Christkindlmarket, Tampa, Christmas

Damn, haven't posted in a long time!  I'm going to riffle through some updates (with pictures) quick...

Story #1 - Christkindlmarket

        Pictured below you'll see a German Christmas Market in downtown Chicago that I decided to walk through after my last final on December 12.  I had heard about this place, and being the good German that I am, couldn't resist the urge to go find some kick ass German beer.  My hopes of finding a tasty German brew were dashed when I realized all they served was Spaten.  I decided at that point that I had made the trip down, so I may as well enjoy an Optimator (which isn't horrible).  The lady poured my $7 beer, took my money (along with a piece of soul- $7 for a Spaten?!), and I threw a dollar in her tip jar.  The lady started ringing this cowbell, ecstatic that I had put a dollar in her tip jar.  Apparently, a small child had observed this lady going nuts over $1, and ran up with a dollar her mother had given her to put in the jar so the child could observe this outrageous display of dancing, hooting and hollering by the German beer woman.  In the midst of putting my change back into my wallet, I didn't notice the child standing right next to me.  I grabbed my beer to start walking, turned, and stopped dead to avoid running over this child, spilling approximately 1/4 of my beer all over this child's head (she had her hood up thank goodness!).  

"HEY!!!!!"  I heard the mother, and turned to see this stout woman waddling towards the beer stand with a look of fury in her eyes.  "YOU SPILLED BEER ALL OVER MY DAUGHTER!!"  

Shiiiiitttt....

"Listen, I'm really sorrry.  It was an accident, I was just trying to not run your daughter ov..."

"SHE'S ALL COVERED IN BEER!!!"

Damn, this lady was making a scene.  In the meantime, one of Santa's Helpers (security guard) came over to see what was going on.

"THIS MAN SPILLED BEER ALL OVER MY DAUGHTER!!!! BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH"

I said "listen, I'm really sorry, it was an accident.  If it's going to be this big of an issue, I'll just go."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea," the security man said.

I was shocked.  I had just paid $7 for a beer I hadn't even taken a sip of before being attacked by mama pig.  I put my beer down and left.  

Lessons learned:  First and foremost, don't pay $7 for a Spaten Optimator.  Second, pay attention to small children.  Lastly, if this ever happens again, I will pound my beer before I leave.

*Side note:  If you are ever in Chicago for Christmas, this is a VERY cool place to walk through!

Story #2 - Tampa

I had the pleasure of flying down to Tampa to visit my best friends, Reese and Trent.  I have to say, three days on the beach and in the sun couldn't have come at a better time.  We had perfect weather.  High was about 80 each day and rarely saw a cloud in the sky.  We pretty much just sat on the beach all day, drank Corona and Red Stripe, swam, and played volleyball.  At night we would go out and enjoy a few drinks.  We also became fixed to a show on Animal Planet called "Call of the Wildman."  My trip to Tampa made me realize that the friendships I have with these guys are unbreakable.  It will never matter how far apart we are or how long we go without seeing one another.  I feel so lucky to have friends like that, truly invaluable.  I can't wait until the next time we get together!

Siesta Key Beach - Rated #1 beach in the country

Story #3 - Christmas in Verona

I arrived home on the 19th, and should be hanging around until about the 29th.  This will be the longest period of time I've been home since . . . I don't even know when.  It has been really nice to be home and see my mother, father, and especially my sister.  The amount of times we are all together has grown slim over the last few years, and I have learned to cherish this time rather than avoid it.  Maybe it's part of growing up, maybe it's me missing home, but from what I know now, it's great that we're all here (happy and healthy) for Christmas.  Below is my Mom.  Looks like she's reading right?  Nope, sound asleep!  We've been eating, sleeping and playing games since I got home.  I've managed to get a couple good runs in on the trail and am looking forward to continuing the schedule we've had so far!  Hope you all travel safe, find happiness and joy during the holidays.

My best wishes to you and your families!  Happy Christmas Eve!

Cheers, love,
Adam

Everything that Shines Ain't Always Gonna Be Gold

Last night I had the pleasure of heading to a beer tasting with five of my closest friends from school.  It was really nice to get out with a group of guys and have a good time, a few drinks, and put school on the back-burner for one night.  It's not often that we all get the opportunity to hang out, mostly because we all live in different places and finding a location and time that is convenient for all is often near impossible.

