July 31, 2006
Run like you've never run before
Along with Tanya, Jess, and Mike, I ran the 1st half of the SF Marathon. Jason ran the whole thing.
I thought it was kinda questionable that I would be able to make it to the end. Jess and Tanya mentioned they didn't train much either. Nevertheless, we did it!
The weather, perfect. The view, inspiring. The sense of achievement crossing the finish line, rewarding. I think it's going to be a while before I ever run this far again, but who knows. Ask me again in a few months. :P
Thanks to Tanya for getting me into this. Thanks to Jess for pushing me along in the race; I think we paced each other pretty well. Thanks Esther for driving us around.
I'll reedit later once I get timing data and some pictures. (Updated)
| 7/30/2006 San Francisco CA | |
| San Francisco Marathon - Half 1st | |
| Bib: | 20327 |
| Name: | Hansel Chung |
| Gender: | M |
| Age: | 25 |
| Hometown: | San Jose CA |
| Place Overall: | 3285 | out of 3859 |
| Men: | 1601 | out of 1744 |
| M 20-29: | 398 | out of 420 |
| AgeGrade: | 35.98% | Place: 3683 |
| FINISH: | 2:42:38 | pace: 12:25 |
| 7.4 Miles: | 1:33:53 | pace: 12:42 |
| Chip Time: | 2:42:38 | ||
| Gun Time: | 3:03:35 | ||
Knowing me, I had a totally pessimistic evaluation of my ability to complete the half marathon on time (3 hours) considering the following:
1) in April, I injured my right knee training.
2) 1.5 weeks ago, I injured my right ankle/foot playing soccer.
3) .5 weeks ago, I twisted my left ankle playing soccer.
4) then two days later I get a upset stomach from eating a bad salad for lunch
5) the longest I've ever ran before the event was less than 6 miles.
July 25, 2006
Sword vs. Bullet
Derek sent me this link to a video of a gun being fired at a Japanese samurai sword.
From the angle, it looks like the pieces actually get deflected away from where a person holding the sword would be.
Awesome.
Weekend
Now that I'm a bit more rested, I can comment on the past weekend.
So much fun. So little sleep. So what, I had a great time.
Friday, I was out at Dragon Bar with friends. Unfortunetely, the hottest girls I saw there were the ones I arrived with. Sure, using some of my best friends as benchmarks of hotness could be setting the bar too high. But hey, I have standards.
Saturday, with 2 hours of sleep, we went to Capitola to have a picnic on the beach. Played some volleyball, grilled some tri-tip, and did a heck of a lot of waiting for people to come cuz we gathered and went before traffic and they didn't :P
Notes for a future beach trip:
1) If a group's going to arrive early, bring a little more variety than meat, water, and utensils.
2) Don't play volleyball near the water, especially one that says "unsafe for bodily contact."
3) Aluminum foil on the grill is good for slow cooking.
4) Traffic to Santa Cruz/Capitola sucks after 10:30am.
In the evening, Jess' friend was having a going away party, so we attended that. Met some people I knew from high school and college, and met a bunch of new people. Jess' college friends are very cool; though if I ever hang out with them again, I better have had a full night's sleep and lots of caffeine to keep up.
Sunday, I just chilled at home. Thomas came over in the evening to sit around cuz his house has no aircon nor power.
July 24, 2006
Soccer
Last week, Clarence and I gathered some people for a casual game of soccer on a weekday. To the surprise of noone, I got my foot mildly injured.
Ivy suggested icing it and taking some Advil to keep it from swelling, which I did. And it seemed to have worked. Like, it doesn't hurt and stuff.
But man, it was only yesterday that I noticed the bruising has finally appeared. And it looks awful.
Toys - Helicopter
Ever since around middle school, I always wanted a radio controlled helicopter as a toy. The one that I had my eye on was the Kyosho EP Concept, an intermediate electric heli with 5 control channels and a $600 price tag for the entire set.
About 2 weeks ago, I finally bought a helicopter. A cheap $140 Dragonfly 4-channel from a Chinese company called Grand Wing Servo-Tech.
10+ crashes later, I have confirmed what I originally believed to be true. Helicopters are friggin' hard to fly. I've decided that it's going to be a while before I can try to show this thing off to friends cuz it's pretty hard to hold a steady hover.
Something else I learned: Carbon fiber isn't indestructible, but even when the fibers split apart, it's holding the tail together pretty well.
July 11, 2006
Circulation Unclong
"Are your arteries feeling a little clonged today?"
It's a health drink my mom brought back from Taiwan. It's made of natto (fermented soybeans) so I didn't try it but it's got the look of like Oveltine I think. My manager made up the quote, and I took the picture.
Still waiting for a response from Engrish.com
July 10, 2006
The whole week might as well have been a long weekend
With just three work days between last weekend and this past weekend, it might as well have been one long weekend.
Friday:
Poker (won $10) and mahjong (Lost horribly)
Saturday:
Badminton, Cyn's party, Kai's party
Sunday:
Crashed more model airplanes, pool at Paul and Eddy's (totally outclassed)
Playing pool and badminton needs to become a weekly thing. Yeah. Crashing airplanes shouldn't be a weekly thing, but flying them can be.
July 05, 2006
July 4th Weekend
In celebration of the near anniversary of my football headbanging sports accident, I went with a bunch of people to hike up Half Dome in Yosemite on July 1st. Freakin unbelieveable. You know, when I was invited I was like, oh it's a hike. Can't be too bad. We're doing it in one day? Must be short enough then. Leaving at 3am? Oh that's fine cuz Yosemite is far. A gallon of water? Well, it is sunny outside.
Right.
It didn't occur to me until as we were leaving to ask how long the hike actually was. For those who don't know what Half Dome is, it's 13 miles from the trail start to the top.
The schedule went something like this:
Saturday 3am : Drive to Yosemite
8am : Arrive at Yosemite
8:30am : Take shuttle to trail start and start hiking
4pm : Finally got to the top.
8pm : Finally get to the bottom.
8:30pm : Got back to the car after waiting for the people behind us.
Sunday 3am : Arrive back in San Jose.
Things to note for next time...if there is a next time:
1) Albert's smart. He brought sandwiches and beef jerky. So much better than eating clif bars for an entire day.
2) Hiding a gallon of water on the trail is good. If two people have two gallons, and you drop one off on your way up and split the other gallon, then you don't need to carry as much.
3) Tanya, Esther, and I ran the last mile down. It felt much better than walking it because it was relatively flat and didn't seem to hurt as much. We did pass an old lady who looked like she was walking her way up.....barefoot. Hardcore.
4) Knee brace makes things hurt less. Ankle brace could have been helpful too.
I'll update this with some pictures later.
Sunday I woke up at like 1:30pm, went out to a bbq for about an hour, and then came back and slept until like 9pm again.
Monday was a bbq. Tuesday was a bbq. Ended the weekend watching fireworks in Downtown San Jose.