Tag: london

Some things.

Just booked George a ticket to the UK for this summer! Yeah, I’m going with him, but I used frequent flier miles for his ticket, and I’m just kind of keeping an eye on ticket prices for a few days before I book mine. There’s plenty of availability on all of the flights, but egads they’re pricey. I remember back in the olden days when a round trip ticket was under $800. I mean, yeah, it was more than a decade ago, but still.

We’re going to be spending half of our time in the Lake District in the outrageously picturesque village (is it a village? Or a town? I’m going to call it a village no matter what) of Keswick. I mean, come on…

The rest of the time will be spent in London. I cannot wait to go back. Just want to wander the streets and soak it all in. And find a bottle of Winter Pimm’s. I wonder if that will be impossible in June? Hmm.

Speaking of travel, I’m going to Las Vegas for a few days at the end of February for Kristina’s 40th. Woo hoo!

In other news…um, no other news, really. Here are some pictures I took with my phone yesterday.

Pretty leaves
Monkeys.
Monkey
Monkey
Me ‘n’ baby Jasper
Bike training.

Oh yeah, baby Jasper. I took some pictures of him for my friend Megan, even though I’m a little mad at him for being born two days late (is it too much to ask that he be born on my birthday? Ann Frances cooperated but nooooo he had to have is OWN birthday.) But he’s cute so I’ll forgive him.

I’m just going to post this one of him. Mardi Gras baby!

IMG_2300

Oh yeah, one more thing. Today, January 20 is not only marks seven years since the boys’ due date, but also 40 since mine. Random.

Dispatch from London #2

Mucous is now healthier clear color. Marianne’s flat is white.

It is very freaking cold here. My toes are numb.

Been to lots of pubs. Surprise, surprise.

Went on the London Eye today. Neato.

Okay, off to more pubs…

Dispatch from London, #1

George hacking up mass quantities of mucous.

Marianne’s flat very nice.

Very cold here.

Flight was endless.

Already been to three pubs.

Pub quiz tonight, wish us luck!

Off!

And we’re off!

So, I am sorry to say, I probably won’t be posting much for the next two weeks. (Sorry, Renny.) But then again, who am I kidding? I’m sure we’ll be visiting a few Internet cafes here and there. Must document trip, right?

Anyway. Maybe. We’ll see.

Bye bye! London, here we come….

I did it!

Done!

I’ve done it!

For now, I’ll just post the message I sent to the Dead Runner’s Society (the running mailing list I belong to) but when I get home, I’ll do a whole page with pictures, mile-by-mile details, all the good stuff.

Today, I feel fantastic. Much less sore (except for some blisters) and the elation is building. Sunday I was too exhausted and shocked to feel much afterwards. Yesterday I was too sore, but today…ah yes. Today is a good day. 😀

(Also, last night, Marianne and I went searching for Declan, an old friend of ours from when we lived here. He has his own pub in Islington, but we didn’t know where. But we found him! It was all very exciting.)

So here is what I sent to the DRS:

It is now Monday. The day after the marathon. Boy, are my quads sore. Ha ha! I
am reeeally looking forward to tomorrow, when I’ve heard the pain is at its worst.
Yay!

I’ll actually write a better race report when I get back, as I don’t have the
details with me (what I wrote down, mile splits, plus the photos we took, etc.)

So, my goal was to finish in under 6 hours.

I finished in 5:57:36, right on target! Here are some of my splits, according
to the london marathon website. the 10K mats weren’t working, apparently, when i
crossed it, which i noticed as we ran over it. oh well. it was around 1:20, i think.
http://london.championchip.de/2002/detail.php?_id=31448

I never hit the wall.

Highlights:

Lots of fun costumes. We ran pretty much the whole way with a red telephone
named Dave. I think he ended up finishing a little in front of us. 😛

We saw the Penguin leading the 5:30 pace group, and we were going to run with
them, but they kind of smoked us at about mile 4. 😛 ha ha! Anyway, I just thought it
was really cool that we saw him. Neat!

At mile 18, all of a sudden, a blister on my left fourth toe popped. It was a
disgusting feeling, but fortunately, we were directly next to some paramedics.
Lucky! They bandaged me up (and we took a photo) and sent me on my way. The
band-aid didn’t really help, and for a few minutes, I was really really scared it was
going to finish me off. It was excrutiatingly painful, and I couldn’t walk on it,
much less run. But amazingly, the pain went away after about half a mile of walking,
and I was able to run on it with no problem after that.

