Fight for Air Climb (Day 39)

This morning I woke up at 6:30 and dragged myself to the City with a hangover (courtesy of the Warriors) and in the midst of sideways rain caused by gale force winds.

I arrived at the tallest building around, rather wet, collected my bib and timing chip (after multiple attempts and a relocation of the registration tables to somewhere dry), checked my gear, and then proceeded to climb to the top of the building, 52 stories and 1197 steps. This was the 2012 American Lung Association Fight for Air Climb, and I participated as part of the Bank of America Community Volunteers team courtesy of a TNT ski buddy. We were the third team to climb after the firefighters and CrossFit. Many of the fire fighters climbed in full gear - I cannot imagine how much that weighs.

I obviously hadn't trained for this event and was rather nervous about how difficult it was going to be, but it turned out to go much faster and easier than I had expected. I finished in under 13 minutes. At the top, there were spreads of bagels and fruit, a DJ, and amazing views, looking down on everything else around. There were a million volunteers for this event and they were fantastic.

I had worried about claustrophobia in the stairwell, but it was rather big, and they stagger starts by 8 seconds so there were never all that many people around. The elevator ride back down was much worse.

Overall, it was a fun time, and I am sure it would have been even better without the terrible weather and consequent clusterf*** surrounding registration, as well as all the people packed into the lobby creating a din. It was so much nicer to be on top. I would definitely do this event again, and so should you!

Ant Infestation (Day 37)

On Tuesday it poured. While walking to BART with my laptop in a bag and under my umbrella (or so I thought anyway), my laptop got wet through my bag. When I arrived home and stepped under cover to dig my keys out, I noticed thousands of tiny ant swarming up on the threshold. I hoped upon hope that they had not gone inside. I imagined millions of ants eating every errant crumb in the kitchen, coating the counters.

When I walked in, there were hundreds of ants, but luckily they had not seemed to find a trail yet so were mostly milling around just inside the door and around the door frame. This is not the first time we have had ants inside the house, so I reached for my spray bottle of soapy water and took aim. Soon, I had masses of dead ants. I wiped up the dead ants on the threshold and door frame to avoid creating any juice when I shut the door, but I did not clean up all the many other dead ants inside the house. I guess maybe I was hoping Matt would take care of it.

Matt did not, but when I approached the door yesterday, I realized that the huge mass of dead ants had disappeared. I guess the ants cleaned up themselves. I will have to remember to thank them.

Engineering (Day 36)

Matt likes to make fun of engineers a lot. He thinks all they do is plug numbers into equations. He considers them "less than" scientists. I like to defend engineers because I spent two and a half years in an engineering program before dropping out. In addition, both of us have graduate degrees from a college of engineering (although our program is no longer in that college).

Many of my jobs have bordered on engineering, and my first job out of grad school was even classified as Environmental Engineer. I have developed models, reviewed savings calculations from energy efficiency measures, and tried to understand various technologies as I help develop federal energy efficiency standards.

I am spending three days in a class about pumping systems, which will culminate in a test to become a qualified pump systems specialist, or some such designation. This test is really all about plugging numbers into equations, and in particular a tool that does all the calculations for you. This is definitely the part of engineering that Matt likes to make fun of, and it is certainly boring me to no end. I am glad I get to spend most of my days thinking about bigger picture issues like how to regulate pumps and other equipment instead of using these equations over and over again. (And I realize regulations probably sounds amazingly boring to a lot of other people! And it certainly can be.) One of the girls in my class (two others finally showed up) has her own company that does things such as performing audits to improve energy efficiency, and she noted that she likes being able to see a result at the end of every day. I may not see a result for three years, if ever. So I guess there are trade offs to everything!

Pumps, pumps, pumps (Day 35)

Three days of pumps.
What more could a girl ask for?
And I didn't even do my homework.
Note to self: probably not ready to go back to school.
Bernoulli is enough.

Cupcakes for a Penny?! (Day 34)

I have complained about my neighborhood before, I'm sure. It's very nice and pretty and well-maintained, and we see all sorts of people out walking about, but people just aren't friendly. They try to avoid eye contact. They don't respond when you say hi. They yell at their dogs for taking an interest in you.

Today as I walked home, a little girl was drawing in chalk on the sidewalk. As I approached she suddenly shot up and said, "Cupcakes for sale! Would you like a cupcake?" I stopped. Her little brother was sitting at a tiny table with a tray of cupcakes in front of him.

