The Epic Weekend

The last three days have been a blast for lil ol me

Friday started with my completely unexpected winning of the PACAF Civilian of the Year, 2008. The annual awards are presented at a big luncheon that is attended by most of the big-wigs from the headquarters, 200-300 folks. To explain what the award is in regular ol civilian terms, just think if it as accountant of the year at a company that has 2,500 employees, 150 of whom are accountants. Besides Civilian of the year, there are awards for Airman of the year (more junior enlisted types)Non-Commissioned Officer of the year, Senior Non-Commissioned Officer....etc, etc, etc.. about 10 different categories, and 5-10 candidates in each category. My category, Civ Cat III (for more senior types) had nine folks nominated, all of whom were significantly older and better dressed than I. For whatever reason I had no expectation of victory and was very surprised to hear my name called. I was presented the award by General Jouas, who I know better than just about any General Officer, having played a round of golf in May, traveling together to a few meetings in D.C. in September, and being in the same meetings/briefings monthly or so throughout the year. I don't think he has anything to do with the selection, however so don't get all uppity. Anyhow, they called my name and I went up on stage and very surprisedly collected my new hardware, seen below. Win #1 of the weekend.


Then, when I got home, Kate was just finishing moving out, to her new place in Ewa Beach. This is a win for all of us. We've hosted Kate for a little more than 18 months, and I will admit this has been frustrating at times. The original goal was to ease her into living on her own and starting a career, a process we'd hoped would take 6 months or so, so this is a big step for her and I feel that we've been able to help her get moving in the right direction. Nuff said, Win #2.


Saturday morning was the SeaBee 10K and fun run. I haven't run a 10K without a swim and bike preceding in two years, so was interested to see where I'm at. I also wanted to test the feasibility of running the Great Aloha run next monday (8.2 miles) in one hour. As the gun went off I started a bit quick but after three quarters of a mile settled into a good 7:15/mile pace. This is a little faster than what I need to run at the GAR. Things were going fine till about the 4 mile point when I had to take a potty break fiercely. When I felt my bladder releasing ever so slightly I thought it was probably a good time to take a moment for relief. That cost me about thirty seconds, but I was back close to my pace for the rest of the way. I ended up finishing a hair over 45:30, a 7:20 pace...17th overall. I was thrilled to run my best 10K ever by over 3 minutes, even with the stop. Results here- I'd have won something but my age group was stacked. Dang 26-30's. Win #3.

Then it was time for the Kid's fun run. Nicholas was racing against about twenty 4-10 year olds in a one mile out-and-back. We learned a lot about child racing in this race:
1) there is no such thing as easing into it. When an adult says go, kids RUN- balls-out sprint style, and there's not a lot you can do about it.
2) they key to victory is to NOT cry. After the first 300 meters of pure sprint, the kids were all getting tuckered fast, and we started passing weepers.
3) Kids, who may not be crying now, still are more crying prone than usual kids. This was the case with the little boy who was running just ahead of nicholas at the three-quarter mile point whose shoe was coming untied. i said "careful buddy, your shoe's coming undone!" and the kid sat down and wept.
4) nicholas is like me- he loves to pass people. the motivation he responded to best was the challenge of passing the next person in front of him.

Nicholas finished in Second place! He ran his mile in about 9 minutes- which for someone who's 4 feet tall is the same as about a 6 minute mile for a 6 foot person (apparently people who score in the 99th percentile on their math SAT's don't like the simplicity here, but I'm trying to make a point).... the kid's fast! Win #4

Sunday morning was the second Momentum Criterium on Kbay. This is basically like NASCAR on bikes- lots of drafting, turns, and riding super close to one another. Last race I sacrificed my legs for Steve and Bryant go for the win, and they were successful. This time around I wanted to see where I stacked up, so I went for the W. I worked my way up to close to the front of the pack with a couple of laps to go. with about two laps left, I had a bee fly INTO MY MOUTH, which I spat out before he had a chance to zing me. Lucky. On the last lap I latched onto Girmsey, who had been sprinting like a champ all day long- he won 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the Primes(single lap sprints) and ended up 4th overall, with me right behind him, taking 6th overall, and 3rd in my division. Win #5



After the bike race I had to scoot down to Aloha stadium for... the pro bowl! I had won 4 tickets to the game- the last time it'll be in Hawaii for a while- at my Civilian of the year lunch. Rebekah and I joined Chris and Clarissa. I had thought my free tickets were pretty good- row 15, on the 20 yard line. Turns out I don't know much about Aloha stadium, because while we were in row 15 on the 20 yard line, we were in the yellow section which as it turns out meant we were about 7 rows down from the roof. Serious nosebleed seats. Regardless, it was a good game and fun to be a part of. The girls enjoyed the halftime show and endless nitpickery of the cheerleaders' ensembles. I'm starting to think that maybe the cheerleaders are there for the women who aren't interested in football to have something to pay attention to and criticize. They certainly weren't doing much for me, sitting up in the ionosphere. Anyhow, the NFC won, my Viking players did great, and Denver's quarterback was the doofus of the day, so I'll be able to bug Chris all week. WIN #6

What a weekend!