200 Miles To Crazy

Back in graduate school, my friend JD decided to rope us all in to a 200 mile relay.  I had come off a career as a college athlete, so I was in pretty good shape, but it was still a completely insane thing to do.  You make a team of 12 runners, put six people in each of two vans, drive around Northern California, and run three legs of the relay for about 30 straight hours. 

It’s insane at every point, but so ridiculously fun.  So, this has become something we do. We had a family affair with 10 of us from school, plus two spouses.  If it’s unclear whether or not I love my colleagues, remember that I’m about to spend more than 30 hours in a van with five of them.  Yes, I love them more than anything.

Last year, I was running my marathon on this weekend, so I wasn’t in on the fun, but it was raining like crazy and things were a bit more miserable.  This year,  we were greeted with amazing weather.   It was warm and clear and everything that California should be.

KMc drives us over the bridge to get to our exchange point in Napa.

KMc thinks it would be funny to take AL out during his first leg.  KMc thinks he’s in a cartoon, apparently.

JD is off in the distance running to see us.  I’m just enjoying the view.  And preparing for the leg that I’ll do next.   I was slated as the top runner of the group (mostly based on my running in the 08-09 school year because the 09-10 school year has been a disaster). My first leg is this: run about 3.5 miles straight uphill, climbing more than 11oo feet.  Then 5.5 miles downhill through someone’s ranch.  The van couldn’t follow me because I was running through a ranch, so I was on my own for more than 90 minutes.  Yeah, I was slow.

During this first leg, I was roadkill for about 4 teams.  That means that 4 teams passed me during the run.  That’s fair enough.  Everyone doing this leg is the top runner on their team.  I’m just the craziest on my team.

The first leg was hard.  I ran the first mile, but walked most of the next 2.5.  I ran easily downhill for the rest of the leg and was happy to see my team and hand off the wristband to KMc.  I had been gone so long that the mood in the  van had totally changed.  Everyone was tired.  But not me.  One leg down (possibly my hardest one) and I was ready to get the cowbell going again.

Yeah.  This is where I live.  How gorgeous!

 

KMc killed his legs.  Really.  He was so darn fast.  He made up for me by catching some teams and just being a beast.

JD and I wait for KMc to come in.  As you can tell, it’s getting late in the day.

AL enjoys the view of Marin County.  I made a mental note that this would be a really great place to retire.   

Beej proposes to NK with the wristband.  NK always seems to have his tongue out.

This is what you get for proposing on gravel.

Van 1.  Done with one leg.  And man are we happy about that.

The drive to SF.  Cows on every hillside and just beautiful green grass.  We planned to drive to SF to crash in a hotel for a few hours.  On our way, we were smartphoning the traffic and there was police activity on the Golden Gate Bridge (I guess there was a jumper).  So we decided to stop in Marin for dinner and wait it out.  It was the most quiet dinner ever.  We all just sat, staring, hydrating, and chewing.  We were ready for sleep.

Two hours of sleep at the Holiday Inn was worth it.

   

AL gets ready for the handoff on the south side of the GG Bridge.  That headlamp is about to become soaking wet.  AL is about to become delirious as he runs along the Pacific in the pitch black at 12:30 at night.  The Great Highway just looks like an endless string of stoplights.  During his run, AL called us because he thought he might have missed the van.

I’m about to start my second leg in Millbrae and we were lucky enough to have two awesome students of our volunteering from 11pm-5am at this stop.  They were cold, but already talking about how they were going to get a team together for next year.

I ran a fairly easy 4ish miles and handed off to KMc again.  He ran so fast that Beej was just sitting in the van when KMc finished.  We had a moment of panic trying to get Beej out of the van and running.  But then we remembered that we were in no position to win this thing.

Our legs finished in Redwood City and we all went back to Menlo Park/Palo Alto, where half of us live, and got two hours of sleep. 

Starbucks breakfast on our way to leg three.

AL looking a bit suspect about his role as navigator.

Our team was well known for the cowbell that we rang everywhere.  I got the cowbell during the Salt Lake Olympics (from the official website) and always have it with me for things like this.  I was obsessed with ringing it every time we saw another runner (except at night, for obvious reasons).  The funniest part was that when the boys were in shotgun, they would put the cowbell down and then not be able to find it again.  It drove me crazy, but in the way my kids drive me crazy when they can’t find a pencil.  You can’t really get mad at them, can you?

AL started his third leg, which was six miles downhill in the Santa Cruz mountains. KMc and I decided to pump some music and have a dance party on Highway 9 while we waited.

KMc getting down to some Jay-Z.

These are my dance moves.  Sorry you have to see this.

My final leg was six miles: four miles flat and two miles up another 500 feet.  That’s why this set of legs is for the number one runner.  You run up hills that aren’t for running.  Correction: I walked up hills (others ran) that aren’t for running.

Here I am, on my way.  Running skirt and all.  You can’t tell from this picture, but my calves are killing me right now.  They were not happy about all the running up and down hills on no sleep.

