Long about this time every year, cyclists are just now sobering up from the hang-over of what is known as 'Holy Week'. Essentially, two of the biggest single-day classics in the world - hehe, look at me, talking like I've been doing the sport for more than 20 years - De Ronde Van Vlaanderen [Tour of Flanders] and Paris-Roubaix. What makes these 'classics' so classic are the distance and terrain. We're talking in excess of 260km of some of the WORST roads in Europe; oh and I forgot to mention, cobblestones. Lots and lots of cobblestones on narrow roads with big, steep hills. Sounds fun to ride no? I myself got up at the usual 6am on Sunday morning to watch, in bed, holding a hot mug of decaf espresso and some bananas [duh] mxied into some Swiss Muesli. For those that don't follow the sport, Fabian Cancellara won both races in convincing fashion - causing some to question his strength and whether or not he is of this earth [no lie!]After I cycled off my 'hang-over' [soreness], I decided to haul my ass over to San Francisco to watch a very special young woman participate in a kendo demonstration and the rest of the Japantown Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a huge event, packed with people dressed in everything from traditional kimono down to CosPlay [where folks dress up to look like their favorite anime character].
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And before we go further, let me just say that if I were to EVER do that [CosPlay] I would dress up as 'Ikuto' [baller ass name btw] from my favorite anime of ALL TIME: Nagasarete Airantou [Cast Away - Airan Island]. Here's the description [you can sooooooooooooooooooooooooo see why I'd be down for this particular anime:
Ikuto runs away from home only to be stranded on an island with no men. The island is completely inhabited by young and beautiful women; And each girl is racing to become Ikuto's bride and save the island. Furthermore, each girl is willing to kill the other girls to persuade Ikuto to marry them.
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I digress. I went to the cherry blossom festival and saw Ms. Hidden Dragon put the hurtin' on some poor souls in kendo. She does kendo. She knits. She plays the piano. She is vegetarian. She is buddhist. Best of all: She can kick my f*ckin a** all up and down the streets of San Francisco.
In addition to this, Tagaya met me for lunch and we did the college thing. Ya know? Soju + Soju + Kim Chee Ji Ghae + Kim Chee Jun = 'the college thing'. Afterwards, he headed towards Bushi-tei [my favorite favorite favorite restaurant in all of SF] to watch - in the comfort of chairs and air condition - the floats go by. It's probably going to come as no surprise to you all that I took pictures of the 'Ms. Japan [STATE in the US]'.
Editor's [me] note - I mean c'mon. Did you really EXPECT I'd take pictures of others floats? Really? Ask yourself that!
Hope you all had a wonderful and warm-weathered weekend.
Shouts out to Ryan and his fiancee Ms. Bethany as they run their asses off at today's Boston Marathon! Ganbareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~!
Thanks brotha, man was it a blast yesterday. It was a little tough for me, as it was my first marathon without Miss Bethany by my side, but I grinded it out to a 4:07 . . . not anywhere near what I wanted (3:55), but I'll take it. I definitely overheated when the sun came out. Oh well, live to run another day, right? I have virtually no soreness today, and I feel phenomenal. . . Bethany did a nice 3:40:02, another Boston-Qualifier for her. She's a machine.
ReplyDeleteMore reason why we need to haul your running ass to the Hawaiian islands - let alone the left coast! You'd get so used to it that you'd come out there and kill it. Hey man, 4:07 in hot temp is a VERY respectable time.
ReplyDeleteNo soreness?! Wow. I'm shocked. Every race I've run I feel as if I've had a reverse colonoscopy [not really sure what that feels like in fact] and my legs are jello.
Naturally, Ms. Bethany crushed it. I expect no less from here. I really dont. =)
I hear you brotha, I do need to get out there and get in some nice heat training. (Especially for our honeymoon marathon out there next June.)
ReplyDeleteI wasn't too disappointed that I didn't hit my goals, mainly bc I knowingly left some in the tank for the upcoming 50k and next marathon in the next 2 months.
Haha yeah, minimal soreness, but you I also run a hell of a lot slower than you, haha. For some reason, my stamina/endurance always runs out before my legs give way. I gotta work on that.
But overall I'm happy with it, first solo-marathon, hotter than I expected, kept some in the tank, relatively no soreness, and I still held it within a couple minutes of last year's time. Could be worse, right?