Four Questions

I was recently tagged by Tales From The Back Of The Pack to answer four questions about myself. Pretty cool questions so I figured I'd take the time to answer them. I was also tagged by another cool blogger for another set of, well, questions I suppose, so keep an eye out for that. Was going to include them both in same post but will post separately.

Anyway...

1. What is your favorite holiday and why? Any special traditions?

My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas. It's not so much the presents and things like that but being a dad, I really do get into the Christmas spirit. All holidays have either taken on new meanings or been re-born now since the girls have been a part of my life. Christmas is awesome because of them. Of course, they love the presents they get but they also love decorating the Christmas tree, enjoy making sugar cookies, enjoy the lights on all the houses, enjoy the Christmas carols (in both English and Spanish) and all the awesome food as well. And because they enjoy it, I enjoy it.

2. What songs are on your go-to playlist? Describe how or why the music motivates you.

We go from warm and fuzzy to this. Well, I'm not much of a soft music guy, so this is anti-warm-and-fuzzy. My playlist consists of Metallica and others. I've actually changed up my musical selections. Before I would load the last half of playlists with Metallica, figured it would give me a huge boost when I needed it the most. Lately though I've been putting their stuff throughout. Part of me realized that I wasn't getting to some of the good songs on my playlist because it would be over by then. I had a few just-in-case songs near the end, figuring that if I needed them they'd be there just in case I wasn't done, but more often than not I was done.

My top three runnings songs, though, have not changed.

3. Highwayman, Johnny Cash
2. Damage Inc., Metallica
1. Orion, Metallica

Orion is an instrumental and lasts about 8:30, so I know that when it starts to when it finishes is roughly a mile, give or take. The beginning has a bit of an ominous feel to it, which is cool, and once it gets going, it just totally allows me to get into a groove.

Lately I've been running to a lot of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as well, and I also listen to a lot of Flogging Molly, but I think I had eight Metallica and eight BRMC songs on my Long Beach Playlist.

Highwayman kind of goes against the grain but that's just an awesome song. I can lose myself in that song. It's too bad it's only about three minutes long.
3. What is your dream vacation? Money is not an issue.

Tough question. I've been to and had a great time in Costa Rica, Montreal, Trinidad & Tobago and would love to go back to one or all three. However, I'd also like to visit new frontiers.

I don't know though, I like the idea of going to some far-off remote location. I don't really have a bucket list of must-visit places but one place I'd like to go to is Perth, Australia, simply because to me it seems like the most remote location possible. Australia is remote and far off, and Perth is remote and far off within Australia. Maybe just for kicks, Perth with visits to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock while I'm at it. What sucks is my brother visited the last three places, not Perth, but the others. I mean that's good for him... so I guess I'll have to live vicarously through him.

4. Looking back at 2010 so far...what are you most proud of?

Running two marathons. I'm proud of having run my first marathon, the Surf City Marathon in February. I did that with a group, my beloved Lopers. I trained with a group and about 10 of us ran it together... for the first 12-14 miles anyway. But I'm proud as well for having trained and ran another marathon all on my own, the San Francisco Marathon. I'm also proud that it was San Francisco, "the race even marathoners fear." And I set a PR there! I beat my Surf City time by about five minutes.

Well, that's what I've got time for. I think I'm supposed to tag other bloggers but I've never been any good at that. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the answers.