"Week" in Review (July 5 - July 10)

Wednesday (16,231 steps) - I had slept like the dead the night before, I guess two days with no sleep will do that! Going back to work was a bit of a shock to the system. Denver run club! It was 101 degrees out... A and I suffered through three miles.

We both "test drove" the new Cliftons - I didn't really love them... too much arch support (especially since the shoe is supposedly neutral? Cashed in my free pair of New Balance trail shoes that I had won at the Trail Sisters event - going to give the new Hierro style a try. Should be a good "in between" shoe (from the 1210 to the Vazee Summit). Had to stop at the grocery store on our way home since we have NO FOOD. By the time we did laundry (you know what's worse than the stink of race clothes? Race clothes that have been in a Ziploc bag for nearly two weeks) and made dinner, it was already time for bed.
Thursday (17,884 steps) - Barre with Gabi! Hooray for her finally being back! Between her taking time off for her wedding and honeymoon and me being on vacation, it  had probably been a month since I last took her class. About halfway through I really regretted taking this class, since I have a big race coming up. Amazing how hard barre can be just taking a few weeks off. Bah! Belmar "run" club. We were late (stupid traffic!!) and we only walked (taper, you know?)

Andy made patriotic jell-o shots!

Photobombed!

Went to Rocko's after for Dulce's fundraiser (and also, who can say no to nachos?)

Friday (53,682 steps) - Chase the Moon right after work - recap coming.
Saturday (51,734 steps) - Finishing up Chase the Moon.

As I've gotten older, I now can't even make a drive home from these events without napping. This time, it was in the King Soopers parking lot. Home to shower and have lunch, then napping. I think we were in bed before 8:00. Party animals!
Sunday (18,778 steps) - Drove down to Lakewood for the RMRR July trophy series event at Stone House. Thankfully, it was only 2 miles, as I was still SO SORE from Chase the Moon. I was impressed I managed a 12:10 pace, and A had an AWESOME day, getting 2nd place overall (and clicking her fastest mile - 8:15!).

We had ice cream and chatted a bit with teammates before a long overdue trip to Target and then a trip later in the day to Home Depot to buy an air filter and curtains for the living room. The cats have slowly been destroying the blinds in the living room, and now that they broke off SIX blinds, it was time to replace.

We have an odd size window, so faux wood was out of the question without a custom order. Finally hung up all my medals from the last 6 months that have been piling up on my night stand.
Monday (11,202 steps) - A went to Ang's for the day. Stopped at Sprouts to buy burgers (that were on sale!). The end.

Stats:

• 169,511 steps
• 45.9 miles run
• 1 barre class

Day 13 and 14 - Alpe di Suisi to Venice to Geneva to Reykjavik to New York to Denver...

July 3
Days 13

We left the Airbnb just after 6am. The car was due back by noon, and they charged $64 an hour if you were late returning it. After the fiasco we had getting there, we weren't risking it. We had programmed the gps to get us back to the Venice airport.

In yet another shocking turn of events, the gps routed us on some super sketchy one lane road that was obviously not the right way to go. WTF with all the directions being off??

Anyway, we managed to find the autobahn, and we made the drive in just under 4 hours, speeding along at a glorious 130kmph most of the way. We had opted to return the car at the airport instead of where we rented it near the bus station.

We found the garage where we had to return it, but accidentally drove past the return area for Avis. In an incredibly frustrating turn of events, the floor where the returns were was only one way. Yet it wouldn't go full circle, one way. Which meant we would need to exit the garage and then come back up. Only you need a ticket to exit the garage because they also rent cars from the same location. BUT HOW DO YOU GET A TICKET IF YOU HAVE ALREADY DRIVEN PAST WHERE YOU NEED TO GO AND THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH THE EXIT WHICH IS ONE WAY. For the first time, I finally broke down and started crying. We had so many problems the last few days and this was apparently my breaking point.

Maureen walked across the building to talk to the Avis people, got us a card, then we had drive around and come back up. Returning the car took another half hour. Luckily we were not charged for anything additional (which reminds me, on our drive back to Venice a BIRD flew into the windshield - luckily it did not cause any damage).

We were all "over" our trip by now, and opted to spend our last few hours at the airport instead of lugging our bags around Venice.

Our flight to Geneva left right one time, and was short, only about an hour. On to the NEXT problem. The hotel we had booked was actually across the border in France, about 5 miles away. They were not going to be able to accommodate us checking out at 4 in the morning (plus we were concerned about border crossings), so we had to spend the night in the airport.

There was a Swiss Chalet where we spent about an hour having beer (or wine for Maureen) before we tried to find chairs where we could stay for the night. Maureen and I found a little shop that would give us alcohol to go, which we hoped would help us sleep.

