Cincinnati Turkey Day 10km Marathon

This morning Aileen and I met Susan and her Jane out the front of the condo and walked to Paul Brown Stadium for the start of the race. Paul Brown stadium is the home of the Cincinnati Bengals. It was a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. It was fairly chilly though.

As i mentioned yesterday, Aileen had designed shirts for us to wear in memory of her brother, Neal Aquino. The photo below is a group of us race goers wearing our new shirts.

After we finished the race a woman approached me and asked if I knew Neal. She had recognised him on the shirt and told us that she had attended medical school with him. It was a truely lovely experience.

To veiw the t-shirts that Aileen designed and Neals website visit http://www.nealaquino.com/.

The group of photographs above were taken during the race. we kept a fairly steady pace throughout the event. It was that cold this morning that the water that was spilled on the road from the drink checkpoints had frozen and the road was covered in ice!!

Finally we finished the race. We completed the 10km course in a time of 1 hr and 9 minutes. The final photographs are of us at the finish line. All that is left for us to do now is to go and gorge ourselves on Thanksgiving Day lunch!!!

TURKEY DAY MARATHON

The BROOKS GHOST: Professionally fitted @ Bob Ronkers Running Spot, Oakley Cincinnati OH

These bad boys are going to carry me 6 miles, or 10km tomorrow morning as Aileen and I run the Cincinnati Turkey day Marathon. I had them fitted for me today at a nice little running store in Cincinnati. Tomorrow is an early start and it should be nice and crisp in the morning. I can feel the cold air burning my lungs already!.
I will post photos of the event here later this week. We are running this race in memory of Aileens brother Neal Aquino. He ran this race every year religiously. In his memory Aileen designed t-shirts for Neals friends and family to wear whilst competing in the race. Aileen thought that she may have to have ten shirts printed..........wrong, EIGHTY people decided that they wanted a shirt to remember this fine young man.

Pumpkin Carving for my Halloween 26-11-08

After Aileen returned to America on september 7, I was trying to get myself to the states prior to Halloween. Things didnt go to plan so it turned out that i missed Halloween by few weeks. I was excited about carving a pumpkin for the first time so Joanna, Susan and Aileen organised a late halloween party for me so that i had the chance to carve a pumpkin.
Last night we all sat and drank beers and ate thai food whilst i carved this little fellow out of the side of a pumpkin.
It was so awesome, I dont know why we dont do this in Australia!

Skyline Chili- The Famous Cheese Coney 25-11-08

Ever since Dr Joanna Rosing came to visit us in Australia in June of this year I have wanted to try a cheese coney chili dog from Skyline Chili. I was told in no uncertain terms that i was not to try one at Goldstar!

So today Aileen took me to try the famous Chili dog. They are GREAT!! I will be consuming more of these I am sure.

Cincinnati OH- Day 1

After arriving in Indianapolis at 7:45pm last night, Aileen and her parents picked me up from the airport and we headed back to Cincinnati. On the way we stopped at a Casino and had a buffet dinner. It was around 11:30 by the time we got home. I fell into bed and passed out until around 9:30 this morning.

After I rose this morning we headed downtown and attended mass. It was so weird to hear it read with an American accent. We then walked across the pedestrian bridge to Newport, Kentucky.
We had lunch in an awesome pizza restaurant named Dewey's. The pizza's here are about the size of a truck tire and are absolutely loaded with topping!!.

After we gorged ourselves we went and watched the New bond film (It is amazing, all should go and see) before walking back to Cincinnati Ohio.

Tonight Aileen and I went to Visit one of her Friends, Susan Arbogast, whom I am pleased to report is a lovely young woman. She will be featured in this blog in the very near future I am sure.

So it is now 3:45am and I cannot sleep. I woke up and my stomach was rumbling. I then realised that it is because it thinks that it is dinner time. It was so weird eating pizza today at what my stomach still felt was 6am! HA! So anyway, its 3:45 and i've just polished off a Burrito and two cupcakes. I think i might go back to bed now cos i'm getting sleepy again.
I was trying to get my Mums attention so that we could skype (your not home obviously mum......when you aren't home, i'll have to teach you how to set your skype to "away" or "not online" to avoid confusion and getting ones hopes up ;-) ) but seeings how I cannot i guess i'll just have to wait until tomorrow to talk to her.

Bye for now

Trouble Free Departure- FAIL!

So I arrived at the terminal today and headed for check-in. After my farewell party last night I was feeling a little shady to say the least. Imagine my disbelief to find that the travel agent who was looking after my trip had booked my flight back to Australia 92 days after my arrival. The problem with this is that the visa waiver program only allows me entry for 90 days.
2 hours and 45 phone calls later i have changed my return flight and can now finally get that cup of coffee that i have been waiting for all morning.

I am about to set sail.
See you all there,
James

Ready, Set, Go!!!

After weeks of stressing, trying to renovate my house and pack up all of my belongings I am finally able to relax. After having an offer made on my house and contracts drawn up 6 hours before I was set to leave, things were already tight. I arrived in Newcastle on Tuesday morning to visit my family for a few days before I set off on a journey to the other side of the globe.
I hope you enjoy this blog as I travel to another land seeing new sights and embarking on new adventures.

Cheers,

James