Seven Continents. Seven Marathons. Seven Summits. Seven Years.

I realized somehow that it had been almost two weeks since my last post - how could that be?  Where did the time go?  If I were to write on two relevant topics it would be around getting into a routine, thinking time, and new company adaptation.  I finally got in a long run today - 11 miles around the lake and through a new area (for me) the Bridal Trails Park in Redmond/Kirkland.  Brilliant sunshine, tall trees and shade and then emerging into the view of Lake Washington, the Olympic Mountains in the distance and what seemed to be the entire population of Seattle out on the streets enjoying another warm, perfect day.  Awe-inspiring to say the least.

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… it could have been better!   The first running of the race from Post Falls, Idaho could have been a) a PR b) Boston Qualifying time c) a disaster d) none of the above.  And the answer was (d).  My time was 4:01:27, I’m a little embarrased to say, because I could have broken 4 hours but my legs would not let me.  My previous best had been 3:54 and change and I needed 3:45 to qualify for Boston.  But considering a Lot of Things, not too shabby really …

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The day started out fairly warm and sunny and waking up to views of Lake Washington, downtown Seattle and the brilliant Olympic snow-capped mountains standing sentinal sharply over the lake.  Awake at 5:15 AM, I had the usual trepidation about what the race would bring.  Not having trained really at all the last month (except for two good runs last weekend), my two main goals were: 1. To Finish and 2. A fantasy to break two hours.  And have Fun.

I was somehow able to accomplish both and post a time of 1:52:58 in the Kirkland Half-Marathon, which is a new Personal Record (PR) for me - which translates to a pace of 8:36/mile.

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Today is Mother’s Day, and during the half-marathon, I thought about my mom after seeing people with their own mothers.  My mom passed away in August of 2004 when I was living in Jakarta.  I had seen her in March for the LA Marathon and she was fine.  Less than a month later, I got a call from my uncle that something happened with my mom and she was in the hospital.  We flew down and when I saw her, it was not the same person.  She had some kind of stroke or blood-clot (they never really found out what) and it was terrible to see her in that condition.  I came back in May to try to get her affairs in order after she was moved into a care facility.

When we came back in July for my high school reunion, she had had a turn-around and looked like my same old mom, her hair was done, and she was talking just fine.  I remember driving away and wondering if this was the last time I would see her - and it was.

In August - just a month later - I went into the office in Jakarta and I had a one-line email from my Uncle that she had died.  I made arrangements that day to fly back (all of these were 15 hour flights each way) and we sorted out the funeral plans for a couple of days later.  What follows is the speech I gave at her funeral (written on the plane) with some edits for this post.

Happy Mother’s Day mom, we all still miss you and wish I could have one more dinner that you made.

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I went to the gym that is nearest to work yesterday for a short tour and see about signing up - it is included in the Microsoft benefits package.  When I had to park miles away (ok not really) instead of near the front door at PVAC, I should have had a feeling I was not in Kansas anyway.  When I walked in and saw the on-site flower shop, cafes, sports store and the massive front desk, it started to settle in.  When I got someone to help me with the tour and start to take me around he said that it “was the largest health club facility in the U.S.”.

“Really?” I said. “How many members do you have?”

He said, “30,000″.

Jaw dropped.  After I kept seeing all these people with ProClub shirts, I asked him, “So, how many employees do you have?”

“800″.

800?  Really?  One gym has 800 people that are employed?  The numbers are kind of staggering.

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Thanks to a good friend who has lent me her (autographed) copy of Douglas Coupland’s “microserfs” book (1995), I have been experiencing the life of a (fictional) Microsoft employee and his friends circa 1993.  I’ve heard the term before of course, and Coupland is the guy who invented the term “Generation X”.  It’s a fantastic book to read right now and there are so many inside terms that only someone who has been around so long in technology would understand and appreciate.  When I first heard the term “microserfs”, I thought it would be a derogatory term, but it’s really not.  It is somewhat of a homage to tech companies in the early nineties and what they and the industry were going through.

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Today, I had my first run since moving to Seattle a week ago.  Started out from my flat on Lake Washington and ran around the lake to the town center in Kirkland and back around the lake for a total of about 7 miles.  (the lake is something like 90+ miles all around, so I’m just running along a short stretch on my side.) It started out raining a bit and by the time I was done, it was pretty much pouring.  Since this is after all, Seattle, I better get used to it!

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I woke up this morning in my hotel room in Bellvue, Washington and looked out and could clearly see Mount Rainier - and I thought about summiting there in July 2007 and I could not have imagined moving to Seattle less than two years later.

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I recently accepted a new position at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington and my first official day is tomorrow Monday (April 20th) while my last day was this past Friday (the 17th).  I have had the weekend as “transition time”, though in the past several weeks I worked hard to both wrap things up at Dilithium (and make sure things were transitioned there in a good way) and also to come up to speed quickly on the new position.

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I did it!  I finished my longest run and race in my lifetime so far, by completing the AR 50 in (a personal record) of 10 hours and 58 minutes.  My previous longest had been a 50k (31.1 miles) while this was an 81k and almost 19 miles more than anything I had ever done.  As I write this, it is the morning after the day before and as to be expected, more sore and spent than could be imagined.  But very pleased and satisfied.

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