Oh, no, not another blog post about exercise...

You may have noticed I'm a daddy and a husband; I think we've posted something about that before.

I've been "racing" triathlons for a couple of seasons, but have so far avoided boring all six of you with posts about my "races". I've now decided to risk annoying you and write occasional posts on the topic when it strikes my fancy.

To be clear, "triathlon" here only means that I swim, then bike, then run during the same race. Many folks think of "Kona Ironman" when they hear "triathlon" -- that's so far from what I mean that you can't see it from where I am without a good telescope. And I should emphasize that when I say "racing", I am using that term extremely loosely. I am a slow triathlete -- I have about as much chance of winning any given event as I do of being elected Pope. (And yes, I do actually pay money to do this to myself. No, I've not had dain bramage, at least not the last time I checked.)

This year, I am preparing for four races, including one Sprint, two Internationals, and my first half-Ironman distance event. Triathlon season around here ends in October and doesn't really start until late March or early April. That's a long gap, so it's a good time to work on my two limiters -- running and swimming. (I'm least slow on the bike, slower on the run, and plankton regularly pass me on the swim leg.). To keep myself motivated, I signed up to attempt my first full marathon -- the Rock and Roll Marathon in DC on 16 March -- and I've been working with my fellow Masters swimmers who patiently put up with my lameness in the pool.

Yesterday was my last long training run prior to the marathon itself. The first 12 km took me past National Airport along the Mount Vernon Trail, heading into a chilly, blustery wind (the first rule of running is the same as the first rule of biking: it's always uphill and against the wind) filled with snow flurries. Cold, but I did have great views of the monuments on the Mall and of the National Cathedral, and greetings shared with my fellow runners, including two women with the brightest pink hats I have ever personally witnessed.

Birds also played a role in the run. The Canada geese along the Mount Vernon Trail couldn't be bothered to get out of the way of the guy in the bright green jacket trying to run through them. (I never knew birds could look disdainful until yesterday.) And then there were the two ducks. Duck #1 was waddling along placidly until Duck #2 aggressively approached from the side, and in Duck terms, It Was On. Both ducks reared up to their full heights and started quacking and flapping madly, until one of them lunged at the other, which flew off with the second duck in hot pursuit. Maybe one of them was dating the other duck's mate?

Soon it was time to face the hills along the Custis Trail for the next 12 km. I was a bit worried at first, since my worst recent running experience was on exactly this stretch of trail about a month ago. This time, it was a bit different. The climb out of Rosslyn was straightforward until I reached Ballston, and then things got a bit more difficult. First, the wind picked up. Then snow flurries became more numerous. Then I realized I hadn't really eaten well that day and my energy levels were dropping. Finally, I noticed I was starting to shake and wobble a bit, and my legs were really sore. Plus it was getting dark. After 10 km, I decided it was probably stupid to risk injury two weeks prior to the marathon, and sent up the bat signal for a rescue by Mama Geek.

Recovery was both great and painful. Coffee stout is delicious when done as well as the one I had last night. Middle-of-the-night charley horses in one's calf that are so severe one wakes up shouting are to be avoided, however.

Lessons learned? Better fuel before and better stretching afterward would be good ideas. Running hats fly off in windy weather, even when strapped down tightly. Don't be afraid to call for rescue if you really need it - don't risk injury two weeks out from the race. And don't expect geese to move aside for a mere slow triathlete.

Weeeeeee!

This is a test of the emergency "do the videos work" system.

25 days to chaos

In the basement, we have the "white room."  This is where Geek Girl can play with LEGOs to her heart's content.  It's normal state seems to be LEGO pieces evenly distributed throughout the room.  After the last "natural disaster" (Geek Girl and friend like to have a disaster happen in Animaland before they clean up the toys) I decided to take pictures to see how the mess spreads.

Here's the clean room on January 29.

One day later and the Littlest Pet Shop house has jumped out of the tub and some tubs of LEGOs have been emptied on the floor

Here it is after a week.

And another week.  There are still some empty spaces left on the carpet.

And one more week.  What happened here?  Geek Girl got LEGOs galore for her birthday!

The Long Flight to Thailand

The plane ride to Thailand was 22 hours long, but it wasn't as boring as it could have been. On the first flight, which was 13 and a half hours long, there were screens in front of the seats that were remote control. You could watch movies and play games on them. I played a couple of games and watched Madagascar 3.  I also read a little. Here is a picture that someone took of me:

At some point Daddy and I played multi-player games against each other. He was Zeus and I was Athena.

We stopped in Japan before getting on ANOTHER long flight that was about 7 hours long to Bangkok.

When we FINALLY got to Bangkok, it was only a little past midnight Bangkok time!  There was a Christmas tree made of lights at the airport. Here is a picture of it that I took:

We got a shuttle ride to our hotel and fell asleep pretty quickly.

