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I’ve been thinking about MOvember 2009 a lot lately.

The other day, I had an idea that some might consider grand.

On October 4th is the Run for the Cure, a 5k running race. I’ve done this a couple of times, because my work sets up a booth and tells people about what a great job we do with mammograms (which we do, by the way).
I’ve shown up, ran the thing and then hung out at the booth for a bit.

Now, here’s my idea for this year:

• Citizens of MOvember sign up under a City of ReMO team.
• We don’t have to run, just participate. Lots of people walk the whole event, and chat with people. Say hello to getting people to sponsor your Mo! (We should have things to hand out, flyers or cards)
• We wear  a tshirt with our awesome logo.
• We rock out with a lovely hair ribbon, aka Moustache.

I mean, we have time to get ready for this event! First of all, there’s enough time to train to at least be able to jog the whole thing (check out the couch to 5k program!). More importantly, it’s plenty of time to develop some respectable whiskers. Hair growth can happen in any shape, and doesn’t have to be a Mo. It would only become a Mo on race day.

For example, I’d keep my goatee until the day of the event. Easy to do, no body laughs at me. On the morning of October 4th, before putting my socks and shoes on, I shave to leave the Mo.
With my fancy tshirt, I show up to the event with a nice brown ribbon on my lip, where I meet my Mo-bros and we accomplish many goals:

1. We support women in their fight against breast cancer. Because we care.
2. We spread the word about our own cause, because we want people to care about us.
3. We get some exercise, fresh air and -hopefully- compliments about our lovely moustaches.
4. We get to know more Mo-bros.

Wouldn’t that be awesome? I do believe so.

Last week was the 2009 edition of the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey. This is that crazy 178-mile running race that I did last year, and I enjoyed so much that I signed myself up for to do again – and probably will do again next year. The RGJ has a decent article on it, which even includes a small interview with my team’s captain, Joe Dito.

This year, I was runner number 5 (out of 12). The course is divided in 36 legs, so each runner gets to run 3 legs of about 5 miles, on average. My leg assignments added up to 13.4 miles, and here’s the breakdown of how it all went.

