Look what we woke up to this morning…..
Have we skipped fall all together? The autumn leaves are still clinging on the trees!
Snow came early this season. This could be a long, long winter.
(*photos taken by my wife)
October Snow
Tag Archives: photos
A Landmark Run
The 2-hour time barrier to finish a full marathon was broken. A feat that was considered for long as impossible for humans, was conquered two days ago by a Kenyan runner, Eliud Kipchoge. He ran 26.2 miles in a blistering time of 1 hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds. What Kipchoge did was compared to Neal Armstrong walking in the moon and Sir Edmund Hillary reaching the summit of Mount Everest, for indeed it was a significant achievement. He inspired many that “no human is limited.”
I participate in marathons every year in the fall. I run the half-marathon event and I have already completed 7 of them. Except this year, I did not register to join as I did not have enough time to train. My excuse is that I am busy reviewing for my Sleep Boards which by the way is less than a month from today.
However, I did not stop running totally as I still do my regular 2 to 3 miles run at least twice a week. The longest run I made this year is only 5 miles. Since I have now a gadget that tells me my pace and monitors my heart rate continuously, I can even track if I may be pushing myself too hard.
According to experts, you should keep your heart rate between 70% to 85% of your target maximum heart rate during vigorous excercise. To calculate for your maximum heart rate, you subtract your age from 220. So for me my maximum heart rate should be around 170. Though sometimes my heart rate speeds up to 170-180 when I am running, so I have to slow down. It’s either I am pushing too hard or I am still not conditioned or trained enough.
I even brought my running shoes during my short visit in California. Besides, running gives you a chance to enjoy the sun outside and the view around you. My run may not be a landmark like of Kipchoge, but at least I can take photos of landmarks while I run.
Here’s the scenery when I ran in California where my aunt lives (photos taken 10 days ago):
Here’s the scenery here in my home in Iowa (photos taken yesterday):
I will never run as fast as Kipchoge, not even in my imagination, but I will keep on running. Maybe I should stop taking photos so I could run faster. Nah!
(* photos taken with an iPhone)
Sneak Shot
One afternoon, a deer quietly wandered in our yard near the front door. They are usually timid creatures and are easily spooked by just about any motion or noise.
Hiding behind the curtain, I sneaked to get a photo of the deer. However, I think it sensed that she’s being watched, so she quickly moved away, but not after I was able to take some shots.
The deer disappeared probably muttering “Those pesky nosy neighbors!”
What’s funny is I did not know that I was also being sneak up on. And she was able to take some shots too.
Am I also timid and easily spooked? I could have turn around and gave my deer-in-the-headlights look.
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(*photos of me sneaking a photo were taken by my wife)
Chasing Sun Dogs
Last time I posted about sun dogs (see earlier post this month), I just borrowed a photo taken by a friend, for I did not witnessed it personally.
Sun dogs are atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a pair of bright spots on either horizontal side of the sun. Most of the time it is part of a luminous ring around the sun known as a 22° halo. These beautiful glowing spots are created by the sunlight refracting off the plate-like ice crystals in the cirrus clouds.
Since it needs ice crystals in the clouds, sun dogs occur when it is harshly cold. My take on this is, even in unpleasant situations, beauty can exist. We just have to open our eyes for it. As in most life’s circumstances.
We are experiencing nice weather in Iowa this weekend, but last week our temperature was below zero Fahrenheit. To make up for the extreme cold, we were delighted with the appearance of sun dogs during one particularly frigid day. That time, I saw them with my own eyes and even able to capture photos of them.
Below are photos of the sun dogs that my wife and I took.
(*my wife and I traveled on separate errands that day, me – an hour and a half drive south, she – two hours north, so we were able to capture sun dogs in different times and locations)
In New York State of Mind
If you have been reading my blogs, you probably already know that I once lived in New York City. I left New York seventeen years ago, though I came back once for a visit, and that’s seven years ago too.
But now it’s time to visit New York once more.
When you hear New York, you picture in your mind the big crowded city. But in reality, a large part of New York State is mountains and forested areas. And that’s where we started our visit.
Yes, the above photo is New York.
We did some not-so-serious hikes up the mountains, and the view there was breath-taking. Breath-taking, not just because we were panting after the climb.
It’s not all work though, for we did some relaxing as well. Lots of relaxing. Especially beside a lake. We even went for a calm boat ride.
Beautiful mountains, trees, a lake, and some quiet time. What could be better than that?
Well, this: to enjoy it with the love of my life.
While in upstate New York, we also visited the Culinary Institute of America. Besides touring the place, we also ate a sumptuous meal there (see previous post).
Another place we went to is the Walkway Over the Hudson, in Poughkeepsie, New York. This is the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world, spanning 1.28 miles over the Hudson River. It is actually an old railroad bridge that they converted into a pedestrian bridge.
After spending a couple of days in upstate New York, it was time to visit the city.
