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So, some catching up…

The expo. The expo was held in the Alamodome, which was by far the largest venue for a Rock and Roll event. It was necessary, however, as 30,000 people signed up for the race. The expo was absolutely packed, especially on Saturday.

There was a long line for our survey (at one point it wrapped around two sides of our booth), and several times there were so many people in the Crocs area you could barely move. We had some record-breaking numbers this weekend, and overall from a work standpoint it was a good event.

Saturday night we headed out for our final team dinner. We walked along the riverwalk for a while, which reminds me a bit of New Orleans Bourbon Street, only with a canal down the middle and a little more tame.

I also walked over to the Tower of the Americas, which is basically a less intesting knock-off space needle. It even has a revolving restaurant at the top.

We got to the Italian restaurant, where we proceeded to have great food and horrid service. We sat waiting for our table, which sat open for a half hour before we were seated. Then we waited for 10 minutes before we were brought water. Another 15 minutes elapsed before our drink orders arrived. The appetizers and salads took long enough that we worried the entrees would arrive before them. And we asked for more bread three times before getting it. Finally, Molly and Lyndsay ordered a pork tenderloin to split, and they were brought a steak. Granted, a really good steak. All the food was great. The service was just so dismal it was almost comical.

I got an entry into the half-marathon Sunday morning, so Molly (who was also running) and I met at 6:30 to go catch a shuttle to the start line for the 7:30 start. The race organizers hadn’t planned for the shuttle demand correctly, and we weren’t able to board a shuttle until 7:10. We got to the start area at 7:30, and we figured the race had been postponed because there were still many people who were on shuttles behind us. Wrong. I found out the elite wave had just started and I was in corral #1. I proceeded to run the length of 32 corrals to get to corral 1 as the runners left. Good warm-up. With my heart rate at 195 from racing down to the starting line, I got off to a faster start than I probably should have, but overall I ran a very steady race.

My goal time was 1:35:00 after having run a 1:39 in Philadelphia with very little training. I averaged a 7:08 pace after 5K, 7:02 after 10 Miles, and 7:06 overall, resulting in a finishing time of 1:33:03. Success!

The training paid off not only in getting faster, but also in recovery. I wasn’t as sore yesterday or today in comparison with after Philadelphia. Still hobbling around a bit, but if I wasn’t it would mean I didn’t run hard enough.

After the race we packed up our finish line set-up and said goodbye to Lyndsay who flew out to go home before starting her job for the coming winter months at a ski shop.

Then we drove north to Dallas where we got to see the new apartment of Nate and Whitney (his girlfriend). He started work today, so it was an extremely fast turnaround between jobs for him. We said our goodbyes, and this morning Molly and I got started on a long 650 mile drive to Albaquerque, New Mexico. About 300 miles in, my truck started to lose acceleration like it has done many times before, and after several more incidents we were worried that we wouldn’t be making it without some repiars. We put some new fuel in the truck and tried to get it going on the road again. Sure enough, we made it the last 200 miles on new diesel fuel without incident. At this point we’re thinking/hoping we got a bad tank of fuel from a station in Texas.

Assuming the truck decides to cooperate tomorrow, we’ll go to Flagstaff, where I’ll get to see my brother for the first time since August!

Yesterday I went with Lyndsay and Molly to a Mexican place for lunch (what else would we be having in San Antonio?) The place was called La Margarita, and fittingly enough we had margaritas and puffy tacos. Yum.

We’re staying at the Residence Inn again, so we took advantage of the free dinner food and drink (boxed wine). After dinner – actually, hold that thought. Earlier we decided that we wanted to see the new 007 movie coming out this Friday, so we made plans to watch the previous one first since the new one coming out follows up on the last one. I decided to go to Blockbuster and rent it, and instead came away buying the movie. It was on sale for $9.99, which seemed like a steal compared to $4 for rental, plus having to fill out a membership form to rent, plus having to return the movie. So, after dinner, we watched the movie again. It’s a good one, and I hope the next one is as compelling a story and well acted (with some good action and explosions on the side).

