Horseshoe Lake half marathon race report (05/23/2010)

Tim, Me, and Yi.

Another great trail race I joined this weekend.
The race was actually located in Skyline Ridge Open Space Reserve
I was kind of worry about the weather. By far, it was totally unpredictable.
Two days before the race, we were still have a lot of rain, and it was almost June!!
Not to mention the temperature was around 40F at night. It seemed like we have 100 days in Feb this year.
Fortunately, the cloud went away on Saturday, and we had a no cloud clear sky Sunday.

In order to get a 10% off group discount, we invited our old friend, Tim,, to join us. Tim usually focused on road running, he liked to run marathon on the road. It's good he decided to join us this time for some trail running, it did help on his training as well.

More than 200 people joined this race, it was a sold out race. The trail running did getting more and more popular. I was really glad to see that.




people were checking in.

8:20am, people started to gather around. The route was a little bit different from before.
it had 9 miles route, and a 5 miles route. For people who ran 5 miles, they would start at
the other direction, for the rest of the people, they would start at the 9 miles route first.
Then continue the 5 miles loop, if you were running half/full marathon. Or came back to starting point if you were running 9 miles race.


everyone was gathering

At 8:30am, the race started, the trick of trail running was, if you wanna run fast, you had to get ahead of the crowded people before the group entering the trail. Because usually the trail was single track and there was limited space to pass the person in front of you, not to mention to adjust your own pace with some laggers ahead. Well, unless it happened to be a hot girl, it was another story.



Tim said, "hey man, it's half marathon, we should run slower in the beginning".
My experience was, if you ran slower, it would be difficult to catch up, somehow your mind and strength would wear out, especially your mind would start to tell you to slow down or even to walk.
So I just keep my pace steady and stayed close to the person in front of me. Right after we entered the trail,
it was so narrow and the group was forced to become single entry mode, and when we hit the first hill, the traffic started to jam. Tim started to walk right away, but I felt I could still breath smoothly, I had to leave him behind.
What I liked about this trail was, it was not terribly steep, and all the hills were runnable to me.
 It was also a perfect weather for a race, a lot of sunshine, but cold wind, low temperature. All the good factors added some points to this race and made it very enjoyable. At some point I almost forgot I was in a race.



Because the two routes are all go-and-return, it was not easy to get lost and you could always see a lot of people on the trail. Personally, I liked this arrangement better than
a loop route. At least, I had a chance to see people's face, not just their butts.



people I met on my way back.

The first aid station was also the returning point, this was the only place I saw Yi, then he was out of my sight again. He was running 9 miles only, but I still had another hill to climb. I had to control my pace. I took a breath here and saw more people coming behind me, okay, pressure on..
got to take off again.





I started to feel tired on my way back, it seemed the GU hadn't taken effect, this was the critical moment for me, my brain started to tell me to stop, take a break. In fact, this was not true, I could still run, just I needed to hang on a little bit longer. Then, out of nowhere, I could feel the energy to keep on running again. I called it GU magic.

 It took me about 1:23:47 to finish the first loop. the second loop was even steeper. Now I already got used to the 150/min heart beat and switched to another gear. Thanks to the cold weather, the last 4.8 miles was almost under the sun. The view was fabulous, single track climb into the forest, down to a lake side. After entering a small tunnel, it was another open space called: Russian Ridge.



The trail became wider here, but a little bit rocky. With some beautiful wild flowers on the side
, rolling green hill, and blue sky. I couldn't ask for more in this race. The return point was around 2/3 of the hill, to tell the truth, I was relief when I saw the turn around sign. If it was on the hill top, I would have started to walk. I met Tim on my way down the hill. He was still smiling.....haha..
good spirit.




on my way down.

Down hill was not all that easy, I used a lot of energy to break and my legs started to shake.
A little cramping on my right calf forced me to slow down, and this costed me a lot.
I was passed by 3-4 people. And finally, i saw the parking lot, the last down hill, I just let the gravity took me to the finish line.

Final time: 2:15:57 . Number 5 in my age group.


me running to the finish line.

The trail was located in Sky Ridge Open Space Reserve. I definitely will come back here to run again.




