Why I run.

For those of you who don't know yet. I have been training for the last couple of months for the Big Sur Marathon in California this April. Yeah, it's quite a surprise for me too. But at the same time it, at this moment is makes so much sense to me.

If you would have asked me a year ago if I ever desired to run a marathon...my answer would have been "are you crazy?" I had absolutely NO desire to do so. Not only did I have no desire to start running races, but I felt that the required training would take over my life.

However, I was wrong.

As I am two months (actually a little less than that...) away from the race, I've learned that running a marathon is MUCH more than purely running 26.2 miles... it is goes much deeper than that. As my training has progressed, my reasons for running have changed.

My original desire to complete a marathon actually started last April. I can't remember the exact date, but it was the day that one of my high school friends died. Liz Duncan was two years older than me in high school. We played soccer and ran track together. As a freshman/sophomore on the Varsity soccer team, she was the upper-classman who looked after me...gave me inspiration and constantly kept me motivated. She always encouraged me to be my best (as she did everyone she encountered). After she graduated, she went on to WSU to play soccer and we stayed in touch. I eventually went to visit her on a recruiting trip. Although over the past few years we hadn't been in touch her death hit me hard, and still does. I rarely think there is a day that I don't think of her and remind myself to live for today because you never know what will happen.

Anyways, she was a big runner and was training for the Chicago Marathon before she died. And the motto she lived to was "Life is Short. Run Long." Her funeral inspired me in many ways. It made it clearly obvious that you never know what the next moment will bring, therefore you have to live for today. I will always thank her for that lesson.

Her funeral also inspired me to run a marathon. I don't know if it is exactly for her that I am running or in her memory. But what I do know is that since that moment I finally had the desire to run.

So that was the beginning.

Over the past year I have attempted to stick with a training program. However starting work, moving to a new city, and getting a concussion prevented me from attempting it earlier. But finally in the winter I decided it was the time and enrolled in the Big Sur Marathon. I had the desire and I felt the location was perfect. It would give me an excuse to get back to California to see all my friends and allow me to run in an incredible place! I felt that if I was running in a beautiful location...maybe the 26.2 miles wouldn't be so terrible =)

However, as my training has progressed, my passion for running has changed. It is difficult to describe but I used to run because it was on my schedule and because it was "healthy" for me. I would dread getting up early in the morning and had to fight through those few miles and hope that it would end quickly.

However now, I feel worse when I don't run. I miss those mornings that I have to myself as I run when the sun is rising over the city. And additionally, I love the way I feel now. I haven't felt so together both physically and emotionally in a long time.

My running began as a tribute to a beloved friend. But now it is turning into a daily passion. And I definitely have Liz to thank for that. I mean, it is too true. Life is short....so why no run long?

In memory of Liz Duncan.

Thanksgiving in Washington D.C.

This past Thanksgiving was the first year I haven't been able to make it home to eastern Washington. It was a sad time...considering how almost all of my family on my dad's side of the family convene at my aunt and uncle's house.

As I started to plan my Thanksgiving in NY, I quickly found out that all of my good friends were leaving town! AHH...so I had to act fast! I decided that I too should leave town! I remembered that one of my good friends from high school was back in D.C.! So I figured there would be no better time to go visit, hang out with an old friend and see D.C. (I'd never been there before!).

So Thanksgiving Day, I boarded a train from Penn Station heading to D.C. Unfortunately I had chosen a 7am departure time which made me have to wake up at 4am to make it there on public transportation! Yeah, public transportation is amazing most of the time...but every once and awhile a car would be so handy! As I was walking from the train to the station...I got to experience a little bit of the Macy Day Thanksgiving Parade. Well, at least I got to see all the crazy people standing outside of Macy's at 6am!

Anyways, I made it to D.C. by 10ish and Jessi came and picked me up! Later that day she toured me around Fairfax Virginia. I got to see where she went to school, at GMU, and a lot of the country side! After a long and stressful fall, I would have to say it was VERY great to see an old friend!

We spent Thanksgiving at her friend's house. They were AMAZING cooks and the food was incredible! I had a great time! Her friends were really great! Through Jess, they learned of my soccer skills and tried to recruit me for the kickball team. Supposedly they are #1 in the nation and travel all over for tournaments.

The next day we went into D.C. and walked around a bit. We walked past the White House and to George Town, which is the cutest city ever! And ended up eating in China Town. She also drove me to Alexandria, which is also a super cute city!

The main street in George Town

A super cute side street in George Town. It was a gorgeous time of year to visit because of all the leaves changing color!

An old street in downtown D.C. with the huge modern building behind. It's crazy when the old meets the new like that.