This morning Nate and I went for a run and explored the famous San Antonio riverwalk area, which really isn’t a good place to run. The paths kind of stop and start, and there were plenty of stairways to add some cross-training to the mix. Regardless, it was a good run and a decent way to see some of the city.

For lunch we had more Mexican. This time the place was Rosario’s. I had enchiladas with rice and beans and fajita chicken with fresh tortillas.

Then we went to set up for the expo that begins tomorrow. That went pretty much as normal, except after finishing we worked on the project of moving everything we don’t need for Seattle into one truck so that we can leave one truck in Vegas while Molly and I take the other to Seattle. Had I mentioned that both Nate and Lyndsay are done after this weekend? Sad times!

We took advantage of the free snacks and drinks again tonight (pretzels and beer)! I took full advantage, as the bartender was an enabler and kept offering me drinks. Four beers later with a nice buzz going, we went off to find some dinner.

Wanting to make sure we don’t wear the Mexican food out, we went for barbeque at The County Line. It couldn’t quite compare to Nashville BBQ, but was still excellent, and came complete with a riverfront view and a mariachi band working its way around the dining room.

Why all the focus on food in San Antonio? Partly because I love Tex-Mex, and partly because while the atmosphere in San Antonio is nice, there really isn’t a ton to see or do. Not that free drinks and great food and movies is anything to complain about.

Back in San Antonio. Hotel Life again.

Would have been lucky in Vegas. $7.77 airport purchase.

Rode the plane. Three of them. Obligatory token window shot.

Awesome Portland Landing. Big crosswind. Can’t normally see the runway out the window while landing. Did today. Examples here. Not quite that extreme. But still. Fun times in a smaller plane.

Complete sentences? Don’t need them.

That’s right Mr. Joseph “The Cat” Mucha. Sure, blogs may be SO 2004, but really I’m writing a book – a travel journal – more than anything. I’m doing it for me. And only me. Any pleasure you get out of reading it… well good on you. Sure, I have a certain appreciation and understanding of Web 2.0 (and could even see myself working in tech), but I have no use for videos and embedded objects when eventually I’m going to store it to look back on.

As for blog humor, I crack myself up. If I’m not smiling or at least feeling introspective when I blog, I’m doing it wrong. The humor is in the subtle references, the ironic moments, the inside jokes, and hopefully in my prose if I’m writing well. Read deep. You’ll find it.

I love you Broseph. Here’s your shout-out. Go suck a widget. And find me a job while you’re at it!

Today has been all about jobs, and the pursuit thereof. I spent a good chunk of time revamping my resume and now have what I feel is nearly a fresh, polished working version. Or five. I have so many slight variations on my resume it almost becomes confusing to remember which is the most recent. It ends up changing slightly for nearly every job I apply for anyway, so close to finished is about as good as it ever gets.

I then proceeded to search for jobs to apply for. One thing is for sure – there are less jobs than there were in June. There are less than there were a month ago. Another trend I’m noticing is hiring freezes… career site listings for large companies with zero open positions. I’m coming into this search expecting it to be anything but easy, but I have decided on a strategy. I’m not going to settle. Not yet at least. Instead, I’m focusing on a slightly longer-term goal of a top school MBA and will look for positions that can get me closer to that goal. This job has allowed me to save enough to stay afloat for a while, so at least for now, I’m aiming high.

I also spent a while on the Businessweek website, which prompted me to put into words a thought I’ve had for a while but haven’t really thought out regarding Obama. Part of what impressed me so greatly about him and his campaign was the marketing that went into it. Obama has become a brand, and a great one at that. To supporters and even some people that opposed him, he has a very symbolic element that embodies hope and change – an element reinforced vigourously by his campaign’s ads and his speeches. Of course, Obama also ran the best internet campaign of a presidential candidate in history (though I suppose there haven’t been that many since the internet’s coming of age). His campaign seamlessly merged social marketing and voter-pull strategies to fully engage younger voters, and younger voters responded by, believe it or not, voting! As a whole, Obama’s brand stayed extremely clear for the entire duration of the campaign. He never went off-brand, and a big part of what helped that was his refusal to go negative.

