August was been a busy month. Work, pack, unpack. Rinse and repeat. Two weekends ago, Sarah and I went up to Mt Hood to volunteer at the PCT Ultramarathon. It was inspirational to see people finish 50 MILES of running and although I can't say I've ever had the desire to run that far, I do miss trail running. I did the 50K a few years ago though. A 50k is easier to wrap your head around, especially if you are crazy, because it's "only" about 5 miles longer than a marathon. If you take on a 50 miler, you run a marathon and you're just over half done at that point. OMG.
To continue the weekend of insanity, after staying overnight in the cabin we drove to Larch mountain for a time trial. I could not think of any excuses as it was kind of on the way back to Portland. An x-mile uphill time trial also known as OUCH (Oregon Uphill CHampionship). Appropriatly named. Since I haven't done this race before, and haven't been "training" with any intensity, I had no expectations. No power meter, no target heart rate, and no clue how sore I would be the next day. OUCH indeed. I ended up doing OK though, and right behind Sarah again. I thought it was funny that although we haven't been training together, we still finished 35 seconds apart on a 1hr 17min TT. We both got second in our respective categories. To round out the weekend, I went to work at 2pm and worked until 2am. As is normal for Sunday but didn't help work with the lactic acid buildup in my legs.
Worked Monday, Tuesday, and then was off again, this time to the airport. Airborne just a few hours after getting off work at 2am. I suppose I was asking for it; caught a cold somewhere between Portland and New York City. Landed in New York, found the fro yo place (had a sore throat, you know), and crashed at the hotel for 5 hours. I regained consciousness just in time for my brother to text me that he had landed. Go time.
First day, Rockefeller center. We took the NBC studio took and checked out the Top of the Rock.
Having fun with the Empire State Building.
This would fit perfectly on my mantle!
Bird's eye view of a running mecca, Central Park.
Evening was dinner at an Italian restaurant and people watching in Times Square. And coffee of course. Lots of coffee throughout the entire trip.
Second day got off to a really early start. We decided to go see the Black eyed peas who were playing in Central park as part of the Good Morning America summer concert series. Up at 5am and joined the line filing into Central Park by 6. With Tim Horton doughnuts and coffee of course, we have our priorities- peas or no peas. Got into the concert area at about 6:30, and the "concert" was advertised to be from 7-9. Imma be tired of standing around by 8. We listened to this band called Sound Check that played the same thing over and over, and the Black eyed peas came out at 8:30 to play 3 songs.
Peas talking with the show hosts.
So when you see these concerts on TV and they seem to cut into the show part way, they're really not. That is the whole show. So, free was a good price! But it was pretty cool, and kind of strange to be at a concert just after dawn. Off to do some shopping. A discount department store called Century 21, where I bought a leopard-print purse. Walked up to Soho and ran into Kanye West at Jamba Juice.
Don't know what he ordered, neither Darren or I are big fans. He definitely stood out at Jamba Juice though.
Pretzel from a street vendor and off to a Broadway show, Promisies Promises. This was just an awesome show.
The show's billboard in Times Square.
Sean Hayes was really funny, a lot of Jack-like humor if you were a fan of Will and Grace. We got our Playbills signed after the show.
Stage door action. Got my autograph!
Kristin Chenowyth is super tiny, but the woman can sing big.
Third day: haircut on 5th Avenue. I did this after the NY marathon a few years ago, it's quite the indulgence :) Darren passed on that opportunity and went to see a matinee of Phantom since he hadn't seen it. I proceded to get my hair nice and sweaty with a run in Central park. I am not supposed to run on pavement yet, which I figured would be a challenge in New York City. Luckily the NYRR website described a cinder trail around the reservoir. I think it was about a mile, and totally perfect. I couldn't believe my luck finding this trail; rehabbing an injury can be fun. If not for that I would have run just anywhere.
This is what running is all about. I love running in new places when I travel, so being able to do that here made me very happy :) :)
After that we saw a different kind of show called Next to Normal. Completely different than the one we had seen the previous night, but very good.
"Next to Normal" might be pushing it for us. Why be Normal?
The next day was basically spent sleeping in and getting to the airport. Bagels, check. Pizza, check. Actually we had done a lot of the touristy things last time we came to NYC a few years ago: Empire state building, Statue of Libery, WTC site, Today and Dave Letterman shows. So this trip was a bit more relaxed.
Back to work for 3.5 days- ugh. Unpack, grab laundry off the floor from two weekends ago and do more laundry, pack it. Clean the bike and pack it. Oh, and go through the *mountain* of mail that Lindsay has piled up for me on the table. It was literally toppling over, without much room for two more weeks of mail. This morning was the Garlic festival 10K, where I volunteered at my usual spot on death corner and saved lives. A quick track run followed, and then it was off to the airport again, bike box and 47.9lb suitcase in tow. I'm blogging on the plane with an Alaskan Amber; Off to Barton springs, Mellow Johnny's and Sixth Street. And per diem. Oh, and I might learn something.
**Update- I did!
After I return from 2 weeks of play-work in the Lone Star state, I work-work for 2 days and head north to Ironman Canada for a weekend of swim, bike, run, volunteering and cheering. Hmm...I may have overextended myself for the month of August.
**Confirmed! I just want to sleep for the next week, after handing off the on-call pager.
