There are three long weekends each year that I love – Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.  My entire world disconnects for each of them and they are great transitions for me.

Amy and I spent the weekend up in Keystone with our friends Dave and Maureen.  I had a couple of great runs, lots of naps, read a couple of books (Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product and The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations), watched a bunch of US Open tennis, and ate well.  Oh – and I watched The U.S. vs. John Lennon – a magnificent and disturbing movie that helped solidify John Lennon’s image in my mind as a heroic figure.

I love my Qx vacations (where I disconnect from the grid entirely for a week) but I also feel incredibly refreshed after these long weekends.  Sounds like some of my friends do also.

“Even on a slow day I can have a three way chat with two women at one time.  I’m so much cooler online.” 

Unfortunately, Brad Paisley has turned his embed off but it’s worth a click through to Brad Paisley-Online (thanks Heidi.)

There is hope for all of us.  Or not.  Just remember that the truth is out there.

And Lindsey makes it (and the stock) look really good.

The Garmin Forerunner 305 Wrist-Mounted GPS Navigator and Personal Training Device with Heart Rate Monitor – my heart beats for it.  Every good marathoner needs one – don’t leave home without it.

Runners like to talk about their “personal best” times.  I ran the San Francisco Marathon on Sunday July 29 and turned in my personal worst – 5:14:20.

Now – before you say “5:14:20 – that’s barely running”, remember that I ran 26.2 miles.  I ran the entire way only taking short breaks (usually 15 – 30 seconds) at the water stops to make sure I slurped down enough liquids.  My personal best is 4:05 and my typical time is around 5:00, so it’s not that bad, but it was a painful marathon.

A few things conspired to reduce me to the “marathon shuffle” for the last eight miles (vs. the usual four to five at the end.)  First, I wasn’t planning on running this marathon.  My friend Katherine McIntyre had been training for it and two weeks ago I put together a solid 14 mile trail run and a solid 10 mile run back to back and decided to tag along and be her running buddy (e.g. “I promise you’ll be able to beat me.”  My next planned marathon was in October, so this was more of a fantasy excursion for the weekend (if you define fantasy as running for five hours and then limping around the rest of the day.)

Next up – the Golden Gate bridge.  I’ve driven across the Golden Gate bridge but I’ve never run it.  It sucked – cold, foggy, rainy, crowded, and lots of noisy smelly cars.  At the turn around at Vista Point (around 7 miles) I just wanted “off the damn bridge.”  I did miles 1 – 7 at an 11:30 pace (my goal was 5 hours so this was right on pace.)  I cruised through the half marathon point at a 11:00 average pace.  That means I did miles 8 – 13 at a sub 10:30 pace.  Way too fast for a five hour marathon. 

Here’s a picture of me just before I blew up at mile 18 – somewhere in the Haight (thanks to my friend Ben Casnocha who had to run out on the course to get my attention.)  I look a little tired but pretty good.  By the time I got to Divisadero I felt like I’d been run over by a steamroller.

Last problem – the day before routine. 

That would be the Harry Potter 5 / Live Free or Die Hard double feature at the AMC Van Ness.  While I spent much of the day sitting on my ass like you are supposed to, I ate like crap during the day.  Stupid.

It was a difficult marathon in all respects.  I’m not alone – some of the other stories coming back are similar.  I think this is one that seduces you with the flat start and downhill segment between 7 and 13 and then destroys you on the back half.  Oh well – it counts – at least that’s another one down.  Nine down, 41 to go.

I finally found a use for my iPhone – an iPhone Smoothie.  Priceless.  (Thanks Jason.)

As StartupWeekend continues, a 90 second yoga break has been introduced at the tail end of the 7 minute check in that happens once an hour.  The yoga has gotten a little creative nerdy.

Laptop yoga anyone?  It’s a new ancient style from the far west end of Boulder.

Several of you had “pleasant” reactions to the childhood photo I posted yesterday (where “pleasant” is most definitely a euphamism.)  One of you who is of my generation and shares my sense of humor (and will remain unnamed to protect you from certain persecution), pointed out the similarity to one of our childhood icons, Alfred E. Neuman.

I had forgotten many of the old Alfred E. Neuman quotes, but since the web is such a wonderful place it was easy to find them along with some great Spy vs. Spy pictures.  One of my all time favorites is “It takes one to know one — and vice versa!”  Recursion appealed to me when I was seven, even though I had no idea what it was.

Eek.  Oh well.  I knew I was due for a new favicon.  (Thanks Uncle Charlie and Seth.)

Now that I’ve given up on my iPhone, handed it back to Ross (my IT guy), and said “do what you want with it”, I’m enjoying discovery various iSatire (and iSarcasm) on the web.  Today’s best iSatire is iPerbole.  (Thanks Jill.)