Big Ten Beer Tasting was the name of the event, and it all happened at the oldest Irish pub in Lincoln Park, a place called the Hidden Shamrock.  At the event, there was about 10 different stands (each from a "Big Ten" city/state) that each had a few beers to try, and I found one that I especially liked.  Half Acres Brewery was well represented with six different beers, my favorite of which was called Chub Step (Porter).  It had a great full body flavor, just a hint of coffee flavor (I'm not much for full-fledged coffee stouts).

At the end of the event there was a raffle, and Bro won a matching set of pint glasses.  Pretty stoked about that pick up.  I think fun was had by all, and hopefully it's something that we can all do again in the near future.

Last night got me thinking about something else that has been on my mind lately too.  It mostly has to do with happiness...

I've discovered that I perform better in school when I'm happy with things outside of school.  Sometimes it's not always easy to see the good in things, it's not easy to do what's best, it's not easy to let go and move on from the past.  Life is a long blackboard that you continually get to keep writing on and creating your story.  So even though what's written behind you is permanent, what goes down in front of you is entirely your choice.

I've made a commitment to myself moving forward onto subsequent semesters.  That is, a list of "goals" that I'm going to focus on.  The list looks something like this, not in any specific order...

Cooking: I want to cook much more than I do now.  I really enjoy cooking, but it sometimes becomes hard with school, commuting and trying to get a workout in.  My goal is to find easy, fast, one pan/pot recipes that I can rely on during stressful times.  If you have any recipes like this, send them my way!!

Workout:  Run at least 30 miles/week through winter.  I also want to do yoga at least once per week and also swim at least 5 miles per week.  I'm committing myself to running a marathon next year at some point, whether that be Chicago or the Twin Cities, or even Madison in the spring.  My goal for my first marathon is a Boston-qualifying time (sub 3:10).  I'm setting my sights on Ironman Wisconsin 2013 if I can talk my buddy T-pain into it... I'll work on that :)  No goal yet for IM WI, I'll hash that out as it gets closer...

Reading: I want to have a leisure reading book going at all times.  The first one on my list, Born to Run which I will start when I leave for Florida.

Church:  I just joined a church in Chicago, and am actually going to brew beer with the pastor tomorrow!  I want to commit to going every week and see where it takes me.  I don't want to be an "in your face" person about religion, so don't expect to hear much more on this front :)

Volunteering:  After the new year, I would like to find an animal shelter or at risk youth program to volunteer at once per week.  I've been so damn fortunate with my life, I think the least I can do is give a few hours per week back for a good cause.

Traveling:  Each year, I am going to go somewhere I've never been before.  This year's goal:  Portland/Seattle/British Columbia.

Relationships:  I need to do a better job nurturing the friendships that I've built both in Chicago and from the past.  I'm going to call my friends once per month at least to catch up and see how they're doing.

I'm sure the list will grow, I'll keep adding to this for sure.  I'm pretty excited for this year's Best Of List, which will be coming out in just a couple weeks!  Got some cool new stuff I found from the last 4 months in Chicago.  On that note...

Cheers!

City Wisdom #4

Even without visual confirmation, you'll know when you get on an L train car that contains or recently contained (within 30 minutes) a homeless person.

City Wisdom #3

Chicagoans, on the whole, are very friendly people.  Just don't ask us for money on the street.

Berbee Derby 10k Race Report

Every Thanksgiving Day in Fitchburg, a race called the Berbee Derby takes place.  This was the first year that we decided to do this race as a family.  My mother and sister ran/walked the 5k and I ran the 10k.  I have to say, it was a pleasant change from the usual "sleep in, engorge ourselves with food while watching football and drinking at 10 AM" schedule.  While the forecast had called for sunny and 55 the night before, what we awoke to was a very different story.  Windy as hell, 35 degrees and overcast.

We arrived at the event about an hour early to score a prime parking spot, but we also realized at this point that there was no place to seek shelter from the cold (besides a tent which was not much better than being outside).  Being that this race is on Thanksgiving, it would have been nice for the race coordinators to organize having the nearby building open for people to stand in while they waited for the race in the event of extremely cold weather/wind.