We decided to stay not actually in New York City, but across the Hudson River, in New Jersey. So we can sleep with a view like this (photo below). And going into the heart of New York City is just one ferry ride away.
Though we stayed a few days in the city, I’ll just chronicle here a one-day trek that we did through the city.
We started at the new improved Chelsea Market. It is an enclosed food hall, shopping mall and offices all rolled in one. It was built at the old Nabisco factory complex, where Oreo was invented and produced. They transformed the factory, but kept many of its original structures.
There were places that we visited that were not existent yet when we were still living in New York. Like the High Line Park, a long elevated linear park at the West Side of New York City, which opened in 2009. This is again an old elevated rail road track that was repurposed into a park and walkway.
Walking this park gives you a unique perspective of the city, as well as get interesting stories as you peered through buildings, neighborhood and people’s backyards.
And yes, we walked the whole 1.45 mile span of the High Line Park.
The photo below shows typical New York. That means construction never stops in this city.
Besides walking inside the city, we also rode the ferry to get a different “feel” of New York City. That is, to view it without the noise, the hustle and the bustle.
United Nations Headquarters (white building)
The Empire State building from afar
Midtown Manhattan
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Statue of Liberty from a distance
We got off at the Brooklyn port from the ferry, and then we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge by foot back to Manhattan.
the city view from Brooklyn Bridge
As you can surmise from my account, we did a lot of walking that day. In fact, according to my phone app, we walked 7 miles or more than 18,000 steps that day.
After all that walking, I got hungry so I got something to eat. Iconic New York City’s street food, of course!
We ended our tour at the One World Trade Center, which has become the emblem of New York City’s tenacity and resolve. Photos below show the One World Trade Center and the Oculus NYC.
Finally I stopped at the 9/11 Memorial and spent some quiet moments besides the reflecting pool. I uttered a prayer and paid respect to the thousands of lives our nation lost there.
After visiting the 9/11 Memorial, we decided to call it a day.
On our way home, we rode the subway. Though for some reason, it was not crowded at all. Is this is the World Trade Center’s ghost subway train? Nah!
From New York,
Pinoy Transplant
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(*Photo credit: Pinoy Transplant and his unofficial photographers)
Barn and Silo
(*photo taken with an iPhone during my morning run)
Story behind the photo:
Few months after we moved to Iowa in 2004, we were scouting for a permanent place to live in. We found a vacant lot for sale, whose front view is the above photo. We fell in love with the place and the view, a typical Iowa landscape of farm, barn and silo. However at that time, we were not ready to buy, and somebody else bought the property and built a house there. We were crushed.
I could have been waking up to this view every day! But it was not meant to be.
More than a year later, we found a house less than a mile away from this lot, with such an impressive view as well (maybe even better), which now I wake up to. To this I am very grateful.
Moreover, I can still enjoy the view in the above photo, when I go on my morning run.
A Gray Day to Run a Marathon
It was time for my annual participation for the half marathon. As always, I can’t run without taking photos. I could have played Pokemon Go and capture Pokemon creatures too, but I settled in just capturing pictures.
It was a foggy and an overcast morning. Though for runners, there’s no “bad” day to run. As you can see, hundreds of runners showed up on race day. Here we are waiting for the run to start.
And here we go! Crossing the official Starting Line.
Weaving our way through downtown Des Moines.
Passing the Pappajohn’s Sculpture Park.
We’re away from the downtown buildings now. The visibility remained a few hundred yards due to the fog, as shown below.
Circling around a lake. Where’s the lake you may ask? I know you can’t see it, but just believe me, that’s a lake.
Crossing a foot bridge in Gray’s Lake. It was really gray indeed!
Even if it’s foggy and cool, we need to keep hydrated. Below are the paper cups thrown aside by the runners just past the water station.
Running around the Capitol building. The golden dome is barely visible due to the fog. It was about this time that I felt my legs starting to cramp. So I started to intermittently walk and run.
I almost crawled the last (13th) mile. But to look good for the spectators at the finish line, I ran fast for the final 0.2 to 0.3 miles to the Finish Line. As they always say, finish strong! Even if it just for a show.
Finally, me approaching the Finish Line! Look, a medical personnel is waiting.
(*all photos were taken by me, except for the last photo which was taken by my wife)
Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Way
If this life’s wandering takes you to……
the mountains,
(Wyoming)
or the desert,
(Arizona)
to waterfalls,
(California)
and rivers,
(Colorado)
through colorful landscapes,
(Pennsylvania)
or to barren land,
(South Dakota)
into the city,
(New York)
or into lush forrest,
(Wyoming)
or secluded farm fields,
(Iowa)
and even to alien terrain,
(Utah)
or if are you stuck with hundreds of travelers,
(New York)
or all alone in a lonely highway to nowhere,
(somewhere in the middle of nowhere)
may your journey always leads you – on the way….
Home.
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(*this post is a response to WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Way)
(** photo credit to my wife who took most of the pictures)
