A Traveling Pants Universe

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 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 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! ...