Weekend
It was a fun weekend. I finally got back into running. Saturday was the first time I ran since fall, getting two miles in.
After the run, I headed up to the fine metropolis of Kenosha for some board game playing with some high school friends. We played HeroClix, which I found rather boring and the El Grande, which is probably one of my favorite games. I'll probably pick up a copy of it, even though there's nobody in Chicagoland I really play games with.
After Game Day, I booked it back to Chicago for a a Chicago Symphony Performance, my first one in a while.
They opened with Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin. I enjoyed it, but was not bowled over. Now, two days later, I'm having trouble remembering any specifics about it, although I do remember that it had a good harp part.
Ater that was Piano Concerto No. 2 by Prokofiev. Another that I was unfamiliar with, and this piece was quite impressive. The complexity, difficulty, and speed of the piano part was mezmerizing, as was watching the hands of the soloist as she played it.
The piece de resistance of the night was Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. I was already a fan, but had never had the pleasure of hearing it performed live. It did live up to my expectations!
Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K (4.97 mile) run. I was really fearing this, given that aside from Saturday, I had not run at all since the fall, or done much of any cardio. Luckily, the weather was just perfect - close to 70 degrees and sunny. Thanks to my cousin running with me, I managed to make it through without really stopping, and finished with a time of 50 minutes and 3 seconds. That's one minute slower than last year, although good enough for 10029th place - more than 2000 places better than '06. Next year, I'll crack the top 10000! I guess it's not good to be slower than a year ago, but given how much worse shape I was in, I'm happy with that time.
Now i just have to stick to it - the marathon is but 6 months or so away!
After the run, I headed up to the fine metropolis of Kenosha for some board game playing with some high school friends. We played HeroClix, which I found rather boring and the El Grande, which is probably one of my favorite games. I'll probably pick up a copy of it, even though there's nobody in Chicagoland I really play games with.
After Game Day, I booked it back to Chicago for a a Chicago Symphony Performance, my first one in a while.
They opened with Ravel's Le tombeau de Couperin. I enjoyed it, but was not bowled over. Now, two days later, I'm having trouble remembering any specifics about it, although I do remember that it had a good harp part.
Ater that was Piano Concerto No. 2 by Prokofiev. Another that I was unfamiliar with, and this piece was quite impressive. The complexity, difficulty, and speed of the piano part was mezmerizing, as was watching the hands of the soloist as she played it.
The piece de resistance of the night was Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade. I was already a fan, but had never had the pleasure of hearing it performed live. It did live up to my expectations!
Sunday morning, I woke up bright and early for the Shamrock Shuffle 8K (4.97 mile) run. I was really fearing this, given that aside from Saturday, I had not run at all since the fall, or done much of any cardio. Luckily, the weather was just perfect - close to 70 degrees and sunny. Thanks to my cousin running with me, I managed to make it through without really stopping, and finished with a time of 50 minutes and 3 seconds. That's one minute slower than last year, although good enough for 10029th place - more than 2000 places better than '06. Next year, I'll crack the top 10000! I guess it's not good to be slower than a year ago, but given how much worse shape I was in, I'm happy with that time.
Now i just have to stick to it - the marathon is but 6 months or so away!