Holiday Will Power Weakness

It’s Christmas time

There are treats around…..all around!

I’ve been very good, passing by cookie trays, turning down fried foods on the holiday buffet, skipping the dips and sauces at parties…..EXCEPT for this morning. This morning, my will power flew out the window.

I got up at 5:30. This is a little earlier because there’s still snow all over the place, and while the roads are generally clear, I have yet to dig my car out and have refused to move it until I absolutely have to. So I put on my snow gear (including my mega boots I bought for my Antarctica trip) and walked to the gym, did spin class, walked home and had my normal egg white breakfast. Yum! I walked to work, and shortly after my arrival, someone announced that they’d brought in bags of Micky D’s sandwiches.

The Egg McMuffin and I have a very special relationship. I love it and will someday marry it, and frankly, of all the Micky D’s b-fasts, it’s one of the better ones for you. Lots of carbs, but half the fat of most of their sandwiches.

So I ate one.

I was feeling a little full, but felt satisfied and said that would be my morning snack, would delay lunch a little.

Then they started talking about the treats.

There were cookies and brownies on the desk 4 over from mine, and people were stopping by, and talking about them and eating them.

Non-stop.

I tried to resist. I sat on my bouncy-ball chair drinking my water and thinking about my beloved Egg McMuffin….but nothing could erase the sounds of people enjoying the brownies.

I love brownies. I really love brownies.

Finally, I couldn’t resist any more. I went over to check out the brownies…but they weren’t just brownies. They were brownies in cupcake form, probably twice the size of normal brownies, but just as fudgy as a “real” brownie, and they had chocolate chips in them. I love chocolate chips in my brownies.

And so I grabbed one.

And I ate it.

I ate the whole thing, and it was delicious. I had brownie crumbs all over my fingers and my face. It was on my teeth, and sticking to the roof of my mouth. And it was glorious!

And then, I started to feel like crap.

When I walked by the brownies a few minutes later, they were gone. Had I waited just three more minutes, I would have averted this stomach ache, but I didn’t. In fact, while I was there, lamenting my piggitry, I grabbed a cookie off the plate next to the empty brownie tray and ate it.

And now, I really feel like crap.

I'm never eating again!

The beginning

It all started a year ago when I decided I was going to do another Ironman in 2009. I completed the Great Floridian Triathlon in 2005 and had a great experience, and wanted to do another one. In 2005 I’d flown my great friend Jeri out from Tucson to be my CEO of Race Support. She’s a great athlete and understands the stress of competition, so I knew she’d be great to take care of all the details, so I could focus on my race. When considering which race to do in 2009, including Jeri was an essential part. Aside from her being an amazing supporter and helper during stressful race times, it was a great excuse to hang out with a great friend! She lives in Tucson, so Ironman Arizona seemed like a great choice.

The day after the race in 2008, registration for the 2009 race opened. I was online and trying to connect to the registration site and after 45 minutes hitting refresh refresh refresh with no success, I finally connected. I was in! I quickly filled out my registration information, my stomach lurching with every advancing page. Did I really want to do this? I’m so excited! This is going to be a huge commitment? Do I really want to do this? I’m so excited! I got to the payment page and my stomach lurched again. $525? You’ve GOT TO BE kidding me! Well, Ironman puts on a great race, the support will be top notch, the schwag is good, and I will officially be AN IRONMAN! (Great Floridian is a triathlon of the same distance, but it’s not an official Ironman Brand event. I went 140.6 miles, but Mike Reilly never officially announced me as AN IRONMAN! Why is that so special? I’m not so sure….but it is, and anyone who’s ever had it announced for them understands!) So I bucked up, paid my money, and I was in!

The preparation

I had 7 marathons and an ultra on the plan for 2009, so my running training was pretty well taken care of by default. I actually did very little training for any of those races, and had a great experience at all of them. (except NYC which I didn’t end up running due to a bad serving of sesame chicken 2 nights before) Slow and steady, enjoy the views, talk to some people, grab your medal and move to the next! Due to numerous personal and work travel commitments and several bad weather weekends, my long bike ride training plans were totally derailed. Ok, to be honest, that’s an excuse. Those things made my long bike rides inconvenient….and I didn’t do ‘em! Lazy? Yeah…probably. The confidence I’d gained from a year of marathons without training gave me some false confidence. I knew in my brain that an ironman was a VERY different proposition than a marathon, and training was a must, but weekend after weekend found me not doing the planned training.

My parents were at my first big triathlon, and made plans to be in Arizona for my second, despite a few small financial sacrifices to get the tickets. My parents are great supporters, not only of me, but of all the endurance athletes in events they spectate. They’ve cheered on friends and family at numerous events, sometimes with horns, sometimes with bells, even with a banjo and they always bring smiles and energy to the runners. They’re a welcome addition to an event, especially this time. They knew the long day involved in being a supporter of 1 athlete at an ironman, so they signed up to volunteer at a bike aid station during the race. How cool! And it’s a good thing they did! Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have done the race.

About a month before the race, it occurred to me that it was highly unlikely that I would be able to complete the event with the piss poor training I had done. Part of me thought I could, and part of me knew the painstakingly hard work most athletes put in to complete these races, and it was totally stupid of me to believe I could do it without. I was nervous, I was anxious, and every missed workout brought more stress and guilt. Suddenly one day I said to myself “Anne, you have 17 hours to complete that race. 2 hours for the swim, 9 for the bike and 6 for the run. That’s totally doable. You have to be smart, but you can do it….and if you can’t, you pull out. You have no ego put into this race. Enjoy a beautiful weekend with your great friend Jeri, your parents and a ton of other friends who happened to be at the race. Enjoy the weather, be smart and do what you can. If you have to pull out, pull out. Oh, and sign up for skydiving while you’re in AZ, so if you don’t complete 1 2009 goal, at least you complete another!” The stress went away, the excitement went up, and my workouts actually improved! Not that you can cram for an ironman, but it helped me mentally.

The week before

I had an insane travel and work schedule for the week before the race, and actually ended up closing bars twice during that pre-race week. And no, I wasn’t drinking water all night. I had a blast, and was tired, but wasn’t too worried about it. Why start doing the right thing now, right? (I know, STUPID!) I was in Dallas and Austin, then back to Baltimore for Sales meeting. I packed and prepped when I could, and made lists and piles and looked at checklists to be sure I had everything. My good friend, co-worker and fellow triathlete Craig gave me a ride to the airport because the bike box I borrowed from my other good friend, co-worker and triathlete Shana wouldn’t fit in my car. I checked my e-mail flight confirmation and it said 6:15 for my flight. Great! I would get there 2 hours before to have plenty of time to get my bike checked in. I arrived at the airport at 4:15 only to find that my flight was actually at 5:30! WHAT WHAT??? Got my bike checked in with no problem (a little concern, but no actual delay) and got to the gate in plenty of time. Fshew! Glad I decided to arrive early. I got to the gate and called Jeri in an excited frenzy! The journey had begun! I was on the way. We giggled and chatted for a sec, then I let her go get ready.

Flights were uneventful, bike and luggage arrived safe and sound and I was finally in Phoenix to start my Ironman Journey!

Tour de Tucson

I arrived in Phoenix around 11pm on Wednesday night. Jeri was kind enough to drive up from Tucson (about an hour and a half) to pick me up! We screamed and jumped and hugged for a few minutes on the sidewalk at the airport (hadn’t seen her since 2005 actually!) then loaded up the truck and headed south. We gabbed and gabbed like the old friends that we are, and I was again reminded what a perfect choice for CEO of Race Support that she was! We got to her house around 1:30 and crashed.

The next morning, we slept in, chilled out, watched some mindless TV on the couch while playing with her ADORABLE dog, then went out to see Tucson. I lived there about 8 years ago, and was excited to visit some old stomping grounds. We ran a few errands, then went to Panda House Stir Fry (Mongolian Barbeque. YUM!) for lunch. Then we visited our old friend Alyssa who is now a flight nurse. She showed us her helicopter and told us all about her job while we grilled her with questions. Fascinating stuff, and she clearly LOVES her job. It was cool to see the helicopter and all the gear all set up for medical evac, and hear some of her crazy stories. That was a blast.

We drove by some other old places and through the desert, then headed to Sushi Garden to meet her husband for dinner! What a blast, and just as delicious as I remembered. Erik was just as fun and funny as I remembered, and we enjoyed a very nice dinner, then went home and crashed again! 2 very late nights for me in the days before a big race. I needed some sleep. The next day, race prep would officially begin.

The Ironman Arizona Journey Begins : Friday, packet pickup

We left the next morning to head up to Phoenix. We first stopped off at the condo. This was an absolute WINDFALL! A friend of mine’s mother-in-law had a condo in Scottsdale that they had purchased when their daughter (his wife) was at Arizona State. They still had it, and it was sitting there, empty, and he offered it to us for use the weekend of the race. It was gorgeous, and well situated around tons of restaurants, grocery stores, and anything else we’d need for the weekend. Thank you SO Much Cameron! Having a kitchen to prep race food, a big couch to chat and chill on was AWESOME!

Then we headed over to Tempe to pick up packets, and get the lay of the land. The race “village” was buzzing with nervous excitement as athletes picked up their race packets, and did shopping at the official ironman store, and at the various tents spread all over the expo. I of course bought an Ironman Arizona pair of bike shorts, and a cute bathing suit (with “Ironman” on it, of course!). Jeri got some t-shirts and shorts. We had fun walking around, and checking things out. I picked up my packet, and we headed back to the condo to meet my parents, who had just arrived.

We all headed to the grocery store for supplies for the race and the weekend. Again, having a kitchen was clutch! Knowing that this race was going to be all about pacing and staying fueled, I had a very detailed food plan all laid out, including baked potato, ramen, roast beef sandwiches and PB&J…oh, and a Totinos Pizza! We loaded up on groceries and headed back to the condo.

