“Hotel Yorba” just finished blowing out my eardrums and I’m awfully psyched and thought I’d pop my head up out of the laptop and review my last couple days.  I’m sitting at Victrola, coding a bit against Twilio’s uber-awesome API, doing a small amount of people-watching and a fair bit of reflecting on the weekend just about to pass.  It was (typical for me lately) a study in contrasts; black-and-white paint spattered on the canvas, but patterns are starting to emerge, themes and riffs and reoccurring choruses and moments of sunshine and the reappearance of cloudbanks that I know I’ve seen before.  My analytic brain tries too hard to pattern-match, to put things into boxes with labels and yet my creative brain, the one I’ve begun to understand and love in ways I never knew before – even though I’ve always considered myself to be the creative sort — likes to sort of hang out and observe and watch things unfold and draw loose associations and connections that arise abruptly and surprisingly from my subconscious.

This morning I ran twelve miles.

That sort of deserves its own paragraph because I seriously don’t think I’ve ran that far since college.  Earlier this month I signed up for this crazy relay in July called the Ragnar relay and I met a couple of my relay teammates for the first time this morning at Greenlake and we ran.  Twelve miles.  I’m proud and tired and happy and realize that what I thought are my limitations are not my real limitations.  That’s powerful.  Chris and Leslie, the two people I ran with this morning, were supportive and encouraging and I had a really great time.  Did I mention it was twelve miles?

A couple great meetups this weekend, reaffirming my sense that I feed off of, and am made happy by, time spent conversing with smart, engaging and passionate people.

The weather in Seattle this weekend was A-fucking-MAZING.  That was the macro story; the thing on everyone’s lips.  It’s February but feels like we’re deep into springtime.  I didn’t get out as much as I would have liked, but what time I was able to get out and enjoy the weather was spectacular and memorable.

I hope you had a great weekend as well.

Today after work I ran around Discovery Park – just about 3 miles door-to-door, but the magic is all within a quarter-mile stretch along the bluff, where you can look out 180 degrees, from West Seattle to Indianola.  There must have been about a dozen people just standing and staring out to Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, watching the sun about to set and letting the beauty soak in.

A metaphor for my day?  I had a good Monday by any reckoning.  I guess I’m getting much better at compartmentalizing and/or taking conscious control over my perspective and thoughts, because I felt good today.  The great weekend was part of it – I had a really good weekend – but the day just seemed to slip in, all stealthy, and infect me with feel-good vibes.

This is even though I didn’t win the Super Bowl pool at work.  I ended up getting crappy numbers in the draw – twos and sixes and such.  Who can win with numbers like that???

For the second time in the last week, I’ve been approached out of the blue to have a meeting re: Crowdify.  Strange, but very welcome.  If I can find some time I’m going to release version 2 of the website any day now.  Then – sales.  Sell, sell, sell.   Position the service as something that will solve tangible problems that brand managers and marketers have.  Emphasize the uniqueness of the data, and back it up with case studies from representative brands.  I think 2010 is going to be a big year.

What else?  Looking forward to a couple meetups and tech/networking events.  Tomorrow and Wednesday is the Agile Open Northwest conference, this time held at the Seattle Center, and I’ll be able to attend about half the sessions.  I’m going to present – on what, I’m not sure, but I have until tomorrow morning to text one of my team with the topic so they can put it up on the board tomorrow.  Tomorrow night is Founder Dating, but I’m definitely sure I won’t be able to attend.  I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get away for soccer tomorrow night.

Had a nice lunch today with an old friend and savored some delicious sushi.  I tried some fatty amberjack that was OMG-melt-in-your-mouth wonderful.  Catching up is always nice, and I always come away from a good lunch like that thinking I need to do a better job of keeping up with people.

Not sure if I’ll be able to attend this weeks’ Seattle Tech Startups meeting.  The topic – TechStars – is one that is probably going to draw a big crowd, and I’m sure the conversations at the Big Time after the meeting will continue late.  I’m meeting a friend in Bellevue earlier that evening and am not sure if I’ll be back in time.

Here’s to good friends; old, new, and yet-to-be.

Hope you’re having a good evening.

