Adam's Space

I have posted a bunch of photos from the last few days.  Learning alot about what I do not know in terms of underwater photography.  As a good MSFT boy, it is clear I need to spend more on gear.  And think about annoying things like color and light. Tommy did 3 dives yesterday and actually enjoyed himself, so now it is time to get him certified so I have someone to dive with.

Have to run now, in town tonight they have "Cane Toad" races.  Apparently the little toadies wear bandanas and race and there may be some illegal betting. Stay tuned.  Also, we have started another sight where we will post our combined travel musings:  PillaSohnWorldwide.spaces.live.com.  Stay tuned.

Ok, so we got here.  It took 24 hours, all told.  Then no one told us that a huge cyclone is sitting over this part of the country.  The good news is that when it rains on land it is not raining on the reef usually. So today I spent the day out there (about 1.5 hours by very fast boat, so about 50 miles or so) and did 3 dives.  Sad part is no sun, which on a reef like this one would have made a pretty significant difference.  I bought a digital underwater rig this year (total entry level) and took something like 180 pictures.  About 175 of them sucked.  I have posted a few to give you a flavor, the album is called "reef day one." It was really an experiment to start to learn how to use the camera and how to think differently about photo-taking given all the, well, water in the way. The corals are amazing here, and the wildlife so far is not as abundant and interesting as maui, but I have only been underwater for 2.5 hours so it is a bit early to make the calls.  And yes, I included the shark photo even though it is terrible.

Trying to get Pilla to join the boat ride excursion tomorrow, either as a snorkeler or an intro diver.  If it is raining here golf will be out of the question.

We went into town and had a good dinner, a bit quiet on a rainy Tuesday  but that did not stop us.  Last night I took a nap at 5ish and never got out of bed until this am, so tonight I am trying to stay up and get normalized.

Anyway this post is so boring I cannot even write anymore.  Look at the pictures of the fish, and I will have more to say soon.

Well, I managed to hobble through another Hood To Coast relay this year, with a team of great people who, like the thousands of others who do this race are "just crazy enough" to think that 26 hours of running, using stinky Honey Buckets as bathrooms/changing rooms/apartments is fun.

This year some things were the same, and some quite different.

First what was the same:

• I still ran leg 4.  Easiest leg in the race.  Thanks to my captain ;-)  I was not in the same running shape I was in last year, as I took most of the winter off from running from a back injury, and therefore was not really as fit as I wanted to be for this race.  I went in with the "gut it out" attitude.  Thankfully, it worked (mostly)
• Most of the rest of the runners are super fast.  There are some freaking speed demons on the team, and thankfully they allowed me to run with them again. I cannot say enough about how cool this team is, because you have a bunch of amazing runners, and then some weekend warriors like me, but people are supportive, fun, and not mental about winning.
• The vans still get funky after a while.  This should surprise no one.  But when, at the end, on the drive to the beach, I could smell my own funkyness above that of the rest of the van, it became clear to me that it was time for a shower.  With sand in addition to soap. Coarse sand.  Almost gravel.

Now some of what was different:

• Additions to the team.  Max, Jeff, Margaret and Ethan were new additions.  Ethan had 2 days to train (he is a bit of an athlete already) and managed to simply crush his runs. Max, who might be the 3rd funniest person on the planet, managed to forget his running shoes.  We had to stop at Nordstrom's in Southcenter to buy him new ones.  You'd figure running shoes would be considered by any thinking human being to be pretty important for a 200 mile relay race.  Now you know Max ;-)

Here is an actual photo for proof:

• I was not injured.  Last year, the race was a bit of a haze of pain for me, as I went into it injured, and the fact that this year there was no injury to screw up the race. I earned the stiffness I now feel, but will be ready to workout and run again very soon
• The music.  Last year, each runner had a song to get them fired up before their run.  This year, we did the same thing, and our van would try to queue it up as we drove by the runner and blast it out the window.  Sometimes we had technical issues sometimes, and almost everyone's song ended up being "The Final Countdown" by Europe.  That and a song called Stroke It. And maybe a little Journey.  Enough said.

My legs went a bit faster than I planned, which was great.  I have been running 10 min miles with some faster pace thrown in, but did not think I would be able to make as strong a showing as last year.  But I managed to run sub-9's for the 1st two runs, then just ran out of juice on #3 and dropped in some 9:40s.  However, I did, while running 9:40s, get to see a hawk come swooping in and make a lunch for himself out of a juicy rabbit.  Circle of life and all that.  I was a little bitter that the damn dirty bird did not take me and carry me to the next exchange point.

