#6 Boston - Go Petta! July 15, 2006
Considering it was 80 degrees at 8 AM In the morning and almost 100% humidity, it was a miracle I did remember my own name, but it was just not right that my race bib said "Petta" on it, and I would run through the Quincy Marina with onlookers shouting "Go Petta, Go!" So, I asked Stephanie to muster up all of her creative powers and turn "t" #2 into an R and return my somewhat distorted identity to me. The road race was the Iron Girl 10 K in Quincy, MA (http://www.irongirl.com/boston/index-boston.html), a well organized little venue, where 4000 girls duked it out on this sweltering Sunday morning. It was like Bikram Yoga Running, steambath jogging, and I think I gotta get me one of those white trash baseball hats with a little fan on it, I swear. I was huffing like a professional asthmatic and Steph kept asking repeatedly if I was alright (which I was). Breakfast was waiting past the finish line and that was all I kept thinking about, not the fact that after the race I had to go home and ran another 10 K (6 miles) to stay in line with my marathon training schedule. The race was completed by us at a very nice net pace of 9:12 minutes/mile, but I slowed way down for part 2 of the ordeal. By that time Boston was baking in 85 degree heat and not a breeze in sight along the Charles River Esplanade. (For the finish photo go to: www.asiorders.com and enter Photo ID : 11327-046-012.
As a matter of fact this whole past week was all about Sports - World Cup, Tour de France, Road Race, Marathon Training - you name it, we were there!! Aside from a little outing with my Barcelona Friends Miriam and Lidia to the most wonderful "Upper Crust" pizzeria, appropriately located in the somewhat upper crusty Beacon Hill (http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/), there is little else I did. A little shopping, a little laundry (including a little episode where true to Petra fashion I put the coins into the wrong washer, wondered (under protest, accusing the laundromat owners of two-timing me) why my laundry was not done, and made another Cambridge resident very happy by washing hers twice - it was very clean, we both agreed....), lots of lolling around on the couch, and inspired from my visit to my friends Ulli and Gerald in Oklahoma started on a cooking spree, making my own olive bread and basking in domestic bliss.
As to sports, sports and sports, the Tour de France was the first stop for the athletically inclined during these past 7 days; Friday night Pauline, Ulandt and I cheered on in whoever was not involved in the recent doping scandal in the world's most prestigious road race, and elected sprinter Robbie McEwen our new favorite (http://www.mcewenrobbie.com/). After the doping scandal at the beginning of the tour where more than 50 riders were eliminated, it is everyone's guess where this year's event is headed. Considering that I have not sat on my bike in probably a year and a half, I make a great judge and my motivation for the sport knows no bounds.
Now, the World Cup - I have never been so surprised as I have been this year on the interest and enthusiasm for soccer here in the US. Generally it is a sport that mostly girls play when they are little, but this year's World Cup was unbelievable. Hordes of people in airports gathered around TV screens to catch a glimpse and even Boston got in on the action. Mayor Mennino stepped in and for the final between Italy and France on Sunday a monstrosity of a TV screen was set up at City Hall Plaza and a pro-Italy crowd of more than 6000 gathered in blistering heat to celebrate the occasion. Soccer fans draped in Italian flags roamed the streets of Boston, in particular the Italian section of town, the North End, celebrating their team's victory after penalty kicks. What a zoo!!!
More sports: Monday night - Yoga class with Pauline; Tuesday night - 3-mile run with Lynda Banzi in the now for Boston typical tropical heat; Wednesday night - running group at the hospital in biggest drencher of them all - 6.5 miles in the most gushing, cloudbursting, tidal torrent I have ever been in; Thursday lunch 3 miles; and yesterday my long run for the week, 13 miles down here at the Cape. No wonder I sleep well.
The news item of the week though was the scandal around Boston's out-of-bounds-expensive, corruption-infested freeway project, the Big Dig. On early Thursday morning an entire section of the Ted Williams Tunnel came down, and killed a passenger in a car. The governor is screaming, the mayor is screaming, everyone wants everyone else to resign, an investigation found 240 more faulty bolts, the tunnel won't open for weeks and we're all afraid to drive down there.
