ahh i have not! i don't really watch tv shows and ordinarily i would say i have heated rivalry at home but SOMEONE robbed me of a sincaraz final last week due to his cinderella-esque You Must Leave The Court Before 3h50min Or Else time limit curse. and 3316 are still in schrodinger's rivalry limbo since ferrari have forgotten how to make a competitive car although i remain stupidly hopeful about this season so maybe i will have heated rivalry at home x2 this year even. but i think it's great that everyone is finally experiencing the epic highs and lows of sports yaoi like genuinely the inherent homoeroticism of being rivals vying for a zero sum game victory + the intense physicality and rigour of professional sports + the coworkers of it all hits like nothing else <3
 

yayy succession run club 🫴🏃‍♀️ ok promise not to laugh i am not very fast but according to strava my prs are 5k 28:40 / 10k 1:04:28/ hm 2:26:14. no full mara for me i think i would genuinely die 😭 my coworker is training for a full mara and it requires a level of fitness and lockedinness that i don't think i can manage when the normal hm already has me fighting for my life. like i cannot emphasise enough how much i am just winging it when i run. ik people say it's mostly psychological after 10k which i think is quite true for a hm but i feel like even my fairly robust powers of delusion can't propel me another 30k. but it would be a very cool achievement!! it would also probably mean i would never write again bc i only really have time for one hobby that i love and brings me no joy and causes me a lot of pain but i am grimly persisting at anyway in my life lol.

if you want you should tell me about your running journey too :) it's been my most consistent pastime for the last year and i was thinking about writing up a dw post about it though it would probably mostly be a shoe review. still haven't found the perfect shoe yet but my coworkers swear by asics novablasts so i'll get a pair of those next to try.

hello anon, that's so exciting!! i just started doing hms last year and so far have done the nike after dark and the hoka hm in sydney. i really enjoyed them both, though i am not sure if the nike hm is happening this year since i haven't heard any news about it yet? both are very scenic runs with plenty of waterfront time and the april/may timing is quite pleasant weather wise.

the nike hm had great vibes, really fun sunset/evening party atmosphere but i wasn't fully prepared to run it (my coworker hurt her back 2 days out and gave me her ticket and i'd only trained up to 15k at that point) so the last few ks were fairly torturous for me 😭 but i would definitely run it again if it's on this year and i don't think it was objectively a difficult route. i loved the hoka hm and will be running it this year again, it's the first and only time i've ever experienced runner's high like genuinely felt euphoric in the middle running past the harbour. i've heard that people dislike the elevation gain but i found it totally manageable and there's really only one hill climb towards the end of the route that stood out to me as a bit challenging. you can have a look at the course map here.

not syd/melb but my coworker is doing the gold coast mara and says the route is very flat and i think they have a half option! and if you're open to shorter runs (1/3 maras?) city2surf is a classic that i intend to run this year as well though infamously it has an evil hill climb and the weather was sooo miserable last year. it was my first ever >5k run though so i have some irrational fondness for it.

hope this helps you decide & good luck with your running plans 🫶

HAHA anon your timing is excellent i was just finishing up a 2025 book review post (here: https://rhodochrosite.dreamwidth.org/49930.html) although only the sports nonfiction because i fear it will take me 500 years to comprehensively review the fiction i read last year and also almost none of it was anything that was on my tbr. here is a super quick rundown though, let me know if you wanted to discuss/hear about any of the titles and i am always happy to talk more:

• long live evil, sarah rees brennan - my first actual isekai experience, really stupid and pretty fun, love interest is the killer, enjoyed it 4/5
• exordia, seth dickinson - should have put this on my fave books list like finally a book that is both good And i like it, enjoyed it but it's the kind of book where i'd need to reread it to have something worth saying about it and that is an undertaking that would take me a decent chunk of time 5/5
• overgrowth, mira grant - it was fine, quick and easy read 2.5/5
• the archivist wasp, nicole kornher-stace - i am always reccing the short story pathfinding! which is set in this same universe but is unfortunately looking like the best part of the universe, background het child soldier coworkers so obliteratingly devastatingly harrowingly unromantically romantic i couldn't focus on anything else 2.5/5
• queen of nothing, holly black - generally enjoyed and i really don't know why i put it off as long as i did but it didn't reach the heights of twk and i think maybe the resolution was too easy 3.5/5
• the prisoner's throne & the stolen heir, holly black - fine but not as good as the main trilogy 2.5/5
• sunrise on the reaping, suzanne collins - fine but forgettable, i think thg fic delivers more in terms of backstory and worldbuilding than scollins ever could tbh 2.5/5

i will do an updated skincare/makeup/perfume post as well and reply to your other ask once that is done!!

okay after some consideration:
- run a sub-30min 5k.
- run a definitely sub-2:30 half marathon.
- play more tennis.
- avoid picking up a cigarette addiction as that will not assist the running goals.
- finish at least one sincaraz fic so the joke in my sports rpf pseud actually makes sense. the problem is that i missed the window of their ambiguous tensions era circa rg/wimby/cincy so i don't really know what to do with how much they seem to like each other again post six kings but maybe they'll pull back again once the 2026 season is underway and i will be back in my nothing where there should be something highrankershipping comfort zone.
- go back to uni to get a mechanical engineering degree so i can personally build a world championship winning car for charles leclerc………………ok i'm kidding. but only a little bit.

hi anon! this is a difficult question to answer as i fear that the venn diagram of Books I Like and Books I Think Are Good is basically two separate circles but umm here is the best i can do in the extremely narrow overlap. no particular order:
 
+ lirael – garth nix. i really love the old kingdom series overall (and garth nix is my fantasy writer goat) but lirael has the most special place in my heart. this is the book i started the series with and lirael remains one of the protagonists of all time to me. probably lirael/the old kingdom is to me what lotr is to classical hardcore fantasyheads like this is a childhood and genre defining book.
+ pathfinding! – nicole kornher-stace. a short story rather than a book but i am always coming back to this. one of the love (ambiguous definition) stories of all time, one of the military academy codependent partnerivals stories of all time, one of the approaching the end still believing stories all of time.
+ selkie stories are for losers – sofia samatar. again a short story rather than a book but this kind of changed the trajectory of my life forever. the strength of the narrative voice…!!
+ omniscient reader's viewpoint – singshong. this is the only story about stories ever.
+ changeover – giri nathan. maybe recency bias but i had such a good time when i read this a couple months ago obviously helped by the subject matter being one of my ships of the year SINCARAZ, but i thought it was an insightful overview of their individual and shared histories in the context of the big3 legacy they're inheriting and provided excellent yaoi narrative considerations. instantly a favourite.

if i'm honest at least one night world book is also making the cut but i think my love for that series is well documented enough 😭

here are my top poetry anthology picks too so this list looks less like a scam:
+ averno – louise gluck. I DO NOTTTTT PLAY ABOUT MS GLUCK october is and always will be my ultimate poem onepick of all time.
+ exit, pursued – dalton day. onepick: one-act play in which no knives are used.
+ bright dead things – ada limon. onepick: lies about sea creatures.
+ war of the foxes – richard siken. onepick: the worm king's lullaby.