Here’s a link to the Businessweek article.

Now for some time away from the computer screen.

Last night I went out for a slightly more tame evening than the previous two, and I made the rounds between campus and downtown. The Eugene bar scene is still pretty much the Eugene bar scene (not to say that’s a bad thing).

Today I went to lunch with relatives, and then did my duty as a cycling team alum and helped with their Mac Court cleanup fundraiser after the basketball game. It’s not the most interesting nor fun task, but given my past experience as team president and the difficulty of getting people to show up to help out, I figured I’d sign up to help Ivar out.

Then I went for dinner at Chris and Karey’s house. Lots of good conversation, including Chris describing an “Olympic sandwich” he had in a bike race this summer where he found himself between Levi Leipheimer and Santiago Botero, both of whom placed well at this year’s Olympics.

After dinner Chris and I went on a run. It was my final semi-long run before I’ll hopefully be doing the race next weekend. Most of the run was at a fairly easy pace, but I did push it for a mile or so and like to think I made Chris hurt a bit, in spite of how ridiculously athletic he is on a bike.

After the run, Leeann came over and I was treated to a bassoon/flute duet.

That’s about it in this neck of the woods. Another day in Eugene, and it’s back to life on tour.

Yesterday I managed to get myself a ticket for the Oregon Stanford football game. Thanks Dick!

I took time to stop by Life Cycle, Club Sports, the B School, and other campus hangouts.

While retracing my steps through my undergrad degree, the feeling I thought might hit me while in Eugene definitely did. I went and watched On The Rocks (a capella group) with relatives and felt like everyone around me was much, much younger and in a completely different situation than myself. School already feels like a long time ago. Looking backwards made me ponder forwards and what exactly my path might be. I’ve been feeling recently that while the whole find a career, get married, have kids, retire, die thing is all good, I don’t always feel necessarily has to be for me (especially the dying part). I’ve been feeling rather entrepreneurial as of late, and I think I just need to refine my passions. I definitely want to get an MBA, but I also feel like traveling, exploring, and potentially doing some sort of something humanitarian (Peace Corps-esque?)

Anyway, back to yesterday. I had some great stew and dessert with relatives, and tried some Apple-flavored alcohol Rachel brought back from Germany.

Next up it was off to bowling with a trio of cycling team couples (I played seventh wheel). We had a great time, even as they proceeded to be gossip-mongers (the guys especially). Apparently people can read into my blog easier than I think.

We had a close battle the second game, with everyone doing equally badly. The quote of the night had to be an exchange with Mike – one that would only happen with a group of cyclists. Somehow the fact that I haven’t been shaving my legs came up, and Mike said (with much emphasis), “You have hairy legs? Ooh, let me see!” (I show a calf) “Wow, Nice!”

After bowling I met up with Rhett and we went to Rennies, where the cheesy bacon fries complement alcohol very nicely.

And if that wasn’t enough, we made the 3AM Burrito Boy run as well.

This morning I lounged around before going to the football game. I was debating whether to sit at the 50 yard line since that’s where the ticket was or sneak my way into the student section because it’s more raucaus and I had friends there. I decided on the student section option. Standing up sounded better anyway – less surface area to get rained on. The new online student ticket system makes it even easier than before for non-students to get into the student section. Students get an arm stamp, so after I went through the gate, I found some random person with a fresh stamp and had them transfer it across onto my arm. It comes out backwards and a little smeared, but given the fact that it was rainy I just had to pick a moment where the stamp-checker was busy and he barely looked at it.

