Redwood Forest - PacCoast '09 Roadtrip

I haven't blogged in quite a while because I've been busy with the transition back to the states and getting settled into my new place in Albuquerque, but I wanted to share a little bit of my travels back in the US...

I had to pick up Subi and the car in Oregon from my good buddies Jason and Anna, who where kind enough to take care of my biatch for the year (and by biatch i mean the endearing slang term for female dog - errrr). We took about a week to drive down the Pacific Coast of Oregon and California, then through Arizona and into New Mexico. Along the way we car-camped on the side of Highway1, occasionally being awaken by the sea-lions and elephant seals that were playing/fighting on the beach. Here's a little video of a run through the Redwood National Forest to the beach in Northern California...

I've still got a ton of pics and videos to sort through, and lots of stories to tell about the end of my Euro travels and the trip back to Albuquerque. So stay tuned, I'll be putting those up soon.

cheers and love. enjoy the vid.
nate

random reasons to love Britain 2...

atheism gets the respect it deserves. case in point - Richard Dawkins...

random reasons to love Britain...

nudity is not a big deal. case in point - Richard Branson and the photo shoot he did with his girlfriend...

ROme Video***

Alright, just got back from traveling around this week and have taken a little time to make 1 of hopefully 4 videos that I plan to make about the places I visited on my spring break euro trek. Here's video #1 on Rome...

Maratona di Roma

I was counting on the marathon providing a good tour of Rome and I wasn't disappointed. I had been counting on just making Roma a training run on account of the fact that I hadn't trained as much as I had for the past two marathons and that I didn't get much sleep the night before(loud hostel + stiff mattress + anxiousness = not so much sleep!), but I ended up surprising myself and pulling out a pretty decent time. I woke up around seven and grabbed a croissant and some juice on the way to the nearest metro stop. Race numbers get you free metro rides on marathon day which is cool! I got the race start at about 30 minutes later. The Rome Marathon pulls in a pretty healthy field of participants, about 15 - 20k I think, so there were a ton of people crowded around the Coliseum when I got there. It was pretty cool outside when I striped down my shorts and t-shirt and dropped my bag a the bag-drop, but the cold ended up being a blessing once the race began, because the heat ended up getting into the early 60's by the end, which felt more like 80 to me; something I attribute to the cool Welsh weather that I've gotten used to. They corralled us into three different starting areas based upon our registration numbers. I was in area C near the back, which put me pretty far away from the actual starting line, but in a place that had a great view of the coliseum. With everyone packed in close it warmed up pretty quick, and I realized at that moment that in all my excitement I had forgotten to hit the port-o-potties on my way to the starting line. I was relieved to see that the Italian runners, like most runners I know, don't really seem to be bothered about public urination and were peeing on the fences that separated the corrals, so I joined of course, and was ready to go for the start!

When the gun went off it took about five minutes for me to cross the starting line and it was a pretty tight group running through the cobblestone streets for the first couple of miles, which meant that there was plenty of bumping into each other going on, and lots of “mi scusi's” being yelled out. I had set out a plan to try and stay with the 3:30 pace group for the entire race. I had spotted their light blue balloons ahead of me at the start, and was able to catch up with them eventually around the 5k point by running on the sidewalk at times to make it around the crowd. I settled in next to one of the pacers; an Italian guy who said that he had run Boston a few times, and was having absolutely no trouble keeping our current pace and talking and yelling for the crowed to cheer as we ran by. After a few miles with the group I was getting restless and I felt much better than I thought I was going to, so I decided to pull ahead a bit. I had written my split times on my arm in 2.5k intervals and at the 10k point I was averaging about 7:45min miles, which is about 40 seconds slower than I was averaging in Portland last year (a strategy that worked out for the best in the end!), so I decided to keep that pace and told myself that I wouldn't surge until the 20mile mark in order to not burn out in the end like I did in the last two marathons.

