NYE in NYC...and more reflections on the last decade

I asked for an eventful ringing in of the new year and that's exactly what I got. However, it was nothing like what I had imagined and played out in my head. I had been warned by many that the ball drop thing was overrated and anti-climatic, but that wasn't what surprised me about the night. I didn't care how stupid the actual concept of seeing the ball drop live was, it was the reason I came to NYC and I can now officially check it off my list. What I didn't expect was for myself to be so drunk at that point and screaming "Holy shit, the ball is dropping!", not even counting down the final seconds of 2009, and taking a good 3 minutes and 10 glances at my phone to process the fact that it really was indeed 2010 and the 6 hour journey leading up to that very moment was suddenly over. Now what?

The 6 of us had decided to go to Times Square to be part of the atmosphere. However, we didn't want to be barricaded in, so we decided not to go to Broadway Ave. and instead hung out on 42nd St. and 6th Ave. We had a great view of the ball until the police pushed us back to 5th Ave., at which point it started sleeting and we decided to grab a bite to eat and look up a bar to warm up in. Needless to say, we got too excited about being inside and being able to warm up with a few drinks that we downed 3 drinks within 10 minutes, resulting in 3 of us (myself included) puking.

Marquee, which was supposed to be the highlight of the night as it claimed to be the "#1 club in the known universe," was probably the biggest disappointment of the night. We were not feeling the crowd or the atmosphere and even the music couldn't lighten our moods. This made me realize what a huge difference the crowd makes in how the night goes and sometimes, a small group of close friends crammed into a hotel room drinking and laughing is all you really need for a good time :). This also made me realize that holidays are seriously overrated. Occasions like Halloween and NYE are so hyped up that you feel the need to do something cool, but everywhere just ends up being too crowded to have a good time. Some of my best nights out happened on random nights in August (Vegas) and June (NYC).

I am still processing the fact that we are in a new decade. 2010 has made me realize that this is truly the first decade that I have concrete memories from every year (aka I am getting old!):

2000
With the Y2K scare, my dad had to work and everyone was too afraid to leave their houses, so my mom, sister, and I quietly rang in the new year from the comfort of our home. My biggest memory from that year was the surprise 80th birthday party we threw for my grandma in April. I couldn't believe my mom had pulled off such a huge event without my grandma even having the slightest clue and it was great to see all 9 of her children together at the same time. April also happened to be my first time leaving the continent as I explored Italy. It was perfect timing too because I had just finished studying about ancient Rome in history class.

2001
This was a big year in terms of sports for the state of MD. The Ravens had won their first-ever superbowl and the MD Terps made it to the Final Four for the first time, only to suffer a devastating loss to Duke in that round. I finished middle school and started high school this year. I had my first fling and kiss that summer, lol. And who could forget Sept. 11? I remember walking into history class and watching the news live on TV. It was so surreal watching the buildings collapse. I already had a planned early dismissal that day to remove my braces and got pulled out of English class as the other students waited in anticipation and eventually also got dismissed from school early. I don't think I realized the weight of the events that occurred that day until much later.

2002
The MD Terps came back with more determination than ever and won the National Championship! We took a family cruise to Alaska that summer and the 6 of us kids had so much fun running around on the boat and doing whatever we pleased. The rest of the year is kind of a blur except for the fact that I met a boy at the beginning of sophomore year, who I became best friends with, had late-night AIM chats with til 3 in the morning, and eventually ended up falling for.

2003
We had a huge blizzard in February, which left my mom stranded in California while she was taking care of my sick grandmother. The 3 of us did not prepare for the blizzard and trekked to Safeway in the snow to find the shelves completely empty, not to mention a truck running by and drenching me in gross water and dirty snow on the way there. My mom eventually made it back to MD after the storm. A few days later, we got a phone call delivering very sad news. Six days later, I turned a very bittersweet 16 and did not really care. I packed my bags for my grandma's funeral in Cali and enjoyed quality bonding time afterwards with four of my cousins and my sister as we beach-hopped down the coast of California. There was something extremely calm and serene about sticking our feet in the ice cold water and looking out to the horizon. My sister graduated from high school in May that year and I got a fortune cookie at her graduation dinner that read "Love is around the corner." One day before that, my best friend had officially become my boyfriend. Love was indeed around the corner for me. My sister moved out for college, but having a boyfriend for the first time was enough to distract me from really noticing that I was an only child at home.

