Each place has its own advantages - heaven for the climate, and hell for the society.
http://www.youtube.com/v/dKGfRIWeqb4
You never realize how much you enjoyed a place until you’re somewhere else. Don’t get me wrong, alot of stuff frustrated the hell out of me while I was living in St. Thomas, but there was alot to love too. Here is a youtube video I put together covering my time in the tropics.
GOOD NEWS! I finished 189 out of 705 runners. The bad news, I did not win the bottle of Moet.
My buddy came in 112 and beat me by about 4 minutes. My official time was 1:29:35 with a pace of 10:41 per mile (the race is actually 8.3 miles long).
Our good buddy over at News of St. John posted a nice youtube video of the first 55 seconds of the race. If you pause at second 42 I am in the center of the screen wearing the number 340 and sunglasses. (direct youtube video link here)
So a few words about the actual race. WOW… seriously hard. The inclines really suck the energy and air right out of you and the declines require real control of your legs. One mis step coming down those hills and you could easily have a very nasty fall. It was definitely a challenging race and except for dropping my ipod once it went without a hitch. Running out at the starting line with eye of the tiger playing was very cool. It had a surreal feel with so many other people all gathered together. I am definitely glad I participated and now I have an urge to look into other foot races. I guess we’ll see how long that urge lasts!
Overall I am actually quite proud of my finish. I have not stepped foot into a gym other than my single trip on Monday for more than 6 months so to be able to finish 133rd and only 4 minutes behind a guy who goes a couple times a week is pretty decent in my book. Anyway, after running the race he deserves the bottle of Moet, however there is a REMATCH NEXT YEAR! And I do NOT intend to loose twice.
As for the amount of pain - I think I got off without to much agony. I have some tightness in the shoulders and back and a bit of chaffing on my thigh (Tip: don’t wear cargo shorts on an 8 mile run) but other than that I am not feeling too too bad. Cheers for that!
Alright well I jsut caught the time and need to jet to work (Oceana) but let me end with sending out a big congrats to everyone who participated in 8 tuff miles! Including that couple from my home state of Virgina! I look forward to seeing you all next year!
O.k everyone - tomorrow… well actually today (i just got off work) I will be running 8 Tuff Miles over on St. John (that’s 1 of the 3 major islands of the US Virgin Islands). There are 700 entries and its the 11th annual race. I got the idea to sign up a couple months ago after reading about it online. I regret to announce however that my training schedule did not quite play out the way I had hoped.
I think I am going to get my butt handed over to me on a platter of pain with a garnish of regret. I know that I wont win, nor will I come close to anyone in any real shape but I am a very competitive man and I want to win that bottle of Moet that’s on the line. (see previous post)
I’ve eaten my pasta, gotten my grapes for a pre race snack and have set out my running shorts. The only thing left to do is turn in for the next 5 hours and see if I can’t get some rest.
…oh and to all my karaoke singing friends that I had to bail out on tonight. ROCK IT OUT and sing one for the fallen (namely, me) and I’ll rejoin you next Friday.
So who cares that I work two jobs and can’t find time to register my car or get the oil changed or wash my clothes, BAHH! those are small fiddle sticks!
I currently have to find time in my schedule to make it into the gym 2-4 times a week so that I can
Cool Signs VI where I work does a lot of business with, well, the businesses on on St. Thomas and one of our clients is Xtreme Fitness over by the movie theater. I, as proud employee of CS get free membership to Xtreme in exchange for prompt work on Xtreme Fitness signs and such.
Anyway - my first visit to the house of pain was last evening in a last minute completely desperate attempt not to harm myself on the upcoming 11th annual 8 tuff miles race (its this Saturday). While I am in pretty decent shape I have not been running alot recently and the elevation climb (and drop) of this race is somewhat hardcore. I’ll be attending the gym to run at least once more and then from there its a wish and a prayer that I come through without any lasting shortcomings. Oh and if the threat of personally injury was not enough of a worry I have made a small wager with a fellow coworker at Oceana; the loser buys the winner a bottle of Moet Champagne from our good friend Tom at Epernay Bistro & Wine Bar.
So in closing if you want to cheer me on along the road on Saturday don’t bother calling out my name (there’s got to be more than a couple Roberts in the race) instead, just call out
MOET! MOET! MOET!
Alright a little follow up here. My McDonalds radio Voice Over (VO) job is airing currently and I thought I’d post it here for all of you. It should be on a few of the local stations like BUZZ and WGOD here in St. Thomas
Let me know what you think.
I cooked this evening!
THATS RIGHT! I busted out a home cooked meal consiting of… um… noodles and uh…. water! OODLES OF NOODLES BABY!!
I guess by home cooked I mean anything not nuked, and since I am without a microwave I’ll have to get use to using such primitive tools.
I also stocked my shelves this evening after work with peanut butter (but no jelly yet, they were out) two boxes of cereal (lucky charms and honey bunches of oats with strawberries) some easy mac, a chef boy r dee beefaroni can, a ravolie as well and a campbells chili thing… oh and some milk! So now I guess I am not totally deprived of food, only of healthy food.