• Leg 5: 5.8 miles – Moderate rating.
  The weather was great. Overcast skies, and the wind that an hour earlier was making me concerned was now a gentle breeze. I don’t think I’d ever ran such a long distance (even in my training!), but I was ready for it. My goals were to finish it in less than an hour, to never stop to walk and to avoid getting passed by someone running behind me.
  I accomplished all of my goals, and ran this bad boy in 48 minutes, putting me at a pace of a mile in 8 minutes and 16 seconds.
  Since this was such a long haul, and there were a few hills to climb, I brought along some Luna Moons for a little energy boost. They’re designed marketed for women, but I got them in my goodie bag for the race, and I was sure I’d put them to good use… and I did. I’m not sure how much they helped in my actual performance, but they certainly took my mind off of the task at hand when I had to go up a steep grade. The flavor was good, but the best part was that they’re so chewy that they got stuck to my teeth and gums, and I was too busy trying to clean up the mess inside my mouth with my tongue to wallow in the effort I was putting in.
  For the last couple of miles, I had a horrible side ache (aka Side Stitch). I wanted to walk it off, but I also wanted to perform well, so I exercised a little bit of focus, controlled my breath a bit more, and kept on pushing.
  Soon enough, my leg was over, and I was finally able to catch my breath and rest up. I was dead tired, but as soon as I found out that I beat my goal by 12 minutes, a feeling of accomplishment overwhelmed me, and I wasn’t in pain anymore. Or at least, I didn’t feel it.
• Leg 17: 4.2 miles – Easy rating.
  I thought this was going to be my strongest leg, but I feel like it was my weakest of the three. It was a pretty flat course, without much traffic. My goals were the same as before, and I was shooting for 25 minutes.
  I finished in 30 minutes, but I didn’t get passed, didn’t walk, and I also didn’t get eaten by a bear… which was a concern while running through the woods by South Lake Tahoe, at midnight.
  Maybe I was going fast (after all, I was doing a 7:08 – mile pace), but I felt like I was just cruising along. I blame the beautiful starry night and the silence, the feeling of being so small when you’re running in the darkness with a tiny headlamp lighting up only 20 feet in front of you, the lack of sleep and the fatigue from the earlier undertaking.
  The temperature was around 50 degrees, but I once again finished my leg nice and sweaty. No side ache this time, which added to my feeling that I didn’t push it hard enough to make my goal. Oh well.
• Leg 29: 3.4 miles – More Challenging rating.
  Saturday. We woke up at 4AM, south of Carson City. Our Odyssey was almost over, but we still had quite a few miles to go.
  I was nauseous, sleepy and starting to feel tightness in my muscles. One by one, the runners in my van did their legs, and my turn was coming up.
  My leg was going to be the toughest one yet, going up from Highway US 50, into Silver City. A whole lot of uphill. And even though it wasn’t even 7am when I started running, my shirt came off less than a mile into it, thanks to the sun and the toughness of the road in front of me.
  I was tired. I was going very slowly, yet I never walked. I just kept on going, hoping to finally pass someone. I hadn’t been passed by anyone, but I hadn’t gotten any “roadkill”, and some of my teammates had gotten to pass more than a handful of people.
  Halfway there, a lady in her late 30s (I guessed at the time) ran right past me. Holy smokes, she had energy, and she was going at least 2 mph faster than me. I try to go a bit faster, and I see her passing someone else, not too far ahead from me. I think to myself that I might not catch the lady that passed me, but I made it my goal to catch up, and pass, the other person that she’d just passed as well. At least to break even with the roadkills: get passed once, pass someone once.
  On the steepest part of my leg, I caught up to this other person. It was another lady, with a tattoo of a maple leaf on the right calf. I was right behind her for a good 5 minutes, slowly but surly closing in, and feeling like if I kept up the effort, I’d pass her.
  Sure enough, I passed her. Damn, I felt good. But I also noticed how tired I was right after I passed her. I wanted to give her a high five, say “good game” and walk the rest of my leg. But to hell with that, I kept on pushing, making sure she wouldn’t catch me. If I maintained my gain, I would finish the race proud of my performance, and that was my motivation to not give up.
  Less than half a mile to go, my teammates are cheering me on. They’re telling me I’m almost there.
  Eric hands me some water and tells me that if I really push it, I’m going to pass a guy right before finishing. And then, he starts running next to me, even though he’s dead tired and he’s all done with his assigned legs.
  I turn up the effort to “balls deep” and I see the guy. Eric tells me that right after a curve about 100 yards away, I’m done. I think I can give it my all, but I’m really hoping that he’s not lying so that I turn up the heat, because I’m really running out of juice.
  Turns out, he wasn’t lying. I’m doing my best impression of a sprint after going 3 miles uphill, and I pass the guy. In less than a hundred strides, I’m also done. Once again, covered in sweat. But also, with a huge smile on my face, feeling like I truly did give it my best shot.
  I ask what my time was, and they tell me that I finished my leg in 32 minutes. Slow, but I didn’t care, because I really didn’t feel like I could have gone any faster. I also don’t care because I’m done, the race is over for me. And I finished with a positive roadkill ratio, 2 to 1!

However, it wasn’t just about me. A big part of the fun of this race is the teamwork, the encouraging of your teammates as they run for miles and miles. I was very lucky to have an awesome crew, which definitely enhances the experience.
I’m not a hardcore runner, I do this kind of stuff for fun. I can’t imagine being in a team where everyone is dead serious the whole time, and I’m very thankful that that wasn’t the case.
Josh, Eric, Karin, Bryan and Amy: Thank you for making the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey about a lot more than just running. You are all wonderful people on top of being speedy runners.

Nevertheless, this was a race. Sure, we had fun. In fact, we had a lot of fun. But we also kicked ass. Our team, Venetian Skunk, ended up placing 7th overall, and there were 110 teams signed up. Oh yeah, we kicked a lot of ass.

Now, I leave you with a picture of me at the finish line, after having taken a shower and a quick 20 minute nap. If you click on it, you can get to the album with the rest of the pictures that I took.

Today is the official Bike to Work day in 2009. I hope you rode your bike if your commute is less than 10 miles one way!

