Sleep, who needs sleep

So in the past two weeks I traveled to Boston for a conference (and presented), returned to DC to attend and present at a stats conference, headed up to Adirondack NY for a long weekend with a marathon and packed my office for a move that had been abruptly moved up recently (initially it was to be Oct. but 3 weeks ago it was moved to Sept 26th...well I come back from NY and one of the first e-mail messages I read says we must be packed by Wednesday...and I had these great plans to cram tommorrow). Well luckily my endurance athlete genes kicked in and I am all packed (well except some of my items don't have packing slips on them but that is another fiasco!)

Today Tristan and I went to a Ben Folds Concert in DC. This was nice but I wish I felt more relaxed. Ben Folds used to belong to the group Ben Folds Five and in fact our the first song Tristan and I danced to after our wedding was by Ben Folds Five ("Magic"). It is on the album the biography of Rienhold Messner (but just so you are warned other songs on this album have explicit/obscene words).

During tonights concert he played almost all new songs that have not been released (the new album goes on sale Sept 30th). But during the encore he played a few songs from older albums. All the songs he played are on my playlist which I listen to when I run. The opening act was really good. The singers name was Missy and she like Ben Folds gave some words of wisdom during the concert. I really liked her song "Steer" which is about ensuring you are the driver in your life and are making decisions for yourself. I think it is an important lesson that so many people don't take to heart and thus let life pass them by. I don't think my life is passing me by exactly, it just seems to be going by at warp speed currently. But hopefully by the winter I will have a bit more time to reflect on the craziness that my life has become.

Tommorrow I will write a bit about Adirondack Marathon, but I will say I had a GREAT time. The townspeople were just as nice as two years ago, I reconnected with my friends Jericho and Jesse (who were married just 2 weeks after the marathon last time) and I got to meet many new friends and see several others. My time wasn't great (and actually it was a bit faster then I wanted because during the event a cold front came through and I nearly froze to death...and the only way I see addressing this problem is running a bit faster, so apparently, cold, lightening, bears, or snakes can actually incite me to run closer to my fullest potential:-)

No North Face Endurance 50 km

Today I slept in. This was not how I expected to start my day. In fact I had anticipated getting up about 3:30 so I could get ready for the North Face Endurance 50 km, drive to VA, cheer on the 50 milers as they started their race and then 2 hours later start my 50 km journey. Unfortunately the race was cancelled. It is understandable because considering a hurricane/tropical storm/tropical depression is on it's way, the support personnel need to be ready to assist residents rather than runners. And it might not have been safe for volunteers (or runners although I think most ultra runners accept there is definitely risk in the sport).

So today I am going to do work :-( I have a bunch of business trips coming up and need to continue working on my presentations and practice (next weekend I go to Boston to give a presentation about Technical Writing at the Regulatory Affairs Professional Annual Meeting, later that week I go to the FDA/Industry workshop and present "Effective Communication Strategies" and finally in October I should be going to Slovenia (old Czech Republic, right near Croatia/Italy/Austria) to present a session at the Drug Information Association Clinical Forum, "Identifying and Pursuing Career Opportunties in the Pharmaceutical Industry". Oddly enough none of my upcoming presentations are specifically related to my career path (Biostatistician), however, I believe my willingness to say yes and enthusiastic presentation style has enabled me to be offered many speaking engagements. This should help me in the future when I try to transition into my dream job of being a motivational speaker and/or career coach.

Stay safe out there!