InterBike Vegas!

A couple of days ago I was running a half marathon next to the Liberty Bell.
And now I am sitting in Vegas to enjoy what Interbike has to offer this week!

Speaking of the Half Marathon, this was probably the most stunning course that I have run this year!  So my mind has been persuaded a (bit) with how I feel about Philly!

Rock & Roll Philadelphia !

I am about to check another half marathon off.  the Philadelphia, PA ING Distance Classics..  One more medal, and one more step closer to completing the entire series.
Two weeks after that is the San Jose, CA Rock & Roll, which I did not attend last year, and then the very first San Antonio, TX coming shortly after that one.
As I am pretty worn out already, from all of the running I have done this year, it still feels good to check off another goal from  "The List."
I will be doing this event with Adam and this is his first half.
We ran 8 miles in D.C. together and he out ran me then!  So he'll have no problems finishing this one!

The expo was pretty slow yesterday, so Nate and I wondered around to the Saturn booth and somehow we found ourselves playing their Rock Band Set up.  At first I was against this game, but after playing it for a "short" amount of time ;)
It ended up being a pretty fun!
We 'borrowed' the game from our friends and had a rock band party that night with the five of us!

The Weekend

Is about to begin, I am in Philly again.  I try my hardest to like this city because of the history and what it represents.  But in reality this is a very bitter and spiteful city.  Not only do I not like it, but a lot of the people that live here don't like each other.  Everyone is just angry for no reason!
Anyway,
I have a couple of photos to post, let me know what you think:

Old Tampa Bay (photos) View

When I booked the hotel, it said on the river... well it's more like a canal!
During the day it did not look this beautiful I promise... but at night, that's another story!



I was in D.C. a couple of days ago, now I am in Baltimore and will be going to Philadelphia for the weekend.
I will be running the half marathon this weekend. (maybe) depends how I feel, but that's the plan right now.
Immediately after the event, I will be working my way across the U.S. to Las Vegas for Interbike!

Stolen Bike

It's been a long day and a long weekend. 
I come to my hotel room and login to my e-mail.  I have an e-mail from a dear friend Santiago Luna with the title "Stolen Bike."
In my head I am thinking, omg!  Someone stole Santiagos bike, and he's sending out distress e-mails in an attempt to get help to find his bike!
I then download the bike pictures and I see MY BIKE! not Santiagos!

Some how it skipped my mind that I loaned by bike to Jazy Garcia Olympic Cyclist for Guam, and good friend.
He is in my hometown in Texas this weekend, and I am in D.C. so it was convenient for him to borrow my bike.  I will run into him in about a week and half in Vegas for Interbike and pick up my Jazy Team Kit!  :)

911 & in D.C.

It's hard not to remember where we were when 911 happened.

I am in D.C. right now, very appropriate for today :)

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Head Bands...

or Bondi Bands?
Here are some Bondi Bands that I have designed.  I should have them ordered and ready to receive for me in a couple of weeks.  The best part for me is that I travel with Bondi Band, so since I don't actually have a 'residence' it is easy to meet up with her, and get a special delivery package face to face!
Here are the designs...

&


I think the second is my favorite!

Go Green-

I found the flyer on the Internet.  Make of it what you want :)

This Weekend...

This weekend was suppose to be an off weekend for me. Something came up, as something ALWAYS comes up and I am in Tampa Bay, Florida right now working a boat show. It seems that I am always at airports, and I have to admit that if I miss a week of not being at the airport I tend to find it weird.
I also found this picture that I forgot to post from Virginia Beach!
I named it :The Sunset Night:

Airport Company

This 'hick' dude is sitting on my right, his ringer is Michael Jackson 'Beat it' his voice sounds like he's old school Louisiana, he stinks of cigarette smoke and wears old blue jeans with white tennis shoes like seinfield is still in style.

The women next to me, on the other side,cannot eat without
making a sound.  First her wrapper is louder than a thunder storm, second her mouth sounds like a washing machine and when she does stop, it is to pick the small pieces out
like a small animal eating the left overs.

The Kite Runner

I finally finished the book...

The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan,

the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

Elite Racing "Rock & Roll Marathon Series!"

I have completed the top four, this gets me one more step closer to the big gold nugget!
It was EXTREMELY hot today during the half marathon!
When I was at mile 6, I saw this girl stop running, which is pretty normal for long distance races. She then stepped on to the curb, and hobbled around a little bit. While I came up on her she fell into me! She looked at me and said that she needed water. Several spectators ran over to help as I continued to run.
I saw at least 2 more people passed out on the side of the road.
I began to think, I see this a lot in the first place since we travel around following marathons across the country, but in all of my years in cycling I have never seen anyone push themselves that hard to where their bodies cannot continue.
I think that it would be crazy to see a paceline of cyclist, and one dude just drops from dehydration like the way that they do running marathons or half marathons.
Are cyclists just smarter at hydrating?
I have to admit that when I first started running, I thought to myself, where do I put the water bottles?
How hard do you have to push your body until your body decides to give up on you physically, even though you are not ready to quit mentally?

