Walking down the street most people take in the sights of their surroundings such as buildings, plant life and other things that grab their eyes. Especially while living in a city with many people, you can't help but notice what people are wearing, their faces and facial expressions. I use notice that all before but now it's a little different for me. Now that I'm a personal trainer and that I work with people's bodies and understand the human body more than ever, I notice things that most people don't, posture. 90% of the popluation seems to have horrible posture. I find it sort of amusing walking down the street or sitting on the T looking at people and noticing what muscles are tight and weak on everybody. Usually the guy who is all dressed up in his suit, he's got to be making tons of money, looks sleek and sophisticated but if you look down at his designer shoes they are pointing outwards ( in this fashion \/). When the feet are externally rotated 9,000 things run through my head on how I could get rid of that. Then you might see a girl walking down the street with the same problem and usually has a slight bounce to her step if I go ask her if she wears high heels there is a 95% chance she will say yes. Then usually will say her calfs bother her. Then people slouching on the T with their internally rotated shoulders and heads tilted forward tell me that people are sitting in front of the computer for hours and have horrible posture. Most people are shooting themselves in their foot when they have horrible posture because we've all seen the 80 year old man walking down the street with a hunch back and head that is way out in front. I believe horrible posture is the reason why people shrink with age. Anyways, next time you walk outside notice how horrible everyone's posture is and notice if you might have bad posture urself. Ask me and I can help you change it.

I was randmonly surfing the net and stumbled across this essay on why Americans don't like jazz music. Here's the link http://www.dyske.com/index.php?view_id=778 . All I have to say is I agree with everything that is written by the author. Most of the Western world has gotten use to the MTV/VH1 way of music. What I mean when I say the MTV/VH1 way of music is that most of the shows that are shown have nothing to do with music at all. Come on they are music channels and the shows that are predominantly showing are reality tv shows and other various pop culture shows. Then to top that off, when MTV does show a music video, which is maybe 2 hours out of the day, it is so visually based that people don't even notice the music. Who should? In today's world, music is just a back drop for the music video and truthfully that is all it can be. Your senses become overwhelmed by the bombardment of visual cues and raunchy lyrics that the music has to take a back seat. Thus, leading most Americans to under-appreciate instrumental music that lacks visuals and graphic lyrics. I wonder where this will lead music.

I'm part of a group that is travelling to Japan this summer to volunteer at an orphanage. Check out our website that we have created. It goes into more detail about everything. We would love your support!

www.firstgiving.com/bostontojapan

I felt the need to explore today. The first leg of my journey took me to Harvard right across the Charles River. This picture is of one side of Harvard square.

This actually some buildings of Harvard. Truthfully I really didn't feel any smarter in it's presence.



I certianly didn't take that too many pictures of Harvard square, I guess I was lazy. However, a photo album of Boston isn't complete without some pictures of the T (Boston Subway system). Too bad there weren't any street musicians playing at any of the stops or random homeless men/women like there sometimes is. Maybe next time.

Then I decided to walk to my old apartment. This is the Christian Science Center right next to my old apartment and school. It's really beautiful even the fountians and park next to it are. Though, I'd never pay money to become a Scientologist.





Here's the street I use to live on. In the fall at night it is probably the prettiest street in Boston. I can't believe a movie hasn't been shot here. Well it does cost a fortune to shoot any movie in Boston so I guess that is why.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll take more pictures as I explore more.

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=17902&BIB=1076&S=230&PWD=
My expression is priceless. If you sprint mile 26 this is what you look like! Looks like I have to go the bathroom but I'm in extreme pain. That sucks that I can't just download a copy, so you just have to look at the "store" and the prices are expensive to download.

Yeah exactly what it says. I got blown off today, I was going to have a meeting with the Boston Buddies head honcho but he wouldn't pick up the phone. He was suppose to pick me up from the t station but never came around. I always wonder what comes up when things like this happen. Hopefully nothing bad.
It's never fun to travel and be stood up, but I guess I should look on the bright side, I had a reason to get out of my apartment and explore. Also, it gave me a reason to check out some new running shoes to replace my pair I just retired.