I am writing to you from the luxuriously comfortable porch of my friend Rick's home at Cape Cod (http://www.capecod.com/Photos.asp), where a posse of friends has gathered this weekend to have some fun on the beach, on the pond and on the trails. More on that next week. Tomorrow I will head home to see a ballgame between the Boston Red Sox and my old home team, the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park.
It is now time to zip down to the pond for some canoeing and swimming -- the water is warmer than the pretty cold Atlantic Ocean into which I dipped my feet this morning, and the new bathing suit needs to be exposed to some fine water.
Enjoy the sun! Talk to you next week!.
Petra
As a matter of fact this whole past week was all about Sports - World Cup, Tour de France, Road Race, Marathon Training - you name it, we were there!! Aside from a little outing with my Barcelona Friends Miriam and Lidia to the most wonderful "Upper Crust" pizzeria, appropriately located in the somewhat upper crusty Beacon Hill (http://www.theuppercrustpizzeria.com/), there is little else I did. A little shopping, a little laundry (including a little episode where true to Petra fashion I put the coins into the wrong washer, wondered (under protest, accusing the laundromat owners of two-timing me) why my laundry was not done, and made another Cambridge resident very happy by washing hers twice - it was very clean, we both agreed....), lots of lolling around on the couch, and inspired from my visit to my friends Ulli and Gerald in Oklahoma started on a cooking spree, making my own olive bread and basking in domestic bliss.
As to sports, sports and sports, the Tour de France was the first stop for the athletically inclined during these past 7 days; Friday night Pauline, Ulandt and I cheered on in whoever was not involved in the recent doping scandal in the world's most prestigious road race, and elected sprinter Robbie McEwen our new favorite (http://www.mcewenrobbie.com/). After the doping scandal at the beginning of the tour where more than 50 riders were eliminated, it is everyone's guess where this year's event is headed. Considering that I have not sat on my bike in probably a year and a half, I make a great judge and my motivation for the sport knows no bounds.
Now, the World Cup - I have never been so surprised as I have been this year on the interest and enthusiasm for soccer here in the US. Generally it is a sport that mostly girls play when they are little, but this year's World Cup was unbelievable. Hordes of people in airports gathered around TV screens to catch a glimpse and even Boston got in on the action. Mayor Mennino stepped in and for the final between Italy and France on Sunday a monstrosity of a TV screen was set up at City Hall Plaza and a pro-Italy crowd of more than 6000 gathered in blistering heat to celebrate the occasion. Soccer fans draped in Italian flags roamed the streets of Boston, in particular the Italian section of town, the North End, celebrating their team's victory after penalty kicks. What a zoo!!!
More sports: Monday night - Yoga class with Pauline; Tuesday night - 3-mile run with Lynda Banzi in the now for Boston typical tropical heat; Wednesday night - running group at the hospital in biggest drencher of them all - 6.5 miles in the most gushing, cloudbursting, tidal torrent I have ever been in; Thursday lunch 3 miles; and yesterday my long run for the week, 13 miles down here at the Cape. No wonder I sleep well.
The news item of the week though was the scandal around Boston's out-of-bounds-expensive, corruption-infested freeway project, the Big Dig. On early Thursday morning an entire section of the Ted Williams Tunnel came down, and killed a passenger in a car. The governor is screaming, the mayor is screaming, everyone wants everyone else to resign, an investigation found 240 more faulty bolts, the tunnel won't open for weeks and we're all afraid to drive down there.
I am writing to you from the luxuriously comfortable porch of my friend Rick's home at Cape Cod (http://www.capecod.com/Photos.asp), where a posse of friends has gathered this weekend to have some fun on the beach, on the pond and on the trails. More on that next week. Tomorrow I will head home to see a ballgame between the Boston Red Sox and my old home team, the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park.
It is now time to zip down to the pond for some canoeing and swimming -- the water is warmer than the pretty cold Atlantic Ocean into which I dipped my feet this morning, and the new bathing suit needs to be exposed to some fine water.
Enjoy the sun! Talk to you next week!.
Petra
posted by My Boston at
1:36 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home