One year of med school...

almost over. It's week nine of my 10-week 4th quarter. We're gearing up for finals, which won't be as intense this time around because we didn't have any anatomy or neuroanatomy and hence, no anatomy or neuroanatomy lab practical, which was always the most brutal final in the first three quarters.

This quarter however, was just a lot of busy work with a few hard classes mixed in. Physiology 3, Nutrition 1, Microbiology 2 and our second physical medicine class will be legit finals, but every other class involves papers, presentations and other such mind-numbing homework. We actually took our first final tonight in Jurisprudence. We also take our first board exam Wednesday on Arizona laws governing Arizona Naturopathic Doctors. It seems kind of silly for someone to take such an exam if one doesn't plan on practicing in Arizona, which I don't, but it's a requirement for doing clinical education third and fourth years.

Julie comes back from the east coast Wednesday. She was gone for a month, which is way too long. I think we'll cap her next trip without me to 2-3 weeks. I'm sure you'll get some pictures from he trip soon, which included a baby shower for her sister Jen, and two... yes two, trips to North Carolina.

Rock-n-Roll Marathon

Yesterday, I completed my fourth marathon, the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in San Diego. I would say it was a pretty good race. I had trained hard this time around, using Pfitzinger's 18-week 55 mile schedule. It was a long, hard training plan, but I have Keeper & Chloe to thank for accompanying me on all the training runs. I also have Dr. Nick (and his students) to thank for fixing my back regularly these past 2 months so that I have been injury-free. Except for being sick 2 weeks ago (and missing 3 days of training) I pretty much stuck to the plan religiously. I was confident I could PR this time around, and I did, by exactly 5 minutes. I ran a 4:15. I hope to someday break 4 hours, but a PR is a PR.

Keeper came with me to the start area which I have to say was nice. He helped keep me calm amidst the sea of purple TNT first-time runners (they are a bit overwhelming, to say the least). He took some pre-race pics and we watched the Marine Corp Band march through the start corrals. The beginning of the race was cloudy but very humid. I noticed I was sweating A LOT during the first few miles. My pace was almost a little too fast (especially mile 3, which was all downhill), but overall I would say the first 8 miles felt nice and comfortable. After leaving downtown, the course goes uphill through Balboa Park (on the freeway) out towards Mission Bay. Here, the humidity was gone and the weather was nice. I ran the first half in 2:02 and was feeling good.

Miles 15-19 were hardest for me mentally. The sun had come out and was beating down in full force. I minded the sun, especially because we were mostly running on highways. At every water station from here to the end of the race, I took two cups; one to drink and the other to dump on my head. Miles 20-26 are always the hardest. Pretty much everything from the waist down starts to hurt and it just becomes a game of putting one foot in front of the other and muscling through to the finish. My pace was definitely slower than I would have liked at this point, but the goal becomes to finish in one piece....pace (at least for me) becomes secondary. I did think the course was fun, with all the bands, cheerleaders, and enthusiastic spectators. It almost makes up for running on highways for most of the race. I had heard about all the people dressing up as Elvis for this race and thought it would be corny but it was actually fun. These people are nuts! They have enough energy to dance with every band along the way and wear those long sleeve/pants outfits....I don't know how they did it; it was pretty hot yesterday! Keeper took some funny pictures of people finishing. He saw me at the start, mile 8, and mile 26. I did not see him at the second two places.

I finished in one piece, found Keeper at the "Y" family reunion area, bought some new Crocs, and walked back to the car. The 5+ hour ride back to Phoenix wasn't too bad, especially after lunch at Fuddrucker's. Sometimes you just need a good burger and fries. I am in pain today, but am going back to the doctor tomorrow and hopefully the kinks will get worked out.

San Diego Trip

We left Phoenix on Friday evening and spent some time sitting in rush-hour traffic. We got to our hotel around 10:30pm and crashed. Saturday was spent getting my race number at the expo downtown, walking around the Gaslamp Quarter, then heading up the coast. We hit up Pacific Beach first. The weather was windy and cool (for us) in the 70s. Pacific Beach reminds you of a hippie beach party. Tons of people surfing, riding bikes, drinking at the beach front bars. It was very crowded but we found a spot to sit down and catch some rays. After lunch, we drove up to La Jolla. We were awed by the beauty at La Jolla cove and Ellen Browning Scripps Park. We took a leisurely stroll along the walking path and saw tons of birds and sea lions sunning themselves on the rocks. We then went back to downtown (since our 10-hour parking pass was still good) and walked over to Petco Park. Even though the Padres wouldn't be back in town until Monday night, the park was open and we thought it was pretty cool. We found a Mexican place for dinner in the Gaslamp Quarter so I could stuff myself (I mean fuel myself for the race) with chicken nachos, a veggie burrito and then dessert was a mint-chocolate chip ice cream cone from Ghirardelli's. Any day spent at the beach and ending with an ice cream cone is considered great in my book. We went back to the hotel and were in bed by 9pm so I could get a good night's sleep before the big day. We really liked San Diego and will probably go back again while we live out here. The 5 and half hour drive isn't too bad and weather is well worth it!