Another 30 seconds faster….
strongShort version/strongbr /br /Ran the PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix, Arizonabr /Finish time:1:35.26, 30 seconds faster than 2008 timebr /Place: 443/21,000br /Distance: 13.1 miles/21.1kmbr /Visited the Grand Canyon and Four Corners, Arizonabr /(Location where four states meet at a 90 degree angle)br /br /strongLong version/strongbr /br /In mid-January, I ran my third PF Chang RnR half-marathon in Phoenix Arizona. On race day, I got up at 0500 and ate half a box of Vector cereal before taking the hotel-provided shuttle to the start line in Phoenix. The race starts in Phoenix and runs south-west finishing in Tempe. When I arrived at the start area it was pitch dark. There was an air of anticipation as both the marathon and half-marathon start side by side about an hour apart. It was fun watching the sunrise and to take in some people watch. Some people wore minimal clothing and shivering while others were bundled up and would sweat a bucket during the race. I was happy to chill on a hillside and watch the race traffic mosey by. About an hour before the start I munched on my Clifbar and did an easy warmup. As the race approached I dropped my gear at the UPS trucks and had a couple of biobreaks.br /br /I would start the race in the first of 26 corrals. They volunteers at the corral entrance were checking your bib number to make sure you entered the right corral. One of the race innovations I really like are the new disposable timing chips. It is a loop of plastic that contains an RDIF chip which you fasten to your shoe laces. At the end of the race you throw it away. After the playing of the national anthem the governor started the race. The conditions were a sunny 5C/41F. But it wouldn’t stay cool for long as the blistering Arizona sun started to rise. I started off at a brisk pace and then geared back a bit at mile three. The course is flat and fast and quite familiar. When I arrived at the eight mile marker I thought I would need to take in a gel as usual but still felt energetic. My friend JB met me at mile 10 and we ran together for the final three miles. It was good to run with him as it was at this point that I started to feel the heat. Up to this point, I had been taking in water and pouring water on myself every second water stop. With two miles to go I decided to speed up as it couldn’t be any worse than a Pretoria Bridge to Bank Street bridge fartlek surge. As we crossed the finish line I was a little concerned as I thought I ran slower than last year. It was only back in the hotel that I realized that I had run 30 seconds faster.br /br /After the race we headed north to the Grand Canyon and were able to hike around part of the south rim. It sort of felt like home as there was snow and ice everywhere. We drove the Grand Canyon parkway as far east as we could before heading north to Monument Valley the backdrop of many western movies. Our final stop would be Four Corners, USA, a location where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet at a 90 degree angle. By perching yourself you can have your hand and legs in four states at the same time.
Minimalist
Today I ran to the office (3 miles) which is something that I do a couple of times a week. With the bus strike unofficially over, the buses will remain in the yards for another week. After I showered I started to do a ritual which I do a couple of times a week, shaving. Today I had a crisis. I squeezed the shaving cream can and nothing came out but a pin-sized amount of cream. I looked at myself for a while and contemplated using the hand soap but felt it would be too hard on my face. I opted to shave without shaving cream. It worked. I was able to shave without cutting myself and my skin felt okay. Over the lunch hour, I headed to the drug store to buy some more cream. So, the moral of the story is, that if you are in a bind you can shave without shaving cream.
Arizona 2009 — part 1
A little while ago I came back from my annual Arizona adventure and so it is time to blog the adventures. Early Friday morning, I caught my flight from Ottawa to Chicago and finally to Phoenix. JB and Raeanne met me at the airport and we headed to the race expo to pickup my race packet. I would be running in the first corral which was a intimidating and the same time exhilirating. We next heading over to a href=”http://www.rei.com/”REI /ato pickup some clothing that I had shipped to the Tempe store. I really like my new Muir Woods polar fleece jacket fitted. We headed across town, to the Bitlmore plaza home of Teavana and the Apple Store. It was my first time visiting Teavana and I had a fun experience. I bought some Early Grey and Dragon Pearl tea. To my regret I would have to wait until I was home before trying the teas. We went to the nearby a href=”http://apple.com/”Apple /astore and I checked my email and checked out the Time Capsule backup drives. We ate dinner at PF Changs which is a traditionally place where we have our pre-race dinner.br /I was up early on Saturday by Arizona time and had a hearty breakfast at the Hampton Inn. Mid-morning JB picked me up and we headed over to the gun range to meet Pete. He is a former private investigator and has in excess of 300 firearms in his house. Canada has strict rule on firearms making it very difficult for me to check out handguns. For a long time I have wondered what it was like to shot a handgun. I also wanted to have a better understanding of the second amendment to the US constitution. Here was my opportunity to explore both and have some fun. Pete brought four guns of varying caliber including a 9mm and 45 calibre “John Wayne” gun. We bought $200 worth of bullets. After putting on eyeshield and ear protection we headed into our range slot. Pete and his son loaded up the gun cartridges while JB mounted the paper target. Pete gave me some firearms training and I emptyed my first cartridge consistently hitting around the same area. As Pete put as long as you are hitting “body matter” that is all that is important. During the experience I had sweay palms. I don’t know whether it was my body reacting to the warmer conditions or the experience of firing a gun. Over the next two hours, the four of us cycled through successfully more powerful guns. Even with a double hand grip of a 45 calibre handgun, I found it had quite a kickf. Firing off these various guns will be a memorable experience for quite some time.br /br /We stopped in a Qdoba’s for lunch and watched Obama’s Baltimore speech. It was a good speech and one which I think he wrote himself. We headed north of Phoenix to Lake Pleasant which is a source of drinking water for the Tempe-Phoenix-Scottsdale area. JB had done a triathlon in the area and the cycling hill looked brutal.Our next stop would be Glendale, where the last SuperBowl was played. JB, his parents and I had a pasta dinner at a Italian restaurant.
