A Traveling Pants Universe

After a super disappointing Spring, where I missed 3 big races because I was either sick, or traveling, or totally undertrained, I have FINALLY made it to the starting (and finish) line of another marathon. WOO HOO!! I heard about Grandma's marathon from other runners, and it was only praise and accolades. A running friend of mine was also planning to be there to run the half, it was only two weeks after my DNS at Newport marathon, so the timing to give it another try was perfect. OK, maybe not perfect, as I do think I messed up my taper with so much traveling and running all over the place and my schedule. But as my coach reminded me after my race, the lead up and training are rarely ideal. You do need to show up at least somehow prepared, otherwise the 26.2 miles will chew you up and spit you out, but maybe not every single thing has to be perfect. Well, my not-so-perfect trip to Minnesota started with me eating some bad taco at Austin airport and getting some issues with m...

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 Chal...

I am tucked in bed on a Wednesday night at 6PM. Not sure if I caught a cold, or a bug, or this is just my body telling me that I need to take a break and chill tonight, but not feeling very good at the moment. I decided it will be a good time to think about 3 months ahead of me and all the training I want to complete before Berlin Marathon 17. I ran my second 10K race this past weekend, and was very excited to get my time to under 50 minutes. My exact time was 49.51, and looking at my pace of 8.02 for 6 miles makes me incredibly proud and happy. A year ago, running a mile at 8.30 seemed pretty daunting. I knew it's going to be a nice race when I walked outside to drive to the start line, and I was not dying from humidity. Nevertheless, I decided to be cautious when I headed out on the course. I did not want to feel horrible on mile 2 and struggle for the remainder of the race, and seems like my strategy worked! It was a small and not super fast race, but still exciting to ...

It's been one month since London Marathon, and I am finally putting some words together to describe my experience there (procrastinating much?) Ever since completing Chicago in the Fall of 2016, I knew I want to try to run all 6 Major Marathons.   London is my absolute most favorite city in the world, so I had to run it as soon as possible. London is SO competitive to get into. I don't know if I will be ever able to run a 3.15 marathon (that's the championship time cut-off), and lottery chances are very very slim. So I decided to look for a charity to run London marathon with, and I found an organization named The Outward Bound Fund which helps kids from underprivileged backgrounds re-connect with life through nature. They organize trips and hikes and kayaking and other wilderness expeditions which I thought was a very cool way to help kids with. The people I worked with from the Fund have been nothing but lovely, so I am very happy with finding this great organization....

In twelve short days, I will be toeing the line of my second marathon. I am running London and I am super excited! My current running goal is to do all 6 Marathon Majors (Chicago, London, NYC, Berlin, Boston and Tokyo). I still have a long list to go in order to tick them all off as completed (I have done only Chicago up until now) but I am looking forward to this challenge. Running has really made me into a stronger, more focused, balanced, happier (and of course fitter) person :). I did not know until I started running in January 2016 (so a bit over a year ago) that I have so much discipline in me, and I still need to put more structure around my training! I can't wait to come to London (my absolute favorite place on earth) and take on those 26.2 miles. I am still quite unsure what my goal time is. I ran my first marathon in 4 hours and 2 minutes, so I definitely want to take my time to under 4 hours. Apart from that, I will see how I feel on the race day and either go out ...

It's been a little over two weeks since my Chicago marathon run, and I am already busy preparing for the Spring season! The biggest fear I had when I was prepping for the marathon (apart from the other one that my body will "break" somewhere along the way and I would not be able to finish the marathon at all) was that the marathon would be so hard and exhausting, I would not want to run again, at all. That fear did not come to anything. I literally finished the marathon, made my way back to the rental apartment and was thinking what I could run next while I was recovering and eating pizza :-) So here is a short update on my next 3 races that I am very excited about! November 2016: Big Sur Half Marathon I drove highway 101 from San Francisco to Los Angeles twice now, but I am always excited to come back because the beauty of that region is just phenomenal! Big Sur Marathon is a tough event to get into, but the Half is much more user-friendly. I signed up for it...

It's been a long journey to October 9th... I started this year by making a few resolutions, and one of them was to run a marathon. I had no idea what kind of commitment it would be, what amount of discipline and perseverance it will require, but here I am, writing my first marathon recap! I would also like to mention that I started running seriously only this year, and after making the commitment to my New Year resolution. My running schedule looked like this:  - 5K in February  - 10K in April  - Half Marathon in July  - Marathon in October All of these races were my first time races. As I go further into my race schedule, I am very curious to see how my performance would be when I repeat the distances. I had to sign up for a group run in order to be able to follow the training schedule. I envy the people who can do it all on their own, but I didn't want to injure myself, or lose motivation, so I ran with Rogue running (local Austin running group) ever sin...

Hello all! I have been missing in action for a while, and I am not sure what my excuse is for not writing more often apart from my own laziness. I will try to do better than that! My last post was all about running, and so will this one be. I just got back from a short trip to Utah (driving through Nevada, Arizona and Utah!) where I visited Zion National Park (WOW!), Bryce Canyon National Park (Holy Molly!) and ran my first ever half-marathon! The main purpose of my trip there was to run. I did plan it the way that I could have time to visit and check  out the sights and parks, but the ultimate goal was to cover 13.1 miles in a dignified manner (no limping, no getting sick, no cramping, with a huge smile on my face!). I am happy to report that all of the above happened. I stuck with my plan (thanks coach Peri!) and ran a solid 1:52:07 half. For some people, this might seem super slow, but this is my first year of running, my first ever half, and I beat my goal of 2 hour run...

I am going to be one of the runners standing in line to cross the start and finish line at the Chicago Marathon this Fall. It is both exhilaratingly scary and exciting to think about that. When I get these 26.2 miles in my head, I sometimes freak out a little bit (just a tad!) and ask myself what on earth I am doing. But hey, if your dreams don’t scare you, you don’t dream big enough, right? My first step in preparation for Chicago marathon was to actually start running. Pretty groundbreaking, right? I ran before, on and off, and I am pretty active. I exercise and play tennis, but when New Year started, I committed to really running and training to become a runner. I did my first 5K on February 27 th  2016 and absolutely loved the experience! I did pretty well on time too (at least to my own standards and goals, I know that many runners can do 5K much faster than in 26 minutes!).  My next goal was to run a 10K, which I decided to turn into “...