2004
I joined AFS, a club that worked with international students, at what was probably the best timing ever. They typically did student exchanges within the U.S. (this was my incentive for joining!) and this was their first year trying something international, thanks to a former exchange student that spent a year at Hebron. For $500, I enjoyed a long weekend exploring Iceland. Junior year of high school was tough academically but otherwise fun for me. Alain and I celebrated our first year anniversary in May with no drama, no fights, and a pretty steady relationship. As senior year came, we sort of hit a rocky area with the stress of college applications and the uncertainty of what would happen to us post-high school becoming a reality that we had to seriously deal with. We made it through that time and I think it made us even stronger. I believe 2004 at Thuy's birthday party in November was my first time meeting Hai and Quin (aka Potter and Lopez) and really for me, when GB came together.

2005
The rest of high school was nothing spectacular. I think the most memorable thing was how pissed I was at my AP Biology teacher for giving us a real final even if we took the AP test (as opposed to the previous year) that I didn't care to study and got a D on it. She was seriously concerned with my performance, but I still came out with an A as the final grade. I graduated and made my decision to go to St. Mary's College of Maryland. The fall brought on huge changes for me, as it was my first time away from home and heart. A long distance relationship was not easy, but we made it work. My other grandma became sick during my finals period and for some reason, I sensed something was seriously wrong this time and was itching to go home. I was right, she had passed away two days before I finished my finals. Her passing was the hardest thing I had ever gone through, I was a lot closer to her than my grandma in Cali and it was also the realization that I am now grandparentless. Christmas that year was not all too spirited.

2006
I survived my first year of college with pretty decent grades, became best friends with two girls down the hall, and was excited to spend the summer (an extended break) with my boyfriend. Looking back, spending extremely long periods of time apart followed by short, intense together 24/7 periods was probably not at all healthy. That summer, we had serious talks about life post-college. I was not too excited about parting ways again for sophomore year and he reassured me that we would be together for a semester in Australia in exactly one year. Two weeks later, he broke up with me. That was probably the worst semester ever for me, as my best friend at college was abroad to top it off. I learned a lot about myself from this experience and have also grown and changed significantly because of it. By the end of the year, I was so ready to say goodbye to 2006 and bring on 2007.

2007
We started off 2007 with a ski/snowboard trip to Wisp that ended up being too freakishly warm to be out on the slopes. Instead, I got introduced to drinking and enjoyed two crazy nights in a cozy little cabin with some of my most favorite people in the world. I expected the spring semester to be better than the fall semester with my friend being back from abroad, but it really wasn't that much greater. Instead, it was drama-filled and ended with the two of them parting ways from me. I still elected to go to Australia, although I chose a different school from my ex because I really couldn't take being that close to him among other reasons for choosing UQ over JCU. I came to Australia really trying not to get attached to anyone, as I really couldn't take another broken friendship and I knew my experiences in Australia would only last 5 months and I would never see any of them again. Instead, I ended up meeting one of my best friends who I still remain close to and occasionally see today (it still surprises me how things turn out). I ended up opening up a lot to her and together, we explored the country on our many weekend excursions. I came back from studying abroad just in time for Thanksgiving (like literally the night before) and enjoyed a 2 month winter break. Two weeks into break, I got bored and applied for a job at Hollister. For $6.15/hr., I dealt with angry mothers over the loud, blaring music and darkness that is Hollister and folded and re-folded clothes.

2008
I ended up dating a Hollister coworker. Although we never made things official before actually ending it, it's probably the closest I've been to having a relationship since my ex and was fun while it lasted. I had shared my St. Mary's drama with another friend from college, who also had her own share of drama in her group of friends during that sophomore spring semester. She had also studied abroad in the fall and we had decided to room together in the spring and ended up living together in the fall of senior year as well. I managed to make my way through all the struggles and graduate from college a semester early. I also turned 21 this year and celebrated this milestone by paying tribute to the decade I was born in with an 80s themed party (really, I just wanted an excuse to wear my hot pink tights) and going out to Adams Morgan at midnight on my birthday. That fall, my ex had reached out to me after being dumped by his girlfriend and somehow we re-connected. Through all of the bitterness and resentment, I somehow saw what had made us so strong to begin with: our pure, honest friendship. We have become close again, but in a different, friend-like way and can confide in each other in ways I wouldn't with anyone else. I guess that's what happens when you fall in love, get to know each other inside-and-out, and have nothing to hide/don't care to hide anything from each other. I guess it works for now until we both find our next relationships (at which point the talking to your ex thing doesn't really work).