As for me, I started the day early. I took off at around 6.45am, and headed to one of the participating coffee shops, the Purple Bean. I showed my helmet, and they hooked me up with free coffee! Yeah!
The barista was very friendly and attentive, and asked me what I wanted. I told her I had no clue, since I never drink coffee… so I asked her to make me something sweet, and she served me a Mocha. It was delicious!
I sat outside while I drank my coffee -it’s kind of hard to sip on a very hot beverage and ride in traffic- and watched the day roll by. A lot of people in their car checked me out as they got their coffee at the drive-thru, but at least there were banners everywhere that explained why there was a silly guy sipping on coffee next to his bike. I nodded at those that established eye contact as I chilled out.

After finishing my coffee and leaving a small tip, I moved on to the Reno Bike Project.
Just like last year, they were doing free breakfast, which included pancakes, bacon, hash browns, fruit and coffee. However, this year was better than last. It was at their new location, which is a lot more visible, welcoming and easy to find. There was also a DJ, who was playing some very cool chill-out music.
The RBP staff did a great job at keeping the food available, and there wasn’t even a line to get food! They opened their garage door and set up a small kitchen facing 4th street. It was perfect, and it showed that they thought it out very well. The RBP continues to be a kick-ass place, and I’m really glad that they’re only a couple of blocks away from work.
I hung out at the Pancake Feed for about 30 minutes, and chatted it up with a few strangers. JP Zunini (whom I met when I was an exchange student) from KRNV was there and interviewed me, so I might be on the news.

A great way to start a Friday, and now I have a lot of positive energy from having had such a good start to the day. If you’d like to see how my ride went, you can check out my bike route here.

Good day!

I’ll make this quick.

Last night, someone broke a window in my car and stole a bunch of stuff. The stuff is just stuff, but the two biggest pains that this has caused are:

1. Kelly’s purse from Fiji is gone, and it’s irreplaceable.
2. Our trip to Southern California is delayed, because there are no places that do car window repairs on Sundays – specially Easter Sunday!

So anyway. Reports have been filed with the Reno Police Department, and now we’re hoping they catch the guy when he tries to sell either my camera or my iPod. If anyone sees the following, please be weary and contact me ASAP:

• 80 Gb video iPod, color black. Serial number 8K730DA0V9R.
• Alpine IDA-X200 car stereo. Serial number D80332449. Which I doubt will be re-sold, since they broke it and left half the circuitry in the car’s dash.
• Canon Rebel XT camera. With a Tamron 18-200mm lens, a 50mm Canon, a Speedlite 430 EX, in a nice Canon backpack, with a bunch of other small accessories (8Gbs worth of flash cards, remote, filters, manuals, a no-brand flash and wireless flash triggers). The serial number is either 2420701145 or 1874266151. I’m not sure which one, since Lightroom and Aperture are giving me different numbers in the EXIF data.

We’re still going to Southern California, so if any of these items pop up while we’re gone, I’m hoping someone can buy them, and get a picture of the guy selling them, and a phone number or email address.
Hopefully that’d lead to finding the rest of the stuff, and more importantly, getting a criminal out of the streets.

If nothing happens, oh well. Kelly and I will still have an awesome trip, and we’ll eventually recover all the stuff that was stolen. Including a purse from Fiji, which we’ll just have to go shopping for… in Fiji.

It was a Friday morning. I woke up, and checked the weather forecast. 70 degrees. Nice!

Riding my bike to work sounded like a good idea, so I geared up and headed out the door. I forgot my helmet, so I turned around to get it, and I was 100% geared up after I strapped my brain armor on.

I was happily riding at a speed of 15 mph, or more, East-bound on 4th street. I was almost to work, but I didn’t know what was about to happen.

A silver Ford Escort suddenly is making a left turn into Record street, coming in from the other side of 4th street. In other words, he was driving West-bound, and made a left turn, thusly having to cross the lane upon which I travel.

Unfortunately for all, he “did not see me”, and I did not have enough time to come to a full stop, or to maneuver around him. Instead, here’s what I did as I noticed that our paths had suddenly crossed, and we were destined for a collision:
I reached for my breaks, and squeezed those puppies like they were my glutes and I was competing for Mr. Olympia.
As my back tire skidded, I realized that I was going to ram into the car anyway. So I did what any reasonable person would do: scream. A guttural and very loud “AAARRRRGGGGGHH” came out, and quickly transformed into a “UUGGHHH” as my front tire hit the front-right of the car, and I flew over my handlebar.
From here, my memories are blurred. It goes from the yelping, to my chin hitting the windshield and then I’m standing there, with my bike on the ground.

