Extraordinary Machine

It's a "Where's Stephanie?" picture.

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Atlanta this weekend so I could take part in the Inagural ING Georgia Half-Marathon. Nick came along to play his typical roles as emotional supporter and cheerleader to help keep me going. Luckily, Nick and I were both able to get enough time off work to make it a 3-day weekend. Since we were arriving in Atlanta on Friday night, and the race wasn't until Sunday, we had an entire Saturday to explore downtown Atlanta.

First thing Saturday morning we headed to the Race Expo to pick up my race packet and get all the free stuff. The Expo was well organized and had tons of cool vendors like Mizuno, Saturn, Snickers, Cliff Bar, etc. After the Expo we were in dire need of food, and luckily we spotted some police officers who directed us over to the CNN Center's Food Court. Upon entering the CNN building we saw ads for CNN studio tours. Since we're avid CNN watchers and readers, we decided to purchase tickets for a tour to begin shortly after we ate a quick bite at Chic-Fil-A.

Of course, my true motivation for going on the CNN tour was my hopes of maybe catching a glimpse of Anderson Cooper. Unfortunately, I had to suffice with this poster of Anderson since we learned that he tapes his shows in NYC.

Outside the CNN Center was the Centennial Olympic Park. It is cherry blossom season, so we headed to the park to take some pictures and enjoy the atmosphere and the perfect weather. The Cherry Blossoms (sakura in Japanese) reminded us of our time in Sasebo, Japan.
Here's a great shot of downtown Atlanta with the Centennial Park in the foreground.

After spending the afternoon touring and walking around the sites, we decided to head back to the Hotel to relax before heading out for dinner. Now, we've got to tell you about our accomodations. . . which were amazing. We had the opportunity to stay at the Westin Peachtree Center located in the center of downtown Atlanta (and seen in the far left of the above picture). This is a 73-story, cylindrical hotel with great views and an even greater 'Heavenly' bed. We owe a great deal of thanks to my friend Melissa, also running the half-marathon, who hooked us up with a great deal on the room.

Following our catnap we were absolutely starving. Luckily our hotel was located directly across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta. For those of you who don't already know, Nick and I have a tradition of eating at Hard Rock in each city we visit (with the last name Guittar, you gotta eat at Hard Rock). Our hope is to make it through all of them!

After dinner, we headed back to our room so I could gather my race stuff and make sure everything was there and ready to go.

I woke up at 5:15am to get ready. I didn't have to do much other than drink my Ensure for breakfast and make sure I went to the bathroom enough times not to have to use the Port-O-Potty's at the Start line or during the race. We underestimated how long it would take us to go down the elevator at 6:20am (race starts @7am). We overlooked the fact that there were other marathoners staying at our hotel as well. We still made it down to the lobby by 6:35am which we thought was enough time to walk the 4-5 block distance to the start. Mind you there are 15,000 participants in this race...which basically meant that MY start place was not where the start line was. The corrals wrapped around the street corner for a few blocks. We were so lost, we had no idea which direction we were going to run in. By this time, Nick and I had split so that he could get a head start walking over to the mile 2 marker to meet me later...photo opp. By chance, I ended up in the group that I needed to be in.

I didn't do my homework on the course purposely because I don't like to know where I'm at or where I'm going. I took a glimpse of the elevation chart a couple of times while training just so I knew to train for hills...which I didn't anyway BUT at least I knew to expect mile 6-7 which had a steep hill. I was a little scared when I overheard some runners at the Expo talk about the hills on the course but I figured at this point there's nothing I can do so "just do it!".

It was a great race. The weather was perfect for me. It was hilly especially towards the end. I felt bad for the Full marathoners because of the incline in the last stretch. I hated it and cursed it all the way up but I only did 13.1 miles (21K) ...so they had it twice as bad. I kept thinking "if this hill was flat I could kick its butt!". Surprisingly and I mean surprisingly, I kept my pace the entire race. I definitely experienced (or got reminded) of the tricks the mind plays on you.