The Cruller Stand

This is my first post about Thailand:

On 12/23/12 and 12/25/12 we went to a cruller stand in Chiang Mai. Mommy found out about it on the Internet and blogged about it.  I wanted to show you some more pictures.

A cruller is like a Chinese donut. The people who made the crullers made animal shapes. The first time, I got an elephant shaped one. Here is a picture of it:

Here is a picture of the stand:

The second time I got a crocodile:

Then Daddy and I went to watch them make crullers. The man making them saw us and offered to make me an Angry Bird. Here is a picture of it:

Those crullers weren't as sweet as donuts in the US, but they do taste good!

"Hey, you wanna go to Thailand for Christmas?"

I asked Mama Geek that question one night in April 2012. I had been idly surfing flyertalk.com and came across a thread on cheap tickets over the Christmas break, which led, through a process which is too boring to detail here, to me hunting for the most distant destination we could go using my frequent flyer miles. Bangkok popped up in the candidates, and since we've been wanting for some time to visit Thailand -- and warm sounded good for winter -- I asked my question.

Mama Geek looked startled, then pensive.  We checked the school calendar, I mulled over my work schedule, and it seemed possible. When the idea still seemed good the next morning, clicky clicky and we had three tickets to Thailand with almost no ideas beyond that.  We did slow research, polled some friends who've spent a lot of time in Thailand, realized we could pick at most two destinations, and boiled it down to two options: (a) Bangkok and Chiang Mai or (b) Bangkok and a beach.  In the end, Geek Girl voted for Chiang Mai -- "we can go to the beach closer to here, Daddy" -- and we decided, why not?

Once we worked that out, we were able to arrange internal travel and hotels.  The short version is:

• IAD-NRT-BKK-NRT-SFO-IAD on United; 27 hours on the outbound and 30 on the return.  Thankfully, we were in business class the whole way -- frequent flyer miles are a good thing.
• BKK-CNX-BKK on Thai Airways.  It's only a one-hour flight, but Thai still manages a snack and two drink services.
• The first night, we stayed at the Vismaya Suvarnabhumi, about 10 minutes from BKK.  This was the most expensive ($88/night) but worth it because it was so close, had a free airport shuttle both ways, had free breakfast, and good rooms.  
• While in Chiang Mai, we stayed at the Galare Guest House, where $33/night got us a room with a king-sized bed and a twin bed, shower/toilet/sink, and plenty of storage space.  The Galare is east of the Old City of Chiang Mai, on a quiet side street (soi) right along the river.  We were happy, though we might choose to stay more centrally next time.
• We stayed at the Holiday Inn Bangkok Silom (I know, how original) during our last five days.  We got a $70/night rate for two double beds (American-sized doubles) plus free Internet and free breakfast.  Silom has lots of food choices on the small sois near the hotel, good connections with river ferries and the BTS, and was just a bit calmer than some of the other areas of the city we visited.

Since we've been back, folks have asked what my favorite part of the trip was, and it's really hard to pick only one.  Instead, here are some highlights, in no particular order:

One word: food.  Mama Geek has already posted a bit on this.  I was a fan of Thai food long before our trip, but this cemented it.  Meatballs on a stick, grilled fresh in front of you, with a delicious spicy chile sauce, for $1?  Yes, please.  Spicy papaya salad for $2?  Yes, please.  Fresh tropical fruits -- mangos and mangosteens, dragonfruit, lychee and longan -- everywhere you look?  Yes, please.  Chinese donuts and Thai coffee consumed while sitting on plastic stools at an outside stall in a market street?  Yes, please.  Rice with pork, veggies, and chiles -- really spicy chiles -- for $3 if it's fancy?  Oh, hell, yes.  Pardon me while I salivate at the memories.

An unexpected bonus: running the 10-km race associated with the 2012 Chiang Mai Marathon.  I had known the marathon would happen near Christmas, having read about it on the A Little Adrift blog, but didn't know it would happen while we were there.  We had just arrived at the Tha Phae Gate in the old town

Mama Geek and Geek Girl at Tha Phae Gate, Chiang Mai

when I saw the registration and packet pickup desks, and started making moon eyes at Mama Geek.  "Can I?  I was going to run that far tomorrow anyway..."  She sighed and agreed (I think mostly so I would shut up and we could go get something cool to drink), and 400 baht and an exchange of English, Thai, and gesticulation later, I was signed up.  My physical souvenir from Thailand is a 10K finisher's medal and a new lightweight mesh T-shirt -- great for those hot, sticky runs here in the summer.

