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This morning was the Fly Day 5k, the 2nd time I have run this race. It would probably have to be my favourite run as not only do you get to run (something I actually love doing now) but you get to run on an airport! With planes landing around you! But going into this morning I had a few goals:

1. Beat Last years time
2. Run my fastest ever 5k time

Last year when I ran the Fly Day 5K for the first time I did manage to set a new record 5k pace. That and I beat my time by a solid 2 minutes. But incrementally I have been dropping my time since then. So much so that my previous best 5k time was 25:40. That’s tough to beat. Well… maybe

That is this mornings run. Yes that time is 25:10 but thats a couple of seconds under that time as I was a bit slow in stopping it after I started the run. I am absolutely stoked at what I acheived. Hell during the run I thought I was going to slow. I was pretty cold the head wind was INSANE! I guess that’s the thing when you running at an airport, especially parallel to the runway for most of it, you are either with the wind or against it. Sadly I was against it this morning. Had I gotten a bit of a tail wind helping to push me along, I might of gotten there faster 😉

The rest of the day was pretty epic. Even before the race the #avgeek in me was ecstatic. I couldn’t sleep much last night I was full of excitement and anticipation as I had put a lot into the race today. Well that was probably a good thing as before the race was due to start an Antonov AN124 & an Atlas 747-8F was due to be moving about the field. Add onto that an unexpected Dreamlifter as well, totally crazy day! Afterwards there was so many Boeing movements it was crazy. Add onto that the Warbirds and GA stuff all over the place, it was totally the best day since Aviation Geek Fest.

But now I am home, its 7pm and all I have eaten today is two small pancakes at breakfast this morning after the race. I am starved, I am totally shattered and right about now, I want to sleep. But I got a lot to do before I can rest tonight, and rest I will!

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As this week progresses I am just one more training run away from Saturday’s Fly Day 5k at the Paine Field Aviation Day. Last week I ramped it up so that I could be able to really push hard on the day.

I want to be able to two at least one of two things at the event this year. Fiest I want to be able to surpass last years time.  If you have a look at this:

You can see last years run where I did it in 28 minutes. Lately on bad days when I am not running at full pace I am doing sub 29 minute runs, on an average day i am sub 27m30s, so the though of not breaking that time is pretty low.

What I want to do though is a sub 26 minute run. This is getting tougher and tougher to achieve. I am averaging low to mid 26 some days on a flat course wjen pushing it hard but like Tuesday this week:

That time would of been spot on would I not of had to stop at traffic lights three times. This won’t be a factor on Saturday as there should only br other people in my way, however the run isnt flat with about the last kilometer or so up hill (well upward incline at least).

So tomorrow morning is my final training run. It will be an all out balls to the wall push on a flat route. I hope to god nothing bad happens but it will work out either way. I don’t normally run a flat route on a Thursday but i adjusted the training to compensate as I don’t want to go to harsh the day before to give my body a slight rest before the push.

Doesn’t mean I’m giving myself Friday off though, I will probably just hit the exercise bike in the gym to give my legs a day of no pounding the joints, and then come Saturday morning it is on for young and old. If I can’t get under 26, that’s ok I can deal with it, but I certainly won’t accept a time over 28.

With the run finished I can relax with a pancake breakfast (thanks to the firefighters at PAE)  and then a day full of planes flying about. Sunday will be my first rest day in almost 7 weeks. Then comes about another month or more of hard work as the next month is looking full of travel and some pretty awesome times.

But that’s for another day

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I was back on the bike this morning as evidenced here:

Now it was a good ride, I finally have some decent gear (Gloves, riding shorts) and with the bike all back together and out of the storage closet, I am looking at enjoying the summer months with some riding. I am working towards training towards the Triathlon but at the moment, I still have the mountain bike tyres on. But that’s not what this quick post is about.