At about the 11 mile mark we came around a corner to the Vatican and St. Peters Basilica straight ahead of us. And I have to say that even though I’m not by any means a religious person there was a really epic feeling as we ran up the street to a huge crowed out front where crowds gather to hear the pope speak, all cheering, with an orchestra playing in the background. From that point on the streets narrowed quite a bit from the two-lane lane roads that we had been running on, down to small and winding cobblestone roads again. The crowd had thinned out a bit so it wasn't too big of a problem, but I was running in a lightweight Asics that the Kenyan guy at Fleet Feet in Albuquerque recommended to me before I left, which was nice in terms of weigh because they weigh pretty much next to nothing, but they don't exactly provide much in the way of cushioning which definitely took its toll on my feet.

The last two marathons my quads and calves cramped up quite a bit after about the 20 mile mark, so it was part of my plan this time to only drink Gatorade instead of water, to eat as many gels as I could stomach, and eat some of the solid food that I knew that they would be providing starting at the half way point. I picked up half an apple at the first food stop, but because it gave me some wicked heartburn within a couple of minutes, I decided to switch to banana's, which I continued to eat until the end (about 5 in all I think!). The plan must have worked, because by mile 20 I wasn't feeling any sign of cramping. I was all set to put out a little more energy, and did, but in the end I think that it just allowed me to maintain the pace that I had been running fairly easily before. With about 5k left I really started feeling the effort and must have slowed a bit because the Italian guy with the balloons came up from behind me with a loud "ciao" and settled in next to me. I was really tapping out on energy at that point and he was definitely a sight for sore eyes. "I'm so glad to see you guys right now," I told him. He seemed to understand. He continued to get the crowds cheering for us as we ran by and gave me a few words of encouragement until we reached the 42k mark at the base of the one big hill in the marathon that leads up and around the coliseum and back to finish line, at which point he turned to me and said "this is your hill, go for it man." I gave it my best effort as I pulled a head a bit yelling back a "grazie" and mustering up enough energy to get me up the hill and across the finish line.

In the end I pulled out a time of 3:28:30, which is about 20 minutes faster than Portland last year, and about 50 minutes faster than my first marathon in Chicago a few years ago. If there's a lesson that I learned from this one, its that it pays off big time to start off at a moderate pace instead of just trying to run as fast and as long as I can from the start. Overall it was a great race. I wish I was able to bring a camera along with me, so that I could share all the different sights that I saw along the way, but I would recommend that you come and run it and experience it first hand for yourself sometime! My next goal is to qualify for Boston, all I have to do is make it under 3:10 (heehe) something tells me that shaving off another 20 minutes is going to be a lot harder than the last 20 was!

Ciao,
Nate

spring break is a'comin up quick...

The sun is way high in the sky right now, and i've just turned in my last essay before spring/easter break starts. yes! I've been working on my travel plans for the next few weeks. Here's a rough outline of what it's looking like:

March 19th - train to Liverpool & flight from Liverpool to Rome
March 20th - March 26th - in Rome * Rome Marathon on the 22nd!!!
March 26th - 29th - Prague
March 29th - April 2nd - Vienna
April 2nd - April 12th - Berlin & I'm not sure where else just yet

I'll have more details on my plans for ya later, but for now check out a video I made on Sunday about a walk up the hill from the student village *spoiler alert - its got some sweet wild ponies in it!...

Worms Head *Video - Gower Wales

Took a trip to Worms Head out in the Gower a couple of weeks ago with some friends. Gower is the peninsula that sticks off from the Swansea to the east. Here's a map to get you acclimated...

We went to the furthest point called Rhossilli which is know for its great surfing. It's only a short bus ride from the Village to get there, and it was uber warm and sunny that day (for here, in February at least!) There's an island that snakes off of the coast that's called Worms Head. Apparently there's a two hour window that where you can walk out to it. That's where I made this video... (and where I took the new header picture up top. sweet!)


And we got to play with this super cool lab name Blodwyn which is a traditional welsh female name I found out from the old man who owns her and who works at the ranger station (I'm not really sure if they call it a ranger station out here, but anyway), and who lives in a tiny town in Gower that his family's been in for over 300 years. crazy.
Here's a video of playing fetch with the doggie (man, i miss subi!)...

the £5 Note cleanup

Hey kids. The £5 notes you find on the sidewalk covered in dog poop can be cleaned and recycled at your local pub in exchange for a pint (or 2 depending). cheers.

swow in Wales!?!?

