Yorkshire

I went for a 4 hour run today and decided to take my camera along. Here are a few of the pictures that I took along the way.

The first two are views from Alms Cliff...





And here are a few more. A lot of the trails here run thorugh pastures, that's why there are animals in all of my pictures..




Obviously I live in the middle of the country. It's nice and peaceful. One of these days I will make it to the Lake District and take some pics from there. I hear its really beautiful.

I HEART Prague!!

Me on the Charles Bridge
Originally uploaded by a_ney25

I love Prague. I love it so much I keep going back!! Here is a picture of me on the Charles Bridge in Prague. As you can see the weather was not the greatest the day this was taken, but I love Prague so much I didn't care. I was just happy to be there!!!

Mannekin Pis!!!!

Mannekin Pis and I
Originally uploaded by a_ney25

This is by far my favorite picture from Belgium. It's me standing in front of the Mannekin Pis. I am not sure why I am so fascinated with this statue, but I am. Maybe its because its a statue of a little boy pissing in a fountain. Maybe its because this statue has a bigger wardrobe than I do. How that is possible I really don't know.

Anyway, I had to find it before I left Brussels. It was my mission in life when I woke up that morning. I was so happy when I did :)

Manchester Airport

Today I drove a friend of mine to the Manchester Airport to pick one of their friends up. I have been their once before, but I took the train. Driving there was a much different experience. I was reminded of how beautiful the countryside is in this country. It was a very scenic drive!! It's too bad I forgot my camera. There were some incredible photo opportunities along the way.

Driving in this country is really different and sometimes frustrating. Roads aren't always marked very well, if at all, and many times its a guessing game as to whether you are on the correct road or not. It was nice having Brandy along to help navigate, but at one point we go t caught up in laughing about something and totally missed our exit. Luckily there was another exit coming up so we took it and turned around. We were following the airport signs at this point and for some reason there were no signs for the airport going the opposite direction, nor were there any signs for the actially road number we wanted. We ended up turning around yet again in order to findour exit. It was so frustrating!! I just don't get how they planned the road system here!! This isn't the first time that has happened to me.

One more observation from today's excursion. We stopped for breakfast on the way home. The three of us ordered the Traditional English Breakfast (7.95 GBP or about $15) and it was terrible!! This is the third time I have gone out to eat for breakfast in this country and the 2nd time I was highly disappointed. When you spend $15 on breakfast you expect it to be the most delicious thing you have ever eaten. They really don't make a good breakfast in this country.

So anyway, it was a fun morning. I was glad to get out and see some more of the country. Hopefully this weekend I will make it to the Lake District. It all depends on how much studying I have left to do!! Finals are next week and I really don't want to bomb them :)

Oundle and London

About 3 weeks after I arrived here in England one of my best friends,Jonathan, from Alexandria came to visit me. I was so excited!! He was actually headed to the UK for work, but he ended up spending most of his time in the UK with me. I took the train down to Peterborough where he was staying. He picked me up at the train station and we went to his hotel room which was in a small village called Oundle. Oundle is one of the most charming villages that I have been to since I came to England. Here are a few pictures:





We checked out of his hotel that day and decided to take the tube into London. It turned out to be quite and adventure. Don't ever go to London without making reservations first. We ended up paying about $360 dollars for a really nasty hotel room. That's not a great way to start out a trip, but it gets better. It was getting late so we found some food and headed back to the hotel to get some sleep since we planned on getting up bright and early for some sight seeing the next day.

When we woke up the next morning it turned out to be a beautiful day. After having some breakfast we headed into the city to start our day.

The first stop was Westminster Abby. It's an amazing example of Gothic archticture. I was immediately drawn to its incredible detail.





We also saw the London Eye, which is a huge ferris wheele that gives you an amazing view of the entire city of London and the surrounding areas from the sky.