All that aside, once we started warming up it was a non-issue.  I had my goal set to break 37 minutes, as I had run 38:03 through 10k when I did my 15k a few weeks back.  The course was sort of an "out-and-back" where we would have the wind to our back on the way out, and into our face on the way home.  I wasn't sure if it would be better to try and make up some time on the way out and try and survive on the way back, or hold back a little on the way out and really grind it out on the way home.  I figured I'd just run hard for as long as I could and see where it got me.

I decided to start just off the front, so I wouldn't be tempted to go with the lead guys as I knew a lot of them from high school and knew they would be running significantly faster than me.  One of these days maybe I'll be able to control the adrenaline of the race better than I do now...

...The gun went off and I went out at what I thought, was an easy comfortable pace to start.  I saw the mile 1 clock and I think my jaw dropped.  5:20, 5:21, 5:22... I crossed the actual mile mark at about 5:37.  Shit.  Well, I told myself I may as well try and hold it for as long as possible and build up some time chunks that I could rely on later in the race when I slowed down.  Here's how it went:

Mile 1: 5:37

Mile 2: 11:20 (5:40/mile pace)

Mile 3: 17:00 (5:40/mile pace)

*It should be noted that we turned back into the wind at mile 3

Mile 4: 23:20 (5:50/mile pace)

Mile 5: 29:20 (5:51/mile pace)

Mile 6: 36:00 (6:00/mile pace)

10k Final time: 37:13 (6:00/mile pace)

Age Group Result: 12th / 79

Overall Male Result: 29th/ 997

Overall Result: 30th / 1891

1st place male ran a blazing 33:17 (5:22/mile pace) and the first place female (who I actually ran with until about mile 5) ran an incredible 36:29 (5:53/mile pace). 

As you can see, after about mile 5, I hit the wall pretty hard.  I went from running 6 and sub-6 minute miles to running the last mile in 7:40 (which I'm not sure that I slowed down quite that much, I think some of the mile markers were a little bit unevenly spaced).  However, much of the last mile was uphill, into the wind, which was killer.  This course was much hillier than the 15k course I ran in Chicago, which is to be expected because Chicago is so darn flat.   I was initially disappointed with my age group result until I realized that my age group took up 12 of the top 30 overall spots, 5 of which were in the top 6.  I suppose I can't be too upset because I still don't consider myself to be "in shape" or "trained" for these events as of yet.  Maybe next year!  I was more disappointed to miss my sub-37 minute goal, but will definitely relish in the experience of doing something positive and productive on Thanksgiving.  I was also very happy that my mother and sister had a great experience as well.  We will definitely be doing this race again next year!  I will post pictures soon :)

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Cheers

City Wisdom #2

The bigger they are, the harder they hit.  Right of way is apparently determined by size here in Chicago.  That guy won't be stepping off the curb without looking again!

City Wisdom, Chicago's Life Lessons #1

I'm starting a new segment on my blog that will maybe help me post a little more frequently.  I'm calling it "City Wisdom- Chicago's Life Lessons."  Anytime I have what I consider to be a novel thought or lesson learned, I'll just post it.  These will mostly be short blips of the things I'm learning outside of school.  So without further distraction, let's do this...

Lesson #1
The qualities I look for in a woman include honesty, independence, strongly goal-oriented, physical attractiveness, and most importantly, a family with season Packer tickets.

Hot Chocolate 15k- Chicago's Sweetest Race

Today  I had the pleasure of racing in my first ever true running race since my days of freshman high school track.  The day brought absolute PERFECT conditions!  The temperature when the gun went off was just below 50 degrees and the winds were light and variable.

Now I must confess,  I was not "trained" for this race.  I've been schooling pretty hard as of late, and would estimate in the last month that I have run a total of 50-60 miles.  I ran 10 miles once about 2 weeks ago.  Most the of runs I have gone on have been shorter, faster, "build my speed" kinds of runs.  With that in mind, I set my goal to run 15k in under one hour (6:20/mile pace).