So I agreed today to my first competitive multistage race, the RAGNAR – NWP, aka the Ragnar Relays at the Northwest Passage.  It’s a 187-mile race wherein 12 runners on each team race relay-style for the finish line.  From the Ragnar Relay website:

You and 11 of your closest friends running day and night, relay-style, through some of the most scenic terrain North America could muster. Add in live bands, inside jokes and a mild case of sleep deprivation. The result? Some call it a slumber party without sleep, pillows or deodorant. We call it a Ragnar Relay.

Sounds kind of fun, right?  I got word from an acquaintance on dailymile that they were looking for a couple more people to fill out their team, and hey, I’m game for anything.  Plus I love the challenge of a clear, motivating goal.

So, July 23rd and 24th, I’ll be running, resting, cheering, encouraging, and probably occasionally gasping for breath   Looking at last year’s results, the winning over 30 pace was 7-something per mile, which is way faster than I can run ONE leg, let alone three legs.  Wish me luck during my training the next six months – I need it!

No, seriously, though, what’s a Ragnar?  Turns out he was a 9th-century Norse king.  Their about page has a special section for people like me who get a kick out of the name and want to learn more.

I’m very excited.

I’m writing this as I sit at Serendipity, so it seemed like a good title for a blog post.  Sometimes I don’t put a title on a blog post until after I’ve written it; tonight, however, I just intend to ramble a little bit, so “Serendipity” seemed like a good jumping off point.

First off, little about my last week has been serendipitous, except (possibly) in deep retrospect.  I’ve been chugging along at work, on projects, and getting out a few evenings a week for meetups and other events, but mostly have been trying to put the brakes on a sort of submerged moodiness, a navel-gazing introspection that doesn’t do me any good.   Funny how life works sometimes.  There’s a big difference between being surprised about something we see in ourselves vs. recognizing something that was already there all along.

Having said that, it hasn’t been a bad week – far from it.  For example, I put in place an organizational/reminder system that is helping me stay focused on some specific short-term goals I have, and it’s worked wonders.  The system is tactile and visual and I see it every day at work and it keeps me on track when I’m tempted to run off the rails.

I’ve been very good with my exercise and diet program, after experiencing a road bump that started a few weeks ago and lasted a week or ten days.  I’m working out five or six days a week and being VERY good about what I eat, and it’s showing.  I hope to hit a huge milestone in the next week – a weight that I haven’t held since 1992.  I’m pretty sure I can do it without much in the way of superhuman effort.  However, if it takes a superhuman effort, I’m going to give it

As far as fitness goes, yesterday I ran the 6 mile loop around Lake Union, and am running a 5K on February 13th, so that means I need to get back on the hard intervals in the next couple weeks.  Tomorrow (I think – maybe Sunday) I’m going to do a 50-miler on the bike.  Not sure where I’m going, but part of the fun is the – well, serendipity – of not having a set destination when you start out and discovering fun things along the way.  The last 50+ I did, the weather was terrible, but I had tons of fun despite (or because of) that.  The weather tomorrow looks decent.

Funny story – I was almost done with my run yesterday when a group of four young runners passes me and the last guy yells “You have the biggest calves I’ve ever seen!” I laughed.  I do have big,muscular calves. What’s weird?  I went for a walk today with a friend from work and saw the EXACT SAME GUY running with the EXACT SAME GROUP.  Eerie.

This week I registered for the Big Climb for Leukemia and Lymphoma, which is like a 1,000,000 stair climb up the Columbia Center, and if you are feeling generous and care to donate to a worthy cause, you can do so at my donations page.  I’d better bust my ass in February up the Blaine Street staircase on Capitol Hill if I’m going to beat my age-group placing from last November’s climb at the WAMU tower.

I’ve been distracted from writing lately – at least anything more than simple coming-attraction posts – and that’s something I DO worry about.  In the past, I’ve sort of let it all hang out on the blog, but not only do I feel a little subconsciously constrained here, but I have what I might describe as writer’s block on a couple important pieces I have committed to write.  I’m convinced that the one feeds the other.  When you pull the reins on one horse, the other horses slow down.  I don’t like it.  I like to live life fully, freely, unconstrained, not too worried about convention or appearances or fashionableness or propriety.  It’s all just ME, and I’m a good, caring, authentic person and want to express myself as such.  So I’m a bit stumped, tending to glumness about this whole writing thing.  I have to break through and get back to where I was before, because writing and expressing myself is one of the things in this world that gives me pure joy and doesn’t depend on anybody else.

Now I look back and see the novel I’ve written tonight and think that perhaps this longish post is already a start in the right direction.

