Amazing Grace

Working for a large (read: huge) company: dangerous to your health - because the travel hits into your workouts.


This week was not that fun and cut into my training:


-Monday: flight to LGA at 6am, back to RIC at 1:30am.


-Tuesday: Work late.


- Wednesday: work then fly to DEN (via CLT) and arrive around 2am (EST).


- Thursday: meeting in the AM and then back to RIC via CLT, get home at midnight.


- Friday - early meeting and tons of work





As it turns out, working out can be dangerous to your health as well:



- I had a long run scheduled for saturday am. The weather was brillantly sunny and about 45 degrees (in other words, perfect) when I left the red house to start off. I'm running along, down Monument Ave, feeling pretty good - the ipod is rocking and I believe that the birds might have been singing as well. In any event, I get to Monroe Park at VCU and have to cross my first major street - Belvidere. So I'm running along and the light turns from Red to Green (in my favor), the "walk" symbol comes up so I start to run across the street and then a red station wagon comes out of nowhere (well it was behind me on Franklin Street turning right on to Belvidere) and misses running me over by about 6 inches. I actually reached out and slapped the car as i jumped back and screamed "WHAT THE (h-e double hockey sticks)!!! I'm glad that it was me crossing the street not someone pushing a stroller or something!

Note: these things can be dangerous !!!

As it turns out almost getting killed while running really gets you ready to run fast - I would guess that my next mile was about 7 minutes. So, there I am running along thinking "wow, I'm lucky to be alive" when THE RED STATION WAGON PULLS UP BESIDE ME!!! The lady driving the car actually turned around to chase me down to APOLOGIZE! Wow. I think that I would have been too embarrased if i almost killed someone to apologize. Now this was strange, but nice. I gave the lady a quick "don't worry about it" and kept running along toward the capitol building. The rest of the 2 hours and 1o minutes was pretty uneventful, albeit somewhat muddy in the James River Park portion of the run. So when I got home I found some realy nice salt encrusted mud on my face.

ROCK CITY USA

For work this week (ok this entry is a week old...), I was scheduled for a trip to ROCKCITY USA (aka Detroit) on Tuesday and the a trip to the Windy City (aka Chicago) on Wednesday AM.

Sounded like fun on the surface and started out well with a quick (albeit bumpy) flight directly to Rock City USA. I stepped off the plane and thought: "wow - nice airport...i figured that Detroit had basically disintegrated into nothing at this point...i'm impressed"

I meandered over to the rental car counter and got my car. As I pulled onto the highway I noted that:

a. Detroit's roads are still paved (vs. my assumption that the roads had disintegrated to all dirt roads at this point)!

b. 89% of the cars were American made (i wondered where they all were!)




Note: Saw plenty of t-shirts like this in Michigan




Note: Typical car in Detriot - remininscent of old Havana!


After a typical day of working away, I dropped a co-worker at the Airport and went to find my hotel: The Detroit Airport Marriott. As I, the one who stays at the Waldorf=Astoria when in the "City" (either that or the Holiday Inn Express on 29th and 7th!), checked out the DAirMar I was struck by a couple of things:

a. There is a Westin ACTUALLY IN THE AIRPORT. Why did travel put me off site??

b. The workout room at DAirMar is pretty poor. I labored down to get a quick run on the treadmill in and was stuck watching TV to pass the time, because I forgot one of the most important pieces of workout equipment: my IPOD. While running (8 minute miles) I was watching a "hidden camera" show. Why is it that "hidden camera" shows now all appear to take place in Europe? Americans must be too saavy to get caught in a hidden camera gig such as: having a fake policement give you a ticket WHILE NOT WEARING ANY PANTS (ie - tighty whitey briefs only)? Would American's simply say "Where's the camera dude?" and ruin all the fun???


So, I ordered some room service (review: too hot and crappy for my sophisicated Waldorf taste, so hot and crappy that in my rush to consume a portion of the veggies, i burned the top of my mouth) and went to bed, after setting the alarm for 5:53 (3 is my lucky number).

At 6:15 my wake up call came (had pre-arranged the night before). Crap, I'm late...rush....rush....rush...to run outside and find out that the earth had finally spun out of orbit from the sun, or at least it felt like it because it was what cold experts call "damn" cold. So cold that your feet hurt. The trusty american rental car was frozen shut and ice was on the inside of the windows, no ice scrapper, of course. A scary drive to the rental car return (forgot to get gas) and I rush into the airport and rush over to the gate....to wait...and wait...and then get up to start getting on the flight to Chicago...and then be told to sit down...and wait...and wait...and wait...and then be told that the flight was canceled. I being mr. works for a big firm and have american express travel services said to myself: look at the poor suckers running back to the ticket counters outside of security, I will call american express and have them simply rebook me on the next flight, only to be told by american express travel to go back to the ticket counter. Great, that means I would be last in line for the limited seats on the next flight. So I went back to the ticket counter (outside security).

Some times you think, "wow, life is good" and other times you think "WOW LIFE IS AMAZING." The two people behind me in line had been on "Deal or No Deal" and they told everyone who would listen about it for the entire 70 minute wait in line. Here is how the conversation went:

Guy on Deal or No Deal (GDND): "I was on Deal or No Deal!!! It was crazy man, they got us all hopped up on Red Bull prior to going on the show!!!"

Random Person in Line: "That's AMAZING!!!"

GDND: "Man it was CRAZY!!!!!!!, They loved me!!!! You could play video games prior to going on camera!!!!!!"

Random: "That's AMAZING!!!!".


In any event, I eventually got to the ticket counter...and booked a different flight home at 9pm and spent all day in the NWA lounge on conference calls.

This is what I have been up to!

Yes, I'm back....and it looks like that will never be enough from some people...

SOOOO, what has changed since my last real post:
1. No Ironman...I did actually go see the Lake Placid Ironman - my brother did actually do the race - like 11:50. Here are some pretty cool shots from the day:



Lake Placid is pretty cool - snow all year round!



MTH and MMH with Mirror Lake in the background (LP ironman swim is in this really clear and calm lake)



Stud bro MDH on his Rocket Ship (aka Cervelo P2C).



MDH Starting the Run...only 26.2 miles to go.



Finishing!

2. However, I was able to do a Half Ironman...or a full musselman!



KSH and MTH prior to starting...looking so happy.



Me thinking - "I used to do a mile in under 16 minutes?!?"



Me Thinking: Time for a nice leisurely bike ride around central NY.



Me thinking - this run might be trouble.



Me thinking - where is the beer?

3. Other stuff happened:



I (we) bought a house in the Fan district in Richmond, VA. Quite a change from Alexandria...very different. I miss DC, but our house is pretty neat - about 100 years old in a neighborhood which features restaurants, bars, art galleries, museums, large parks, pocket parks and the largest University in Virginia (VCU).




We went to Ireland with SM and JR - This is from a Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Belfast is a very interesting place to visit...cannot wait to go back.



This is the world famous Blarney Castle...what is it that you do at Blarney?



That's Right you kiss the Blarney Stone (must have been scary before the safety grate!).





Also we drank...in this case Murphy's in the Mutton Lane Inn in Cork. This funky bar was located down a tiny side street which the sheep used to use to run through the city.

More later....