Third glass is for... A?

Steps - 11,778
Miles - 0

July 4
Day 14

We (or at least "I") did NOT sleep. Our flight was supposed to start boarding at 6, so we started heading to security around 4:30 (since Maureen still had to check a bag).

We had breakfast at the gate (stupid small coffee and a croissant) before boarding our flight to Reykjavik.

That flight was about 4 hours (?) long. I have absolutely no recollection of how I passed the time, but I think A and I watched Netflix.

Arrived in Reykjavik with about 2.5 hours to catch our next flight. We got through customs with no issues, got our boarding passes from the Delta counter, then picked up a ridiculously expensive wrap (to share) and a souvenir for our neighbor who was watching Batman and Robin while we were gone.

The flight was almost 6 hours to JFK. I watched Patriot's Day (and I was surprised at how emotional it made me) and most of The Girl on the Train. Dozing off in the middle of the movie was the only "sleep" I would get.

Arrived in JFK on time, and headed to customs. The line was INSANE. In the tradition of "things that only happen to me," I got a black "X" on my receipt. That meant that we had to go in a special line. I assumed this was random and they would ask more questions. Well the only question we were asked is if we bought anything. (Outside of food, we seriously only bough about 4 magnets and a patch). I then was hit with another "additional screening" - which meant we had to go in a tiny room with no windows or bathroom, and no cell phones allowed! After about 75 minutes, finally released, without ANY questions being asked of me, or an explanation of why I was flagged.

We exited the airport and opted for a taxi instead of Uber to take us to La Guardia for our last flight. We found some cheap pizza by the slice and a salad bar for dinner. Our flight actually landed about 40 minutes early in Denver, about 8:00.

Light rail took over an hour (presumably because of all the 4th of July chaos in the city), and then we still had to go to Maureen's house to get our car. It was after 10:30 before we got home.

LONGEST DAY(S) EVER EVER EVER (EVER).

Steps - 18,402
Miles - 0

THE END.

Day 12 - Alpe di Suisi half marathon (Race Recap)

July 2
Day 12

Alpe di Siusi, Italy
Half Marathon #166
Weather - brisk, perfect!

Well as you can imagine, "sleeping" in the rental car did not go well. Being higher up in the mountains, it was chilly, and we had not dressed properly for it. Not to mention, three people trying to get decent sleep in a Ford Fiesta? Didn't happen.

Once the sun came up, we decided to drive down by where we had seen the expo. Didn't look like that was where the race was going to be, so we drove back up by where we had spent the night. Turns out that we had parked about 10 feet from the race start. Finally, a stroke of good luck! We parked right next to the start line, then went to a cafe to have some breakfast. I was able to get on some wifi and was able to get back in touch with our Airbnb host (who didn't seem to understand how we had so much trouble finding her) and Francesca, to see if we could meet up. Picked up my packet (which included 4 apples and an apple corer, random), then back to the cafe so I could change into my race clothes in the bathroom. As you can imagine, I was not incredibly optimistic for how the race was going to go.

Francesca had run part of the course the week before and said that it wasn't incredibly technical, and thought it wasn't quite as tough as the elevation profile would lead one to believe. I was a bit nervous for this race, the cutoff was 3 hours, and about 1900' of climbing. That's right around the time I finished my Eagle course preview, which had a pretty similar elevation change. Ugh. I hoped that the cooler temps would help me out.

We lined up for an incredibly late 10:10 start and headed out. The first few km were on the road, and I surprised myself with running a sub 11 minute mile. I wanted to bank all the time I could. I took of my windbreaker early, cursing myself for wearing it in the first place. We started some climbing, and I was able to pass quite a few people. We got onto some single track and I tried not to stop too often for pictures, knowing that I was running against the clock.

There were also more aid stations than I thought there would be, which helped a lot. The screaming downhill was really nice, and we looped around to a fork in the road for the second half. I had been running near Francesca for some time, I would catch her on the uphills, then she would blast by me on the downs. We decided to run the second half together, which turned out to be great. We had a decent amount of climbing to go, and since she was first-hand familiar with the course, she was able to give good insight on where we were and how much more climbing we had to still do.

More cowbell at the halfway point!

 

We had a 1200m out and back section and did not see Maureen. I was a bit worried about her as she gets out of breath very easily on the climbs and I know she was also very concerned about the time limit. Francesca and I were running strong, and we knew that we would have no trouble finishing in time. We thankfully had a full mile downhill before the finish - where we saw A. She had spent the morning at the finish line and going for a run up to the ski lodge on the course.

We finished in just over 2:40 - a time I'm very pleased with!