There was a Welcome Dinner followed by the mandatory athlete meeting that night. We decided to skip the probably mediocre institutional athlete buffet dinner and enjoy a lovely sushi dinner with my parents instead. We did go to the mandatory meeting though. These meetings are always a total repeat of everything already covered on the website and on the athlete booklet they send, but in the off chance that there was some key piece of information given, we went. We ended up running into Scott and Leanne Johnson, friends of mine from NC there, and Bob and Rudy as well, from CAF. Rudy had attempted the Kona Ironman a few weeks before, and missed the cutoff for the bike by a few minutes, and he was determined to finish this Ironman and become the first double above the knee amputee to finish an ironman. Rudy is a Paralympic Gold medal swimmer, so that would be easy, but biking 112 miles and running a marathon with just the use of his gluteus muscles was quite a challenge, but a challenge that this lion hearted 21 year old was ready to take on! I was so excited to be racing with him. Wished him luck and headed home to bed.

The journey continues: Saturday, bike check

I woke up with a great plan, to lay out all of my race outfits to be sure I had everything I need for the long day ahead, and be sure everything was in the right bag so I’d have it when I needed it during the race. I made slips of paper for the food items yet to be prepared, so I’d remember where they were supposed to go, so I’d have everything I’d need to survive! It was a great system! I wanted to get everything done and checked and completed by lunchtime, so I could get off my feet and relax for the rest of the day, so we set out around 9:30 to get my bike checked, gear bags checked and everything set for race day before meeting my old running buddy Becky for lunch. We got everything taken care of, ran into Scott and Macca (it’s great to have a World Champion Ironman wishing you luck!) I spun a car and won the bonus prize (Ford had a fun promotion going on!) and we headed off to meet Becky. We had a blast at lunch. Jeri and Becky became fast friends and made plans to meet the next day for cheering duty! I was really looking forward to it! Jeri and I ran off to get some last details and ended up rolling back to the condo around 4. I cooked my food, then headed off to a great Italian dinner with my parents. Magganios is yummy and we got back to the condo around 8, relaxed for a while, and they sent me to bed early. 4am wake up the next morning……here goes!

Race Day

I was pleasantly surprised that I slept like a baby! None of the typical hourly time checking throughout the night. None of the typical worry about missing my alarm. I slept like a rock and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4am. As I ate my cheerios it dawned on me what I was doing. I pushed it to the back of my mind.

Got to the race site which was buzzing with nervous energy. No one can freak out like a triathlete can. Jeri and I walked together through the masses of people. 2000+ triathletes and probably double the spectators. It was crowded. I started to get nervous. I had to leave Jeri to go into transition to pump up my tires, drop my special needs bags, and get everything prepped. This is when I freaked out. I got to the bike and didn’t know what to do. I had the sudden urge to turn around and get Jeri and leave. I didn’t have to do this. I didn’t want to do this. Everyone was talking about how cold the water was. Everyone was nervously fidgeting around. I didn’t know what to do. Time for another little pep talk. “Anne…chill! Get in the water, swim all you can, and if you want to stop, you stop! Do what you can. No need to freak. You’ve done this before. Now start with your gear bags.” It worked. I got everything set and ran back to Jeri to hang out with her. I ran into Scott and Macca and got a big hug and a picture from them. That was great! I also saw Bob and Heidi and got huge hugs from them. Hugs always make things better, especially from great supportive friends! I was feeling nervous, but much better.

Then it was time to suit up and head to the swim start. NO….I’M NOT READY! Everyone had a full wetsuit. I had a sleeveless. Everyone was talking about the cold water. Some people even had squid lids on. Could it be that cold? Triathletes are NOTORIOUS for whining about stuff (sorry guys, but it’s TRUE!) so I wanted to believe that it wouldn’t be as bad as they were saying, but I still put off getting into the water until the last minute. It was a mass start, and I was pleased as punch to be at the very back of the great spashing, kicking mass of swimmers.

I hopped in at 6:56. 4 minutes until the gun. It was chilly. My hands and feet soon got a little numb, but once I was swimming, it was actually quite pleasant.

2.5 miles of swimming is a long way, but I knew there were no sharks, alligators or other scary stuff in the water, and the sun was coming up and it was very pretty. I settled in and swam and actually had a very nice, uneventful swim. Got elbowed once, and took on a mouthful of water a few times as I swam over and around people, but generally it was a very pleasant swim. I knew this was going to be the easy part.

Out of the water, and on to one of my favorite parts of ironman….the wetsuit stripping! My first ironman, I wasn’t aware of this practice so it took me by surprise, but I loved it! 2 volunteers work together as a wetsuit SWAT team. Unzip HUT HUT HUT, pull down top HUT HUT HUT seat the athlete HUT HUT HUT and WHIP IT OFF! WHEEEEE! It’s really fun, and almost worth doing 140.6 just to have it done to you! And the volunteers are always so friendly! So I ran up to 2 volunteers and said “Are you my strippers?” and they said “Yup, do you have your dollar?” Love it! Nothing like a little humor after a 1 hour and 40 minute swim! So I grab my suit and my gear bag and head into the transition tent.

The volunteers in the transition tent are equally wonderful. They’ll do anything and everything for you. They’ll do things you didn’t even quite realize you needed done! Anticipating needs is the quality of a phenomenal volunteer and they all had it! Now, after spending an hour and a half in the horizontal swimming position, it takes a little while to get your head back! I was right on schedule with my race plan, so I knew I could take all the time I needed in transition to relax, eat (remember that Totino’s pizza? Yes, I ate the whole thing!) sunscreen and lube up, dry off, get changed and head out. It’s hard to not get caught up in the HURRY HURRY of race mentality, but I kept reminding myself that I had plenty of time, and relaxed. It was fun to look around and take in the whole scene. I’m glad I did! Enriches the memories and the experience.

Finally, I was off for the bike. The course is a 37 mile 3 loop out and back course with the first half of the loop basically uphill and the second half basically downhill. Heidi told me about her ride of the loop when I saw her the day before, so I knew that the way out would seem long, so I settled in and rode. The first 5 miles was through Tempe, then the next 13 went out into the desert. I knew that my parents were at the aid station at mile 13, so I’d see them a bunch of times during the bike. I also had my eating plan set to stop at the turn around and the end of the loop to eat something.

The fun and the horror of the 3 loops is that all the athletes, pros and slows were all mixed together on whatever loop of the bike at the same time. It was fun to get passed by Leanda Cave and Sam McGlone and all the big name fasties in the triathlon world. I even saw Under Armour sponsored pro triathlete Jesse Vondracek and was sure to cheer for him when I could. Rudy was also out there, and I saw him right before the turn around on the first loop. He was on his way back, several miles in front of me.

The first loop was great! I saw my parents, ate my roast beef sandwich at the turn around, and FLEW down the hill. The wind was in my face on the way up, which wasn’t so fun, but on the way down, it was a blast. The problem was, while I thought I was flying, the pros and elites would be buzzing by me like I was standing still. I guess gravity pulls harder on them! Anyway, I made it to the turn around, and snuck up on Jeri! She hadn’t seen me coming, so I rode up, stopped and asked if she’d seen someone named Jeri Kremer! We laughed and I chilled for a minute. I was right on schedule and was feeling good. Jeri suggested I push it a little on the second loop so I could bank some time. So I headed out for loop 2.

The pros and elites were finishing up their third loop and I realized that loop 3 was going to get pretty lonely. I stopped on the way up to add a little more sunscreen to my face and shoulders. Saw my parents again, saw Rudy again in a similar spot (he was making great time!) and enjoyed the fact that the wind wasn’t in my face any more going up the hill, so I could go a little faster. I snacked on doritoes on the way up the hill, looking forward to the half way point when I could eat my ramen at the bike special needs area. I sat and joked with the volunteers for a while, then headed out .

When I got back to start the third loop, I snuck up on Jeri AGAIN! She was so pissed. “HOW DID WE MISS YOU???” She felt like she wasn’t doing her job, but I thought it was hilarious! Becky had joined her too at this point, so more hugs, more food, and I was off again. I saw Bob and Heidi and Rudy’s trainer and they said he was right in front of me and to cheer him on!! Jeri and I talked about the cut offs, as I was about an hour and a half from the first cut off. Plenty of time, but I needed to keep moving. At about mile 10 of the third loop (mile 84 I guess) I saw Rudy. He looked tired and was riding pretty slow, but he was determined. I cheered a lot, told him he could do it, and pushed on. I passed my parents again, right after their volunteering shift was over. I stopped and hugged them, and met the ring leader of their very entertaining aid station. It had a sports theme, and he was dressed as a referee. Very cute! I told them to cheer for Rudy, who was right behind me, and pushed on again. I got to the final turn around with over a half hour to spare. I was a little worried about Rudy, but sure enough, within a mile of leaving the aid station at the turn around, here comes Rudy, with plenty of time to spare! I cheered really loud, and kept cheering internally. He’s amazing!!

So I made it into transition. Fshew. That wasn’t so bad! Just a marathon to go! I chilled, changed, ate a baked potato (the whole thing) and relaxed for a minute. At one point, a volunteer ran in and told me that Rudy had made it and just entered transition. (I had on my CAF tri jersey, the same one Rudy had on, so she made a connection. I was glad she did and thrilled to hear that he made it! YEssssss!) Finally the volunteers kicked me out, and made me start the run.

The run was 3 8.7 mile loops in a figure 8 formation, so you went through the general transition area twice per loop which was cool. I had about 7 hours to finish the run. This would be plenty! I could walk it if I wanted. So I trugged out of the transition and started running. About ½ mile later, Rudy came FLYING by me. He had to be running an 8 minute mile. He was COOKIN! It was like he was on new legs….well, actually he was!  He flew by and took off. This gave me a huge boost of energy but I certainly was not running an 8 minute mile!