The driver of the car stopped his car, and stepped out. He seemed very upset that I would dare run into his vehicle. I reached for my phone, with the intent of making sure I at least got his license plate number… but hey, he didn’t have plates! Dialog ensued:

Me: Where are your plates?
Him: I ain’t got none. What you gonna do, call the police?
Me: Yup.
Him: You got in my way.
Me: I had the right of way. You made a left turn when you shouldn’t have.
Him: Right of way? Haha, get out!

I found it interesting that someone who doesn’t have plates, would be telling me about how the traffic laws go.

And so it was, I called 911. And within minutes, there was a firetruck, an ambulance and two police vehicles. I felt kind of bad that so much attention was being brought, all I wanted was some sweet justice.
The firefighters were the first ones to see me, since their station was a block away, they got there first. They looked at me, asked if I was ok, and kind of looked around. As the paramedics showed up, they left me to their care.
The EMT took a good look at me, and I then realized I had blood on my hands. Shit! My chin! They inspected, and it didn’t look like anything serious. I explained to them that I have some old stitches on my chin (from when I was learning to dive in volleyball… and I wasn’t really getting it, obviously), and that it feels like that’s where the blood was coming out from. They checked my eyes, and made sure I wasn’t about to pass out, and then asked me if it was ok for them to leave, to which I said yes.

Then, the police report. I explained what I was doing, and how everything happened, and the driver of the car was also questioned.
I’m pretty sure they had to explain to him that even though I’m a simple bike rider, I still have rights, and I did indeed have the right of way.
The fact that there was a huge skid mark on the right side of the lane I was ridding in, proved that I was in full compliance with the law.
The cop filing all the paperwork was very nice. He took a lot of pictures, and he also told me that he likes to ride his bike to work. I took that as a good sign, I knew I was in good hands and that the cop wasn’t going to tell me that I don’t belong on the roads or something outlandish like that.

An hour later, papers were served. Once again, I was the witness of someone else being served a citation, and all I got was a receipt of the report. I was sent on my way, and now here I am, finally at work.

My chin is alright, it’s not bleeding profusely, and I’m sure it’ll heal up quickly. Besides, my beard covers it pretty well. I’m sure my neck will be stiff tomorrow, but I feel just fine right now.
I could have walked off the scene without a problem, I stayed because I wanted a police report. I kind of wanted to throw my helmet into his windshield, and ride away. I’m glad I resisted the urge, because there were a lot of witnesses. 4th and Record street is an infamous homeless hangout, but at no moment did I feel unsafe around them.

My bike is also just fine. The hoods of my brakes were bent, but I easily bent them back to where they should go. My handlebar is a little bit off, and not exactly perpendicular to my front tire, but nothing that can’t be fixed with some tools and a good eye. The tire itself is not bent, and as soon as I was dismissed, I rode off, and everything felt and sounded normal.

I’m pretty sure I could go through my insurance to get something out of the poor bastard (he uses ACCURATE INSURANCE), but I won’t. There’s no need. The guy got a lesson on traffic, and a citation as well. Justice was served.

PS: I’m damn glad I look like a retard and wear a helmet. I’d rather look than become one.

I did it! Click on play in the window below to see some of the pictures.

At 5pm of Monday March 9, 2009, I entered Aces Tattoo with Kelly. She already has a couple of tattoos, so she came with me for moral support, photographic documentation (which she did great, as you can see above), and to find out if I was going to endure the pain.

After a little bit of waiting and hanging out, I was called to the table by Jared. My hands started sweating as soon as I sat down. The first poke of the needle wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. A sharp, very localized pain, but nothing too great.
In less than a minute, the outline was done! I was excited, this wasn’t bad at all.

Then the coloring began, and the story changed. Kelly says my face went pale. And with reason. I was hurtin’. The worst part was at the top, over the eyes section. I also felt the most intense discomfort when he’d been doing a long streak, without stopping. Breaks were a welcome thing, although I didn’t say anything and tried to take it like a manly man. But I don’t think I fooled anyone.

Luckily, 40 minutes later, no tears had been shed, and the job was done! The owl was now in, on my left shoulder. It was wrapped up, and I was on my way out the door.

I’ve been babying the fresh tattoo with Aquaphor, and it’s healing up nicely. The colors are starting to come in, and I expect to have it fully healed and looking awesome in a couple of weeks. A picture will certainly come.

