Skip to main content

The Spring of No Starts

WOAH! I am writing about my races and running again, hooray! 😃

It's been a strange Spring season for me, where I have not raced at all. My running career is still pretty new, but having no races on the calendar since January is something I am not used to (we are in May already, yikes!).

I have signed myself up for Austin Distance Challenge last September and wanted to complete several races in my "home town" since majority of the running that I do (as in actual races, not training) is usually somewhere else. Austin Distance Challenge encourages local runners to complete a series of 5 events, varying in distance from 8K to a marathon over the course of 5 months. I thought it's an excellent idea and put my name down since I knew I would be running 3M half marathon in Austin anyways.

Well, running every single one of these races reminded me why I am cautious about "going for it" in Austin. The only race that was not super hot and/or humid was Decker Challenge. Which has 3 bazillion hills on its 13 mile course, so definitely not a PR endeavor...

However, my quest for the completed series remained unfinished.

























After running a very poorly executed 3M half marathon, I got into a repetitive pattern of either traveling (ok, that I do often) or getting sick (which I thankfully don't do that often).

Austin Half Marathon was at the tail end of one of my nasty colds, and I was supposed to get on a 10 hour flight to Europe later the same day, so pushing my body through 13 miles just did not seem like an excellent idea. I will have to come back for my Austin Distance Challenge magnet collection again!

March brought one of the most wonderful adventures I have ever taken. I travelled to Morocco with Austin's local company Rogue Expedition and had an absolutely fantastic time there. It was a run-cation, so I managed to cover almost 65 miles in 6 days time, as well as experience local food and cuisine and culture and make new friends! And nothing, nothing can top doing a speed workout in Sahara desert 😃 🐫 Here are a hundred pictures that don't do any justice to the beauty of the country and its people.




















































































































The end of Morocco trip brought another bout of virus/cold/whatever it was, and I made a very tough decision of pulling out of Manchester Marathon, that I wanted to use as "check-in" marathon before my fall goal race. I have been training as hard as I could, trying not to miss any sessions or workouts with all my crazy travel schedule, but may body was just telling me NOPE 👎 .

I am now 2,5 weeks away from another marathon, and even though my taper has not started, I am all about DON'T GET SICK. And I am running that MF even if I have to hobble along 💪🏻




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The magic of Harry Potter is real!

I was going through the pictures on my phone from my December trip to the UK, and got really nostalgic going through my memories from Warner Brothers Studio Tour on the old set of Harry Potter movies. If you are not a Potterhead, you can’t really understand my nostalgia now or my excitement then when I visited the place. But if you grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione, love the movies and is a fan in general, I am very happy to share with you what I saw. The people behind the studios did a wonderful job of recreating the feeling of magic that Harry Potter world has as well as the sense of wonder I am sure all cast and crew members shared while working on these wonderful movies for over 10 years in a row. The studio tour starts with a short film of how the books and later the movies came to be (cue tears for romantic and nostalgic idiots like me). And then the Great Hall doors open and you are part of magic! The Great Hall with Christmas Decorations Robes and food! ...

Michelle Obama at SXSW

How often do you get a chance to be in the same room with The First Lady of the United Sates? How often is that lady in question is someone that you actually admire, follow and look up to? How often does she attend a panel that is also moderated by Queen Latifah, with fellow panelists being Missy Elliott, Diane Warren and Sofia Bush? Well, it all happened at one during "Let Girls Learn" keynote panel at South by Southwest, and I just knew I had to attend it, because it was truly an opportunity of a lifetime. I knew I needed to get up early to get into the room with all these powerhouse ladies who were scheduled to attend the panel, and getting up at 5AM to see them definitely paid off, I had the best seats! The panel was dedicated to the conversations around First Lady's initiative "62 Million Girls" or "Let Girls Learn" where Mrs. Obama shared with us her dreams and plans to bring education to 62 million girls out there in the world who curren...

Another-worldly destination

Nothing can prepare you for majestic, unbelievable views of Glacier National Park! I have traveled around Europe and the States a fair bit and have seen a good share of beautiful views and wonderful places, but GNP holds a special place in my heart. You pass through an entrance gate to the park and you step into the nature embrace, it happens magically. Lake Mcdonald was one of the first wonders that we saw. Can you tell how excited I was to step out of the car and walk around after a a pretty long 10 hour drive from Portland airport? Can you also tell how nice and blue the sky was? This was one and the only evening that we saw blue skies in the park. We traveled over the Labor Day weekend and didn't expect it would be that cold and rainy there. Oh! And there was some snow too, it made it for quite treacherous conditions to hike up to the mountain lake, but we persevered!  Having complained about the weather once, I will not do it anymore, because even the coldness, b...