Innovative uses for a coffee stirring stick
Every year my honor society has an induction ceremony where we welcome our new members. Myself and a couple of other students form the local chapter’s executive. Many of us have been organizing the ceremony for a couple of years so we delegate the various tasks among each of us. I send out reminder emails to our 400 new members and handle all the email correspondence. While in Phoenix, AZ, the president and I drafted the speeches and constructed the programme. One of the more span class=”blsp-spelling-corrected” id=”SPELLING_ERROR_0″humorous/span part happened in a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley”Monument Valley/a. We were midway through a three mile hike around a 1000 feet butte and waiting for the morning sun to catch it and admiring the stillness and silence when when my iPhone chirps away. The message was along the line, do I remember how many cakes we bought last year.br /br /Every year there are new challenges and some we can’t seem to solve. The most pressing deals with knives to cut the celebration cake. We always end up by forgetting them in the mad rush. This year was no exception. In the past we have used cardboard, plastic plates and forks. They all work but not very well. While the speeches were going on we had to quickly find a way of cutting and serving cake to 400 people. The solution this year was to slice the cake using wooden coffee stirrers and to us two forks to lift the cake onto the plates. The solution worked and at times it was comical to watch. The students and parents didn’t seem to notice as they were eager for free food and coffee.
Half-marathon and some traveling
pThis coming weekend I will head to Arizona to run my first half-marathon of the year. I am looking forward to the race as it will give me some relief from the arctic cold weather that the Ottawa area has been getting recently. There is also another thing I curious about and that is my physical fitness. Over the Christmas holiday, I ran a 10 mile race in Hamilton in a time that suggested that I am in better shape than last year. This could be because I am eating better this year but I really think it is the extra exercise that I am getting each day. I run to and from the office twice a week and walk the other days. One of the bummer is that all this exercise leaves me more tired than usual in the evenings. The upshot is that I am loosing more and more weight which is a good thing and might mean that I will run faster on the weekend as I will be lighter. /ppbr /Once the race is over I’ll spend a couple of extra days in the Phoenix area and head up to explore the Grand Canyon area as well as head up to the north-eastern corner of the state to a place called “a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Corners_(United_States)”Four Corners/a.” The states of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico all meet at a 90 degree angle. It is the only place in America where this happens. I am excited to take a picture of myself with each arm and legs in a separate state. I’ll post a blog and pictures next week talking about all my adventures./p
Wordabble at six month
Today is a special day for folks that play Wordabble. Wordabble is an iPhone/iPod Touch game from the folks at Fusion Bay and today it celebrates its first six month of offering challenging daily word puzzles. When you look at the rankings page, five of the top 20 regular players have over 200,000 points. Congratulation and thanks to Jason and Adam for six month of fun and daily challenges.
