You can almost spell "fun" with "run"... but you see, not completely

It all started about this time last year. Maybe a bit earlier.

First the seed was planted in my head. It began to percolate. The intrigue built. And only after I had fully sold myself on the idea of running in Sydney's City2Surf, I finally realized that I'd be out of town when it was being held. As a consolation prize, you may remember, I did the Bridge Run in September.

This year, however, I'm there. The weekend is clear, August 9 is circled on my calendar and I'm fully prepared to run this bad boy.

What is City2Surf? It's a 14 kilometer "fun run" -- as if calling it that actually makes running 14 kilometers (and change) any less excruciating than we all know that it will be -- which starts in the center of Sydney and ends at Bondi Beach. Some people take it seriously, others use it as an excuse for a nice stroll, others get dressed up in costumes.* (I guess that's the "fun" part?) Either way, everyone suffers through Heartbreak Hill, a two kilometer, steep ascent about halfway through the course.**

*Last year, a guy dressed as Superman sprinted out at the start of the race and ended up pacing the field for the first few kilometers.

**I've DRIVEN this hill and been exhausted by the time I've made it to the top. You go up, up, up, think you're there, turn a corner, and then there's another freaking hill staring you in the face. It's evil.

Here's a nice video from the organizers:

No, it's no marathon, let alone a triathlon; I'll let the crazies have their fun doing those. Instead, this is merely a distance that will test me without killing me.

So! I have 12 more days until the race, and with the Blue Mountains and Auckland well and truly in the rear view mirror, I've started to get serious with some training and have slowly been increasing my running distances. Went for a lovely 13.5km run on Saturday that damn near killed me. So that's fun.

The goal for a time? 65 minutes. I'd be happy with anything under 70 -- that's five minutes per kilometer on the nose -- but why not push myself? If I could do the Bridge Run last year in 42 minutes, and that's about 4:40 per kilometer, well, with an extra 5km of maintaining the same speed and that beast of a hill thrown in, it's gonna be close.

More to come in the days leading up to the race, and some sort of post mortem afterwards.

Viewing Auckland from volcanoes

As touched on in my post from Auckland, the city sits on a volcanic field, with around 50 of them spread across the metropolitan area. While it strikes me as a bit nutty to build a city on a volcanic field that will erupt again, it's undeniable that these volcanoes allow for some great vantage points.


My first full day in the city, walking along the waterfront, I stuck my head into the office for a ferry company that runs boats to Rangitoto Island, the city's youngest and largest volcano. I just wanted to get some info on possibly going out the next day, but when the woman told me that that was the last day they'd be running boats to the island for the next ten days, and the last boat was leaving in ten minutes, I said to myself Screw it, let's do it! and jumped aboard.

A 20 minute ferry ride and one hour hike later, I stood at the top of the island.

Quite the view, although unfortunately not the greatest of days to be up there. What was fortunate, however, was the weather on my next day, when I visited Mount Eden. Sharing its name with the surrounding suburb, this volcano is much closer to downtown and is the highest point on Auckland's mainland.

A quick, 20 minute hike up the hill provided for a really great view.

Hope this has been educational! If nothing else, I've learned that I should probably start using different intros for each of my videos. We'll see what I can come up with next time.

Been doing... stuff

Had a lovely day of travel on Thursday, coming back from Auckland. Got up at 3:30am Auckland time. Sydney's two hours later, so that's 1:30am. Got to the airport by 5am. Left Auckland at 7am. Landed at 8:45am Sydney time. Made it through customs without incident, meaning my visa woes are behind me, at least for the time being. Brief stop at the apartment and then off to work. Left work around 7pm. Came home, had dinner, went to bed around 10:30pm. That's a fun 23 hour day!

And since then? Haven't been up to too much... little of this, little of that. Easy night at the apartment on Friday. Went a little wild for a friend's show on Saturday. Spent Sunday with some family friends at the Aroma Festival in The Rocks. Watched the finale of MasterChef Australia, which had absolutely taken the country by storm. And then work this week.

