old:

2009 was bittersweet for me. Mostly, it was sweet, though. The financial crunch put a huge crunch on my business & my clients, that was the bitter part. Good things resulted from that, though: (a) I streamlined my budget and eliminated a lot of waste. In this process I also got re-acquainted with the seemingly lost art of simplicity, and learned to be quite happy with a lot less. this has been good. (b) the crunch motivated me to finally create and launch the business model that I had been tossing around for a while. the results have been wonderful since the short time that I launched my new business.

I had a biiiig year planned for running. Starting the year out with a nasty ankle injury rocked the big yearly plan on its side, taking months to heal. This might have changed my plans, but I still managed to grow just a whole lot as a runner. I have gained a lot, yet I have *so* much more to do. Still, it feels pretty good to look back and see where I am now versus where I was 1 year ago in my running. After such bad luck with the flu at Cactus, I was determined for my year to end good, and Fuego Y Agua went well, and ended up being such a powerful, life-changing experience for me. It's going to take a long time until I find anything that is much harder than that, so when I want to whine now, I will just remember FYA and know that I can keep going. Having that memory/experience to recall will be very useful for me on the trail in the future. In the process of various injuries, over training myself (and then under-training!), an other various and sundry happenings of the year, I learned just a TON. (note: you cannot balance out over training with undertraining, or the other way around. *remember this, self*)

Injuries, cancelled plans, DNF events, lots of being sick-while-running, work & financial difficulties...yup they stung at the time. All of them came with lessons or some sort of valuable experience, though. I"m grateful for that. It's time to move on. Good bye, 2009.

new:

I am very optimistic about 2010. I have set some lofty goals in both my career and my running. I have also decided to invest as much as I can into more education and professional development this year. There is a very positive feeling in the air about my work and career, and I want to expand and perfect what I have to offer to my clients.

This further investment into my education and business will cut into what I can spend on training and events this year, but that is not keeping me from setting some training goals for myself. I'm not sure I'll be doing any distances over 50k this year, and I'm going to start out slow and work on my speed some. I have gotten comfortable physically and mentally with the idea of big distance. I know that hills are possible if I do the training, but speed is my weak area. So, that is what I am going to try to start improving on this year. Event-wise, I have not made any plans yet. I have said before that 2010 will likely be "year of the local races." Even so, I haven't decided which ones. I"m pretty sure I'll end up going back to FYA if I can possibly swing it, though. :-D

FYA was very empowering. I feel so confident and resolute about my running going into this year. Let's just hope I can keep that fire as I progress into the more aggressive phases of my training. This is is featuring a LOT of training that is outside of running. Ashtanga Yoga, regular weight training, stretching...oh yes, I am finally ready to do all of it. As much as I enjoyed swimming in Nica, I might even be willing to to that. You can't hold me to it, but I've thought about it. (swimming for fun in Ojo de Agua is not swimming laps)

It feels good to be entering this year so excited and pumped feeling about both my running and my career/business. Good things are afoot, and let us hope that this continues to flourish throughout the year. I am wishing a Happy, Healthy & Abundant year for all of you!

for . . .

• a simple Christmas
• that Christmas is now past
• that this year will be coming to a close soon
• that a fresh new year, full of possibilities is arriving soon
• that December 31 is the full moon - perfect time for a full moon purging for a new year!
• that my rib & muscle is healing so well. I am so so close to being ready to run
• that my business is seeing growth right now. it's slow improvement, but I'll take any improvement I can get in this economic climate!
• salad. veggies. oh how I missed you in Nica. okay make that CLEAN salad and veggies that will not give you the revenge of Montezuma
• that I seem to be adjusting much more quickly to this cool than I expected
• to feel so recharged about so many things. namely: running & associated goals (new goals!), work and my ZB certification.
• ** the personal growth that came this year along with all of the difficulties that I ran into, along with so many others I know. it's easy to feel depressed, angry, etc about the various difficulties of this year, but almost *always*, with those things, comes the opportunity for personal growth, good lessons or both. So - thanks for the lessons, the growth - 2009, (but please get the hell out of my face now.)
• my freshly renewed laptop. - and praise AppleCare!!
• that I'm going to be 40 soon.
• for my friends & my family

Voila:

Pictures from Nica Gallery

Coming home was smooth. I was glad to be here, but the cold, gray weather was a shocker after being in the tropics for 2 weeks. I had a lot of catch-up to do with work, family, friends, household.