My souvenirs from Thailand

There are 7-11 stores everywhere.  According to their corporate Web site, there are 8,030 7-11 stores in the U.S. and Canada; according to one of our guidebooks, there are over 2,700 7-11 stores in Bangkok alone.  I believe it: we counted no fewer than six 7-11 stores within 15 minutes' walk from our hotel in Bangkok.  The ubiquity is a good thing: all of them sell a 600 milliliter bottle of water for 6 baht (20 cents) and ice cream cone for 21 baht -- a very nice treat in such a warm place.  

I was awed by the beauty of the wats we visited.  All of them were heavily touristed, especially Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai and Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho in Bangkok, but despite that every one of them had jaw-dropping moments for me.  We made sure to spend some time sitting quietly in each temple we visited, which was remarkably calming, and Geek Girl and I received blessings from monks at three temples.  Here are just a few pictures -- Mama Geek can verify I took literally hundreds more.

Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

Mama Geek and Geek Girl with nagas at Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai

Chedi (also called a stupa) at Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

Guardian giant (Yaksha) at Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok 

At Wat Pho, the monk who gave us a blessing startled me by speaking perfect English to us -- it turns out he spends half of each year in Boston!  Another unexpected bit: Geek Girl was interviewed by students learning English

Geek Girl and her interviewers, Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

which brought back memories of a visit to Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, where the same thing happened to me.  

We also got a bonus on the way home -- my mom and dad were able to meet us at SFO for a quick visit.  They hadn't seen Geek Girl or Mama Geek in person in a year, so it was fun for all of us.

Our day outside Chiang Mai with elephant rides and zip-lining (Mama Geek, too!) is also definitely a highlight, but I think Geek Girl wants to write a post about that, so I won't spoil it for her.  And Geek Girl should be the one to tell you about her culinary highlight.  Be on the lookout for her post when she has it done.

Thailand Thoughts and Pictures

Hopefully one of us will blog more extensively about our trip to Thailand.  In case we don't, I wanted to jot down my impressions and highlights before they fade and post a few photos.

1.  Traffic!  Traffic drives on the left side of the road.  Between having to look the opposite way and dodging motorbikes, it was an adventure just to cross the street.  We took two taxi rides during rush hour that took a long long time.

2.  Oranges.  You remember Tang, the orange-flavored drink?  I was positive when I ordered an orange juice that they had used Tang instead of real oranges.  But there was pulp and all of the subsequent orange juices tasted the same.  Thai oranges taste like Tang!

3.  Apparently I look Thai.  At least in Chiang Mai, I was asked several times if I was Thai.

My highlights for the trip:  Thai massages (we all got massages in Chiang Mai and then Daddy Geek and I each got one more in Bangkok), elephant rides and zip-lining, temples, and the food!

Some pictures from the trip.  You might notice they tend to be food-oriented...

This was our first lunch in Chiang Mai:

We were looking for lunch before going to a temple.  The guidebook had mentioned a roadside stand, but we couldn't find it.  We kept walking and saw a lean-to with a kitchen and seating.  We walked over and found an empty table and everyone looked at us...  Daddy Geek went over to the cook, and with the help of a passerby with some English and lots of repetition (one pork and veggies no spicy, two pork and veggies, spicy) we ordered lunch.  Here's the cook at work:

Note: lunch was about $2.30.

My only culinary goal for the trip (Daddy Geek and Geek Girl had a separate goal that they'll tell you about later) was to find the "Chinese donut" place mentioned in an Eating Asia post.  On Saturday we had wandered through the market and couldn't find the place.  However, on Sunday morning, after Daddy Geek ran the 10K part of the Chiang Mai Marathon, he found the place (it had closed up shop by the time we had gone by on Saturday).

Here's a dinosaur donut and "chromosome" donuts:

And after pointing at the sign above displaying the shapes and prices, Geek Girl ordered an elephant:

On our first day in Bangkok, we took a boat ride up to the Grand Palace complex.  Here's Geek Girl hot and tired while we get our bearings:

We had hoped to visit a couple of additional temples that day, but it was just too hot so we took a taxi home.  Somehow after the large hotel buffet breakfast (contained American, Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, British, and European items) we skipped lunch.  Well, Geek Girl had an ice cream and we all had cold drinks.  On our way back to the hotel, we grabbed some fried chicken balls from a stand.  Here they are after being fried and then covered with a yummy chile-vinegar sauce:

A couple days later we woke up earlier to take the river boat again, this time to Wat Pho.  This is the temple that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton visited in November 2012.  Wat Pho is home of Thailand's biggest reclining Buddha statue.  It was truly amazing.

Here's a picture of the head:

And the view from the foot:

And the three of us outside with chedi (mound-like structures containing relics):

We have many more photos (and videos from zip-lining) and hopefully will be sharing the with you soon.