And another tattoo, sometime in the future, will definitely come as well.

Wow, that was fun!
There ended up being a lot more zombies than I -or anyone else- expected. Some people counted over a hundred at times! Most bars couldn’t handle the sheer amount of thirsty, loud, smelly zombies, so eventually the zombie mob disbanded into multiple smaller mobs.
As predicted, there were some awesome zombies, with very elaborate make up, and there were some that hadn’t put too much effort into it. As you can see, I probably fell somewhere in the middle, and almost looked like the Joker.
At any rate, on top of being a zombie, and enjoying all the drink specials at every bar that we went, I had a special assignment. I had magically landed my first freelance photography gig, and it was to get action shots of the Crawl!
Luckily, I was able to get about a dozen of decent shots, which fulfilled the request, and the pictures I took are on reno.metromix.com. It’s kind of cool to see my pictures on some sort of publication!
However, I doubt I’ll ever make a living out of this. It’s a small hobby, and if I get paid to do something I like, even better!

To sum up:
1) I got paid to take pictures for the first time ever.
2) Zombies are cool, and it was a great way to spend Halloween night.
3) Reno nightlife kicks ass.

Check out the brand new site for Reno’s Movember team: http://cityofremo.com/ . Isn’t it pretty?
Big props to @indigothirdeye and @elswkid, they did most of the work.

And speaking of Twitter, we also have a ReMo, NV account: @RemoNV! While Cory and Don spent time on making the website look pretty, I was busy clicking “Follow” on over 500 twitter accounts. If I missed you, make sure to follow us to get the latest news on ReMo!

Everyone knows that October is Cancer Awareness Month. More specifically, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Pink is everywhere, and there are a handful of events every weekend to raise awareness and funds. I even did the Race for the Cure, despite of my personal lack of breasts or the risk of having cancer in them.

What does this have to do with November? Well, November is all about gentlemen. And as gentlemen, “women first” is a motto that was followed even on occasions such as Cancer Awareness Months.
If you’re picking up what I’m putting down, November is the month to be aware of men’s health risks… specially those of Cancerous nature. And since women’s Cancer month is iconized by Breasts, men’s month is represented by Mustaches.

But wait a minute. Have I been saying November? I meant to say MOvember!
This is no joke, my friends!
Last year, a few friends and I grew Mo’s for fun, and it was a joke of sorts. (you can see my post here, and pictures here).
However, during this Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’m growing a Moustache again. That’s right! I’m bringing the Mo back because I’m passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being proactive in the fight against prostate cancer. And while hairs slowly (very slowly) grown above my lip, I hope to be able to raise some donations for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which will use the funds for high-impact research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.
Wanna help? Here’s how!

1. Click here and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account. Please notice that this is a site run by someone that is not me, and it’s 100% secure and trustworthy.
2. Play it old school and write a check payable to the ‘Prostate Cancer Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 1428001 and mailing it to:
   Prostate Cancer Foundation
   Attn: Movember
   1250 Fourth St
   Santa Monica, CA, 90401
3. Join the Remo team! We are planning an event for the last day of MOvember, where we’ll have contests and lots of fun. We even have a site up, and are working on spreading the word: http://cityofremo.com.

“But Nico, you can’t be serious. How would growing a MO help cure prostate cancer?” Allow me to spark a bit of belief in you, by making you click on this link.

Gentlemen, if you like your prostate, grow a Mo. Ladies, if you like your gentlemen, encourage him to grow a Mo!

If my argument is not good enough, maybe you didn’t know that…

• Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the US with one in six American men developing the disease and more than 28,000 men dying of the disease every year.
• African American men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease and should have regular annual testing starting at 45. All other men should commence testing at 50.
• Prostate cancer is 90% curable if detected and treated early.

I will probably be taking part of Reno’s first Zombie Crawl. Are you?

Even though I’m not as big a fan of zombies as some people, it should be fun.
Starting at Amendment 21 is a great plan, as that place is always trying to run events that are not your typical bar scene. I have no idea where it’ll go from there, but I think that if there’s a mob of at least 10 people, it won’t matter where we go, it’ll be a good time had by all.
I also plan on bringing my camera and hopefully taking some cool pictures of people’s awesome and awful costumes. I’m sure there’ll be a little bit of both.