"How much?" I asked.

"One dollar," she proclaimed. Then, "One penny or one nickel."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"One penny or one nickel. How does that make you feel?" she responded.

"Well I think you should charge more," I offered.

I opened my wallet to find I had no dollar bills. "Do you have change?" I asked. This concept was a bit beyond them.

The father, who had been sitting on the steps, walked over and said, "It's one coin. Here's the deal: After we sell seven more of these cupcakes, I get to go inside."

I laughed and dropped my approximately 40 cents in change into their cup.

The little girl picked up a cupcake and held it towards me. "Would you like whipped cream or sprinkles?"

I declined, and continued on my way home. Quite a steal for a cupcake - the coffee shop down the road sells them for about $3.

I'm not sure if this was a spring break adventure. I'm kind of sad that the father was bored of hanging outside with his cute children who seemed to be quite enjoying themselves. It was a fairly nice day. But hey - at least I finally talked to someone in my neighborhood.

Oakland Running Festival Race Report (Day 33)

Well, I downgraded to the half, and as a result I got to sleep in for several hours. As I was heading to the BART station past all the full marathoners running through mile 5, a woman on the side of the road exclaimed, "Oh no, did you have to drop out?" I informed her I was running the half and it hadn't started just yet. When I arrived at BART, the platform was covered with many other runners heading to the race, and when we exited two stops later, I really don't think I had ever seen so many people in that station, even at rush hour.

The race started right across the street from where I used to work. I wished I still had the key card to get in the building because it was freezing outside and I had to use the restroom. But I headed into the park with the masses and shortly ran into a friend. When they let us into the corrals, it became claustrophobic. I am not sure there was quite enough room for the 4000 people that were supposedly starting the half. The pace markers were not very far apart.

The mayor greeted us, to not much cheering. I don't think she is very popular. However, the Oaktown pride was still alive, as someone near me in the corral yelled,"I love Oakland." People jumped up and down to the "I Work Out" song. Finally we started. The course was full of potholes, and it was difficult to deal with all the runners and try not to turn your ankles. There were also numerous turns on the course, and at every one, numerous jerks listening to music cut me off to cut the corner tight. I realize that ideally you should run the inside of the course, but when you are as slow as me (or really anybody who is not going to win the race), you should probably just hold a line.

There were not too many spectators along the first part of the course. At one point some people with a stroller went through the cross walk not far in front of me and not very fast. Someone in a "Half Full Running Club" shirt yelled at them, telling them we were in a race. Now, they could have crossed much faster, but it didn't slow this girl down much and she clearly wasn't going to win the race either way. I have no idea why you would want to make the local neighbors hate the race more than they might already. All her running club buddies commiserated with her. Net to self: do not join that running club.

Near the BART stations and by Lake Merritt, there were huge crowds of spectators. It was fabulous to have so many people out cheering for us. The TNT cheer and water station was a noisy tunnel of support, and of course I saw several people I knew there, although Matt did not notice me. I also saw one of my coworkers at a water station.

I can't say I enjoyed the course and event as much as I did last year when I ran 18 miles of the full as a bandit. The full takes you to more of the city, and there were not nearly so many runners packed so close together. I on't remember ever getting cut off at turns. And there was enough space to see and avoid all the potholes and uneven pavement.

In the end, I PRd. 1:56:20, about four and a half minutes faster than the PR I set last year at Kaiser. This course was definitely flatter, and the weather was perfect for running - 50 and cloudy. I didn't even rain. So I am glad I did this race. It was nice to roll out of bed and BART over to the start. But definitely not one of my favorite races. (Could be that I was just trying too hard.) Thanks to Matt and everyone else who was out there cheering or volunteering!

It Could Be Worse (Day 32)

As I was getting off the train on my way home from the Oakland Running Festival expo, the man next to me told me good luck. As we was also carrying expo goods, I told him the same and asked which race he was doing.

"I won't be running," he said. "I signed up for the full, but it's not going to happen this year."

His face and voice were deflated. I understood. And I will count myself lucky that at least I will be able to run and probably finish the half. A little rain, a little sore throat and cough, and a little toe problem never hurt anyone, right? Plus I will have TNTers cheering for me! Maybe I should wear purple.