Looking back and looking ahead...

With 2013 winding down, I thought I'd include the text from our Christmas card this year to review where we've been and start thinking about where we're going in 2014.

Wow, what another incredible year! We actually started out 2013 happy to be home in ATX after our Xmas trip to the Canary Islands turned disastrous when our passports (and other belongings) were stolen. But, that didn't hold us back for long! We joined Kurt's brother for a ski trip to Breckenridge, CO in January then headed for the sun in Puerto Rico in February. Kurt ran the LA Marathon in March and had such a good experience that he decided he has a few more marathons left in him. We headed back to CA in May-this time to San Francisco for the Tour of California, a popular professional cycling race, and some R & R in wine country. Then, we enjoyed a fun Memorial Day weekend in CO filled with rafting, running, and relaxing. Kurt ran Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN in June where he qualified to run the Boston Marathon next year. Kurt took a month sabbatical from work in July and we were fortunate to spend 3 weeks in Europe. Highlights include Kurt running with the bulls in Pamplona, enjoying beach time on the French coast, watching the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France on Alpe d' Huez and in Paris, hiking the Cinque Terre, and spending time with Kurt's cousin in the Italian Lake District. And, that was only the first half of the year! We took a short trip to Ohio in August for Kurt's 15th high school reunion (nevermind that Melissa graduated college before Kurt even graduated high school), and he enjoyed catching up with his childhood friends and family. We enjoyed a respite from the Texas heat with a quick trip to San Francisco again in September to watch the OSU vs. Cal football game. Then, it was time to cram marathon training into 2 months before we ran the NYC Marathon in November after the race was cancelled last year. We spent the Thanksgiving holidays on the Great Wall and in megacities Beijing and Shanghai, China. We are looking ahead to another trip to Europe for the Christmas holidays to wrap up 2013. We continue to feel so fortunate to have all of these amazing experiences together. Melissa is wrapping up her 4th successful year in private practice, and Kurt is happily still being challenged at AMD after 10 years. Hope 2013 was filled with great memories for you and even better ones ahead in 2014!         -K & m


As I initially reviewed what I had written for our Christmas card, I was struck with the thought that it seemed very K-centric. Now, he did have a pretty good year in 2013, especially from an athletic standpoint. He even won the 2013 MVP Male award for Team Mac, which is a high accomplishment given all the running talent in that group. Maybe it's also because I don't want to toot my own horn as much, so I focused less on my accomplishments. But, when I pointed out my observation to K, he simply replied, "Well, do more." Hmm...

So, that thought has been rattling around in my brain as I think about my goals for 2014. I am happy with where my practice is right now. I'm happy with the growth I have seen in my therapy clients, I'm doing more testing which is my passion, I have developed some new referral sources, and I have said no more than yes when needed. From a running perspective, I need to identify a goal or target race for next year to get me off the couch now that the NYC marathon is finally behind me and holiday travel is (nearly) completed. I do need to do a better job of integrating training with my personal and professional schedules though (which means making it the priority that it deserves to be if I am really going to get serious again). From a travel perspective, we will still likely have 2 extended international trips for next year, but our shorter weekend domestic trips might end up being fewer than in the past few years due to our allotment of K's vacation days, especially for the first half of the year. This means that it is probably a good time for me to really focus on running again since I won't have a lot of training disruptions for travel until July. I'm open to any suggestions on races!

And, finally, I miss my friend group here in Austin and elsewhere (and, I know K feels this way, too). I do feel like I made an effort to make plans with folks at certain times this year, and we had our first party at our "new" house in April. But, it just hasn't been the same as it has been in the past. I know that not participating in a running group (or even making plans to join friends for runs) has limited my connections with certain folks. But, I also feel the divide growing between those that have kids and those that don't. It's certainly a challenge to coordinate getting together with my friends of young children, and I'll be honest, in some cases I have all but given up because it's been so much of an obstacle. I'm not sure where to go with this one for next year.

So, that's a wrap on 2013. Well, almost. We have one last adventure ahead of us to close out the year in style. And, then it's on to 2014 and whatever it may bring. Cheers!

