gaseous moments.....

Such a long way I have come!  Irene and I swapped a couple of texts today about the possibility that she could smell gas coming from the gas connection at the house.  Smelling gas is a BAD thing (as we all know).  Given San Bruno isn't that far from us (single digit miles!)  I was quietly concerned and suggested she call the gas company (almost 100% certain they would come out asap).  As it turned out Irene was entirely conservative about it and wanted me to check she wasn't overreacting and was prepared to wait until I came home (this likely to be 6hrs after the text exchange).  I arrived home 7ish and tracked her down (well if she is at the house she is either downstairs in the office or upstairs at home so took me about 30 seconds!).  Long story short she took me to where the gas smell was - it didn't smell gaseous to me BUT (here's the coming along way part), I still didn't rule it out that she was on to something as it did smell and we might have a gas leak.  There was a smell and I simply said "well in NZ that's not what gas smells like".  For those not in the know, gas has no smell, the providers add "something" to give it a smell so we can detect gas leaks.....that much I knew (don't ask, I have no idea why I knew that, but I did).  So cultural difference and all I didn't assume that the "smell" added would be the same.  Immediately Irene suggest "Well let's go turn on the gas on the stove and see if it smells the same".  This was a VERY smart idea I might add......we did, smelt different from the "other smell", at least to me, agreed we need not panic and most likely it was all good....living in America is full of little moments.....this is one of them!

Random fun thing

So I mentioned I had read Lisa Tamati's book, well I also ordered a piece of her jewelry so ended up in a brief email convo with her.  Okay the book was not that well written but she's still an awesome character! She was very cool about my wanting to run an ultra.

This is the piece I ordered.  I really like it and, as was pointed out to me by someone who knows me very well, it is very me!
It's a running figure with a heart beat, it's part of her sports line and is a mix of stainless steel and rubber.  It is, apparently, in the mail.  I hope I like it as much in real life as I do the picture.

New furniture

The chair rocks!


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Reading & Running

I have just finished reading this book about a NZ ultra marathon runner.  Given that, not that long ago, she ran across NZ some folk reading may already know about her.  The book itself isn't wildly well written but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  It is heavy with NZ speak and I can almost hear her accent as I read.  She run through the Sahara Desert several times and the Libyan Desert as well.  It's quite amazing to read about some of the personal and physical challenges she has dealt with.  She also designs jewelry and has both an online store and a physical store in New Plymouth!  I find reading this stuff inspirational, even if I failed miserably to get out of bed early enough this morning to run my planned 23miles.....it will now be tomorrow.  Despite waking at 7:30am  I had missed my window to get through Fisherman's Wharf and across Golden Gate and back before the maddening crowds.  Tomorrow up at 5:30 and on the road no later than 6:15.....that's the plan, gotta stick to it!

Berlin is booked!

Travel and accommodation for Berlin is now locked and loaded!  Mum arrives from NZ on Sept 16 then we fly out to Berlin on the 21st (via Heathrow), arrive Thursday 22nd late afternoon.
Staying here, which is close to the marathon start/finish....near the Brandenburg Gate.  For anyone that's been to Berlin, here is the course:

Pretty much run all over Berlin and it's all flat.  I'm actually not that enamored with all flat courses.  Psychologically I find it harder - I like having the odd hill to climb.  That said this will all be new sights with a lot of historical landmarks (and some new ones too I imagine) along the way.  I am thinking I might take my i-phone so I can take some shots along the way.  I think there are close to 45,000 running - similar size to New York, so that will be awesome.  German organization so certain to start on time and be well organized!  Post marathon mum and I will start the sightseeing (only really the expo and a little bit of orientation in the two days leading into the marathon.  I am hoping jet lag isn't too bad and expect just the excitement of the whole thing will carry me through on the day!

BART

730am Friday heading to the Accenture San Fran office for a day course. First time taking Bart to the office - somehow I thought there would be way more people! Guess the real commuters come from the east bay....all very civilized here!


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Week has flown by!