The sun went down, and I kept moving forward. The aid stations were fantastic! As with all the other volunteers I’d encountered all day, they were friendly, energetic, loud and gave me everything I needed. My stomach wasn’t interested in much more food, so I was drinking coke and drinking broth. Warm broth at mile 130 is an amazing thing!! Coke and broth is a strange taste combo, but it worked wonders for me.

Jeri and Becky were cheering from the bridge, so I looked forward to seeing them there. Mom and dad had made it back to the transition area from their aid station, and were cheering from there, so it was great to see them as well. At one point, mom told me they’d talked to Jim and Nicki, and Gemma and Keira had told me “GOOD LUCK!” (these are my 20 month and 3 year old nieces) I got a little choked up at that point! It was fun to think about those sweet little clean faces while I was sweaty and tired and dirty.

I ran for a minute and walked for 2 for pretty much the whole marathon. It was dark and pretty uneventful, which is just how you want it. I felt good, kept moving, and the next thing I knew, I was on the last lap!

II caught up with Rudy on the second lap of the marathon, and about half way through the last lap, he ran by me again, and I didn’t see him again other than hearing some really loud cheering at the finish line about 5 minutes before I finished. He’d done it. He’d completed the race. Now it was time for me to.

I’d learned that the pros always take a minute to clean up before they win the race. They rezip their top, straighten their hat, throw away anything they had hanging out in their pockets and generally looked nice for their finishing photo. If it’s good enough for the world champion, it’s good enough for me! About ¼ mile from the finish, I straightened up, and kicked it in. Let’s get this over with.

The crowd was awesome. They were so loud and the lights were bright! Such a contrast to the miles and miles in the dark that I had just completed. I sprinted in, and saw Mike Riley. He is amazing! It was 16 hours and 16 minutes after the race had started. He’d been announcing finishers for 7 hours, and he was as energetic as ever. Waving his towel and yelling for me! FOR ME! “ANNE BONNEY, YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!!!!!” Hell yeah! HELL YEAH! (I’m getting excited as I type!) I see Jeri and Becky and my parents yelling and cheering! I slap hands, I raise my arms, and I finish! I hug my friend Eric Gilsenan, a race announcer and friend of mine who I saw at 4 different races this year. I hug my friends, I hug my parents. I’m sobbing a little, laughing and just glad to be done.

Then I was tired. I wanted to leave. Forget basking in the finish line glow. Forget looking for my other friends who were there. I just wanted to sit down and be on the way to bed! Jeri and I headed to the car. They’d already loaded up my bike and all my bags, so all the business was taken care of. It was GREAT! We got to the car, already starting to get excited for our next adventure…..we were SKY DIVING the next day! YAHOO! I was so excited.

We got back to the car. I turned on my blackberry to texts and e-mails from friends wishing me luck and asking for results, and 1 e-mail that I didn’t want to see.

“Dear Anne

We regret to tell you that our plane is under maintenance, and we will be unable to take you on your scheduled dive tomorrow morning. Please give us a call to reschedule. We have openings on Friday if that will work.

We apologize for the inconvenience

Phoenix Area Skydiving”

Well that stinks! Oh well. It meant that we didn’t have to get up at any time and rush out of the condo in the morning. This turned out to be nice, and we chilled and cleaned and relaxed all morning. We finally headed back to Tucson around 1pm.

What an amazing trip. Such fun with great friends and family and a great accomplishment. I think I'll take a little break for a while!

A Vegas night!

I arrived in Vegas at about 8pm. By the time I got my car and got checked in to the hotel, it was around 9 and I was pretty hungry. I decided to go down to Nobu at the Hard Rock for some sushi. (you know how I feel about sushi, and the Hard Rock is a great place to find a good time.) I had a delicious meal, and was joined about half way through my hamachi sashimi by a stunning looking older man. Tom and I chatted and laughed as I finished my dinner, and a few more drinks, after which we decided to go to the pool side night club there in the hotel, Rehab. That place is nuts! I’d never actually been there before but had heard rumors. It was all the beautiful people with their after-market breasts and their scant designer clothing and trashy hooker shoes. Thankfully, I had my lucky skirt on. You always look hot in your lucky skirt. It’s the rule! We danced and drank and yelled over the music and danced more. At one point, we ran into Jeremy Piven…..literally! He spilled his drink all over my shirt. This turned into fountains of apologies and he bought us drinks and invited us to hang out in his VIP area and all that. We hung there for a while, but agreed that we felt like everyone was looking at us rif raf, and after about a half hour in the VIP area drinking their expensive drinks and laughing with our heads thrown back, we left. The people watching was great, and Tom was turning out to be a really fun guy.

Around 1:30 or so, I decided it was time to GAMBLE! We went out in the casino and played some roulette, and after uncharacteristically plunking $200 on the table, I walked away with over $1000! We were “that table” that you see in the movies with everyone laughing and screaming with joy. The table was hot. (I say that like I know anything about gambling or have much experience with it. I never gamble! It was sooooo fun!) Once I hit $1000 I decided to cash in and head over to see the Bellagio fountains.

2 things I have been deeply saddened to learn on 2 occasions late at night in Vegas. 1.) some of the bars in Vegas actually CLOSE (I learned this a few years ago) and 2.) the Bellagio fountains don’t do their little show at 4 in the morning. WTF?? I was in a lighthearted, spontaneous and highly drunken state, and when I spotted the maintenance ladder down into the fountain pool, I got a wonderful idea. Let’s SWIM! Tom apparently wasn’t much of a swimmer, so he just watched, and turned out to be a total tool as he scurried away when hotel security came to stop me from splashing around in the fountain pretending to be one of the dancing jets. Well, there wasn’t a sign saying “no swimming” or “no wading” or anything, and apparently that was enough of an argument to stop them from calling the police. It was a bit of a cold shivery buzz kill sitting in the security office at the Bellagio, so once they let me go and asked me not to come back to their nice little hotel, I went back to my hotel and ended the night.

Only in Vegas baby…only in Vegas! At least I didn’t wake up with Mike Tyson’s tiger in my bathroom! And now I have to go to a meeting, and pretend that my head doesn’t feel like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade isn’t going through it.

It was worth it! And later, I will go shopping!!!

(Well, as I said in my blog title....only some of it is true! I was actually in bed reading my book by 10pm, but the story sure was fun to write!)

Time to go home.

4am, up and at ‘em. I had the typical post race/early flight interrupted night’s sleep, but managed to get a few good winks in. Headed to the train, got on the bus and to the airport without incident. Bought my last minute food souvenirs (no, not bread….gummi bears and Toblerone!) and boarded my flight to Brussels. I stayed awake during the entire 3 legs of the trip, knowing that this would afford me a very good night’s sleep when I got home, hopefully putting me in a good position with the time zones before heading 3 more hours west to Vegas the next day. I had about 4 hours in the Chicago airport that turned in to 3 by the time I got through customs and passport control and got my bag rechecked. I took advantage of the in-terminal wifi and went through all my work e-mails, making me feel better about only having 4 hours in the office the next day.

I got home at 9pm, tired but satisfied. It had been a fantastic trip. Oh, did I mention that I e-mailed my friend Corey from the Chicago airport? He and his family are moving to Mumbai and they just happen to have a marathon in January….. Continent #5…coming up!

RACE DAY! Berlin Marathon, Continent #4

The race started at 9am. How civilized! The start was a block or 2 up from Potsdamer Platz, so we met at around 7:15 and walked over. We took a few pictures on the way up to the start. Matt and Adriana were actually not running, but there to support some of the runners who run for High Cloud, the charitable organization that Matt and Adriana are the founders of. There were 40,000 runners in this race, so by the time we got to the Platz, there was a herd heading towards the Brandenburg Gate and the starting area. That’s one of the good parts about big races, there’s no question about where to go!

We split ways and I went into the runner’s area. It was very well organized, with signage telling you where to check your bags, and where to go for each corral. There were TONS of people there, and there was a lot of spandex! Of course, the obligatory porto-potty line, people warming up, all manners of stretching and all the pre-race energy you find anywhere else! I could have been anywhere in the world at that moment, felt right at home. The morning was warming up nicely, so I got all situated and checked my bag, and headed to my start coral, way in the back! The good thing about a huge race like this is that no matter where you are in the pack, when there are 40,000 runners assembled with a singular goal, the energy is there. Everyone is very excited.

With the starting gun, they released a huge bunch of red balloons. Now keep in mind that I’m probably 30,000 people from the actual starting line, so they were pretty far away, and I had about 20 minutes to watch them drift and swirl as the media helicopters flew in circles around the start. Finally, we reached the starting line and we started to run. We’re off.

The course was flat as that crepe I ate the day before. (YUM!) and it went through the city, by all the great sights. What a beautiful city. There were TONS of bands and drum groups. The bands were mostly jazz 4 to 6-somes with brass, guitar and drums. Some were really swinging, and some were very much on the beat and with the sheet music and very German. It was really fun though. I’ve always been a huge fan of the drum groups, and these were absolutely awesome. A lot more women drummers than I would have expected, probably half and half, and the women were generally older. It was pretty cool! The German version of “Towanda” from Fried Green Tomatoes. I love the energy that comes out of those drum groups, and there were probably no fewer than 18 in the 26 miles of the race. There were definitely more than 1 band or drum crew per mile. Sometimes your ears just finished hearing one group and you’d start hearing the next. It was very entertaining.