--
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Allison 的童言童語

剛買腳踏車回來的幾個禮拜，Allison還在蜜月期,有一次她又吵著要去騎腳踏車，
老婆之前把腳踏車放在後院的落地窗旁邊，而沒有放在車庫，
Allison剛出去的時候沒找到她的愛車，
就很著急的樣子，後來老婆才指著牆角說，你的車車在這裡啦，
她居然一副看到情人的樣子，衝上去抱著她的車子用一種很噁心的口氣說：
公主（他都叫她的車子公主）
你怎麼在這裡呢？（意思就是怪她媽媽沒把車子收好），
我找你找好久都找不到耶（根本就只有10秒鐘）
我好想你喔，公主。

最近呢，我問她，你要不要去後院騎你的公主阿？
她都說，我不想要騎耶，我已經不想公主了，我現在要玩黏土....
看來她的公主已經被打入冷宮了。

Allison 很喜歡一個節目，就是有一隻紫色的恐龍叫做Barney
我們去圖書館借了CD回來給她聽，她每次都會很高興地跟著一起唱歌跳舞
而且她很厲害的就是每一首歌都記得，連順序都記得很清楚，
以前她會等著CD唱完，然後要我們再放一次，
最近不知道是哪根筋不對，
每次到了最後一首的時候，她就會跑去打音響，說：
Barney 你不要走啦，你還要再唱一次，我還要聽啦。

Allison越來越不喜歡吃菜，每次吃飯的時候，都是碗裡一堆菜沒吃，
然後拼命夾盤子裡的肉吃，所以每次都惹得我們很生氣。
有一次，她看到我的碗裡有很多菜，她突然問，爸爸，你的碗裡怎麼那麼多菜菜呢？
平常，我們的回答都是，你要多吃菜菜，賽賽的時候，屁股才不會痛痛。
結果那天我就稍微作弄她一下，我就說，
因為爸爸姓蔡阿，所以喜歡吃菜，你也姓蔡，所以你也要多吃菜菜喔，
結果Allison說，可是，我不想要姓蔡耶，
這時候她媽聽了大喜，跟著插嘴說，喔，那你想跟媽媽姓許囉？
挖哩，
沒想到Allison想了想， 小聲地說，可是我想要姓 Pizza ...

ING Bay To Breaker (05/16/2010)

A little history I found from Wiki:

Robert J. Vlught, a student at St. Mary's College and newspaper copy-boy, won the first annual Cross-City Race on January 1, 1912 in a time of 44:10.[3][4][5] In 1965, the name of the race was changed to Bay to Breakers.[6][7][8]

Started as a way to lift the city's spirits after the disastrous 1906 San Francisco earthquake, it is the longest consecutively run footrace in the world (other races' courses and lengths have changed over time). During World War II participation sometimes slipped below 50 registrants, but the tradition carried on. With 110,000 participants, the Bay to Breakers race held on May 18, 1986 was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest footrace.[5] That record number was partly the product of the running fad of the 1980s; currently the average participation is between 70,000 and 80,000. Race organizers estimated a field of 60,000 participants in 2008, 33,000 of whom were registered.[9] The San Francisco Examiner publishes a list of the first 10,000 finishers the day after the race each year.

Large numbers of participants walk the route behind the runners. Some participants dress in elaborate costumes or, though not technically allowed, wear nothing at all (except footwear), thus lending a party atmosphere to the event. One festive tradition is the tortilla toss, during which runners throw tortillas at one another to pass time (similar to balloon-batting at rock concerts).
Bay to Breakers 2005. (14100031).jpg

Other oddities are always on the scene, including traditional characters such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Spider-Man, as well as other unique characters spawned for the race. There is also a group of much-beloved "salmon" participants who don elaborate full-body costumes to stagger upstream through the race. [10]

The route is typically dotted with various local bands performing. At the end of the race is "Footstock," a gathering where participants and spectators can enjoy musical performances by various musical acts.