Me in front of the White House

The White House

China Town in D.C.

Coble stone street in Alexandria

One of the days, Jess had to be in class most of the day, so I took the subway into Washington D.C. to walk around the Mall and see all the historical stuff. I walked past the Washington Memorial all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial, stopping at the World War II and the Vietnam Memorial along the way.

The Washington Monument

Looking up the Washington Monument

Looking down the Mall towards the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Memorial.
(You can see the World War II Memorial in the foreground.)

The World War II Memorial

The side of the memorial dedicated to the Pacific. Below it was names of some of the largest battles...see below.

My Grandpa fought on Okinawa...

The Lincoln Memorial

Good old Lincoln

The reflecting Pool from the Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam Memorial. So simple...yet so moving.

Vietnam Memorial

I also made it into the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bills of Rights. It was very cool to see those old documents...but rather difficult to fully appreciate them as you were swarmed by other people trying to get a glimpse.

The Newseum...I couldn't resist LERA did the structural design for it.
Unfortunately I couldn't go in...it's not open yet.

A small sculpture I liked outside of the Art Museum.

I also walked up to the Capital, through the Botanical Gardens and to the Library of Congress. It really was a great afternoon. Oh, I also wandered through the Art Museum and quickly walked past the impressionist paintings they had (my favorites).

The U.S. Capitol

The Capitol again...

An orchid in the Botanical Gardens...I took this for you dad!

Outside the Botanical Garden there was this coolest little train track set up with bridges and all!
I thought it was super cool!

The Library of Congress

The ceiling of the Library of Congress...it was a beautiful building!

The rest of the weekend entailed of me and Jess just hanging out and relaxing. It was a perfect Thanksgiving and weekend get away!

Here are some other great pictures of D.C.

From the Capitol looking down the Mall.

Again looking down the Mall.

The Capitol at Dusk...the sky is beautiful! I had such amazing fall weather while I was there!

The Capitol at Night. Quite impressive I will say.

Washington Monument at Night

New Apt

Alright you all know about my fire and that I had to move again (well didn't have to...but definitely chose to). 2 fires in 3 years...not a good track record.

So one depressing day in my burnt apartment I sat down to begin the new apartment search. I began scanning the Craigslists adds for Brooklyn. As I kept added interesting apartments to my inbox, I came across one that had an open house scheduled for later that day. I looked at my watch and was like...alright I can walk there in a couple of hours.

So a few hours later I ended up in Park Slope to interview for this new apartment. I really didn't have any expectations at all because I was just beginning. Instead I was thinking of this as the "first step." I was also a bit nervous because I have never interviewed for an apartment before. Previously my good friend, Courtney, had always interviewed for me. (Which I will have to say is basically a guarantee that I get that apartment! Ha....Court is the best interviewee I know...I owe so much to her!)

Anyways, so I get the apartment tour and this place was AMAZING! It was in the upper floors of a brown stone. It is actually a duplex, so we have a lovely spiral staircase (which also makes moving VERY difficult). There was a backporch/balcony which led to access to a back yard! YES, greenery! And a TREE! How much better could it get...oh wait...but it does! The room my roommate was hoping for me to move in to had a fire places (yes a little ironic) and a skylight!!! The apartment also has a washer/drier and a dishwasher. So basically it was perfect!

Some how I passed the interview. I really don't think I was still in the right frame of mind yet then to really give a good interview (still being a little off balance by the fire situation). But two days later I got a call back and got an apartment!!

I moved in to the apartment in October. My bed barely made it up the spiral staircase. We had to kinda dismantle the handrail to the staircase to get it up...but hey, it's up there! Now I just hope I don't have to worry about getting it out for a long time! And by November I was starting to return to normal. I believe I remained anti-social for most of November. Not having your own place and crashing at friends (even though you might love them to death) just isn't the same as having your own space.

So anyways, here is what it looks like!!! Enjoy!

My amazing fire place and expose brick wall in my room...ah...I love it!!

My three huge windows looking to our back yard!

After move in...


And yes...you do see a "DANGER" sign in front of the fire place. We should all be away of the dangers of fires! =)
I'm still yet to use it...I need to purchase a fire extinguisher first!

Sailing...or at least attempting to.

I need to apologize...I promised to tell you all this story back in October. But anyways, here it finally is... my summer sailing story.

Every summer the employees at our firm get invited to Les and Saw-Teen’s lake house in Connecticut for the day. (Les is the engineer who started our firm—it is named after him, and his wife Saw-Teen is one of the principles, the one I actually work under). So one weekend in August, a big group of us (about 20+) headed up to Connecticut for a day on the lake.

