Thursday, December 27, 2007
What I Do At Work All Day
Many of you have asked me, "gee Andrew, what do you do all day at work?" It's simple, really. Watch this video that was posted in an obscure part of the official company blog to see what we do. Basically, we fuck around all day with Nerf guns and we celebrate Festivus. Send me your resume today!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Party Weekend
Well, Christmahanakwanzika is practically beating down our door, so that means it's time for the endless string of party invites. More on that in a subsequent post, including my special take on the holidays.
This weekend I danced my butt off. Starting early, on Thursday once again I returned to the Salsa Rueda classes at work and had a blast. We had one of the largest groups of people I've ever seen at the class, so much so that I ended up helping teach the second wave of (mostly new) people who showed up.
Saturday night was the night I went to the company holiday party. The company is so huge now that this year they had to split the event into two nights, of which you could attend one. I kid you not, they must have spent at least a half mil on each night. It was ridiculous. The place was packed, and there was a very very good DJ in the one large room, and a live band in the other. Lots of dancing was had that night.
Sunday was the big game between the Steelers and the Patriots. The Steelers had a shot at breaking the Patriot's thus-far perfect record. I went up to Zach's in Millbrae with Yaneeka H, Derek P, Dave B, and Derek's buddy Sam. Unfortunately the Steelers were pretty much helpless against the Pats, and they were not the best in the sportsmanship department. :( But, my buddy Eric D was able to use my Steelers ticket (since I no longer live in Boston), so all is well.
Then, Sunday night I went to Eric P.'s birthday party at Jelly's, a Salsa club in SF. I knew I was in trouble when I was tired BEFORE getting to the club. Somehow, I rallied and we all had a great time in SF.
This weekend I danced my butt off. Starting early, on Thursday once again I returned to the Salsa Rueda classes at work and had a blast. We had one of the largest groups of people I've ever seen at the class, so much so that I ended up helping teach the second wave of (mostly new) people who showed up.
Saturday night was the night I went to the company holiday party. The company is so huge now that this year they had to split the event into two nights, of which you could attend one. I kid you not, they must have spent at least a half mil on each night. It was ridiculous. The place was packed, and there was a very very good DJ in the one large room, and a live band in the other. Lots of dancing was had that night.
Sunday was the big game between the Steelers and the Patriots. The Steelers had a shot at breaking the Patriot's thus-far perfect record. I went up to Zach's in Millbrae with Yaneeka H, Derek P, Dave B, and Derek's buddy Sam. Unfortunately the Steelers were pretty much helpless against the Pats, and they were not the best in the sportsmanship department. :( But, my buddy Eric D was able to use my Steelers ticket (since I no longer live in Boston), so all is well.
Then, Sunday night I went to Eric P.'s birthday party at Jelly's, a Salsa club in SF. I knew I was in trouble when I was tired BEFORE getting to the club. Somehow, I rallied and we all had a great time in SF.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Cal International Marathon
the 11 mile mark.
It was a long trip to the start line, the whole time being in the pitch black night. On the bus ride I met a runner, also named Andy, who has been running marathons since 2001. When we rolled into Folsom, I stayed in the bus for a half hour, in order to keep warm. Then, the early light of dawn started to creep in, and I got off the bus in order to use the bathroom and check my equipment bag. On the way, I bumped into Donna T., so we hung out and kept each other company until it was race time. Perhaps we got carried away and didn't look at the time, because before we knew it we realized there was only three minutes left before start. I slammed down a GU energy gel while frantically stretching. The race gun went off and I dived over the barrier into the starting corral roughly around where the 3:35/3:40/3:45 pacing groups were situated.
Over the first two or three miles, I ended up being near the 3:35 pace group. As much as I tried, I couldn't seem to slow down enough to find the 3:45 group. Every time I looked forward I always found myself closer to the 3:35 group. Another mile or so into the course my running buddy from the "running over lunch at work" group, Bill B, met up with me. He was planning on catching up with the 3:35 pace group. Finally, I gave up on the hopes of falling back enough to stay with the 3:45 group. I just moved up and planted myself in the 3:35 pace group.
Things went well, and I'm glad I made the decision to join that pace group. Every mile is marked with a large banner. The miles seem to be coming fast - at around 8:10-8:15 pace, which is close to what I was doing for Chicago (8:00 pace for the first 10 miles, before I started to bonk.) When I passed 10 miles and did not slow down, I was pleased.
The course had its ups and downs, and it certainly wasn't flat (unlike Chicago). Also unlike Chicago, the spectators were more subdued and were way way fewer in number. Where in Chicago people were at least three deep for the whole course, in Sacramento there were long stretches of time where there weren't any spectators at all. Of course this makes sense considering the relative magnitude of the two races. Chicago had 40,000 entrants, versus the 5,000 or so at the CIM.
There was a fair amount of wind on the course, so it was tremendously helpful to have a large group of people to huddle together with, and especially to draft off of. Tim Twietmeyer, the pace leader, was a particularly tall guy, so even I could benefit from tucking in behind him. I know many people in turn drafted off of me, so it all worked out. Tim has been a pace leader in the last 6 CIMs, so he was an invaluable resource. He kept us engaged and interacting throughout the whole race.
Around 15 miles into the course, I started getting some tightness in my left calf. I had noticed a bit of discomfort during last weekend's run in Eugene, but shrugged it off. I was a little worried that the pain would increase, but I otherwise felt fine and decided that it would be better to keep going with the pace group, than to take the hit of falling back. The next time I saw Derek was around then, so I asked him to get me some more Aleve. Unfailingly Derek was able to navigate the maze of closed off roads, find a drug store somewhere, and get back on the course in good enough time to catch me around mile 19. What an A+ spectator, I tell you!
Right at 19 miles into the course, I went from feeling fine to suddenly hitting a bump in my pace, and then I realized I did not have the energy to continue with the 3:35 pace group. This was compounded by the onset of nausea I had from dry-swallowing two tablets of Aleve that bounced around in my stomach and esophagus. This was hard because I knew that as soon as I let go, I wouldn't ever be able to pick it up enough to catch them again. It's a split second decision, but one that my body was effectively making for me. I knew I couldn't force the issue and rejoin, because I would blow out a muscle or overexert myself and seriously regret the decision sooner rather than later. The other downside to leaving the pace group is that there's about a 4 minute gap (and growing) between the 3:35 group and the 3:40 group. If I were to slow down enough to drift back to the other group, I would be out in the wind alone by myself for quite some time. Alternatively (and probably worse,) if I recovered from my drifting and resumed the same pace as before, just behind the actual pace group, I would be indefinitely without a group of people to draft on.
Thus as I passed the twenty mile mark, it was a bit surreal. There they had "the wall", which was a inflatable fake brick wall. A few people were dressed up as the grim reaper, which was comical. Passing this mark in the marathon is supposed to be encouraging, because if you've made it this far--and are still feeling well--you're cheating death. Er, you haven't hit the wall, right. So I kept going. My leg wasn't feeling great, but I was still plodding along just fine, now more at like a 9:00 pace rather than an 8:20 pace.
Around mile 23 the 3:40 pace group passed me by. By my calculations, if I had dropped 5 minutes of pace between miles 19 and 23, It was still doable to meet up with the 3:45 pace group within the next three miles, and finish strong. But alas, it was not meant to be. Right around 24 miles, both of my legs painfully and majorly seized up. Despite having eaten some banana (for potassium/anti-cramping sake) and Aleve (as a muscle relaxant), I was suddenly in very, very bad shape. My best guess is that I was so depleted of salt that by the time I noticed, I was well into the cramping phase with no real way to fix things within the time remaining. It was horrible. The next 2.2 miles were the hardest, most painful, and most frustrating miles I have ever run in my 13 year history as a runner. I spent perhaps a third of the time slowly and gingerly jogging, a third walking, and the other third standing still. Standing still was the worst. If I could have kept moving, I would have, but all of the muscles in my legs were simultaneously cramping up, rendering me helpless. At one point I just had to hug the nearest lamppost and wait as my legs trembled with the high tension and fury of salt depletion. They had a coke and pretzel stop around 25.5 miles, so I chugged as much of both as I could in the hopes that the salt and caffeine would propel me towards the finish.
Unfortunately as I limped, struggled, and hurled myself towards the finish, both the 3:45 and 3:50 pace groups passed me by. That was hard, but the height of frustration came from the fact that my upper body strength, my lung capacity, and my mental state were 100% fine and were raring to go. If I could have raced on my hands, I damn well would have. By my calculations, I still had a chance at making it in under 4 hours, so I did my best to make it. In fact, I did make it, with an approximate time of 3:56. I'll know my official time in a day or so.
Derek was awesome and when we met up after the race, he took care of me as I cramped up and hung out on the grass for several minutes. It takes a good sport to hang out with a confused, sweaty, convulsing pile of freezing human like me.
Fellow PARC teammates Donna T. and Marty U. had awesome races. Marty had a goal of qualifying for Boston, which for his age group means running faster than 3:20. He's going to Boston folks - he qualified! Donna had an AMAZING performance and finished at 3:09. So awesome. Does this mean I need to run Boston this year on a charity number? It's tempting..
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Without Limits
Since the early days of college, it has been a tradition for my friend Adam K. to help prepare a Turducken. This Thanksgiving, along with about ten other people from the bay area, I trekked up to Eugene, Oregon to visit Adam and to share in the continuation of that tradition.
Eugene, Oregon is also known as "Track Town, USA." The beginnings of the Nike shoe company happened there at the University of Oregon, and legendary American runner Steve Prefontaine set many a record while there until his tragic death at age 24.
I had the opportunity to run a 15 mile workout while in Eugene. My friend Will H. joined me for the run. It was really inspiring to run in the area where "Pre," as he was affectionately known, had put in the miles that enabled him to simultaneously hold all of the American records for every running event between 2,000 and 10,000 meters.
