Run

by Snow Patrol from Final Straw

Hola everyone yet again. Its been a while since my last update and there has been some news, if you call the little stuff that happens in my life news. First off, I should probably finish out telling you what happened in Tokyo. Well after finishing up working, I spent the weekend and part of the following Monday exploring Tokyo. German, one of my coworkers, was nice enough to show me around. On Saturday, we went to Harajuku, home of the famous Harajuku girls. Well it is actually home to a pretty famous temple that several couples were getting married at. After that, we went to the shopping district of Harajuku and other areas of Tokyo, which I am admitting I probably stimulated the Japanese economy more than I should have. We stopped at Kiddyland, which this is enormous toy store. And much to my surprise, I found an original Transformers. Actually, it was a newly made celebration version of the old Transformers but still it was the old Transformers, not the new ones from those shitty Michael Bay movies. I loved Transformers when I was kid and spent plenty a weekday morning or afternoon watching them. I also did badger my Mom to buy me some. I had an original Soundwave that I foolishly traded away. But the Transformers figures that I was always envious of were the set of Transformers that combined into a big Transformer. Well guess what I saw at Kiddyland. So I paid probably too much for it but I now I have Bruticus standing on my desk as I type this, who is composed of 5 individual Transformers known as the Combaticons. I checked out eBay to how much he is going for and I found some people bidding twice as much I as paid for him in Japan. But hey, it is for more sentimental reasons. In addition, I got to check out some awesome malls, a cool plastic materials exhibition, and of course, a beer festival. After I spent Saturday shopping, German and I went to Kamakura on Sunday to check out some temples. It was swamped with people since we went on a holiday weekend. But I did experience seeing some pretty cool temples and also getting lost in Kamakura and getting no help from crappy Google Maps Japan. Monday was spent sleeping in, eating breakfast, and then walking around Shibuya while I waited for my airport shuttle. One thing I do have to comment on is the Japanese preoccupation with packaging. I went to the Tokyo food show for breakfast and picked out a few pastries and other things for breakfast. Each one of them were individually wrapped and then wrapped into a larger bag which was then given to me. The flight back was uneventful but I do have to say, business class airport lounge rules. Free drinks, free food, free wifi all while relaxing on a couch. I do have to say I probably indulge in one too many free beers and Pocari sweats. I have to say recovering from the jet lag took a week - but all and all one hell of a great trip.

The following weekend I got back, I spent hanging out with the special lady. One thing we did was rent one of those paddle boats in Golden Gate Park. Now I had never thought of renting one before and one of the last times I rented a water vessel was a two person kayak in Monterey with Vishnu, who then proceeded to steer us into other kayaks, the pier, and pretty much anything but open water. Needless to say I was not terribly enthused about the paddle boat but after doing it I have to say it is quite fun time. You can't paddle too hard because of how the gears are set plus you can go along at a pretty good clip with some easy paddling. Which was good because the next day, I did my practice run for the half-marathon. I ran my place to the Safeway in cupertino, about 6.5 miles one way or 13 round trip. It went alright other than that Safeway had no cold Gatorade available. Which brings me to the biggest piece of new is that I ran the San Jose Rock n'Roll half marathon weekend before last.

I signed up for the half-marathon as a reason to get back into shape. I do have to say that long distance running is great exercise. You have to do training runs to build up your endurance regularly plus lesser practice runs to keep your legs loose. In Tokyo, I ran on the treadmill to keep in shape so I wouldn't miss out on training. One thing that does help is music and I am very grateful for my iPod shuffle (Thanks to the special lady for getting for me). So there is not much to say about the actual race. It was around downtown San Jose but downtown San Jose is not terribly memorable so of the things I do remember is that I remember passing the San Jose Arena, running past the Egyptian Museum, and I think passing through Japantown. I didn't really pace myself so I went out too fast. Mainly because I had to pass a whole bunch of people in front of me but by mile 6 I stopped passing people. A couple miles after that around mile 8, people started passing me because quite frankly my pace died. I think last three miles I didn't pass anyone except people who had stopped at water stations, bathrooms, or had started walking. Yeah I felt every inch of the last three miles. My right knee was aching like somebody hit it with a ball pin hammer every time I stepped and my left hamstring felt real tight. But I managed one last sprint to the end and guess what? I beat my stretch goal of 1 hours and 50 minutes. I finished in a very respectable 1 hour, 46 minutes, and 39 seconds. Or 1062nd place out of 9892. And although I stretched out for 20 minutes after I finished, and soaking in the jacuzzi two days in a row, my legs were store for a good week afterward. Will I run another half marathon or full marathon? I'll definitely consider it but not anytime soon. I think I am ready to start biking again and getting back to some stuff I had put off because I was putting in several hours every weekend to prepping, running, and recovering from half-marathon training. Of that stuff I put off, I have already started on some. I did a massive fall cleaning of my place because my apartment had drifted into disarray. Another thing I will get back to is shopping for a new car. Yeah I realize my Maxima is on its very last legs. So I am shooting to get a new car before the end of the year.

Anyway, I suppose that is enough for now. Thanks for sticking through yet another rambling treatise on my life. Until next time, peace.