And of course you have to see Buckingham Palace while you are in London:





Here is a statue that is outside the fron gates of Buckingham Palace:


I didn't see as much as I would have liked to on this trip to London, but knowing that I would probably be back a few times I wasn't too bothered. We ended up going to Piccadilly circus to browse through some of the high end stores. This area of London reminded me a lot of DC.

I really don't remember anything else from this trip. I do remember my feet were killing e by the end of the day. I learned my lesson, don't EVER wear heals to sightsee in London :)

Update

I have decided to use this blog to keep my family and friends back homw updated on my travels throughout England, Europe and the world in general. In the next couple of weeks I will be adding blogs from the trips that I have taken since I have moved to England. I hope you all enjoy reading about my adventures as much as I enjoyed having them.

Humber Bridge Half Marathon

Date: June 24, 2007
Weather: Cool, Cloudy
TOD: 1030


I almost didn't make it to this race, simply because I was tired and didn't feel like making the drive. I had just come off a cycle of mids and my sleep schedule was all messes up. I was also feeling kind of down and didn't want to leave the house. I know I always feel better after running, so I forced myself to get out of bed, get dressed, and hop in the car. I was glad that I did.

The race was in Hessle, which is in North Yorkshire, but was still about a hour drive from Harrogate. I almost got lost because whoever designed the road system here in England was an idiot. The directions stated to take the M62 for about 30 miles then get on the A63. Well, on the way down the M62 I passed about 3 exits for the A63. I was so confused, but I decided stick with my intuiton and stay on the M62. The M62 eventually turned into the A63, which made even less sense to me.

Anyway, I got there about an hour early, which was a good thing because parking was getting sparse. I parked my car and headed for the race gathering area. There was a fun run which started a hour before the half marathon so the place was littered with children. It was nice to see kids actually doing something that didn't involve a vidoe game for once.

At about 10:25 everyone started heading out into the street for the start of the half marathon. It started in a small village named Hessle. We wound through the streets for about 2 miles, then headed out to the Humber Bridge. The Humber Bridge is the second largest single span suspension bridge in the world. I expected it to be longer. I think we ran on it for about a mile or so, but honestly I wasn't really paying attention. At this point in the race I had little expectations of making a PR because of the fact that there were so many people and no room to pass on the street or on the bridge. The streets were very narrow with only one lane blocked from traffic, and the bridge was even more narrow because they had us running on the pedestrian walkway along the side of the bridge. It wasn't engineered to have hundreds of people running on it at one time. As we neared the edge of the bridge we hit a downhill which was nice because I was able to make up some time.

We then crossed the county lines into Lincolnshire where we ran through a small village named Barton Upon Humber. I wonder who named these towns? I assume that it means the town of Barton overlooking the River Humber. Why don't they just call it Barton? It would be much easier to write.

The race was fairly easy up until this point. As we approached mile 7 we started heading out of Barton and out towards some fields of sheep and cows, the usual Yorkshire backdrop. I was makeing excellent time. I had been running about a 7:15 to 7:30 pace for a few miles. I was getting all excited that I just might cross the finish line in the high 1:30's when my hopes were violently laid to rest as we approached the never ending hill of wrath. The hill started at approx mile 7.5 and didn't end until about 9.5. To make it worse it was one of those windy hills, where just as you think you have the top in site, the road winds to the left and the hill continues. It was horrid. At this point I gave up on my PR and refused to check my pace. I didn't want to know how slow I was going. All I could do was remind myself that what goes up must come down. Little did I know that this isn't always the case.

As we approached the top of the hill I realized that it just leveled out. There was no down hill to make time up on. To make things worse we soon approached the Humber Bridge again, only to be running up hill once again. And once again there was no downhill at the other side. It just leveled out. I looked at my watch and realized I could still make it across the finish line in the low to mid 1:40's if I gave it all I got for the last 2 miles. I told myself it just a PT test, just 8 laps around the track. The last 2 miles seemed to take forever, but I did it. I crossed the finish line at 1:43:05, almost 2 minutes faster than Blackpool, and Blackpool was completely flat. It was an awesome feeling.

