Rock N Roll Seattle

Done:
10250 Chris Tobin M 35-39
Half Marathon Start: Gun 7:02:17 Chip 7:21:39
Splits: 5 Km 10 Km 9 Mile Finish O'All Sex Div
Times: 28:16 59:06 1:24:40 2:01:11 3431 1695 357
Pace: 9:06 9:31 9:25 9:15

Basically what that says is I finished the Rock N Roll Seattle Marathon this morning in 2 hours 1 minute and 11 seconds. My goal was 2 hours. But I did have a two minute bathroom break in the middle. So I will call that the asterisks goal met.

We ran right by my buddy Nate's house, I will try to get the photos he took and put them up here. I am not one of those people that carry a camera with them while running, so sadly no action photos.

Other notable times:
Bryan Klisch 1:58:44
Reid Jonasson 2:39:54
Heather Jonasson 4:51:03 (full marathon!)

This was Bryan's first run, so kudos to him.

Time to replenish:


This is a picture of the finish line. There were 25,000 people participating in either the half or full marathon. That is quite a bit for a longer run. This picture is from about 30 minutes after we finished. You can see the amount of people still filtering in to the finish coral:

Now on to more important things: US v Brazil 11:25 AM kickoff in the US's first ever FIFA men's final of any kind. I know it is just the confederation cup, but it would be really nice to follow up the win against Spain with a tourney title and Brazil win. That would really solidify our argument for being seeded in the 2 pot for World Cup 2010.

Nate took a few pictures since we ran right by his house. The pictures of me might have turned out better if I had realized that Nate was going to be standing on the opposite side of the street from his house. (he's a tricky dude) I was trying to get an action photo of me as I was ready with a full glass of water to throw on the Iben's as I passed but the opposite side of the road threw me for a loop. Anyways, this guy here is much faster than I:

There's me, mile post 9. I was hurting here but seeing friends helped me soldier on:

There were 25,000 people running the race. It is a really large race for a marathon and half marathon. The start is staggered out over about 45 minutes. You never really spread out like you would think in a run of this length. This is another picture by Nate. Taken at mile post 9. Notice how packed the race still is:

Being the 'Rock N Roll' race, this is what you got every one to two miles:

Memorial Day 2009

Every year we go to Cape Lookout State Park for Memorial Day Weekend. The Tobin's and the Last's and assorted friends soak up around 7 camping spots at the park. Well most years assuming that the correct weekend was reserved, but that's another story. Here's the cape itself:

Every year we pretty much do the same things. Friday night is steak night as we are all filtering in to the campground from locales afar:

Notice the lights and the steaks already on the grill? Because of some strange confluence of events, traffic and vacation availability we all got to the Park around 4 PM. Here is the gang from our side of the family. Notice that everyone already has a drink except me. I had to include this picture because really, what are the odds?

By far the earliest ever arrival. Paty decided to share her Champagne with Natalie:

And Natalie decided to share her lime with Paty.

Saturday is our trip to the Pelican Pub and Brewery. This is my favorite brew pub in the entire world (of which we have sought out and sampled many a brew pub) and it just so happens to be in Pacific City, Oregon. This year our party consisted of 22 people:

It turns out that it is really hard to get 22 people to pay attention at one time, plus we had the issue of the back light in the room. If I was crafty with the camera, you would see that the ocean is just past that window. Here is another attempt to get everyone to pay attention. I had an even better picture where almost everyone was looking at the camera, except one person who was trying to get everyone's attention to look at the camera. And that person happens to be your author, so this is the picture you get instead:

Paty, bonding with Clare. Shannon watching like a hawk in the background (just in case).

Saturday night I am in charge of dinner. We did Salmon along with a lot of sides. Well more me as Paty pretty much just supervises. But she is starting to adapt to this camping thing. As long as it is limited to once or twice a year.

Sunday is crabbing day. We get on a little aluminum boat in Netarts Bay and cruise around the bay chasing Dungeness crab. The last few years it seems that the crabs are winning. All weekend we had about the best weather you could ever ask for on the Oregon Coast. Mid 70's all weekend with little to no wind. And more importantly, NO RAIN. Here is me crabbing:

I was imitating the locals:

And here is our catch:

VICTORY, one crab for the Chris, John, Aaron, Paty and Cupholder boat. Zero for the other boats...combined.

