Park to Park . . . to Park . . . to Pain

I'm starting to really feel like a multisporter.

On Saturday, I swam the Park-to-Park two miler.  It's a swimming race in the Hudson River from 125th Street to 165th Street.  The two mile swim was my longest open water swim ever, and probably longer than  most of my swim workouts in the pool, so I was pretty nervous about it.  Fortunately, I was able to talk Peter into doing it with me, which definitely calmed me down before the race.

Since it was so warm, I was thinking that I'd be the only person wearing a wetsuit, but a good number of people were swimming in them.  The water was 68 degrees, which is right at the cutoff for eligibility to win awards while in a wetsuit.  But I am more concerned about the buoyancy that the wetsuit adds rather than any warmth that it creates, so I was definitely wearing mine.

It was a treading-water start, which I hate since your arms and legs get all tired before the swim even begins.  But once I jumped into the water I could feel the effects of the wetsuit and the salt water keeping me afloat--I didn't have to work that hard to tread water.  This definitely helped to calm my nerves a bit, as I tried to convince myself that the wetsuit, the salt water, and the tidal assist would make the swim easier than swimming in the pool.

When they sounded the start horn, I had positioned myself towards the back of the swimmers to avoid getting trampled.  What I didn't think about was positioning myself away from the big buoy that marked the start.  Instead, I ended up having to swim around it, getting swept by the current and crashing into it, getting entangled with the rope that anchored it to the bottom of the river, and getting trampled by the few swimmers behind me.  Ugh, not a great way to start!

After that minor hiccup at the beginning, though, the rest of the swim pretty much occurred without incident.  I had made sure to listen to the pre-race announcements, when the race director said there would be eight buoys on the course; we were supposed to swim out to the first one, turn right, and then pass seven more buoys to the end of the course.

From that starting stretch out to the first buoy, I felt calm and collected.  I was able to focus on my stroke, my rotation and my glide.  Determined not to veer off course, I was sighting about every three or four strokes.  Every time I sighted, that first buoy was noticeably getting closer and closer.  I felt that I was making good progress, and I soon reached that buoy and made a right turn.

After that, things got slightly more difficult.  I have not mastered bilateral breathing, especially in the open water.  I find it MUCH easier to breathe on my right side.  But the sun was on my right side.  And even though I just bought some nice tinted goggles to protect my eyes from the sun, it still felt like every time I breathed I was starting directly at it.  Also, the buoys seemed a lot further apart than that first one was.  I was having a little bit of difficulty swimming in a straight line.  And when I tried to make an adjustment to the direction I was swimming in, I think I overcompensated and got way off course in the other direction.

But I just stuck with it.  It wasn't about the time, but about just finishing the longest open water swim of my life.  It felt very tranquil, actually.  After about the second buoy, the field was pretty thinned out, so I just concentrated on my form and swam. Slowly, the buoys came and went, and eventually I made it to the end.  When I got out of the water, I felt exhilarated.  Peter and Tom Malcolm were there, along with Steve from TNYA, cheering me on.  I was so excited that I didn't even realize that I hadn't crossed the timing mat yet--Peter had to shout out to me to keep running, haha.

My finishing time was 56:23.  This was way faster than my stated goal of 1:12:00.  However, I guess there was a really substantial tidal assist this year, and I didn't quite make my other goal of being in the top 70%  (I was 123 out of 150 finishers, so 83rd percentile).  Oh well, I least I know I can swim two miles now.  The Avon Ocean Mile Swim on July 11th should be a breeze.

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On Sunday, I did the NYRR Father's Day Race Against Prostate Cancer 5-miler.  Not much to say here except that it was hot, humid and miserable.  The air had that feeling where you knew it was going to rain any second because it was so saturated with humidity, and you wished that it would just break and start pouring so that at least the rain would cool you down.  But instead, it stayed hot and gross through the whole race.

