beantown visitor

tomorrow my first visitor of 2010 will arrive. my cousin, katie, who is on the east coast for work, will be spending the weekend here in boston. katie is in a rare group of visitors: those who have visited me in boston more than once. in fact, i think there are only two visitors in this exclusive group, and the other, the legend, will be making his 5th visit (i believe) next month. katie is a close second and if work keeps sending her to the east coast she could overtake the legend in 2010. 

for a first time visitor to boston i can get away with little to no planning. this is in thanks to living in the city for more than four years now, and having had the privilege of showing many family members and friends around the tourist areas of boston. but for those visitors who have already walked the freedom trail (and those that have proposed taking a shot every time "freedom trail" is exclaimed during the walk), seen quincy market, and walked by or through harvard university, more planning and coordination is necessary to make the trip a success. plus, i'm not a fan of asking the question "what do you want to do now?" and hearing in response "i don't care." 


so in light of katie's visit this friday, i've put together a list (or agenda if you will) of this weekend's plans. this allows those partaking in the activities a chance to veto something they're not interested in, while those in boston looking for plans an opportunity to participate. 

friday, february 5th

• 7:30 pm dinner reservations (for 4) @ figs (gourmet pizza) in beacon hill
• depending on katie's arrival, a pre-dinner drink @ brookline's regal beagal
• after dinner drinks at the sevens in beacon hill

saturday, february 6th

• breakfast is the most important meal, right? but breakfast is too early. and unfortunately, if you're not early @ brookline's zaftigs then enjoy the hour wait. that's why i'm going to suggest 11 am brunch @ johnny d's in somerville's davis square
• since we'll be in a car and i've only done it once, a tour of the sam adam's brewery in jamaica plain in the afternoon is a must
• time to get rid of the car, get ready for the rest of our night, and start using public transportation.
• head down to the copley area and check out the boston public library and  trinity church around 4:30
• have a drink or two around 5:30 pm at the top of the hub in the prudential building
• 8:00 pm dinner reservations (for 3) at the south end's tremont 647
• after dinner drinks at brownstone on dartmouth st

sunday, february 7th

• this is a big sports day. yeah, i'm talking about the capitals @ pens hockey game at noon! i think there's a football game on later that day too?
• with little time before katie has to depart back to the mid-west in the early afternoon, so seems like we'll need some coffee
• a stop by the coolidge corner peet's coffee & tea
• a walk past jfk's birthplace home in brookline
• and a chocolate croissant from clear flour bakery 
• then it's off to logan airport and picking up some beer when i get back

if ya ever visit me in boston, including your upcoming visit mr. legend, you can count on hitting up a place or two from this list. like i previously mentioned, if you're in boston this weekend, whether visiting or living here, and some of these activities interest ya, get in touch with me and i'll let ya know where we are. reservations can be easily adjusted and we'd be glad to have ya. but be prepared to take a picture of katie and i to mark her visit.

on ice. almost.

fenway park will be the sight of this year's winter classic - the new year's day hockey game played outdoors. not only will the bruins play, but boston university is set to take the ice on the 2nd of january. i was hoping to be one of the lucky 3,000 that got to skate on the ice on the 3rd or 10th.

earlier this week the city of boston announced they would be giving away 3,000 tickets on saturday morning at 13 locations. the only catch was that you needed to be a resident of boston (and show proof of such). also you need to bring your own skates if you receive a ticket. unfortunately, living in brookline doesn't qualify me as a boston resident even though boston completely surrounds my town. brookline never got on that boston train. but thankfully, my girlfriend's recent move into the city allowed us the privilege to wait in line this morning.

armed with our starbucks coffee and gloves and hats, we made it to the community center in the south end where they were distributing tickets 20 minutes before 9, which is when this process was to begin. my best guestimate was that we were between 60 or 70th in line, but the fact that each resident was allowed up to 4 tickets should have deterred us from waiting. but with a friendly "line family," as one person in front of us put it, we waited. and waited. and waited some more. and we got cold. then colder. then froze.

over an hour into the wait, w/ the worst part being the boston police not allowing the entire line inside due to space restrictions, murmurs of no more tickets started to rise. still 25 people deep, the police announced tickets were gone, but we could sign a waiting list. we had already invested so much time and hope that it would have been foolish leave so we waited a while longer to sign the waiting list. This now seems ironic.