This got me thinking about my upcoming race at the California International Marathon. I decided that it would be a fun way to prep for CIM by hosting a movie night for my running friends. So, on Friday night I got together a few people from PARC and friends, and had a showing of "Without Limits," which is the 1998 film starring Billy Crudup as Steve Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman. It was a lot of fun getting together with fellow PARC runners Chris, Donna T, and Mandy E. to watch the movie.
I'm writing this post from the Holiday Inn in Sacramento. My good buddy Derek P. (who is not a runner) and I are up here the night before the Cal International to get a good night's sleep before the marathon. Derek is prepping his cheering/hollering voice and looking over the course map. I am ready. The race starts at 7AM. Wish me luck tomorrow...
Eugene, Oregon is also known as "Track Town, USA." The beginnings of the Nike shoe company happened there at the University of Oregon, and legendary American runner Steve Prefontaine set many a record while there until his tragic death at age 24.I had the opportunity to run a 15 mile workout while in Eugene. My friend Will H. joined me for the run. It was really inspiring to run in the area where "Pre," as he was affectionately known, had put in the miles that enabled him to simultaneously hold all of the American records for every running event between 2,000 and 10,000 meters.
This got me thinking about my upcoming race at the California International Marathon. I decided that it would be a fun way to prep for CIM by hosting a movie night for my running friends. So, on Friday night I got together a few people from PARC and friends, and had a showing of "Without Limits," which is the 1998 film starring Billy Crudup as Steve Prefontaine, and Donald Sutherland as Bill Bowerman. It was a lot of fun getting together with fellow PARC runners Chris, Donna T, and Mandy E. to watch the movie.
I'm writing this post from the Holiday Inn in Sacramento. My good buddy Derek P. (who is not a runner) and I are up here the night before the Cal International to get a good night's sleep before the marathon. Derek is prepping his cheering/hollering voice and looking over the course map. I am ready. The race starts at 7AM. Wish me luck tomorrow...
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Hell has frozen over
Thanks to repeated beatings^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hencouragement from a friend (*cough*Darren*cough*) I have finally gotten around to posting my story about the Chicago Marathon. Plus, I had a few other blog postings in the queue that I hadn't published, because I was blocking on that post. So please, let's catch up, but I ask that you first read my account of the Chicago Marathon, so that it all makes sense.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Fastest course in the west!
Well, in light of my lackluster performance at the Chicago Marathon, I decided to investigate other options for running a second marathon. Several CRCers decided to run the Philadelphia Marathon. This was basically out of the cards for me, because I wasn't really up for another cross-country flight (since I was travelling to Pittsburgh.) Fellow PARC runner Marty also wanted to best his Chicago time, so he suckered me in to running the California International Marathon, which is on December 2nd. Good news: it can't possibly be five bajillion degrees outside, and also it's a mostly downhill course. Yesssssssss
Bad news: I haven't done that much training since Chicago. I've done a long run (13 miles, 15 miles, that sort) just about every weekend, and on average about one other run a week. That's very little training. But, I had some foot pain in my left foot that was exactly the same as my right foot pain, so I wanted to give it time to recover. We'll see how this goes.
Bad news: I haven't done that much training since Chicago. I've done a long run (13 miles, 15 miles, that sort) just about every weekend, and on average about one other run a week. That's very little training. But, I had some foot pain in my left foot that was exactly the same as my right foot pain, so I wanted to give it time to recover. We'll see how this goes.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Visiting Pittsburgh
I visited Pittsburgh for a week. It was great to go back and visit old friends. Plus, Matt R. and I worked out of the Pittsburgh office, on a game we're making for our company's mobile phone platform. The office there is quirky and unique, yet still carries the overall spirit of the company that I have found when visiting Chicago and New York.
Funny note - the building the office is in is located right next to some train tracks. About every three hours or so a train would blow by, and they're so noisy that no work can get done for about three minutes. As soon as the train crossing bell goes off, the office descends into full-scale Nerf war. It is awesome.
The primary/original purpose of going to Pittsburgh was to watch the Steelers/Browns game. When I was visiting Matt R. in New York several months ago, we both logged on to Ticketmaster to try and get a crack at Steelers tickets as they went on-sale. We lucked out and got four tickets to the November 11th game, so Matt invited his friend Val, and I invited my mother (who just had her 50th birthday!) Most of the game the Steelers were behind, and there were four extremely drunk and rowdy Browns fans next to us, which increased the difficulty of watching the game. However the Steelers had an awesome comeback and ended up WINNING the game. Needless to say the Browns fans were pretty quiet for the last part of the game!
I got the chance to catch up with relatives from both sides of the family over dinner at Olive Garden in Monroeville. Lucy, Ken, Fred, Barb, Jesse, Jesse's girlfriend, Dan, Marsha, and Eileen were in attendance.
I got the chance to run with the fine folks of People Who Run Downtown while back in town. I had fun running with Darrin, Ken, Heather, and a cast of characters both on Tuesday night for a fast 6 mile run through the hills just south of Carson Street, and on Saturday morning for a 13 mile, very hilly workout near Bellevue.
WRCT, the campus radio station at Carnegie Mellon University, is in fine condition. The engineering work there recently absolutely blew me away. The news room is fully wired as an air studio now, the old RS-12 production console has been replaced with an additional control surface to the Audio Engine, and various patchery and audio routing had been overhauled, replaced, or cleaned since last I visited. And they finally put a CD burner in the air studio rack, for "taping" your own show. Well done, WRCT!
Yes, visiting Pittsburgh was well worth it. What little time I spent outside of working around the clock at work, was spent in the company of good friends whilst chowing down on good food from memorable Pittsburgh establishments. I look forward to returning again when I can.
Funny note - the building the office is in is located right next to some train tracks. About every three hours or so a train would blow by, and they're so noisy that no work can get done for about three minutes. As soon as the train crossing bell goes off, the office descends into full-scale Nerf war. It is awesome.
The primary/original purpose of going to Pittsburgh was to watch the Steelers/Browns game. When I was visiting Matt R. in New York several months ago, we both logged on to Ticketmaster to try and get a crack at Steelers tickets as they went on-sale. We lucked out and got four tickets to the November 11th game, so Matt invited his friend Val, and I invited my mother (who just had her 50th birthday!) Most of the game the Steelers were behind, and there were four extremely drunk and rowdy Browns fans next to us, which increased the difficulty of watching the game. However the Steelers had an awesome comeback and ended up WINNING the game. Needless to say the Browns fans were pretty quiet for the last part of the game!
I got the chance to catch up with relatives from both sides of the family over dinner at Olive Garden in Monroeville. Lucy, Ken, Fred, Barb, Jesse, Jesse's girlfriend, Dan, Marsha, and Eileen were in attendance.
I got the chance to run with the fine folks of People Who Run Downtown while back in town. I had fun running with Darrin, Ken, Heather, and a cast of characters both on Tuesday night for a fast 6 mile run through the hills just south of Carson Street, and on Saturday morning for a 13 mile, very hilly workout near Bellevue.
WRCT, the campus radio station at Carnegie Mellon University, is in fine condition. The engineering work there recently absolutely blew me away. The news room is fully wired as an air studio now, the old RS-12 production console has been replaced with an additional control surface to the Audio Engine, and various patchery and audio routing had been overhauled, replaced, or cleaned since last I visited. And they finally put a CD burner in the air studio rack, for "taping" your own show. Well done, WRCT!
Yes, visiting Pittsburgh was well worth it. What little time I spent outside of working around the clock at work, was spent in the company of good friends whilst chowing down on good food from memorable Pittsburgh establishments. I look forward to returning again when I can.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
My first earthquake
Tonight after salsa class, I was having dinner with my fellow dancers in the big cafeteria at work, when all of a sudden we were interrupted by an earthquake. It was a 5.6, which isn't big, but isn't small either. Wow. Welcome to California! See more at this news article from the Associated Press.
Monday, October 8, 2007
The Marathon
First off, sorry for not getting around to posting this sooner. I've been busy catching up with everything else! Also, as you read along in my posting, I think you'll understand why it took so long for me to write up. Reliving the experience was ... interesting.
The morning of the marathon, Pradeep and I were in charge of waking each other up. This was a good plan - somehow I had screwed up my alarm, so Pradeep saved me from the utter embarassment of sleeping through the start. All of the CRCers in the Chinatown Hotel hopped on the L to downtown. We were ready for the morning. We were refreshed, well nourished, and ready to go. We deposited our bags at the bag check, took care of last minute details, stretched, and crammed into the start corrals. Before I knew it, I had said goodbye to Pradeep and Jonathan, and took my place in the corral.
Shortly thereafter, we were off; all 36,000 runners making their way through the course. It was unlike any other race I'd been in, for numerous reasons. As you'll notice on the course map, the first three miles weave through the heart of downtown Chicago, including a section in a tunnel. These conditions, combined with a high density of runners, created this bizarre scenario where the heat of the runners in front of me wasn't ventilating upwards; instead it swarmed through the crowd of runners as they moved. Imagine jogging on a treadmill in the middle of a wind tunnel. Now, imagine there's an oven set to 'bake' about ten feet in front of you, whose door is wide open. That is how it felt for the first three miles. I'm glad I was in a start corral, and not in the open start - that would have been even worse.
No matter how reserved you are, you tend to start out harder at the beginning of the race, because you have that extra kick of adrenaline when the start gun goes off! As you and the runners around you get into their groove, the initial start line congestion will resolve itself, and people will trend to space themselves out a bit. This helped to resolve the sauna situation of the first three miles.
The whole time I was running with my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch, which faithfully informed me of my pace. It was all I could do not to run faster than my pace goal of 8 minutes per mile. I reasoned with myself, "if 8 minutes per mile feels like I'm running too slow, that means I'm saving up energy for later." As the runners continued to space out and I had a little breathing room, I started taking in the surroundings. By now I've been running for more than 3 or 4 miles. I start noticing how awesome the crowds of spectators are. They're more than three deep, holding up signs and cheering loudly.
Before the race I had slapped "ANDY" tags on the front and back of my racing singlet, in the hopes that spectators would cheer for me as I ran. Indeed they did. The next time I race I will put slightly more permanent tags on my gear, because I sweated the signs off around miles six and ten. Whoops!