The past week seems to have flown by.....busy!  Michelle came and stayed on Friday and left today (Sunday).  Fun time, punctuated by our visiting the (very local, as in two blocks away) queer bar where some woman decided she wanted my attention (good luck with that).  What followed was much hilarity (not all entirely at my expense) as she tripped through various attempts to capture my attention (including deciding I was a teacher, scientist or or or??? Didn't run marathons and and and).  Anyway I gotta say I was in tears of laughter after she'd F.I.N.A.L.L.Y given up.  Michelle and Irene totally amused throughout.  I expect there will be much recreating of the evening at various events in the coming months and, more particularly, at Xmas when visiting NZ.
Saturday we dragged Michelle around various furniture stores and at least one hardware outlet.  She has some great ideas for my pad so ended up being my personal design consultant (along with Irene of course!).  Irene then dragged Michelle and I to her local workout hangout i.e. park, where she is attending Bootcamp four days a week......my abs hurt today!!!!!
Saturday night all tired so an easy peasy BBQ (now that Irene has installed hers on the deck) and early to bed.  Sunday up earlyish as Michelle wanted to go to her church think in Palo Alto so drove her there and I hit the roads for what was meant to be a 14miler.....12half as it turned out as I had somehow managed to hit some button on the garmin that lead to distance being recorded in KMs, I was roughly translating so knew I was short but decided to end it there as I was basically running around the 'burbs.....which a very beautiful I might add but was over it and ME and I were having lunch before I dropped her at the airport.
The Garmin thing was not a total surprise as Katy and I had run the Stevens Creek Reservoir early in the week and I knew "something" wasn't right but has taken me until today to figure it out, having thought I'd fixed one thing that wasn't actually what needed adjusting!!!!
Booked all the Berlin tickets today - little complicated as mum flies out of Berlin to Karen and Brice in Miami so in the end Karen booked all mum's flights (one way tickets are mad crazy expensive as it turns out) then I booked mine to match to get us to Berlin (well and part way back to the US as I'm not flying to Miami but will fly via London with mum).  Karen is a guru of this though and found flights that were better than I had so I gotta get some lessons from her on this!!!!!  I'll book the accommodation tomorrow as I now have a map of Berlin so can see where things are AND I wrote to one place asking how close they were to the start of the marathon.....all good, figuring it out.
Okay photo moment....not wildly exciting but I'm doing my best:
New Gym takes shape......

New Lamp.....Room & Board how I love thee.....when you have a sale

Crab Tower - post run lunch!

21 Miles.....done

Some days when I am out there pounding the pavement my body is....annoyed at me and my mind is constantly nagging me to give it up, filling up my head with "wtf, really? no way? this is so out of your reach".  Not today though, today my body took the pounding with good grace and my mind was happy to coach it along, full of good thoughts and good things!
It wasn't the most lovely of days, mist hung low over the GG Bridge (I not only went to Sausalito but turned around after I got there and promptly ran back....not all the way back just as far as I needed to hit 21miles, so about a mile and a half post coming off the bridge).  Rain threatened but never really came.  Why such a good run?  Today I discovered a little bit of magic that I haven't tried before.....GU Blocs (they are like sticky little gummy bears) every 40mins. What a difference it made to my overall feeling of well being.  While I can run a marathon on two GUs and water it seems it would be far more pleasant to run it on many more GU Blocs!
I also now know I've lived in SF just long enough to have become a (kind of) known character.  Post race I stopped on fisherman's wharf to get something to eat and this dude started chatting to me.  He asked if I had just came from Sausalito....turns out he remembered me from the ferry the last time (or maybe the time before) I ran to Sausalito and caught the ferry back.....as opposed to the new regime of running back!  Weirder still he is from New Mexico so we chatted away about where he had lived and I actually knew exactly where and could have a real convo with him about it too - schweet.

At least once during these longer runs someone calls out Roadie, this time some dude being helpful giving me the code to some locked bathrooms "hey Roadie.....", kinda schweet too!
 

Fishy update

The lap pool, that I look at through my back door and can hear the water gurgling away.


The fish anticipation.


The frenetic circling.


And finally the feeding!


Endless entertainment!
Gotta run 21 miles this weekend and going to book Berlin!
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The never-ending-busy

It's Thursday and the week variously dragged and flew by!  Every day I've just been excited to be coming home to my pad.
Tuesday night we went out for a team dinner.....total riot.  Pro Bono, ignoring the totally cheesy video (what were they thinking???) proved to be a pretty nice experience.  Gotta say the service started out as marginal BUT once they get that the guy with the credit card buys GOOD wine they suddenly get very attentive (not the first time I've watched this little phenomenon at a work dinner).  Actually I wasn't totally wowed by the food but it was good so definitely not complaining.....the wine was awesome.  Sometimes I dread these things because they feel like an extension of work (and they are) but the team is very fun and we have some new folks who have joined who add some more flavor to the whole thing.  Of course it does mean that those of us commuting to San Fran have at least another 45mins to add to the adventure......funny how you adjust.
The house is variously unpacked and variously waiting for furniture to arrive.  All good though.  Every morning I feed the fish before work and tomorrow I will take a photo so you can see why this is fun!  I've killed fish before but hoping these ones are a little more robust.  Mostly gotta watch that the little fountain thing doesn't get clogged as rumour is, in the absence of that, the raccoons come a hunt'n.........