There were fewer water stops than I am used to, but it wasn’t bad. A lot of people were wearing water belts. They clearly had read the course map. (oops….note to self!) They grew more frequent as the miles wore on, so that was good, and again, it really wasn’t a problem at all. I just grabbed 2 cups at each stop. They had a German electrolyte beverage that after I tasted at the expo I decided to forgo during the race. Nothing new on race day! I had my e-tabs anyway, so I was set.
The course was marked in kilometers of course, and while counting down kilometers is more fun because they’re more frequent, there’s more of them, so it seems to take longer , though they sped by in the end, which was nice. 2 other European differences I noticed, there weren’t as many female runners out there with us, and there was a LOT more compression gear than you see in the US. WOW! Early in the race I was passed by a guy I named “SCUBA Steve”; a very lean older gent dressed in head to toe black compression gear with yellow stitching. He really looked like he was in a wetsuit, and it made me laugh to call him SCUBA Steve. Of course I took his picture! It made me laugh even more when I passed him at 35K!

So the race was great. I forgot how sticky the aid stations at 40,000 person marathons get. At the end they started handing out SpongeBob Squarepants sponges that people could use to cool themselves as it was pretty hot. I sponged, then grabbed 3 for gifts for a few people I know! Weird yet heartfelt gift! I shoved them in my Spibelt, and ran on. (if you don’t have a Spibelt yet, they rock!) Finally, I got to 41K and I could see the Brandenburg Gate. I picked up the pace and zoomed past probably 100 people in the last kilometer. Some people say I should use up that juice on the course. I say, finish with flair! Running through the Gate was pretty cool! This was the 20th anniversary of the first time the marathon was run through the gate after the reunification of Berlin and after seeing Checkpoint Charlie and the wall and all that historical stuff the day before, it felt really cool and meaningful.

Then I spotted the finish line, and that became more meaningful! I jetted across the line, and was very happy to stop. The finish was well organized, and I got my medal (with the face of the 2008 World Record holder and Berlin Marathon winner on it….coincidentally he had won that day too!) and my little food bag (with water, and 2 delicious little chocolate buns. Man I love the bread in Germany!) and headed to get my checked bag. I found a spot on the grass to sit and chill for a few minutes. I mopped off my salty sweaty face, changed my shirt, ate my buns (did I mention how much I love German bread?) and watched as no fewer than 4 people unabashedly disrobed in some fashion of another. (Grandma took off her sports bra right there, and Klaus removed his sweaty running shorts…..and his drawers! I saw 2 kinds of buns that day and it made me giggle! We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto!)
After a nice little rest and quite a show, I felt ready to head back to the hotel, get cleaned up and resume my touring. I walked back to the gate, and had a very nice German man take my picture with it (one of the pitfalls of traveling alone is that you either strain your arm from all the self portraits, or you have to struggle through the pantomime of “Will you please take my picture” while trying to convey your creative vision for the shot.) I was planning to walk back to the hotel, but as soon as I walked through the gate, realized that I had no idea which way to go, no map with me, and the direction I would have guessed to go was blocked by the race course. Bing….U-bahn station!! Berlin’s fabulous public transportation system to the rescue! Well, as brilliant of an idea as it was, many others had it too. The station was PACKED and the trains were on a Sunday schedule, so we stood there sweaty and tired and sore and uncomfortable for about 17 hours. (probably on 20 minutes, but it sure felt longer!) Luckily, I had stashed my second chocolate bun from my post-race food bag in my backpack, so I pulled it out and escaped into a little puff of German joy! (did I mention how much I love German bread??) Finally the train came, but I wasn’t one of the ones who made it on, so I waited for the next train. Mercifully, the station didn’t fill up quite as much this time, and the second train was very close behind, and I went back to the hotel.

I touched base with Adriana and Matt, hopped in the shower and got cleaned up and out we went. There are several boat tours in the rivers that run through the city. We grabbed a quick post-race sushi meal, and found our boat. It was a lovely float down the river, past the sights and of course, they served beer! The tour was a perfect 1 hour long. When we got off, we decided to head over to the chocolate store that they told me about earlier. Aside from the bread (I love German bread!), the German’s make great chocolate, and aside from the Nutella (which is a food group all its own) I hadn’t had anything chocolate at all (aside from the post-race buns….from my food bag.)

On the way, we passed the Jewish war memorial which I’d seen in passing on the way to the race that morning and wondered about. Matt and Adriana had gotten the scoop about it during the day. It’s a huge grouping of coffin like rectangular cement blocks, arranged in rows with slightly unevenly tilted tops and sides, all different heights, made to symbolize the bodies that were piled up in the burial areas during the Holocaust. From the street, it looks like they’re all about 2-3 feet high and straight across, but when you walk between them, the floor slopes up and down to a point where they’re up to 12+ feet high making you feel a little claustrophobic, like what I imagine you’d feel like if you were lost in rows of corn, but everywhere you look, there was a way out, a symbol of hope in the dark deep scariness perhaps. Very creepy and poignant and a good place for quiet contemplation of the catastrophic mistakes made in history. It afforded a very interesting view from all sorts of different angles and was a very cool memorial.nce we left that, we set our sights back on the chocolate shop, which we realized was a bit farther away than I originally though, and then realized that it was probably not going to be open at 7pm on a Sunday. We settled for some photographic silliness with a huge bear in a store front, and another banana and nutella crepe (I’m going to get myself a crepe maker and a subscription to the Nutella of the month club. Man they’re good!) and of course, a beer! We sat and chatted and laughed as the sun set on a gorgeous night that was ending a beautiful day. We walked back to the hotel, I packed, and set my alarms for my 4am wake up, and hit the sack.

Touring Berlin

So I had my packet, I knew where the race start was (and when!) so I was free to play all day. I decided to kick off the day with a double-decker bus tour around the city. They have these buses that stop at 15 different places that you can jump on or off whenever you want. I picked a few places I wanted to stop and had my plan. Well, because of street closures for the marathon the next day, they were ending the tour at 2, so I abbreviated my plan, and planned to go back after 2 and hit the other sites via U-bahn. Easy enough! I hopped on at 10, happy that the bus tour started at a church that I wanted to see and mall phantasmagoria place that several people said I couldn’t miss (Ka De We…..seriously, don’t miss it…but I’ll get back to that in a sec.) and started my tour. The bus is equipped with headphones and you can get the audio tour in 5 different languages. It was great! I rode for a few stops, enjoying the open air top deck of the bus, and the sights, and hopped off at one of the art museums that I wanted to see. I strolled around with the free audio tour at the museum and enjoyed some seriously cool artwork, including a bunch of Rembrandt stuff. (my mom always took us to the art museums when we were little, and being an art history major, she knew all the artists and we’d ooooohh and ahhhh at the ones she seemed particularly impressed with. Well, I didn’t have the external cues this time, so I gauged importance by whether it had a little audio tour number by it or not! (and if I liked it!) It was a gorgeous gallery, with some really great art.

At about noon, I hopped back on the bus. The last stop (15) was a palace that I read was pretty neat, so I decided to ride around to the palace (about an hour and a half ride) do the palace, then head back to hit the Jewish museum and a few other places I wanted to go to. We rode by a place where there is still a large section of the wall standing, and checkpoint Charlie, and a bunch of other reminders of what this city used to be. Fascinating and scary and wonderful to see how far it’s come. It really is a beautifully modern and wonderfully clean and positive city. We rode along the river and saw the boat tours (on the plan for after the marathon) and all the outdoor cafes with lounge chairs on the shore. Beautiful!

I got to the flea market at stop 14 and decided to change the plan. The palace was going to be a lot of sightseeing, and I might not get to some of the other stuff that I wanted to see more, AND stop 14 was at a cool outdoor flea market that looked like too much fun, so I jumped off the bus and found the wildest collection of crazy crap you’ve ever seen on sale in the middle of a city anywhere. There were several guys who had doorhandles. Tons and tons of doorhandles on their table and nothing else. There were knife, fork and spoon guys. Vendors with furs and furnature. Old toys, china, dusty old jewelry, and generally a whole bunch of crap that was really fun to poke around.

Once I was bored with that, I grabbed a bread with cheese and a bottle of water, and wandered through the Tiergarten, the largest public park in the city, with tons of paths and lakes and lovely trees. It’s the central park of Berlin. I got totally lost, but didn’t really care and finally figured out where I was, and wandered back to the place where the tour had started, the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche (church) and SHOPPING! But first, I had to sample some more of the local cuisine and sit on the steps of the church and enjoy my Nutella and bannanen crepe. OH MY GOD I’m in HEAVEN! Banana is good for potassium for race prep….crepe is carbs, right? And Nutella is just good for the soul! It was great.

The old part of the church is totally in ruins. Half of the top is busted off, the stone is all broken but there is still a main area on the ground floor that you can tour around, read about the place, and the ceiling and floor mosaic are beautiful! Gold and intricate. Gorgeous. The new part is in stark contrast on the outside. They are a completely different look, but the new part is so cool! It looks like a high-rise apartment building from the outside, with teeny tiny windows going all the way up, with a little gold cross at the top BUT when you go inside, you realize that the windows are all a deep blue, and when you’re in the actual worship hall, everything is a deep blue, like you’re underwater. It was REALLY really cool! That was my kind of church!

After that, it was time to shop! I’d picked up an adorable black hat the day before while poking around in the shops at Alexander Platz. I was in search of a cool jacket, or scarves. Well, I found an adorable argyle sweater, but no jacket. Oh well, I’ll just have to go shopping some more at home!

Then to the famous Ka De We food floor. Someone said it was like Dean and Deluca and crack. Someone else said it was like nothing you’d ever seen before. Well….they were right! The 7th floor of this huge department store was all food. High end grocery store food, prepared foods, stop and eat there foods. Moet had a little bar area. There was seafood, grille, meats, asian, wurst (of course!) an egg stand, enough cheese to stop up the whole…well, you know. They had everything! I of course had asian because when in Ro….whatever! I love Asian food, and had already had my typical Berlin dinner. Plus, one of the things I read is that Berliners love all kinds of ethnic foods, and Italian and Asian restaurants were more plentiful than traditional German restaurants. So I had a lovely little dim sum plate and a Tiger beer that went down very smoothly….so much so, that I had another. Then it was time to move on, but I must say, if you’re ever in Berlin, go to this place. It was insane.