It was a beautiful day, sunny but with a great breeze, perfect for sailing! After settling in on the dock Les and I began to rig his hobie cat to take out on the lake! I was really excited to go sailing because I hadn’t been since fall term at Stanford when I took dingy sailing classes. Last year I also took his hobie cat out, but there was hardly enough wind to really sail…so this year was looking like an exciting sailing opportunity! Ha…if only I knew what would happen.

After Les and I finished rigging the boat he was ready to send me out there with another coworker, but I talked him into coming out—since it was his boat and he did help me get it all ready. I wanted him to be able to be out on the lake as well. So with me in control of the rudder, the two of us headed out onto the lake.

We were doing great, sailing and heeling as we flew across the water. The wind was perfect—well a bit strong, but still great for sailing. Then it came time to head back to the dock and let someone else take a turn on the lake.

Now you have to understand that Les is an adventurer. So when we were deciding to head back to the dock, he convinced me it was a good idea to attempt to sail the boat up the ramp. Bare in mind, their dock is probably about 5 feet off the water and there is a long ramp that leads to the lake (which is how you get the boat in and out of the water). He also has told me many times that he has successfully sailed the hobie cat all the way up the ramp to the deck. So that was what he was convincing me to do as well.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I finally gave in to his persuasion. But the conversation went something like this.

Les: “Let’s sail the boat up the ramp!”

Me: “Are you serious? You really want me to try to sail this boat up the ramp???”

Les: “Yeah! Let’s go for it!”

Me: “Are you REALLY sure, do you want to take control of the tiller and attempt it?” Les: “No, No, you stay in charge, but let’s go for it!”

Me: “Are you REALLY sure…alright, ok…let’s give it a try.”

Keep in mind at this time everyone who was at the lake house that day was on the dock, just watching what we were doing. So when they noticed we were headed towards to ramp, I’m sure it was just a little frightening.

I was pretty good with my alignment, until the last little bit. I was so slightly skewed that instead of making it all the way up the ramp, I ended up halfway up and totally taking out one of the cross-braces on the ramp! Yeah, we came to a pretty quick stop!

WOW, is all that I can say. I was totally in shock and still couldn’t believe that I had attempted that docking. But it was done, and no damage was done, to either the boat or us (even though I was still shaking for about 30minutes afterwards).

Luckily Les, absolutely loved it! He was so excited afterwards, couldn’t have cared less about his cross-brace on the dock and was just full of smiles! His wife, Saw-Teen, also thought it was pretty hilarious! After getting off the boat, she came up to me laughing, to tell me that I had done very well in making their ramp truss into a vierendeel (yes, a structural engineering joke that was very perfect for the situation).

Don’t worry, the story doesn’t end there. After getting off the boat and being totally embarrassed in front of so many coworkers (at this time I had only been a full-time employee for a maybe 2 months) and also being freaked out that I could have just killed me and my boss, and not to mention just wreaked their dock and almost their boat! Les says to everyone “So who wants to go out next, Katie will take you.” I looked at him again and was like, “you’ve got to be kidding, are you sure you want me to take your boat out again.” And he said back “of course, why wouldn’t I”. So I was like, “alright…who’s up?”

And my brave coworker, Elizabeth rose to the challenge. Poor thing must have been so scared! I don’t think she had ever been on a hobie cat before, so her first time had to be right after witnessing my expert docking technique! But none the less, we headed back out to the water. Sailing around went smooth as ever, I don’t seem to have problems, with the sailing bit, just the docking.

However, since I was still freaked out and was not willing to attempt such another docking (for Elizabeth’s and my own sake). I opted for the totally opposite and very lame docking. So for those of you who haven’t sailed hobies much, they can be very difficult to tack. You lose a lot of wind and it is difficult to get the boat turned quickly. So instead most of the time I end up at a standstill for a moment or too before the boat can come clear round and catch the wind again.

So my grand idea for a less eventful, yet entirely lame docking was to come to a standstill up wind of the dock and just float to it. I figured once we got close enough to the dock, we could push ourselves around to the front and up the ramp. No harm done….well, not exactly, it was almost just as embarrassing, but not as exciting as the first docking.

There we were just content to sit there and wait for the boat to float to the ramp. While everyone on the dock was wondering what in the heck we were doing. Once we got close, I had to jump off the boat and make sure it didn’t ram the side of the dock and help push it to the front. Yes, very lame. But at least it was a lot safer than the first.

Ha…yes, most would think that that would be the last of my story. But no, it continues, there is a third time. Later that afternoon I took out another coworker, actually my mentor, Matt. Ha…this time getting into the water turned to be the problem.