I was riding around where QFC is in Canyon Park, about the half way point through my ride. It was pretty quiet on the road which was good but I had one big obstacle in my way. A Flock of Geese. Great, just what I needed was to be coming off my bike (like usual) because I hit a goose. I would never hear the end of it. Now the flock of geese was not your average flock, there was a whole heap of baby geese, so I was picturing the headlines right there and then “Cyclists kills flock of Geese on Mothers Day”. Just not what I wanted. So I ended up trying to avoid them as much as possible.

However as I got up to the last goose in the way, it must of been the mother because she was ANGRY! She was hissing at me, chasing me and I couldn’t get away fast enough! Now my brain had gone from “I hope i don’t kill them to” I hope they don’t run me down!It was crazy! I was now being chased by the geese! So I had gone from being worried about killing the geese to worried about getting bit by the geese!

The rest of the ride was uneventful other than the usual almost stack that I always seem to have. It wasn’t the best weather as it did start a slow sprinkle while I was riding but I didn’t care, I was just happy to be cycling again. But what a CRAZY morning ride.

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Wow… I really am stupid, this only just literally happened but it sure does make me feel stupid. I have already had a long week of extra hours and lots of blog work for AirlineReporter but I have stuck with it and soldiered on. My body has been fighting back at me a bit this week as I have been training for the Fly Day 5k at PFAD which is coming up next weekend so add that to the fatigue and things just don’t even work.

Let me fill you in first on what caused this mornings fail. This is my coffee machine:

From Expat Life

Its a Cuisinart Grind and Brew. It’s amazing and it keeps my Coffee addiction going. It not only brews on demand but it will grind the beans first and then dump it into the machine where it will start to brew! It has an on AND off function so it will turn itself on, start the process then turn itself off after a pre determined time. Each night I need to fill it full of coffee beans, a filter and water and then I hit the program button and in the morning it does it’s magic so that when I come back from my run and had a shower, its ready to drink…. Not today though.

Last night I filled it with beans, I put in the filter, I set the program button and I thought all was good. Just went to the coffee machine to get my first cup… No coffee! I knew I had set it, I checked the grinder, yep, it worked. Beans had ground and everything. I had failed to fill it with water 🙁

Now today is not looking good, Grumpy Mal will be in existence till he can get to work and get some coffee since I don’t have time now to get it going and drink it before I need to leave, in fact i’m now running late cause of this blog post…

DAMMIT!

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The way i choose hotels is always a bit wierd.  I generally check first my usual suspects for good industry rates (Marriott, Hyatt, Radisson, Starwood, Fairmont).  Then I look at those I have status with (Hilton, Accor) then I go to the rest of it if nothing else works.  I had read so many blog posts lately about Kimpton hotels allowing status matches etc and figured, why the hell not give them a try, especially after the deal they gave me on an industry rate at the New York hotel I went with.  But for Portland, things didn’t turn out as good as they should have.  With New York their twitter team was on the ball and they suggested I contact someone directly, and that email was responded to quickly and promptly, figured I would do the same with Portland.  The tweet was responded to, the email, not so much.  I got a reply 2 days later, and then the reply to my response, well that took almost a week!  Then by that time the rate at the hotel was higher than the AAA Rate (which included Valet Parking) and I was told it was “the best rate on offer” which obviously wasn’t true.  In the end I booked it anyway, as if I can get 3 stays on file with Kimpton I get access to 6 free nights at their newest hotels… score!

I arrived fairly late and the valet staff were on the ball, offered to help me out and show me up to the room with my bags and had the truck off to its resting place quickly.  Free valet in Downtown Portland is a MUST!  It kind of went downhill from there.  Though the check in stuff were easy to deal with, they were not at all of the service orientation the way that Kimpton advertise.  No mention I had been upgraded or anything, no mention about the wine hour or the coffee in the morning, they did mention that my amenity was in the room (i’ll get to that).  I asked about a running route and he just handed me a map.  Didn’t explain the fact that it was a specific running map with specific routes and that they all start by turning left when you go out the door (if the valet had not of mentioned that the next morning I would of gotten seriously lost).