Again, I can't stress how nice the weather was. Paty got back to her Mexican roots and laid out on the beach:


It was a great weekend, we are looking forward to it again. On unrelated blog news, I am running the Seattle Rock and Roll Half Marathon this weekend. But Paty is going on a school retreat. So unless I get someone to take pictures (Chizzy maybe) there will be no photo journal of the event. Just be warned that we START the race at 7 AM. Why these runs start so early is beyond me, but there it is. The last time I ran before Noon also happened to be the Last time I ran a half marathon. In Prague, Czech Republic in March of 2007. You can find all the details here:
Prague Half Marathon Post
It is very safe to say that this race will take me significantly longer as my training has been less than stellar.

Weekend Visitors

We had some weekend visitors:

The Sobo's made the trek over from Richland for the first time in quite some time. Not to worry, by the end of the weekend we were buddies again. It might have been the cottton candy that I bribed them with. But if it takes cotton candy, then so be it.

Now I know why people with kids eat either A) eat outside all the time or B) have a dog:


We had cupcake night, the jury is still out if Paty or Grace and Molly liked the desert more:

FINALLY LEGAL

By the heading of this post you think I would be posting something about my baby brother Patrick turning 21, but we still have about a month for that event.

No, today is the day where I passed emissions and got my new car legal for driving:

For those of you who don't know I bought my Grandpa's old car, this 1985 Mercedes 380SL, last November. But being Seattle and winter I kept it in the garage until April.

In order to get it licensed I needed to pass emissions. Due to a slight oversight in idling emissions we failed the first time back in April. When you fail you get to take the car to one of hundreds of 'licensed' emissions people in King County. And if you spend a minimum of $150 trying to fix the problem then you get a waiver until next year.

Well let's just say finding one of these licensed emissions people that will work on a 1985 Mercedes is a little bit harder than you would think. After trying three places in West Seattle that each had their own unique issues I ended up taking it to Phil Smart Mercedes in downtown Seattle. Not surprisingly my bill was exactly $150 plus tax, but I did pass emissions so I guess it was worth it. And being as the car is a 1985, this is the last year it will have to pass emissions since any car over 25 years old is exempt. Which is a curios law seeing as the goal of emissions is to lower overall emissions by automobiles and cars over 25 years old are much more prone to actually being the cars that need to worry about emissions, but I digress.

Here is another picture of me from my house. Patrick is up here and he took the pictures. I was hoping to get me with the car and the water in the background but Patrick deemed it more important to get the entire street in the picture.

On a side note, it touched 90 degrees in Seattle yesterday. The perfect weather to break out the convertible. There is a hard top as well. Patrick and I took about 15 minutes to figure out how to get it off. But the hard top is now safely ensconced in my garage for the summer.

Moving

I hate moving. This is one of my core beliefs in life. I am a bit of a pack rat leading me to always have too much stuff, thus I hate moving.

So when my Uncle Rob calls me at 7 PM on Friday night, he had a strategy. First he called at 7 PM on a Friday in Seattle that was in the upper 70's and not a cloud in the sky. This is a good strategy by Rob because the odds of me already being at a happy hour under these conditions are > 80%. Which I was.

When Rob says we are over on your side of the state, what are you doing tomorrow? I should have known it was a trap. But the sun (and beverages) might have dulled my defenses and I answered with a "Nothing really, why what's up?" Thinking that they wanted to meet in Seattle.

Nope, they needed help unloading the U-haul that apparently had every worldly possession of Cousin Matt's plus his long lost girlfriend(?) Jade.

Before:

After:

Matt had a week from when we unloaded the U-haul until he starts his new job over in Poulsbo. So we banged out the unloading, but left the unpacking to Matt. I actually took great pride in unloading things in weird spots. Skateboard...Bathroom. Bedroom stuff...Kitchen. And so on.

All in all it actually wasn't that bad. And then I had to drive back to Seattle for a Sounders game on Saturday night. Game kicked off at 7:30, I met my buddies the Klisch's and Aaron Last and Krista somethingorother (Aaron's girlfriend) at the Pyramid beer garden to partake of the continuing great weather. I would post a picture but due to an oversight, we brought the camera but did not take any pictures. Rest assured that it was a beautiful night to watch the 'beautiful game' at Qwest.