I was fortunate to be placed in the "A" corral, which was in the front of the pack.  The gun went off and the elite took off like bats out of hell.  It's incredible how fast some of those runners are, men and women alike!  The first place male finished in a blazing time of 48:11, and the first female finished in 53:11 (14th overall!).

My strategy was to start out slow, maybe go out on 6:30's or something right around there and then build my tempo through the race.  This strategy is quite contrary to my splits posted below :)

The gun went off and I felt surprisingly good for having just been standing in place for 15 minutes (they loaded us in the starting chute really early).  Luckily for me, there were clocks at every mile marker, which allowed me to confirm my pace with my own watch.  I reached mile one, look at the clock which read 5:50.  My watch said the same thing.  WAY too fast.  Well, I felt good so I just went with it.

5k rolled around at 18:34, I had slowed slightly from my first mile, but was still averaging 5:58 pace.  It was unfortunate that I fell into a gap between two groups.  The one in front of me was running just slightly faster than I was comfortable pushing, so I did most of the work through the first 10k on my own.  I rolled through 10k at 38:03, slowing my pace a bit more from the first 5k, I was averaging 6:07/mile through 6.2 miles.  At this point I started hurting pretty bad.  My legs started feeling heavy and I was cramping a bit in my lower back and abs.  I ran with several different guys for brief periods, but they eventually picked up the pace and left me in the dust.

Running up the finishing chute, my watch was approaching 58 minutes, and my final time ended up being 58:01 (6:14/mile).  I was pretty happy with my effort, finishing well under an hour and running quite a bit faster than I thought I was capable of at this point and with that amount of previous running.  My placing was as follows:

Age Group (20-24): 8th / 340
Overall: 57th / 13,430

Overall, I felt this was an awesome race.  It was very well organized, the volunteers and Chicago Police did an outstanding job catering to the athletes every needs.  I always feel so grateful for the people behind the scenes who make events like this happen- truly amazing!

Post-race I met up with a friend from school, Dave, and his fiance Meredith.  Both of them also ran the 15k and had excellent races as well!  We enjoyed the Ghirardelli Chocolate fondu and hot chocolate tent where we were spoiled with all kinds of chocolate goodies.  Will definitely be racing in this event again next year, and would highly recommend it for anyone looking to run/walk a 15k or 5k in November!

I'm off to Madison to spend some quality time with my mother and father, and may even try and stir up some trouble with running extraordinaire, Travis "T-pain" Pernsteiner.  It should be noted that "T-pain" is not a facetious nickname, but "T-pain" is derived from the fact that when we run together he put the "pain" on me.  Time to catch a train!

Cheers

Faith

      I had a revelation yesterday.  Before I impart this outstanding bit of inspiration with you,  I'll give you a little lead-in to where I'm coming from...

As a scientist in training, I am constantly hounded by tangibles.  In layman's terms, "if it ain't there, it don't exist."  You see, our brains are programmed to look for things that aren't necessarily there.  We also have the incredible ability to "fill in" missing information.  Take the illusion below as an example.  I can assure you that there are no lines to establish the center triangle outlined by the black "Pac-man like" circles (blow it up and look closer if you don't believe me).  We see lines however (if you don't, you should go see your doctor).  See, our brian inserts them to make something familiar, something we recognize, something we can make sense of.  It's a neat neuronal programming that Darwin (natural selection) gave us, and is very useful in many different circumstances.

Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/justdreamingaway/sets/72157616220258313/detail/

This program however, is not always useful in science.  In fact, as I mentioned earlier, scientists in training are taught to avoid "looking for" or "seeing" what isn't there.  It leads to false results, bad experiments and potentially a ruined career.  History does not soon forget epic failure :)

So what is my point?  My point is that I have trouble with faith.  I've never been a "religious" guy, never been one to really believe in anything I couldn't see, experience, or prove.  I don't believe in ghosts, and I'm still not really sure about the whole God thing.  Yet this concept of faith has been put into a new context lately, and I am rapidly starting to realize the importance of believing in what we can't see.  So I am encouraging myself to begin building this foundation of faith- and I am starting by reading a daily book that my uncle gave to me for my high school graduation called "Your Best Life Now" by Joel Osteen. Don't get me wrong, I think this Joel Osteen guy is an evangelical nutcracker, but the guy has some good points in his book.  

