August 4

This morning I enjoyed sleeping in before starting my relaxed day. :) This afternoon I ran some errands on campus then went for a walk, taking my binoculars and camera with me. I ended up seeing a new bird that I could identify (gray shrike-thrush), another new little gray bird that I haven't been able to identify yet, and some of the usual birds. I was able to get some photos of some new species, and some better photos of species that I have taken photos of before. I have uploaded the red wattlebird, red-rumped parrots, and white-faced heron photos that I got.

After my walk I got ready to go for a run. I ran for only about 18 minutes, but I explored some dirt trails through the park and mainly just ran to loosen up my muscles. I was a little tight at the start, but by the time I finished my body felt much better. I got my City to Surf bib claim card today in the mail. I have to present this card on the morning before the race in order to get my racing bib. My bib number is 639 which is really exciting. Because that means that they read my letter and considered my Boilermaker time from last year, so that I will be starting off the race in the top-1,000 runners! It's really hard to even RUN a race if you start out with too many thousands of people in front of you (I know this from experience), because it's like trying to go 65 mph in rush hour around Philadelphia. But, being in the top-1,000 for the start means I should be able to run the whole race. If I'm lucky I'll finish the race in less than one hour, and I should be in the top-2,000 finishers overall (out of ~50,000 participants). I'm excited! I was talking to one of the other Americans (Melissa) yesterday about going to Sydney on Thursday, and she's probably going to come along. That means for the two days before the race, I'll have someone to be a tourist with me, which is way better than going alone.