The room was HUGE!  Nice big junior suite (not sure what the actual room category is) but it was perfectly oversized for one person on their own.  Probably didn’t need all the space and upgrades generally don’t make or break it for me.  When I arrived in the room I saw the gift given to me by the Kimpton twitter team and it was nice, but not that it would do me any good.  Chocolate and wine, I left the wine behind and took the chocolate for the girls at work.  Thought that counts right?  I checked the other side of the table expecting to see some fruit or some nuts or some cookies like my Kimpton profile says… there was a cheese plate.  Lets back it up a bit though, Kimpton has a policy for their loyalty club members you get a $10 credit to raid the mini bar.  If your elite though, well they don’t worry about that, you get to select whatever you want!  Fill it in online and that snack will be waiting in your room on arrival.  My readers know me.  I don’t really eat all that much cheese, if at all.  It was kind of wierd that my profile doesn’t even mention cheese!  So I rang down to the reception and checked that my room didn’t get mixed up and they said “You don’t like the cheese platter?, I asked if i could have what was in my profile and they said they said that whatever I want they will have to go and see if they can get it, so i just asked for a couple of cookies so I could get some sleep).  Few Minutes later I get a call back saying “sorry you can’t have the cookies, you can have a brownie).  Not wanting anything like that, I just asked for some fruit and some nuts and I figured that would be it.  It was delivered soon after but yeah, definately not a good start.

The next day I explored the hotel some more after getting back from exploring Portland and the Wine hour was just simply that… wine. Nothing else just wine. Pity since I don’t really drink. The room itself that night though gave me the biggest hassle of the weekend (and that is really a stretch). The Air conditioner was loud… really loud and not at all strong. I was roasting and it was cranked way down! It cycled on and off every 10 to 15 minutes with a loud clank. By the time I was up on sunday morning I was just happy to be out running in the city and by the time I got back, I really didn’t care all that much by then, as I was fully awake. The final kick in the coffin came on check out when I was paying up my account I had asked for help with my bags but in the end got tired of waiting and figured they were getting my truck first before coming to get my bags, where as I would rather of been ready and waiting bags in hand when the truck rocked up. Personal preference, no fault of theirs. It was as I paid my account the staff asked me if I used my coupon for the mini bar. I was a bit astounded as I wasn’t given one and mentioned the issue about the amenity to which I was assured my profile at the hotel had been notated accordingly to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But she told me that they always give their elite members the $10 mini bar coupon anyway… I never got mine and had I been given one, I probably wouldn’t of made the fuss about the in room amenity that night and just grabbed a snack from the mini bar. Nail in the coffin!

Looking back at my stay, all my complaints are nothing really. Will it stop me from returning to the hotel, nope. Will it stop me from booking Kimpton again.. probably not. I still have one more stay booked for new york later this month so lets see how that goes before I pass full judgement. Maybe it was just an off weekend but changing my stay process to look at Kimpton first over any others, well that isn’t at the top of the list so far, it may be further down if things don’t go all that well in New York.

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Well what can I say about Portland.  I still love the place. The weather was freaking amazing, the drive down pretty easy (apart from constant traffic till I passed JBLM on the way south but that was to be expected).  I will post a full review of the hotel later this week (as I still have to write it up) but I had a blast of a time either way, and felt like I should share some of the moments from the weekend (and the main photos).

My idea of hitting the streets and having a street food dinner on Saturday night was just an absolute fail.  There wasn’t many places open for dinner and what was open, just didn’t entice at all.  It was all kebabs and burgers but to be honest, I can get that any old place.  So I ended up just getting a bento and eating watching some TV in the room.  But I could not go without some voodoo!  I was there early it seemed as I was only in line like 15 minutes or so.  Last time was a good hour.  But I failed at my doughnut selection.  Not in taste… in size!  Since I had been walking around all evening hunting down street food and since it never ended up i figured, 3 was the appropriate choice.  1 big doughnut, 2 small right?  That equals 2 big doughnuts.  Yep wrong!  Went with a Memphis Mafia as my 3rd doughnut… it was freaking HUGE!!! bigger than the other 2 combined.  Damn tasty though!

