2011 bootcamp challenge - results

not sure how this happened, but i did quite a bit better than i thought. even though i flew thru the obstacles, i really thought my lack of run training hindered my overall time, but apparently it didn't!

1st column is standing in age group, 2nd column is standing overall (out of 2005 competitors):

1	4	885	NORIMASA TATEISHI		0:18:17
2	8	954	DWIGHT WILSON		0:18:49
3	11	1501	BEN WILDE		0:19:16
4	12	1131	MILOS KAPICKA		0:19:25
5	15	1048	MORGAN CUBETE		0:19:34
6	43	583	BERNARD LLAVE		0:21:00
7	49	560	STEPHEN LANE		0:21:03
8	58	1242	JASON RYAN		0:21:20
9	61	661	SHAWN MONTPETIT		0:21:20
10	67	531	SCOTT JOINER		0:21:37
11	76	1177	MICHAEL MENG		0:22:06
12	78	2309	GENE CALANTOC		0:22:08
13	86	1711	ORLANDO SANCHEZ		0:22:19
14	125	1140	HARRY KIM		0:23:18
15	131	771	RICKY RAMIREZ		0:23:23
16	148	577	BRIAN LHEE		0:23:46
17	168	380	DARREN DUNCAN		0:24:13

money B + friends

chillin w/ernie

taking care of ron

point loma + stone brewing world bistro & gardens

after the boot camp challenge, i managed to sneak in one photo before getting shooed away by commanding officers.

got guns?

after a quick bite to refuel at con pane rustic breads & café, we made the drive up to cabrillo national monument to check out the view from point loma. fortunately for us, it was fee free saturday, so the $5 entrance fee was waived.


and here's the view of downtown SD:

POV from point loma

since we were in SD, it would be such a waste not to take advantage of the proximity to stone, so we made a side trip to the brewery specifically to visit the bistro & world gardens for the first time. i've been to the brewery numerous times for their yearly festival in august, but never had the chance to dine here.

and what a surprise it is! not your typical pub fare, but rather organic, artisanal produce & ingredients to mirror the care and love they use to treat their beer. plus, it's a gorgeous, open dining area with a bright and airy outdoor patio.


beer lineup was like so:

* great divide old ruffian barleywine
* russian river pliny the elder
* stone double dry hopped 15th anniversary black IPA

food lineup was such:

* mushroom pillows
* thai beef salad
* BBQ sandwich
* blueberry blue cheese jalapeno cheesecake

hitching a ride w/the stone gargoyle

2011 boot camp challenge

this past saturday i made the trek down to marine corps recruit depot in san diego to participate in the boot camp challenge. originally vim & i were going to do this together, but as of a few weeks ago it wasn't in the cards schedule-wise. we decided to skip it and do the xterra point mugu trail run on october 16 instead. much to my surprise, our race numbers for the boot camp challenge arrived in the mail on the wednesday prior to the race, so i was like WTF. i guess he forgot that he signed us up! haha

after some hemming and hawing, i said what the hell and decided to go for it despite not training for it one iota. it's a 3-mile race with 45 obstacles - including hay bales, logs to jump over/under, cargo nets, push up stations, etc. - so stamina was going to be crucial. i wasn't so concerned with the obstacle portion, but keeping a steady running pace would be difficult to maintain without doing some ACTUAL RUNNING.

liftoff for the male individuals was at 9:05am and we were off. the first mile included maybe 3-4 obstacles, so the rest of them were backloaded and left many participants gasping for air - me included. i finished somewhere north of 23 minutes, which wasn't great considering the first person crossed in 18. but it definitely showed me where my deficiencies are and can only serve as impetus to get my @$$ in gear.

needless to say, sunday morning i was right back at it... running up paseo miramar to parker mesa overlook and back down in 57 minutes, which is a personal best. hopefully i can keep it up over the next few weeks so as not to embarrass myself on october 16.

seattle - day 3

sunday morning brought about a pit stop at top pot doughnuts, as it was a short walk from where we were staying at the mayflower park hotel.