The spectators were awesome. However I've learned my lesson and I will not take water from random spectators again. A little girl was pouring water, with help from her mom. She wasn't pouring fast (or accurately) enough to keep up with the demand, so a few runners ended up gathering around her. One of those runners bolted out of the line and we cracked skulls. OWWW! I shook it off and proceeded onwards.. no water for me.
The first ten miles went by otherwise uneventfully. I kept to my 8 minute pace without any problems. But around ten miles in, I started to lag a bit, and ended up switching to a 9 minute pace. "Given the heat, you're being responsible by backing off slightly," I thought. realistically I should have backed off from the beginning, but I didn't think that through. This would come back to bite me later..
At various spots in the course, I noticed huge signs proudly declaring members of "Liz P.'s midwest fan club." This made me smile. Liz P. is a friend of mine from CRC, who it turns out also went to CMU. We have several mutual friends from CMU.
All along the course there were bands playing. This musical element added to the already festive atmosphere around the spectators. Soon enough though, festivities were pushed out of my mind. 13 miles in, just half way, I realized that I was starting to fatigue. I had been taking in water, and had taken the recommended amount of energy gel at the appropriate times, but given the heat of the course, it just wasn't enough to keep me running even at a 9 minute pace. Thus began my slow pace descent that would last for the remainder of my race.
The heat of the day was now in full swing. At one point during the race, as Jonathan would later tell me, he observed a bank whose front sign read a temperature of 93 degrees. Perhaps that was an in-the-sun reading, but hey -- we were in the sun too! Over the course of the second half of the marathon, my pace would slow down gradually, and while dealing with the decline, my muscles started cramping up and I found myself adding in more and more walking moments. Determination drove me onwards anyway.
In a surreal way, I found myself craving the next water stop shortly after leaving the previous one. No amount of water, Gatorade, GU, or bananas would have keep me in peak shape, however. I just focused on the determination I had to finish my first marathon, make my running friends proud, and do right by my non-runner friends who were eagerly awaiting news of my split times over email/SMS from afar. This allowed me to get through the second ten miles, putting me up to the twenty mile mark. It was there, in my original race plan, that I had expected to possibly divert from my 8 minute/mile race pace, possibly even speeding up! Little did I know that I would be feeling the way I did when I got there.
Despite feeling not all that super, I knew that I was only a few miles away from the finish. The last six miles are the hardest, but little did I know how emotionally hard they would be - and not because of me! By the time I got to mile 22/23, my butt was really dragging, but I was getting there. Then, at mile 24 a few weird things happened...
Any runner who has raced in numerous road races knows that spectators (who are not runners), seem to think that misleading a runner is a Good, Helpful Idea. As in, you're running in a 5 mile race, and the spectator just after the mile 3 water stop says, "You've only got a mile to go!! GO GO GO" What do they think you're going to do? Pour on the speed for a mile and then... bonk? Yeah, thanks. No, seriously, this is OK - as a runner you get use to this first-time-spectator phenomenon and filter it out. Except, at exactly 24.2 miles into the race (according to my GPS watch), a runner yells at me: "They've shortened the course! You only have two miles to go!" What? Yes, I only have two miles to go. Also, you do not shorten a marathon. It is 26.2 miles. Not 26.1, not 26.3. Huh? Whatever.
Then, I notice a helicopter flying over the course. I think, "oh look, here comes some news helicopters to shoot footage of determined finishers of the marathon," or whatever sort of logic my feebly performing brain manages to squeak out. This is all well and good until the public address system strapped to the helicopter blurts out "HRRMRPMGRGHH MHPRMRHPPPPG FRRRRBLGRGBRGH!" I look up and notice that the underbelly of the helicopter says "CPD," which would be the Chicago Police Department.
I'm still not sure of what to make of this. Weird stuff happens during races. Maybe the police are saying "go runners go!" or "remember to hydrate!" or "you down there in the red Mazda Miata! If you don't put money in the meter we're going to nuke you from where we're hovering!" I mean, I don't know how this works. All I know is, they think they're telling the runners something important, but it's coming out sounding like the Swedish Chef yelling through a harmonica into a third-rate sound system.
Lastly, at the final water stop, some guy with a reflective vest that says "head waterstop volunteer" (yeah, okay) gets on a megaphone and says "attention everyone! The Chicago Marathon is now cancelled! You can start walking now. If you choose to keep running, you are running in the Chicago Fun Run."
WHAT?!?!!?!!?!!
News flash: Running about 25 miles of a 26.2 mile, standard issue marathon, only to be told that you are running/walking in a "fun run" is NOT FUN. A "fun run" is the kind of half-mile run they set up for kids, when their parents are running a 5K later that day.
Extra news flash: You don't tell someone who has willed themselves to run 25 miles of a 26.2 mile marathon that now would be a just dandy time to start walking!
Ok, fine, whatever. I'm going to keep running/walking my way to the finish line, despite the ultimate mind-fuck/excuse to punk out that was just dropped on everyone like a ton of bricks. Right? I mean, who or what's going to stop us before the finish line. There is going to be a finish line, right? I sure hope.
Keep in mind that beforehand I did not bother to study the race course. I figured it would be an exercise in futility. I have such a bad memory anyway, and besides, what good will it do? Probably no good. I'll just end up psyching myself out before the race. There's a video of the race course as driven by a volunteer with a camera strapped to their car. I neglected to watch this too. All I knew about the course was a short description of the one measly "hill" in the course, which happens to be at the end of the race. You're running all the way up Michigan Ave into the heart of downtown Chicago, and at the end there's a quick right turn, you go up a little hill/over a bridge, make a quick left, and you're less than 500 meters from the finish, in a straight shot.
Armed with the ridiculous "cancellation" of the Chicago "marathon", but still knowing that the race has to be over in less than 1.2 miles, I plod onward looking for this fabled right turn. Finally it arrives - but not all is as I imagined it. It turns out that runners are starting to pile up (not severely though), in an improvised cattle chute right before the right turn. Two policemen are bottlenecking the runners into a single file line. WHY on earth would you do this? If this had been anyone other than policemen, they would have been trampled for doing this. I give the policemen credit for being as ballsy as this. Their plan was to individually tell every runner at this point to STOP RUNNING and start walking, and that the race was over. Why you would tell people who have run 25.8 miles of a 26.2 mile race this NOW, boggles the mind.
So I did what any other self-respecting runner would do. I merged into the pack, walked single file through Officer Tweedledee and Officer Tweedledum's bottleneck, and then took off running again. If you think that several thousand runners are going to just say, "you know, forget it, I'm going to kick my shoes off and lay in the sand when I could be finishing the last measly 800 meters of a marathon. What a delightful showing, ha ha ha. Muffy, ask Terrence to bring the golf cart around and we'll go for tea," then balls to you and the wonderful City of Chicago. Balls with a capital B.
I don't remember much about running the last 800 meters or so other than mentally pingponging between "AAAUUUAAAAUGH FINISH go GO go GO" and "I wonder if there IS a finish line?" When I got over the bridge and made the left turn, there was in fact a finish line, and I did see the ChampionChip timing mats, so my sole goal was getting my race time clocked. As soon as I passed over the racing mats I stopped cold. Well, I stopped smoking hot, not cold, but I sure did stop.
After all of that you would think I would be on top of the world, in some sort of post-marathon runner's high state of euphoria. Well, I look forward to having that at some other race, possibly a marathon. But it wasn't going to happen at this race. Hell no, there was still craziness yet to come. You see, 99% of the people running in the Chicago race were using race-provided loaner ChampionChip timing devices. As a racer, you are given zip-ties to affix the device to your shoe. At the end of the race, understandably, the last thing you want to do is figure out how to undo the device from your shoe. So, you're supposed to put your shoe up on a low bar, and volunteers will clip the zip-ties and take back your timing device.
Except, in this case put on your physics, fluid mechanics, or plumbers' hat and imagine that people finishing the race are like a certain amount of water running into, say, a pipe. And imagine the metal cage that holds the ChampionChip-clipping volunteers as a smaller, extremely sticky solid cylinder on the center/inside of that pipe, through which water cannot flow but is attracted. Immediately after finishing you are wedged into a backed-up finish line area in which everyone is trying to get their chips clipped, and no-one is moving forward. Now, instead of being able to walk, even at a very slow pace, through the finish chute, you are packed into a steaming hot pile of runners, standing straight up. You cannot move around, much less move your limbs. This is the most horrible feeling. You are baking, and your knees are screaming at you. You wish you could even just sit down, or even walk in a circle, but instead you cannot do anything.
On the right there was a huge tent marked "ICE TENT." Exciting! Except that the volunteers in there are just constantly yelling "Sorry we're out of ice!" Damn. In the meantime, volunteers up on raised platforms are equipped with megaphones. Instead of announcing "congrats on finishing the race! Please exit left for baggage claim, or right to meet up with your waiting family" or whatever, they have been reassigned to yelling "RUNNER DOWN" and pointing, trying to help emergency teams locate the runners who are passing out in the river of crammed runners. In the ten minutes it took to get through this crowd, I personally witnessed three runners pass out, one of whom I personally helped catch before they keeled over. Aaaaugh!
After I got out of that mess, I picked up my bag of stuff, and headed over to the "family/team greeting area" where I met up with Jonathan, Jonathan's wonderfully supportive sons, Pradeep, Tim, Stu, and Stu's wonderfully supportive sister. Jonathan, who is 57 and diabetic, finished in an astounding time of 4:08:51. He did it for himself, and he did it to prove to his sons how much of a badass he is (as if any of us had any doubt.) I am so proud of him. After I found the CRC group, I resigned myself to laying out on the ground, waiting for the inevitable cramping. Here's a bonus photo of Jonathan and I in our post-marathon passed out state:
How did I do? Well, "it ain't pretty but I'll take it."