At around mile 24, Big Ben, my favorite icon of London, came into view. It
always makes me happy to see it, and this time, when I saw it, I started sobbing and
gasping, but not really crying. I didn’t let myself go. And then, I just got to
this point where I had to just dig deep down and concentrate. So I would pick a spot
on the road about 10 feet in front of me, and run to it, pick another one, run to
it, etc, etc. The spectators were really thick at this point, and the runners were
sparse, so there were huge crowds screaming “go pam! go chris!” which was
great, but i really couldn’t pay attention to it. another thing was, when chris gets near
the end of a long run, he starts talking and cheering us on, and getting
encouraging, when all i want to do is concentrate. i don’t want anyone talking to me. but
that’s just the difference between us. so i just tuned him out. 😉

So then, at about mile 25 or a bit after that, I was able to pull myself
together (it’s hard to run and cry at the same time!!)and enjoy the crowds. As I said, I
never hit the wall or anything, but I was *tired*. I only managed about 2 hours
of sleep the night before, and getting to the race was a bit of an ordeal (more on
that in a later email) so after running nearly 6 hours, yes, i was sleepy. 🙂 So we
walked a little bit when the signs said “only 800 meters to go.” You know, 800
meters sounds like so little, but it’s really half a mile, right? But we
started running, turned the corner at Buckingham Palace, and the gasping and crying
threatened to start again. Didn’t want to ruin my finish line photo, though!
But Chris and I managed to grab hands and raise them in front of the finish line. I
finished one place in front of him. 😛 yay!

So, that’s all for now. I’m tired. But I didn’t loaf around today. Walked
around, went to a museum (now that’s a bad idea! too much standing around!), walked
around hyde park, and now, found an internet cafe.

4/10/02

Leaving in 24 hours. Plane takes off in 24 hours and 5 minutes, to be exact. Well, is supposed to. Am all packed, basically. Just need to do some rearranging so it all fits.

I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning, for no reason except to make sure I’m sleepy enough to go to sleep at 7 p.m. tonight. Of course, the two Tylenol PM I plan to take should ensure that anyway, but if I’m not at least a little tired, I’ll just be awake and zombie-like. Going to wake up at 3 a.m., watch some TV (will probably rent a movie), eat a snack, get everything together. Then we’re leaving for the airport around 6, going to check in early to get my seat assignments (if I end up with a window seat, I’m going to be very upset) and then we’re going to Denny’s for breakfast. Yum!

Last night I ran around the park just once. I was upset when I left work yesterday, for work-related reasons, so going to the park and running in the beautiful weather cheered me up. Fortunately, it cleared up sometime yesterday afternoon, so the gloom of the past two days is gone. I actually went around in under 20 minutes, which may be a new record for me. Since I went so fast, I didn’t go around again. Don’t want to hurt anything or wear myself out.

Now, just need to get through work today, and I’m home freeeeee!

4/5/02

Sleepy, soooooo sleepy. Want to take a long nap. But still have 7.5 hours left of work. How on earth am I going to survive? Have not had coffee this morning. May have to go treat myself to good coffee. A walk to the coffee shop and a coffee. That should wake me up. We left Baton Rouge at 6:30 this morning, which wouldn’t be so bad if had gotten in last night before 12:30, but we didn’t. So I’m (barely) functioning on very little sleep (for me. I know there are people who are fine with 5.5 hours of sleep, but I am not one of them!)

Regardless of how tired I am today, though, it was worth it. Got my hair done (shorter, shiny, stripey, red) and then had dinner with my mom and Jack and then Kristina and I went on to the Bayou to see Mike’s band play. It was really strange, we talked to the bassist for a while before they started playing. I had never really had a conversation with him before, and he always seemed scary and not sociable, but he’s actually quite chatty and friendly. Funny, having a lighthearted conversation with a guy in leather trousers. And, since I designed the band’s website, I got mentioned twice by the lead singer. I was cool. Except there were only about 30 people in the bar. Ha ha. It’ll be more exciting when they play Madison Square Garden.

Oh yeah, and then when we got home, my mom gave me my Easter present – a (not very) crisp $100 bill! Woo hoo! For my trip! Yay! I was stressing a little about having enough spending money, so it’ll definitely come in handy. Yay! Of course, now I’ll have no excuse not to go to Harrod’s to get her favorite bath stuff. Must not forget or I will be in big trouble. I wonder if Stansted has a Harrod’s duty-free shop like Heathrow and Gatwick. Hmmm. Must check on that.

This weekend I have to get all the little odds & ends I need for my trip. Toiletries, books to read on the plane(s), presents for Marianne and Michael (I’m staying with Marianne and Michael wants me to bring him some cigarettes. Feels a little like I’m visiting someone in prison.) etc, etc.