That was the week, that was
Last week was a bit nuts.
On Monday I had the Smartphone Show to prepare for – in the end, that seemed to consist mainly of filing some patents, deciding who I wanted to talk to, what to say, and preparing slides/etc.
Then the Smartphone Show itself on Tuesday and Wednedsay. Previously when I’ve been to those shows, I’ve effectively been passively absorbing stuff. This time I was positively trying to network, and it was exhausting! I thought the show would be a bit of a damp squib as I didn’t have anything to demonstrate, but it wasn’t – I was continuously talking to people one way or another.
This left Thursday and Friday to squeeze in my part-time contracting for the week, a task in which I failed, leaving a backlog of work to do this week.
Finally, on Saturday and Sunday, the second event of the week which I was scared of – the Marin Dusk ‘Til Dawn Mountain Bike Race. This was from Saturday 7pm till Sunday 7am. I had a dual role – I was a member of a team of four (relay style); but my wife was crazy enough to try it solo, so I was also her support team and pit crew.
The race went pretty good for me – I was lucky (?) enough to get the first lap, where there’s loads of jostling among the 400-odd riders along the (wide) forest roads before the entrance to the first bit of (single-file) singletrack. This was lots of fun. I managed reasonably good times of 0:52, 0:48, 0:46 and 0:51 for my four 9.2-mile laps, though I did manage to waste two minutes when the cleat came off the bottom of my shoe. Our team came 30th out of 78 teams which we’re quite pleased with.
Claire meanwhile did excellently – she survived all twelve hours, paced herself correctly, and covered over 100 miles. Which I think is pretty amazing off-road. Solo results aren’t available yet but either way, just lasting for the whole 12 hours is an achievement.
Anyway, I’m glad the week is over. This week I’ll probably just be doing stuff on my contract to make up for last week’s backlog, but that’s OK.