Ordered Chaos

After being holed up in a plane for a bundle of hours, good ole Oakland welcomed us with open arms. Then we immediately left. Sorry, Oakland, you’re just a stepping stone to San Francisco.

Maybe out of habit from last summer’s trip to Europe, we hit the road on foot to explore The City. Because we stayed in Fisherman’s Wharf, we found no shortage of tourist traps. So, after a quick lunch on the water (shrimp sandwich & mussels), we continued our coastal walk toward Ghirardelli Square. Turns out they have respectable chocolate.

That night we Yelp’d to find a decent sushi joint and were pleasantly surprised by Sushi on the North Shore -Katsu. Now we’re hooked on Yelp, and its accompanying iPhone app.

The next day I was determined to run over the Golden Gate Bridge, even though we were staying 3.5 miles from it. The approach was magnificent, as the bridge stood half-masked by fog. After traversing the bridge both ways, my return to the coastal trail proved to be a bit tricky as construction workers had barracaded my original path. No problem, add yet another mile and back to the hotel.

Our day’s journey took us to Berkelely, where we meandered through UC’s campus and had substandard Thai food. No worries, though, Berkeley cuisine would be redeemed on the following day’s visit.

After heading back to SF, we decided to stroll through Pier 39 for some sights and smells. Smells being the beautiful scent of hundreds of sea lions basking on their floating docks. It almost rivals the inevitable “who farted?” smell on I-80 in Nebraska. *almost*

Probably the highlight of our time in The City was a restaurant suggestion from Rahul, a friend we’d now like to hire as our west coast travel agent. Green’s is an all-vegetarian restaurant located in Fort Mason, right on the water. Our Scottish server was a joy, and the food was out of this world. How could it get any better? Answer: half-prices bottles of wine. ‘Nuff said.

Stay tuned for our journey to, arrival in, and subsequent endulgence of Sonoma County.

And we’re off! Yes, maybe California is still but a glimmer of hope in our crazy lives, but we are a state closer during our layover in Denver.

This morning Al got home from work at about 1am, and it wasn’t until I programmed our coffee maker that I realized I could get 2.5 hours of sleep only if I laid down right then and fell asleep on my descent to the pillow. Our status can be summed up in the photo below.

Oh, and another thing - we’ll hopefully be blogging a little more along our journey through San Francisco (or “The City” as our west coast friends call it), and ultimately through wine country. However, we might be blogging solely from my phone. So let this be the first of hopefully many iPosts. And if I misspell a word or twenty, you’ll understand why (i.e. not because of the wine…probably).

Cheers!

Two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to cross a big ticket item off my list.  And I didn’t just succeed, I ultra-succeeded.  Yes, it was my very first ultramarathon!! For the past few years, ever since I heard about people running farther than 26.2, it’s had an enticing lure. That gentle pull soon turned into ambitious curiosity, and a few mouse clicks later I was signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k in Wisconsin.

Because teaching doesn’t allot me the luxury of taking chunks of time off (well, at least three seasons a year), and because running 26.2+ doesn’t leave me with record breaking motivation to drive 8 hours back home, my mom & stepdad graciously decided to roadtrip with me to Wisconsin.

Even without considering the race, we all had a great time!  We laughed, we ate, we drank, and I almost cried.  More on that later. Race morning began not so bright and early at 5am.  And with a quick shower, bowl of oatmeal and coffee, we hit the road for the 20 minute drive from our hotel to Ottawa Lake.

Mom & Jerry at race start

The race atmosphere was nothing like a road marathon. It was fairly low-key, but with plenty to eat and plenty of stories to soak in with all the ultrarunners exchanging tales of blood, tears, blisters & victory. At 8am sharp, the race began with instructions to stick together until the course’s first highway crossing.  You’d never get road runners to obey these kind of instructions.

