Athlete days in SoCal.

I arrived in San Diego late last Sunday night for what was to be my first athlete days for the year. It was scheduled then to coincide with the end of the Tour of California while all the hype about the race was still fresh in the minds of the public.

I was flying Frontier Airlines to SD, which is great, as I usually find them really good airline. Only problem is, no matter what airline you are with, you never know who you might be put next to. I was in the middle seat, and the lady by the window was very nice. The one by isle however, was a little more awkward. When I got to the seat, she was on the phone, in tears. I felt sorry for her at first, but then she started to get all s****y at me when I wanted to sit down. This was followed by even more excessive crying to the point where she was balling her eyes. Most people hate being put next to a crying child, but I would have welcomed that.

I did survive that, after which the evening began to improve. I went out to dinner to the nearby Joe's crab shack restaurant. It's a chain restaurant which I hadn't been to before, so decided to check it off the list. I don't think it was the best food ever but I'll give top marks for the service. Definitely the flirtiest waitresses around.

Monday morning and it was time to head off to work. Usually I fit a ride in the morning, but without a bike (I'm still in waiting) that wasn't going to happen. Instead I did some core strength training, and this just left me nursing my sore abs the rest of the day.
We spent Monday wondering around SD and visiting a few docs and so far. But the highlight of the day was visiting the pediatric clinic. Apidra has just been given indication for children, so this was the first time I had been able to talk to kids with type 1 and their families. The kids seemed pretty cool, and one young man even gave the room a demonstration on how he put on his OmniPod.

The meeting ended just after 6, at which point I was put in a car driven up to LA. The first hour of the drive was taken up by conference to 'practice' an athlete day. Good thing I got to do that, otherwise I might have started to miss docs/reps heaven forbid.

That car trip did take me to Beverly Hills though, where I would start my next days rounds. Of course I didn't have a bike, but I wanted to cruise around Beverly and check out Hollywood and so on. I made the best of the situation, and reserved a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Of course I'd have to start somewhere. Anyone who's heard me sing knows how much talent I have, so I thought I'd go to the same place that all the no hopers who struggle to hold a tune as I do go: the Kodak Theatre aka the home American Idol. I just hope I'm bad/terrible/dramatic/sad enough to get my 15min of fame.

Although my singing didn't appeal to anyone in Hollywood, I did run into my old girlfriend for the first time since the ING Capitol Criterium in September last year (see archives for old posts). And Ariel was still looking as hot as always.

Of course I did have some athlete days to do. I had to sneak in the back entrance at lunch due to the insane number of teenage girls that were lining up to see me. Or maybe they were there for the Jonas Brothers. I don't know, could be either.

After a successful day in LA, which included a lot of last minute drop ins (they were quite fun, even if a little disorganised), it was off to Santa Barbara for dinner. The function in SB was good fun, with a lot of young doctors pretty keen to hear from not just me, but also the local expert. Below is a photo of the Sanofi crew at dinner.

The next day was the final in visits for the week. There was a talk at the hospital which was well attended, and I did enjoy talking to a range of people. Unlike 2 days before when I had kids and their families, this time there was also adults. It was nice to have more variety in the day.

So there it is, my opener for the year, and no, not my racing opener. Of course after that I was still in SB, so I thought I'd go check out the town.

I did find a bike to ride, if only I had found it earlier.

And yes, I was kinda close to home. Just follow this direction across the sea for 10,000km and you're there. Just take a boat, the rest is in walking distance.

The next day I was on a plane off to Richmond, VA for the first time. After having a fat women crying next to me on the way in, I thought I deserved something a little better. But after boarding the plane in Dallas where I had a layover I wasn't to happy see a women walking towards me with an extender seat belt in hand. 'Twas quite a relief when she decided not to sit next me. It's usually upsetting when a women doesn't want to be near me, but not this time.

Until next time, take care