Winding down day at interconnect. Enjoyed not having to think about my talks. Spent the time meeting work friends and connecting on many topics. The main wonderful thing of the day was an early morning run with a bunch of folks at red rocks park about 10 miles out of veegsa..

There were about 30 of us…  and the main motivation was to run with Simon.. the awsome blind ultra marathoner who spoke in my session yesterday

 

we all met at 4:445 AM this morning at the mgm..

 

there was a very nice driver waiting for us

 

two treats were that my freind cate from colorado and my freind smul from Tel aviv were there and got to meet.. 

 

I sat next to simon on the bus and we spoke about running, blindness, captive technology and beer.. all good topics for 5 AM.. he’d been up all night drinking and dancing.. so he was more awake than i..

 

we got to red rocks at 5 30.. it was freezing and the sun was just rising.. so beautiful !

 

here’s small looking like the long distance runner he is !!! It was just SO awesome getting to hang out with him

I can’t say I ran with him because I think he’s twice as fast as i am 🙂

 

 

we had the park road to ourselves

 

we took the road for a while then headed down on a beautiful trail. mid way of the 6 miles we stopped for a picture

 

here’s cate and drought.. drought is from Vienna.. but lives in Munich.. a great connection for me. 

 

the colors on the rocks were amazing as the sun rose

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note they are both wearing NY marathon shirts.. how cool is that ? \\

 

i found a cool place for a samstone

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this one looked like a turtle !

 

one more photo at the turn around point..   right don wind from the latrine. !.. glad i didn’t use a smellephoto

 

we decided to run back on the road with simon.. .. great swapping stories.. he’s amazing to watch.. he runs fine with just one guy next to him as a guide.. Jamie..his guide isn’t a runner.. which was funny..    this would not be my choice of a first run .. but he did great !

 

we saw wild donkey poop !

 

by the end we were all friends.. here’s jean with Simon.. jean is a world champion marathoner… .. just an amazing guy !

 

small did the trail and got back almost as fast as we did on the road !

heres the gang 6 -7 miles aer.. great, great group of folks !

 

everyone piled back on the bus.. Walt had a car and took us straight t to the mandalay in time for my first meeting at 9 !

 

not much else to report for the day.. one other high point was seeing my good freind Lisa and one of her twins, emily !

 

and my freind Miko from Finland.. u.. such a nice person !

ok.. meeting friends for dinner.. I gotta get my self up and out.. More later !

 

missing diane and the doggies.. kinda wish i were home.. but looking forward to outdoors and concert with shamble and dog tomorrow too !

 

night all, night sam

-me

I’m tired happy and kinda overwhelmed. I did my 2nd talk today and it went well. I was nervous as hell at first with such  big audience (someone said 8000, but i think it was more like 5000). it doesn’t pay to count at that point. I can finally relax.. as always i’m beating myself up for being so freaked out before hand..

even so.. the relief  of being done feels like it’s worth it.. … (of course, thats not taking into acorn all the other peoples lives I interfered with in the days before…). i would love to break this pattern of worry/relief..   any suggestions welcome

I met some really amazing people today.. one hilight was 12 year old Tanmay.. and amazing brillint, nice and fun programmer from Toronto and his parents. They were all so nice. .. Looking forward to collaboratinge with tan may in the future on cognitive iot.

I really did enjoy cruzing around afterwards today.. i finally could sit down and see stuff, attend talks and talk with reminds. Tonight was a an elton john concert. He’s really an amazing perfomer.. I sat through 4-5 songs.. but just couldn’t get in tot he music.. so walked home. It was nice being outside for a bit..

i’m waking up at 4 to go with a bunch of folks to run 7 miles in the dessert with Simon.. a blind ultramarathn runner.. should be cool !

Nite  all, nite sam

-me

 

Oooops! Been thinking so hard about my last big talk of this conference tomorrow morning that I almost forgot the blog. I hope folks will forgive me that I won’t spend too much time doing it now. Got to get a good nights sleep. Wish me luck ! Hope it is OK to keep asking for luck.. Guys are sending seems to be working 🙂

night all, night Sam

– Me

First talk down.. one to go. As always I was soon nervous before the talk.. and so happy afterwards . It’s a bit like skydiving I think.. it’s so scary beforehand, but the rush is amazing… Now.. if I can only get that rush with out the fear

thats would be amazing

 

thats what I gotta do..

too tired to type more… more tomorrow

nite all , nite sam !

-me