So the full results are in for Sunday’s Jingle Bell Run, and I finished in the top third of my age group, coming in 70th out of 240 in the male 30-39 division.  I’m very pleased with that placing.  I felt worse than I actually performed; my hamstrings were sore and tight before and during the run, and in fact all day yesterday.  Today is a different story; I feel great and am not at all sore.  In fact, I was able to get to the gym this afternoon for a fairly intense weight workout.

All this focus on fitness and exercise is just a net good thing.  There’s nothing bad about it.  I’m feeling great physically, and although my diet has lapsed a bit in the days since my 100-day workout challenge, I know that it’s a temporary thing and that I can take the next step in my personal fitness goals whenever I decide to set my mind on it.

I’ll leave you with two words: adventure racing.

12,000 of my closest friends and I got out in the freezing Seattle weather this morning to participate in the 25th annual Jingle Bell Run in Seattle.  This is a kind of anti-race: the joy is in the participation, in the costumes, in the shared community spirit, not necessarily how high you finish.

Having said that, I did really well, ha ha ha!  I beat my previous 5K PR by over a minute, coming in at 26:01, or an 8:31/mile pace.  Pretty good considering I woke up with really sore hamstrings and ran the whole way with reindeer antlers.   I think that I can definitely get down to a 7:00/mile pace by mid-to-late spring, if I keep exercising and eating right.   Good things happen to good people, right?  And I’m DEFINITELY due for some good things to happen.

To the lady in the port-a-potty who forgot to slide the latch shut so that the label still read “OPEN – I’m really sorry.  It’s just that I was one of hundreds of people standing around, looking excitedly for the green “OPEN” labels, and I really didn’t mean to *cough* expose you to the world.  I hope the fright made you run a bit faster.  Next time I’ll knock first.

Best costume?  Hm.  There were quite a few Cindy Lou Who lookalikes, but my favorites may have been the two Santa’s elves who were taking pictures on the top floor of Westlake Center.  You two looked like you were having the time of your life, and your costumes were fantastic!

Full Jingle Bell Run race results here, for those of you interested.

If you would have told me six months ago I’d finish in the top half of my age division in a 5K race, I would have told you you’re nuts.  Yet here I am, the day after my first road race in 5+ years, looking at the results – and I finished 36th out of 82 finishers in my age group!  Woo hoo!  My official time was 27:33, but I was chip-timed at 27:04.

One note for the race organizers: the results page doesn’t format properly on the iPhone.  So – ye gods! – I had to wait until I got to the coffee shop to see my results.  There should be a special place in Heck reserved for web designers whose stuff doesn’t work properly on the iPhone.

Feeling pretty sore today – gluteus medius in particular.  Probably will go to the gym anyway and work out in other ways.  I have a lot of nervous energy to work off, and my goal for the next little bit will be to go to bed exhausted so I don’t have to worry about getting to sleep.

I just signed up for next month’s Jingle Bell Run.  Perhaps I’m still on a high from this morning’s Seattle Marathon 5K, but I’m eagerly looking forward to this next race.  Registration was $30.00.  For that fee I get a chip-timed race result, a T-shirt, and all the free goodies I can ask for at the post-race vendor tables.

I don’t know anyone with arthritis (I think), and am not particularly adept at fundraising, so I signed up as an individual vs. as part of a team that commits to raising funds.  I suppose part of me wishes I were the type of person that could go out and enthusiastically buttonhole everyone I know to contribute money for a worthy cause, but that’s just not me.  On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of changes in myself over the last couple years, so next year, who knows…

An interesting tidbit about the registration process.  I didn’t even know where, or how far, the race was until after the fact.  I found out by clicking on “Event Details” that it’s a 5K, and it starts somewhere near Westlake Center on Sunday the 13th.  Looking further, I found a PDF-format course map that shows that the race starts at 5th and Pine and ends “approximately 6.9 meters from [the] lamp post on [the] corner” of 6th and Pine.  Interesting.

Training?  Well, based on today’s result I’ll be doing a lot more speed work – intervals, mostly.  I need to get more comfortable running fast, because my base endurance is good enough for a race of this length.  I’ll probably try to get outdoors as well, because running on the pavement is way different (and more difficult) than running on the treadmill at the gym.

So, what are you waiting for?  Sign up and join me for the race!