Then just when you thought it was over, we had an injured runner (poor Ann, she blew a hamstring), and the team had to do a bit of her stuff.  Shannon just ran an extra leg (she is the star of the weekend for it), but in our van, we decided we would share it among the runners (van 1 is known for being less ambitious).  So after my 3rd run, I had to run another mile (turned out to be .88). It was raining, I was stiff, so I thought I would just see how fast I could get it over in, and ran sub 8 pace, thus adding to the stiffness but making me feel like I had run my best .88 mile split the entire race.  Sadly I could not find a place for "best .88 mile time" on the registration form for next year.  But it felt great to be able to help out Ann, who I hope is feeling better.

All in all, it was a blast.  I had a great time, laughed way more than I should have given what we were doing to our bodies and our sense of smell (this is why I love the team, because we do a ton of laughing while stinking up the atmosphere for miles and miles), and was privileged to run with these guys.

I have added an album of pics from Amy, our fearless (and feared) captain. When the photos were 1st shared (in a non-Windows Live service, if you can believe it), there were some amazingly funny captions.  I am loathe to try to create new ones, but I just might, stay tuned.

To get to the album click here or just choose "Hood To Coast 2007" from the albums list on the right rail.

Can't wait until next year.  I can smell the tiger balm (and various other things that shall not be mentioned) even now.

OK, so I am on vacation in Maui now (don't be angry) and went for my 1st run today.  Just got back.  I have been slacking a bit on the exercise dept because yesterday's scuba diving was very intense and tiring so I did nothing else. 

Today I was feeling antsy to get out on the island roads so I talked to the folks at the beach shack at the hotel and asked for some advice.  They said go south along the coast, that the road went all they way until it ended at a bay I have been diving at before but never been to on the land (and it was too far away so I did not get all the way there this time).

This part of the island is pretty intense.  Basically the slopes of the volcano come right down to the coast.  More amazing, from the water you can see the dark, reddish brown streaks of 700 year old lava rocks that at one point slid down in liquid form during the last eruption.  Good news for divers is that all this lava falling into the ocean has made for some amazing coral reef action along the southwestern coast.

So there are two things I wanted to share about this run. The first is obvious:  don't run too soon after having fish tacos with guac. Enough said.

The second was an experience that I do not really have good words to describe.  At the turn (about 3ish miles into the run, the roadI was on, which had been running along the coast mostly (some crazy homes out there), veered inland and I came out of some trees and found myself utterly alone (no cars or people in sight) on a single land road, and on either side of me lava fields for miles.  It was eerie -- like the pictures you see of the ironman race. 

The solitude, and music I was pumping through my wm player was pretty cool.  But what was amazing was the rock.  The stone is crushed into millions of pieces big and small.  They do not move, but I got such a sense of pent up energy and violence.  Was kind of like I could hear the echoes of all that destruction, which ironically led to some pretty unique and spectacular beauty.

Or maybe it was just an echo of the fish tacos. 

Either way I was lucky to run there today, this one goes on the list with Sydney, and Hood to coast (at least the the downhill leg).

I'll try to drive down there with my camera and add some photos to show you what it was like. 

This will be a much shorter post.  My legs are killing.  This "ramping back up" crap is overrated. Anyway, did another 5 miles today, in a windy rainy setting that can only be compared to Seattle.

Used some diff tools to plan the route this time, found the drawing tools on maps.live.com and added a bunch of pushpins to show the turn points.  Under planned so ended up doing some improv for the past couple of miles (ran around fenway park, which was very cool).

THE MAP shows not only the pushpin sequence route but my blue line path added.  In a nutshell:

Beacon to Comm ave at Kenmore, left on Mass ave, over the mass ave bridge, left along memorial drive, past the mit and bu boat houses, back over BU bridge, Left on Comm ave and back to Kenmore square, Brookline ave to fenway park, around he park, the Brookline ave to Park ave at the Landmark shopping center, Park to beacon, left on beacon and back.  Good route, some pretty parts of the run.  The wet, windy run.  Some amazing brownstones on the Boston side, Cambridge is all about the river and the boathouses.  Fenway is about beer.  Even in the rain in November, the fenway "flavor" is still in the air.  Fun run, a bit hard on the body for some reason, but whatever. 