2009
I already talked about this year in another post, but in summary, I ran my first marathon (plus two more and a 50 miler) and established myself as a research coordinator at Johns Hopkins. I ended the year with an eventful night in NYC as described above.

So here's to a new decade, which I'm sure will bring on even more changes than the last, as I'll be 32 in 2020, hopefully established and married, and possibly considering having kids if I don't have any already.

The cost of running...

Races alone:

$ 29.22 Pike's Peek 10K

$131.00 Frederick and Baltimore Marathons
$ 54.25 Baltimore 10 Miler
$ FREE Riley's Rumble Half Marathon
$110.00 Columbia IronGirl Triathlon
$ 59.96 Annapolis 10 Miler
$ 33.28 Prostate Cancer 5K
$ 88.00 Marine Corps Marathon
$120.00 JFK 50 Miler
$ FREE Turkey Burnoff 10 Miler

$625.71 Total

Add $27.13 for MCRRC membership, $100 for the FTM program, two pairs of shoes, a water belt, and various other clothes and running accessories and that's my total for 2009.

I had a friend once argue with me that running was cheap. I would beg to differ. Yeah, you don't have to participate in races to be a runner, but that would be like calling yourself a soccer player and not playing in games. Also, at least other sports don't require you to change your equipment out every six months, which is ~$100 a pop for a new pair of running shoes.

So what did $625.71 buy me?
Between running and snowboarding, I seriously need to find some cheaper hobbies!

Reflections on 2009

It's crazy that at this time last year, I was looking up anatomy classes at HCC and trying to figure out how to fit them into my work schedule. First off, it was super evil of them to wait til Christmas Eve to release the actual letter grades when the GPA was already posted. Second, way for me to almost fail a class in my last semester of college! When I say almost failed, I really mean it...like I got the second worst grade in the class on our first test and had a midterm deficiency. Based on my GPA calculations, I had figured out my final grade to be a D+ and was seriously freaking out. Every time someone congratulated me on finishing college, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, thinking not only had I let myself down, I had let them down too. Somehow my GPA was miscalculated and when I finally checked my grades on Christmas Eve, I was able to breathe a huge sigh of relief!

Although my last semester of college was a bit dramatic and the ending to that chapter of my life was pretty anti-climatic (I guess that's what I get for finishing in Dec), I was excited for 2009, as it brought on new beginnings. It was my first year not being confined to classrooms, textbooks, papers, and tests and I loved every minute of it! Although I was sad to miss out on the second half of senior year, visiting my friends at college and seeing them stress over papers, tests, and the dreaded SMP made me so glad to be done. Plus, I still got to partake in senior week and graduation!

With school being out of the way, 2009 opened up the time and opportunity for me to try new things and I took full advantage of that with running. I had always wanted to run a marathon, but school took up way too much of my time for me to commit to anything else. I always imagined that finishing one marathon was enough of an achievement to satisfy my running aspirations, but I was so very wrong. I am excited to see what 2010 will bring for me in this department, hopefully qualifying for Boston is in my near future.

In 2009, I also worked my first real full-time job (although I am still not technically hired as a full-time employee!). Working 8-hour days with a 45-minute commute each way made me realize how short the day is and how much free time you really have in college, although most of that time is usually spent studying. Over the course of the year, I managed to get personalized labcoats, my own laptop and pager, business cards, a paper published, and the position of research coordinator. I also got to take my first business trip! Although I'm not sure whether I plan to stay in research forever, it is very exciting to know that what you're doing/studying plays a direct role in the evolution/progression of medicine.

Overall, 2009 was a good year. We all have bucket lists and I am glad I was/will be able to check two things off my list this year: complete a marathon and spend New Year's Eve in NYC.

JFK50 - I did it for the sticker

That's right! You heard me correctly! I endured 15 miles of rocky trail, 26 miles of monotonous flatness, and 9 more miles of hills for a lousy sticker...that I had to pay for too! Why? Because it's a symbol of status in the running community and we JFK finishers like to wear it proud on our cars. Who cares about the medal? Yeah, I know the 3 medals was enough to lure me into the Maryland Double Dare this year and is also my main incentive for wanting to do the Disney Goofy and a Half Challenge. Ok let's face it, we runners come up with the stupidest reasons to run any race. The sticker and the MCRRC JFK shirts with funny sayings on the back was enough reason for me to endure this feat. Enough about why I did it, here's how the race went:

I ate an insane amount of carbs on Friday to prepare for this race. I usually just try to eat a little extra and throw a pasta dish in there for marathons, but I knew I had to really take carbo-loading seriously for this race if I didn't want to burn out. I had a bagel for breakfast. Lunch consisted of pasta, a baked potato, Sunchips, and pretzels. And I had almost half a pizza for dinner. I went to bed at 8 pm (although probably didn't fall asleep until 9:30) in preparation for my 3:15 am wakeup.