I have stuff -- actual, substantial stuff -- that I want to post on here. Just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. Not with all this other stuff that I've been doing. Hopefully soon.

Enjoying an extended stay

I should be back in Sydney right now. I'm not. Still in Auckland.

My new visa, for which I had to apply while out of the country and wait for its approval before reentering, was not processed in the 48 hours that I was told is generally required. So no return trip on Sunday.

Fortunately, approval came yesterday (Monday) and now I'm completely legit! I head back on Thursday.

The extended stay in Auckland, however, isn't exactly the worst thing in the world. In fact, you could say that I'm enjoying it. Just a little more time to explore what I've found to be a pretty good city. Hey, even the Wallpaper guide book is treating me well!

Did you know that Auckland sits on a volcanic field? They say it's dormant for now, but it's only a matter of time for a new volcano to erupt. As in, it will happen. Isn't that crazy? I mean, they should have plenty of warning for the next eruption, but I'm not entirely sure why anyone would want to set up shop here for any extended period of time. Anyway, I've climbed up a few of the volcanoes here, which offer some great views.

Made some great discoveries for food and drink, as well. The Northern Steamship Co, right near the city's waterfront, is awesome. They only serve Mac's (a great line of local beers), offer a really good menu and have a nice, warm decor.

And there's randomly a large amount of Mexican restaurants! This has me absolutely baffled. You see, Mexican food in Australia is next to nonexistent. And for those establishments that do serve it, it's generally crap. But here... I actually went into a place with real Mexicans. REAL MEXICANS!!

And although I haven't been to any fast food restaurants, I've been pleasantly surprised to see a Wendy's, Denny's and Dunkin' Donuts. As far as I know, none of those places exist in Australia. Even Burger King is called Burger King!*

*For those who don't know, Burger King in Australia is called Hungry Jack's. (If you care at all, this Wikipedia entry explains why.) Since New Zealand is linked to Australia in so many ways -- think Canada to the US -- I assumed it would be the same here. Nope.

Weather has been on and off. The first two days were quite nice. Sunny. The weekend was a bit miserable. Lots of rain. Yesterday was gorgeous. A bit cool, but clear, blue skies. Today isn't so nice. Rainy and much colder.

But I'm still enjoying it. Nice to get away and do something different. So I'm trying to make the most of it, because this Thursday, I'm back at it.

A quick breather before Auckland

Got back from a great weekend in the Blue Mountains Sunday night, which went pretty much as expected: good company, good scenery, good food, good pseudo Fourth of July celebration.* We didn't even have to leave the cabin until late in the afternoon, which made for a true, full weekend.**

*In fact, when it came to preparations for the Fourth, and after all my hand-wringing over what to do to commemorate the day, I was out-Americanized by some of my friends, who brought sparklers, American candy (Reese's Pieces and Tootsie Rolls) and photos of Americana to hang on the walls. Me? I brought up a case of Bud and my Mom's recipe for apple pie. Never ended up actually making the pie, though.

**Always hated how you have to check out of a hotel at 10am on a Sunday. I mean, Sunday IS part of the weekend, right? And in many circles, it's commonly known as God's day of rest, right??!? Yet they essentially cut the day out of the weekend and disturb our rest by forcing us out of bed at freaking 10 in the morning!!!

Went to work yesterday and am off to the airport in 35 minutes to spend the rest of the week in Auckland!

What am I doing in Auckland?? Yeah, besides settling all my visa issues, I still don't really know. Would love to just get out and about and explore, maybe take a day trip or two out of the city, but it's supposed to rain for most of the next few days, which generally makes said exploration not so fun. But I'm not exactly in New Zealand too often, so I guess I kinda have to do it, regardless of how wet or cold it is.

May try to do a post or two on here while I'm over there, but we'll see. When it comes to traveling and blogging, I don't have the best track record.

