The last two years have been the best yet in my five years in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I’ve done a horrible job at documenting these good times. I have barely used my own camera. The last time I uploaded photos to Flickr was after my road trip with Meagan in Oct. 2009.
Fortunately, a lot of my friends are photo-takers. So a lot of photographs from the last 2 years do exist. Unfortunately, they’re mostly on Facebook. Which is not the easiest place to download, print or store. Fortunately, I don’t see Facebook going anywhere anytime soon, and I’m sure they’ll improve the photo system.
Anyway. While I’m certainly going to make a resolution to take many more photos in 2011, I can’t wait to start until January. I am going to start now. This weekend. Labor Day. Stay tuned. More photos from life coming soon.
Just a reminder that music to hump to is meant to be music to have fun with on Wednesday – the hump day of the week. Just sayin’. For those of you out there. That might of thought otherwise.
Don Diablo – I Am Not From France
[ Louis La Roche Remix ]
I recently joined the Golden Gate Running Club and while it’s been a little challenging trying to crack into this very close-knit group, I’ve found an unexpected pleasure and perk that wasn’t advertised through the joining process… marathon race reports on the club’s Yahoo! Group. Now that I am officially training for my first marathon, I’ve become obsessed reading the reports of marathon experiences by members right after their race.
Here are some exceptional excerpts from some 2008 and 2009 CIM finishers that I’d like to keep handy throughout my training. (And keep in mind that these are real marathon runners… not the new breed of 6 hour finishers.)
“This was by far the most physically painful race I have ever run.”
“The main goal was to finish well. The only time I lost it was seeing the 26 mile marker and feeling that I just wanted to stop and be done with this and sit in front of a heater.”
“I know many of us understand the feeling of training well and something not going right in a race and trying to finish seems more of a dejection than anything else.”
“I knew during this stretch that 2:40 was gone and I was going through a mental game of up and down.”
“I wouldn’t say I hit the wall after mile 20 but I would say that it became a massive struggle.”
“By mile 18 my right knee was screaming and I could hardly bend it. The only thing that kept me going was knowing that the faster I ran, the sooner it would be done.”
“I have to say that for me this was the hardest race of my life.”
Almost two years ago I embarked on an amazing road trip across the country with one of my best friends, Meagan. While on the trip I tried not to spend a ton of money on souvenirs, knick knacks and tschotskes, and instead to focus my energy (and $) on finding stickers from memorable locations to create a fun sticker-covered, road trip-themed Nalgene bottle. It ended up turning out better than I had anticipated and I fell in love with my creation.
I used this very special water bottle frequently until about a year ago it got left at a Yoga studio after a session. My friend that I went to Yoga with said they’d pick it up the next day for me since they lived nearby. But they never did. (They actually had told me that week that they DID pick it up, so I stopped worrying about it… and then when I was at their house a few weeks later I asked for it and they admitted they never picked it up. Had I known they hadn’t picked it up I most definitely would have made a special trip to go get it.) So I was obviously bummed that it was long gone.
I promised myself I wouldn’t get too upset about the lost bottle. It obviously had a lot of sentimental value.. but at the end of the day it was just an object… right? Just a water bottle. And at the end of the day I will always have pictures, stories and memories of the road trip. Who needs a thing when you have all that?
And now with its very own blog post, the memory of the great road trip Nalgene will live on forever.
Have you ever dwelled over a lost item? I remember dwelling a lot more when I was younger. As we get older is it easier to let go of lost things?
Several of my personal and professional passions collided this week. Planning, organizing, mobilizing, communicating, gathering and running!
Over the three weeks I’ve spent what little spare time I’ve had at work organizing a team of Dolby runners to participate in the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, a 3.5 mile race in downtown SF for local companies, raising money for the local YMCA. The event attracted more than 6,000 runners and I couldn’t have been more thrilled to have 30 coworkers come out to run and represent our awesome company.
I had a blast, think all my coworkers did too and found the experience of getting folks out to run together extremely inspiring. It was rewarding not just motivating people to come out and run but getting an extremely diverse group of Dolby employees together, getting to know people they normally wouldn’t interact with. We had runners from HR, marketing, finance, engineering, business development, legal and facilities – nearly every corner of the company.
The whole experience got me thinking about the possibilities of combining my personal and professional passions to create a completely different career. Just last weekend my friend Katie asked me what my dream job might be if money and experiences weren’t considerations.
I didn’t really have a solid answer but now I’m thinking being the director of a big annual race or race series might be something I could start fantasizing about. What other sort of job would make use of my professional experience in event planning, PR, promotion and fundraising, along with my new found obsession with fitness and running. It’s hard to imagine not running a race but maybe I should start sitting a few out in exchange for some volunteering and race planning experience. Who knows…
File this under blog posts I’ve been meaning to write for months.
Every time I go out running I realize how lucky I am to:
a) live in such a beautiful city and
b) live in an apartment in a location that affords me the opportunity to go in two different directions and enjoy some of the most beautiful scenery.
Head east and I get 6 miles of round trip waterfront running past the Ferry Building, Cupid’s Span, the Bay Bridge and AT&T Park. Head west and I get 8.5 miles of round trip waterfront running past Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf, Fort Mason, Chrissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge. If I feel like adding another 3 miles I can head up through the Presidio and run across the Golden Gate Bridge.
Now you know why running hasn’t been such a hard hobby to pick up.
Said a marathon finisher
Here are some exceptional excerpts from some 2008 and 2009 CIM finishers that I’d like to keep handy throughout my training. (And keep in mind that these are real marathon runners… not the new breed of 6 hour finishers.)
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Posted in Commentary
Tagged marathon, running