I remember when pole dancing first made its way into the gyms of the USA. The popularity of the Pussycat Dolls and Carmen Electra added to the popularity of pole dancing. This NY Times article talks about how pole dancing is becoming popular in other parts of the world. What is the country mentioned in the NY Times article? Well I’ll give you one big clue. The Olympics will start in this country in 10 days.

The half-marathon is gaining popularity among runners. This is one trend that I absolutely love. About 8 years ago, I completed a marathon (Jersey Shore Marathon, in case anyone’s curious) in 4 hours and 6 1/2 minutes. It was a tremendous accomplishment but it was the precursor for me giving up running for quite some time. That distance just burned me out, ended up injuring my foot 6 months after the marathon when I tried to run a 5K (my most favorite distance ever). Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I did it, one thing to cross off my personal list of things I want to accomplish in this life. But I will never do another marathon again, I don’t care if someone were to pay me tons of money to do it.