In February 2009, city officials and race sponsors announced major changes to the race regulations. The regulations included an official ban on floats, alcohol, drunkenness and nudity.[11] The changes were made to assuage the concerns of San Francisco residents along the parade route, who say the race has gotten out of hand in recent years.[12] The news sparked outrage amongst many Bay Area residents who said the changes would destroy everything that has made the race a national treasure for most of the last century.[11] On February 27, 2009, city officials and race organizers announced that they were lifting many of the restrictions.[13] In particular, floats will now be allowed as long as they are registered, and nudity is not mentioned anywhere in the new restrictions. Although the bans on alcohol and drunkenness technically remain in effect, all "zero tolerance" language has been removed.[14]

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Now you all knew about the history, the following was the 99th Bay to Breaker


Time flies, it's ING B2B again. Because I registered very early, it only costs me $35 this year.
However, the bus ticket costs me another $15 !! It's the mistake I made, otherwise, it would be perfect..
It's a race you could show yourself, no matter it is your speed, creativity, or even your body.

It's also one of the few public events you could get naked, get drunk, get crazy and even pee on the street, very special ... ha ha..  

This year, I wanna to do something different, besides my home-made hat, I also tried to run with my 20D camera. Of course, though the camera was pretty heavy, it didn't let me down.





The first thing I did after we parked the car was look for naked people....I had to confess ..
Once we were on the street, we started to see more and more people with/without costume,
with/without clothes.



There were thousands of people on the street, you had to be here to feel the passion and heat, even it was a really cold day. People were laughing, chatting, taking pictures, and ready to get high again.





The lobsters



This couple are not dare to get naked, so they fake about it.


Apparently, this guy is so dare to get naked, and believe me, the "thing" is real.
The only question I had was, how could it stay so big under this kind of weather.



And of course, we have a couple here, this time the size looked much more normal,
I mean both of them.


The lady seemed to be a little bit shy, but it's she who called the grandpa to take the photo.


Yi, Crissy, and Will. We were ready to get going.


A girl in front of us, I saw a tiny pin holding her bra, she must have planning to do something.  I was keeping my camera ready ...in sports mode.
But, it was really cold and in the end, she changed her mind and put her T-shirt back on.
What a big loss.


The race started, and we were pushed to the starting line.




The floaters are ready on the side, they were the last part of the race.

Okay, 8:24am, I passed the starting line. I knew about this from the news later that night.
in fact, at 8:34am, someone already passed the finish line. What kind of speed is that !!



passing through, please, someone got hurt!!


green eyes fireman


Viking girl with beer ...


I don't know who they are, someone knows ?


Run away brides.


real fireman with hot girls


Caterpillar. I saw them last year as well.





The pope with a baby sucking his XXX , I liked what he did to his chest hair.


A lot of Elvis , you could see him everywhere in any race.




Two ladies and a muscle man.  Nice size, man ..


Princess Liya and the worm alien


This "lady" is really big.


the blue men and pink hair girl


A group of naked people, nice.


Lovely couple. I like this one.


fake boobs cheering group. one suck for $5 bucks. touch is free.




fake ass ladies.



The hooters.


me crossing the finish line.


Salonpas volunteer, who helps to put some Salonpas on your legs.
Well, it didn't work very well.


free tasting


lunch, they are not free.




me running with my camera.

More pictures are in here

I didn't stay long to take more pictures after the finish line, why ?
Because it was so windy and way too cold ! Even I tried to run slower, I still managed
to the finish line in 1hr 27 mins, same reason, it was too cold to walk. I had to keep moving
to keep warm. So. for the next year, the 100th Bay to Breaker , I have a new strategy.
That is, I will run full speed to the finish line, hopefully I could run into 1 hr, and then
walk my way back to the starting line. This way, I could enjoy both the run, and the
funny part of the race, which is always in the last part of the line.