So this morning I struggled out of bed after a near-sleepless night and prepared for my first road race in over five years.  True, it was only a 5K.  True, I had limited expectations.  But I still had a wonderful time, and learned a thing or two that I can apply to my next race(s), because I’m DEFINITELY doing more of this in the future.

My goal was to complete the race at a 9 minute/mile pace, and I exceeded that with an 8:43 minute/mile pace, 27:04 overall.  I rarely felt like I was going too slow or too fast, and finished strong with a little bit left in the tank.

We ran an out-and-back course along 5th Avenue, with a slight detour at Vine down to 2nd avenue and up the back side of Seattle Center, finishing right by the International Fountain.  The hardest part for me?  Right around mile 2, I felt like I was going a bit too fast, and focused on my breathing for a minute to get back in my rhythm.  The easiest part?  Relative to the other runners, the uphill sections felt easy – all the stair work has developed my quads into hill-climbing monsters.  I passed a lot of people on the two uphill sections.

What I learned:

• Don’t arrive too early.  Prompt lil’ ole me showed up at Seattle Center at about 7:00, which was about 45 minutes too early.
• There is no bag check for the 5K.  This, I should note, is contrary to what is in the race guide.  I had to run back to the car to deposit my warmup layers and bag before the race.
• The little ankle strap that holds your chip timer can chafe.  Wear it around your sock, not your bare flesh, because I got chafed and a little bloody.  No big deal.
• Figure out where you should start based on pace, and elbow your way in.  I spent the first half-mile evading walkers and other slow runners, because I started too far back.

The nicest part?  Seeing my kids near the finish line with homemade signs that said “Yay” and “Daddy”.  That was unexpected, and warmed my heart.  Both my kids said they want to run a race, which gives me about two years until they’re faster than me

It was also great to see fellow geeks @marinamartin and @awoods at the starting line.  Looking forward to seeing both of you at the Jingle Bell Run next month!

I had a nice chat tonight with a friend who is a published author.  True, his work is only available for purchase in the UK – some weird tax ruling has yet to be put in place, I think – but still, published.  He’s a super guy and chatting with him brought back wonderful memories from elementary school and junior high, when life was young and bright, a newly-pressed penny, and one was optimistic and bold or timid as the case may be; when traumas were all of the made-up sort (in retrospect, obviously); when the weight of the world was not yet yoked around your shoulders, immense, solid, visible even when you shut your eyes, peripherally omnipresent, soundlessly pulling you down to earth and dust.

Chatting with him also reminded me that I have short stories floating around and I need to carve out the time to put them to paper.  I think I recently mentioned I have thought up a new story – but  it’s not a story until I write it down.   Then it’s a bad story.   Then I edit, and it gets better; then it gets submitted, and rejected, and I edit again, and it gets a little better; until finally some publisher, drunk on wine or reeling from a bad day, accepts it at a flat fee of $75 to be published in the Rural Vermonter Quarterly; to be read by seven people, four of whom are Facebook friends of mine.

Then, as a published author, I can develop a drinking problem, a penchant for shotguns and sayings like “birds on the wing”, and start flame wars with editors who reject my magnum opera.

But! – get published first.  The cart goes after the horse, the better for the cart to realize that the path can oft be a shitty one.

In other news, I’m being asked to look at a new change in my life as an opportunity.  I suppose that this should be the default attitude, right?  Every change is an opportunity, a chance for growth, for learning, for perspective – but right now, part of me is still very firmly rooted in a Never-Never-Land of the past, where I’m dueling Captain Hook to taste the drops of water left on deck from the splash made when 2009 was dropped overboard.  I have to shake that sort of thinking, and move on to more positive terrain.  It’s an incremental journey at best, and like a good game of chess, full of reversals and board positions that are better or worse and uncertain outcomes and hundreds of opportunities to make the right decisions.  Unlike chess, however, it doesn’t really matter who wins – black or white – because here the object is merely to get to the end, to put in the time, finish the game, fold up the board, breathe a sigh, and move forward.

Today I went to the Seattle Marathon Health and Fitness Expo at the Westin and picked up my race packet for tomorrow’s 5K.  It was only sort of a madhouse, with tons of vendors and relatively few freebies.  I should have taken photos – I’m a curator of my own experience, along with the rest of you, after all – but forgot.  Tomorrow morning I line up with the other runners and will have a post sometime this weekend describing my experience.  Wish me luck!