Today is a new day.

Friday was a pretty bad day in terms of travel. Let's see. I arrived at the airport at 7:30am to check in and was told my original flight to Chicago had been delayed. This would of cause me to miss my connecting flght to SF given that I only had 35 minutes to make it. They rebooked the flight to san franciso. Passed through security and immigration and checked the status only to find that they decided to cancel the previously delayed flight to Chicago. Stood in line at the United counter to get both flights rebooked.



The new itin had about 1.5 hour layover which was okay. However, the flight to Chicago was then subsequently delayed. Did some mental math and it seemed to be okay if the flight actually left on the new time so I boarded the plane and then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for 30 minutes and then go through deicing. By the time we lifted off, I was pretty sure I was going to miss the connecting flight. Here's a crappy cell phone pic of the shore of lake michigan.





The only possibility I had was that the flight out of Chicago had also been delayed. As we were taxiing on the runway, I checked the status of the other flight on google and and found that it was running late. By the time I had gotten off the plance, they had closed the boarding gates for the other flight so I was going to miss the flight, BUT, a repreive occured in the form of a non-functioning plane. They ended up having to take everyone off the plane and putting them on another one which means I could now board the other plane, but in all likelihood, I wasn't going to get my luggage to come with me. This was pretty much the only option I had since the next two flights to SF were full and I didn't want to have to land in SF at some ungodly hour and then have to drvive 1.5 hours to the hotel. So landed in SF and as expected, my checked luggage didn't make it.


If I didn't have my luggage, it was still okay since I had all my running gear in my carryon with the exception of socks which I could buy anyways. THe only problem was I had no idea how to get to the hotel. I had brought along my automotive GPS and programed it with the address of the hotel, but it was in my checked bag. Doh! So I used the crappy rental highway map I had and drove along the highways hoping that Iwould eventually see a sign that said "Napa", whcih worked for most of the trip. I got into Napa and then had to cave and use the GPS navigation feature on my blackberry to actually get me to the hotel. I'm sure I'm going to get a lecture from the accounting department where I work about racking up a ridiculous amount of roaming data transfer charges, but I didn't have much other choice. ANyways I got here at just before 11pm (2 am Toronto time remember) and then conked out. Only got about 5 hours of sleep. Thankfully they delivered my checked bag to the hotel this morning and it's now sitting in my room. Apparently, it was sent back to Canada after the little mixup in chicago.

Had lunch with Steve today who drove out to Napa to meet me. Learned a bit more about his condition which I find very facinating. Slowly adding more bloggers to the list of people that I've actually met. Steve's doing a marathon in a few weeks in walking style so wish him well.

So I'm heading down to the pasta feeed in about half an hour, watch a little tv and then turn in for the night. I've decided I"m going to try for 3:15 tomorrow. I think 3:10 is a little unrealistic for me and since I can't register for boston this year anyways, there really isn't any pressure to try and meet that goal. Running a 3:15 now would accomplish two goals. If I can meet 3:15 now, it sets up as a minimum the potential of qualifying for the 2010 boston marathon since that will be my qualifying time then so at least I know that come fall I should be able to run it and also it would represent a 2 minute or so PR which I think is quite achievable considering the paces I've been doing in training.

The weather for tomorrow is looking okay. Starts out at 7C and finished at around 13C for a 3 or so hour marathon. Looks like it's going to be a sunny day though which may cause the temps to be a little warmer. It's going to be a bit warmer than i'm used to but I"m hoping that all the treadmill running as of late in the warmness of the gym will have acclimitized me to it.

Thanks all for the comments. I appreciate them all. I'll be thinking of you all as I run tomorrow.