Just though I would put up the official results from my race back on the 19th. I was starting to wonder if they would ever publish them and then on the official website they put out a press release but never the overall results... but they finally did, kind of. Instead of posting them on their site, they emailed them out to all the participants. I thought that was different. I have never seen that done before, but hey, I got my results... kind of.
You see, in the official results my name is not listed. Once again I'm sure a well intending volunteer convinced themself that surely the list must be wrong, who would have "John" as a last name? That's right. So even though I registered electronically and even though the name was listed correctly on the sign-in sheet the morning of the race, at some point the volunteer (must keep reminding myself of that fact) took it upon themself to "rectify" the situation to which they had no evidence to the contrary other than their preconceived notion of what is and what isn't an acceptable last name... Although I am well accustomed to that happening throughout my life, I will NEVER accept it without at least a small twinge in my gut.
Okay, venting over, now the results!
Official time: 24:15 (as I stated in my original post)
Total Runners: 198
Overall place: 27th
Male place: 24th
Males age 35-39: 4th (yep, 1st non-podium looser!)
As for what is next. I am signed up to run the Cactus ChaCha in Phoenix Arizona the weekend I am out there for business. I am running that with my brother and one of his boys. Feel free to join us if you can. That should be fun!
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Monday, March 31, 2008
Paris, or at least the Eiffel Tower
I promised way back when that I would write about my trip to France. Of course it has taken me close to a month to sit down and write about my trip. This was definitely a business trip as I had very little time for sightseeing. I didn’t have a car or a window of time larger than an hour at a time to get out. I was in Paris for a training conference to join my company’s Environmental, Health, and Safety Internal Audit Team. I have mentioned before that I started to work for a French owned company in the middle of last year. Their corporate offices are in Paris, just blocks from the Eiffel Tower. My hotel was located about halfway between the tower and our offices. You can see the relative locations on this map. The red line is a rough course of my daily runs. I would do 2-3 laps around the gardens each day I was there.
I arrived on Monday and had about 4 hours to roam before dinner with the group. Had I known how much I would be able to visit the Eiffel Tower the rest of the week I would have been better served to try and get to the Louvre, Notre Dame, or the Arc de Triumph that afternoon. But no, I went to the Tower and walked the grounds all the way around, roamed a little into the city to the west, and came back along the river. This is probably the best of the pictures I took that day.
I was in class each day from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm and then would meet the group for dinner at 7:00. I squeezed my daily runs in that 6:00-7:00 pm window before dinner. Luckily it was actually meet at 7:00 in the hotel lobby for drinks, leave for the restaurant at 7:30. Since I wasn’t drinking, it was a good excuse to avoid the awkwardness of that social time to say I had to get a run in.
Although I didn’t see many sights, I did experience France in other ways. The food was excellent to say the least! I took a picture of my lunch one day because I got such a kick out of what they considered "Fast Food". Our lunch was brought in each day on these trays with food superior to 95% of American Restaurants. For dinner during the week I tried several different meals including: escargot, duck, "flat fish", and beef sirloin. Each of those was top notch. You add the yogurt, fruit desserts, excellent cheeses and breads, chocolate mouse, and other pastries to the mix, and I was in heaven. All the running in the world didn’t stop me from gaining several pounds while I was over there. Oh well, when will I get the chance to do that again?
As for some of the other pictures I have: of course the tower at night and a picture of me, at sunset, with the tower in the background taken from a deck at our corporate offices. I really didn’t get to see that much else. I saw the tunnel and monument where Princess Diana died so tragically. I saw the Arc from my taxi but wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of it. Same thing for the mini-Statue of Liberty they have commemorating the building of the real one given to the US. I did find it odd that the French don’t have a single TV channel with English programming like they did in both Spain and Hungary when I visited those countries.
All in all it was a great experience but one that left me wanting more. This is yet another place that I will return some day with my wife to share that experience with her. And for all the time I spent in and around the Tower, I never went up, because that is an experience I want to have with her.
I arrived on Monday and had about 4 hours to roam before dinner with the group. Had I known how much I would be able to visit the Eiffel Tower the rest of the week I would have been better served to try and get to the Louvre, Notre Dame, or the Arc de Triumph that afternoon. But no, I went to the Tower and walked the grounds all the way around, roamed a little into the city to the west, and came back along the river. This is probably the best of the pictures I took that day.
I was in class each day from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm and then would meet the group for dinner at 7:00. I squeezed my daily runs in that 6:00-7:00 pm window before dinner. Luckily it was actually meet at 7:00 in the hotel lobby for drinks, leave for the restaurant at 7:30. Since I wasn’t drinking, it was a good excuse to avoid the awkwardness of that social time to say I had to get a run in.