I didn't really have any expectations going into this race.  I'm obviously not training, and I'm still nursing this butt issue, so I just set out to do the best I could without feeling any pain or messing up my butt.  I was lined up with the same group of blue corral Front Runners I always line up with, which probably wasn't a good idea since they've all been doing workouts and running a lot more than me.

I knew pretty immediately that I had started out too fast and there was no way I could maintain it.  My first mile was 7:02, and it was pretty much all uphill from the West 69th Street start until 86th Street.  I haven't run a sub 7:00 anything since last year, and definitely wasn't going to do it today.  And honestly, I wanted the race to be over because there was no way I could see myself doing four additional miles feeling as bad as I did.

Mile two, from 87th Street to the 102nd Street transverse was 7:08.  I had slowed down, but still not as much as I thought I needed to, and really didn't think I could maintain this either.  After a half mile, a spectator shouted, "You're halfway there!"  This didn't help.  I didn't want to know that I just had to repeat those brutal 2.5 miles again.

Mile three: 7:20.  Ugh, didn't mean to slow down that much.  This wasn't even a hilly part of the race, I think I just lost focus.  For mile four, I try to regroup myself.  I became intent on breaking out of the group I had settled into, and see another runner in the distance who had been about 50 yards ahead of me the entire race.  So I ratcheted it up a bit, and set off to catch up to him.  I mile later, I made it, in 7:07.  One mile to go.

That last mile was tough.  But all I wanted to do was just get the race over with so I could stop running.  One by one, I pick people off, until I finally see the finish line.  I made a final push to the end, which I didn't realize I had in me.  Final mile was 6:48 for a total of 35:25 (7:05 pace).

I was actually very pleased with this time.  I am just not a very strong runner in the heat and humidity.  But I was able to run a strong second half of the race, and pass a bunch of people at the end.

Here's a picture taken by Ted Paszek, our team photographer.  I love it because I think it captures the one second during that whole race that I did not feel completely miserable and dying.  I'm even smiling.  Thanks, Ted!

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OK, I saved the bad news for last.  Yesterday, I went to see Dr. Degis about the MRI results.  He told me pretty much what I expected, that the MRI didn't show anything wrong with my hamstring at the ischial tuberosity (pelvic bone).  He also told me that the MRI went all the way from the hamstring's insertion point in the ischial tuberosity to the middle (or "belly") of the hamstring, and that there was no evidence of any kind of tear or anything.  Nor was there any edema anywhere (edema I guess is swelling caused by excess fluid, which would be present if there was some sort of tear).  So he gave me the following three options;

1.  Do nothing and live with my pain.  Not recommended, and not likely to either end the pain or make me a happier person.

2.  Go to a physiatrist, which is a specialist in non-operative pain management, and see if I can get some sort of injection in my problem area anyway.  He did give me the numbers of two doctors at HSS who are apparently the most respected physiatrists in their field, Dr. Gregory Lutz, and Dr. Joseph Feinberg.  (I guess a number of physiatrists are quacks who deal mostly with no-fault insurance patients).  He said, however, that insurance may not cover an injection since there was no evidence of anything wrong in my MRI.  Also, any injection would just mean that the doctor would blindly poke around and shoot me somewhere hoping it's the right area.  I'm not sure how I feel about a doctor putting sh-t into me not knowing if it's even the right place where it should go.  

3.  Doing the one thing that I haven't tried yet.  Wayyyyy back in November/December, I took about a month off from running.  It didn't help.  Then I did several months worth of "passive" physical therapy, which included lots of stretching and ultrasound.  That didn't help.  Then I saw Dr. Degis and started doing lots of intensive "active" exercises to strengthen my butt muscles so that there would be less strain on my hamstring while running.  That didn't help either.  But, through all this time, I haven't combined complete rest with active physical therapy.  After Boston, I drastically cut my running down to 12-15 miles a week.  But he thinks that's still too much.  I really need to cut it down to zero, and do intensive exercises with him twice a week.  He thinks I should try this out for three weeks, and see if there's any improvement.  Oh, here's the kicker: he recommends also that I refrain from biking during this time.  One thing he said, though, was that I could wait until after the Metroman Triathlon (July 18th) before I embarked on this no-running-heavy-PT treatment.  However, obviously, the longer I wait, the longer it'll take to heal.