If you have any good recipes and or ideas of things I can add to my Oodles of noodles to make them a bit less… BLAND that would be swell and oh yes, I did eat my noodles straight from the pot (see posted photo), why dirty another dish? So uh yea, leave the love.
I moved last evening and while I didn’t exactly travel far from my previous home things are a bit different.
My new pad (not sure its pimp enough to be called a pad) is definitely bachelor all the way. Its one large room (actually its not that large) with an alcove kitchen and a separate bath. Some would describe it as old or maybe run down but I perfer to label it with more choice keywords like rustic, colorful or… full of character!
Now don’t get me wrong my new casa really isn’t that bad. It has everything I need and is actually an improvement over my last residence; (an illegal shoe box in Los Angeles where I lacked everything but a mini frig and microwave).
Here in the Virgin Islands with my only partially obstructed views of Magens Bay and the BVI’s I can enjoy a home cooked meal on my very only gas range while my pans pre-soak in the kitchen sink.
After moving my things in last evening and setting up as best I could I took a long look at my new home. After recovering from a sense of dread that set in when I realized my place resembled that of an iconic run down apartment that every old man on TV resides in alone, I decided to perk up.
So what if my place is a wee bit depressing or that I currently have only water and bologne in the frig. The important part is that its my haven, my place to relax and unwind and as long as its a safe place to crash at night and watch my hour of TV a week, I am set. It is after all only a 3 month lease - after that who knows where my shoes may fall.
I recently came across another VI blogger. I was searching online for info on a very cool yatch I had seen anchored in at Charlotte Amalia. It was the Blue Guitar and it seems according to the info at Frank Barnako’s blog: News of St. John it belongs to Eric Clapton.
He updates his blog pretty regularly and has some interesting stuff over there. So if you’re into the Virgin Islands and specifically St. John. Check out his site.
So for the most part I think I have dealt pretty well with the differences I’ve encountered since I’ve moved onto this Rock called St. Thomas. But today however I was reminded again that I live on an ISLAND.
You may be wondering what the catalyst for such a reminder was. Well, it was not earth shattering or ground breaking. It didn’t even rock my world or enlighten my thinking. I could have gone about my day and probably never even realize it had happened if I had not actually glanced at my receipt from the market this morning.
My 2nd Job (coolsignsvi.com) was having a Christmas Lunch and I was asked to bring in chips and soda. NO PROBLEM I said as I thought ::SCORE, I pulled the lucky straw, no cooking, no weird cheese logs, just EASY chips and soda and cheap to boot!:: Pulling the chips and soda straw for an office party is like winning the corporate holiday lunch lottery.
So it was with this perspective I entered the Marina Market in Redhook and proceeded to purchase a few bottles of soda and a couple bags of chips. After winding through the store and admiring how much it seemed like a Trader Joes distant relative (I.E homegrown but not upscale) I found the chip aisle. I located the two bags I had previously decided on 1) Dorritos and 2) Sun Chips French Onion and then grabbed the soda at the other end of that same aisle. I proceeded to the check out and things went smoothly. I received my total, thought it was a bit high but just went and paid. I waited for the cashier to hand me my receipt and then exited the store.
It wasn’t until I sat down in my passport that I got a chance to look at my receipt and notice that the reason the bill seemed too high was that instead of the 99 cents or the 1.75 I was use to for a bag of chips in the states I had been charged 4.99 for my Sun Chips, 2.29 for the Dorritos and 1.99 for each of the 2 Liters of soda.
Now, remember I did mention that this isn’t earth shattering or ground breaking but it is indicative of the types of small reminders us new comers to the Island receive that where we live really is a bit different and requires an approach other than the one we are use to back in the states. Anyway its not bad, its just different and I thought I’d post about it.
O.k, so I just woke up and thus this may not be the most coherent of posts.
I started a new job yestarday. Wait, let me clarify… I started a new 2nd job yestarday. I’ve been working at Oceana from 4-12ish for the past month and a half. Its a good job, the money is decent and the coworkers are pretty cool but I decided I needed another source of income and I wanted to ditch the sleeping till 3pm thing. So how did I accomplish those two goals you ask? Simple of course! I got another job!
Now during the day from 9-3 I work at Cool Signs, a local sign / graphics shop. I am doing design work there. While I’ve been there for only a day so far it seems pretty cool. The shop has AC (ha!), I get to do graphic related stuff (a hobby of mine) and the coworkers are pretty nice. There really is only one problem (Insert audible GASP). I now have 2 jobs, one full time & one a little more than part time. I’ll be putting in 13-15 hour days reguarly now (Insert another audbile GASP) You may ask; Well, what does that mean exactly? And I would answer…
Well… so far I’m not sure, I guess it will be an experiment.
Can I survive off of 6-7 hours of sleep instead of my usual 11+? Can I handle getting up at 8am on weekdays? Will I spend all the extra money earned on coffee and cokes? Will my hair start to fall out? Will I grow a second nose? Could this possibly end world hunger?
I JUST DON’T KNOW!!
We will have to wait and see. Alright, its now 8:16, I need to shower and jet to work. Wish me luck. Cheers.