Random thought: I was looking up Ultramarathon runners just out of curiosty, and I found out that there are some people who run for 300 miles without stopping. Thats 3 days of just running. What I don't understand is how some of these people eat, excrete waste products, and put up with that many miles. http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/ That guy in particular is sick. How often does he change his shoes? As much as he changes his underwear? ahaha

Why have I been talking about running a lot lately? Does anyone else get really interested in something for a month and then need more things to keep their mind happy? Seriously, I'm learning a foreign language, playing guitar, personal training, training myself, now writing a blog, doing research studies, and volunteering. Wow I didn't realize how much I do.

Anyways, I should play some guitar.

I first want to say thank you to everyone who congratulated me!! It's great to have a group of friends and family that support me with whatever crazy things I do.

Anyways, marathons are fun especially travelling to new and unique places. So, I've decided that in the next 50 years I want to run a marathon in pretty much every continent. I'll skip out on Antartica for now, but I think running in a marathon in every continent will give me an excuse to see every nook and cranny of the world. I have had an urge to travel lately, it's kind of addicting.

PS- I'll still be writing in my blog about other random things I do, or encounter or thoughts, so keep a look out.

Ran the Marathon in 3:35. 5th in my age group, and 350ish overall. Amazing accomplishment seeing how many people spent Saint Patricks day getting drunk. I punished my body in a different way.

I'm finally back from my quick weekend get away. Sorry I didn't post sooner but the internet at my hotel was crappy and I was way too tired and sore to get off my but and find a place with a good internet connection. But here it goes:

Saturday

The weather here was crappy and I was freaking out thinking that my flight would be cancelled like the other 200 flights that were. But, I was lucky. The picture above was from the T-station waiting to get to the airport.

After an hour and a half flight I made it to Virginia Beach. From there, I went to my taxi driver who was waiting for me. I got to like my taxi driver because he shattered any sterotype of old people and driving. He was the sweetest little old man with a sack of lead in his foot. He then took me to the convention center where I signed up for the race and checked out the "expo".


There were a ton of people there. I think there was 15,000 people who participated in all of the races!

Ronald was even there. I asked him if he knew he was killing millions of people with his food and he kindly gave me this pose as his only response.


The convention center where the running expo was. Very nice!

With the expo behind me I went got some delicious food and checked out my surroundings.





RACE:
Sunday I felt amazing, and revved up to race. Come on I hadn't run in a week. I'll give you an idea at what I was feeling throughout the race.

Start:
There were tons and tons of people, almost too many people at the starting line. We lined up behind pacers which is a great thing because I had no way of pacing myself otherwise. As the horn sounded off, everyone was elbow to elbow for the first 13 miles.
I was smart I didn't run with the 7:30 minute mile pacer, I opted to run with the 8 minute mile pacer instead. The only thing was the pacer was definitely going faster then an 8 minute mile.

5 miles:
Everything was running very smoothly and I was pumped but holding it back for later in the race. We followed the road along the shore line with all the hotels and shops. It was very nice.

8 miles:
Still feeling very good. We were running through a military base and it was a cool experience since I've never been through one in my life.

13 miles:
We ran along the boardwalk next to the shore line the wind was blowing and my hands were freezing. I also felt like I should surpass the pacer at mile 20 because I was feeling exceptional.

20 miles:
I pass the 8 minute mile pacer by quite a bit and I'm starting to feel the wall. I haven't really kept this good of a pace on my training runs and never ran more then 20 miles so I've been pretty oblivious to what the wall feels like. Just imagine feeling good then hitting a point where you feel like your 300lbs. Plus I was feeling some big blisters on my feet by now. Ouch. By this time my pace has slowed dramatically but I wasn't going to stop to walk. I sucked it up and kept going. The volunteers were cheering and that was very helpful.

26 miles:
By this time I'm back on the Boardwalk and can see the finish line. My legs have disowned me but I couldn't stop now. What...there were little old men in front of me I couldn't stop. So what did I do? I sprinted the last 1.2 miles, I don't know how I did it but I did.