So I'm not really sure what to do now.  I'm starting to realize and accept that I will need to stop running at some point, and it will likely be much more than just three weeks.  I have so many races planned for this summer and the fall, and I'm feeling like they may all slip away.  I was excited to do my first Half Ironman in October.  I'm captaining a Reach the Beach Ultra team in September.  I already signed up for Metroman and another Tri in Asbury Park on August 7.  And Derek and I were talking about getting some people to do a 100-mile relay in his home town of Lockport, NY.  And am I going to have to skip what would be my fifth year doing the ING New York City Marathon?

This Saturday is the Front Runners New York Lesbian and Gay Pride Run.  The five-mile race is FRNY's biggest event of the year, with over 3600 runners last year.  There's no way I'm going to miss that.  But come Sunday, I will have to reassess my running for the summer and fall.  I'm trying to realize that although it sucks in the short term to have to take time off, this will ultimately make be a better, stronger, healthier runner.

Christmas and Kalbi

OK, I may have jumped the gun a little bit with my last post.  Yes, Dr. Gallina, the foot and ankle specialist, said that, as far as my ankle was concerned, I could start running.  But judging from some issues I've had last week, as well as a follow-up visit to Dr. Babiy's office today, I'm starting to wonder if I was being overly optimistic.

To recap, Dr. Gallina said that I probably just have a little tendinitis in my ankle, and that I could start running as soon as I wanted.  To be extra safe, and to let my butt issue recover a little more, I decided to get an extra week of rest during the Christmas holiday, and to return to running this Wednesday at the fun run. 

For Christmas, I went out to my parents' house, in San Jose, California.  Since I bought my ticket at the last minute, I ended up getting this awful connection in Phoenix.  Well, flight one landed about 25 minutes before flight two was scheduled to take off, and they were at two different terminals.  So as soon as I got off the first plant, I booked it from Terminal A to Terminal B--not super far, but far enough.  Well, by the time I reached Terminal B, I could already feel the tendinitis in my ankle acting up.  Not a good sign. 

And, the five hours of flying seemed to inflame my butt issue as well.  By the end of the first flight, my whole right leg was in agony.  And I continued to feel my butt soreness throughout the rest of the week.  The worst part was driving between my parents' house and my brother's house in Burlingame, about 45 minutes away.  Several times I had to brake with my left foot because my right leg--from the butt all the way down to the knee--was in so much pain and needed to be stretched out.  It was difficult to accept that I still hurt so much even after taking almost all of December off from running...

Today's visit to Dr. Babiy's office didn't help matters.  Dr. Babiy is on vacation, so I met with her colleague, Dr. Craig Feuerman instead.  Dr. Feuerman pretty much said that the ankle and the butt issue could both take months to recover from, and that I shouldn't be running in the meantime.  He acknowledged that Dr. Gallina said I could run, but that was just with respect to my ankle, and even then I should not keep running if I felt pain.  He agreed that the ankle was probably just tendinitis, and stated that I should be icing it frequently.  As for the butt, he thinks it's either a pulled hamstring, or a herniated disk.  As I mentioned here, a herniated disk is a frequent cause of sciatic pain, which may be the type of pain that I am experiencing.

I mentioned to him that Dr. Babiy performed an EMG, which showed no sciatic issue (and thus no herniated disk).  He noted that a negative EMG would not necessarily rule out a sciatic issue.  This is because an EMG is a "physiological" test--which shows whether I have symptoms of sciatica.  He contrasted this with an MRI, which he said was an "anatomical" test--which shows whether I actually have a herniated disk or not.  He said if I wanted to, I could get an MRI of my spine now to determine if I had a herniated disk.  Otherwise, I could wait a month or so to see of the pain subsided, and get an MRI in case it didn't then.  I of course opted to have one now because I am obsessive compulsive like that.  He also asked me if I wanted an oral steroid to help the inflammation go away.  I decided that sounded too scary and that I should pass.  Instead, I'll continue to take super doses of ibuprofen.  In the meantime, I continuing with physical therapy on both my butt and my ankle.