Despite being upset about the race, I'm not too upset about my personal time. Sure, it wasn't my "goal" time of 3:30, but considering that I had to deal with a self-imposed sabotage of my training due to the tendinitis (15 of the last 25 days I did not run at all), and that the temperatures for the marathon were out of control, being a little over an hour behind my lofty goal was not entirely unreasonable. CRC elite runner Mike dropped out of the race, as did Suma, a very fast female runner in the group, and Erin another CRCer who had finished all five of her previous marathons. It seems like finishing itself was an accomplishment.
And that, my friends, is how I did at the Chicago Fun Run.
Side note: CRC's Mike went on to run a kickass Philadelphia marathon! Way to go Mike!
The morning of the marathon, Pradeep and I were in charge of waking each other up. This was a good plan - somehow I had screwed up my alarm, so Pradeep saved me from the utter embarassment of sleeping through the start. All of the CRCers in the Chinatown Hotel hopped on the L to downtown. We were ready for the morning. We were refreshed, well nourished, and ready to go. We deposited our bags at the bag check, took care of last minute details, stretched, and crammed into the start corrals. Before I knew it, I had said goodbye to Pradeep and Jonathan, and took my place in the corral.
Shortly thereafter, we were off; all 36,000 runners making their way through the course. It was unlike any other race I'd been in, for numerous reasons. As you'll notice on the course map, the first three miles weave through the heart of downtown Chicago, including a section in a tunnel. These conditions, combined with a high density of runners, created this bizarre scenario where the heat of the runners in front of me wasn't ventilating upwards; instead it swarmed through the crowd of runners as they moved. Imagine jogging on a treadmill in the middle of a wind tunnel. Now, imagine there's an oven set to 'bake' about ten feet in front of you, whose door is wide open. That is how it felt for the first three miles. I'm glad I was in a start corral, and not in the open start - that would have been even worse.
No matter how reserved you are, you tend to start out harder at the beginning of the race, because you have that extra kick of adrenaline when the start gun goes off! As you and the runners around you get into their groove, the initial start line congestion will resolve itself, and people will trend to space themselves out a bit. This helped to resolve the sauna situation of the first three miles.
The whole time I was running with my trusty Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS watch, which faithfully informed me of my pace. It was all I could do not to run faster than my pace goal of 8 minutes per mile. I reasoned with myself, "if 8 minutes per mile feels like I'm running too slow, that means I'm saving up energy for later." As the runners continued to space out and I had a little breathing room, I started taking in the surroundings. By now I've been running for more than 3 or 4 miles. I start noticing how awesome the crowds of spectators are. They're more than three deep, holding up signs and cheering loudly.
Before the race I had slapped "ANDY" tags on the front and back of my racing singlet, in the hopes that spectators would cheer for me as I ran. Indeed they did. The next time I race I will put slightly more permanent tags on my gear, because I sweated the signs off around miles six and ten. Whoops!
The spectators were awesome. However I've learned my lesson and I will not take water from random spectators again. A little girl was pouring water, with help from her mom. She wasn't pouring fast (or accurately) enough to keep up with the demand, so a few runners ended up gathering around her. One of those runners bolted out of the line and we cracked skulls. OWWW! I shook it off and proceeded onwards.. no water for me.
The first ten miles went by otherwise uneventfully. I kept to my 8 minute pace without any problems. But around ten miles in, I started to lag a bit, and ended up switching to a 9 minute pace. "Given the heat, you're being responsible by backing off slightly," I thought. realistically I should have backed off from the beginning, but I didn't think that through. This would come back to bite me later..
At various spots in the course, I noticed huge signs proudly declaring members of "Liz P.'s midwest fan club." This made me smile. Liz P. is a friend of mine from CRC, who it turns out also went to CMU. We have several mutual friends from CMU.
All along the course there were bands playing. This musical element added to the already festive atmosphere around the spectators. Soon enough though, festivities were pushed out of my mind. 13 miles in, just half way, I realized that I was starting to fatigue. I had been taking in water, and had taken the recommended amount of energy gel at the appropriate times, but given the heat of the course, it just wasn't enough to keep me running even at a 9 minute pace. Thus began my slow pace descent that would last for the remainder of my race.
The heat of the day was now in full swing. At one point during the race, as Jonathan would later tell me, he observed a bank whose front sign read a temperature of 93 degrees. Perhaps that was an in-the-sun reading, but hey -- we were in the sun too! Over the course of the second half of the marathon, my pace would slow down gradually, and while dealing with the decline, my muscles started cramping up and I found myself adding in more and more walking moments. Determination drove me onwards anyway.
In a surreal way, I found myself craving the next water stop shortly after leaving the previous one. No amount of water, Gatorade, GU, or bananas would have keep me in peak shape, however. I just focused on the determination I had to finish my first marathon, make my running friends proud, and do right by my non-runner friends who were eagerly awaiting news of my split times over email/SMS from afar. This allowed me to get through the second ten miles, putting me up to the twenty mile mark. It was there, in my original race plan, that I had expected to possibly divert from my 8 minute/mile race pace, possibly even speeding up! Little did I know that I would be feeling the way I did when I got there.
Despite feeling not all that super, I knew that I was only a few miles away from the finish. The last six miles are the hardest, but little did I know how emotionally hard they would be - and not because of me! By the time I got to mile 22/23, my butt was really dragging, but I was getting there. Then, at mile 24 a few weird things happened...
Any runner who has raced in numerous road races knows that spectators (who are not runners), seem to think that misleading a runner is a Good, Helpful Idea. As in, you're running in a 5 mile race, and the spectator just after the mile 3 water stop says, "You've only got a mile to go!! GO GO GO" What do they think you're going to do? Pour on the speed for a mile and then... bonk? Yeah, thanks. No, seriously, this is OK - as a runner you get use to this first-time-spectator phenomenon and filter it out. Except, at exactly 24.2 miles into the race (according to my GPS watch), a runner yells at me: "They've shortened the course! You only have two miles to go!" What? Yes, I only have two miles to go. Also, you do not shorten a marathon. It is 26.2 miles. Not 26.1, not 26.3. Huh? Whatever.
Then, I notice a helicopter flying over the course. I think, "oh look, here comes some news helicopters to shoot footage of determined finishers of the marathon," or whatever sort of logic my feebly performing brain manages to squeak out. This is all well and good until the public address system strapped to the helicopter blurts out "HRRMRPMGRGHH MHPRMRHPPPPG FRRRRBLGRGBRGH!" I look up and notice that the underbelly of the helicopter says "CPD," which would be the Chicago Police Department.
I'm still not sure of what to make of this. Weird stuff happens during races. Maybe the police are saying "go runners go!" or "remember to hydrate!" or "you down there in the red Mazda Miata! If you don't put money in the meter we're going to nuke you from where we're hovering!" I mean, I don't know how this works. All I know is, they think they're telling the runners something important, but it's coming out sounding like the Swedish Chef yelling through a harmonica into a third-rate sound system.
Lastly, at the final water stop, some guy with a reflective vest that says "head waterstop volunteer" (yeah, okay) gets on a megaphone and says "attention everyone! The Chicago Marathon is now cancelled! You can start walking now. If you choose to keep running, you are running in the Chicago Fun Run."
WHAT?!?!!?!!?!!
News flash: Running about 25 miles of a 26.2 mile, standard issue marathon, only to be told that you are running/walking in a "fun run" is NOT FUN. A "fun run" is the kind of half-mile run they set up for kids, when their parents are running a 5K later that day.
Extra news flash: You don't tell someone who has willed themselves to run 25 miles of a 26.2 mile marathon that now would be a just dandy time to start walking!
Ok, fine, whatever. I'm going to keep running/walking my way to the finish line, despite the ultimate mind-fuck/excuse to punk out that was just dropped on everyone like a ton of bricks. Right? I mean, who or what's going to stop us before the finish line. There is going to be a finish line, right? I sure hope.
Keep in mind that beforehand I did not bother to study the race course. I figured it would be an exercise in futility. I have such a bad memory anyway, and besides, what good will it do? Probably no good. I'll just end up psyching myself out before the race. There's a video of the race course as driven by a volunteer with a camera strapped to their car. I neglected to watch this too. All I knew about the course was a short description of the one measly "hill" in the course, which happens to be at the end of the race. You're running all the way up Michigan Ave into the heart of downtown Chicago, and at the end there's a quick right turn, you go up a little hill/over a bridge, make a quick left, and you're less than 500 meters from the finish, in a straight shot.
Armed with the ridiculous "cancellation" of the Chicago "marathon", but still knowing that the race has to be over in less than 1.2 miles, I plod onward looking for this fabled right turn. Finally it arrives - but not all is as I imagined it. It turns out that runners are starting to pile up (not severely though), in an improvised cattle chute right before the right turn. Two policemen are bottlenecking the runners into a single file line. WHY on earth would you do this? If this had been anyone other than policemen, they would have been trampled for doing this. I give the policemen credit for being as ballsy as this. Their plan was to individually tell every runner at this point to STOP RUNNING and start walking, and that the race was over. Why you would tell people who have run 25.8 miles of a 26.2 mile race this NOW, boggles the mind.
So I did what any other self-respecting runner would do. I merged into the pack, walked single file through Officer Tweedledee and Officer Tweedledum's bottleneck, and then took off running again. If you think that several thousand runners are going to just say, "you know, forget it, I'm going to kick my shoes off and lay in the sand when I could be finishing the last measly 800 meters of a marathon. What a delightful showing, ha ha ha. Muffy, ask Terrence to bring the golf cart around and we'll go for tea," then balls to you and the wonderful City of Chicago. Balls with a capital B.
I don't remember much about running the last 800 meters or so other than mentally pingponging between "AAAUUUAAAAUGH FINISH go GO go GO" and "I wonder if there IS a finish line?" When I got over the bridge and made the left turn, there was in fact a finish line, and I did see the ChampionChip timing mats, so my sole goal was getting my race time clocked. As soon as I passed over the racing mats I stopped cold. Well, I stopped smoking hot, not cold, but I sure did stop.