After mile 10, I was hurting a bit. The declines took a toll on my knees and I was feeling it a lot! As you can see in the picture, I was signaling to Nick "Not so good" with my thumb. I really felt like I was running in slow motion, I had no idea that somehow my brain remembered and kept up my stride the same as it had before. I learned that I can do better even when I feel like I'm done.

As I ran through the last stretch of road towards the finish line, I heard sirens behind me and runners were told to move to the right. I thought an ambulance had to get through but I forgot that this had happened at the Nike Marathon race as well. It was the police and official car escort for the FULL marathon soon to be winner. Yes, I had not even finished my HALF marathon when Kenyan Joseph Chirlee RAN passed me. He crossed the finish line, running the full marathon in a record time of 2:19:17. As you can see below, he was too fast for the camera...amazing how they can sprint an entire marathon! The first female marathoner finished in 2:41:25.

I crossed the finish line, after posing for the camera a few times. Hopefully I'll get the token finish line photo (arms up in the air) this time. It was a personal record, I finished in 2:16:53 (reminder: I did a HALF marathon). In THEORY, if I were to keep that pace up in a full marathon I would beat my time by an hour and a half...not going to happen! But it's nice to imagine. I grabbed my medal, water and some ice for my knees and met up with Nick. I felt pretty good.

Once we got back to our room and I got in the shower, I remembered the words of the coach saying "the worst thing you can do is take a warm shower". I actually didn't remember until I did it and I started feeling every little pain in my legs. I asked Nick to get me some ice so I could take my ice bath. It is REALLY NOT as bad as it sounds IF properly done. I swear by it! It ensures that you are able to walk the next day. See, I'm still smiling!

Although I was a little stiff for the rest of the day (partially because of the long drive home), I am fine today SO it really works!

P.S. If you're wondering about the title...well Nick wrote part of the story and he named it. It's related to Fiona Apple's song and a little inside joke. I'm a "machine" when I run :)

P.S.S. A BIG Thank You to Nick who did an excellent job as cheerleader and photographer while I ran. He was so supportive, it made me feel "extraordinary".

Forgot to Mention...

I should've had a post before the last about our Tuesday night. Nick got to use his Christmas gift, tickets to Snow Patrol at Hard Rock Live. We had seen Snow Patrol before when their Final Straw album came out. They have come a long way since. You can tell they are much "bigger" (have more $) now because the show had very fancy lights and background. They were better this time around. I love the lead singers' voice and I love even more that it sounds the same live as it does on the CD. They are great performers and they played for a while; a good mix of Final Straw and Eyes Open.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that Nick and I...and Mary's hitching a ride as well, are headed to Atlanta, GA this weekend so I can participate in the inaugural ING Georgia Half Marathon race on Sunday. I am actually more excited about driving up than I am about the race. I am definitely undertrained for it but that's my fault and I will suffer the consequences I'm sure on Monday. This week not only have I slacked on my final days of training but I believe as a consequence to having a very busy last week at work, I am all "out of whack". I have been taking 3 hour naps in the evening even when I've slept a full night, my sugar levels have dropped dramatically and repeatedly this week and I just can't seem to get control of my own body. Hence, I am a little nervous about Sunday.
If anyone wants to "track" my progress, visit www.inggeorgiamarathon.com and they have a "track a runner" link where you can get texts on your cell phone with my progress on it (i.e. when I cross the 5, 10 mile or finish line). I'll have a post about that sometime after the weekend!

Law & Order, Prison Break and CSI

Another update from my leadership class. Today was Criminal Justice Day. We spent the day with City of Kissimmee and Osceola County's finest!

