Totally don't believe in tenure for teachers. I think it's bad for kids, professional development, and society in general.
Still, it's a pretty cool thing to have!
:)
28 October 2006
17 October 2006
Bicycling a Marathon
Wow! Didn't even realize it's been a month since I blogged. Too busy doing stuff that's not that interesting.... here goes.
You can hear about Michael's marathon woes at his site. Mine are different.
After two weeks of constant nagging from Tricia, I signed up to ride the Long Beach marathon. This entails arriving by the 6 am start and bicycling the 26.2 mile course ahead of the runners. Admittedly, bicycling is much easier than running, although it is challenging to navigate through thousands of cyclists who have no idea what they're doing.
I didn't find Tricia and her friends at the start. After a mostly cut-off phone call, I decided they must be in front of me. I spent the first 18 miles spinning at about 18 mph, pretty good for me. Then I decided I was never going to catch up and slowed down a bit. Once I made that decision, I came around a corner and there was Tricia waiting for me. We rode the last few miles and chatted. She gave me a half-eaten granola bar when I wanted to stop and eat, and I managed to finish in just under 2 hours. Not terrible, when you consider I had to brake for:
1) The 5 mile marker in the middle of the bike path.
2) A guy on a mountain bike weaving in front of me as I was going under a low-hanging tree branch.
3) The beach cruiser chick who said "on my left? There's only sand on my left."
4) 3 guys on weird stand-up trike things. Definately not 'bicycles.'
5) A couple on a Trek tandem who had to stop and walk around a wide corner that my captain could have made easily.
Tricia looked cute at the finish. Here's her picture. I have a medal just like hers, but it wouldn't fit over my helmet, and it seemed silly to take a picture without it!
Afterward, I entertained myself by talking to the AIDS Life Cycle folks (Tricia will hit you up for donations soon.), figuring out where Michael had left the car, watching the people stagger into the race festival, and hanging out at mile 26 for an hour waiting for Michael.
I was very nervous waiting for Michael. I knew he wasn't feeling great, and when he didn't come in as he usually does like clockwork at 4 hours, I started to wonder about all the awful things that might have happened to him somewhere on the course. Luckily, he survived, and was only a little sick on the 90-minute wait to get out of Long Beach. I can't wait for the next, nice, local OC Marathon, where I get to drop him off and enjoy the next 4 hours doing other stuff!
You can hear about Michael's marathon woes at his site. Mine are different.
After two weeks of constant nagging from Tricia, I signed up to ride the Long Beach marathon. This entails arriving by the 6 am start and bicycling the 26.2 mile course ahead of the runners. Admittedly, bicycling is much easier than running, although it is challenging to navigate through thousands of cyclists who have no idea what they're doing.
I didn't find Tricia and her friends at the start. After a mostly cut-off phone call, I decided they must be in front of me. I spent the first 18 miles spinning at about 18 mph, pretty good for me. Then I decided I was never going to catch up and slowed down a bit. Once I made that decision, I came around a corner and there was Tricia waiting for me. We rode the last few miles and chatted. She gave me a half-eaten granola bar when I wanted to stop and eat, and I managed to finish in just under 2 hours. Not terrible, when you consider I had to brake for:
1) The 5 mile marker in the middle of the bike path.
2) A guy on a mountain bike weaving in front of me as I was going under a low-hanging tree branch.
3) The beach cruiser chick who said "on my left? There's only sand on my left."
4) 3 guys on weird stand-up trike things. Definately not 'bicycles.'
5) A couple on a Trek tandem who had to stop and walk around a wide corner that my captain could have made easily.
Tricia looked cute at the finish. Here's her picture. I have a medal just like hers, but it wouldn't fit over my helmet, and it seemed silly to take a picture without it!
Afterward, I entertained myself by talking to the AIDS Life Cycle folks (Tricia will hit you up for donations soon.), figuring out where Michael had left the car, watching the people stagger into the race festival, and hanging out at mile 26 for an hour waiting for Michael.
I was very nervous waiting for Michael. I knew he wasn't feeling great, and when he didn't come in as he usually does like clockwork at 4 hours, I started to wonder about all the awful things that might have happened to him somewhere on the course. Luckily, he survived, and was only a little sick on the 90-minute wait to get out of Long Beach. I can't wait for the next, nice, local OC Marathon, where I get to drop him off and enjoy the next 4 hours doing other stuff!
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