Garmin time - 2:40:43
Elevation gain - 1,834'
Mile 1- 11:00
Mile 2 - 13:07
Mile 3 - 14:33
Mile 4 - 10:17
Mile 5 - 11:33
Mile 6 - 11:27
Mile 7 - 12:29
Mile 8 - 17:19
Mile 9 - 14:07
Mile 10 - 11:25
Mile 11 - 10:39
Mile 12 - 12:02
Mile 13 - 9:29 (!!)
Mile 13.1 - 12:54 (cruel uphill right at the end)

Francesca headed off to find her cousins, and we waited for Maureen at the finish, who squeezed in at 2:55. The post-race party was nice, lots of food varieties and some cheap beer.

At about 2:30, we finally headed up to the Airbnb and restaurant, and got the keys. After showering, I took a much needed nap. We went back up to the restaurant for dinner - and had a great "last supper" of pizza and pasta.

View from our dinner table

A ran from the village at the bottom up to the tallest chalet in the picture while we raced!

Had to pack up all our stuff (yet again, so tired of that!) and then in bed as early as we could manage, we had yet another early start.

Steps - 33,274
Miles - 13.1

To be continued...

Day 11 - Venice, Bolzano, Alpe di Siusi

July 1

Day 11

We were able to sleep in for the second time all vacation. Since we had arrived at our hotel so late, and then we were gone the whole day at Cinque Terre, we still hadn't officially "checked in" to our hotel. Another place with ridiculous desk hours, I had let them know that we would be there at 9 to get copies made of our passports. The guy was pretty rude and said they didn't have the desk open until 10. WELL MAKE AN EXCEPTION! Urg!!

We stopped to pick up breakfast at the same cafe we had gone to the day before, then we got on our train to head back to Venice.

The only picture I took all day... at the train station

We arrived in Venice around 12:30. I had mapped walking directions of how to get to the rental car company. In a shocking turn of events, we wandered around for over an hour near the port, unable to figure out why our walking directions weren't getting us where we needed to go. We asked someone (who spoke very little English) for help and they directed us back near the bus station, where there were, in fact, car rental companies. However, the car company I had reserved with was not AT that location, and we were directed back where we had been before. We also discovered that it was not even POSSIBLE to walk there, as we had to cross water. Stupid google maps!!!!

By the time we arrived it was after 2:00, and our reservation had been for noon. The company, Sixt, was all locked up. We found a woman working at a tourist shop across the way who attempted to contact them, but with no luck. DANG IT. She let us connect to her wifi and I was able to book another rental car through Avis, for four times the money, and back where we had been before, near the bus station.

We arrived at Avis around 2:30, now over 2 hours after we had arrived in Venice. So frustrating!!! By the time we got all the paperwork done it was after 3. The drive to Alpe di Siusi was supposed to take about 4 hours, and we were all really hungry. I wanted to get out of the downtown area before finding somewhere to stop for food.

The gps directed us on side streets and tiny roads that had us turning every mile or two. I would not be able to replicate the route if I tried. The entire time I was wondering how on earth this could be the best way to get anywhere?? To add insult to injury, all the restaurants along the way were closed - afternoon naps? We finally found a little place where we got some small sandwiches. 

Got back on the road and finally started to enter the hills. I was a bit nervous about driving in this area - the roads were winding and narrow and people in Italy love to tailgate!

We got another hour or so away from Venice when we came to a screeching halt. We sat. And we sat. And then, for good measure, we sat some more. Cars were coming towards us, but we weren't moving AT ALL. People were turning around and telling us to the same. I finally got out and tried to talk to the people in the car in front of me - one of our first experiences with the language barrier, and learned that the road was closed. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to reroute us since we couldn't read any of the signs and we had no idea where we were. Finally we got someone who told us that if we drove about 5k back down the road that we could turn off, cross a bridge and go up the other side of the river and bypass the closure.

The road became only wide enough for one car. AWESOME. Then we arrived at a bridge, also only wide enough for one vehicle. The bridge was super sketchy and when we pulled up to it, the boards moved under the weight of the car. TERRIFYING. A was freaking out thinking I was going to kill us all. Luckily, it held the weight of just one more car, and on we went.

I pulled over at a little shop on the side of the road to buy a drink and connect to wifi. I started to Facebook message our friend Francesca, who is from this part of Italy, to see if she could give us more assistance with our drive. Nothing about it seemed "right" and it was taking substantially longer than we had anticipated. She helped us out by telling us what signs to follow, and I felt confident that I could figure out where to go. I sent another message to our Airbnb to let them know about the traffic situation and that we were going to be delayed and likely wouldn't arrive until after 8. She had said she wasn't going to be there and that we would need to contact her friends at the restaurant to get keys.