This whole process has made me feel really fortunate that I have health insurance.  I'm also glad I've found some doctors who are willing to perform tests to get to the bottom of what I have.  But still, it doesn't quite make up for the fact that I'm not able to run as much as I want to.

Speaking of running, so Dr. Feuerman told me not to run.  I guess this is against his orders, then, but I'm still planning on going to the fun run tomorrow.  I will take it very, very easy.  If I feel good, then I'll know that I can slowly but surely get better.  If I don't, then I'll know for sure that I just need more rest.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

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I did a lot of eating when I went home for Christmas!  One of the more memorable meals was at the Palace BBQ Buffet in Sunnyvale, CA.  It was an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place.  For $12.99 per person at lunch, you get free reign over their raw meat bar, which includes kalbi (marinated beef short ribs sliced across the bone), lamb, chicken and pork, pig tongue, chicken gizzards, beef tripe, baby octopus, and and all sorts of other fun stuff.  And of course, there were all sorts of AYCE banchan too.  Yummmmm....

Here's a pic of one of the many plates of raw meat we got.  And a pic of my parents enjoying the BBQ'd goodness.

My brother and his wife had us over for Christmas dinner this year.  The picture below is just a tiny snippet of everything that they made.  Four salads: Japanese seaweed, mung bean sprouts, cucumber, and green papaya.  A fish ball and cucumber soup.  Sticky rice with Chinese sausage.  Green beans with pork.  Oysters two ways (raw, and steamed with black bean sauce).  And a few steamed dungeness crabs.  Oh, and a prime rib roast.  All very tasty.

"You should start running..."

Saw the foot and ankle specialist today, Dr. Jessica Gallina, and her words were music to my ears.  She looked at the MRI, which had shown a tear in my posterior tibial tendon, and did a clinical exam on my left ankle.  Because I was able to stand on my tiptoes and rotate my foot in and out with no pain, she concluded that I just had some tendonitis.  What showed up as a tear on the MRI was microscopic and could have been just some inflammation, or even an MRI "artifact" (which I think is like the equivalent of a fingerprint on the lens).  She did say, however, that the posterior tibial tendon is very important, as it holds the arch up in place, and that a tear or rupture would have been REALLY bad, possibly ending my running.  But since I have no problems with my arch, it's not really a concern.  I'm very glad.

Dr. Gallina also said that if I wanted, I could get some physical therapy on the ankle, or take some anti-inflammatories.  However, as far as she was concerned, I could start running, a little bit at first, and just build my way back up.  She told me to continue to be sure I wore my custom orthodics, as they will support the arch and therefore relieve stress on my posterior tibial tendon.  If, the pain persists, I'll go back to her and try out some other courses of treatment.  One idea she had was platelet rich plasma therapy (PRP)--a process where a small amount of my blood is drawn, and the growth-promoting platelets are collected and injected into the tendon in order to help with regeneration.  It sounds serious and high-tech, but she said she had the tools to do it right in her office.

In the end, I guess Dr. Gallina's diagnosis is the same as what Dr. Metzl said to me almost two months ago, that the ankle issue is not a big deal.  However, I feel much more comfortable with Dr. Gallina's diagnosis since she had the benefit of an MRI, and really took the time to examine and explain my condition.