Virginia Beach

Last year, we were here for the Famous Rock and Roll Marathon circuit, that we follow religiously and loyally.  They are always the best and the most fun!
I love their crew and the runners, always a good crowd, and an even better atmosphere.
Anyway,
I am almost finished with my book, I have three chapters left, it's weird but I actually don't want to finish them so that the book will never end.  I feel like this about a lot of books, but I have not felt like this recently.
It was funny, because today I was walking the expo carrying the book on my way to lunch.  It seems that EVERYONE has seen the movie and feels obligated to tell me that it is a GREAT movie!  I'll watch it when I am done with the book, but I wish more people would approach me and tell me that it is a great book!  ;)

The Lost Book

After Canada we left at midnight and drove straight into the Tacoma / Seattle airport.  I arrived early to the airport around four in the morning to catch my six o'clock flight.  While checking in, my rental that originally was going to be only 200 plus for the weekend was now 600 plus!
As you can imagine I was pretty upset and to say the least, I was a bit sidetracked.  Well with all of the above, lack of sleep, hustle and bustle, plus the extra unpredicted stress... I left my book in the rental car.
I have not had it for a week almost and was feeling pretty down that I did know the end of the story.  I hate hate HATE to do this, but I went to the Barnes and Noble in the downtown Chicago area and purchased a new copy of the exact same book!
At least this time I wasn't buying it in Euros!
I'll let you know the name of the book after I am done reading it (or you can take a peek on the right hand side).  Hopefully when I am in Virginia Beach I'll kill a couple of good chapters while the waves crash in front of me, and the eagles, I mean "seagulls" hover above me!   ;)

Now That the Olympics are over...

We can now look forward to the Winter Olympics!

While in Vancouver I did some snooping around!


If I decide to go we might watch the "biathlon"
I could stay with my couch surfing friends, or I could just make some new ones... I have not decided yet!

It's called Couch Surfing...

So, we were in Seattle last weekend for the Danskin Triathlon. We are so close to Canada, which I had never been to. I am just checking countries off of my list this year left and right! My co worker says lets go to Canada and CouchSurf.
OK... you want to know what CouchSurfing is right?
It's a website that is similar to e-bay. You pick a location on the website that you want to travel to. You look at a couple of profiles, and you e-mail the very giving individuals. You tell them that you are going to be coming to their country, city or towns. These individuals will then let you sleep on their couch or any other accommodations that they have available.
I know this sounds really really REALLY crazy! AND IT IS!
But, isn't life about getting out and exploring? I mean why hide in our houses? Let's go out and see the world. Shake hands of strangers that are no longer strangers. Tell stories, talk trash to each other about their country, and have them talk trash back to you about your country!
The best way to get to know each other, and to really see the heart of the city is to stay with the locals right?
So needless to say. We did this, it was both our first times and it was amazing!
I highly recommend that you guys try this!
Get out and do something different, out of the ordinary and stop trying to be "safe." "safe" is just an imaginary word that we have created anyway to make ourselves feel better about our situations. We do this we relationships, friendships, and our jobs.
Sometimes we just need to let go...

This was one of the craziest knife holders I have ever seen. This was at our couch surfers house, we joked around and laughed about it the whole time, since it was the first thing that we saw when we entered his humble abode.

If everything I said made absolutely NO sense, then read this!


The Big Picture

CouchSurfing is not about the furniture, not just about finding
free accommodations around the world; it's about making connections
worldwide. We make the world a better place by opening our homes,
our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the
knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep
and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and
cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel,
but how we relate to the world!

Vancouver, British Columbia - Canada

So, you already checked out some pics from Lynn Canyon.
Here are some pics from Stanley park:














Yes, that totally is a GIANT starfish in the seagulls mouth!


These rocks remind me of Hawaii. In Hawaii they are white in black lava, so they really stand out.

Stanley Park is a great tourist area with tourist traps. It's ok, DO THEM! Most everything there doesn't cost money in the first place. Unless you are trying to eat hot dog and chips. Speaking of chips, my chips were stolen from some black crows! I left the table to add some mustard to my hot dog, when I looked bag a nice guy was chasing off the crows, it was too late. The black crow had grabbed my bag of chips from the bottom, so as he flew off the chips fell and spread out everywhere! All the other birds joined in the feast at my cost!

Seattle, Danskin Triathlon Series

All good things must come to an end...
This is my second year following the Danskin Triathlon tour from beginning to end. The crowd is wonderful, the athletes are even better! They are there to motivate,swim,bike, & run. The teamwork is endless, and I am one that is truly, truly, truly sad to see it coming to end end for me once again. There is NYC, unfortunately I will not be attending it due to the fact that I will be off in another location.
This is a situation where it is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.
Here are a few pics from Vancouver, B.C.

I am in Vancouver, B.C. Canada right now, I am off to Chicago tomorrow morning from Seattle, WA.



I will title the above... "Still Standing"

Marco did a little research before we came over and crossed a suspension bridge at Lynn Canyon. This place is amazing, let me say it again... this place is AMAZING!



There were plenty of these HUGE slugs crawling ALL over the forest!




An Amazing view at the Twins Waterfalls.


you know.. you have to do at least "one" geocache :)


Marco and I, while hiking through the woods near some HUGE cliffs accidentally discovered some ropes. These ropes were truly off the beaten path!
We lowered ourselves down, and up in and out of the canyon.
Being at the bottom was tranquility.

Even though the water looked picture perfect, which it was. It was too cold for my taste! I know because my foot fell into the river!