Domo Does Boston

Have you missed Domo? Domo has missed you! Domo hasn't had a chance to blog since January when Domo went to Arizona. (More on Domo's blog "Domo Does the Desert") Domo has been dying to write about his travels! You know you miss Domo's writing. Monika only blogs about running. Blah, blah, blah. Domo blogs about FUN!

This past week Domo flew out to Boston for a tradeshow. Considering Domo hasn't flown since February, Domo was really surprised that he was upgraded on 3 out of 5 flights for the trip. Usually Domo's upgrade rate is around 40%. While 60% may not seem like a huge increase, it really is! I mean its 50% more than 40% ... but Domo won't bore you with the math. On the flight out Domo flew from San Diego to Phoenix, Phoenix to Boston. Boston to Philly, and Philly to Denver to San Diego. Domo was in a lot of airports.

Boston Trip

Domo was in Boston from Saturday through Tuesday. Just like most of the other times Domo has been to Boston, Domo only saw the airport, his hotel, the convention center, other hotels, and restaurants on his trip. Domo isn't complaining - he likes the free trips, but wishes that one of these days he can visit Boston for fun. On Domo's first night in Boston he got in late in the day, set-up his tradeshow booth, had dinner solo in the hotel lobby bar, and then went to bed by 10pm EST. Yes, Domo went to bed at 7pm on his timezone. Hey, don't judge - Domo wanted to get up early to run!

 Chips & Onion Dip in the Hotel Lobby

Domo Likes Sleeping

The next morning Domo enjoyed some room service, hit the gym for a few miles on the treadmill, and then spent the day (9am - 8pm ..... seriously??) at the tradeshow before going out to dinner with some coworkers.

Domo Loves Marriott Room Service Breakfast

Domo and friends ended up at the Barking Crab restaurant which was a few minutes away from the convention center. The place looked pretty casual but had a great menu of fresh seafood. Hey, when in Boston, Domo eats nothing but seafood!

Overcast Day in Boston by the Convention Center

 

Inside the Convention - All About Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

The next day Domo got up early again and this time headed to the pool instead of the treadmill. The Renaissance Boston Waterfront where Domo was staying had a really weird but cool pool. Single lane lap pool that's only three feet deep? Perfect for Domo's lap swimming!

Domo's Solo Lap Pool

After Domo swam some laps he spent another day at the tradeshow and went out for a group dinner at Villa Francesca with his coworkers and some other people from his industry.

Being Silly with the Compression Wear Mannequins

The next day at the tradeshow wasn't much else of note (aside from scoring on some great skincare items!), and before Domo knew it he was leaving Boston and headed to Philly.

Domo Loves His Job (And Free Skincare!)

 Journee Bio-Restorative Day Cream from NeoCutis
NeoCleanse Cleanser from NeoCutis
Pressed Mineral Foundation from Colorscience

Philly for the Day

Domo had plans to spend the day with the MidAtlantic rep on Wednesday before finally heading back to San Diego. After leaving the tradeshow Tuesday night Domo hoped on a plane to Philly and dragged his tired body and sore feet to his hotel room. Domo was staying at the PHL airport Residence Inn (one of SIX hotel choices in the Marriott brand family) and was pleased but alarmed when he was upgraded to a two bedroom suite. This hotel room (suite) was bigger than Domo's apartment! Domo was instantly unnerved and had to check the bathroom shower stall and closets in both bedrooms for murderers. Yes, Domo is a crazy paranoid person.

Domo and a Philly Pretzel

Upon checking in Domo was pleased when the girl at  the front desk said with excitement "As an Elite member we have a special gift for you!" Domo got so excited wondering what would be pulled out of the special drawer! "Here's a Philadelphia pretzel for you!" .. huh? What's a Philadelphia pretzel? It looked like a small soft pretzel ... wrapped cutely in plastic with ribbons. Hey, Domo will take it. Thanks Residence Inn!

Domo Loves Residence Inn Breakfast!
(Okay, looks gross -  but scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and ham is perfect!)

Domo spent the next day out in Pennsylvania and New Jersey with the local rep visiting customers and prospects. The day flew by and before Domo knew it he was ready to head to the airport to fly back to San Diego. Before taking Domo to the airport the rep stopped for gas in NJ. Domo forgot that it was mandatory full service in New Jersey ... and then Domo almost experienced cardiac arrest when he saw how much gas was .....$3.89?!?!?! Do you know how much Domo has been paying to get gas in San Diego? $4.23! And Domo has to pump hit himself! ARGH!