I met up with Karl and saw a few other friends. Karl immediately pointed out the new big-screen in the stadium. I was really impressed with the way they’ve managed to make it much more versitile than the old one. And I’m a nerd.

The game itself was good, mostly because it was close. The play was sloppy on both sides, and there were too many turnovers to count, but the scores remained close the entire game. It rained hard for much of the beginning of the game and most of the second half, and part of me wished it was a blowout so I could go get warm, but the game was only decided with 6 seconds left when Oregon went ahead 35-28 with a touchdown. Definitely an exciting ending. The game was only the fourth time in the last 16 years that it has rained during a game at Autzen.

After the game I went and jumped in the hot tub to get warm. Then I went with the cousins for some shopping, which randomly turned into cologne smelling because I made a comment about wanting to get some at some point. Right now is not the most opportune time, however, because I don’t want to carry a glass bottle around with me on tour.

We had Cafe Yummm for dinner, and now I’m about to go out again for the night.

P.S. Stephen says that I’m selfish with my responses and that I should tell everyone that. I’m not even sure what he means, so I’ll let him elaborate.

Yesterday, Lyndsay and I spent a good chunk of the day shopping in San Antonio.

It’s amazing to see how the iMac has evolved from a clunky large plastic box.

And ladies, Sawyer has his own fragrance line! Now you too can smell like… dirt, and not showering, and…

And of course, Under Armor does a fabulous job of stating the obvious. Coldgear: for when it’s cold.

This morning we dropped off the truck for service before heading to the airport. I couldn’t help but notice that this is almost exactly what our truck would look like were it not for the large box on the back.

Also of note, how ironic is it that California Pizza Kitchen’s express airport kiosks don’t serve pizza?

Today I read Three Cups of Tea cover to cover during my various flights. I had no idea what I was in for and was amazed at Greg Mortensen’s life story and his impact on children and villages across the globe. Thanks for the lend, Molly. It made me feel like I could certainly be doing a lot more than selling plastic shoes to runners.

Upon arriving for a longer-than-need-be layover in Portland, I definitely felt a little more at home.

And somehow or another, due to the massive number of people I want to see this weekend, I found myself drinking with Rhett two hours after I stepped off the plane in Eugene.

Also visited the old stomping grounds a bit, and I expect I’ll be back again throughout the course of the weekend. Burrito Boy at 3AM is an absolute must.

Seen so far in my first 4 hours in Eugene:

Rachel
Kat
Leonor
Ivar
Rhett
Matt
Aaron
Benton

Still to see:

too many to list

I think my anxiety for coming back to Eugene fearing I’d find myself out of place is gone. I have a lot more left here than I thought, even if school here is starting to feel like a distant memory.

We have elected a new president, and I’m extremely excited and hopeful because it’s Barack Obama.  It’s been an emotional ride, and I am very pleased to see that polls have been accurate and the American people have not let themselves down.  

Any guesses on what breed of puppy he’ll be getting his girls?

In other news, CNN now has holographic interviewees.  It’s a little, um, awkward.

After a 600 mile day with some ups and downs and lots of beautiful fall colors, Lyndsay and I ended up in Birmingham, Alabama. Along the way, something new happened. After four months of traveling this tour, we stopped at a rest stop.

I’m amazed it took this long. Then again, when you have to get fuel every 200 miles you don’t really have to stop more often.

I decided I wanted to get lost in a movie, so we went to get more lemons and then ended up at a movie theater. It was there – at the ticket booth, that my day was made. I decided to pay with cash, and I was handed back three shiny quarters as change. I thought they looked rather new, so I turned them over, and behold…

They’re Alaska state quarters! Don’t ask my why exactly this got me so excited, but it was exactly the pick-me-up I needed, and Lyndsay can attest that I think I literally jumped up and down out of excitement. I can remember when the first state quarters came out way back when and how far off the Alaska quarter minting seemed. Now it’s here. Where has all that time gone?

Yeah, that’s right. Lemons.