Although I didn’t see many sights, I did experience France in other ways. The food was excellent to say the least! I took a picture of my lunch one day because I got such a kick out of what they considered "Fast Food". Our lunch was brought in each day on these trays with food superior to 95% of American Restaurants. For dinner during the week I tried several different meals including: escargot, duck, "flat fish", and beef sirloin. Each of those was top notch. You add the yogurt, fruit desserts, excellent cheeses and breads, chocolate mouse, and other pastries to the mix, and I was in heaven. All the running in the world didn’t stop me from gaining several pounds while I was over there. Oh well, when will I get the chance to do that again?
As for some of the other pictures I have: of course the tower at night and a picture of me, at sunset, with the tower in the background taken from a deck at our corporate offices. I really didn’t get to see that much else. I saw the tunnel and monument where Princess Diana died so tragically. I saw the Arc from my taxi but wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of it. Same thing for the mini-Statue of Liberty they have commemorating the building of the real one given to the US. I did find it odd that the French don’t have a single TV channel with English programming like they did in both Spain and Hungary when I visited those countries.
All in all it was a great experience but one that left me wanting more. This is yet another place that I will return some day with my wife to share that experience with her. And for all the time I spent in and around the Tower, I never went up, because that is an experience I want to have with her.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Travel Time
One of the greatest things about my job change last May was that my travel went from roughly 60% to almost non-existent. It has been fantastic to not miss all those little things with the kids that I was depending on my wife to provide the parental face for. She definitely pulls more than her fair share of that still but I have been FAR more available to participate in my kids lives over the last 9 months. Before last week I think I had made a three day trip to New York, and 2 or 3 overnighters in that entire 9 month period. I think that is what is making last week and next week feel so painful.
Last week I spent Monday through Thursday in Greeneville, TN at a company safety conference. Very enjoyable, great hotel, learned quite a bit, but still much harder than a 4 day trip was just a year ago. Having got out of that routine, it was VERY hard not to come home to a wife and family every night. Combine that with a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and the associated impact on the scale upon my return) and you have a depressing trip. I did have my highest mileage running week since my race last fall but that was not enough to offset the additional calories from an "I can resist anything but temptation" buffet table.
Next week I fly to Paris for a company meeting. Since this is a bit nicer location than Greeneville, TN, I am trying to stay on the positive side and focus on the experience. It will be very hard to enjoy the "experience" however, without my wife. Spouses are welcome to come along for this meeting and I invited mine but all with an air of reality that there are 4 little ones that we can't just dump on someone, during a school week, while I drag my wife to the other side of the world. I have done this kind of trip in the past, Hungary, Spain, England, without my wife but somehow Paris is different. I feel like my wife should be with me on my first trip there somehow. Nothing I can do about it now I guess, other than to promise her that someday she and I will visit these locations I enjoyed so much... plus others.
So this post has no real theme other than the joys and frustrations of travel, for business, not pleasure. It is most definitely not one and the same.
But for now, any of my French friends have suggestions as to what I should try and see on Monday the 3rd? I arrive late morning and will have the rest of that day to go sightseeing before my meetings the 4th through the 6th. So, if you only had one afternoon.... what would you go see? And don't say the Eiffel Tower, because that, I am saving for my wife...
Last week I spent Monday through Thursday in Greeneville, TN at a company safety conference. Very enjoyable, great hotel, learned quite a bit, but still much harder than a 4 day trip was just a year ago. Having got out of that routine, it was VERY hard not to come home to a wife and family every night. Combine that with a buffet for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and the associated impact on the scale upon my return) and you have a depressing trip. I did have my highest mileage running week since my race last fall but that was not enough to offset the additional calories from an "I can resist anything but temptation" buffet table.
Next week I fly to Paris for a company meeting. Since this is a bit nicer location than Greeneville, TN, I am trying to stay on the positive side and focus on the experience. It will be very hard to enjoy the "experience" however, without my wife. Spouses are welcome to come along for this meeting and I invited mine but all with an air of reality that there are 4 little ones that we can't just dump on someone, during a school week, while I drag my wife to the other side of the world. I have done this kind of trip in the past, Hungary, Spain, England, without my wife but somehow Paris is different. I feel like my wife should be with me on my first trip there somehow. Nothing I can do about it now I guess, other than to promise her that someday she and I will visit these locations I enjoyed so much... plus others.
So this post has no real theme other than the joys and frustrations of travel, for business, not pleasure. It is most definitely not one and the same.