New Jersey Gas

Heading Home

Domo was flying home from Philly through Denver to San Diego. Domo usually tries to avoid connecting in Denver due to all of the turbulence in that area, but this was the best flight option Domo had going home. Domo was pretty tired from his long trip and was hoping to sleep most of the way from Philly to Denver and Denver to Philly.  Domo wasn't able to sleep much on the first plane and stared out the window during the whole descent. Domo was confused by the thick white clouds that they descending through for a long time ... until suddenly they landed! Whoah, was that snow? It looked like there was a blizzard in Denver! Wasn't it just 70F in Philly?

Blizzard in May?

Thanks to the snow in Denver (in unison - "Thanks Denver ... ") Domo's flight was delayed about two hours. Instead of getting home at 11pm PST (um, 1am EST), Domo ended up getting home around 1:30am PST. Sigh ... Domo was hanging out at the gate in Denver when what do you know, Domo bumped into a former coworker from his current job. This person had just left recently and Domo was surprised that he was not only on Domo's flight, but seated next to him! Small world!  A few miserable hours later and Domo was finally home, in his own bed, and dreaming away into the night. Domo decided to set his alarm for 7:30am to let him sleep in. Guess what? Domo woke up at 5:30am before his alarm. ARGH. 3 1/2 hours of sleep? Sigh.

Thursday was a REALLY long day (no sleep, rushed day, long meeting, coaching Girls on the Run, etc), but Domo was glad to be home and ready for the weekend. Domo is super excited that his next trip is  not for work but is for vacation! Guess where Domo is headed? Paris!! For details of Domo's trip to Paris last year, check out Domo's blog "5 Days of Family Fun in France". 

20 Miles In The Rain

Last week I headed to Boston for a six day trip for work. This trip coincided with a 20 mile run in my marathon training schedule. Luckily, I only had to work Thursday - Friday and Sunday - Tuesday, but had Saturday off. Perfect! That's my regular long run day!

David flew in for the weekend and we planned on doing our long run together. This would be his first 20 mile run! (As some of you might know, 20 miles is the longest you usually run when training for a marathon. Its usually scheduled 3 weeks before the race. In our training schedule we are going to run 20 miles twice. Once 6 weeks out and another time 3 weeks out. )

I googled around looking for a good place to do our 20 mile run. Local running clubs usually post popular long run routes, and I was hoping to come across a site with this information. I found one website that recommended an area called the "Emerald Necklace" which was made up by a chain of lakes. There was a 20 mile route posted which looped around certain parts of the "necklace" a few times. This seemed somewhat complicated and I was hoping to find a simpler out and back or two times around course.

Emerald Necklace

I then realized I knew two distance runners in the area: Meredith and Martin! I emailed them both asking for route suggestions. I was hoping that they would actually be interested in running the first 10 miles with us, and then we would do the second 10 miles alone once we were familiar with the course. As it turned out Meredith wasn't up to that mileage yet due to an injury, and Martin told us he was scheduled for a half-marathon that morning. He immediately invited us to join him for the race, but we both initially dismissed that as an option since it seemed crazy to race a half-marathon, and to then continue on to run 7 miles. But as you know, we're both crazy! We signed up for the race and planned to double back on the course to get the miles in. With that plan set, I left sunny San Diego to head towards the Northeast!

Run to the Rock Half Marathon

A few days before leaving for Boston I checked the weather and was horrified to see that it was going to be sunny all week, but raining on the weekend! No! Rain?? I hate rain! I hate running in rain! Wait.. I DON'T run in rain! I have a membership to 24 Hour Fitness that I keep just for days that its raining and I need some place to run. Obviously in San Diego I almost never need to go there.

I arrived in Boston on Thursday with just enough time to drive down to Rhode Island to attend an evening program for work. The next day I worked from home in my hotel room for most of the day but went out at lunch time to meet Meredith for lunch. This was the first time we'd seen each other in about 15 years! Crazy! We met at a cute place in Cambridge called Algiers Cafe.

Lunch With Meredith in Cambridge

The food was great! After having lunch there we walked around to a few places in Harvard Square. We went to the Harvard bookstore where I got a nice technical running shirt, we checked out a cute little children's bookstore with a Curious George theme, and then we hunted down a little poetry bookstore tucked down a side street where I found a nice gift for my dad. (Haven't gotten around to mailing it yet, so if you're reading this Dad, guess I just ruined the surprise! Oops!)

Curious George Bookstore

Grolier Poetry Bookstore

At some point during the visit to Harvard Square it started to sprinkle, and by dinner time that night it was pouring. POURING!! The chances of the rain passing by race time the next morning were looking slimmer and slimmer. :o( I crossed my fingers that night that the rain would pass by the morning, but didn't have high hopes. The next morning I woke up and was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't pouring anymore! It was only raining. HA! As if that was much better. The drive from Boston to the race in Plymouth was about 25 miles, so there was one last glimmer of hope that the rain in Boston wasn't an issue in Plymouth. About a half hour drive later that hope was dashed as well.