Ya, it snows in Wales. I take it that it doesn't happen very often because everybody's freaking out around here, the university closed, and buses stopped running, and just about everybody in the student village was out in the streets last night throwing snowballs at eachother. Let me just say that I witnessed the biggest and most epic snowball fight I've ever seen. After things calmed down, I took some pics. Check 'em out...

where i catch the bus to uni every morning...

welsh trucks. ha...

the walk to woodside...


my flat...

bought a ticket to Amsterdam today

I picked up a ticket to Amsterdam today at the travel shop here on campus. There's going to be something like a hundred of us or so going in two weeks, so it should be a good time. I’m looking forward to seeing the sights and possibly partaking in some recreational activities. Which brings me to the picture for today which is of Michael Phelps (yeah, the Olympic swimmer dude) who recently got caught in photo taking a bong hit at a party at the University of South Carolina. Heehee!
Cheers Michael Phelps,
Nate

Busking Swansea

Colin, a friend of mine, and I have been doing some open mic nights down at Milkwood Jam here in Swansea, which have been great. We had a good turn out this last Wednesday, and even did a little busking for beer money before the show. A friend of ours got a little video of us playing a song we wrote called Cockles and Shells. It was uber cold that night, which made the guitars, and the flute sound a little distorted (now i know why Yo-Yo Ma and crew phoned it in at the inauguration!), but it was a good time. Check it out...

the mormons - a short story

Two mormons showed up at our door last night. Eight thirty on a friday night I should mention. I tried telling them that they're actions were probably futile at such an hour, and at such a place. "We are in the student village after all," I said. They stared back with big smiles.

"Does Kenny live here?" one of them said.

"No man, not on this floor at least," I said. They didn't seem to mind. They were just happy to meet another American. As it turns out they hadn't seen one in over six months, and since they were from Utah, and I was from New Mexico, the fact that our states touched somehow created an instant brotherly bond between us in their eyes.

They were standing over my bed smiling, and I was out of it. I had been taking a nap between studying for finals, and I was wiping my eyes and looking for a tee shirt. They didn't seem to care that they had woken me up, and I may have been too out of it to tell them to get lost, but we were brothers after all, so I invited them into the kitchen for a cup of tea. "Or maybe you'd like a cup of coffee?" I said.

"We don't drink anything with caffeine in it," the smiliest of the two said. I noticed his name tag on his jacket then, it said Elder Elderberry, but he didn't look a day over twenty one, so I asked him how old he was and he said, "nineteen." I asked him if the guy who made is name tag stuttered, and he said, "uh,, no,, what do you mean?"

Because it says "Elder Elderberry..." He kept smiling. "Forget it, lame joke," I said, "I'm half asleep still.

The other one, who hadn't said anything up until this point asked me how old I was. I told them twenty eight and they both looked surprised, but didn't stop smiling, a look that may seem difficult to pull off, but they managed anyway. Elder Elderberry said, "you look so young dude."

"Yeah, but i began life as an old man," I said, "and in another quarter century or so I will be but a tiny fetus." They didn't seem to know what the hell I was talking about. At this point I had made my coffee, and asked them if they wanted a glass of water or something. They said no, and I wondered if that was standard procedure, not talking drinks from people I mean, and decided that it was probably so. I wondered how many people they offended in Wales by saying no to a cup of tea, probably a few I thought.

It was then that I noticed the not as smiley one staring over in the corner at the trash bin. He wasn't smiling anymore, and he looked perplexed. I looked over to see what it was he was looking at, which meant that Elder Elderberry did the same.

Now let me back track for a second. Earlier in the day my Malaysian room mate Kenny came into the kitchen where I was cooking. He had his arm stretched out in front of him with a book in it and said, "do you know what this is?" I took it from him. On the cover it said "The Book of Mormon." I flipped through a couple of pages and noticed some writing with some names and dates and times in it.

"The guy on the street told me to read this," he pointed to some highlighted text in the book. "Why didn't you just tell him to get lost?" I said.

"I don't know, I'm too nice I guess, and he was really pushy," he said. "What does it mean? Who were those guys?"