My next race is my first Ultra Marathon. It's in 2 weeks, in York England. I love York. It's one of my favorite cities here in the UK. I am not worried about time for this one. I am only worried about finishing. I am number 54, which leads me to believe that there aren't too many people running this race.

Thailand

I have a new adventure that I am really excited about!! As many of you know I decided to do some volunteer work in Trang, Thailand. It my way of combining my love of traveling and helping to make the world a better place for those less fortunate than me.

Well, I have added yet another one of my "loves" to the Thailand adventure. I found a marathon in Bangkok that is being held at the end of November, so I moved my volunteer dates up a month. I will now be in Trang from Nov 3 until November 22. I will then fly to Bangkok and do some sightseeing until November 25th, when I will run the Standard Chartered Bangkok International Marathon. It actually works out better financially because the cost of a plane ticket to Thailand in November is half the price that it would be in December. I love saving money!!

I have arranged the volunteering in Trang through an organization called Cross Cultural Solutions. They take care of the logistics of the volunteer experience. I did some research of a few different oraganizations, and they seemed to be the best fit for what I want to get out of this experience. If anyone is curious as to what Cross Cultural Solutions is all about Click Here.

I have officially started working my 2nd job again in order to fund this trip, since it is kind of expensive. The program fee will cover my transportation, housing, food, and various other aspects of the program. I am hoping to at least save up enough money to cover the cost of my plane ticket in the next couple of months. I think the experience, not only for me but for the people I will be working with, will be worth the overall monetary costs. I haven't been assigned an actual job yet, but I am hoping to be working with children or woman teaching them English and helping to inspire them to do great things.

If anyone would like to help out by sponsoring me you can visit my sponsor page Here.

I feel really fortunate that I am finally in a position where I can take the time off work to do this. As a child I always thought it would be awesome to be rich so that I could go to 3rd world countries and help to educate the people and hopefully aid in making thier quality of life better. I used to watch Princess Diana on TV and think about how cool it must be to do all that humanitarian work, meet all those interesting people, and not have to worry about the monetary costs of it. while I am by no means rich at the moment, I do feel that I am financially stable enough to be able to afford to have this once in a lfetime experience.

I did do some volunteer work at the Gumi Orphanage when I lived in South Korea for a year. It was only once a month, but it was an incredible experience that I will never forget. I am hoping to get as much, if not more, from this experience!!

1st Run back in England

After 12+ hours of sleep I decided it was finally time to get my lazy butt out of bed and go for a run. I wasn’t sure how far I wanted to run since it has only been a week since the marathon in San Diego. I just knew that I needed to run. Running is one of my favorite activities in England, its part of what keeps me sane. I decided if I picked the right route it would help to remind me of how lucky I am to be stationed here.

I headed out my front door and did my usual warm up lap around the neighborhood, then headed for downtown Harrogate. I forgot how beautiful the town center is, especially that early in the morning when it is empty because most British people are sleeping off their hangovers. I then decided to head out of town and out towards the Ripley Castle. What better way to remind myself how great running in England is than to run by a castle? All I had to run by when I was at my mom’s house this past month was a sewer plant. Yes, a sewer plant. I think I ran by it about 5 times.

Anyway, as I headed out towards the castle I was reminded of how many hills Harrogate has and the many pastures of sheep that surround the town. It’s a beautiful place, and the hills are great for training. It felt great to run here again. I realized that I actually missed something about England.

Round trip my run ended up being just over 10 miles, which isn’t too bad considering I really didn’t plan on doing more than 8. As I ran I decided that I am going to gradually start building my weekly mileage up to run an Ultra Marathon in 2008. I will probably end up scheduling my leave around one that year, so if anyone has any suggestions for a good one to run please let me know. I would love to do Comrades in Africa, but I am thinking that is not a good choice for a first ultra marathon. Also, if anyone is planning on running one already maybe I can schedule my leave around it and run the same one. It would be nice to actually know somebody else doing the race.