It seems I have been doing that in circles. I should have rested more than I have to let myself heal, but I literally have had no other choice. Thankfully, I am healing well and healing rapidly. I think I will be back and feeling 100% in no more than 2-3 days.

Oh yeah, Merry Christmas. I'm still not feeling particularly Christmas-y this year, I guess it's just not my year for that.

Year-in-review post coming up. PREVIEW: "Dear 2009: Get the hell out of my house."

Today was leaving day. Most everyone was going to Ojo de Agua for one last swim. They were taking the shuttle van. I knew from my *incredibly* rough shuttle ride into town after the race that there was just no WAY my injured rib could stand that sort of thing, or swimming...so I opted to stay back in town. I had not even slept 20 minutes the previous night from the pain I was feeling. Lying down or sitting in a chair in *any* way that would put pressure on my rib cage was very uncomfortable.

I very boredly worked cross-word puzzles all day and enjoyed one last plate of Simone's fabulous italian cooking. (yup, I was staying at a place owned by an italian lady!)

Everyone got back, had a late lunch, and then it was time to catch the ferry back to the mainland, where Gustavo would meet us all and vanpool us to Managua for the night. We had a SUPER early flight to catch in the morning, which mean an even earlier arrival time at the airport.

We left the island at sunset, and I was sad to see the little island fading away as we ferried off. What an amazing trip. I met some wonderful people, who I hope very much I will stay in touch with. The experience I had during my race will leave me changed (in a very positive way) forever. Ometepe is a beautiful place filled with friendly, wonderful people. I look *very* forward to my next visit here. There will *so* be a next visit here. :D

Today was the day of the Kid's Race, and I was volunteering for this.

We had just over 300 children this year. All of the kids who signed up would get a pair of shoes. This race had grown at least three fold from last year.

This was a success, but it was pretty huge chaos, too. There were 3 age categories, released in heats. Each category had a different color of armband, indicating their age group. There were 2 of us at the finish area who were to record the first 4 of each age group.

We had groups overlap, kids wearing the wrong color for their age and all sorts of confusion. Everyone was finishing at once and scattering all over, but with the help of many folks around, we were able to get our lists coordinated and get the finishers list done. It was pretty stressful from that standpoint, but to see this many kids SO excited to do this, and doing so well with it was super exciting. It was also wonderful to see so many little feet with shoes on them. Some kids were so excited about their new shoes that they ran barefoot because they did not want to mess up their new shoes!

I felt pretty frazzled after this event, but it ended up the main person responsible for directing this particular event was thrilled with the outcome and how everything went, and went out of her way to find me and thank me. Uh, wow! I am glad she was happy. I hope that the kids race continues to grow, and hopefully it will inspire some budding runners there, too.

I was starting to feel sooooore from my fall during the race. I spent the rest of this day taking it easy. We had the post-race dinner & rewards ceremony that evening at a really cool little place there. ( I think it was called Cocibolca) Our dinner was SUPER yummy, and it was fun gettting to see a lot of the volunteers and runners who were there. The fact that I would be leaving the island tomorrow was starting to sink it, and I was feeling a little sad to have to leave. I had really grown to like this place and the people.

Details of this amazing day can be found in my race report, which is *here*.

Today was a laaaazy day. It was the day before the race, and my plans were to carb load, take it easy, hydrate and be doubly sure that I had my dropbag & race stuff ready.