These past few days and weeks have been really tough.  Online information about tears in the posterior tibial tendon seemed bleak.  Not being able to go to the Wednesday night fun runs left a gaping hole in my weekly routine.  And I gained about 10 pounds since the Chicago Marathon in October.  But I'm glad I've gotten such great support from my friends and I was happy to rediscover yoga.  Just to be safe, I'm going to wait another week or so, until after Christmas, to start running again. Although I still have some trouble sitting for long periods, my butt issue is getting better and hopefully by then I will be just about healed.  Until then, I'm really happy about the news today, and I'm getting excited to get back in my running shoes!

Foam rolling, running pants and dumplings

After Thanksgiving, I was eager to begin running again.  The Front Runners indoor track season started the week before Thanksgiving, and I was just starting to get into it.  Front Runners meets on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings at the Armory Track, a 200 meter indoor track in Washington Heights

Tuesday's workout was 6 x 800 meters, with 400 meters of jogging after each set.  Koach Kelsey divides the group into three or four smaller groups, roughly based on speed.  Although last year I generally ran in the "fast" group, I've been self-selecting the second group this year so as not to get sucked into the fast people's vortex and overstress my butt and ankle.  Plus, I think the fast group this year is quite a bit faster than the fast group last year (and I'm slower, haha). 

My first four 800s went pretty well.  I was wearing my brand-new racing flats that I had just bought earlier that day (the Brooks Racer ST 4).  It was my first time ever running in racing flats and my feet felt so light.  Peter and Stephan were in my group and we took the front of the group, taking turns at who among us would be in the lead.  First four sets: 3:14, 3:09, 3:09, 3:06.  On the third lap of the fifth set, I began to feel my left ankle acting up.  I let up a little bit on my last lap, finishing in 3:09.  As I started my recovery jog, I realized that I was limping.  After one loop, when the pain in my ankle didn't let up, I decided to call it a day.

I didn't really think much of it.  Having completed five of the six sets, I felt I had a pretty decent workout.  But as I sat and watched the rest of the group do their last set, I couldn't help but feel a bit left out.  It turned out, Peter and Stephan were probably holding back for the first five sets, and flew through their last set at around 2:50.  It looked so fun to be running that fast, and I really wished that I could have joined them.

I know it was a good idea, no matter how difficult, to sit out that last set.  The next night, I went to the Wednesday night fun run.  Two miles in, I got the pain in my ankle again.  I ended up just jogging/walking around the top of the reservoir--another disappointing four miles.  It's starting to get discouraging.

And because I was unwilling to admit defeat, I went to the Armory workout on Thursday too.  I actually did not feel any serious ankle or butt pain at all.  Then again, the workout was really short, and I was not running nearly as fast as I would have liked considering the distance--12 x 200.  My 39-41 second splits were fine, but I knew I could go quite a bit faster.  I started to wonder whether I needed to take some more time off.

I had scheduled an appointment on Friday morning to meet with a new sports medicine doctor.  I liked Dr. Metzl, but I just wanted someone else to take a look at me and tell me if anything was wrong.  I pretty much picked a new doctor at random, typing in "sports medicine new york 10011" into Google.  The first result was walking distance to my apartment, took my insurance, and could fit me in within a few days.  So I booked a date with Dr. Marina Babiy.

First off, Dr. Babiy spent at least 20-25 minutes analyzing me, compared with about five minutes for Dr. Metzl.  She she asked me 20 different questions about the pain I was experiencing, made me walk in front of her, tested my reflexes, had me press my leg against her hand in different directions in order to pinpoint the pain, and observed my back to see if the butt issue was linked to my spine (since the sciatic nerve going down the leg originates in the spine).  Dr. Metzl didn't do any of this.

At the end of the exam, she told me that although the pins and needles sensation that I felt could be indicative of sciatica, it was more likely that I had a muscle or tendon strain in my butt.  She scheduled me for an electromyogram (EMG) to rule out the sciatica.  Regarding the ankle, she said she did not see any major inflammation, so that it was probably a sprain as opposed to a stress fracture.  I didn't tell her that I had seen Dr. Metzl a few weeks earilier and he didn't see anything bone-related or serious.  Nonetheless, she ordered x-rays on my ankle.  She said that based on the EMG and x-rays, she will determine if more imaging is necessary.