2008 Goals in Review
Last year around this time I uploaded my goals for 2008. The wisdom was if you publicly state some of your goals you are more likely to take the steps to achieve them. I found this a good exercise last year and something I will do this year. Before I list my 2009 goals I thought I would take a minute to see how I did in achieving my 2008 goals.br /br /br /br /* Run a 1:30 half-marathon timebr /Getting closer with each race. Will have to try harder in 2009br /br /br /* Go on more OHOC outdoor adventuresbr /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved/spanbr /br /br /* Do more hiking tripsbr /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved (OHOC trips, Catochins, Pretty Boy dam, etc.)/spanbr /br /br /* Climb more of the 46ers (46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks , NY)br /span style=”color:#3333ff;”span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved/span. /spanClimbed a couple of more peaksbr /br /br /* Loose 10 lbs by May 30 (race date –National Capital half-marathon)br /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved./spanbr /br /br /* Hike the West Coast Trail/Shenandoah National Park/Old Smoky National Parkbr /No. Shifted to 2009.br /br /br /* Run a faster Baltimore half-marathon ( 1:34 ) in October 2008br /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved/span. Each year I run the race around a minute fasterbr /br /br /* Visit Brent ( Algonquin Park ) by canoeing and portaging and bring along a digital camerabr /No. But parents had two roofs and one patio deck rebuilt.br /br /br /* Reach 500,000 Babble point (now 350,000) a href=”http://www.playbabble.com/”www.playbabble.com/abr /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved./span When I combine my babble scores and a href=”http://wordabble.com/”wordabble /ascores I achieved this goal.br /br /br /* Do more cycling (road and mountain biking)br /No. Ouchbr /br /br /* Geocaching goal 900-1000 finds by Dec 31 2008br /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved/span in the spring and finished off the year with 949 finds.br /br /br /* Become more mobilebr /Nobr /br /br /* Complete an Olympic Distance triathlon (1500m swum/40km cycle/10km run)br /Nobr /br /br /* Swing dancing – Learn the Lindy Hopbr /span style=”color:#3333ff;”Achieved/span but more work to do.br /br /br /* Take the train to Baltimorebr /Goal for 2009 (Montreal to New York to Baltimore Penn Station)br /br /2008 was a good year for me. I did more than I expected an achieved other goals that I that I didn’t push up to my blog.
Date Squares and Caesar Salad
This is a culinary blog entry. I recently have taken a strong liking toa href=”http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grammas-Date-Squares/Detail.aspx” date squares/a. It is similar to my enjoyment of a caesar salad. A couple of years ago while volunteer I spent a summer preparing caesar salads on Saturday mornings. It got to the point where I could tell how long ago it was that the greens/lettuce had be washed and spun in the salad spinner. The crisper the salad the sooner it had been prepared.br /br /When my folks were visiting Ottawa recently we visited a bakery that they had been eager to visit for a long time. We made two trips to the Rideau Bakery. When I headed down to my folks place for the winter break I brought down a shopping list of breads that my mother wanted. One of the bakery’s specialties is date squares. They are yummy and so sweet. While doing some Christmas errands we stopped in at my mother’s local bakery and I asked for date squares. They were not as good as the ones in Ottawa. Today, my folks and I made our second time to the Oakville a href=”http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/”Whole Foods/a store. I bought a variety of there scones and you guessed it, date squares. Compared to other date squares the ones from Whole Foods were better as they were not as sweet and the top material did not disintegrate and they looked and tasted healthier.
Whole Foods rocks
Today, while doing some Christmas shopping with my folks we stopped in at a href=”http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/”Whole Foods/a in Oakville. I was going to pop in and buy some Pomegranate tea that I spied last time I was at the Baltimore Whole Foods store. This would be my third visit to Whole Foods. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com/”Jason /aand I went their in the fall and I grabbed some lunch when he was returning some things.br /br /My folks were really impressed with the place and asked if we could go back after Christmas. My mother bought a wide variety of cheeses that she hasn’t seen in years. As we were walking by the bakery we picked up a fresh baguette for dinner. I stocked up on some of the exotic black teas that looked yummy. We went up and down every aisle and enjoyed taking in the Whole Foods experience. Since it was close to lunch time had paninis for lunch. a href=”http://jasonplancaster.com/”Jason /athanks for taking me to Whole Foods in the fall, as a trip their is the easiest way of having really stoked parents.
The Perils of Poor Packing and Chai Tea
Today I learned about the perils of poor packing first hand but was able to make a quick recovery. In my last entry I talked about how I wanted to try running to work soon. Today, I awoke really early and decided to run to work. I packed all my work clothes and shower stuff into my backpack; it was a full and heavy load. I made a critical mistake of not closing my zipper sliders at the top of the bag and not to one side. With all the giggling of my bag the zipper started to peel open and things started to fall out along the route. One of the first things to fall out was my winter hat and office access badge. I only discovered when checking into the office of my fatal error and was lucky that I had other identification. After showering I decided to retrace my steps and found my access badge hanging from a tree as someone had seen its value and picked it up. My loss was only a winter hat. As I run home tonight I’ll stopp by MEC to buy a replacement and will most likely carabiner my zipper slides together.br /br /My second adventure today deals with Starbuck Organic Chai tea. For a long time, I have been a fan of their Early Grey teas but found at times it contains too much caffeine. I switch every so often to the Tazo Organic Chai Tea. To the folks at Starbucks when you say you want Chai tea it brings up two connotations, one cheap and the other expensive. The cheap version is some hot tea with a Chai teabag and the other is the Chai Tea Latte. Today, I was downtown for a meeting and asked for Chai Tea and tried to be clear what I wanted and jokingly the barista just gave me the tea bag in its package. I said sort asked where was the hot water and which we all rolled around laughing as they wanted to figured that I wanted hot tea.
