ESADE reunion at Shyla and Adam Santa Cruz wedding

Thought I would post some photos of an August 2010 wedding of two friends from my grad school, ESADE.  Aside from the typical celebration at any wedding, this was particularly good because the bride and the groom were both very much part of our circle of friends.  Sometimes it's the groom that's brings friends together, sometimes it's the bride, in this case it was both, so it was a great occassion to get together 1.5 years after graduating.




Starting from top left, Jacek is in New York, Dara is in China, Ben is in Chicago, Danielle is in Denver, Andres is in London.  Front row, Melanie is in New York, you know where I am, Jason is in Chicago, Paloma is in Barcelona, Misha is in Bangladesh, Aaron is in San Francisco, and Jay is in Capetown.  This is why I went to ESADE.  

Shyla, the bride, is in the middle.  Great person, incredible positive spirit.  The occassion was bittersweet, as her mother had been battling cancer and passed away two weeks before the wedding. She held up like a trooper. 



Adam, the groom, is in the middle.  On the left are Shyla's two brothers, and on the right, Adam's best mates from Manchester.  They look tough, and they're about twice as tough as they look.  We had all gone out in SF two nights before, and it was like having our own personal bodyguards.   

Shyla was born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA.  The wedding was at the Country Club.  Dad, looked like a nice course.  Fortunately, the morning fog burned off and brought a beautiful afternoon.  You can see this table was "El Borne"...each table had the name of a neighborhood in Barcelona.  A great touch.

The house behind the group is where we...yes, all 10 of us..stayed, give or take some random guests.  We were waiting for cabs, which arrived late and got us promptly stuck in a traffic jam.  We got the wedding on time however...we are MBA grads.  

An inside the house pic, pre wedding.

Just the boys.  Jacek (far left) doing his best impression of Hunter S Thompson.  I kept telling Jay (on my left) he looked like Moby.  Ben and Jason, in the middle, are who I've seen the most as they are both in Chicago.

This was the morning of the wedding.  Ben did the Chicago marathon as well, and the marathon was about 6 weeks away, so we had to get a run in.  That's another thing about marathons...wherever you go, you are always training. 




On the advice of sister Laura, Jason, Jacek and I hiked Big Basin State Park on the drive down to Santa Cruz from SF.  Just a reminder to myself and anyone that if you ever get near Santa Cruz, take the opp to see these forests...they are magnificient.  I even managed to get a little surfing in on the last photo.  Photos courtesy of Jason.

 

Marathon photos...Twin Cities....Boston....Chicago

For expediency sake felt lumping my last three marathons together made sense.  The stages of marathoning are pretty similar regardless of the race...it´s the background that changes mostly. First, there is a pre-race photos.

I´m not sure what look I was going for, but this was about half an hour before the Boston marathon
















All the starts look pretty much the same.  This is Twin Cities, but could easily be a smaller Boston, or a much smaller Chicago.

The first 5-7 miles are pure entertainment.  You slide through various stages of determination, enthusiasm, self confidence and excitement

Make sure you check your watch so you know your exact start time (in Boston)









 

Give a smile to the camera (in Chicago) so you can remind yourself later that at some point this felt good and seemed like a good idea

Or enjoy some sprinkler relief (in Chicago) by a generous spectator


















Then, you settle into a routine of breathing and hearing yourself run.  You still enjoy the crowds, and “come to” as different turns offer different distractions.  Sometimes bands are playing, there are street performers, all nice ways to take your mind of the mileage. 

A look of focus comes across your face (in Twin Cities)















 



You might take a first hit of “Goo” or power gel (in Boston)

Around mile 15-18 you realize that nothing matters unless you run the next 11-8. Worse yet, it dawns on you that the smaller that second set of numbers will get, the worse you feel. So you do other things.

It can help to focus on your breathing (in Twin Cities)

Or, sometimes it's just best to settle in behind someone and just space out for a while (in Boston)

Around mile 20-21, you are sliding into pain. You know it’s coming. So I just stare at the ground.

Here, the Boston pavement is quite fascinating

More inspection of Boston.  I did look around some, by the way.  But, at this stage, you really are just focused on step by step.

Well well well, the Chicago pavement sure looks a lot like the pavement in Boston and Twin Cities.

Now here, in Chicago, the heat toward the end of the course was oppressive.  So I think my head was feeling a little heavier than in the other two races. 

Around mile 23 (for me at least) you realize you have two options.  Come to a nice slow stop, amble over to a curb, and wait for someone to come and put their arm around you and tell you it’s OK.....or, you finish strong.  One or the other.  In order to avoid  slowing down, walking, stretching, all you think about is finishing….thus, the look of conflict, confusion and pain on the face.

Chicago Heat.  Legs getting heavy.  Pursued by a woman in green. Must find finish line.

"Heartbreak Hill" in Boston completed.  Pursued by an Asian with glasses.  Must find finish line. 

There are few finish lines like a marathon finish line. As soon as you cross over, a fusion reaction of elation, relief and satisfaction mushrooms inside and every one of the 138,336 feet you just ran feel like an ascension from a deep pit....and now you’re at the top of the mountain. 

I beat my Boston qualifying time by 6 minutes in the Twin Cities marathon....so, I went to Boston

Boston was a perfect day.  Cool, no wind.  The winner set a new course record.  That wasn't me, but I felt as much.

This is truly a forced smile.  Chicago is a great course, but it was 58 at the start, and 75 at the finish.  That's a nice temp for a picnic, a bike ride, but way too hot for a marathoning. The body does weird things when it overheats. At the finish I stopped, slumped over one of the metal barriers, and peed on myself.















The finish of any marathon, just like the beginning, is very similar to others.  Relief and joy, and beer and ice.  I think this pic pretty much summarizes all the others.

The Calhoun Beach Run Club is how I got started in Minneapolis.  They run Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings, rain, shine, snow, sleet, heat index warnings, whatever.  Below is the crew from Chicago.  Yes, 13 of us flew from Minneapolis to Chicago just to run 26.2 miles.  It is a bonding experience.  Some of these also ran Boston and Twin Cities, but this is the best shot of the group.



I think this pretty much does it for marathons for the present.  I am not training this winter for a spring race. I did 12 miles with the group last week, Jan  16, and the distances for marathon runners will only increase.  Maybe in the summer I'll choose another.  However....I will add one more photo in the next couple weeks. It will be from our Saturday mornings.  We meet at 8am...there is supposed to be a storm coming in, and think everyone would like to see what running in Minneapolis in February is like.  So, stay tuned....