This is JD, right after he handed the wristband to me.  It’s been a long relay.

I demanded that my team stop every mile along the way to keep me going.  I think they only stopped three times.  It actually helped me keep running because I kept thinking I was going to see them right around the bend.

Hydrating like crazy as I ponder the uphill in front of me. 

I’m ringing KMc in to the exchange just like I did every other runner I saw.

KMc and Beej go up for a chest bump before the last handoff.  Here we go!

The finish was at a berry farm near Santa Cruz.  It was so, so windy.  The boys had to nuzzle to keep warm while we waited for Beej to finish battling the horizontal winds and Van 1 to join us.

Here we are.  Done with running for the near future.  I think that some of us are bent over from sheer exhaustion because I didn’t have any control over my body at this point.

KMc driving us toward home along the beautiful Pacific.  A gorgeous end to one of the best weekends this year.

  We had dinner at the famous Duarte’s and this onion ring looked like an engagement ring.  So I made HS propose to me.  I’m shocked, of course.

N’awlins

Three weekends ago, I was in New Orleans for Jazz Fest.  My step-sister lives in the Big Easy and Jazz Fest seemed like the perfect opportunity to visit.

I flew via Dallas, and as we were getting close to DFW, this was the view out the window.  What is this?  I don’t know how to find out what they are, other than to ask here.  I tried looking at the satellite view of Google Maps, but couldn’t find this area.

On Saturday, we ventured around the city.  We had a yummy breakfast of grits, biscuits, and poached eggs at Surrey’s.  Then, we made a stop at Lafayette Cemetary Number 2, which is an old, old cemetery.  New Orleans, being under sea level, buries its dead in above-ground family tombs.  The cemetery was closed by the time we had finished breakfast, but we peeked in and listened to someone giving a tour of the area. 

Some fascinating things: When someone dies, they go into a shelf in the tomb for a year and a day.  If someone else in the family dies during that year, they go into a wall tomb, which are tombs along the perimeter of the cemetery. After the year and a day, the body is raked to the back of the tomb (it’s so toasty in the tombs that they decompose very quickly) and another body can go in. 

I loved the last name on this tomb.  A very New Orleans name.

I would love to be in town for All Saints Day, when everyone comes out, spruces up the tombs, and seems to throw parties at the cemeteries.

Here are some beads on the phone wires.  Mardi Gras must be crazy.

After the tombs, we hung out before heading to the French Quarter.  We tried to catch the St. Charles Streetcar, but one never came going our direction.  So we just walked the neutral zone.

Here I am enjoying a beignet at Cafe Du Monde.  New Orleans is a perfect place for people watching and fried food.

We cruised around the French Quarter.  Thankfully, my step-sister knows that I probably couldn’t handle this place in the dark, so I was happy to be there at 7 pm.  It was still fairly wild.  Lots of skin and alcohol. And odd street performers.  Like this guy.

       Sunday meant Jazz Fest! Juliet and I were so ridiculously excited. The food, the music…the food.  We were in for a good time.

My first snoball.  This was a nectar syrup snoball with condensed milk.  It might have been the tastiest ice-based food I’ve ever tasted.  I’m craving one right now.

This is Melissa taking a picture of her crawfish bread (basically bread stuffed with cheese, crawfish, and spices).  Juliet can’t contain herself!

Here’s one of the brass bands second lining through the festival grounds after their performance. I love the parasols and the general good nature of everything about this. 

  

Me with my namesake.  I love this town!

 

Here’s my dream house.  I love everything about it.  I might do something different with the shrubs, but it even has a bike in front! 

I left New Orleans on Sunday night to a gorgeous sunset over the Mississippi.  This was back when the oil leak had just happened, but no one knew about it (at least no one was talking about it in NO). 

Strangely enough, no one is really talking about it now, either.  I think we’re all overwhelmed with bad news and disasters these days.

What Do You Do When They Make A Special Day For Something You Do Already?

I ride my bike to school nearly every day (although, since the relay and being wicked sore, it’s been inconsistent).  It’s just under five miles each way, very flat, and oh-so-pleasant.

Today was Bike To Work Day, here in sunny California.  I felt the need for something to recognize the day beyond the usual commute.

So, last night, I got rode Caltrain with my friend and math colleague DC to his house in SF.  We carbo-loaded and were up at 4:45 this morning to make the 38 mile journey to our place of employment.  We started in the dark and wound our way through the city…by City College and UCSF, Lake Merced, up to Skyline Boulevard.  From there, we were practically following the same route as the relay two weekends ago.  Skyline is hilly in a challenging way.  Up and down.  Big ups and big downs.  It leads to the best bike path I’ve seen around here…miles and miles alongside the reservoirs and foothills.  I don’t love the dam that made the reservoir, but it was beautiful this morning in the fog and early light.  At one point, a deer was alongside the path, just looking at us, as if she was waiting for us to come.  So sweet.  A bit later, a coyote trotted right in front of our path and then stared us down as we flew past.  Ah the joys of early morning exercise.