NYC Marathon Take 2: Running with Gratitude

On Sunday, K and I are running the NYC marathon. This is a race that has been 5 years in the making for me. I applied for entry through the lottery in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and didn't get in; therefore, I had guaranteed entry in 2012 under the "3 times a charm" program. Finally! This was to be a significant event for me at that point, as it marked my first marathon back since I broke my ankle in January 2010. I ran my first half-marathon since the injury in January 2012 and was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any issues with my ankle, so I was eager to test it out at the marathon distance later that year to fully see my journey back to running as complete. But, alas, that was not to be.

After months of putting in the miles (and, having my head in a good space), Hurricane Sandy paid the East Coast a visit just days before the race was scheduled last year. Once the race organizers had given the go ahead earlier in race week that the race was going to happen, it was still uncertain whether we'd actually make it to New York because most flights did not resume until the day we were scheduled to fly out. Thankful to be there (only to be reminded that the city was a federal disaster area at that point,) we learned of the cancellation of the race from a traffic cop as we were walking to our hotel to check-in late Friday afternoon. Denial, shock, confusion, frustration, and anger were all emotions that we experienced that weekend in New York (not about the cancellation of the race itself per se, but the manner in which it was handled by race organizers and city officials at the last minute). The lack of communication from NYRR that weekend, as well as in the forthcoming weeks, only served to heighten those feelings. This picture from our unofficial run in Central Park on race day sums it up for me (well, except for the last line):

Fast forward to this weekend. Runners from 2012 were (eventually) given the option to have their race registration refunded or receive (non-complimentary) entry into the 2013 race. K and I chose the latter option. I needed to get this monkey off my back. So, here we are again.

Unfortunately, that meant another year of training for the same event. And, my 2013 training has not been so stellar for a variety of reasons. Yes, it is entirely possible to have done the requisite 20-miler and still be undertrained. So, not only have I been harboring a lot of self-doubts about my training (and, no, this is not like me stressing about my performance on a test only to end up getting an A), but also a lot of negativity about this race in general (for some of the reasons noted above).

A couple of weeks ago while I was sharing my negative state of mind with my wonderful massage therapist, she encouraged me to try to get to a place where I can run this race on Sunday with gratitude. That was definitely a "light-bulb" moment for me and has stuck with me ever since. There are thousands of runners who did not gain entry into this year's race and would love to be at the starting line suffering through 26.2 miles in New York on Sunday. And, more personally, I need to remember that there were some really dark moments after my ankle surgery when it was far from certain whether I would be able to run again, much less run a marathon.

So, with this change in attitude, I left my Garmin at home. I'm not going to be concerned about my mile splits or overall time on Sunday (I already know it's going to be slooow, so what's the difference between a 9, 10, or 12 minute mile really going to make?). It's not my performance on Sunday that matters. Rather, it's my experience of running my first marathon back through the streets of NYC that really matters. And, then I will be free to move beyond this to whatever is on the other side. For every marathoner knows that you are never the same person when you cross that finish line as you were when you started.

Weekend in Paris...

Friday, July 19 will be remembered as one of those crazy K & m adventures. With all of my concern being paid to ensuring we got to Alpe d'Huez on time, I paid much less concern to leaving Alpe d'Huez on Friday. K had done his research into the bus schedules online in advance to the best that he could, but there is no accounting for the disruption that Le Tour causes (especially when trying to pre-plan from outside the local area).

We left the condo mid-morning and headed to what we thought was the bus station on the mountain (which had been closed since we arrived on Wednesday so we couldn't get more updated information on transportation). When we got there, it was clearly closed with a sign (possibly) indicating that it had been moved to a different location. K went to check it out, but got no further information there either because that office was also closed. Our shuttle bus driver gave us a bus timetable though, and based on what she and the schedule said, it looked like there was (possibly) a much later bus leaving late in the afternoon IF service was actually running as scheduled...and, that was a big if. And, it was also unclear if that bus would actually take us all the way back to Grenoble, and if so, it would be a super tight connection to catch our evening train to Paris. We also knew there would be traffic on the roads due to the Tour route for the day's stage, which started in Bourg d' Oisans located at the base of the mountain. There was so much uncertainty, so we were left stressed trying to figure out what to do to ensure we had the best possible chance of making our train to Paris from Grenoble.