"They're mormons," I said. "They probably want you to start a compound with them, marry a few wives, pop out a few dozen children, you know... give tithing... all that good stuff." He didn't laugh. He turned around and started walking out. As he was leaving I heard him say, "I don't understand. I'm a Taoist." I laughed a little as I made my pasta.

Ok, now flash forward a few hours, and I'm standing in the kitchen with the two mormons, and we're all staring over at the overflowing trash bin, and what was laying on top with an aluminum foil seal from a container of yogurt stuck to the cover of it? You guessed it... the Book of Mormon. I definitely wasn't expecting to see that, and part of me wanted to laugh at the irony, but instead I could thing of to say was, "oh shit."

Nobody said anything for a few seconds, which felt like longer of course because of relativity, and the fact that the faster the thoughts travel through you mind the more time stands still (at least that's how I think it works), so I look over at the less smiley one at this point who is completely frozen and sullen, and I realize that this is more of a big deal to these guys than I initially thought.

I started to feel really bad at this point, and I was about to say something about the fickleness of insouciant youth when Elder No Smiles stands up suddenly and says, "Fuck!" sending the chair flying back toward the wall behind him. He lunges at the bin and grabs the Book of Mormon, taking the yogurt wrapper from the front of it and wiping it on his pant leg. He looks at me angrily. But not like he's angry at me, more like he's hurt.

I start to feel worse than bad at this point. I start to feel empathetic, which is worse because now I 'think' I understand where he's coming from. I picture myself in an foreign country, trying to do what I think is right, trying to communicate the thing that defines me as a person; gets me up in the morning; gives me purpose. I see people slamming the door in my face. I see people back home not understanding what I'm going through. The cold weather, the stupid suit, the kids backpack, the cheap bicycle, the dumb name tag. Everybody thinking my first name is Elder, and me hiding behind these things like a righteous crusader; starting to hate people even though I should love them; growing indignant. Resenting everyone for sending me here, my family, my elders, the church, and clinging to one thing to get me through on a daily basis - the word, my faith.

Everything else faded away at that point; only our stares.

"Lets go," Elder Elderberry said, as he grabbed his buddy by the shoulder; neither one of them looking at me as they walked out of the room.

I heard the door to the hallway open and close.

I let out a sigh, shook my head from side to side, and took a long drink from my cup of coffee.

exams

Studying makes me hungry

exams start tomorrow

the kitchen is now empty.

the little island of Mallorca

Don't ask me how I managed to put it off blogging about it for so long.. Mallorca was a wicked awesome trip and worth mentioning. It was kind of an impromptu thing back in early December; bmibaby.com was having a special on flights to the little Spanish island in the Mediterranean and friend and I decided that it was time to get away from the dreary weather of Wales and go exploring for a bit, so with just a few days of trip planning and backpack in tote we set off to take in some sun, eat some tapas, and relax before our final papers for the semester were do.

We got in late on a Monday night and took a cab to the hostel we had booked. I've gotta mention that there was a moment were the driver took us through the most run down part of Playa, which felt more like a trip through border town Mexico (oh how I miss those trips to Juarez) than the Meditoranian gem that were looking forward to, where we both looked at eachother and silently mouthed a "what the f*#@." The moment was however short lived, as the road took us down to the beach and to our hostel.

Side Note, aka hostel plug: [Colin and, and... oh well I cant remember the other guys name, were a couple of blokes from the UK who decided they wanted to live the dream, so they moved to Spain and opened a little hostel, which was actually more like a hotel with separate rooms and showers and what not, all for 15euro a night (Mallorca turned out to be uber cheap - ill get to more of that in a minute...).]

With our hostel and everything in check we spent the next couple days exploring the towns of Arenal, and Palma. Everywhere we went we saw these signs. Im not so good at spanish, but i think they had something to do with the holidays. -hehe


Jensina outside the La Sui Palma Cathedral




We were eager to see the rest of the island and decided to rent a car (35euro for 5 days thru www.doyouspain.com - told you spain was cheap!) You can pretty much get anywhere on the island in less than an hour, so we picked a little blue thing that I decided to pose on

and Jencina managed to wreck into a fence - ha


Driving around and checking things out turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The island has a maze of little roads that wind through orange, walnut, and olive groves to secluded little beaches.