dining w/hello kitty

we then spent the morning visiting and feeding the koi at the serene japanese garden, before doing a drive-by of former nirvana frontman kurt cobain's house on lake washington.


we headed over to safeco field for the mariners' day game vs. the texas rangers, which was my first time taking in a game at the jewel of a ballpark. it's conveniently located next to centurylink field (f.k.a. qwest, home of the seahawks) and armed with a nifty retractable roof for rainy days, but it was closed for some reason despite sunday's despite nice weather.


our tix were seated in right field behind the venerable ichiro suzuki, but i had planned a bit of a scoreboard surprise for heidi that was to play after the 6th inning. because we had no vantage point of the center field scoreboard, we started walking around during the 6th to find better seats (she had no idea what was in store). thankfully, the crowds were quite sparse due to the play of the underwhelming mariners this year, so we walked around the concourse before settling in behind home plate. it was also kids appreciation day, so jordan (and us!) had great fun taking pics with various mascots - including a mexican standoff with a clam - we came upon.


and before you know it, there it is! got a lotta chuckles from those seated near us, as i was pointing to the culprit:

surprise!

i don't remember a whole lot from that point on, but we did manage to grab a nice photo after the last pitch...

jamey in king's court

1-2-3 safeco!

after the game, we said our goodbyes to carolyn, jamey, jordan & lauren and returned to the mayflower to pick up our car. our last meal consisted of pizza at serious pie and ice cream at molly moon's before heading to the airport. a great trip indeed!

seattle - day 2

saturday morning we made a visit to mighty-o's for some breakfast. i hadn't heard of mighty-o's but boy was i in for a surprise. specializing in organic cake donuts, their french toast and grasshopper (chocolate mint) were off the hook. not weighed down by any preservatives or unnecessary ingredients, the airy and almost fluffy texture of the cake was perfect for a morning snack...

happy day!

we returned to the downtown area for lunch at pike place chowder, then i was off to kerry park for groomsmen pictures.


the wedding went off without a hitch, so it was really cute to see both becky and joseph - especially joseph - get emotional when reading their vows.


heidi made no effort to snatch the bouquet, but take a wild guess as to who caught the garter toss...

seattle - day 1

my dear friends becky and joseph tied the knot over the weekend, and as i was invited to be one of the lucky groomsmen, this was the perfect opportunity to get reacquainted with the pacific northwest. the last memory i had of seattle was checking out the space needle with my family when i was 13, so i had no recollection of the people, the weather and the culture that makes up the emerald city.


i flew in on virgin america, arriving promptly at noon in advance of the 2pm wedding rehearsal. after a short delay at national car rental - which i bypassed a 30-minute line completely by using the electronic kiosk - i took my free upgrade to a toyota camry and jumped on the I-5 north to downtown. since i had about an hour to burn, this was a perfect time to steal away a visit to pike place market for a quick bite to eat.

i settled for a seat at the counter at steelhead diner for their chicken & sausage gumbo and a pint of pike's kilt lifter before scrambling back to palace ballroom... where i finally met joseph's mom! for the uninformed, ms. yam is the modern day equivalent of sesame street's famed snuffleupagus, a woolly friend of big bird's who nobody believed existed. not saying ms. yam is woolly, but you get the drift...

 

heidi arrived via light rail at westlake center around 4pm, so i walked over to pick her up and bring her bags to the car. we had a few hours before rehearsal dinner at wild ginger, so we took that opportunity to explore the public library, which - designed by renowned dutch architect rem koolhaas - is one of the coolest buildings i've ever been in. from the outside, it looks like a bizarre rhombus construct, but inside it's clean lines, gorgeous lighting and even a floor that's completely red in color. and i mean completely.

dinner was at wild ginger, a feast of southeast asian treats consisting of spicy salads, seafood, skewers and curries. mostly, it was a great chance to unwind with good friends and good food before the ever-stressful wedding day. sadly, heidi and i had to skip out on after-dinner drinks at a local irish bar, as we made the trek to my cousin's place in nearby mercer island...

seattle... pics to come!

apologies for the delay...
been quite busy!

updates to follow...