So, hopped back on the U-bahn, and off to Checkpoint Charlie and the Jewish museum. Checkpoint Charlie was a famous “border” crossing area between West and East Germany. The little guard shack and signs were all still there, and a big display talking about the wall and East and West Germany and all that. Oh, and from the sublime to the ridiculous, there was a guy standing by this display giving out flyers to the Curry Wurst museum which was right around the corner. You’ve got to be kidding me! I popped over, but it was 11 Euro to get in. Seriously? $15 to see a sausage museum? Well, the outside was nice. Then I headed through Checkpoint Charlie, and down to the Jewish Museum.

Who knew it was Rosh a Shanna? And of course they’re closed on Jewish holidays. I was bummed because this is supposed to be a really neat museum with some very poignant use of space and structure. Well, the outside was cool. I’ll hit it next time.

At this point it was about 6:30, and I was ready to get off my feet, after all, I had a marathon to run the next day. By the map, I was a close hop skip and a jump back to the hotel, so I set off again to wander my way back to the hotel. I suddenly found myself way off from where I thought I was, but a few minutes later I was back on track, and walked through some very nice neighborhoods along the way. Also saw where someone had graffiti’d “tomato”. Now what do you suppose would possess someone to graffiti “tomato”?? And a fun playground that I’m sure my nieces would love.Back to the hotel, laid down for a nap, and then went down to the outside courtyard in the hotel for a nice pre-race dinner (and beer!) I had some of the best tomato soup I’ve ever had in my life, and snacked on a flambé torte or something like that. It’s a pizza basically. Mind had crème fresche, chicken, corn and cheese. It was delicious and enough for an army! I sat outside wrapped in the blanket they had on each chair (nice touch as the evenings were a bit chilly) and read my book, enjoyed my beer and the quiet. Ahhhhhhh.

Then Matt and Adriana got back from Prague, we caught up for a few minutes, made plans for the next day and headed off to bed.

First day in Berlin!

17 hours and 2 stops later, I got to Berlin. (I got a great price on the ticket, but had to stop in New York and Brussels before getting there. All part of the adventure.) I had slept on the overnight flight from NY to Brussels (I’m blessed with the ability to sleep on planes) and read my tour guide book on the Brussels to Berlin flight, so by the time I arrived at Tagel airport, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on the city, the sights I wanted to see, and how to get around. I’d checked the website for the hotel and it said the Potsdamer Platz U-bahn was right next to the hotel. (that’s Germany for subway!) I would take a bus to the zoo U stop, then pop over to Potsdamer and viola, I would be there.
I was very pleased with myself that I had managed to pack everything in a carry-on bag. With 2 connections, I wanted to be sure I carried my running shoes and gear with me in case they got lost, so I took my expandable roll-a-board (did you know it’s called a roll-a-board, not a roller board??) and jammed it full enough that it would fit in the overhead, but still leave expandable room for souvenirs!
So I got to the airport, through passport control and customs and found the bus and the subway. It was so easy! I was very excited, but a little nervous about this trip. It was my first overseas trip by myself. I had traveled a ton with friends, co-workers and family overseas, but this one was by myself mostly. I had friends who were also going to be there for the race, but they had other plans for most of the time there, and “meeting up” always turns out to be less easy than it sounds when you’re planning. I was excited though. I could totally work on my schedule, do the things that I wanted to do, eat, sleep, tour, play, whatever totally on my own whim. This was good, and Berlin turned out to be the PERFECT city to do it in.
I arrived in Potsdamer Platz like a recent college grad arriving in the big city. It’s a huge square with big buildings and lots of cars and lots of streets going off of it. I turned around and around taking it all in, and wondering what the heck street I was supposed to go down. That’s ok, I’d looked it all up online on the hotel website, and I was good to go. Luckenwalder Strasse. I’m good. I went around the platz once, and didn’t see it, but I did get a glimpse of several chunks of “the wall”. I had read that there are pieces of it all over, as a reminder of what the city used to be like. There was some really cool graffiti on the pieces in the platz there. I looked on the little map in my tour book, and didn’t see it. Finally I went into the Ritz Carlton on the square and asked the Concierge. He was very helpful, and showed me where it was….about a mile away. Now I was REALLY glad I’d packed in a small rolling bag! That’s ok. It was a gorgeous day, a beautiful city, and I had nowhere to be in any sort of hurry.

I meandered down the street by a lovely grassy area outside some office and residential buildings. Down the street past some construction (Berlin is ever growing and improving!) and to the very pretty river. Across and down and I’m getting tired, AND I’ve passed 2 of the U-bahn stations that I actually went by while on the train headed to Potsdamer Platz. Ok, just a little annoyed at this point (tired after 17 hours of traveling, and dragging a bag down charming yet not particularly smooth sidewalks!) and it wasn’t looking right, but I kept going. I finally found Luckenwalder Strasse, and low and behold, with bright and wild murel on the wall was my hotel. It turned out to be a lovely hotel right across the street from a different U-bahn station, which turned out to be very convenient (once I knew which one to go to. Grrrrr.)

Checked in without incident, and my first thought upon entering my room was, “it’s someone’s job to design carpet patterns…..I think this designer had a bad day!”
Other than the wild carpet, the room was lovely. I was all sweaty, but I wanted to get to the expo to get my stuff in case for some reason I had to go the next day, and/or so it freed up the whole next day for touring. I changed and headed right out the door for the expo. I was doing the jet lag reduction strategy I learned from Sandy the astronaut that I went to Iraq with. You stay up through the night until it’s time to go to bed in the new place, then you’re so exhausted that you fall right to sleep and sha-ZAM, you’re acclimated!
The expo was being held in the old airport. I thought this was a fascinating and wonderful idea, and couldn’t wait to see how they did it. Unburdened by my luggage, I decided to continue my walk. It looked like another mile or so to the airport, and ended up being a very nice walk. Tons of people on bikes, and great little shops and cafes. Really a nice town.

I got to the expo and sure enough, it was in an airport. Conveyors, and ticket counters all transformed into spots for signage and information booths, etc. On to the terminals and out into the hangar where the expo was actually being held.
The Berlin Marathon expo shares with a rollerblade marathon expo/demonstration area, so it was HUGE! There was the covered outdoor area with a huge beergarten and eating area, demonstration area for skates and bmx type bikes, then the typical marathon expo crap. The difference was all the international marathon booths that there were. Oh the ideas. My list of “must-do” marathons just doubled!
I got my packet, then moved on to my first beer! I was a happy camper! Then before long, my first beer was gone and I was sad. It was time to head back to the hotel, drop my stuff and go see what this city was all about, so I hopped on the U-bahn from the airport (a lovely walk, but I wanted to get on with it) and dropped my stuff at the hotel.

Then off to Alexander Platz and the TV tower. My tour book had recommended this as a great place to get a top notch view of Berlin from the highest point in Europe actually. It was very cool! The platz was huge, with lots of cafes and shops, and a mall with a big fountain and courtyard with a few groups of street performers. I bought my ticket to go up in the tower, but had to wait about 45 minutes until it was my turn. No problem, I’ll go have another beer! I found a charming little place that boasted lots of wursts and biers on the chalkboard on the sidewalk. PERFECT! I went in, sat down and ordered a Berlin specialty, Currywurst and a big Berliner beer. (I know, curry wurst sounds disgusting, but when in Rome….) It was actually delicious, and accompanied by some traditional sauerkraut and kartoffelsalat. (potato salad) Yum! The bier was also alarmingly large, and when I finished and headed back to the tower to head up, I was definitely feeling good. (though one more and I probably would have made Alexander Platz my sleeping area for the night, which would have been fine because there’s plenty of green space all over. I could have found my own little patch of grass, curled up and taken a nap, but no, there was a city to see.)

I got in line and headed up. Very organized, very technological and modern and very German! The tower in 208.95 meters high or something. The elevator goes up very quickly, earpoppinly fast in fact. It was pretty cool. Then it dumped you out into the top silver bubble thing where you could walk around and get a 360 degree view of the city. I walked all around 2-3 times (passing up the temptation of settling on the side with the cocktail lounge for a drink) and checked everything out. There were some really neat rooftops (weird? I know!) where they had grass and neat hang out areas. You could also see the wind farms off in the distance, and the river was beautiful with the late afternoon sun glinting off it. You could also get a real sense of the old vs. new architecture in Berlin. There are some ancient elaborate buildings right next to totally modern and funky ones. Really fun to look around.
Once I had finished there, I went down and went in the shops for a bit. I had tried to get in touch with my friends, but wasn’t hearing back from them, so I figured they were doing their own thing, and besides, I was pretty tired, and wasn’t sure I was up for chasing anyone around anyway, so I headed back to the hotel, took a shower and got organized in the room and ready for bed. Matt and Adriana did finally call around 8:30 from the hotel. They were headed to Prague at 5:30 on the train the next morning and weren’t going to get home until 9:30 or so, so I said I would see them the next evening and went to bed. Needless to say, I slept like a rock, very pleased at how quickly I’d gotten comfortable running all around the city, eating and drinking and touring. I’m a regular grown up!

Let's go to GERMANY!

I ran around in a flurry getting things done before my trip. Lots of work items to finish up, packing, cleaning up the house, and checking and double checking my packing to be sure I had everything. At 11am I sped out the door, had to drop by the office, grab something, go to the bank for a handful of cash, then off to the airport. I got there in plenty of time to get to the gate and chill, and send a bunch of e-mails reminding people that I was going to Germany! I was very excited.