The day started with a Q & A session with the County Sheriff and the City's Chief of Police at the KPD Firing Range & Training Center. We learned a lot about how the different agencies cooperate and share resources to maximize efficiency. During this session, we were surprised by the S.W.A.T. team. As we listened intently to the Sheriff and the Chief we heard this loud BOOM and saw smoke coming from the main door to the portable classroom. By the time everyone came back to their senses, the S.W.A.T. team had already "secured" the room and had all of us with our hands up in the air...some of us laughing while others had tears in their eyes all from the shock. That all happened definitely in less than 30 seconds...it seemed instantaneous to me. We learned that the BOOM comes from a "flashcan"(if I remember correctly), it makes the loud noise to distract the people inside long enough to get the team inside to gain control of the room. Moral of the story: If you hear a loud boom, look the other way...because they're not coming in from where the noise is coming from.

After a Q & A with the SWAT men, we moved outside to talk to the "puppy cops" (inside joke).

The dogs and handlers are amazing. The dogs go through a 600 hour training program with their handlers. All dogs are imported from Europe (Holland, Czech Republic, Germany) because Europeans guarantee their dogs. Also, in these countries there is no "backyard" breeding of these dogs because in order to breed a dog the owner must have a permit from the government. The dogs cost between $7-10,000 untrained. Once they bring them here and are trained, they are worth $20-30,000 depending on their specialty. Females are more expensive because they carry the bloodline for the dog.

After this we were free to roam around the training facility and take part in all kinds of fun activities. I headed to the repelling wall first. I thought it'd be fun to do until I got there and realized it was 45 feet high and I could see the tower moving as the wind blew. Still I felt it was something that I had to "conquer". I let some classmates go first so I could see how they did. They all agreed that the hardest thing was climbing to the top (no actual stairs, just pieces of wood hammered to the back of the wall) and taking the first step off the wall.

Once I was on top it really hit me...I was very nervous. I felt a little nauseous and started shaking a bit. I refused to look down so once I was all strapped in I just walked backwards towards the edge. It took a little while for me to have the courage to let go and actually repel but once I did it was so much fun. The hardest thing is taking that first step...mind over matter!

Then I went to the sniper rifle station. I really didn't expect this to be as hard as it was. It looks so easy on TV, just point the cross to the target and shoot...not quite. It takes a while for the cross lines to be visible and focused enough to shoot. Once you have it, there's no way to miss though. I hit my target right in the middle of his chest and surprisingly there was little kickback from the rifle but a very loud noise.

Handguns and automatic rifles (sort of machine guns) were next. Shooting the handgun once was easy. The hard part was shooting it twice in a row and staying on target...I wasn't able to stay on target the second shot because my body didn't "accept" the recoil from the gun. That's what they train so much for.

The automatic rifle was extremely heavy for me, I could barely hold it up. I scared the guy a couple of times because after shooting I would point the rifle down and he thought I was going to drop it. I just couldn't hold on to it for that long. It didn't have as large a "kickback" or recoil as I expected. Again, I could do the one shot, two shot but once it got to the infinite rounds it was hard to control.

For the rest of the day, I don't have pictures because cameras were not allowed. I should've taken a picture of the Corrections bus we had to ride to the jail tour. They loaded us into an actual Corrections bus, with bars on the windows and caged passenger area. We had 6 motorcycle officers escort us to the County jail.

At the County jail, we were warned that it would be a disturbing tour and to be aware that we'd be seeing inmates in personal quarters (i.e. toilets, showers). We toured with the warden of the jail and he showed us every inch of the structure. On a sidenote, if any of you watch Prison Break, you'd find this funny...the warden's last name is Fisher so they inmates have nicknamed "Fish" just like Scofield on the show :).

It was very eye opening. I did not know that this local jail would house murderers and other violent or "serious" crime offenders but they do. There are 16 maximum security inmates at the moment. These men are in their cells for 23 hours per day, they are allowed one hour outside their cell (but still inside their pod area) for a shower and phone call. That was very disturbing to me because that means that there is little chance for these men to be rehabilitated. I'm surprised they even survive without making it to the psych ward.

The max security doesn't necessarily mean just the murderers or sexual offenders, it just houses the men who just can't behave in the general population pods. If a murderer comes in and for 30 days he behaves, he is allowed to stay in the gen pop cells. The inmates in the gen pop have access to a lot of services and programs. They receive excellent health care while in jail and have the opportunity to receive their GED while inside.

