California International Marathon, big wave surfing and Plastiki
MARATHONHelen and I just got back from a wonderful trip out to the San Fransisco bay area.We started our little mini-vacation with running the California International Marathon. I was injured so I was expecting to walk most of it. As it turned out, my hamstring injury wasn't that bad and I was able to run / hobble most of the race and finished in about 4.5 hours. It's strange how the human body at times, seems to really suck at maintaining certain levels of already attained fitness. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older - or what, I don't know. After a summer spent training for ultra marathons and running three 100 km + races - the last one in mid September (only 3 months ago) I figured that I would still have enough endurance built up in me to run a 26.3 mile marathon. Nope. I ran a decent pace up to the half way point at 1 hour, 47 minutes and since my longest recent training run was only 80 minutes, my body just shut it down -hard- and I slowed to a hobble for the remaining 2.5 + hours. That last 2.5+ hours were MISERABLE! It reminded me of my first Ironman marathon in 2000 at Ironman Florida. I kept telling myself that if I couldn't take a few hours of pain, then there is no way I would ever be able to take 50+ days out on the Pacific ocean by myself. So, I sucked it up and just kept pushing through it. Helen had a fantastic race and she qualified for the Boston marathon again. This April's Boston is sold out, so we are planing to go next year. That means that I need to qualify again because my last qualification will expire by then. It looks like I will take a stab at it sometime this spring before the ocean crossing on July 1st. I'd love to be in good enough shape to shoot for that 3 hour mark. My closest is 3:14 - still a long way away from 3 hours, but certainly a bold goal to shoot for. BIG BIG SURF!If I were the type to believe in past lives, I am certain that I would have been a surfer. I have never surfed, but have always been just fascinated by it. Maybe some day... After the marathon, we went to visit the big wave surfers at Mavericks, just off off Pillar Point north of Half Moon Bay, and it was insane! We watched tow-in surfers trying to catch really massive collapsing walls of water. It was really exhilarating. I wanted to be out there really bad. As I watched, I couldn't help but wonder what WiTHiN would do in breaking waves like that. I think it would make a really cool promotional video for both WiTHiN and PTO. I could pedal out into some 5 to 10 foot breakers far enough away from shore somewhere and see what happens. I would be completely seat-belted in and we would have to remove the mast, radio antenna and wind turbine. I think WiTHiN would handle it fine - even if she capsized. What a ride that would be! PLASTIKiOn the flight to San fran, I was reading the newest edition of Outside magazine and a feature article about adventurer and environmental storyteller David de Rothschild and his plastic yacht he calls Plastiki. This 60 foot boat is made of plastic water bottles and meltable plastic panels (recyclable) that they developed themselves. David is planing on sailing this boat from San Fran to Australia! I also noticed that it was being built in San Fransisco, so Helen and I thought we should stop by for a visit since we were spending a couple of days near Fisherman's wharf. We walked down to Pier 31 as per information leaked in the Outside magazine article, and just walked in through an open door. The giant warehouse space was empty except for a curtained off area near the back. We walked over and were approached by a nice fellow who informed us that the boat is not open for public viewing yet. We chatted for a while and I told him all about pedaltheocean and my human powered ambitions to travel from Canada to Hawaii. He figured I was OK, so offered to let us go ahead and take a walk around. So Helen and I did that and snapped a super-secret inside-scoop, spy photo of Plastiki! (I should apply for a paparazzi job at eXtra!). Oh - and check out the amazing Plastiki web site. I have a serious case of web site envy - I want (no, I NEED) an interactive flash animation like that!!! If you can help me make that happen, then I really, really want to talk to you!
