Tag: Islands

30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #5 – Run the Thompson Island 4k Trail Run

Geoff W

2014 09-18 Thompson Island Sibling SelfieMy 30×30 list is now 50% complete. BOOM! I’m definitely behind schedule, but I’ve got this.

I replaced the original #5 and #6 after I injured my ankle in late June and couldn’t run or work out for almost two months. So instead of running a 10k and a half marathon, hello first two items on my future 40×40 list, I added Run the Thompson Island 4k Trail Run and Bike 10 miles on the harbor walk.

My sister and I, sibling selfie above, agreed ages ago to do this trail run as it’s what first brought me to work for Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center (TIOBEC) I joined TIOBEC as a temp to help process data and they eventually found room in their budget to higher me full-time. While employed there I worked three trail runs and loved how much fun everyone had, but never got the chance to run one. Last year I had a conflict with my current job, but this year we were going to do it!

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2014 Challenges, Books

Book 298: L’America – Martha McPhee

Geoff W

McPhee, Martha - L'AmericaHonestly, I’m sad I didn’t like this as much as I thought I would. Seriously, I’ve given it the lowest rating of the year so far. I bought it in one of my bulk buys at the 2011 Boston Book festival and haven’t thought of it since. It came up on my list when I used random.org to select my next book.

Even though I finished it, I just could not invest in this book, and that’s never a good sign. It started off slow, and thankfully did pick up a good bit, but still finished slow. Seriously go read the paragraph long sentence that was the final sentence of the novel. Not fun.

I think where I struggled to enjoy the book and where the author struggled to write the book was in converting an excellent idea into a manageable and digestible amount. Thankfully, the book wasn’t longer, but it really struggled through the first half. Beth felt like a whiny idiot (she was a teenager) and Cesare just felt frigid and unapproachable. This definitely changed toward the end, but it didn’t change fast enough or thoroughly enough to make me want to bump up my rating.

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