The warden believes that only about 10% of the inmates WANT to be rehabilitated while the others are or will be career criminals. It was very interesting to hear him speak about these men. It's almost as if he's a teacher and these are his kids. The warden knows a lot of them by name (career criminals). No one in the jail carries a weapon, they only force they can use against inmates is pepper spray. He explained that while police officers are trained to use weapons to gain control, corrections officers are trained to use their words. Therefore, they respect the inmates and in turn the inmates respect them. They don't have a problem with inmates attacking the officers, it's mostly each other. Last year they only had 90 inmate fights which is pretty good according to him.

After the jail tour, we headed to the Sheriff's Department to tour the CSI lab. Having taken a few classes with a CSI in college I remember her telling me, "It's not really that high tech" so I didn't set very high expectations. To my surprise they do have much of the same technology "as seen on TV". However, it is TV and they do exaggerate some. First, CSI's are civilians. They do not have arrest powers and do not carry weapons. Their main job is to process crime scenes and collect evidence. The evidence analysis of DNA is not done by local jurisdiction, that is completed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (state agency). I'll skip over some of the basic demos that we've all seen on the shows like powdering and lifting prints but I do want to share something that was pretty cool. We've all seen how on TV, the CSI's will find the smallest piece of fabric, or a strand of hair and I've always wondered HOW the heck did they see that and know to pick it up. Ah Ha....there's this box with a light tube, sort of a flashlight, that has different colors of light depending on what you are looking for. For this demo, she used a blue light (it's actually white but to our eyes it looks blue). Depending on the color of the light, you have to wear different colored goggles. In this case, we wore orange goggles. She pointed the light to her black pants. We've all been under a black light and seen all the little fuss that shows on our clothing under a black light. Well, to the naked eye that's what we saw just fuss. Once we put our goggles on, we didn't see the light or the fuss...all we could see was the stuff that's out of place because it fluoresced. For example, she had been working around the lab and had some powders and swab left overs on her pants that were completely invisible to us with the naked eye but with the goggles, we could ONLY see that on her pants because it fluoresced (shined back at us) ... pretty cool!

I could go on and on but those are the main highlights. It was an unforgettable experience!

Economic Development Day

Yesterday was another leadership class day for me. It was Economic Development day and I learned all kinds of stuff.

We started our day at Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA) were the hosts for the day. They gave us an overview of how they got started, what they do and how it impacts the local economy. I learned that Kissimmee had electrical power before Orlando did back in 1901.

Then we headed to Reunion, a new development out in Southwest (I think) Osceola County. It's a rare concept because it is a resort with a hotel, private water park and 3 professional golf courses but people can also purchase homes and live there. The people that live here are obviously very wealthy as a lot alone costs $500,000 and you have to pay an estimated $1600 monthly dues to be a member of the community to have access to all the amenities...golf games are not included!

We had lunch outside behind the 12 day old hotel facing the golf range. It was a gorgeous day as you can see!

After Reunion we visited one of the KUA power plants located on Cane Island for a tour. I felt bad because the engineers explained how electricity was created and their daily tasks and it was pretty much all over our heads. Nevertheless I did gain a lot of respect for them, they have a lot of responsibility in their hands. The individuals work 12 hour shifts and they work 365 days. The plant is open 24 hours per day with at least 2 people in the control room at all times. It really is amazing to see what goes on behind the scenes just so there's light when I turn the switch on.

The exciting part of the day came after we left the plant and headed to the airport for a helicopter ride. This was my first time in a helicopter. This was an executive helicopter so it was a very nice one. It looked like a beautiful day to be outside but once in the air I realized the nice breeze on the ground made it a bumpy ride in the air. I was glad it was a short ride because my stomach did feel a little queezy towards the end but I made it without using the barf bag.

Below is the aerial view of the Disney Wide World of Sports Baseball Complex.