The strangest part of the drive was wondering when we going to hit the autobahn tollway. We never did... we kept driving and driving. We weren't seeing any signs for Alpe di Siusi and I was having trouble figuring out where to go. I had put gps coordinates for the airbnb in the gps since the address wouldn't pull up. The gps had us going up a ONE LANE UNPAVED ROAD?? No, this cannot be right!!! I am so pissed off and frustrated by now. We have been driving for over 5 hours, had arrived in Bolzano and STILL had not seen any signs for where we were supposed to go. By now it was getting dark, we were going to be even later than I had thought and we had no clue where to go. Stopped at a grocery store/McDonald's and couldn't connect to their wifi either.

Finally got back in the car and decided to drive into town. I stopped at a Sheraton to see if the front desk might have a map that could help us get on track, since obviously our gps unit AND the "very easy" instructions from our Airbnb weren't getting us anywhere. The woman at the desk had never heard of Alpe di Siusi and just said "not here," and gave me a local city map. Thank goodness that at the very edge of the map I saw "Bolzano Nord," which is the exit we had been looking for all along. Turns out, that exit was off the autobahn that we never figured out how to get on the entire drive up. 

By now it is dark. I am driving on even more mountainous windy roads and still not quite sure how to get to our Airbnb. It is after 10 pm. We attempt to put the address for the restaurant where we are to pick up the keys into the gps and NOTHING. After a bit of dumb luck, we found the turn for Alpe di Siusi ski resort. We happened upon the expo for our race, which seemed to be a good indicator of where to go. I retyped in the coordinates for our Airbnb and we made it there, only to find the entire resort was shut down for the night. After driving for over 7 hours, we had no choice but to pull over into a dirt lot and SLEEP IN THE DAMN CAR.

This was the least happy day of the trip.

Steps - 12,743 steps
Miles - 0

To be continued...

Day 10 - Cinque Terre

June 30
Day 10

We were supposed to arrive for our tour at the train station by 6:45. We were out the door and prepared to arrive with enough time to get something to eat before we left. We arrived at the train station to discover that none of the shops or restaurants opened until 7, so we had to exit and go to a small cafe across the street to get food and coffee.

Check in for the tour was pretty disorganized since there were multiple groups doing variations of the "same" tour. We left right on time at 7, walking to a bus for the first leg of the trip. The bus took a few hours, and unfortunately, we weren't able to stop along the way to take any pictures. It really was a very scenic drive!

The tour was structured that we had meet up times at each of the villages, but we were able to have free time outside of the general meet up.

We took trains to travel between each of the villages and spent our time walking around and taking pictures, as well as going into the shops. This part of the country was definitely what I picture when I think of "coastal Italy" - very colorful buildings, lots of boats and breathtaking landscapes.

Delicious pesto lasagna

#dessertoftheday

We were not able to take the ferry at all because the water was too choppy, although A was able to go to the beach for a bit. I opted to just sit on the patio and watch as we only had about 20 minutes before we had to meet up with the group, which hardly seemed worth the time and effort.

Dozed off on the trip back - a very long tour at over 12 hours! The three of us were starving by the time we got back to Florence, and we all agreed to go back to the brewery by the hotel as it was inexpensive and the food/drinks were delicious. We were all pretty tired and A and I watched some Netflix before bed.

Steps - 18,253 steps
Miles - 0

To be continued...

Day 9 - Venice, Florence

June 29
Day 9

We didn't get up super early, since the front desk didn't open early. We were pleased to have a pretty good breakfast provided by the hotel - yogurt, fruit and tons of bread. Since none of us had changed money, all we were able to do was pay the hotel a fee for the shuttle back to the airport so that we could get cash.

We all bought bus tickets to go to the bus station, since we would be taking the train to Florence. Somehow, A and I managed to get tickets on the express bus, which meant no stops, and Maureen got on a bus that had a billion stops. Wifi was very hard to come by, and it was HOURS before we reconnected. In the meantime, A and I went for a very expensive ride in a gondola, then sat in a cafe until it was time to catch our train.

#dessertoftheday

The train trip took about 2 hours, and was fairly uneventful. Once we arrive in Florence, we encountered the same issue with not being able to get wifi. We wandered around the city lost for a while trying to find our hotel. The desk hours for this place were also ridiculous. Like 10 am to 1 pm. We hadn't arrived until evening, but they had left a note on a room door for us and keys.

A and I went to dinner at the brewery that was downstairs. I had some delicious pasta and A had a burger. I also finally got a nice stout beer! And the prices were so much more reasonable than other places we had been.

A was pretty pleased with her ketchup smiley face

Steps - 17,999 steps
Miles - 0

To be continued...