After all of that you would think I would be on top of the world, in some sort of post-marathon runner's high state of euphoria. Well, I look forward to having that at some other race, possibly a marathon. But it wasn't going to happen at this race. Hell no, there was still craziness yet to come. You see, 99% of the people running in the Chicago race were using race-provided loaner ChampionChip timing devices. As a racer, you are given zip-ties to affix the device to your shoe. At the end of the race, understandably, the last thing you want to do is figure out how to undo the device from your shoe. So, you're supposed to put your shoe up on a low bar, and volunteers will clip the zip-ties and take back your timing device.
Except, in this case put on your physics, fluid mechanics, or plumbers' hat and imagine that people finishing the race are like a certain amount of water running into, say, a pipe. And imagine the metal cage that holds the ChampionChip-clipping volunteers as a smaller, extremely sticky solid cylinder on the center/inside of that pipe, through which water cannot flow but is attracted. Immediately after finishing you are wedged into a backed-up finish line area in which everyone is trying to get their chips clipped, and no-one is moving forward. Now, instead of being able to walk, even at a very slow pace, through the finish chute, you are packed into a steaming hot pile of runners, standing straight up. You cannot move around, much less move your limbs. This is the most horrible feeling. You are baking, and your knees are screaming at you. You wish you could even just sit down, or even walk in a circle, but instead you cannot do anything.
On the right there was a huge tent marked "ICE TENT." Exciting! Except that the volunteers in there are just constantly yelling "Sorry we're out of ice!" Damn. In the meantime, volunteers up on raised platforms are equipped with megaphones. Instead of announcing "congrats on finishing the race! Please exit left for baggage claim, or right to meet up with your waiting family" or whatever, they have been reassigned to yelling "RUNNER DOWN" and pointing, trying to help emergency teams locate the runners who are passing out in the river of crammed runners. In the ten minutes it took to get through this crowd, I personally witnessed three runners pass out, one of whom I personally helped catch before they keeled over. Aaaaugh!
After I got out of that mess, I picked up my bag of stuff, and headed over to the "family/team greeting area" where I met up with Jonathan, Jonathan's wonderfully supportive sons, Pradeep, Tim, Stu, and Stu's wonderfully supportive sister. Jonathan, who is 57 and diabetic, finished in an astounding time of 4:08:51. He did it for himself, and he did it to prove to his sons how much of a badass he is (as if any of us had any doubt.) I am so proud of him. After I found the CRC group, I resigned myself to laying out on the ground, waiting for the inevitable cramping. Here's a bonus photo of Jonathan and I in our post-marathon passed out state:
How did I do? Well, "it ain't pretty but I'll take it."
Despite being upset about the race, I'm not too upset about my personal time. Sure, it wasn't my "goal" time of 3:30, but considering that I had to deal with a self-imposed sabotage of my training due to the tendinitis (15 of the last 25 days I did not run at all), and that the temperatures for the marathon were out of control, being a little over an hour behind my lofty goal was not entirely unreasonable. CRC elite runner Mike dropped out of the race, as did Suma, a very fast female runner in the group, and Erin another CRCer who had finished all five of her previous marathons. It seems like finishing itself was an accomplishment.
And that, my friends, is how I did at the Chicago Fun Run.
Side note: CRC's Mike went on to run a kickass Philadelphia marathon! Way to go Mike!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
11 hours to go...
Well, I have packed my check-in bag and I've set out my running gear for tomorrow morning. My alarm is set. My bib number is pinned to my jersey (which also now reads "ANDY" on the front and back.) Breakfast is waiting for me on the table, and my friends from CRC are going to be waiting in the lobby at 6AM. I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be.
First let's rewind by a couple of days. My last post was on Thursday, after I got back from dinner. I spent a few more hours in the office, and then I caught a train down towards the University of Chicago, where I met up with BUDA Frisbee league buddy John W, who graciously hosted me for the night. He's got a great place and friendly roommates.
The next morning I went back in for another day in the office. It was a particularly busy day and there were a few small unexpected fires to put out, but all in all it was a good day. Every friday every office has TGIF - beers and socializing at the end of the week. I took full advantage of this (after extinguishing one last fire), and I met several people from one of the Chicago teams, and played ping pong with one of them. (I lost best of three by one point, doh!)
Then my CMU buddy Tim R showed up, fresh from the airport, and we drove over to the Chinatown Hotel, where I am staying for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. We met up with a whole cast of CRC characters, including Erin K, Pradeep S, and Jonathan D and two of his sons. On a recommendation, we went to Rosebud's in the theater district, which was great. I had the steak with Portobello mushrooms and wine sauce. How we managed to cram seven people into Tim's rental car, I don't know.
By the time we got out it was late and everyone had a big day, so we retired to the hotel. Unfortunately Tim and I weren't able to go to John W's house party, which was a bummer.
Saturday was a pretty busy day too. The CRC crew and two people we met at the hotel, Jim and Jane, went out for breakfast. Then we split up - Jonathan and Erin went to relax in the Chicago Public Library, Pradeep went to the hotel to watch college football (he's a diehard LSU fan), and Jim, Jane, and I went to the expo to pick up our race bibs and do some shopping. All was well, except that we foolishly decided to walk back from the expo rather than take the somewhat slow shuttle. This cost us an extra hour and I think I got some noticeable UV exposure out of the deal.
Once I got back, Pradeep and I went out for Chinese at Three Happiness Restaurant. Then we had a small pocket of downtime before all of the CRC people (plus Tim and one of his Hoboken Harriers friends) gathered together to carbo load at Mario's Gold Coast Ristorante. It was great getting to see the usual CRC adventurers, including Mike McK, Jay S, Steve K, Ethan D, Liz P, and many others. Hopefully I'll post a picture here when I get it. For our last minute preparations, we ducked into a Walgreen's and stocked up on safety pins, Gatorade, and granola bars. Typical runners' gear. :)
When we got back to the hotel, Liz and Gabrielle gave me the "marathoner's boot camp" last minute pep talk about what to expect on the road, how bag checkin works, etc. etc. I went back to my room and sorted out all my stuff to make it easy for tomorrow. So here I am. All I need to do is get to sleep, so I'm going to curl up with a book and zone out. Wish me luck folks, because tomorrow is GO TIME.
First let's rewind by a couple of days. My last post was on Thursday, after I got back from dinner. I spent a few more hours in the office, and then I caught a train down towards the University of Chicago, where I met up with BUDA Frisbee league buddy John W, who graciously hosted me for the night. He's got a great place and friendly roommates.
The next morning I went back in for another day in the office. It was a particularly busy day and there were a few small unexpected fires to put out, but all in all it was a good day. Every friday every office has TGIF - beers and socializing at the end of the week. I took full advantage of this (after extinguishing one last fire), and I met several people from one of the Chicago teams, and played ping pong with one of them. (I lost best of three by one point, doh!)
Then my CMU buddy Tim R showed up, fresh from the airport, and we drove over to the Chinatown Hotel, where I am staying for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. We met up with a whole cast of CRC characters, including Erin K, Pradeep S, and Jonathan D and two of his sons. On a recommendation, we went to Rosebud's in the theater district, which was great. I had the steak with Portobello mushrooms and wine sauce. How we managed to cram seven people into Tim's rental car, I don't know.
By the time we got out it was late and everyone had a big day, so we retired to the hotel. Unfortunately Tim and I weren't able to go to John W's house party, which was a bummer.
Saturday was a pretty busy day too. The CRC crew and two people we met at the hotel, Jim and Jane, went out for breakfast. Then we split up - Jonathan and Erin went to relax in the Chicago Public Library, Pradeep went to the hotel to watch college football (he's a diehard LSU fan), and Jim, Jane, and I went to the expo to pick up our race bibs and do some shopping. All was well, except that we foolishly decided to walk back from the expo rather than take the somewhat slow shuttle. This cost us an extra hour and I think I got some noticeable UV exposure out of the deal.
Once I got back, Pradeep and I went out for Chinese at Three Happiness Restaurant. Then we had a small pocket of downtime before all of the CRC people (plus Tim and one of his Hoboken Harriers friends) gathered together to carbo load at Mario's Gold Coast Ristorante. It was great getting to see the usual CRC adventurers, including Mike McK, Jay S, Steve K, Ethan D, Liz P, and many others. Hopefully I'll post a picture here when I get it. For our last minute preparations, we ducked into a Walgreen's and stocked up on safety pins, Gatorade, and granola bars. Typical runners' gear. :)
When we got back to the hotel, Liz and Gabrielle gave me the "marathoner's boot camp" last minute pep talk about what to expect on the road, how bag checkin works, etc. etc. I went back to my room and sorted out all my stuff to make it easy for tomorrow. So here I am. All I need to do is get to sleep, so I'm going to curl up with a book and zone out. Wish me luck folks, because tomorrow is GO TIME.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Chicago!
Today I got up at 4:30 AM pacific time in order to fly to Chicago. I'm here and it's great! The city--from what I've seen thus far-- is pretty neat. I took the blue line from O'Hare into the city, and I waltzed right in to my company's engineering office and got a visitor's desk. The Chicago engineering office is really cool; it simultaneously reflects the culture of the west coast campus, yet it has a very distinct feel of its own.I wasn't here more than a few minutes when I discovered a large removable markerboard that I took over and wrote:
HOWDY. MY NAME IS ANDREW AND I AM VISITING FROM THE MOUNTAIN VIEW OFFICE AND AM HERE FOR THE MARATHON. PLEASE SAY HI - I LIKE MEETING NEW PEOPLE!
I didn't even get a chance to catch up on my email before a few people came by and introduced themselves. People are so friendly! Here's another example: I had brought my laptop but I had planned on using a provided desktop machine. The machine wasn't at my desk when I arrived though. One of the guys who came over to say hi gave me a tour of the place, and then when he realized that I didn't have a machine, he invited me to sit in his cube and use one of the spare computers there. It turns out that this guy co-invented the Subversion revision control system. And now, I'm sharing a cube with him and one of the other co-inventors. Wow!!
In other news, I went to a really tasty Italian restaurant tonight called Volare. It was pleasant walking through the city to and from the place. I had a delicious serving of very light gnocci with peas and prosciutto in cream sauce.
