dbradby.net

Somerville 5km Fun (?) Run

I enrolled myself into a fun run this weekend that basically circled our house. It was a 5km run that I was hoping to do in under 30 mins. Well you can see below that I made that goal, and feel I could have done more. I was still feeling a bit dehydrated from the few beers I had for the AFL finals the day before. But overall I'm very happy with the time. Now I need to keep that pace for another 15km. Hmmm. Oh and check out the 70s tennis star sweat band. It's a Boston Celtics one so leave it alone.

Also started putting photos on New England in Fall. Plenty of harvest and halloween pumpkins. Very colourful.

http://dbradby.net/gallery/nefall

AFL Finals in Boston

So we manged to keep away from the internet and email this morning just incase we did the relfex action of checking what's the latest on The Age website and accidently spoiled the fun of watching the AFL final.

We went down to the pub at midday at got $8 worth of beer in a bucket (literally) and got some good seats. It wasn't long before the aussie accents started to crowd around us and Holy Grail (a song we put on our wedding CD) started playing for the pre game entertainment. Every stood for the national anthem and a cheer when it end and the first ball was bounced.

It was good fun, meet a few great people and came home with a sore throat. Jen was going for power (she loves Gav Wangers) and I sadly went for Brisbane (for your sake Chris F.). Below is the winner looking quite smug with her "John Kerry is a Rock Star" t-shirt and of course no political statement can go without a politically correct Aussie/US flag combo pin.

Training update

With only two weekends of training left, I have finally taken my running to the next level and managed a 9 mile run. I ran from Lexington to Somerville along the same trail as last weekend, just a few mile longer. I listened to the Red Sox getting beaten by the Yankees, and when that defeat was over I tuned into the Patriots 1st half. I got home in 96 mins, feeling ok but a bit hungry.

Although taken a while ago, below is a picture of Jen and I at a Patriots game a month or so ago. It was a humid night and it rained for some of the match. We got some great seats (out of the rain) from someone at work. I could basically follow the game, but the amount of foul flags being thrown by the umpires was a bit overwhelming. With the rain coming down, the crowd, dancing girls and even the music, made me immediately think of the movie "Any Given Sunday".

On movies, I've finally worked out how to burn things we have recorded from Tivo onto DVD (as you would invoke "fair use" to record TV to VHS). I bought a DVD burner from $40, although limited in that it only records DVD+R/RW, it seems to produce dics that can be read in our DVD player. I'm a bit concerned about being able to read in an XBOX though.

Anyway next weekend is the AFl Grand final and we are planning on joining the Boston Demons for a Saturday delayed viewing. So DONT tell us the result! Also look out for a posting from Jen sometime today

Random Updates

I've been meaning to come in here for quite some time now and provide at least some sort of update. I have noticed the page has been blank for a while now and I'm sorry for those that used to visit it regulary only to find nothing has changed. I used to do that for other people's sites until I started using www.bloglines.com. Excellent service Check it out. Anyway the only reason I am here writing this is because I got a few spam comments. I currently delete them and close the comments on the entry manually which seems to be working ok so far.

So summer is fading away here and although some might not believe it, Jen and I are actually quite pleased. We are not used to constantly feeling sticky from the humidity. Now the temperate is even getting to below 20 at night! At last a good night's sleep. We do have an A/C in our bedroom that we sometimes leave on overnight, but utility costs are high so we are a little careful. Actually on utilities, I got a rude shock the other morning when we ran out of hot water. Turned out we totally ran out of heating oil and the boiler in the basement went out. That last sentence should be very foreign to an Australian, and I like to use that as an excuse of why it went out. Anyway after getting it filled back up and getting it reprimed and relit, we were $377US poorer.

On the Labor day long weekend, the usual end to summer, we went camping in New Hampshire. On the Saturday we climbed Mt Mondanock and on Sunday we went to the State fair (yee hawww). Check out the photos at http://dbradby.net/gallery/newhampshire. Mt Monadnock was meant to be a hike, but when I have to use my hands, it's a climb. The state fair was fun, but the big event was Jen drove the 40 mins to get there. No probs. Easy isn't it?

The Half Marathon is getting closer and I am trying to focus on doing longer runs on the weekends. Last weekend I got Jen to drop me out near Lexington on the Minute Man trail. This trail is the supposed route Paul Revere took to alert the revolutionaries that "The British are coming!". Now if you're like me, then you thought Paul Revere was simply character from a Beastie Boys track, apparently not so, and I'm learning that now. Anyway, I had a great run home knowing that there was no way I could give up and turn around. I just kept going and going. Turns out I misjudged the track length and I was home in 58 mins and had only done 10km. This weekend I plan to hit that 10 MILE mark.

The more diligant among you will realise from the above that Jen now has driven alone. She drove herself home after she dropped me off. Well it didn't take long and she is sending me links for cars she wants to buy. We are looking for a VW or Saab .... for around $500, and we will find one!

Well things are getting cooler, the leaves are starting to turn an amazing array of reds and oranges, so we plan to head out to Vermont and do some "leaf peeping" of the famous New England Fall.

Stay tuned .....