In the meantime, she prescribed 800mg of ibuprofen twice a day, physical therapy, and lots of icing.  She also said no running for two weeks, at the end of which we will reassess the situation.  I am bummed, but two weeks is not that long, and it's somewhat comforting to know that additional testing will be done.

The convenient thing about Dr. Babiy's office is that not only is it close to my house, but she also has a number of physical therapists on staff.  So I was able to go to physical therapy right after my doctor's appointment (and I only paid one copayment!).  The PT that I saw, Steven, taught me some stretches for my butt and had me use a foam roller.  He was surprised to hear that I don't own a foam roller, nor have I ever really used one.  I have to say, after trying it in physical therapy, I wondered how I could possibly have gone for so long without it.  It felt so good...like it was simultaneously soothing and intensifying my pain at the same time...  I had to buy my own the very next day at Jackrabbit.

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A few weeks ago was John's MacConnell's birthday, so I had him and a small group of runners over for dumplings.  By the way, John's working of a new website, http://www.runningpantsinc.com/.  It's still a work in progress, but right now he's using it to show off his new running pants man / lightning bolt character.  Here he is:

The website also has an ever-changing running haiku of the day, and you can submit your own running haiku.  You can also request a running pants man temporary tattoo.  And my favorite part of the site is the area where readers post pictures of their body parts adorned with the running pants man tattoo.  Can you guess which body part is mine?

For John's birthday, I made chive-and-pork, and napa-cabbage-and-pork dumplings.  Both fillings also included shitake mushrooms, ginger, scallion, little dried shrimps, soy sauce, sesame oil and Franzia.  Here are the fillings:

I always have a good time stuffing dumplings with friends.  I think it's more fun to have a dinner party where everyone is helping out, rather than having one person stuck in the kitchen the whole time.  The dumplings below were made by me and John.  He made the fancy crimped ones in the midde, and mine were the pleated ones on the sides.  They tasted even better than they looked.  :-)

I am thankful for not rolling off the mountain

Around the Thanksgiving holiday, I decided to take some time off of running.  My butt and ankle were not getting any better, and I thought since I was going to be home for the holiday, it would be the perfect time to get some rest.  So I did not run for 11 days (November 20-30). 

The way I had scheduled things, I almost didn't really have an opportunity to miss running.  Saturday, November 21, I didn't go to the fun run.  Instead, I had registered to volunteer that day as part of my 9+1 volunteer race to qualify for next year's NYC Marathon.  When I signed up for a volunteer race, there weren't many more options available.  One of the few races with volunteer spots left was the Knickerbocker 60k--an 37.2 mile ultramarathon that includes 9 grueling loops around Central Park--so I signed up for it.  I was actually excited about volunteering at the Knickerbocker, despite my 5-hour long volunteer shift.  Six Front Runners ended up running the race, and armed with my cowbell, I got to cheer them on as they came round and round.  It was a small race by NYRR standards--only 187 total runners.  By the end of my volunteer shift, I recognized all of the runners, and felt like I could tell how each one was doing.  One of runners, a member of the Running Club Powered by Dim Sum, recognized me from the Asbury Park Relay Marathon.  The NYC running world is so small, haha.

[As I wrote this entry, I decided to see if I could figure out who this guy was.  After some brief results list cross referencing and a Google search, I found out that he is Hideki Kinoshita, and he set out to run 14 marathons in 13 weeks to raise money for pancreatic cancer.  You can donate to his cause, which benefits the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, here.]

The next day was the Race to Deliver.  I had signed up for it, but decided not to run it because of my injuries.  It's too bad, since for a while, that race held my 4-miler PR (6:22 pace in 2007, which I beat in 2008 with a 6:17.  Hopefully one day before I die, I will break 6:15...).  Also, the race is germane to this blog (about running and food), since the money that's raised through running goes to benefit God's Love We Deliver, which prepares and delivers healthy meals to those who, because of HIV/AIDS and other illnesses, are unable to provide or prepare it themselves.