Here we are, safe at school.  Three hours and 38 miles later.  There’s never a bad time for a ride.

Oh, and when we got to school, PE testing was underway for the 9th graders.  Their teachers got into it.  Really, really into it.

Why I Haven’t Been Blogging

 

Grading has consumed my life.

But, I promise, I will write soon about New Orleans Jazz Fest, The 200 Mile Relay, and Seniors in their final days with me.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms I know!

People: They Are Bad At Doing Stuff

I love this montage of reasons why you need an infomercial product.  You don’t even get what’s going on, but once you see the fade to black and white and the red “x,” you know your problems are about to be saved.

Colons

Just got this email from the 9th grade English teacher at my school:

So I’m reviewing rules for colons today and I’m trying to make it fun by charging kids to write entertaining sentences. Here is what SS wrote for the following rule:

Rule: Use a colon after an independent clause when introducing a list.

SS’s sentence: Rick Astley will never do the following things: give you up, let you down, turn around, or desert you.

Being a high school teacher is so worth it!

Sunny California

Sometimes people mistakenly call this The Sunshine State. That’s Florida, but you’re right to be confused.  It’s wicked sunny here, too.  We had a great week of sun and fun.

I’ve had a lot of visitors recently, which has made things fun and made me tired.

Right after Easter, JPH came to see me between family events on the West Coast.  We had a grand time, even though I can hardly get home from work at a reasonable time.  We watched the NCAA Championship games for men (on Castro St. in Mountain View) and women (at The Dutch Goose – a local favorite). 

This week, JMac came up from LA.  P-squared, she, and I went out for Italian here in town, got gelato, went to hang out with some colleagues, and it got late, so we had a slumber party at my house so they didn’t have to drive to the city.

Finally, my sister came to town on Thursday night!  I totally left her at the airport because I was in a coma and didn’t hear the multiple alarms I set.  Does that give you an indication of life out here?

Friday was a fun, fun day. 

JC and I wore matching shirts.  Unplanned, but we are on the same wavelength in the world, so it’s not surprising.  This is us, eating lunch outside as we always do.

I got my seniors to do a Minute To Win It game to end the day.  The blonde on the far left is our DJ from Finland.  He’s cooler than I.  I love AH on the bottom right, coaching her team.

I worked all week getting the Fixie Crew together for Fixie Friday.  It ended up being me and four boys.  I am trying desperately to get some ladies involved.  They are intimidated, but won’t listen to me when I tell them it will be fine.  I think I’ll have to do a ladies ride soon. 

Here we have two seniors and two sophomores.  Four fixies and one multi-geared bike among us.  We had fun on the miles of smooth, flat pavement.

Here we are looking out onto the Bay.  Love it!  I don’t know why I look puffed up, but I’m a Pelican for a reason, I guess.  I’m not happy about the no helmets on these boys.  At least they have brakes.

We did about 15 miles together and then I booked it home after our ride.  So, I had a 25 mile day on Friday.  Whew!  That’s tiring on a fixie and in jeans.  But on my way home, I was passes by one of my students hung out the passenger window yelling my name and waving at me.  That put a smile on my face until I reached my door.

Friday night was Supper Club and we went to the Cuban spot Bodeguita del Medio.  It was pretty good.  Appetizers were yummy and so were the drinks (we were celebrating), but my fish entree was just eh.

Here’s NK.  He’s in the Fixie Crew but didn’t ride with us, as he was after school helping kids get smarter.  Regardless, we were matching all day.  I’m not sure what’s going on in this picture, but it seems pretty par for the course.  We are pretty goofy.

The Supper Club.  NK is by default, my date, since everyone else is an official couple.  We walked a few blocks down to the Nuthouse, which is KMc’s “Cheers” and played some Shoulders.  It’s a drinking game that is entirely unfair if you are not drinking.  NK, my sister, and I were boss at this game.

Saturday night was the reason my sister came to town.  The Avett Brothers were gracing us with their presence.  I love them.  Love, love, love them.  I’ve seen them three times now, and I’m always so impressed with the energy and talent.  And their style.  I love how they dress.  We saw them at the gorgeous Fox Theatre in Oakland.  The bottom floor is just for standing, with four levels, each a few steps up from each other.  There is also a balcony of seats.  We opted to stand at the front of the second level, so we were close, but more importantly, above the heads in front of us. 

Scott and Seth Avett. What a great pair.

Here’s a great tune from the actual concert I saw.  It doesn’t display the frenetic energy of their live shows, but it does show off their sweet way with a song.

One of the encore songs they sang was “Where Have All The Average People Gone.”  They do a great, great version.  Scott Avett does it here.  How can I work this into my Stats class?

Today, sis and I took a drive to the Pacific before her flight. 

This place is pretty magical, in case you need reminding.  I think I do.