I... Can't... Stop... Myself...

Don't hate me, Mc Cain lovers. This is the equivolent of the Obama/Biden sign in my yard. (Which I don't have, by the way: the sign, not the yard).

I really am hopeful for the future of the United States. May the best man win. And if that man is Mc Cain, and he dies of old age, I'm moving to Canada. I'm only 150 miles away. I could be there in hours.

Whatever your opinion: make your voice count on Tuesday.

Recent Reads

Two books I've read recently. One for kids, the other for adults.

I picked up This is San Francisco in a Borders bookstore in, you guessed it, San Francisco. Apparently there is a whole series of books in the This Is Collection (Rome, London, New York, etc). The book is full of vintage art that looks like it should be in books from our parents' childhood bookshelves. The narrative voice throughout leaves something to be desired. Still, I thought it made an excellent memento from the city.

Nicole Mones', The Last Chinese Chef, was our most recent book club selection. Mones tells the story of Maggie, whose husband was killed one year before, as she makes her way to China to research a paternity case filed against her deceased husband. Maggie, a food writer, interviews Sam, a Chinese chef, and undergoes a food education, second to none. I thought it was a simple story line with interesting characters. The shining gem in the book was the description of various foods: everything we know about Chinese food, here in America, is false.

I seriously need to make my way to China to try the real deal.

The Sights of San Francisco

Believe it or not, this was my first trip to California. Add another state to my list. There were "must see" things on the schedule, and here are the highlights:

Fisherman's Wharf (or Wharves?) at Pier 39. The crab was made out of flowers.

Me in front of Alcatraz. It doesn't seem like it would be too bad of a swim...

Robin and I having fun with this witch statue in one of the pier gift shops.

The seals... my absolute favorite part of the whole weekend. I could have watched them for hours. Talk about a study in sociology! They were hilarious.

Ghiradelli Square. Of course some chocolate had to come home with me.

A cupcake store! Not as great as "The Cupcakery" in Vegas. But I wouldn't turn down one of these yummy treats.The best way I know to "Carb Load."

Walking back from the Piers and Ghiradelli Square, we stumbled across Lombard Street, "The Crookedest Street in the world!" Also, not too relaxing of a walk for someone "resting" her legs for the marathon or for Robin who had just had foot surgery. Yikes!After Lombard Street, we ambled through Chinatown. The largest Chinese community outside of Asia. Not sure what was happening with this banner... perhaps another Cultural Revolution? Too tired to stay and ask.

There are other memories as well. Next time I go, I'll visit Alcatraz and see more of the cultural. I, perversely, probably, would like to get a picture of Hotel California. It was completely out of the way from anything we were near. Maybe next time.

It was a fantastic weekend, and the best part of it was spending time with Robin. I can't thank her enough for flying out to meet me (and feed me Luna Bars and bagels after the marathon). Thanks to her, we made it out of a sketchy neighborhood post marathon and are alive to tell of it today. So many memories and adventures. So little space to blog about it.

Not too shabby...

The Nike Women's Marathon was last Sunday, and I consider it a success. I flew in early Friday morning and met my friend Robin for a girl's weekend of sightseeing (and a long run thrown in).

This blog will detail the run, and tomorrow I'll put pictures of the sights.

So here I am on Friday, getting ready to pick up my running packet at Union Square. We stayed about a third of a mile from the starting line, which was perfect. San Francisco was basically turned into one huge Niketown for the weekend.

This is about 6:30 a.m. on Sunday. The race started at 7:00, so I am all nervous energy here in the hall outside our room. Ready to go!

There is the finish line. The fog hid it until I was right upon it... that was probably the most frustrating mile of my life!

Here I am 4 hours and 57 minutes after I started. No, not my fastest time, but it was definitely my best marathon. I never hit the wall; I never got angry; I was never absolutely discouraged (I've suffered all those things in every one of my other marathons).

My arms are full of goodies: a t-shirt, a Tiffany's necklace, granola, a smoothy... you name it, I was carrying it around in my happy stupor.


And here I am back in the hotel with my swag and and warm, dry fleece. I ended up coming in around 1,900 out of 20,000 runners, which I'm pretty pleased about. It says nothing for my time, really. I just means there were a whole bunch of women much slower than I was.