I managed to shove down a banana, a bagel, and two waffles for breakfast that morning. Hai got to my house at 4 and we were off our way to Boonsboro in pitch black darkness. I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that I would be spending practically the whole day running and how it would be just as dark on the way there as on our way home. The drive up there reminded us very much of going skiing.

We got to the high school really early, which is good because we avoided the 5 am starters that would be coming up that road. We sat in the gym and waited for fellow MCRRC runners to meet up for our group picture and for announcements from the race director. When I went to use the bathroom, I was shocked to see a line for the men's bathroom and absolutely no one in the women's bathroom for the first time in my life. The ratio of men to women for JFK is quite disproportionate, which I kind of noticed from how much more enthusiastic some of the spectators were towards the women runners than the men.

After the announcements, everyone headed out of the gym towards the race start (which was quite a walk away). We struck up a conversation with a fellow MCRRC runner named Iva while waiting for the race to start. To get to the Appalachian Trail, we had to run the first 3ish miles on paved road with lots of hills. Everyone took this portion easily, walking up most of the hills. No point in wasting that much energy so early on in the race. We managed to find Andrea, a runner we met at the Baltimore marathon, who did all the marathons we did this year plus some more! We tried to stick with her since she's done several JFK's and seemed to know what she was doing, but we lost her on the trails.

We did a practice run of the AT portion of the race with MCRRC on Nov 7, and let me just say this trail scared me so much that I went home and bought health insurance, which I haven't had since April. With my shoes laced tighter and the security of health insurance this time around, I faced the AT with new confidence, figuring I had nothing to lose. I was surprised to see how much less intimidating the trail was if you just believed in yourself. That and the fact that I didn't want to lose Hai as he blazed past all these runners. I then ended up ahead of him and slowed down to try to find him because I knew there was no way I would find him on the towpath. One fall, two almost falls, two stubbed toes, and several twisted ankles later, I made it out of the AT alive and was treated to our special MCRRC aid station where I loosened my shoelaces in preparation for the 35 mile run to follow. At the main aid station, I shoved down a PBJ sandwich and Coke before heading out to the C&O canal. Every aid station offered pretzels, chips, cookies, candy, water, Gatorade, and Coke and every few aid stations offered more food. There was something about the mix of sugar, caffeine, and carbonation in Coke that was so satisfying and rejuvenating to me that I took a cup at every aid station and swear I probably drank a 12 pack of Coke by the end of the day.

Although the towpath is scenic, every JFK runner will tell you that it gets old and monotonous really quickly. In order to survive this portion, you have to come up with a run/walk strategy and we decided to go with a 10 min run/2 min walk. We ran into Iva around mile 18 and she decided to run with us. At around mile 23, Iva and I lost Hai, who had started cramping and slowing down. Although I was sad to have lost him because we planned to trek through this experience together, I didn't know how far behind he was (and could not stop for long due to risk of getting cold and having my muscles tighten up) and didn't want to lose Iva. When it comes down to it, every runner has to run their own race and we haven't managed to stick together for many races due to our differences in speed and endurance abilities. Hai has more of the former, I have more of the latter.

As the miles passed, it became harder to keep up the 10 run/2 walk strategy, so we revised our plan to 8 min run/2 min walk. I did not even pay attention to the miles and the only thing that kept me going was counting down the 8 minutes until the next time I got to walk. I had Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" stuck in my head this whole effing time and probably overplayed this song for myself without even actually listening to it! We picked up a few other runners here and there and had a big group going for a while but Iva and I both decided their pace was too fast for us and left them. I cursed Iva at every aid station for blazing through them so quickly and then realized this is probably how Hai felt during the Baltimore marathon when I barely gave him a chance to sip his water before running off again.