Race start

Although it was a brisk morning, it was perfect for us runners, and the course was beautiful! The path wove through Kettle Moraine State Forest, through heavily wooded areas, prairies, tall native grasses, and the Ice Age Trail.  Though never too brutal, some hills were definitely not runnable. The most common piece of advice I’ve heard & read is to establish a run/walk strategy throughout an ultra.  That is, maybe run 25 minutes & walk 5.  I don’t think I walked at all during the first 10-12 miles of the race.  At that point I deliberately started to insert some walking on the uphills while scarfing Clif Bars.  Mmmm, chocolate brownie…

Throughout the race I exchanged many words of encouragement, and chatted it up with fellow runners. Ultrarunners are definitely a chatty bunch, and this makes the race atmosphere much more enjoyable and less competitive. What also makes a race more enjoyable is spectator support, especially family support.  I’m officially naming Mom & Jerry uber-spectators. The plan was for them to hang around the first three aid stations at miles 1, 6 and 11, where the course wove back to the same aid station three times.  Then, I’d see them next at the finish. However, to my relieved surprised, they hit every single aid station except mile 16! One thing about having your mom cheer you on during such a long race is that you have to do some “mom” things.  Like pose for a picture with cheerleaders at mile 27.  Thanks Mom! :~)

Me & the cheerleaders at mile 27

The race was long, and I started to feel it after leaving Mom & Jerry (and the cheerleaders) at mile 27. But those feelings were put to death upon spotting a lady on a seemingly endless uphill.  Upon passing her she said, “Great job! Only 1.7 miles to go!”  And that was it.  I surged ahead and started running like I was running the mile in junior high.  I passed several runners during that last stretch, and as I crossed the finished line I think I choked on my own tears. If Allison had been able to make it to the race, I’d have been sobbing at the end.

The emotional uplift that follows the accomplishment of such a big ticket item is priceless.  But one thing’s for sure, I’ll never run my first ultra again.  But I will run my second.  And I’ll run longer. I’ll do many things I’ve never done before, because that’s what I enjoy most.  The challenges of the unknown, the freshness of new goals, the exhilaration of sweet victory.  Also, the presence of family & friends throughout all walks of life, cheering me on both in person and over the phone.

Victory! (and a medal to prove it)

Call me lazy, call me busy, call me an absentee blogger.  Call me whatever you want - it’s been awhile.  A serious while.  Hell, we didn’t even round off our trip to Europe with tales of the last few cities we visited.  But life goes on, and so do new careers.  While Al has been slaving for the Med Center, I’ve been slaving in the classroom. Our newfound endeavors are time consuming, to say the least.  To say the most, I know that I’ve found my niche.  Teaching has turned out to be just as rewarding as expected, and double the intensity as anticipated.

But some things never change. When the pot has all but boiled over and the you-know-what’s about to hit the fan, I still just go for a run. And it seems that over the last four months I’ve done a bit more than usual. Though the last month or so has been somewhat sporadic, I’ve set my sights on uber-long distance goals. Next Thursday I’ll head up to Wisconsin with Mom & Jerry to run my first ultramarathon.  More of a starter ultra at 50k. Even though this will be farther than I’ve ever run, in my mind it’s the pregame tailgate party for 50- and 100-milers.  My goal is to have run a 100-miler before the age of 30, and I’ve got a couple years left.  Truth be told, though, I’m looking to cross this off my list within a year.

All that being said, I ran my fifth marathon on September 28th, and it panned out beautifully.  Starting off convservatively, I did my jaunt around dowtown and headed south for the hills of Rosenblatt and the zoo.  What a joy it is to have a family cheer squad bounce around the course for support!  Allison, Mom, Jerry, Rob, Caity, Collin & Dylan all made it down to the race to zip around Paparazzi-style, as if I were a rockstar. Though I am but a rookie teacher and mediocre runner, they sure make me feel like a rockstar - thanks guys!

At the halfway point I felt pretty good and decided that I’d increase my pace by about 15 seconds per mile. Though I fell off pace slightly toward the end of the race, this proved to be a reasonable adjustment.  The second half of the course is monotonous and draining, and I really do believe that this is the case aside from the fact that a marathoner’s attitude tends to take a downward spiral between miles 18 and 25.

At any rate, my yearnings to be done running for the day were erased by the sights & sounds of the finish line atmosphere, which is so much improved now that the course finishes at the Lewis & Clark Landing. I finished with a chip time of 3:35:07, my second best marathon time, but what I consider my smartest-run marathon yet. Another marathon down, and many more to come. Stay tuned for a race report on the North Face Endurance Challenge 50k that I’ll be running on October 25th.