Excited & Apprehensive Before the Race

So we arrive in Plymouth and parked at the finish line and got on the shuttle to the start line where registration was. Upon getting to the start line we jumped into the registration line ... and as we stood there, the rain really started to get heavy. Luckily there was a guy standing behind us with an umbrella ... whose friend quickly jumped under to stay dry too ... and then he immediately asked us if we wanted to join as well. SURE! Hey, it was a big golf umbrella, why not? (Actually, he made quite a funny joke that we had to join them under the umbrella since two guys sharing one just by themselves was a bit weird. Haha, so true.)

Registration at the Start Line

As soon as we got into the building where we were to pick up our race numbers I saw Martin. It was great to meet him in person after months of sharing racing and training stories online. (Martin is a friend of Meredith's and Meredith used to work with my dad when I was in high school. And now we're all running friends! Are you keeping up with all of this?) Anyways, we chatted for a bit and then got on the shuttle to the start line. By the time we got there we only had about 10 minutes before start time. We checked our gear and got in line for the bathroom. Somewhere along these lines we lost Martin. :o( I was hoping to get a picture of all of us before the race started, but figured since it was a small race we'd find him afterwards. Unfortunately this did not happen.

The race got off to a rushed start and we joined the group of runners plodding through the rain. David and I were immediately startled to find that we were running down a narrow, windy road ... with no lane blocked off for the runners! We were running down the right side of a two lane road with one lane of traffic going each way. And there were cars going in both directions! Scary! We dodged puddles and tried to stay as far as possible to one side of the road and plodded through mile after soggy mile. Somewhere around mile 5 my iPod accidentally turned off a couple times (weird) and then at mile 6 it turned off completely and I couldn't turn it back on. OMG... it died!!

At this point I started to freak out. I was already worried about racing for 13 miles and then running 7 more. Add in the rain which I hate and things looked a bit more iffy. Take away my music?!?! Now we're talking about 14 more miles of torture! I kept hoping that my iPod would come back to life at some point in my run, but nope! No such luck. I got to listen to shoes hitting the wet pavement and cars splashing through puddles for the next 3 hours. Fun right? Okay, enough of that pity party. Back to the race.

So David and I kept up a pretty good pace considering the face that it was raining, the course was really really hilly, and I had NO MUSIC! AHH! (I know sorry, last mention of my dead iPod.) Our goal was to run between a 8:30 and 9:00 pace and we stuck to that mile after mile. We ended up finishing the race in 1:56! That was the same time that we took to run our first half marathon together in February. This course in Plymouth was much hillier and it was raining, so I was pleased to have completed the race with the same finish time. Playing the "what if" game, I kept thinking about how we'd do on a flat, dry course. I think we could have run in 1:50! Okay, we'll table that goal until next time.

So we finished the half marathon, grabbed some water and bananas and headed back to the car to drop off our stuff. We stopped and ate/drank/chatted for about 10 minutes by the car before deciding to head back out to bust out the next 7 miles. Unfortunately, after racing and then stopping for a while, starting to run again really does not feel good. Each step hurt for a bit until we finally got back into the groove. I'm not going to lie, that 7 mile run was no fun. We ran 3 1/2 miles out and back. Well, more like ran/walked it. But we got through it! We made it through 20 miles that day! We were both beat after the run and looking forward to getting back to the hotel to shower, change into dry clothes, and to eat eat eat!

After the Half-Marathon!

But Before the Next Seven Miles...

After 13 Miles, David Has Conquered the Rain!

As timing would have it, we didn't end up eating for about 3 hours. The drive back to Boston was bout 1/2 hour, then we had to shower, pack, and check out of that hotel, drive over to the next hotel I was staying in for work, check-in, and then go back to the airport to return the rental car. The only thing we had with us were two tiny bags of potato chips. Oh well, better than nothing. So 3 hours later when we finally got to eat we both ordered big burgers .. and they were the best burgers ever! Well, I think anything we ate by that time could have tasted like the best food ever. I might even have been tempted by a chunk of cheese at that point. I was totally starving!

The next day the tradeshow that I was in town for started. Let me just tell you, there is nothing better than standing in heels all day at a tradeshow the day after running 20 miles in the rain. Yep! That sucked. I was sore and had a couple blisters on my feet. That first day was rough. The second was better though, and by the third I was back to normal. And guess what? As soon as the tradeshow started the weather cleared up and it became a beautiful sunny week in Boston. Yeah, the two days I was out and about and running it was raining. As soon as I was locked inside all day it was sunny. Funny how that happens.

So the trip to Boston was long, wet and dreary at times, but fun overall. It was great to catch up with Meredith, so nice to finally meet Martin in person, and it was a total "experience" to get to run 20 miles with David for the first time. Our next 20 miler is lined up for two weeks from now. Let's keep our fingers crossed for blue skies and sunny days!