Sunny, my and Hai's coach, was in charge of the mile 38 MCRRC aid station and was supposed to pick us up there and help pace us to the finish line. When she saw me, she asked where Hai was and I told her I lost him. She was then concerned about whether to run with me or with Hai, so I told her, "Hai needs you more than I do. I'll be okay." I had some of the delicious potatoes Sunny made for the MCRRCers and headed off with Iva and another MCRRCer, who was not doing JFK but just running with us to keep us company. We finally finished the towpath portion, and they gave us neon orange safety vests for the 8.4 miles to go on the road. It was exciting to hit the road because there were signs counting down the miles left to go.

Our strategy for the road portion was to walk up all the hills and run whatever portion we could, welcoming walking breaks as much as needed. By the time my feet hit the paved road, it was such a different feeling from the dirt towpath covered with leaves that I started to feel the pain and swelling in my feet. In fact, my feet were so swollen that they were numb because my shoelaces were cutting off my circulation. I hit my ultimate lowest point of the race between miles 43 to 44 and almost started to cry. I was hungry, I had had to pee since mile 38, my feet were in so much pain, and we had just hit the 9th hour of this ridiculous journey. I finally stopped at 44 and loosened my shoelaces and my feet felt so much better. I stopped right in front of a kid holding a cup at the water stop and just bent over and untied my shoelaces while he was trying to offer me his cup. An adult came over and told the kid that the runners were delusional at this point, so don't force anything on them and to let them come to him. I was so mentally exhausted at that point that I didn't care to argue and just carried on my shoelace business and went off on my way. At mile 46, I found my porta-pot, fueled up on more Coke, water, and a gu. This rejuvenated my energy but my body was in so much physical pain to actually exert any more than I had been.

When we passed the sign that marked 1 mile to finish, I was ecstatic, thinking that I'd never get there. With the end in sight, Carl (our MCRRC friend) told Iva and me, "This is it, guys! You guys are finished" to which I delusionally just kept saying "Shut up! You're joking! No way!" When I finally realized that this really was it (aka when the saw the official time clock and timing mat), I got so excited that I ignored the pain in my swollen feet and knees for 10 seconds and sprinted across the finish line, clocking in an official time of 10:19:24. I received my medal and was congratulated by Cathy, the person who manages our MCRRC JFK group. I then ran into Khoa and Quin, who had unfortunately missed me by a few minutes.

I headed to the gym to get my bag, layer on more clothes, grab my slice of pizza and cup of noodles, and, of course, buy my JFK sticker. The most amazing feeling after any race is taking your shoes off and it was especially great after 50 miles. I then went outside to wait for Hai to finish, plopping myself flat out on the hill and using my bag as a pillow. We ended our race in Williamsport and had the nooks drive us back to Boonsboro. They then treated us to dinner at Golden Corral in Frederick, where Hai and I were stiff as boards and walked like penguins and got weird stares (not sure whether from the way we were walking or from wearing our medals into the restaurant). Thank you so much nooks for coming out to support us!

I was not sleepy when I got home and stayed up til 1 (awake for 22 hours!), in hopes of exhausting myself into passing out and having a good sleep because after Baltimore, I was so sore that I could not get into a comfortable position and woke up several times during the night. Although I did sleep through the night, my body is so used to early Sunday morning runs that I can't sleep past 7:25 am. This morning, it felt like I'd been hit by a bus in my sleep. My feet and knees were still swollen, but nothing that ice couldn't fix.

No More Poop!

After 7 long months of screening patients for our C. diff study, I finally got the email that I've been waiting for:

Dear Sites,

Good News!

Optimer has decided to end enrollment for OPT 80-004!

IVRS will be deactivated for ALL sites at 4PM EST tomorrow (11 November 2009).

You will also receive an official site specific letter via courier to be filed in your regulatory Binder.

If you have any questions, please let your CRA know.

Kind Regards,

The 004 team

That's right! No more playing with poop samples!

Ok, let me explain a little about this study. It is a clinical trial that is testing a new drug against one of the current drugs used to treat Clostridium difficile infections. C. diff is a bacteria that infects your intestines, fights with the good bacteria in your digestive system for colonization, and causes you to have diarrhea and other symptoms. It is a fairly common disease and everyday, patients with C. diff symptoms have stool samples sent to the microbiology lab for testing and subsequent treatment.

It is my job to go down to the micro lab daily and test these samples with our own test kit provided by the study company (the micro lab probably knows me as the "poop girl" by now). If the patient tests positive, I have to look into their medical history to see if they qualify for the study. There is a HUGE laundry list of inclusion/exclusion criteria that very few meet. If they do meet them, I and one of the physicians approach the person and ask if they want to be part of a research study. Medication is then administered to the patient, specimen samples are collected, and I follow them throughout the study and fill out a bunch of paperwork about them and their progress.