After landing we had a presentation from the Director of Economic Development for the County about what they do to bring business to Osceola. Their job is to basically "sell" Osceola as the best place to bring your business. However, their focus is in manufacturing, distribution...and something else I can't remember...not Retail. Retailers come as the population increases and their wages are low so the department doesn't have anything to do with that. They try to lure bigger fish to the area.
We also met with a representative from the Orlando Film Commission (they have a longer name that I can't remember) and she shared with us information about the film industry in the Central Florida area. Did you know that Larry The Cable Guy, Waterboy and Monster were filmed here? Halle Berry filmed a movie here except that I didn't recognized the title. We don't get quality "content" movies filmed here but it still brings money to the area. Coming soon to the area..."Bring it On 4"...again notquality work! Another interesting trivia fact is that there's a ranch out in Seminole county with wide open green fields that has been filmed as Africa....Who would've thought Florida looks like Africa? Only in movies I guess. She also told us that if you own a piece of property that's good for filming whether it's undeveloped land or a quirky place, film crews will pay an average of $1500/day to use it, you just have to call the Film Commission and they'll come and take pictures of it to keep it in the "location scouts" book.

It was a very long, exhausting day but very informative. Til next time!

Environment Day

The organization that I work for has a Leadership program where every year they choose about 25 "leaders" in the community to participate in. Since I'm the last addition to the organization I was the only one that had not been through the program so they nominated me to be in the class.

Every other Wednesday we learn about different departments/areas of our community. We take field trips and take part in very hands on activities. Our first day was Environment Day. We started at the Disney Wilderness Preserve in Poinciana at 7:30am. We had breakfast and loaded the bus to Boggy Creek Airboat Rides.

The hosts for the day were a couple of employees from the South Water Management District (SWFD; I think that's what the initials stood for) so as we took the airboat ride they explained all kinds of things about water management especially flood control. While on the boat at Lake Toho, we met with the Florida Fish & Wildlife people who showed us their boat and talked about what they do out on the lake on a daily basis such as monitor the Bass and other fish populations, talk to boaters, etc. I learned that Florida is the Bass fishing capital of the US (can't remember if he actually said the US or World)...hence why Bass Pro Shops headquarters are here in Celebration, FL. The fishing industry brings in Billions of dollars a year and that's why the government spends our tax dollars monitoring the Bass population in lakes; very important for our economy!

BTW, I was terrified during the airboat ride because I do have a fear of water and gators and the tour guide kept trying to hydroplane around from side side to side to splash water on us. I didn't appreciate mucky lake water in my face plus I was afraid we would flip and I would end up in gator territory...but I survived. Below is a gator we saw but went underwater once we got closer.

After the airboat ride, we met with a teacher from the Environmental Center who let us "fish" stuff out of the lake. He said they use the animals as indicators of water quality. We caught many shrimps and he said that's a very good sign that the quality of the water is good.

After that, we headed back to the Disney Wilderness Preserve which is managed by the Nature Conservancy. It's 12,000 acres plus a lake! Lake Russell is one of the few lakes that has NO development of any kind on it. Most lakes in Florida have homes around them. The reason Lake Russell doesn't have any developments is because 1) half of it it's on the nature conservancy site and 2) the other half is owned by 2 very wealthy families that have no interest in developing the land...thus far. We had the opportunity to go canoeing on this lake.

It was unreal! I really felt like I was away in an abandoned place. It was truly what Florida was like. The water was very clean...not clear but clean and tons of "willowy" trees and wildlife around. Bald eagles nest in this area. It's a shame that it's not open to the public...although that's how they've been able to maintain the lake as pristine as it is.

After canoeing we went on a Swamp Buggy (I don't know how to spell that) ride around the nature conservancy to see the land. I learned why controlled fires are necessary for the plants and wildlife, it's a natural process that's just recreated. It helps to pollinate plants and clean up debris safely and naturally.

I forgot to take my camera with me, the pictures above are from a classmate's camera. I'll try to remember next time so I can take better pictures. Next week, it's Economic Development Day and I hear we get to ride in a helicopter; weather permitting.