After weighing our limited options (wait until late afternoon for a bus that may or may not arrive and may or may not get us to Grenoble in time; try to hitch a ride down the mountain; try to call a taxi which may or may not be possible in the remote mountain area and would surely be expensive; or walk down the mountain to the bus station at Bourg d'Oisans), we decided to take our fate in our own hands and walk to the bus station in Bourg d'Oisans, where K was fairly certain that we could catch an afternoon bus that should get us back to Grenoble barring major traffic. Yes, you read that right, we WALKED down Alpe d'Huez from the bus station there to the bus station at the base of the mountain...carrying all of our luggage - me with 30-pounds of gear on my backpack and shoulder bag and K with his wheeled suitcase and duffel...in the rain at times no less. We saw all 21 of those switchbacks up close and personal! K estimates that we walked about 8 miles. I had to go into marathon mode and just keep putting one foot in front of the other because it was brutal at times. Thankfully, I was in shorts and running shoes, but my toenails did not enjoy the constant downhill for hours and jamming into the front of my shoes. Unfortunately, I was in a tank top, which did not give my shoulders much protection from the straps of everything I had on my shoulders and ended up rubbing them raw. I would't be surprised if it left a scar. Once we had committed though, I knew we would make it down because really what other choice did we have at that point? I was just worried about the condition we'd be in once we got down.

We made it though (after a lot of brief rest stops along the way) and were relieved to see that bus service was indeed running to Grenoble that should get us there in time for our evening train to Paris. We arrived in Paris after 10pm and just crashed at our hotel near the train station (Gare de Lyon). We were wrecked from the day's journey!

I'll admit that I have a fairly blase attitude toward Paris that the city really doesn't deserve. I think it's because it's the European city that I have been to the most, but I was pleasantly surprised by our brief weekend there this time around. We have done a lot of the main touristy sights already, and we found a few things to do that we hadn't done yet that we really enjoyed.

After changing hotels to be in a better location on Saturday, July 20, we headed over to the Musee d' Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris Museum of Modern Art) located across the river from the Eiffel Tower. I don't know why I haven't been there before! I highly recommend a stop there, and I think I actually preferred it to Centre Georges Pompidou which also boasts a fine modern art collection. Maybe what put it over the top for me though is the featured exhibition they were having for Keith Haring, one of my favorite artists. 

After a couple of hours there, we headed over to Eglise St-Sulpice to see the obelisk featured in The Da Vinci Code (the church also features a couple of frescoes by Delacroix). We were blown away by the size of this church practically hidden away in a classic Parisian neighborhood and the beauty of its Baroque style. Again, I highly recommend a stop here!

Then, we made a quick stop at Pont des Arts, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Seine and is famously covered with padlocks that couples attach to the bridge before throwing the key in the river. Apparently, the locks are routinely cut off by the local gendarme though, so I'm sure ours will be long gone when we make it back there to see it again. And, K didn't want to pollute the river by throwing our key in either.

After a quick photo stop at the Louvre, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night. We were definitely feeling the effects of our previous day's journey off the Alpe and had another long day ahead of us.

Our first stop on the morning of Sunday, July 21 was to pick up our VIP passes for the grandstands for the finale of Le Tour that evening. While there, we noticed that preparations were already being made for the race route to circle the Arc de Triomphe for the first time in the race's history (the riders typically stop short of the Arc and make a u-turn on the Champs-Elysees for the final laps). People were already staking out their spots at 10am, which made me thankful that we weren't in that position (lesson learned after our first year watching this stage and being in that position).

We spent part of the afternoon at Musee Rodin - again, another museum that we somehow hadn't been to before and really enjoyed! We opted to only tour the gardens though for the sake of time (and money), so I'm sure we'll be back to tour the museum's interior at some point. The gardens were beautiful and featured many of Rodin's well-known sculptures. There's a nice little cafe in the gardens, which made a perfect gelato stop as we wandered around. 

The Thinker...

View of the museum from the back of the garden:

Les Invalides is nearby:

The Gates of Hell:

We then made a quick walk through Les Invalides, but had to save a lengthier visit to see Napoleon's tomb and other sights for another time.

And, with that, it was back to the Champs to settle in for an evening of Tour fesitivites. 

