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
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
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...
Sunday, April 19, 2009
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...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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
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
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