Here's a pic of Ripley Castle...

After the San Diego RNR Marathon

Well, this was my 6th marathon overall, 3 of which were run in the past 2 months. I am actually impressed with myself for finishing them injury free and all under 4 hours. I didn't meet my goal of qualifying for Boston, but hopefully I will have at least one more chance this year to do that.

That said, I think I have finally found what I want to do when I grow up. I want to run. I love running. While I doubt that I will ever be fast enough to win a major marathon, I think with proper training and dedication that it is possible for me to get to at least a 3:15PR. I am very stubborn, and when I decide that I really want to do something, I usually acommplish that goal. That's just me. I don't quit. I also still want to try an ultra as soon as I can find one that fits into my schedule and budget.

I decided to run this race with a pacer so I didn't wear my Garmen. My pacer sucked. He started out too slow, then sped up to the point where I was pushing it to keep up with him. I finally had to stop an use the bathroom at around mile 6 (very dissapointing), so I lost him there. Everyone was complaining about his pace. Many others did wear there Garmens for the race and said he was going much faster than the pace he should have been running. The whole point of wanting to run with a pacer was so that I would not start out too fast. And to keep an even pace. I was mad.

Anyway, needless to say I didn't see my pacer again until about mile 24, where I passed him as he WALKED the last few miles. I guess everyone has bad race days. You should not try to pace people if you are having one, though. I think that I burned myself out trying to keep up with him for so long.

While I love the San Diego RNR Marathon, I am not sure that I will ever run it again. I don't think that I am going to get into the real reasons for not wanting to run this race again, because I know I might offend some people. I will just say that this race didn't feel like a "real" marathon and leave it at that.

That said, it was really great being in the 3rd corral because it wasn't corwded and it also meant that I didn't have to dodge as many people. I also felt good. I remember when I used to look at the people near the front and I envied them for being able to run so fast. They inspired me, and still do. I didn't think that it was possible for me to ever get that fast . I placed 1703 out of over 17,000 finshers. That's the top 10%. I am really proud of myslef right now. I think this race has changed my whole perspective on things. I want to go faster . I want to one day tell people "3 hours" when they ask me my PR.

I now wonder if I can ever get a sub 3. I really doubt it, but that doesn't mean that I won't try. One of the most important things that running has done for me is to give me the confidence to know that I can do just about anything that I set my mind to, and that I will never know my limits unless I continue to test.

So from here on out I will continue to train and coninue to race and improve my times whenever the military allows me the chance. I feel most alive when I run. It gives me a sense of purpose and a sense of pride, sort of like being in the military but on a different level.

Part Traveling, Part Running

I guess I am going to use this blog to write about my various running and traveling adventures, since the military is threatening to take my myspace away.

I am back in the United States at the moment on leave. Right now I am at my mom's house in Pennsylvania, but I am about to loose my mind so I am headed to Virginia for two days, then its off to San Diego for my next marathon. I am really looking forward to this marathon. I am trying to run a 3:40 or below and I think I have a really good chance of accomplishing that goal. My last marathon was about 2 weeks ago in Prague and I ran a 3:46:20, so I don't think a 3:40 is an impossible goal at this point.

I am also looking forward to s pending a few days in warm, sunny days in San Diego with Shanyn and a few others people that I have met this past year. I love San Diego. I ran the rock and roll marathon there is 2005 as well and had a really great time. It's such a beautiful place. I have a few other marathons planned for later on this year, but I am not sure whether I will be able to run them because the Army seems to think that I have to spend 2 months in disgusta, GA in August and September, which is a 2 month period where I signed up for 2 of the marathons. The one is in Berlin, Germany and the other in Nottingham, England. I am also running in Dublin, Ireland in Oct and possibly FLorence, Italy in November. We will see if I can afford Italy :)