Pix and thoughts on the past week(s) events

Since I last checked in training has been going pretty smoothly. Two Friday's ago I regretfully said goodbye to Lake Tahoe and moved to a new place in Fairfax, CA for a new job. Fairfax is in Marin County, just north of SanFrancisco, over the GG Bridge. Starting a new job is a meaningful milestone for me, mostly because I remember reading the pamplet given to me about Stem Cell Transplants when I first arrived at Sloan Kettering over a year ago. I distinctly remember reading a paragraph on long-term effects of the transplant, and specifically something like "some patients may eventually be able to return to full-time employment". I realize how lucky I am, so I'm taking stock in this mini-victory for me.

Two Sunday's ago Garuna and I did Bay to Breakers, a 12k "race" from one side of SF to the other.


I've never in my life experienced a road race such as this
- An estimated 80,000 "runners"
- Over half of these are dressed in some ridiculous costume
- A good portion are half in the bag (read drunk)
- Many participant build a float to carry their beverages (read kegs)
- Several runners/walkers leave their costumes/clothes at home (ick)
- I personally haven't seen so much debauchery since Mardi Gras.

We started a bit late, and thus were caught with the floats and drinkers and didn't get a chance to run much until 3 miles into the race. We also had a canoe slowing us down:


We finally got running around mile 3, and finished up the 12k pretty strong. Afterwards we ditched the canoe, turned around and ran/walked all the way back to her car which was near the start line. Most people take the bus back home, but this turned out to be great training for IM (which I suspect I'll be walking a good percentage of). All in all we traveled a bit over 15 miles. Awesome!