Finish:
It felt amazing that I ran 26.2 miles and I was in a great deal of pain. After I got some treats and my medal and everything else I hobbled 25 blocks back to my hotel and it took me about 45 minutes. All I can say is running a Marathon is a true test of how much pain you can endure and it isn't for the faint at heart. However, I highly recommend everyone try one at least once in their life.

So the day went smoothly, the airplane went off even though the weather was horrible. I've been walking around and here are some pictures I've taken. I'll write about them later, I'm going to rest.

Today is Friday, and this means that it's the day before I leave to go to Virginia Beach. Am I nervous? Nadda. I would have to say I'm amped. Picture seeing your favorite band in a sold out arena with 50,000 screaming fans around you and your in the front row. I'm that amped.
Anyways, I have everything situated for smooth travel but the weather, as seen in the picture, is horrible. Hopefully, my plane is on time and the taxi company doesn't ditch me (I had to reserve a taxi because the closest airport to Virginia Beach is in Norfolk approximately 20 miles away).
Stay tuned.

Boston's climate is truely horrible. Lets see, last week it was -5 degrees (f) without the windchill which is usually 30 miles an hour. Thats cold even to my standards, I've lived in this sort of climate all my life. But the kicker is, Boston has it's days like today, 70 and beautiful. And the forecast for the end of the week is 6 inches of snow! How is that possible? It's like the weather is playing mind games with me. I wanted so badly to run today, but that would be detrimental to my training. Why couldn't it have been 70 when I was actually training for my 20 mile runs? At least it should be in the 60's or better down in Virginia Beach for the actual marathon:)
Meanwhile, my midterms are done and I'm relaxing. It is hard sleeping at night do to my lack of movement from the day and nerves about the run but I'll live.
On an even further side note, I've had an urge to volunteer and if anyone knows me they know I like doing random things to keep myself busy. I think of myself as James Bond and they are my missions. Well anyways, I was perusing Craigslist and found this program called Boston Buddies. Pretty much I'll be working out with a developmentally disabled individual once a week helping motivate them and be a friend with them. Personally I think it's a great idea because the developmentally challenged have a high occurance of obesity and lack the support to change. Next week I'll have a meeting with the guy in charge so I don't know much of the details. Plus, I will be volunteering in Japan at the end of the summer. I'll keep updates on both as more information comes along.

3 days left!

Ok, I've thrown my pre-marathon jitters out the door at least for today. Maybe I'm a little sketched out on what pace I want to run at but that is the least of my problems now. 7:30min mile or 8:00mile....ahh who cares.
Today has to be one of the busiest and most stressful days I've had in while. I started by studying for today's midterms which wasn't bad at all. But, if you squeeze 4 midterms in one day and work 4 hours on top of that, life becomes a little more difficult. At least I don't have to worry about Bach staring over my shoulder claiming he will kill a kitten everytime I write parallel fifths or octaves for the next week (in traditional harmony or counterpoint class), those poor kittens. And now I don't have to solfege for a week. I know my solfege test went well. But anyways, I have to study for my 3 midterms tomorrow and finish a project. My brain is fried but after tomorrow I'm pretty much done with midterms. I don't know how other college kids do it, they might have to study for 4 big midterms but 8 midterms....insane.

Wow, it's been at least 8 weeks since I've been training for my first Marathon. To those who don't know, a Marathon is based on the legend of Pheidippides, a greek soldier/messenger sent from the town of Marathon to Athens announcing that the Persians have been defeated at the Battle of Marathon. It is said that he ran approximately 24.8 miles without stopping, and after Pheidippides arrived in Athens and read the message, he collapsed. What an amazing feat without proper training. To put this into persepective, you have to understand that when a human consumes carbohydrates it is processed in the liver and converted into glycogen. Glycogen is burned quickly by the body and most runners are only able to store about 2,000kcals of glycogen. Thats enough energy to complete 20 miles. But wait a marathon is 26.2 miles. Well yeah, after 20 miles runners experience hitting the "wall". Hopefully my training has increased my tolerence of hitting the wall.

In the mean time, I have to take care of 8 midterms and not train for a week, so my body recovers and my glycogen stores are fully stocked. Hopefully my midterms will keep my mind off the race so I don't have to stress about that.

Come, sit down in a circle as I tell you my adventure as it unfolds.