It's September Already...??

So it's been almost a month since I updated this (oops), and I will try my hardest to be more frequent with the updates (although I can't make any promises). A lot has happened in the last month or so, most notably last week where the east coast experienced its strongest earthquake in over 100 years as well as a hurricane. Both were underwhelming.

First the earthquake. Being from California, this wasn't a strange or new experience for me, but it was clear the same could not be said for the majority of the DC population. It was a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, not terribly strong, but for a region where any sort of earthquake is a rarity, an earthquake of 5.9 is a pretty big deal. And you could tell from the reactions of the people here. It was like the world was ending or something. Nobody knew what was going on, or what to do. Everyone immediately ran out of their buildings and into the middle of the streets (THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO). I found the whole situation rather amusing, but I guess for someone who's never experienced an earthquake before, it was probably a rather traumatizing experience.

Then there was Hurricane Irene. Oh what a disappointment that was... As someone who has never been anywhere near a hurricane, I was pretty excited, especially because every news station was making a pretty big deal out of it. Of course I didn't want there to be a ton of destruction or anything, but I was excited about the possibility of hurricane-force winds. And then, nothing. Wind speeds less than 50 mph? Come on Irene... Yes, parts of the east coast were hammered pretty hard (sorta), but they (the news stations) had made such a big deal out if it that I figured there would be a bit more fireworks.

The Giants are killing me right now, and I really don't want to talk about them, so I won't. I think there's still a good chance they could come back and win the NL West, but they're not making it easy to watch right now...

It's a little over a month until the Baltimore Marathon, and I'm starting to get pretty excited. And by excited, I mean intimidated. 26.2 miles is a long, long way to run. The furthest I've run so far is 16 miles (I have another 16 to run tomorrow) and the fact that I'm going to still have to run 10+ miles on top of that is a bit daunting. Although as more information about the event is posted, the more I'm looking forward to it.

For the first time ever, the marathon course will go through the Baltimore Zoo, which should be fun. Unfortunately it's at the very beginning of the race and it's also for less than a mile, so I'll probably get to see the animals for maybe 5 minutes.

From what I've read, this event has been growing more and more every year, and it seems like there is a pretty good amount of support for it in the area, which will be great because it's always nice to have people cheering you on.

There are two characters towards the end of the route that I'm especially looking forward to, Eye of the Tiger Guy and Gummy Bear Guy. It's pretty self-explanatory really, but I'll fill you in nonetheless. Eye of the Tiger Guy has been going for the past 6 years or so (maybe more, I'm not sure). He sets up around mile 23 which is typically an uphill section (I'm not sure if he's at the bottom of the hill or in the middle). He has a stereo on top of his car blasting Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" on repeat. Oh, and he's also dressed in a full tiger suit and has been known to run the length of the hill with struggling runners. Should be pretty awesome. The Gummy Bear guy is not dressed up as a giant gummy bear (unfortunately) but he does have a station set up with a bunch of huge bowls which are, you guessed it, full of gummy bears. Exactly what you need for those last few miles. Simple carbohydrates. Energy.

I also don't have much to say about the 49ers, because I honestly don't know what to expect this year. The NFC West is wide open, so anything could happen, and I'm cautiously optimistic that Jim Harbaugh will be able to turn Alex Smith into the quarterback we thought we were drafting when we took him first overall in 2005. Who knows.

Well that's all I have for now. I'll do my best to provide more updates (I really will), especially on my marathon preparation, and I definitely plan to give a play-by-play account of the marathon (once I've recovered of course).