Pondering the Fourth in the (red, white and) Blue Mountains

What is the Fourth of July?

Originally this post was gonna be mostly about my upcoming trip this weekend, with a little side note about how the Fourth coincides with it. Then I started to think about the Fourth, really think about what it means. At first I didn't have much of a sense for that, or how I felt about the day. But after maybe six or seven iterations of this post, I think I'm somewhere. Have a read and then let me know in the comments: do you agree?

So. What is the Fourth of July?

We all know why the day holds such historical significance, and that's certainly a large part in what makes it so special; however, I'd argue that what really makes the Fourth so special, what really makes it stand apart from other holidays, is its cultural significance. It's a day when the nation collectively comes together, puts all our worries behind us and celebrates.

The Fourth of July's of my youth were 5km runs in the morning, a barbecue and parade in the day and fireworks at night. For each of these events, large groups of people converged to celebrate and be part of the spectacle.

The Fourth of July's of my early adulthood were more of the same, minus those pesky 5km morning runs. And again, for each of those events, large groups of people converged to celebrate and be part of the spectacle.

Then I came to Australia. And that has provided me with some perspective that I'd otherwise never have had.

For the Fourth last year, by random coincidence, I ended up at a house party thrown by an American. But we were the only two Americans there; for everyone else, it was just another house party. So not surprisingly, it felt nothing like a Fourth in the US.

For the Fourth this year, the happenstance continues, as it turns out that a group of my friends and I -- nine total -- will be spending a long weekend in the Blue Mountains, a national park a couple hours west of Sydney. We'll be renting this cabin and filling our days with, ummmmmm... well, I'm not sure what we'll be doing. I'm guessing it'll involve taking it rather easy, eating a lot, going for some hikes and maybe even indulging in a few adult beverages.

Clearly, plans for the weekend aren't too rigid; we'll just figure things out as we go. The exception to this laissez-faire approach, however, has to do with commemorating the Fourth. Because some time in the last few weeks, everyone got it into their heads that since there'd be an American on this weekend, we had to do something for the Fourth, some sort of traditional thing, for lack of a better term. And they all looked to me (understandably enough, I guess) for inspiration.

I had no immediate inspiration. So I started to think about it. And the more and more thinking I did, the more and more I came to the above conclusions, at least subconsciously: the Fourth of July is the summation of many parts, which, when all mashed together, creates a day ensconced in festivity. There isn't any one thing that makes the Fourth the Fourth, nor can you magically conjure up the feeling of the Fourth. Instead, it's the barbecues, the fireworks, the parades, the friends, the family, the laughing, the green grass, the blue sky, the pomp, the circumstance. You need all of that, every last bit, or it just doesn't work.

Of course there's no way I'm bottling all of that up and bringing it to the Blue Mountains this weekend. Although maybe I could still get away with doing just one or two things? But even some of the more tangible stuff, like a barbecue or fireworks, would be tough to pull off because of practicalities like the forecasted weather (a high of 46 Fahrenheit does not make for a fun barbecue) and our environment (Smokey the Bear has taught me that it generally isn't a good idea to play with fireworks in a forested area).

SO WHAT TO DO??!? Maybe just something that's stereotypically American, like making an apple pie, or buying some Budweiser, or singing the Star Spangled Banner? I don't know, none of that really feels right. I'd still be missing the pomp! Not to mention the circumstance! But seeing as no one else will know (or demand) any better, I guess any or all of those options would fly.

I have another 13 hours to figure it out. Maybe I'll come up with something good. Maybe I'll take an easy way out and cook up some hot dogs in the kitchen. Or maybe I'll do nothing at all. We'll see. Regardless, I'm absolutely looking forward to doing a few of the things that many of you in the US will also be doing this weekend: getting away from it all, taking it easy and spending time with friends. It's not a true Fourth, but it'll do.

Have a happy Fourth, everyone.