As we were preparing to get onto the boat on the ramp, it ended up slipping down the dock just as I was stepping on. So I had one hand full of the lines, one foot on the boat as it shoots down the ramp, I fell backwards and was dragged into the water after the boat. Yeah, great huh? Matt didn’t even make it onto the boat and had to swim to it!

Luckily the third time is a charm. I made a good ramp docking and made it up (half-way onto the ramp) without hitting any of the trusses on either side. So I felt a little redemption.

But goodness, how much can I embarrass myself in front of half the firm? At least I can handle it. But still, I know I will never live it down—nor do I think I deserve to.

FIRE

Fire Fighters...you gotta love them!

Alright, I know that most of you have already read this (this is from the email I sent in Nov or something...) But I felt I should add it to the list of stories...because it definitely was quite a crazy couple of months back then.

So you all are probably wondering why I moved already. Because before I was living in Downtown Brooklyn and also loved that apartment and my roommates there. But unfortunately forces out of our control kinda convinced us all to move out. Basically there was a fire in our
apartment building. The fire didn't spread to our apartment, but we had fire damage and me and my roommates ended up being homeless for about 5 weeks. Luckily I have some amazing friends here in NY and was able to crash in an extra bedroom or on the couch. But it wasn't easy
being homeless and having to search for a new apartment.

Anyways, you're probably a bit intrigued to know more details about the fire....so here they are.

It all started on a Monday morning about 2 months ago now. Me and my roommate were woken up at 4:30am by the crazies on our street yelling "Fire, Fire" at us. There usually are crazy people yelling on our street, so at first I was just confused...but when it continued I looked out my window and saw that they were serious. So then I heard our door buzzer going off and the smoke alarm going off as well. My roommate and I ran out of our rooms (one of my roommates luckily wasn't there) and I went to answer the door buzzer. That weekend we had just got a new video door answering thing...so I picked it up and the guy outside just yelled into the phone "get everyone out." So yeah...that was pretty freaky. And on the video I could see people
running out the front door....

So me and my roommate look at each other and were like...Fire escape. So we ran into my room. I opened my window and we climbed over my air conditioner...under the window out onto the fire escape. Just to get out there...look over the edge and see orange smoke pouring up at us.
And then everyone on the street started yelling at us not to go down.

I was like...not go down...but this is the way we get out. I mean it is the FIRE ESCAPE! Honestly thinking back...standing on the fire escape was the scariest thing I have ever had to do. Going out there at all to escape is crazy enough. But being told not to go down...yeah, that wasn't so cool.

Anyways, so we both scramble back into my room...and run to our front door. The only path left for us to escape was the main staircase. Luckily I had seen people going out our front door. So I knew it wasn't blocked and it could be ok to go that way. So I felt the door knob with the back of my hand (yes, I'm very proud of myself for that...all those times I went into that smoke house things put on by the local firefighters during elementary school definitely paid off). It wasn't hot...so we opened the door and just sprinted down the stairs and out the front door. The staircase was filled with smoke and smoke was pouring out of the walls--yeah, freaky!

But we made it outside safely. As we just got outside the fire department arrived and started to get to work to putting out the fire. We were so impressed with how fast they got there...supposedly the guy who gives away papers next to the subway called them. After that
day...I definitely loved all the random people on our street! They basically saved our lives!

The fire ended up being in the flower shop below us. And conveniently it was right beneath the fire escape and next to the door. But the fire fighters pulled out their big chain saw and opening the grate covering the door and quickly put out the fire. We didn't really even see them use much water. After that they opened some of the shops next door to make sure it didn't spread. They also went into all of our apartments to probably check for people and help get the smoke out (which basically entails them punching holes in walls and breaking windows).

We were lucky though because for some reason they didn't have to break any of our windows...even though all the other apartment's windows were broken. So at about 8:30 or 9...we were allowed back into our apartment to change and take out anything we would need. Yes...for about 4 hours I was sitting on the street in my pjs...awesome. After we grabbed some stuff we waited to see when we could lock our apartment back up because we didn't want to be louted. And after we locked up me and my roommates went our separate ways.

You can see all the broken widows with plastic bags covering them...

I went up to Midtown to get apartment keys from my good friend Courtney...then went to her place to nap and shower. I totally smelled like smoke...it was pretty awful. My roommate even said that people moved away from him on the subway because he smelled so bad! Later that day I went into work to explain the whole ordeal. It was perfect timing...because we had a HUGE deadline later that week on the project i was working on...but you really can't plan for fires. Anyways, I only ended up working half days for the rest of the week before I flew home for one of my best friend, Danielle's wedding.

Here are the photos...

Our front door...conveniently located right next to the fire.

The Flower Shop...and oh yes, there is the fire escape (once again conveniently located right in front of the fire)