It appears now that there's a countdown to race time up on the Chicago Marathon web site. Also on their web site you can track my progress during the race, via SMS or email. Details are here.
Tomorrow night Tim R gets in and we'll go party it up in the city and surrounds. More later...
Bone scan results
So you might be wondering what the results were of my meeting with the podiatrist. In an astonishing turn of events, Dr. Watson was able to get me a rush referral for a bone scan, which I had on Tuesday. Wednesday I met with the podiatrist. She was awesome - she went to Drexel and ran in the Philadelphia Marathon years ago, and understood where I was coming from. After looking at the bone scan, she was highly confident that I did not have a stress fracture. I have much more peace of mind now than I did previously, since the bone scan is much more definitive than an x-ray. What is the explanation, then, for the pain I've been experiencing? She was able to isolate the area of my right foot that has the pain, and she determined that I have tendinitis. This should not prevent me from running in the marathon, and I should not be at risk of rupturing a tendon. She prescribed me a serious anti-inflammatory drug that I've been taking since Wednesday, so that I should be able to use my foot through the whole race. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime though, I am GO for the Chicago Marathon! Hooray!
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Countdown to Chicago
So this last week I was ramping back up into running after a ten day downtime (due to uncertainty about my foot.) I ran 2, 5, 7.3, and 4 miles Monday through Thursday. Unfortunately I had foot pain on that last run. This is not good, because certainly something is not right. I took Friday off and on Saturday I planned to run my last long run, which was ten miles. I only managed to do five, because my foot started hurting around four miles in.
Needless to say this complicates my certainty about running in the Chicago Marathon. Vince, a PARC member and CMU alum, told me a very cautionary tale about an undetected (via xray, anyway) stress fracture he had that ended up becoming a broken foot when he was running a marathon.
I already have an appointment with a podiatrist (the earliest they could schedule me after last Monday's doctor's appointment was this Wednesday, nine days later), but at Vince's encouragement, I have requested an urgent scheduling of a bone scan to remove all uncertainty about any existence of a stress fracture in my foot. If I have a fracture, I will not be running on Sunday. If I don't have a fracture, I will run. In the meantime I will continue biking to/from work this week as a means by which to keep some of my muscles exercised.
I fly out on Thursday morning very early. I will be working in the Chicago engineering office on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and some of Tuesday. I don't know anyone in the Chicago office, but I will be going to lunch with their director of Engineering for fun :) I will also be visiting with John W at U Chicago, and Fred M who works for Shure these days.
Regardless of what happens I will be going to Chicago, where I have never been, and I will have a great time visiting with old friends and catching up with the fine people of the Cambridge Running Club!
Needless to say this complicates my certainty about running in the Chicago Marathon. Vince, a PARC member and CMU alum, told me a very cautionary tale about an undetected (via xray, anyway) stress fracture he had that ended up becoming a broken foot when he was running a marathon.
I already have an appointment with a podiatrist (the earliest they could schedule me after last Monday's doctor's appointment was this Wednesday, nine days later), but at Vince's encouragement, I have requested an urgent scheduling of a bone scan to remove all uncertainty about any existence of a stress fracture in my foot. If I have a fracture, I will not be running on Sunday. If I don't have a fracture, I will run. In the meantime I will continue biking to/from work this week as a means by which to keep some of my muscles exercised.
I fly out on Thursday morning very early. I will be working in the Chicago engineering office on Thursday, Friday, Monday, and some of Tuesday. I don't know anyone in the Chicago office, but I will be going to lunch with their director of Engineering for fun :) I will also be visiting with John W at U Chicago, and Fred M who works for Shure these days.
Regardless of what happens I will be going to Chicago, where I have never been, and I will have a great time visiting with old friends and catching up with the fine people of the Cambridge Running Club!
This weekend's exploits
Well, as this weekend is coming to a close, I'm coming to terms with the fact that the Chicago Marathon is less than 7 days away. This weekend was fun. Activities included:
- Volunteering at the finish line of the Palo Alto Moonlight Run and cheering on Rachel J and Paula V.
- The usual Saturday morning run (last before Chicago).. more about that in the next post.
- Seeing Saagar P while he was in town, rocking the interviews and scoring the job offers
- Going shopping with Andrea K (part of my fashion overhaul!)
- Biking and playing frisbee with CMU alums Gil T, Diane L, Tim W and Linda Y at Shoreline Lake. I had to replace my front tire's tube beforehand, which was good because I hadn't actually had to do this by myself before. Now I need to get a replacement tube...
- Playing Hassenpfeffer with Ed B and various CMU/Sigma Nu alums at Jenny K's party.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
House party
Friday night my roommates and I threw a huge house party. We had something like 40 people show up over the course of the night. The house was in top shape - everything was cleaned up and sorted and looked nice. All the different social circles I'm in were represented - CMU/WRCT/AB Tech alumni, a friend from high school, people from work, runners from PARC.. you name it, they were there. It was a good time. The party went from 7pm to 3am; the booze flowed (not that I care) and there was lots of music (courtesy of my new Squeezebox plus my Bose sound system, yeah!), and lots of dancing (which I enjoyed.) We only had one noise complaint, but by the time a cop showed the high-energy part of the party had already subsided, and we were enjoying the hot tub and just chatting pretty quietly. He was professional and let us carry on, no worries.
A huge (running) scare
Well, things were going great with my training until Saturday the 15th. That day I ran 20 miles at a fast pace, and things were fine. Or so I thought. Several hours later I was walking around when I realized that my right foot hurt a lot. "This isn't good at all!" I thought, because the last thing I needed three weeks before the marathon was an injury. So I immediately started taking Aleve and I stopped running at all, hoping that the pain would subside. For the next few days it hurt to walk, and I hobbled rather badly. I stopped biking to/from work also as a precaution.
The earliest I could see any doctor -- which of course has to be my PCP, who I had never met before -- was nine days later, on Monday the 24th. Let me tell you that was the longest time ever. In the meantime though by the time Thursday rolled around, my foot was feeling fine, so long as I was taking Aleve. Though I must say, the more Aleve I took, the more upset my stomach felt over the course of the week. It's good stuff, but it's not perfect.
I tried going to salsa class on Thursday, as a light test of how my foot was doing. It seemed OK (and I really enjoyed the class), but I didn't want to risk it, so I did not run my planned 16 miler that weekend. Monday's visit to the doctor couldn't come soon enough.
But enough with the suspense - on Monday I met my new doctor, Dr. Watson (not kidding.) He is really cool, and he spent several years in Pittsburgh, which immediately makes him awesome. He ordered xrays of my right foot, which came back with "no problems." This is great news, because it means I don't have a stress fracture.
Now that I have much more confidence that resuming running won't have a detrimental longer-term effect, I can get back to training for the marathon. However, not running for nine days takes its toll on the accumulated endurance and strength one builds up while marathon training. So last night I only ran 2 miles, slowly, in order to see if that would be a problem. It wasn't, and I felt just fine today. I also went to salsa class today, and then I ran 5 miles tonight. Everything seems A-OK but I'll know more in the morning.
At this point I have to ramp back up to doing 6-10 miles/day without causing other problems due to more than a week of inactivity. Then, I need to ramp down next week because the marathon is only TWELVE days away. Eeep! I can hardly believe it. But, I'm really really glad that it's still in the cards. I would have been really disappointed if I couldn't have run Chicago. I still would have gone to support my friends in CRC though.
Now I just need to put in my last miles and then get my butt out there. Chicago here I come!
The earliest I could see any doctor -- which of course has to be my PCP, who I had never met before -- was nine days later, on Monday the 24th. Let me tell you that was the longest time ever. In the meantime though by the time Thursday rolled around, my foot was feeling fine, so long as I was taking Aleve. Though I must say, the more Aleve I took, the more upset my stomach felt over the course of the week. It's good stuff, but it's not perfect.
I tried going to salsa class on Thursday, as a light test of how my foot was doing. It seemed OK (and I really enjoyed the class), but I didn't want to risk it, so I did not run my planned 16 miler that weekend. Monday's visit to the doctor couldn't come soon enough.
But enough with the suspense - on Monday I met my new doctor, Dr. Watson (not kidding.) He is really cool, and he spent several years in Pittsburgh, which immediately makes him awesome. He ordered xrays of my right foot, which came back with "no problems." This is great news, because it means I don't have a stress fracture.
Now that I have much more confidence that resuming running won't have a detrimental longer-term effect, I can get back to training for the marathon. However, not running for nine days takes its toll on the accumulated endurance and strength one builds up while marathon training. So last night I only ran 2 miles, slowly, in order to see if that would be a problem. It wasn't, and I felt just fine today. I also went to salsa class today, and then I ran 5 miles tonight. Everything seems A-OK but I'll know more in the morning.
At this point I have to ramp back up to doing 6-10 miles/day without causing other problems due to more than a week of inactivity. Then, I need to ramp down next week because the marathon is only TWELVE days away. Eeep! I can hardly believe it. But, I'm really really glad that it's still in the cards. I would have been really disappointed if I couldn't have run Chicago. I still would have gone to support my friends in CRC though.
Now I just need to put in my last miles and then get my butt out there. Chicago here I come!
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Salsa and Rueda
Tonight I went to the Salsa and Rueda class at work. It was a lot of fun! I met two of the volunteer instructors last weekend through a mutual friend whilst we were at the Mountain View Arts/Wine festival. I'm fascinated by the dance; while a group of about 15 of us learned a bunch of steps and moves, there is so much more to learn. I hope to get my whits about me on the dance floor so that I can go to the clubs and dance Rueda de Casino! All in all tonight I must've danced for about two hours. Whew!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Crazy weekend
Well, I'm certainly not letting idle time get the best of me. In true Andrew fashion, I have started the process of thoroughly overextending myself. Bring it! Here's what I did this weekend:
And then I slept like a baby! Weekend over.
- This weekend's run wasn't long, but it was hard. A few very fast people showed up and pushed the lead pack to do closer to 7 mile pace for the first six miles. This made the return trip much harder. 12 miles, over and done with.