Photos from the ET midnight marathon

If you'd like to see photos from my recent NV adventure,click here.

And no comments about how flattering the green suit is. No you can't borrow it. Get your own!!

ET Midnight Marathon

My friend Mary called me a few months ago and said she was going out to Nevada to do the ET Midnight Marathon with a bunch of her running friends. I have wanted to do this race ever since I first heard about it, so I jumped at the chance and signed up. I then started my normal recruiting process. The more the merrier, right? Two of my unsuspecting co-workers, Chris and Craig decided they wanted to come out and run this crazy race with us. They’re experienced runners, but still spent the next few months asking “What have you talked me into?” Each time, I just smiled.

The name of the race gives you a hint of the theme of the event. It’s run on the Extraterrestrial Highway at Area 51 which is in the middle of nowhere about 2 hours outside of Las Vegas. Area 51 is speculated to be the hotbed of alien activity here on earth, and there’s a government installation there that is reportedly, but not officially the main HQ for all things related to “the visitors”. From what I could tell, there is nothing out there but cows, dirt and the mysterious black mailbox….that is actually white…which is where the event starts. There’s a 10K, a half and full marathon and a 51K, so this crazy experience has something for pretty much any runner. The race starts at midnight, because, of course, your chances of encountering alien life-forms increases dramatically at night. (at least that’s what I read in the latest issue of Star magazine.) Who would do this crazy race you ask? Well, in my years of running and working in the endurance sports industry I’ve learned that there is a niche group of runners that eat this kind of thing up. I just happen to be one of them. I call us “tourist runners”. They could be fast, slow, young, old, rich or poor, male or female. The one unifying characteristic is that they all love the experience. These are the people who run a marathon in Antarctica, who run the Bay to Breakers 12K in the buff (or crazy costume), and who forgo the drinking and debauchery that normally accompanies a trip to Vegas in order to be well rested for a long run in the middle of the night.

Mary and Bruce are two friends I met on my 2007 marathon excursion to Antarctica. Mary was ground zero for the viral spread of recruitment of the 11 runners who met in Vegas for this adventure. When they arrived in Vegas on Friday, they intended to run the half marathon. Five minutes after we sat down for our first beer in the hotel lobby bar that night, they had changed their distance of choice to the 51K. To hear them tell it, there was a lot of peer pressure involved, but I don’t recall even mentioning it. They just started thinking about the longer distance, and wanted to do it. They’d come all the way out here, they might as well eat the whole enchilada! I was very pleased with their decision because I wasn’t looking forward to running this race alone. I was planning to do the race in costume, so I was assured a lot of interesting comments and conversations along the way, but longer distance is a whole lot more fun with a friend.

We relaxed on Saturday, chilled at the pool, took a few naps and ate our big pre-race meal at lunch time. All day I kept reminding myself that we’d be starting at midnight and kept laughing at how odd this race experience was going to be. No pre-race Cheerios, no race first thing in the morning. The normal pre-race ritual was completely disrupted. We were entering alien territory…..literally! This is what I live for.


Packet pickup was well organized and quick. We left our hotel at 7:45pm to meet the busses for the 2+ hour bus ride out to the black mailbox (that’s white.) It was fun to watch people getting on the buses in their assorted alien themed accessories. Some had t-shirts, some had funny hats, and there were a lot of people with antennae-looking headbands with fun things at the ends. The energy on the bus was palpable and light hearted. People were obviously excited to be getting the journey underway.

We arrive at the black (white) mailbox around 10:50pm. There weren’t as many costumes as I expected, but the illumination from all the glow sticks could probably be seen from space! I really enjoy running at night because it’s so peaceful, but also because it looks really funny when all you can see is little glowing tubes in various shapes and places bouncing down the road.

The start was very well organized. Joyce (the race director) had explained everything very clearly in the pre-race e-mail and on the website, and everything went exactly as it had been laid out. The half marathon and the 10K started in a different place a little later than the full and 51K, so there was some very well choreographed loading and unloading of busses, and the transportation of bags to the finish line was seamless and simple for us runners. The volunteers were super friendly, and knew the answers to anything you needed to know. All that was left to stress about was the run.

We visited the porto-potties, filled up our water bottles and got excited for the race. Mary made some great outfits for Bruce and herself. They both had illuminite shirts that had a funky reflective pattern to them. Mary had a tutu with glow sticks all around the outside. Bruce had some silver reflective mesh I Dream of Genie looking pants with glow sticks all down the side. I of course had my full body green alien suit and my springy light-up eyeball antennae. We were quite a sight and posed for a lot of pictures.

Mary was feeling pretty crummy from the bus ride out, so she made the wise decision to jump down to the half marathon. Bruce and I made our game plan for the race; take it nice and slow, 5:1 run/walk, and laugh a lot. Craig and Chris had their own plans. We were ready to go. At about 10 minutes to midnight, we were ushered to the road. Joyce said a few thank yous and congratulations, and at midnight on the dot, yelled “GO”. We were off.

There’s not much to say about the actual race. The Extraterrestrial Highway is straight as can be, and there aren’t many (any?) turn offs, so no need for course marshals or directions along the way. The moon was very bright, but you still couldn’t see much of the scenery. The sky was huge and you could see millions of stars. We also saw lots of shooting stars too which was really cool. Something this city girl doesn’t get to enjoy very often. The first 13 miles is a hill; 1 long gradual incline from 4500ft to 5600 ft. Around mile 10 someone joked “come on guys, this is the last hill!” Three miles later, we started downhill, and did that for the next 13 miles. The uphill was so gradual that it really wasn’t too bad, but it did wear on you after 13 miles. I felt like a new woman from mile 13 to 16. The gradual downhill was fabulous!

The aid stations were about 3 miles apart, so we all had been told to bring water bottles. The aid stations were well lit and stocked with friendly and helpful volunteers. (and a few brightly colored blow-up aliens!) Around 2:30am, when I was starting to feel the effects of being up all night, one generous volunteer even gave me a small cup of his Pepsi which hit the spot. We reminded each other to hydrate, took our GU or Clif Bloks at the right times, and felt great the whole time! Bruce’s company was fantastic and we had a great time talking and laughing and cheering on the other runners.

We passed the finish line at the Little Ale’Inn at mile 20. (get it?….Alee-Inn?) The Inn serves as the finish line for the marathon, 51K and the half marathon(which started at our mile 7 at 12:30), the start and finish line for the 10K (not sure when that started) and the site of the free breakfast that all runners get when they’re done running. The full marathon proceeded past the Ale’Inn about 3 miles, then turned around and came back to the finish. We 51K-ers went an extra 6 before we turned back. Normally I hate passing the finish line mid-race, but for this race for whatever reason, it was ok. The little bit of cheering from the people who had already finished was really energizing, and we felt great setting out for the last 12 miles of the race.

Now that we were on the final out-and-back, we started passing runners going the opposite direction which I always enjoy. We cheered for each and every one and almost everyone seemed in very good shape, or at least good spirits. We saw Chris and Craig, and they were chugging along, on course to reach their goals, which they did! Chris finished his first marathon, and Craig ran the 51K under 5 hours and took 1st in his age group and 5th overall. The award he got for the age group win is really cute and unique; a granite plaque in the shape of Nevada with a hand painted alien and spaceship.

The sun started coming up around 5:30. Our surroundings turned out to be quite beautiful, with small desert brush and mountains all around. The sunrise was very colorful, and the moon stayed out for a while as well. It was a really cool experience that made us glad that we weren’t fast runners, so we could still be out here running when the sun came up. We also had fun speculating about what the folks in Vegas were doing at that moment. We were pretty sure we’d made the healthiest and most rewarding choice.

We finished in 6:38:17, a time we were very pleased with. Correction: Bruce finished in 6:38:17 and I officially finished 1 second later. 51 kilometers neck and neck, and he beat me in the end, but I still walked away with 2nd in my age group. (it was a small race!) We hugged, met up with Mary, Craig and Chris, rested, rinsed, had some breakfast, took some more pictures and caught the last bus back to civilization. The legs were pretty stiff and jumpy during the ride on the bus, but with the help of my Under Armour Recharge compression suit, I knew I was giving my muscles what they needed to recover from the run and the potentially damaging stationary 2 hours. I alternated between sleep and chatty endorphin-induced excitement and finally, we were back in Vegas.

We all agreed that we had a fantastic time. We were thrilled to have experienced this unusual and fun event together, and are already planning our next running adventure. Bay to Breakers in the buff anyone?? (Careful, I’m apparently pretty persuasive!)

Next up: the ET midnight marathon

The adventure continues!

On Friday evening at 7pm, I'll hop on a plane with my full body green frog suit (which will soon become an alien suit) to head to Vegas to meet some old buddies from the Ioffe (the ship we were on in Antarctica in 2007) to run the ET midnight marathon. I'm so excited about this! I've been wanting to do this race since I first heard about it. It's going to be great in many ways. Here are a few

- meeting up with old friends.
- I've recruited some friends from work to go as well.
- meeting up with these crazy friends in VEGAS!!
- running a marathon....correction, a 51K with them.
- running a 51K that starts at midnight!
- running a 51K that starts at some mysterious black mailbox at Area 51 in the middle of the desert in Nevada!

To recap, I'm dressing up in a silly costume to run a 51K with old friends in the middle of the desert where the highest number of alien sightings has taken place.

Seriously folks. This could be the adventure of a lifetime! Yes, I got to go to Iraq, and that was an unbelievable adventure, but getting abducted by aliens? SERIOUSLY! That would be something to write home about. I wonder how much it costs to mail a postcard from outerspace??!



(excuse the sweaty view....I was running a half marathon when this picture was taken!)

