Last night Bo had the opening of a new commercial flex space in the heart of the Alberta Arts district (13th & NE Alberta). Cool place. Check it out.

So, my 1st marathon is over. I was able get through it because of 4 months of training, and the help from Keith, Michele, Brian, Erik, Brad, Sean, Kristi, and Vio, who either gave me advice or ran with me during this time, so I thank you all. I also want to thank my parents who thought I was crazy to run a marathon , but wished me well anyway, and my brother who smokes a pack a day and has no interest in running half a mile. Last but not the least I want to thank Cindy O’Brien from United Airlines who helped me book another flight to San Diego after missing my flight in the morning and risked arriving in San Diego to late to complete the registration process. Read the rest of this entry »

In about 3 hours I’ll start the 1st marathon of my life. I am confident that I will finish, but my goal is to run it in under 4 hours. It’s time to see if the four months of training in cold and rain will pay off.

A friend of mine from Romania sent me a link with a possible answer to the question “What would the world look without Romania?” As you watch the video clip you’ll also find out few facts, some known and some unknown, about the jet plane, the insulin, Microsoft, Nadia Comaneci, Dracula (vlad tepes), and the fountain pen.

Something from Every Notable Patch of Grass in Romania - The Blog

12 hours away from Portland… 32000 feet above the ground.

Listening to Rhapsody, and wondering if other airlines will be smart enough to implement the Connexion by Boeing technology.

As I prepare to leave Romania and Sean and I are sitting hear laughing at how funny of a writer Bob of World Cup Blog is. Not sure how he comes up with this stuff, but it is cracking me up every single time. I am not sure I can make it to Germany this summer. It’s not a matter if I can afford the WC tickets, but my vaction days are running low as I write this post. I am looking to buy some stuff though so I looked at the Adidas Kits in the World Cup Store. Right now the price is in pounds. Same for the USA jerseys. Damn - At least Sean say they are working on getting it in dollars. Someone asked if I would go if Romania would have qualified. The answer is maybe, and I would have done it for my father, which I did take to a soccer game while I was here. Sorry about the photos… they’ll come soon.

I arrived yesterday in Romania and the weather is not much different than Portland which about the only thing we have in common. Here’s a short list of things I encoutered the last 18 hrs.

1. light brown water (for the shower)
2. very very very helpful, and friendly hotel staff
3. same prices for hotel services as in US (wages about 10 times lower than in US)
4. drinkable water only by the bottle
5. the use of 2 version of the same curency: 1 New ROL (Romanian Leu) = 10,000 Old ROL. The excuse for still using the curency in its old format and the new format, the old one was suppose to be ousted last June, is the lack of money the government allocated for the entire process.

There will be a gallery posted soon.

Monday 4 miles - 8′25′’ pace (Terwilliger - a route known to many runners as “The Death Run” 2.5 miles uphill with an 300 ft difference from the bottom of the hill up to the Chart House restaurant)

Wednesday 6 miles - 8′55′’ (Waterfront - flat)

Friday 4.6 miles - 8′23″ (Terwilliger)

Saturday 12 miles - 9′42″

1 hr. 30 min. 45 sec.
9′04′’ pace

On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the worst):

Pain level: 2
Breathing difficulty: 3
Desire to run more: 10

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