- Saints that they are, Diane L and Gil T organized my bedroom and storage; I am so close to having everything in its right place I can taste it! If I just make one more run to IKEA, Office Max, or whatever and get my computer desk and a chair.. I will be all set!
- Andrea K's birthday party was at Bella Vita in Los Altos. Super extra bonus points to Derek P for making reservations at such a nice place.
- Yet Saturday had only just begun! This was followed up with a night of dancing at the Smash-Up Derby at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. I went out with Rachel J, Paula V, and some of their girlfriends. Mike S also stopped by with some of his friends. The DNA lounge is a cool venue, and has some major geek cred, due to being owned and operated by Jamie Zawinski (Netscape employee #20.) The DJs were pretty good and mixing and mashing up 80s dance and rock tunes (Michael Jackson, Joan Jett) with modern hip hop (Akon, MIMS.) They even had a live band play who mashed up Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Not too shabby!
- Sunday I went to the Art and Wine Festival in Mountain View. They close off Castro Street, which is the main drag downtown. The place is crammed to the gills with artists and other merchants selling their wares. It reminds me a lot of the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
- My high school friend Nancy B is in med school at Stanford. She is very very busy, but we both wanted the chance to go biking, so the best time ended up being this Sunday. Here is the route. 21 miles, with a big (well, for me anyway) climb in the middle. Ooof! Nancy is really good at biking; I hope to learn a lot from her and one day be up to her level.
And then I slept like a baby! Weekend over.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
We want you ... to play football!
Well, I'm running a fantasy football league this season, and our league is short by one person. We can't start the draft until we get one more player, so would anyone here like to join? THANKS!
Visitors - hiking and croquet
Kat M and Joe B came up to the bay to visit Derek, Andrea, and me this labor day weekend. It was much fun! We hiked around Muir Woods, played croquet in Washington Square Park in San Francisco, and saw an awesome view of downtown and the Golden Gate Bridge via Battery 129.
Apartment update
Alright - things are starting to be livable at my apartment. As previously mentioned, my bedroom is painted. I moved my bed up against one wall, leaving plenty of space for a future computer desk, and even a loveseat, rocking chair, or large beanbag. The living room and dining is all set up, and thanks to Jen S, my kitchen has been unpacked and organized in a sane fashion. We'll finally be able to have a house party, which will be sweet.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Fish tank
So my boss tells me I'm allowed to expense up to $150 to "decorate my office area." So I'm going to get a fish tank. Does anyone here have advice about what I should get? Thanks!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Making progress at home
Well, this week has been super busy. Work is coming along nicely, and I have finished the new employee formal training (although there are still weeks and weeks of "to do" lists I have to complete. When I'm not at work, I've been spending 100% of my time painting my room. The walls were rather dingy and cleaning them would have taken an exorbitant amount of time. Instead, with the help of the ever awesome and knowledgeable Andrea K., I painted my room. Derek P. also chipped in. It's looking much better now. I did have to stay up late most nights to finish in time though, because this morning the movers came with my stuff.
Now the house is full of my boxes, but I haven't the energy to do anything about it. The long run this Saturday was 14 miles at 7:40 pace, so I am very tired. I think I'll take a nap in my bed, now that it's finally here. Hooray!
Now the house is full of my boxes, but I haven't the energy to do anything about it. The long run this Saturday was 14 miles at 7:40 pace, so I am very tired. I think I'll take a nap in my bed, now that it's finally here. Hooray!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Kicking the tires - 20 miler success!
This weekend Marty and I did 20 consecutive miles... and we survived! This was the longest we ever ran. As usual we did this out at Crystal Springs, at the six mile (one-way) course. We had to meet up at 6:55 in order to put in eight miles before the rest of PARC showed up at 8AM. Kramer ran the remaining 12 miles with us. Sadly it was his last run with PARC for a long while, as he is leaving for freshman orientation at college at Harvey Mudd.
Here's the cool news: we ran the whole thing at 7:47 average pace. Not too shabby! The last two miles kind of sucked, but we made it back in one piece. Besides the accomplishment of actually completing 20 miles, the next thing I am excited about is that I did not wake up stiff the next day. Sure, the remainder of Saturday was crappy (I slept from noon until 3pm) but on the whole, I felt fine. Perhaps sitting in the massage chair at work had something to do with my recovery. ;)
Here's the cool news: we ran the whole thing at 7:47 average pace. Not too shabby! The last two miles kind of sucked, but we made it back in one piece. Besides the accomplishment of actually completing 20 miles, the next thing I am excited about is that I did not wake up stiff the next day. Sure, the remainder of Saturday was crappy (I slept from noon until 3pm) but on the whole, I felt fine. Perhaps sitting in the massage chair at work had something to do with my recovery. ;)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Moving blunders
On Friday I had lunch at work with an employee, JJ, who worked at my previous job, in my previous group. We didn't overlap; we must have missed each other by two months at most. It was fun trading stories about a previous environment we could both relate to. During lunch, my phone rang and it was a number I didn't recognize, so I ignored it. Little did I know what call I was missing:
WHAT??!?!! My friends were quick to joke that perhaps I shouldn't have shipped a massive marijuana farm from coast to coast. Ha ha, very funny guys. After some frantic calls to my relocation specialist and to Monica from the moving company, we determined that some other person's stuff that was stored in the container was infested with gypsy moths, and that I was just an innocent bystander. Great.
The end result was that they were going to offer to move my stuff in on Monday, which was useless to me, as I would be at work all day and I couldn't take time off. Monday is the day on which I am supposed to have the "kick off" meeting for the project that I'll be working on. Instead we agreed on a move-in for next Saturday, the 25th. This will be a month and a day after I moved out from Boston. Needless to say I will be happy when it's over :)
And just to get my heart rate up on a Monday morning, the last of the hilarity (I hope) occurred on Monday at 8:40AM, when I was just stepping in to work. I got a call from the moving company informing me that they were at my house and were ready to move in. Shall I repeat my earlier comment? I think so. WHAT??!?!! I was nice to the moving guy, since obviously it wasn't his fault, but I told him that Monica had arranged for a Saturday move-in.
Good times!
"Hi Andrew, this is Monica. I have news about your move-in. The good news is, your stuff has arrived in California. But the bad news is.. the trailer in which your stuff is stored is sealed. Actually, it has been quarantined by the California Department of Agriculture. So I'm sorry, but we won't be able to move your stuff in tomorrow. If you have any questions feel free to call. Bye! *click*"
WHAT??!?!! My friends were quick to joke that perhaps I shouldn't have shipped a massive marijuana farm from coast to coast. Ha ha, very funny guys. After some frantic calls to my relocation specialist and to Monica from the moving company, we determined that some other person's stuff that was stored in the container was infested with gypsy moths, and that I was just an innocent bystander. Great.
The end result was that they were going to offer to move my stuff in on Monday, which was useless to me, as I would be at work all day and I couldn't take time off. Monday is the day on which I am supposed to have the "kick off" meeting for the project that I'll be working on. Instead we agreed on a move-in for next Saturday, the 25th. This will be a month and a day after I moved out from Boston. Needless to say I will be happy when it's over :)
And just to get my heart rate up on a Monday morning, the last of the hilarity (I hope) occurred on Monday at 8:40AM, when I was just stepping in to work. I got a call from the moving company informing me that they were at my house and were ready to move in. Shall I repeat my earlier comment? I think so. WHAT??!?!! I was nice to the moving guy, since obviously it wasn't his fault, but I told him that Monica had arranged for a Saturday move-in.
Good times!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Putting in the miles
Well, now that I'm in the groove with the beginners' coursework at work, it is time to focus on putting the miles in. Thus far in the past few weeks I have done long runs with the Palo Alto Running Club (which I officially joined this week! hurray!) I had not, however, put in the day-to-day mileage that was going to be necessary to train for Chicago. So my new friend Marty from PARC sent me his spreadsheet of mileage and planned mileage. I also talked with CRC friend Pradeep about how his training was going. He tells me that he is putting in 40-50 mile weeks no problem. These factors combined led me to map out my own mileage plan.
While I'm sure I'll get more into the details later, the basic idea is for me to do my long weekend run with Marty, which can be anywhere from 10 to 20 miles. The remainder of the week I need to put in enough mileage to sustain a total of 40-50 miles. Fridays will be my rest day.
There's a monday night crowd of runners at work that are super fast. They're running 5-8 miles at 6:15/mile pace or faster. While I tried, there's just no way I can hang on when they're running that kind of sustained pace. It's something to aspire to, for sure. Evidently they've been going around winning several area relay races, and between people in the Mountain View, Seattle, and New York offices, they're assembling teams for various relay races across the US. After this marathon I might try to work on my speed and see if I can be a contributor to these events.. but the thought of being part of a team of runners who put in a sub-6/mile pace for, say, 200 miles, is very intimidating.
So in the past 5 days I've put in 39 miles. I've had a couple of sore spots while running, but largely I feel fine throughout the day after each run. This includes last Saturday, when I ran 14 miles. So I'm going to plow ahead. The real test will be this Saturday, when I run 20 miles, which will increase my longest distance run by a whopping 6 miles. Afterwards I will have to come straight back to my new place, because the movers will be moving in all of my stuff from Boston. No rest for the weary, 'eh?
This weekend will also mark the arrival of three different, non-overlapping sets of friends in the area, one of whom is crashing on my couch. I'm excited! More posts soon..
While I'm sure I'll get more into the details later, the basic idea is for me to do my long weekend run with Marty, which can be anywhere from 10 to 20 miles. The remainder of the week I need to put in enough mileage to sustain a total of 40-50 miles. Fridays will be my rest day.
There's a monday night crowd of runners at work that are super fast. They're running 5-8 miles at 6:15/mile pace or faster. While I tried, there's just no way I can hang on when they're running that kind of sustained pace. It's something to aspire to, for sure. Evidently they've been going around winning several area relay races, and between people in the Mountain View, Seattle, and New York offices, they're assembling teams for various relay races across the US. After this marathon I might try to work on my speed and see if I can be a contributor to these events.. but the thought of being part of a team of runners who put in a sub-6/mile pace for, say, 200 miles, is very intimidating.