All went as planned. I got the dropbag made & dropped, and then it was off to the pre-race dinner. I got to meet several more of my fellow runners, which was nice. We were entertained by some local girls who came in and did a couple of traditional Nicaraguan dances for us. They were just adorable and their performances were enjoyed by all.

Then we got the big race briefing, and it was time to get in bed early. I had my alarm set for 2:45 AM.

It took me longer than I wanted to get to sleep, but I slept well once I was there. Next up, Race Day!

Today was trash pickup day, so a whole bunch of FYA volunteers and the runners who were all in town met just after breakfast and we swept either side of the road and went up about 2.5 miles or so picking up trash.

We got a LOT of stuff picked up. All of the people who saw us working were very happy and grateful. Toward the end of the pickup, when we were all thirsty (and I was sunbuuurned!) these kids came out from a house and gave us a watermelon from their garden. OH MAN, it was so juicy and sweet! What a treat!!

The rest of the day was punctuated with assorted race-related tasks and a few errands. Then, we had the volunteer dinner that evening at Los Ranchitos. It is getting close to race day!!

The early part of the day, I was still horribly sick feeling. I got up early, stumbled in for a light breakfast, and went right back to bed. I think I slept until just before lunch time. I felt a *lot* better when I woke up the 2nd time. I could tell that this sick was leaving, and I was sooo glad!

I was having lunch, when Justin & Danielle came and found me. Everyone was wondering if I was still alive. (literally!) I was very glad to be back amongst the functional, and we had hoped to go back to Ojo de Agua today, but it was getting a bit late to go there because we would not have much time to enjoy the place before we had to turn around and come home to beat dark. I suggested we go to La Punta de Jesus Maria. I loved this place and it holds a special significance for this trip that I will mention later.

Justin & Danielle loved this place, too. We all enjoyed some beach time and walking around on the point. We stayed here until close to sunset, and then headed in for some dinner. We got an *amazing* pizza. (yup, in little Moyogalpa, you can get a decent pie, believe it or not!)

( Read more... )

Today Abi & Jonathan arrived, and we went to greet them at the Ferry and then get them checked into their room.

We spent some time doing race-related tasks in the office, and then everyone decided it would be fun to take off to Ojo de Agua for some swimming & fun.

There was a nice local girl helping in the office named Sydney. She had lived on this island her entire life and never been to Ojo de Agua. She was very excited about the idea of going with us, so she rode down and got to see this place with us. It felt somehow ironic that we were showing this native islander this place instead of the other way around, but it was super cool to get to do so. We all had a great time swimming and generally soaking up the beauty of this place.

Later that evening, Justin & Danielle would arrive, too. It was exciting to have more runners, volunteers & family showing up!! Energy was already zipping through the air with regards to the race.

[Okay, I'll pick up where I left off on my Nica trip entries. I made a few handwritten notes to help me remember the points of each day, but I still remember most days pretty vividly, so would like to record them while they are still there.]

( Read more... )

Due to:

rolling blackouts (part of island life, you deal with it)

this insane spanish keyboard layout which is driving me insane

internet cafe noise





. . .I´ll finish my updates later. I´ll be home on Tuesday (it´s Friday now)

The race is tomorrow and I am nervous and excited. I´ve never in my life done a climb that lasts for 6 miles....then the descent is 6 miles. gulp. I´ll be going into rainforest, cloudforest, and be passing thorugh coffee plantations and fruit groves as I do this, though. There will be pictures! Send strong thoughts my way, this will for sure be the hardest thing I´ve ever done so far!

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Hello from gorgeous Isla de Ometepe! The following several entries will chronicle my journey thus far. I have not had time to update or connect to the internet at all up to this point, so there will be several days worth of information to catch up on.

Traveling to Nica
( long day´s journey into night )

*drum roll please*

Golden Crane Studio

huzzah!!!!!

One thing I love about living in my apartment community:

Periodically scanning for the wireless networks here, because it amuses me to see what people name them.

that is all.