the city of boston, the redsox, the bruins, and sun life financial corporation have put so much into this winter classic. it'll be a treat to watch the games on tv (i didn't even attempt to purchase tickets for the games) and a once in a lifetime opportunity for those who did get tickets today to skate inside historic fenway. hopefully those that made this happen see the interest in the public from today and announce another day or evening skate is available. i'd be happy to wait again for a chance at those tickets.

beautiful day wasted

so last i wrote, almost 6 months ago, i was training for the pittsburgh half marathon and hoping to break 1:40. my race weekend preparation wasn't the best (primanti brothers for dinner and the bucco's game for entertainment) and at the start line i felt i was still carrying some of that turkey and cheese sandwich. the one time i saw a set of porta-johns around mile 6 i strongly debated whether i should stop and relieve myself. while i would have felt much better, i would have lost a ton of time and not been anywhere close to my goal. as it turned out, i finished in 1:41:28 (that's 7:45 / mile pace) and got to see jen and dave twice cheering me on as well as chris and erin in the south side! it was great to run in my hometown city and if i didn't want to run a half in every state, then i'd consider running pittsburgh again.

so this year's fall marathon will be the hampton rockfest sponsored by smuttynose brewing co. in hampton beach, nh. the race is two and a half weeks away, and i think my longest run (and i won't even call it a training run) was 8.1 miles back on july 31st! i've been logging mostly 5 mile runs, but this weekend i'll definitely be doing a 7 miler, along w/ a 3 miler and a 2 miler - all in the same 24 hour period. jen and i were lucky enough to grab two open spots on a relay team that's running the reach the beach relay that takes place in nh. i actually don't think the running will be the toughest challenge. i'm betting that it's all the logistics and situations that occur as part of a 12 person 200 mile 1 day relay!

i've actually wasted away a beautiful boston day. maybe one of the last nice days of the year until may peaks it head out from the 4 feet of snow that boston is sure to see this winter. most of the day has been spent in doors, searching for jobs, though i have been able to get out to move my car from parking spot to parking spot. it's been weighing on me heavily - the fact that i haven't been taking advantage of my time off, and this gorgeous day especially. but, i'm also waiting on a pair of new asics trainers to be delivered by ups (who i did see a job posting for, but didn't apply - it was for a driver!). hopefully my increase to a size 10 gives my foot a little more room as my 9.5's have been tight, and i can get out for a run this evening w/ jen and a couple of others on our relay team.

maybe this relay is what i need to get me started blogging a bit more. and perhaps i'll tweak the content as well, though my blog's name is "runstrong." i'm sure hearing that my last four holes were bogey, bogey, par, birdie wouldn't interest you as much as it would me.

snow

today was my first outside run of the winter season. only fittingly, it was snowing. i'm sure that if i had more time i would have gone to the gym instead, but waiting until 45 minutes prior to the steelers game left me two options: 1) bundle up and run my 5k route, or 2) stay warm inside. surprisingly i got bundled up, earmuffs, gloves, and all, but my first step out of my apartment door had me looking at my watch and questioning if i really could get in a 5k run, along w/ a shower, before the start of the lers / boys football game. that first step is really the hardest - especially when you're not training for anything (except not being fat) and it's snowing!

with some small flakes falling in boston, the first of the year, i headed down the eastbound side of beacon street - a nice downhill start. coolidge corner was obviously bustling given the time of the year (earlier i was even asked if i was leaving a parking spot as i crossed a street to the back of my apartment with a gap shopping bag, to which i replied "no. thankfully i live right there."), though i only saw 4-5 runners during the 3.1 miles i covered. some runners don't even acknowledge another runner's existence, but i'm now going to make it a point to throw a wave to all runners i pass - especially if the temperature is below 32 degrees! we should be bonded by our insanity!

at kenmore square 11 and a half minutes later I started up commonwealth avenue, where i realized i had a nice tailwind going down beacon but now was faced with a headwind. that seems to be the case here in boston - there's always a wind and you don't realize it until you're running into it. the sane students of bu were comfortably warm in the starbucks. i definitely noticed that, and even contemplated stopping for a warm espresso - i think that would have made the final mile into the wind a little easier. left onto babcock st put me into a residential part of brookline that i know well from all the training runs i did in the summer. a cooldown starting on harvard street in coolidge corner, and a runner's high, delivered me back to my apartment nice and toasty, and in time for the steelers game. time for a celebratory beer - for my run, not the game (yet)!