The message today was to keep focused on a goal we set out to do.  So often when we set out to do something, we are all pumped up and ready to attack our goal.  But in the long term, we become lackadaisical and complacent.  We lose our drive and our sight of the bigger picture.  It is important to realize that to become better, we need to push past the walls in front of us to reach the ultimate goal.

I hope you work on faith in your life.  Whether it be your faith with God, with your relationships, or with yourself, it is an important virtue.  Try one thing this week to build or strengthen your faith; I guarantee you'll feel better about yourself when you do!

Cheers

Stupidity

      Today I had a very humbling feeling.  I felt completely stupid.  What's more than that, I got to experience this feeling in front of all (well, most of) my peers in my program.  The Loyola Graduate program has a wonderful class called journal club, which my program schedules once every two weeks.  At each meeting, one student volunteers to present a paper to the program.  Today was my day.
With the chosen topic of translational research (research that directly translates into treatment, better known in the science world as "benchtop to bedside"), I chose a paper about Alzheimer's Disease.  I made the error of only reading the abstract and introduction of the paper before submitting it to the advisor for approval.
      Fast forward one week.  In the last three days I spent 15 hours reading and taking notes on this paper.  This is aside from all the other studying and classwork I have to do on a daily basis.  One would imagine after 15 hours of reading an 11 page paper that I would be well prepared.  I would assume the same thing.  The fact is, I wasn't prepared.  I wasn't clear on the material I had read, I wasn't sure how to present something I knew nothing about to people who knew a lot about it.  Bottom line is I felt that I embarrassed myself.  I was angry, demoralized, upset...pissed off.  Running on about 4 hours of sleep inflamed the emotions.  An exam on Monday churned my stomach at the thought of now having to go study and focus on the next task.  And then, I remembered something.
      I remembered that this was what I wanted.  I remembered that even in failure, I was still living my dream.  I remembered that there were kids, lots of kids, who would've given anything, who WOULD give anything to have this graduate spot.  I remembered that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.  It humbles you when you realize how little you know.  I know that success will not come without failure, I know that failure will not always be this easy, and I know that I need periodic failure in order to maintain focus.  It keeps me hungry.  It keeps me driven.  Maybe the most important thing I learned today is that my passion for my profession highly outweighs my disappointment in defeat.  Tomorrow will be better, and next time... I'll be ready.

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark.  The real tragedy is when men are afraid of the light." -Plato

Cheers.

Finding Fate

       I spent a lot of time trying to think of a name for my new blog.  I guess "Finding Fate" means a lot for me.  It reflects the intentions of my career, my relationships, and the course of my life.  I've been living in Chicago now for only about a month, but it has been a month that has drastically changed my perspective of the "real world."  Homelessness is very prevalent, as is high society.  You can walk through Loyola Hospital and see the apex of success and intelligence in doctors, researchers, nurses, and turn the corner and see patients that wouldn't be living if it weren't for the tube in their trachea.  There are the highest highs and the lowest lows, and they are frequently juxtaposed.  Today I could've taken a picture of a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk next to a Rolls Royce.
       I've never had things put in perspective the way I have in the last month.  I'm relatively certain the hardest things I've had to do in the last 30 days are take exams, say good-bye to Jess, and figure out how to live in Chicago with $100/week for food.  In my own little world, I sometimes think I have it tough.  In reality, I'm an employee of one of the top 50 hospitals in the country, getting paid to get my Ph.D.  I have full health insurance.  I have food on my table and a roof over my head, something the guy that lives on my street can't say.  I have it pretty damn good.
       In the end, I've learned that not much goes the way we plan it.  Part of being successful is adapting, making smart choices, and not being afraid of failing.  If you asked me a year ago where I saw myself in a year, this would've been one of the most unlikely places I could have envisioned.  Yet here I am.
       So here's to new adventures, new friends, and new experiences.  Here's to knowing where you're going, but not forgetting where you started.  Here's to the wonderful support from my family, and the friends who I would be nothing without.  Here's to my incredible girlfriend.  Here's to hard work, and great success.  Here's to finding fate.

Cheers