Just to let you know how frustrating this study is: I screened ~450 patients. After all that poop testing and patient screening, only ONE patient was enrolled. SO much work and effort was put into trying to track down these dang patients and find ones that met all of the criteria! In fact, recruiting patients was so hard that they called all the site coordinators together to Las Vegas in August to discuss better recruitment methods.

Screening patients for this study was ridiculously tedious, frustrating, and annoying, mostly because of how much of a waste of time it was, considering the patient screened to enrolled ratio. I have been waiting for the day that the research company would tell us to stop enrolling patients and seriously had doubts that the email would ever come. I didn't even know how to react when I saw that email in my inbox today!

I used to be kind of embarassed to tell people I work with poop samples for a job, but towards the end of the study, I kind of embraced it and even made jokes about it. I can't say I'll miss the screening patients part of it, but the study itself was pretty cool and the perks were even better (business trips and free lunches all the time!).

I can't guarantee I'll be done with poop forever, as I'm sure they will be starting up more studies after they evaluate the data collected from the current one, but it is a welcome relief to get a break from that for now.

Next up for me, work in the burn unit with shock therapy treatment and an H1N1 study collecting blood samples from swine flu patients. Yay infectious diseases!

Is it ever going to be enough?

Ever feel like your satisfaction is insatiable? That each time you accomplish something, it just leaves you wanting more?

That's how I feel about running. Each time I meet a time goal or get a new PR (personal record), I feel good about it for a couple hours, a day or two at the most. And then I start wanting more. Maybe I'll hear about a fellow pace group runner's better time and feel inadequate. Or I'll see people who have survived cancer or a car crash and then go on to do an Ironman and think if they can do it, I can too. And this leaves me wondering when, if ever, will I ever be satisfied and have had enough?

When I initially planned for my first marathon, I came into it with a simple goal: to finish and be able to run the whole course. I did not have a target time when training. I did not know a thing about pacing. I simply ran to cover the distance. However, when marathon day came, I wanted more than to just finish. I wanted to finish under 5 hours and even pushed myself for under 4:30.

While I was quite pleased with my Frederick performance, I already wanted more for Baltimore. In a runner's world, breaking 4 hours classifies you as a serious runner. Most of us recreational runners strive for a sub 4 hour performance. I endured quite a bit of pain to get under 4 hours for Baltimore. A couple hours later, I realized how close I was to breaking my ex's marathon time of 3:53 and all of a sudden, 3:58 wasn't good enough for me anymore.

I had signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon with the intention of it being a training run for JFK and to be a fun run with fellow FTM members. I was only kidding myself. Although getting sick after Baltimore made me realize breaking 3:53 was not possible, I put just about as much heart into that race as I did for Baltimore, with the intention of PR-ing, which eventually turned into a goal of just breaking 4 hours again, and at mile 25.5, when I realized that 2 weeks wasn't enough to get over the fatigue from Baltimore, turned into aiming for under 4:05.

However, my two fall marathon performances left me wanting a lot more. It left me seeing the potential for qualifying for Boston, an under 3:40 marathon time requirement for me. Now if breaking 4 hours makes you a serious runner, qualifying for Boston makes you a badass runner! Although I feel that I can eventually break 3:40 and make Boston, does it stop there? Or will I keep wanting to improve my time?

I signed up for JFK because I wanted to prove to myself that I could do more than a marathon. While breaking time goals has been a challenge of speed, running an ultra-marathon will be the ultimate test of endurance. So in the same respect, will I quit with this one 50 miler or am I going to want more? Each time I come across someone crazier than me, I think I'm not all that crazy and want to match their level of insanity.

Right now, all I know is that I want JFK, I want Boston, and I want to complete a full Ironman. However, if you asked me one year ago, I would've told you all I wanted was to simply complete a marathon, not three.

Fall Colors

After being away from home during the fall for the past 4 years, I forgot how beautiful this season is in my neighborhood. I have no idea what kind of trees these are, but their leaves are so vibrant when they change colors. As soon as you turn into my street, you're blinded by the visual stimulation.
Of course, nothing beautiful ever lasts long. I took this picture last week and now half of the leaves have already fallen onto the ground and all over my car!