Cross Country

I have been running basically my entire life.  Throughout my four years of high school, the guys always said that cross country was not hard and basically anyone could do it.  Personally, I think cross country is a very hard sport.  Yes, anyone can run but it takes dedication to run cross country.  Through my four years of running for Lady Runnin’ Red I have learned that it takes a lot of practice and dedication to become a good runner.  For a typical practice at cross country at Metamora High School we would run about ten miles or so.  We were required to run out to the park and back to the school after practice which equaled to three miles just for warm up and cool down.  Also, once a week we would stay at the high school and have little stations where we would lift weights, run, stretch, and do core.  I think cross country is one of the hardest sports a person can do.  First off, you have to have the strength and dedication to run for a long time at a good pace with a coach yelling at you every two minutes to run faster or get the girl in front of you.  Secondly, cross country meets are horrible!  Especially in the big meets where there are thousands of girls in your heat, and at the start of the race all the girls are squished together. When the gun goes off all the girls push and shove to get to the front, some even fall and get spiked.  Therefore, cross country is a very difficult and hard sport to do. 

Social Lubricant: How a Marketing Campaign Became the Catalyst for a Societal Debate

For this week’s blog I chose to read the article Social Lubricant: How a Marketing Campaign Became the Catalyst for a Societal Debate by Rob Walker on page 265. This article is about how in the new Dove commercials they are using “real” women rather than extremely skinny, unrealistic fashion models.  In this article the debate about the models for Dove is over whether these images of the Dove girls are positive because they are more “real” unlike the fashion model types that are all over magazines or negative because the Dove girls are practically naked and trying to sell a product.  Walker then goes on about Dove’s marketing ideas and how the marketing director of Dove, Philippe Harousseau, says the campaign has been in the works for a couple of years.  Also, in this article it says that women even agree that “the media and advertising” were pushing “unrealistic” beauty standards.  I personally think that using “real” women as models for the Dove commercials rather than “unrealistic” fashion models because it shows girls that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and you do not have to be extremely skinny to be beautiful.