We arrived in Venice after a short flight from Madrid.  A bus then brought us to a port where a water bus was to take us to various docks scattered throughout the city.  Venice is basically a series of roughly 100 ‘islands’ separated by lagoons, rivers, and the Grand Canal.  Motorized vehicles are not allowed on the island, so boats carry people (and goods) from one end of the city to the other.  While we were taking the water bus to our stop, we saw water ambulances, water UPS vehicles, and water taxis (even with the little TAXI sign on the top!).

After settling into our amazing hotel (complete with balcony and river view), we decided to do what we normally do in new locations: take a walk and get lost.  Lucky for us, the first place we ran across was a gelateria and enjoyed our first true Italian gelato.  To be honest, I have no idea what we got since this was one of MANY cups of gelato we would treat ourselves to while in Italy.  After that, we continued on to St. Mark’s Basilica, called by some the most beautiful Catholic structure in the world.  Since it was later in the afternoon at this point, we decided to just check out the exterior and the rest of Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square).  Our eyes were overwhelmed by the intricate mosaics, statues, and domes covering the basilica.  In addition to the basilica, the Piazza San Marco is flanked by two glorious bell towers: St. Mark’s Campanile and St. Mark’s Clocktower.  The Clocktower (part of which is shown below) is an example of an astronomical clock in which the position of the sun and moon along with other zodiac information can be determined.

This astronomical display is topped by a what looks like a digital clock with Roman numerals.  You can actually see the numbers change every five minutes.  Then, above that clock are two bronze statues next to the bells.  These statues have blackened over time, so they are known as “Moors” (how politically correct, huh?) At 55 minutes past the hour, you can actually see the statues swing mallets against the bells to appear as if they are the ones striking the bells.

After people-watching on the plaza for awhile, we decided to start thinking about dinner.  (Okay, that’s a lie, because we probably had started to think about dinner the minute we landed in Italy. . .).  We went to a casual eatery deep in one of the Venetian neighborhoods.  Before I mention what we ate, I should mention that a typical Italian meal is endless with multiple courses.  First there is the antipasto course (appetizer), follwed by the primp piatti (typically a pasta).  Following that, a secondo piatti (a meat or main course) and then a contorno (vegetable or side dish).  Finally, the dolce (dessert) is enjoyed with a caffe.  So, you can see why a meal might take two hours and cost a lot of euros!  With all of that information, Chris and I decided to split an antipasti (an appetizer of various seafood pieces) and a primi piatti (pasta with salmon and zucchini).  For dessert, we split a piece of tiramisu.  At that point, Chris made a decision to try a piece of tiramisu in every city we would visit.

The next morning, we decided to trek back to St. Mark’s Basilica and view the inside.  One of the most interesting parts of the interior was the tile floor, which was literally warped so badly that it formed deep divets that looked like waves.  Venice is literally sinking, and as a result, the tiles have started to sink unevenly.  In addition to the actual nave, we visited the treasury which included an impressive collection of precious gems, pottery, relics, and other rich treasures from the days when Venetian Crusaders conquered Constantinople.

Following the Basilica, we popped into a Venetian glass studio where we were treated to a private glass-blowing demonstration.  I bet you never realized that a glass lemon could be transformed into a glass cat, huh?  After that, we continued on our walk where Chris indulged on a pastry filled with chocolate-cafe cream before finding a little restaurant for lunch.  Feeling a little bit rushed, we both ordered the same dish: raviolis stuffed with porcini mushrooms in a lobster sauce over arugula.  This meal may have Chris’ favorite meal the entire month we were in Europe, and a top contender for me.

More walking and more snacking, we finally decided that it was time to head back to the hotel for a little rest.  On our way back, we picked up some groceries and had a little cocktail party on our balcony.  For dinner, we decided to stay in our neighborhood and visit a pizzeria for some Italian pizza and beer.  We ended our last Venetian night with a walk over the Rialto bridge (one of the four bridges that crosses the Grand Canal) and a little people-watching on St. Mark’s Square.  Tomorrow, we had a six-hour train ride to the Cinque Terre!