Weekly Running Log -- Los Gatos Trail 10 miles (05/15/2010)

Good thing about running is, even when all your friends are not available, you could still
run by yourself.
Yi said he wanted to rest today for the race tomorrow. Kai canceled the run in the last minute saying he was not feeling well. So..it was just me....
As long as I could force myself to get up from the warm bed, everthing would be just fine.
Only problem was, when I was heading out, Allison woke up, and found me.
"Daddy, where are you going? , I wanna go with you !! " oops ...
At first, I was going to dump her home, after all, I won't get too much run if I brought her alone.
But on the second thought, it's been a while since I ran with her last time. This kind of chance might be just getting rare in the future.
Okay, I said, let's wake mom up as well..
So, our whole family were heading to the park at last !! what a great start of the weekend.
However, my dream of all three running together soon disappeared, When Allison saw the slide
in the park, she dumped me right away and insisted she wanted to play instead of running..
What a smart girl...sigh...
okay, at least, I brought my wife alone and she didn't like or I should said, she hated running
anyway...
In the end, I was all alone again with my own pace...
It was unusually croweded, a Indian running group just started their run, and there was a race
in Vasona Park. A lot of people on the trail made me to pass them one after another.
Well, to my surprise, my speed increased and I didn't even feel it. Look like I held back to much before, should push myself more on the speed.
I've been trying to adjust my stride since I saw the Chi-Running video, it somewhat helped me, however, my body also started to reject it . I've never had shin pain, but it started to bother me when I tried to increase the speed by increase each stride. It seemed to put more pressure on the legs. Maybe next time, I should use a camera to video my stride for analysis. Somewhere must be not right.
Last two miles, full speed , I thought I could bear with 2 miles of discomfor....
10miles in 1:22:21 , well, my best training time.
Not too bad...

When I got back to the park, Allison was still playing the slide. A lady who we used to met in the park came to talk to me. We chatted a little and she mentioned she was preparing to run the Boston Marathon !! Oh man....she was really good. In my age, to be qullified for Boston Marathon, I had to finish in 3hr 15 mins, and my last record is : 4hr 25 min ...
It's a long way to go..
One funny thing was, she said she was from Taiwan as well, but she didn't look like Taiwanese,
didn't sound like Taiwanese, she didn't even know where the HawLien is....
I didn't know why she would say that...maybe she was living in Taiwan when she was young ?

Company BBQ (05/14/2010)

This weekend will be very busy for me, the first thing comes up is this: Company BBQ !! Yeah!!

followed by my weekend training run and ING Bay to Breaker on Sunday!!
What a nice way to welcome the summer.

It's been a long time since our CEO promised us the company BBQ.  You might think, BBQ, what's the big deal, everyone could do it whenever they want. However, in a start up company, it has another deeper indication. It sort of represents the financial status of the company.
Working in a start up under global economy crisis forced everyone sitting on the edge of their seat. Any tiny little rumor will cause panic and raise a lot of questions in all-hands meeting.
For example, the other day, the upper management asked us to hand over part of our design to China team.
As you could imagine, the "company is going to outsource design team" was spreading out like plague.
Someone even tried to update his resume already..no kidding..
In the end, the manager called everyone in and explained the reason, the company plan, tried to calm everyone down by saying, company has no such plan at all...etc...
Well..okay, we believed you ...for now.. So, everyone is happy again..for now....
Anyway...back to the BBQ...

There is a small BBQ place next to our office building. It is a very lovely area with a small basketball court
, a stone BBQ oven, and some patio chair and umbrella.  Somehow we rarely come down here for lunch, most of the people have their own lunch box in the kitchen or in their own cubic.
It seems a little bit too trouble to come all the way down here, just to have a lunch.

As far as I know, there was a time that our company's future was so blurring that some people would
come down here to play basketball everyday around 5:00pm. Thank God, that moment was passed.




people are chatting


Our IT is the big cook.


Our lovely HR




IT's helper


Andrew, I bet you know where he is from.


This is home-made Indian ice cream. very tasty...



all you can drink basket.








Look at all the beef !! mouth watering...you could take home as well.


















So far, year 2010 to us is mixing with some good and bad news, people come and go, but we are still holding on.

With small revenue keep coming in through the end of the year, we could see a glimmer in our future.

To IPO? , not in the near future, to survive? yes, we will ..

Okay, let's throw these reality behind, enjoy this precious 2 hrs BBQ

I have to get more protein for my busy weekend !!! More meat please !!