The spotting was pretty awesome around the airport with the tip to use the parking structure was spot on.  $3 an hour so a couple of hours wasn’t exactly going to break the bank.  But the one spot that was on the opposite side o the runway, right in front of the touchdown/rotate point… illegal to park in.  But I did anyway.  I didn’t get a ticket but I did get asked to move on.  The guy was really nice about it, he wasn’t a douche or anything so I give him full props for that.

I leave you with a few final thoughts that I had on the way home while driving in the beautiful weather.  As the ram gobbled up the interstate with effortless ease, I was driving past green everywhere, blue sky, mountains around.  I looked in my mirror, I could see Mount St Helens in the rear view mirror or Mt Rainier out the side window.  Snow capped volcanoes dominating my view.  I looked around and thought.. This is my home now?  What the hell!  I don’t want to leave this place.  It just astounds me how amazing the scenery is up here.  Sure the weather can be crazy with cold, rain and grey, but when the weather is good here, the place shines.  Screw it… I don’t want to go home to Aus.  This is my home!

PDX Road Trip

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To celebrate my One Year of living in the USA and mainly just because I can, I am heading to Portland in a few hours.  Me and the truck are going on our first solo road trip.  I am taking her down on the I5 tonight all the way into Tax free heaven.

I am looking forward to it as the last time I was in Portland was back in 2011 on my big round the world trip.  This time I will be staying in town at Vintage Plaza hotel.  I status matched over to Kimpton so can’t wait to see what they are doing for me (but more on that in the hotel review next week).

Tomorrow I am heading out to the Evergreen Museum as well out in a different part of Oregon and I do believe I can see Voodoo donuts in my future!

Well time to get back to work and then next stop….. Portland!

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Exactly 1 year ago today, VA8 touched down at Los Angeles Airport on Runway 25L.  As we taxied towards Gate 56 in T5 it was truly the beginning of a new adventure for me.  I was onboard that flight and had just left my friends, family and life behind in Australia to begin a new one, a few hours north in Seattle.  Since that move I have to admit it has been a crazy fun filled time.  Life has been a never ending adventure of new friends, new experiences, new food, new people, even new cultures (whoever says there isn’t culture in the USA has no idea).

But how do I feel about the move, especially after my recent trip home.  I have been over here a year now, with a year (or less than) left on my visa, what is ahead of me.  Well first and foremost it’s time to sit down with work and look at my future, because to be honest they have to have a say in it.  Simply because without their sponsorship, I am going home!  But do I wan’t to go home.  Hell No!  I wan’t to stay, I don’t want to go back to Australia.  I want to stay here in the USA and continue the life I have built for myself.

Sure I miss my friends and family back in Australia but that was to be expected right?  I do wish I could transplant some of my friends over here to the USA but there are a few people who are coming to visit so that does me fine I guess.  I get to see my folks in August when they come over to Canada for a number of weeks.  But I will be heading up to visit them in Vancouver for a weekend.  So that covers that side of things, but I am striving to keep making new friends and meeting people when I can.  But I am a shy person by nature and I have been burnt in the past, so its slowly slowly on that front.

Life is still pretty awesome over here in the USA and I wouldn’t trade it for anything… EVER.  If there was a way for me to get my green card easily (other than the lottery or marriage) then I would do it.  Anything to stay here in Seattle!  I love it (Weather and all) and it surely means I am settling in when I see a temperture of 55F (roughly 11c) and think… wow its warm today!   Ahhhh the life in the Pacific North West.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world!