Pictures from the trip

Ok, I have come to the conclusion that I will probably never get around to uploading all the pictures nice and neatly within the blog where they belong. I've just got too much living to do! So, if you're interested in pictures, click here to go to my shutterfly album from the trip.


Enjoy!!

Warrior Tours reunion in San Francisco

A reunion already? HECK YES! When you meet such high quality people, you take any opportunity to hang out with them. Let me back up a little.

about 2 weeks ago, we were all sitting around during a sandstorm in some far off place, talking about the San Francisco Marathon. Robi and Bart are the hosts of the race. Christian all of a sudden pipes up that he wants to do the marathon. We all stop and look at him for a sec. Had he ever done a marathon before? No. Had he done any training? No! OK! Zach decides he's going to run too! Bart commits to helping him with preparation (as much as you can prepare for a marathon on 12 days notice!) and of course, I jump on board to run with them. It's what I do!

Unfortunately Zach had a ton of things going on in Minneapolis, so he had to cancel early in the week, but as the days approached, Chris got more and more excited. I was sending him little tips all week and trying to get him pumped up. I was pretty excited myself.

We all arrived in San Francisco, and met up at the expo on Saturday. Robi had his daughters filming Chris as he picked up his packet and walked the expo. I turn into a drooling idiot when you point a camera at me, so I tried to stay out of the way, but I'm afraid I may have gotten some camera time. Chris brought his gal-pal Val. (sorry...couldn't resist!) She was an absolutely joy. So we tripped around the expo, then went our separate ways to rest for the night.

We met up around 7:30 to head to dinner. We went to a great sushi joint and had a delicious dinner. We even enjoyed a little sake. What the heck, right? Fantastic dinner, good laughs, and hit the sack early.

The San Francisco marathon starts at 5:30am. The hotel we were staying in was right next to the starting line. I could only have been closer if I'd have slept on a park bench. This was great because we didn't have to get up too much before the start, but with a 5:30 start time, we still needed to get up early. We met in the lobby at 4:30 and headed to the start. It was the usual teeming mass of nervous skinny people, stretching and warming up, standing in the porto potty line, saying goodbye to loved ones, eating, drinking or just being nervous. Chris had been cool as a cucumber the entire week, but did admit to feeling a little nervous excitement once we hit the start.

We went up to the announcer's platform where Robi had started his trademark race announcing. He introduced Chris and let everyone know what he was doing and where we had just come back from. Before we knew it, the first wave of Elites was off. We hung out for a few minutes as the super fast folks streamed past. As the end of the second wave trickled through, we decided to go ahead and get started. It was a strange and anti-climactic start, but there was no time like the present. Let's get this show on the road.

We were off. It was chilly and foggy. Perfect for running. We ran the first 5 miles or so, at which point I decided we should start a 5:1 run/walk. Chris is fit, so I had no doubt he would finish, and over short distance he's pretty fast (finished our 5K at Al Asad at a 6:30 pace!) but he hadn't run more than 10 miles in the past year (at an 8 minute mile pace), so I knew he'd have to take it easy to make the full 26. I also know that I hadn't really trained, and 5:1 was a method I knew would get me to the finish line. I told him he could run on ahead if he wanted, but he agreed to stick with me at least to the half.

Over the Golden Gate Bridge (so pretty) and into Golden Gate Park. Past the Buffalo (who knew?!) and we hit the half way point. We were feeling great and the time was FLYING! We were having a blast talking and joking around. I could tell that he was feeling strong and that the 1 minute walk breaks were making him a little antsy. I told him again that he could go on ahead if he wanted, to ensure that he got the most out of his race experience. He said he'd stay with me until there was 10 to go, then maybe he'd push ahead.

On we ran, telling bad jokes and talking about life in general. We hit 16 and we were both starting to feel a little fatigue. Nothing bad or unusual for having run 16 miles on no training, just starting to feel it a little. "want to run ahead?" I asked as I sipped my beer at the Hash House Harrier's aid station. The answer was no. He was having a good time, and wanted to save his legs/body for the Mt Rainier climb he had coming up in a few weeks. This was a smart decision, as there was still a long way to go. I was also thrilled to have a running companion for the rest of the race. We were having a great time.

So on we plodded, cursing the downhills (man they hurt!) and continuing our slow plod to the finish line. Chris had his iPhone hooked up to his earpiece, and was periodically calling Robi with updates from the course. Robi would patch him in to the PA system and broadcast their conversation to the public at the finish line. As we passed Giant's stadium we made our last call to let him know we were less than a mile away.

As we approached the finish line, we saw Bart standing there announcing race finishers. It was great to see Bart and he ran with us for the last few hundred feet. Rob was there announcing our finish and all the details about our Iraq adventure. What a great finish.

He'd done it, and we finished in 4:47, my 3rd fastest marathon time actually, for my 20th marathon. Not bad, and we had a great time. We celebrated with beer and meat and said our goodbyes. Val and Chris headed to the airport and I went to rest.

I met Robi, Gretchen and Domi (his daughters, who by the way are phenominal young ladies and who were a PLEASURE to have around) in the sky lounge at the top of the hotel for some drinks and snacks. We were all pretty beat from a long day, so we snacked and chatted and called it a night. A great end to a fantastic weekend.

made it to Kuwait

We made it to Kuwait finally and luckily. Our original flight yesterday morning at 11was cancelled due to the sandstorm, and we were bumped from the 11pm flight as well as the 2am flight. The 7am finally took off as the sandstorm was rising again for the day. Apparently we were the last flight tot ake off, and one soldier even remarked that we shouldn't have taken off because the visibility was too poor, but we did and after a few fun maneuvers over Baghdad we landed safely in Kuwait. (they don't fly a regular flight pattern over some of the bigger cities. They don't do that stuff on commercial aircraft. It was was fun!). That means Catch Penny got stuck at Speicher. Have a scoop of Pralienes and Cream with caramel sauce for me guys! Sorry!!

Everyone is tired and was starving because we had to be up for each of those flight possibilities, and we didn't get much b-fast, so when we got to Arifjan we dumped our stuff and practically ran to the chow hall (which was about to close, but I think we would have run anyway! Quick silent lunch, a scoop of mint chocolate chip at Baskin Robbins (I'm going to miss the ice cream!) and back to my room until time to go. I needed a shower as I was covered in a fine layer of sand. The sand here is quite a bit grittier than in Iraq, and sticks to you better. People pay good money for exfoliation like that.

I got back to my room and had my first solid alone time in over a week, and the tears came. Tears for the soldiers, for the amazing friends I've made, for the things I've seen, both good and bad, the things I've learned about myself, and the excitement and fear of the inevitable big changes I'll now be making in my life. I think there was some exhaustion and possibly a little dehydration in there too. A well deserved and well needed cry! It's amazing how some things become crystal clear at some times.

Showered, dressed and packed and 15 minutes until we depart the last American military base in the middle east that I'll visit for a while. I have makeup on, and I did my hair. How weird! I look like a girl again.

Off to London where it's low 70s and rainy! That'll be a switch. I'm hoping to get all caught up with my blog on the plane tonight, so the rest of the trip will be chronicled. When I have a speedy internet connection, I'll be sure to attach pictures as well.

And you can guarantee I'll be having a pint with lunch tomorow!

Hugs
Anne

Hospital Visit (7/13/09)

I was honored to be allowed to go on a tour of the hospital. The night before, when we had been enjoying the Catch Penny concert, drinking near beer and laughing and joking around, all medical staff were at the hospital patching up 9 brave men who had been involved in an IED attack. The attack took place outside an Iraqi police station, and was apparently detonated by remote, meaning some coward sat at a safe distance away and pushed a button to blow up our boys when they passed. Fortunately the assessment was that it didn’t detonate properly, so instead of blowing up in the middle of the group, it exploded towards the end of the group, and didn’t blow up straight, but just in 1 direction, not totally towards our guys. That said, it did blow up and wounded 9 brave men who were on a foot patrol with the mission of helping the Iraqi people get back their land, their safety and their country. Attacks like this are apparently not that infrequent, and infiltration in the local police and military forces was common, either by bribe, or by threats. Saddam ruled his people by intimidation and force and violence, and the insurgents today have continued that tradition.

1 was an Iraqi interpreter who saw a possibility for a better life in his country, and was helping the American soldiers so he could eventually live in peace and safety without American troops patrolling their cities. He was injured the worst, and was in the ICU when we arrived. As I understand it, he was impaled by a coke can sized object in the hip/groin area. The biggest problem was, we could only provide him with the care that we could at that base. (4 other American soldiers had been operated on, stabilized and med-evaced within hours of the attack to be sent to Germany and them home to be cared for with the best and most modern facilities and techniques. They were all expected to make a full recovery) Under the treaty we have with Iraq, we are not allowed to transport him for more thorough care, and we could only hold him for 7 days. This man needed at least 2 months of medical care according to the doctor giving us the tour, so he would need to be transported to an Iraqi medical care facility BUT if he was put in a local facility, the insurgents would identify him as someone who was helping the Americans, and not only would his life be in danger, but that of his family as well. This poor man had a lot more than 2 months of recovery to worry about. There were 2 American soldiers at his bedside when we were there who had sustained very minor shrapnel wounds. You could see the fear, and stress in their eyes, partially from their own trauma, but also in sympathy for the situation of their friend, a man who bravely chose to help them despite considerable danger to himself and his family. It’s brave men like this who are going to allow the Iraqi nation to be successful and free and safe, and I hope there are many more who are inspired by his bravery and step forward to reclaim their country. It’s so hard though because there is such a culture of violence and intimidation and they live under a constant threat making it less likely for honest people to live a peaceful life.

You could see the shrapnel wounds on the faces of the 2 soldiers who were at the Iraqi’s bedside, burns about the side of a pencil eraser. They apparently had a few other wounds on their bodies, but were expected to return to their unit the next day.

