Weekend Recap: Great Weekend!

What a weekend! It started with the kids and ended with the kids, included visits with old friends and meet-ups with new friends, and all-in-all, I was only away for 29 hours. If not for running my race poorly, I’d call it a pretty-close-to-perfect weekend!

Operation Jack Race 12
First things first — I ran the Napa Valley Marathon yesterday. It was marathon No. 12 so far for 2010, my third-fastest of the year. I went 3:11:47, but I was pretty disappointed with how I ran. I posted a recap here. I’m still sorting out the winner of the “pick Sam’s time” contest. I’ll update this later today with that info.

Science Fair!
Somehow, my wife and I helped our oldest son Benjamin get through the science fair on Friday. Last year, we totally messed it up. We were going to take him, but Tiff showed up fashionably late with him, because I spent a little too much time at the gym that day, and he missed it. The year before, I showed up fashionably late with him but everything was fine. Ben was really upset last year when he missed it, so Tiff vowed to him that he’d be able to actually be in the science fair this year.

The science fair was this past Friday night, so we guided him through his project. The big problem with that, though, is that I failed five science classes in high school and Tiff isn’t that much better with science than I am. She might actually be worse. But we helped him anyways. Seriously, it’s third-grade science.

His project was “Investigating Alternate Uses For Coca-Cola” and we did a bunch of experiments. I helped him write up the reports, but we asked the questions and made him come up with the answers. We could have come up with the answers for him, but I’m not the kind of parent to get into a competition with another parent to see which parent can do grade-school homework better. His project turned out fine, and it wasn’t necessarily world-changing, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a third-grade project. He had a blast and got a medal and got to participate in the science fair.

I wanted to take a picture with him with both of us wearing the medals we earned this weekend, but he misplaced his. Typical Benjamin, but I love him anyways.

Trip To Napa
We had originally planned to make this a family trip up to Napa, but because of the science fair, we couldn’t leave Friday (we would have had to drive) so I flew solo on Saturday. It was nice — I slept in at home on Saturday, had a nice, big pancake breakfast with the family and then hung out at home for a little bit. But eventually, I had to go take care of business and fly to Oakland. I had a sweet flight up on Southwest — the flight was about 2/3 empty!

Catching Up With New Friends
At the expo in Napa, I went to meet somebody I’ve talked to a bunch but never met in person. Unfortunately, she got sick and I missed her. I got to meet her husband, though. She had a booth selling running skirts at the expo, and he came down to man it. He’s a firefighter, so I asked him if it would be a bad thing if the guys back at the station knew he was selling running skirts at an expo. Yes, he said, they’d give him plenty of grief. I should have taken a picture and collected some ransom. But then again, who wants to get beat up by a firefighter?

Later, I met a man I’ve talked to a lot named Ron. He’s super nice and super friendly, and I’ve had a ton of respect for his positive attitude and outlook on things. I’ve always wanted to meet him in person, and finally, I did! He was as friendly as I expected. We chatted for a while, then hung out at the pasta dinner for a few hours. He’s crazy fast (2:54:15 last year in Napa at age 45!) and crazy smart (graduated from MIT!). Even better, though — he’s crazy nice. We also hung out for a bit after the race on Sunday. He “only” went 2:56!

Catching Up With Old Friends
On my way to the airport, I caught up with an old friend from high school named Bobby. I say “old friend” because we were talking about how old we’re getting. We graduated high school in 1992, which seems like yesterday, but we realized that this year’s high school seniors were born in the year we graduated. So we’ve decided we’re old.

Anyways, we had a good time catching up for a little while and I now have a place to stay when I run San Francisco in July. I’m running myself into the ground, but I feel pretty fortunate that I’m able to meet up with people like Ron and Bobby when I go out of town.

Sunday’s Post-Race Dinner
Last night I went out with the family and my parents to Souplantation (it’s Sweet Tomatoes, depending on what part of the country you live in). Nothing beats an all-you-can-eat buffet on race day, especially when you can make the food healthy. One of the highlights of the meal came when Jack didn’t like the looks of one of the pieces of focaccia bread he was eating. He raised it in his hand like he was going to throw it, but he didn’t. We panicked for a split second.

We should have panicked for about 15 seconds, though, because that’s how long it took for him to chuck it. It bounced off a booth that another family was at. I guess he thinks he can get away with stuff like that just because he has his own website, his own line of t-shirts, tech shirts and sweatshirts, plus close to 1,300 fans on Facebook. Silly guy.

Later, that family left and the next family to sit there was that of one of Tiff’s trainers from the gym named Dee. I’d never met her, but Tiff told me that was her, and she hid her bowl of ice cream. “Oh my goodness, it’s Dee! She can’t see I’m eating ice cream!” So I turned over towards her and said, “Are you Dee?” She said yes. So I pointed over at my wife and said, “Yeah, she doesn’t want you to know she’s eating ice cream.” I’ve got Tiff’s back like that.

That’s Enough For Today
I’m crazy tired (writing this on Sunday night). It’s bed time. Have a great Monday!