And on Tuesday, when I normally would have done the speed workout at the Armory, I instead flew to California to spend Thanksgiving with my parents in San Jose.  Although I didn't run during the time I was home, I did do the bike ride that I mentioned in an earlier post with my brother Tony.  To remind you, the ride was an 18.4 mile ride and 4300 foot climb of Mt. Hamilton Thanksgiving morning.  It was brutal.  I literally thought I was going to die.  I can't even explain how difficult it was.

My brother and I got there a few minutes after the bike ride officially begin.  As a result, we did not get to register, and our times weren't listed in the official results.  I think this was a good thing.  My time would have put me in last place, and by a pretty wide margin.  Actually, my brother would have been last, but more on that later.  Suffice it to say that I've run 18.4 miles faster than it took me to bike it.

Riding up Mt. Hamilton requires going up three separate hills, between 4-6 miles each, with a 4.7%-6% grade.  The last hill, at 6 miles and 6%, is both the longest and the steepest.  I was able to go up the first hill without much of a problem.  I wasn't really keeping track of my time or pace or anything, but I knew it took a long time.  When I got past the first hill, I took a little bit of a break.  Somehow my brother and I got separated at the beginning of the ride.  After a few minutes, he didn't show up.  I probably should have waited longer, but I figured I'd be slowing down soon, and he would catch up. 

The second hill was shorter and not as steep as the first, so it should have been easier.  But by this time, my legs were really feeling the weight of the constant pedaling, and I was already exhausted.  I had to pull over a couple of times on the ride in order to stretch my legs out and rest.  By the way, this wasn't like biking down the Westside Highway.  There are no water fountains, no shops to run into, or porta potties available.  I had brought plenty of water, but was wishing I had brought more along to eat than my single Clif Bar.  I felt like I was going to be completely zapped of any energy in a matter of moments.  I broke off a piece of my Clif Bar and pushed on.

By the third hill, I just had nothing else to give.  The six-mile, 2300 foot rise might has well have been a million miles.  I seriously could have walked faster than I biked.  And about once every mile, I had to stop and catch my breath and stretch my legs for a minute.  By the way, going reeeealllly slowly up a steeeeep hill with clipless pedals is kind of scary.  I started having thoughts that I would start rolling backwards and be unable to clip out of my pedals, flying off the cliff into a ravine. 

Eventually I saw Lick Observatory, which marked the summit.  It was one of this times when you see something huge off in the distance and go and go and go and go but feel like you're never getting any closer.  But about three hours after I started, I finally reached the top.  It was a great sight.  Mt. Hamilton is the tallest mountain overlooking Silicon Valley, and I when was up there, I felt like I had conquered the impossible.

Tony arrived at the top about 10 minutes after me.  The reason he took so long?  I was riding his road bike, and he ended up taking a mountain bike.  Oh, and he had his three-year-old son strapped into a seat on the back.  Showoff.

I felt bad for going so far ahead of him, but I think in the end it worked out for the best.  He said he wanted to turn back after the second hill, and tried calling me to let me know.  Unfortunately, he couldn't get any cell phone signal, so he just kept riding.  Had I been with him, I would have all too gladly agreed to turn around.  But because I kept going, I got rewarded with a great feeling of accomplishment and a magnificent view to boot.

Here are some pictures of Thanksgiving dinner later that day.  Thanksgiving at my house is a combination of Chinese and American foods.  My favorite dish is the stuffing, which my mom makes out of sticky rice.  She adds Chinese sausage, dried shitake mushroom, dried shrimps, and some veggies.  It's so sticky and carby and savory and delicious, I love it.  Among with a bunch of other dishes, Mom also made a sea cucumber and scallop dish, a bean noodle and cucumber salad, and a ginger steamed shrimp, all pictured below.