So in the past 5 days I've put in 39 miles. I've had a couple of sore spots while running, but largely I feel fine throughout the day after each run. This includes last Saturday, when I ran 14 miles. So I'm going to plow ahead. The real test will be this Saturday, when I run 20 miles, which will increase my longest distance run by a whopping 6 miles. Afterwards I will have to come straight back to my new place, because the movers will be moving in all of my stuff from Boston. No rest for the weary, 'eh?
This weekend will also mark the arrival of three different, non-overlapping sets of friends in the area, one of whom is crashing on my couch. I'm excited! More posts soon..
Monday, August 13, 2007
Bacon Day
Monday marked the grand reopening of a certain cafeteria on the company's campus. Evidently it had been closed down for two months, due to the fact that everyone in the building had been relocated elsewhere, so that it could be renovated. So, to mark the grand reopening.. the theme of the day was... BACON. Yes, that's right; bacon.
Naturally my coworkers were all abuzz about the bacon theme, so two of them joined me in the trek to the cafe (it was about a mile walk.) Along the way we picked up my friend Adam, of ilovebacon.org, who is interning at the company this summer. It just seemed appropriate.
The menu had all sorts of bacony items on it, and they were all super tasty! They even had bacon-themed dessert, no lie. It was a parfait with apricot jelly and a bacon topping. Oddly enough the sweetness of the apricot was the perfect pair to the salty taste of bacon. I am infinitely impressed.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Crazy week
What a crazy week it has been! I get the feeling this is only the first of many to come. As previously mentioned this week was my first at the new job. Right now the learning curve is very, very steep. This week has been (and next week will also be) packed with classes on all facets of the engineering operation. I have stayed late most nights, because I am excited about getting through training and getting on to the real work. I'm absolutely blown away by the complexity and the scale of operations at the new company. Take just about any number you'd use to qualify the scale of the largest server operation you can think of. Now add at least two zeros. (!!!!)
..I think that was the sound of my brain exploding. Wheeeeee
On Wednesday night I played scrabble with Muffin, Andrea, and Carmen. I didn't totally suck so I am pleased. I did, however, suck at life - I managed to leave my keys at work, but I only noticed this after I drove all the way back to Santa Clara from Andrea's. Hilarity (driving from/to Mountain View) ensued.
Speaking of CMU people, tonight I went to a CMU alumni night in San Francisco. It was fun, and I got to meet a few people living in the area.
I'm sorry that my posts have dropped off in the past few days. I will be back in effect this weekend. Till then!
..I think that was the sound of my brain exploding. Wheeeeee
On Wednesday night I played scrabble with Muffin, Andrea, and Carmen. I didn't totally suck so I am pleased. I did, however, suck at life - I managed to leave my keys at work, but I only noticed this after I drove all the way back to Santa Clara from Andrea's. Hilarity (driving from/to Mountain View) ensued.
Speaking of CMU people, tonight I went to a CMU alumni night in San Francisco. It was fun, and I got to meet a few people living in the area.
I'm sorry that my posts have dropped off in the past few days. I will be back in effect this weekend. Till then!
Monday, August 6, 2007
First day at work
Today was my first day at work. Boy was it a long day! I got up at 6AM, and called New York (9AM) to have flowers delivered to two of my friends there who encouraged me during the interview process. Then I reported to work at 8:45AM for new hire orientation. We did all of the things you would expect - set your password, take a photo for your ID badge, sit through presentations about benefits, corporate philosophy and products, the works.
After all of the orientation presentation stuff, I met up with my appointed mentor, who is in the same general group as me. He's been awesome. After a few batches of introductions, it was so late in the day that there wasn't going to be enough time to get much more done.. so instead he invited me to play sheepshead with a random selection of coworkers. This was amusing, because despite Mary McC's efforts to educate me about cards, I am terrible. But my coworkers were kindhearted and after I demonstrated my inability to play cards, I switched to being an observer. We got some time to chat, which was really what it was all about anyway. After cards I also had dinner at work (they serve it around 6:30 every night), and then I stayed until 10pm, reading up on all sorts of fun benefits and internal activities lists. I signed up for the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in San Francisco, making this the second time this year that I will have run in that race series. I wonder if this company will have decent racing swag (the previous company did a decent job this year.)
I've got a minor cold, which sucks, but I'm so pumped about work that it hasn't held me back. That will probably catch up with me soon enough, so I'm going to watch out for that. Speaking of that, there's a whole lot more I could write about, but I am dog tired and I must get some sleep. Remind me later this week to write about such things as:
After all of the orientation presentation stuff, I met up with my appointed mentor, who is in the same general group as me. He's been awesome. After a few batches of introductions, it was so late in the day that there wasn't going to be enough time to get much more done.. so instead he invited me to play sheepshead with a random selection of coworkers. This was amusing, because despite Mary McC's efforts to educate me about cards, I am terrible. But my coworkers were kindhearted and after I demonstrated my inability to play cards, I switched to being an observer. We got some time to chat, which was really what it was all about anyway. After cards I also had dinner at work (they serve it around 6:30 every night), and then I stayed until 10pm, reading up on all sorts of fun benefits and internal activities lists. I signed up for the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in San Francisco, making this the second time this year that I will have run in that race series. I wonder if this company will have decent racing swag (the previous company did a decent job this year.)
I've got a minor cold, which sucks, but I'm so pumped about work that it hasn't held me back. That will probably catch up with me soon enough, so I'm going to watch out for that. Speaking of that, there's a whole lot more I could write about, but I am dog tired and I must get some sleep. Remind me later this week to write about such things as:
- Adventures with my MacBook
- Why it probably wasn't a good idea to send flowers to one of my friends in NYC
- The food
- Motivation for walking/biking/running to work every day
- Giant dinosaurs
Saturday, August 4, 2007
12 miles, Sawyer Camp Trail
Well, I definitely sunburned myself pretty badly on Wednesday's run, so I stayed covered up for this run and everything seems to have worked out fine.
This week's Saturday morning run for the PARC, just like every Saturday morning, was at the Sawyer Camp Trail. This time I stuck with my new running buddies for the whole run, and it was great - I ran it at a faster pace (7:44) than my best half marathon pace (7:50) and it didn't feel like I was running a half marathon!
I'm glad that PARC runners John and Marty (and the rest of the club) have been so welcoming to me. It's great getting to run with them. Marty is one of less than a handful of people from PARC who are training for Chicago, so we both have that goal in mind.
I removed the embedded MapMyRun application from this post, because it was overloading my browser's javascript interpreter.
This week's Saturday morning run for the PARC, just like every Saturday morning, was at the Sawyer Camp Trail. This time I stuck with my new running buddies for the whole run, and it was great - I ran it at a faster pace (7:44) than my best half marathon pace (7:50) and it didn't feel like I was running a half marathon!
I'm glad that PARC runners John and Marty (and the rest of the club) have been so welcoming to me. It's great getting to run with them. Marty is one of less than a handful of people from PARC who are training for Chicago, so we both have that goal in mind.
I removed the embedded MapMyRun application from this post, because it was overloading my browser's javascript interpreter.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
12 miles along the Guadalupe River Trail
12 miles, 1:43:04, average 8:35 pace. Ignore the distance estimate in the embedded map below; I am experimenting with uploading my GPS watch data into MapMyRun.com and I had to prune the sheer amount of samples the watch output (1 per second) down to something manageable. This had the downside of reducing the supposed mileage.
It was really neat running along the the Guadelupe River Trail. I think I got too much sun though; we'll see tomorrow. At the northern point of the run I came across a neat wetlands area. I'll have to go back.
It was really neat running along the the Guadelupe River Trail. I think I got too much sun though; we'll see tomorrow. At the northern point of the run I came across a neat wetlands area. I'll have to go back.
Monday, July 30, 2007
My first In-N-Out Burger experience
On Monday I had my first "In-N-Out Burger" experience. For more information take a look at the Wikipedia article on this California institution.
The premise is simple: they only serve like four things. A cheeseburger, a double burger, fries, and milkshakes. Huzzah! I opted for a cheeseburger, some fries, and a chocolate milkshake--not a frappe thank god. I can speak normal English again, now that I'm not living in New England.
Alright, so the best part of the visit to In-N-Out had to be the staff. Greeting me at the order counter were two cheerful clerks, who were busy squabbling about whether the secret, off-menu "veggie burger" option comes with a bun or not. The poor lady to my right had asked for a veggie burger with the bun on the side. Chaos quickly ensued.
Clerk A: The veggie burger doesn't come with a bun, you chump!
Clerk B: Shut up retard, it does come with a bun! If she doesn't want the bun you have to mark "no bun."
Clerk A: Screw you I'm just putting the order in.
Me (to Clerk B): Whoever loses has to eat the bun..
So the order comes out, and lo and behold, there's a bun on the tray.
Clerk B (to Clerk A): Ha ha! Eat it, eat the bun fool!
Confused Lady: But, but I do want the bun, just on the side.
Clerk B high fives Andrew in celebration.
The Dish
For this, my second run with the Palo Alto Running Club, I showed up for their weekly Monday night run. Each week they do the Dish run at Stanford. It totally kicked my butt. There are a ton of hills. If I get a chance I'll try to upload my GPS data so that you can see how ridiculous the hills are.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Well folks, as you know by now, I'm moving to California and starting anew. This is my blog about how I'm adapting to the new environment. I also plan to use this blog to record my training triumphs and tribulations as I train for the Chicago Marathon.
This song has given me a lot of inspiration in the past few months; perhaps it has meaning for you too:
"Going to California" by Led Zeppelin
Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going to California with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane,
Never let them tell you that they're all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I'll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.
This song has given me a lot of inspiration in the past few months; perhaps it has meaning for you too:
"Going to California" by Led Zeppelin
Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going to California with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane,
Never let them tell you that they're all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I'll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.
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