Completion

Well, I have finally completed the Concept2 Holiday Challenge, just in the nick of time (that's 200,000 m between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve). I think I'm one of the last members of my team to complete the Challenge; it's the kind of thing that a person is inclined to announce to one's teammates because it's a feat to complete it. This is only the second time I've completed the full Challenge. Last year was the first time; the year before that, I think I was recovering from a lower-back injury (and mono, still); and the year before that I only managed to get in 100,000m before I had to leave for Australia.

I celebrated with a croissant and latte from Le Fournil. They have a fantastic breakfast deal - the whole shebang only costs $4.25 after tax. That's how much a lot of lattes cost in Arizona, without a pastry. I don't know how the Seattle coffeeshops keep prices so low, but perhaps it's a matter of competition. Regardless, that croissant and latte definitely kept me motivated through the final meters. I went out with a bang, too, setting a new personal record for a half-marathon (1:32:25.2) and tying for first in the world rankings for half-marathons (though I should note that there are only 12 women in my age category who have ranked their times, and I have a couple of seconds over the other two tied first-placers).

Rowing at the Pocock Center is always inspiring. This morning, while I erged, a women's team worked on their overall fitness with a weight/strength circuit. I was motivated by all of the women doing lunges and carrying weights over their heads all around the fitness room. These aren't Olympic athletes, either - they're everyday rowers. I've also watched jumpies and burpees aplenty. I deeply wish I could bring Arizona rowers up to this boathouse for just a day, so I could point things out and go, "See? See?" But I also take pride in how well K and I motivate ourselves in the absence of this sort of environment. Ahh, Seattle, if only you knew how good you have it!

Ideas from Seattle

Although it was somewhat exhausting (and I expect scrottie will agree), it was really nice to have a chance to really show S around town. In my experience, expatriate Seattlites become notorious for talking a lot about our city of origin. But I like to think it's because this city is doing a lot of things the right way. Here are a couple of examples, some of which I've already talked about:

Bicycling Infrastructure
Most of the bicycle lanes and routes in Seattle are designed to actually go somewhere.

Seattle has been busy updating this infrastructure as well. Pretty much everywhere I ride, I see sharrows now. I was skeptical about sharrows when they first started appearing - did they really actually do anything? By now, the sharrows are common enough that I can expect to see at least a couple on every ride that I go on. That means that motorists are probably seeing them everywhere as well. Unlike the "Share the Road" signs (which I love to bash for their meaninglessness), sharrows contain information. They indicate where a bicyclist should be riding on the roadway. I think the Scottsdale and Tempe police would be shocked if they saw where the sharrows are placed in this town. They also give me a feeling of legitimacy when I'm on a given roadway; I can instantly tell that bicycles are supposed to be there. Many of the "Share the Road" signs in Tempe are along major arterials where speed limits are around 45 mph and where there's no bike lane in sight. Conditions are intimidating enough to make a bicyclist try to do anything possible to avoid such roadways, even though bicyclists have a right to be there.

Driving culture is also different here. I think in the entire time I've been here so far, there have only been a handful of moments when motorists have been anything less than courteous (and in some cases, I think their behavior was appropriate because we occupied a major roadway instead of a neighboring bicycle route). S found it to be a little bit over-the-top, because there's an overly-polite "No, you go first" exchange at a lot of intersections. Still, I'd take that any day over the aggressive driving style in Arizona.

Wayfinding signs have continued to spring up. Riding a bicycle is energetically expensive, so bicyclists subconsciously take a number of different strategies to reduce their energy expenditures in ways that cars do not. Motorists actually take a lot of vehicle-oriented wayfinding signs for granted (I have to stop and consider how easy it was to get to the airport yesterday with S - I didn't have to check a single map!). Bicyclists need to know where the major neighborhoods are located, and like to know how far away they are. The wayfinding signs nicely complement the sharrows. Imagine if there were wayfinding signs to help bicyclists navigate between major neighborhoods in Phoenix. That would save me from a lot of those moments where I would normally have to stop and pull out a giant map.

Waste Reduction
I read an article this morning in the paper about a new waste-reduction program that's getting underway. Basically, the neighborhood that does the most to reduce its waste production will win a $50,000 prize, to go towards a project in that neighborhood.

The City of Seattle has set up a couple of other programs that are worth talking about, too. Trash bills are determined by the size of a household's trash can. So my parents have a small box (a 12-gallon micro-can) and pay less to have its contents hauled away each week. The City provides recycling and yard waste service as well, and the City regularly talks about its goals to reduce waste production city-wide. S found it kind of funny that residents pay to have yard waste hauled away and composted, and also pay to pick up some of that composted material. Personally, I'd rather pay for that than pay to have Tempe throw my yard waste in a landfill.

There's a strong cultural element to a lot of these things. That's a part of what's missing in the GPSA (Greater Phoenix Suburb-o-politan Area); no shared culture of conservation. I will continue to wonder what it takes to go from these great ideas to their actualization in Arizona. If only the area were self-aware enough to look at other cities and start competing with them over a greater realized quality of life.