But for now, any of my French friends have suggestions as to what I should try and see on Monday the 3rd? I arrive late morning and will have the rest of that day to go sightseeing before my meetings the 4th through the 6th. So, if you only had one afternoon.... what would you go see? And don't say the Eiffel Tower, because that, I am saving for my wife...
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Disappointed
I have to admit I am somewhat disappointed. I was really kind of proud of my celebrity challenge post but for some reason, not a single person even tried to identify these people... I know I barred my wife from playing, maybe that was a mistake. Maybe then I would have had someone play... I know people are coming to the site based on the Cluster Map I have on my site. Shucks, even the guy in China didn't make a guess! I realize you all have better things to do than look up celebrities but if you guys don't play along, I may just have to write more of my treadmill exploits, and I'm sure none of you want that, right?
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Weekends for the Traveller, Blood Sweat & Tears
After being on the road for 6 of the last 8 weeks our weekends are to say the least, crazy. With both Jamie and I trying to catch up with our chores when I am home for the weekend our Saturdays are often quite full. Jamie tries to run the errands that can't be done easily with a crew of kids, I try to make our yard halfway presentable, and when you throw in birthday parties, it can be maddening.
Today was no exception to that rule. Our neighborhood had its annual beautify the neighborhood entrance cleanup. I ran off to do that from 9-12 while Jamie stayed with the kids. Soon after I got home Jamie ran off with one of the kids to a birthday party and to do the weekly grocery shopping. I started the yard work here at home. That is one downside to the south. In New Mexico I could mow the lawn every two weeks and maybe mess with the hedges 1-2 times per year and the yard looked great. Here, everything grows so fast it seems like I am constantly cutting something back. My brother would never run short of compost material out here!
To be fair to my wife, she did tell me that she would be home at 2 to pick up the kids so I could get to my 2:15 blood donation. The fact that this didn't translate in my head to "please have the kids dressed and ready at 2 so I can take them to finish my shopping with me after I pick up Mischa" I blame on the male mind. She was rightfully not too happy when she pulled up at 2, me in the yard working, and three kids running around still in their jammies. Mischa's party was over at 2:15 as well so we packed up the jammied kids and I got the assignment of finishing the shopping after my blood donation.
One more rotation of me coming home, Jamie doing some more shopping, while I did yet more yard work and you get us to the present. This is the first break longer than 10 minutes I have had today and I choose to use it typing on this thing, what am I thinking...? Whoever thinks weekends are for resting from a hard week on the job is delusional (or just doesn't travel for work). I will catch up, eventually...
Today was no exception to that rule. Our neighborhood had its annual beautify the neighborhood entrance cleanup. I ran off to do that from 9-12 while Jamie stayed with the kids. Soon after I got home Jamie ran off with one of the kids to a birthday party and to do the weekly grocery shopping. I started the yard work here at home. That is one downside to the south. In New Mexico I could mow the lawn every two weeks and maybe mess with the hedges 1-2 times per year and the yard looked great. Here, everything grows so fast it seems like I am constantly cutting something back. My brother would never run short of compost material out here!
To be fair to my wife, she did tell me that she would be home at 2 to pick up the kids so I could get to my 2:15 blood donation. The fact that this didn't translate in my head to "please have the kids dressed and ready at 2 so I can take them to finish my shopping with me after I pick up Mischa" I blame on the male mind. She was rightfully not too happy when she pulled up at 2, me in the yard working, and three kids running around still in their jammies. Mischa's party was over at 2:15 as well so we packed up the jammied kids and I got the assignment of finishing the shopping after my blood donation.
One more rotation of me coming home, Jamie doing some more shopping, while I did yet more yard work and you get us to the present. This is the first break longer than 10 minutes I have had today and I choose to use it typing on this thing, what am I thinking...? Whoever thinks weekends are for resting from a hard week on the job is delusional (or just doesn't travel for work). I will catch up, eventually...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Celebrity Sightings
I have been traveling for work for over two and a half years now. In all of those flights I always thought it was funny that I didn't see more celebrities at the airports I visited. In all that time I saw a grand total of 3 faces that I recognized. Then, in the last month I have seen another 3 in rapid succession including 2 within minutes of each other at the Newark airport and another on Tuesday as I was flying out from Atlanta. Not that I am a celebrity hound but I do get a bit of a kick out of it. The bane of my existence is that although I NEVER forget a face, I RARELY can put a name to it. So here is my challenge to you, I will give you a picture and a very simple clue, can you name the celebrity? Some are pretty easy some are a bit more obscure. Here they are in the order that I have seen them in my journeys. (BTW, Jamie, since we have discussed these sightings, you get to sit this one out...)
Sports Commentator
Space Portal 
Mock the Foam, Fear the Foam
TV Fuzz
Penny Pincher
So Who is Who?
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