We left those three men to their quiet conversation, and went into the care ward where the other 2 soldiers were. The first was quite drugged up, and was still in a bit of pain, but managed to have a great conversation with us just the same. He had sustained injuries on both of his ankles, one worse than the other. He was scheduled to med-evac out that night (The sandstorms were grounding most aircraft, but it was a relief to know that the med-evac still flew!) and go to Germany for more extensive surgery. From there they would determine whether he would be fit to return to his unit, or if he was headed home. You could see in this man’s eyes that all he wanted was to just go home, but of course his loyalty to his fellow troops kept him wanting to be here in Iraq, fighting alongside his brothers. He was really excited to talk to Sandy the Astronaut, and Frank the Olympian. He showed us his purple heart that the General himself had just moments before awarded to him right there in the hospital. Someone said “cool” and he said “not really!” He also showed us the nail that they had pulled out of his leg. Ew! We talked for a while then headed to the next bed.

This young man from Kansas was about as all-American as you can get. Blonde hair, big football build. You almost expected him to have a piece of wheat in his teeth. Really nice kid. He had been peppered all down one side with shrapnel. He was expected to recover right there in the medical center at Speicher and return to duty once his wounds were healed. He was apparently the one closest to the blast, and it was because of the malfunction of the explosive that he wasn’t the worst one injured. The blast apparently picked him up, tossed him 20 meters across the street and into the side of a building. He was battered and bruised, but overall ok and considered quite a hero because the doc and 2 of the soldiers there told us with pride that this young man was closest to the blast. It was like a badge of honor. I’m sure he wasn’t looking forward to returning to foot patrol. That would certainly make you more hesitant and stressed while trying to do your job.

We visited for a while, then soberly got back on the bus, talking about the bravery of these young men, how this truly was still a life conflict, and how we all hoped and prayed that no more of our young men would be involved in situations like this. But we all quietly knew that they would.

SCRUBBED! (7/13/09)

1:30 came WAY too fast, but I think I actually managed to get some sleep, which was unusual. The previous night I had spent the entire night awake reexamining my life, and most of the previous nights I hadn’t slept well either. Somehow I was hanging tough, and wasn’t dragging or tired in the least. Weird how adrenaline and excitement of adventure and interacting with amazing people really energizes me. I’ve also been continuing to try to eat well (aside from a few scoops of ice cream!) and making a concerted effort to drink plenty of water, so hopefully that was helping as well. We got to the MWR computer lab, only to find the mission had been scrubbed due to weather. BUMMER! Robi did a Q&A with Sandy anyway, and got some video of shout outs from troops. Very cool, but we were thrilled to be heading back home for a few more little winks before the race. The wind was still whooping up, and everyone was pretty negative about our ability to leave before Wednesday. I've settled into a "whatever will be will be" attitude. Nothing I can do about it!

Got a bit more sleep, then up for a 5am bus to the race site. It was pretty sandy, but we hadn't gotten any word that the race was off, so we headed over to the main gym. Sure enough, the race was scrubbed too, but there were still about 80 people in the gym, so Robi set up a series of stations. Frank was at the treadmills, Sandy was at one end of the gym answering questions, and Bart, Josh and I did some gait analysis at the other end. We were pretty busy and it was really fun to help the guys get the right shoes, and I was able to learn some things from Bart which was pretty great! Aside from that, hanging out with Bart is always fun. He's one of the funniest people on the planet. He has me rolling all the time. It's been such a pleasure taveling with him. So we did that until we got kicked out of the gym. Then we headed back to the villa. (did I tell you about our villa? SO FUN!) Everyone jaunted off to breakfast, but I decided to take the opportunity to sit this meal out and take a nap. I logged a good hour in the sack. Nicole was kind enough to bring me an apple.

The Schauf boys and I were talking about getting a workout, and DC had promised a Crossfit workout, so we waited around for him, but unfortunately we couldn't find him, and next thing we knew it was time for lunch. Off we went, singing "time to eat again" to the tune of "on the road again" After lunch we went over to the gym and Zach and Christian took me through a piece of one of their workouts. It was awesome. I would love to get in a routine of working out like that on a regular basis. I would have a SIC bod! We did mainly upper body to failure. I don't think I've ever worked out to failure. Being en endurance athlete, I've become accustomed to not pushing to the limit to be sure I have enough gas to finish the workout/race....probably to a fault. I could probably perform at a much higher level, but I'm always saving some. Well, not in this workout. Every time we finished a set, my arms would be shaking and hanging down useless. I was seriously concerned that I wouldn't be able to lift my arms the next day. We watched the UFC Brock fight from the other day. The one with that huge scary gross man from MN who was drooling and ranting after he beat that other nice man to a pulp. I was literally hiding behind Chris while we watched. It's scary that there's someone like that on the planet!

We headed back to the villa, I did my best to wash my hair and clean up with my rubber arms, then we headed to visit the hospital.

RACE #3: Special Forces unit (7/12/09)

Another 4am wake up and a 6:00 race at Camp Bennett, a small compound inside the Speicher base. Speicher has about 20,000 soldiers and is quite expansive geographically. It’s not as MASH looking as Taji, but much more open and desert-y. The villa compound we’re in looks like somewhere in AZ. There are still MRAPs and other military stuff all over the place, but we haven’t seen the concentration of soldiers, so it doesn’t feel quite the same. So we got everything set up for a small race for the Special Forces troops and their support crew. There were about 18 guys there to run. They ran the .8 mile loop around their compound twice, making a 1.6 mile race. I chose to sit this one out so Josh could run and I could take pictures which was really fun! They parked an MRAP by the finish line, and we lined the finish chute with banners, and we put the UA and ESS banners on the cement barriers. It looked great and hopefully I got some great pictures. Josh had his shutter set on rapid fire, resulting in about 18 pictures every time I pushed it. (ok, maybe just 3-4, but still, there were a LOT of pictures!) Maybe I need to work on my gentleness! So after the race we had an awards ceremony, an honorary presentation to their commanding officers, and their Lt Col (who came in 1st in his age group by the way!) showed us his office with the memorial wall of their fellow special ops soldiers who were killed in action. They had a framed picture and description of each one on the wall. It was very touching and sad to think of these young, talented, patriotic, devoted men who died in this war. One was awarded the silver star for jumping on a grenade that was lobbed into the room he and 3 other soldiers were in. He dove on it to save the other troops, who walked away with minor injuries. Had he not done that, they all would have died. It was an amazing illustration of the bond these guys have with each other and their commitment to their duty. You could look in their faces and see the sadness at losing these fellow soldiers and great friends, and know that the memories would burn brightly for the rest of their lives.

We were about to miss breakfast, so we ran off and ate, then returned to Camp Bennett to help Robi clean up the race flags, banners and all that. We then headed to their MWR to get on the computers. Computer connectivity has been limited, and we’ve had a hard time finding places to plug in our computers to transmit pictures and stories. The NASA folks, Robi and the Sterns have made a considerable effort to find it because they need to get the story out to the media and to the troops who have spent time with us on our tours. Since I’m only updating friends and family, I decided to take a little time to rest rather than chase around an internet connection. It’s been nice to be off the grid a little.

Christian, Zach, Sandy and I had been talking about going to do a Crossfit workout, or some other kind of butt kicking workout at some point, and it was going to be after the computer time this morning. We were waiting for DC (badass muscular, Under Armour wearing special ops dude) to come take us back to housing and go workout. We waited and waited and waited. I got sick of surfing the internet (I’ve been keeping this blog on my laptop in free time, and couldn’t hook it up to the Ethernet cable, so I couldn’t update this blog. Sorry!) so I did a few pushups, did some quad chair sitting against the wall. I was getting antsy knowing that we probably weren’t going to have time to work out before lunch. Christian and I took a lap around the compound; the same .8 mile loop they did in the race this morning…..but at noon. Damn it was hot and it was starting to get windy.

We panted our way back to their break room and found DC. He and our bus driver had been there all the time. We rounded up our computer users and headed back to the villa. Quick shower (much needed!) and off to lunch. After lunch we had a little time to chill out, then it was time for the band to go get everything set up. I still wanted to get a workout in, and it turned out that the concert tonight was in the gym. Perfect! Just enough time to have a decent workout and get back for another shower, off to dinner then the concert. On the way to the gym, we noticed that it was considerably windier and the sand was getting all kicked up. In fact, visibility was very low, and rumblings of “no planes flying” and “red zone” were mentioned. The forecast was right, seems we were launching into another heavy sand storm. Fun!
The concert was great! Chris had arranged for 2 cases of non-alcoholic beer to be put on ice in the hall. Apparently at other shows, they’d had beer fights. It was pretty funny! This crowd was pretty subdued, probably due to the fact that it was in a huge gym with full lighting, so the atmosphere was not very rock-concert-y or conducive to letting loose and spraying beer all over the place. I did do my part by doing my first shotgun, pretty unsuccessfully, but still quite entertaining. The band invited me to come up on stage with them during their second set to sing with them which was really fun! Those guys are such great showmen, and their enthusiasm and comfort on stage makes their shows really fun to watch. Being on stage with them was a blast as well. Sandy and Frank did autographs after the show while Rick took race registrations for the next morning, and the Catch Penny guys gave out and signed CDs. They got their stuff all packed up, and we headed back to the villa.

NASA was supposed to launch a shuttle the night before, but it was postponed to the next day, so a bunch of us went over the the MWR to check the computers and see if the launch was going to happen. Robi was planning to video Sandy watching the launch online with some troops, which would be happening at 2:30am Iraq time. They checked NASA online and the launch was still a “go”, so we headed back to the house for a few hours of sleep. I really wanted to get some rest, but how often do you get to watch a shuttle launch with an astronaut?? Not often, so I decided to get up at 1:30 and go to the main MWR to watch the launch with them.