Nashville, new job and relocating

Been a busy few weeks.  Clearly I survived Nashville!  The run was tough, 

hot and hilly…….I really slogged it out.  Still came out in the top 25% for age and gender (these things matter……to me, at least) BUT took me over two hours.  Around mile two I knew it was going to be ugly and I never found the love.  That’s a lot of miles of feeling unloved I have to say.  Still I loved Nashville.  Around 34,000 people run in this race so the place was humming and the streets lined with spectators.  A pending thunderstorm meant organizers had to close the course earlier than anticipated so folks running the marathon who didn’t hit mile 11 within 2hrs 30mins got diverted to the half marathon.  Can’t imagine how devastating it would be to be running your first marathon and not be able to finish.  One very cool story……well two. The woman who won the half didn’t know it started 15 mins earlier than originally announced (once again trying to make sure folk weren’t on the course when the storm hit) – she was in the bathroom cue when the start gun went.  She raced out of the cue, jumped the fence onto the course (before the start line so her time was recorded) and sprinted to catch the lead runners…..she was just as shocked as everyone that she won!  Another woman who was running her first marathon got turned back to go to the finish line at a couple miles short of her being able to complete the full 26.2 miles so she crossed the finish line and found some guy with a Garmin gps watch and he ran around the race track with her until she had completed the full distance….way to go!

Saturday evening of the race I had dinner with the work pals family (having slept on her couch the night before we flew out of San Jose for Nashville……..6am 2hr flight to Denver then change planes for a further 2hr flight to Nashville).  Tried fried green tomatoes, yum and had several glasses of the most divine red wine (or maybe it’s just that I drink so seldom these days that all wine tastes good).

As well as the runners expo I went to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  This was really interesting……..got to see Elvis’s gold plated car……..ugly…..but gold nonetheless. 

I love this view on the right, the building in front was dated early 1800s, no prizes for guessing the date for the one in back.  This was very representative of Nashville architecture, a real mix.

On another note…….I have a new job.  Yuh it’s that time again.  I’m heading off into management consulting land going to work for Accenture as a manager.  Long story short it’s time for me to make a big career change, this is it!  Most likely I’ll travel 4 days a week and will, ultimately, be back to running teams.  Accenture is huge (170,000 employees globally) and has a fantastic learning culture.  They have their own training school just outside Chicago and and and – it’s a fantastic opportunity and if I can do a good job opens up many doors.  I almost can’t believe it, this is why I came to the US!  If I can do this well I will have the opportunity to work on a huge number of different projects, continue to work with fantastically capable, smart people and across a range of different organizations.  It’s exciting and scary.

Which also leads me to the other change – I am moving into San Fran.  Need to be closer to the home office and the airport.  I think I’ve found a very cool roomie who also has a dog!  She currently lives in Santa Cruz and is a lecturer at the University – she’s keen to move into San Fran so after my NZ visit we are going to start to look around for a place.  I think we will make a good team and it will be good to live with someone if I am travelling. 

In between all that I fly out for NZ on May 5 for 2.5 weeks......so as you can tell…….not much happening……..