It's a challenging distance and I'd need to take a lot of time off per mile to do it. A 20% PR would put me under 2 hrs, which would freaking ROCK."  Since getting injured, I know this is extremely unrealistic now.  I have a goal to PR my next 1/2 marathon (Disney's Wine and Dine in November) but the PR won't be anywhere close to a 20%.  I think if I work my ass off, I might see a sub-2 hour 1/2 marathon, but it will be a couple years off.  At this point, my best hope for a 20% PR would be in the 10k (assuming I can get my mojo back).  My 10k PR is 1:09:57.  I'd need to run about a 56 min 10k for that 20% PR if I've done the math right.  When I've been healthy, I've hit right around an hour in training runs, so who knows. Maybe I'll see it in this next year (or two).
If you could re-write the 12 days of Christmas, what would the 12 gifts be? I finally answered this one!  Here's the post.
What is your favorite distance to run?  This goes with the previous question but isn't necessarily the distance I'd want that 20% PR at. My favorite race distance is probably the 10 mile.  It's challenging but doesn't totally kill you.  It's also the distance I set my pace PR at last fall (racing a 10 mile race near the end of marathon training will do that for you - in case you ever want to set a crazy PR) and beat my husband in last spring (it's the little things in life).  
What's the most interesting place you've visited? I love to travel.  That much is obvious in the fact I picked trips for 25% of my dream 12 Days of Christmas gifts :) Probably the most interesting place I've visited was in Mexico.  It's hard to pick just one place, though.  I stayed at a resort in Cozumel but driving to and from the airport and town was eye opening.  I couldn't believe the poverty just outside the walls of our very swanky resort.  I felt a little guilty, to be perfectly honest.  While on that trip, we also took the ferry over to the mainland and went to Tulum and Xel Ha.  They were unbelievably beautiful and I highly recommend going.  My 2nd choice would probably be St. Lucia - this is where I've gone SCUBA diving and zip lining for the first time.  I can't believe it's been 5 years.
What is your favorite workout gear? I answered that question in this post.
If Disney was wiped off the face of the Earth, after an appropriate mourning period, where would your new "go to" vacation destination be? Thea's questions crack me up (she also asked how much I love her). The answers are here!
What are the ups and downs of parenting twins? I think one of the biggest ups is the fact I got the perfect two-fer!  I only had to be pregnant once (which I really liked, so I'm also a bit sad I'll never have that experience again) and I ended up with a girl and boy as a result.  The first 6 months were pretty much zombiemom hell as no one slept, but after that it's been pretty smooth sailing.  Both kids are very independent and have completely different interests. K (my girl) is into sports and has excelled at everything from gymnastics and diving to volleyball and track. Just this week she actually ran 5 miles with me! D (my son) is into theater and music. He loves acting and is a great trombone player.  Not having them both in sports is nice since there aren't as many conflicts.  Right now, they are both working on accruing their hours to get their driver's licenses, which is a total PITA.  Not sure what we will do when they start both wanting a car.  I think that's probably the biggest downside is double cost for everything.  We're going to be hit with cars at the same time, graduation parties at the same time, college at the same time.  *runs off to start looking for a second job*
Hobbies outside of running.  I'm not really a "hobbies" person - mainly because I don't have time.  I've never been into scrapbooking or crafts.  I do like to read - mostly mindless stuff like Janet Evanovich novels or crime/detective novels, think John Sanford and stuff like that.  I watch far too much television and my DVR is always full.
Are you planning to get a tattoo to celebrate your tri? For those of you who don't know, I have 2 tattoos - one on my wrist that says "believe" and a firework on my ankle/calf with the words "strength" and a 26.2.  As of right now, I have no plans for a triathlon tattoo.  That doesn't mean I don't want another tat, however :)  One of my friends said they are kind of like an addiction and she was right.  I'm definitely thinking there will be more, but right now the design and placement are undecided.  
Suzanne asked: "Are you planning another marathon or ultra?" No.  I won't say "I'll never run another marathon" because a few years ago I said I'd never run a 10k, a half, a marathon, do a tri... (you get the idea), but as of right now I have no plans to do so.  If the right race came along, I had the time to train for it properly, and the right person/people to run it with, I would consider another marathon. I can say with 100% certainty, however, that I have no desire to run an ultra - the marathon was bad enough.
Kimert79 asked: "What is one thing my injury has taught me?"  For those who don't know, I overtrained last winter/spring and was diagnosed in April with (initially) a stress fracture in my left tibia that was then downgraded to a stress reaction.  Basically a stress "reaction" is a fracture waiting to happen. I spent almost 6 weeks in a boot and then slowly built my running back up over the summer.  What is the one thing I learned? I learned I really need running to stay sane.  The problem? Running is now harder (even though I've made a ton of progress and I'm almost back to my pre-injury self) and it isn't ever without some pain.  I think part of that is just getting older (and the weight I put back on while injured) but a lot of it is the lingering injury. Even so, I LOVE when I have a run that lets me forget about life for a little while and enjoy some me time.  I've learned a lot of other things too, but those little nuggets of wisdom (or whatever) could probably be their own blog post.
Lani asked: "What's your favorite color and why?" I actually answered this when I did my first 20 questions post and at the time I said orange.  Right now I would say it's purple or turquoise.  I don't have any particular reason for liking those colors (except I look great in turquoise but not so much in purple).  I chose purple for my firework tattoo and my roadID is purple, so I associate that color with running - plus I ran my marathon in a purple Team Sparkle skirt :) Oddly enough, I wear some form of black almost every day.
Ali wants to know: "If you weren't doing what you are doing right now (speech path) what would you do instead? (career wise or other)" At one point, I really thought I would go to medical school - even after I'd been working as a Speech-Language Pathologist I thought I'd like to go back to school and either be a Physiatrist (rehab doc) or get my Doctorate in Audiology and be duel certified.  Now, I'd just like to retire on a beach somewhere.
Andrea asks: "What's your favorite ME time activity outside of exercise?" I actually love to zone out with a movie or TV show on the computer.  Fire up HULU or Netflix and see what I can find.  I used to read more than I do now - but lately it's been movies. 
Megan wanted to know a while ago: "Cake or ice cream?" This one is easy. ICE CREAM!!! Cake is one dessert that I can easily pass up...unless it's in the form of red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting - then I'm screwed.


I hope you guys like this little "behind the curtain" glimpse into what makes me, well, ME :)  I'd love to know more about my readers, too.  Pick one of these questions and answer it in the comments.  Please and thank you!