Here is me getting back:

Have a great turkey day, I have earned some mashed potatoes.  Freaking headwinds.

I know.  You have all been wondering, where has this blog gone?  That guy used to run.  Or at least, he used to pretend to run by writing about it.

Well, to all of you who wonder, my message to you is pretty simple.  Get a hobby, there is not much inspiring to read in this blog. 

Nevertheless, I am staying with my parents in Brookline, MA right now for Thanksgiving.  They moved into an apartment in Brookline after raising (ok, maybe "zoo keeping" is a better term) the three Sohn children in a house in the bucolic town of Sudbury, MA.

The ride in from the airport was harrowing, but that is a story to be told over a dirty martini.

To catch you up on the running front, I have been rehabilitating an injury that I carried into my Hood to Coast run at the end of August.  A couple days after the race, I hobbled into the Pro Club PT clinic and my pal and running icon and PT Shelly looked at what appeared to be a softball sized protrusion under the skin around my Achilles tendon.  The normal Shelly/Adam conversation ensued:

Adam: Hey, so you think this is the kind of thing I can stay off of for a week or so, then start a light jog and ramping back up?

Shelly: A week?  Are you out of your mind.  Try six.  Maybe.

Adam (biting the pillow and trying not to cry as Shelly jams her elbow into the injured area -- this is known in the Pro Club, and I think at least nationwide as "Shelly Love."  Believe me when I tell you, it has very little to do with love.): SIX WEEKS?  What the hell, Shelly.

Shelly: Um I told you this would happen if you ran that race.

Adam:  !@##@$#%@ @# $# #$#@#@!$%$%%^&^#$#!!!!!

OK, so then Shelly nursed me back to health.  And about 2 weeks ago, I got the go ahead to start running again beyond the controlled rehab runs I was doing.  I have run outside, before today, only once (3 miles near the Pro Club with my buddy Mark).  Otherwise I have been on the treadmill, letting my hamstrings get weak and pondering the similarities between treadmill running and work.  But enough about that.

This week I am up to running 3 times, 5 miles each time (upping mileage about 10 percent a week). Today was day one, and after planning a route at maps.live.com (as per usual), I set off on a simple out and back run.

Now you will notice that I have done some cool running out in the suburbs, where the revolutionary war raged in Lexington and Concord. 

Today's run was all about the city.  I ran from the apartment building to the Boston Commons and back.  It was a beautiful sunny but cold day.  I wore tights under my shorts.  My mother asked me if her son was a "Fagela." I explained that I would rather be warm and I was comfortable with my sexuality.  Way to start a run.

I basically just ran up Beacon St. until it crossed Commonwealth Ave and took that to the public gardens.  A few runners out, but it was a cold day and lunchtime so I was surprised not to see more.  The architecture along Comm. Ave is amazing -- 1-300 year old brownstones, none more than 4 floors or so, amazingly maintained.  Super high-rent part of town, and great to run through.

In the middle of the street was a greenbelt, and there they had some pretty cool monuments, one to firefighters lost (was a pretty moving piece, done a long time ago, and another to women's rights which was amazingly done).  The history of the city makes that stuff all the more impactful.  When you see a statue of George Washington, it just seems to mean a bit more here than it would in, say, Las Vegas.  Although as we all know there are things in Vegas that mean more there than anywhere else, according to federal statute.

I was disappointed at the lack of geese in the Public Gardens, but not as disappointed as the single goose looking around wondering where the freaking goose party was and he seemed confused as to which way Miami was.

I was also a bit disappointed at the foliage -- I just missed the colors, but there was one amazing sight - a contrast of two huge Weeping Willows on the edge of the pond, one still green, one completely devoid of leaves.  Was pretty amazing in the sun.

The run back was uneventful, as out and back runs tend to be.  But it was great to get out on the road for real, to "begin my training for HTC 07."  I could not find any peanut butter stuffed pretzels, though.  Dammit.

Thursday am before the turkey fest, I will head out again, this time over to the Charles River, to find a place to hide beers for next year's Head of the Charles Regatta, that Matt and Shannon will no doubt row in and probably win.

Enough for now, this post is already too much story, not enough telling.

Happy Thanksgiving.