This is the third time that we have seen the Tour's final stage in Paris. And, I was reminded that this is a really difficult stage to see and enjoy in some respects. First, the boulevard is lined with poles and trees, which makes it so hard to get a good view of the peloton until they are right in front of you. Even with the grandstand seating it is still difficult for me to get a good view then because of the other spectators blocking my view. I wanted to attend this stage in particular this year though because I knew there would be a special celebration for Le Tour's 100th anniversary. But, note to self, in the future, remember that viewing this stage presents certain challenges.

The maillot jaune, Froome, on the first lap of the Champs escorted by the Sky boys:

Sagan in the green jersey at the front and Quintana in polka-dots in the middle:

Turned out not to be Cav's day when all was said and done:

Froome thanking his teammates and about to get mobbed by the photographers after the finish:

Jens stopped and sat on the barrier after the finish to reflect on, possibly, his final Tour:

Geraint Thomas, one of the Sky workhorses, finished the Tour riding with a broken pelvis:

Froome and other Tour legends receive the maillot jaune to celebrate the Tour's 100th anniversary:

Jersey winners: Quintana, Froome, Sagan

And, with that, the 100th edition of the Tour was in the books and so was our time in France. Next up is a week in Italy! 

Vive Le Tour...

After a brief overnight stay in Lyon, we took a 1-hour morning train to Grenoble on Wednesday, July 17. Even though K had done his homework beforehand about transportation options, we still ran into difficulty getting tickets for our desired bus to Alpe d'Huez. Ensuring we made it to the Alpe on time was probably my biggest concern for the entire trip. But, after some difficulties due to the language barrier, we eventually got where we needed to be. 

We had originally planned to stay in Grenoble, as we did a couple of years ago, then figure out the logistics for getting to the mountain on race day. However, after persistently searching for lodging options on the mountain at the beginning of the year, I lucked into a condo through Homeaway that we could get for the desired days. I was beyond thrilled, as I really wanted to stay on the mountain to avoid the logistics nightmare that I knew getting on/off the mountain on race day would be. 

While settling into our condo, we were able to watch the individual time trial of today's stage on television. Then, we headed out to enjoy the atmosphere on the mountain in the evening. I felt so very lucky to be here. Here's the view from our condo:

Our mini-podium:

We awoke to a rainy morning on Thursday, July 18, so we opted to stay in until the rain passed a short while later then we entered the masses already getting into their positions to watch the race. Here are a few sights from our walk through town as we headed a short ways down the mountain...

300 meters to the finish:

OPQ team bus with spare bikes and tires:

1k to go!

I can't get enough of this view:

Go Andy!

We eventually settled in at switchback 1 of the 21 famous switchbacks on this mountain and were positioned right across from the Norwegians who had set up camp in that area.

And, then it was time to wait. First up is the publicity caravan with their decorated vehicles and freebies for the crowd:

The caravan typically precedes the riders by about an hour, so it was time to wait some more. The great thing about the route this year is that the riders were going to make the climb twice for the first time in the Tour's 100 years (much to the sprinter's chagrin, I'm sure), so we were fortunate to see them twice and see how the race unfolded from the first to second climb.

A few highlights from the first climb...

Loved to see Jensie as one of the top few riders (as the oldest rider in the peloton, he's not letting age slow him down one bit):

I love Andy!

The Sky train with Movistar and Saxo Tinkoff in tow:

The gruppetto with Cavendish, Greipel, and World Champion Gilbert:

The motorbike with the time to the leading groups displayed was our first indication of how the race was unfolding as the riders approached for the final climb:

Go Teejay!

Unfortunately, Riblon was quickly approaching and would eventually overtake him at about 2k to go:

Porte escorting Froome up to the summit:

Voeckler in his usual huffing and puffing style:

More Andy:

Morabito showing appreciation for the support:

Sagan in maillot vert:

And, there goes the gruppetto again. Just in time before the rain started, too.

We made it back to our condo relatively quickly and enjoyed our dinner on the balcony...all the while people and cars were trying to get off the mountain. Been there, done that. No, thank you. 

Again, I'm super happy that K humored my desire to come back to do this stage again, even though it is still a difficult stage to manage in terms of logistics. I can't fully describe what the atmosphere on this mountain is like - it's amazing! Tomorrow we leave the Alps and head to Paris for the weekend. There's more Tour to come! Allez, allez, allez!