I wasn't sore afterward, and I didn't have any blisters. Just the usual chafing and overall fatigue.

While I enjoyed this marathon, I didn't have that relieved feeling afterward that I've had after all the others. I knew I would live through it, and I was pretty sure I would do okay. I'm ready for another challenge.

I'm thinking I need to either start running them faster, or I need to start looking in ultra-marathons. I could have done four more miles last Sunday. The shortest ultra-marathon is 30 miles. I'm thinking- if I can do 26.2, I can do 30. Does that sound crazy? Maybe just a little.

San Fran or Bust!

Early tomorrow morning I leave for San Francisco. It's surreal how fast the time has passed, and now I have the marathon monster staring me down. Sunday morning at 7:00, I'll start the race of a lifetime.

Each marathon is unique in weather, fellow runners, location, and when in my life it takes place. This one falls right after my 29th birthday. How empowering to be randomly chosen out of 100,000 runners to be one of 20,000 women to run this race. How amazing to be healthy and fit enough to undertake this kind of adventure. How fortunate to be able to meet my wonderful friend Robin for a girl's weekend.

It's going to be fantastic. So why am I so nervous?!

Eclipse

I just finished reading Stephenie Meyer's third book in the vampire series, Eclipse. It was a great read, and was much more enjoyable than the second book (though maybe not as good as the first)?

I've heard the fourth and final book (Breaking Dawn) is great, has tons of twists, and answers questions you didn't know you had. I'm a little surprised at myself for liking these books as much as I do. The teenage angst is off the charts, and the storyline is unbelievable. Still... there is something compelling in the pages that makes me want to finish the series.

My friend Bev sent me an uber-generous gift card to Barnes and Noble for my birthday. I know which book will be my first purchase. Breaking Dawn, you're coming home with me. Thanks, Bev!

Mt. St. Helen's

Day One: Sunny! Day Two: Moody!

Our school is pairing English and Science together for an amazing field trip to Mt. St. Helen's. It's a great chance for the kids to work on cross content work (meaning they write in Science class, basically).

So I took two different groups of kids last Wednesday and Thursday. The two days were both glorious, but couldn't have been more different. Day one was sunny, windy, and austere. We were all dressed for cold weather, and the day turned out quite toasty. In a word: beautiful.

Day two came, and it was pouring rain when we boarded the buses at school (three hours from the mountain), so naturally I was a bit concerned. However, we all had rain gear and good attitudes, so I thought it would be okay. It was much better than the first day even! The mountain was shrouded in clouds and mystery. The whole mood was somber and moody. I think it made for good writing.

Anyway, now I've been to Mt. St. Helen's (twice!). Next time I go, I'll be hiking it. Yay Washington!Day One: Squinting in the hot sun.

Day two with Science teacher Karla Hancock.

My Life On The Run

It's a tad crazy here in Washington right now. There's a ton going on with Bob training out of town nearly every week, me getting used to the new (awesome) job, and logging my last training miles before the marathon in two (GASP!) weeks.

This week, I took my kids on a field trip to Mt. St. Helen's two days in a row (pictures coming later this weekend of that). It was a fantastic and exhausting week.

Throughout it all, there is a itsy-bitsy time to read for pleasure, and the book I finished about a week ago is Bart Yasso's My Life On the Run. Yasso is one of the premier names in running and has run marathons all over the globe, on every continent. This particular book of his was a series of anecdotes telling the amazing stories of his races.

His stories are hilarious, and I laughed out loud through nearly every one of them. My favorites were the ones about him running in New Mexico pulling a burro named Taco Bell by a rope for a 10K, the one where he ran nude in the Bare Buns 5K here in Washington (which I aspire to do one day too), and the sweet tale about his wedding in Italy followed the next day by the Rome Marathon. Each story is more about the awesome people he's met than training techniques.

Yasso's stories have been great fodder for thought on these lonely twenty mile runs I've been logging. -Oh, but last Sunday my friend and colleague, Kim, rode her bike the 20 miles next to me. It was so much better to have someone to chat with along the way, and I ran faster for it. -Thanks, Kim!