London Marathon

So I did it. I finished the London Marathon yesterday with a time of 4 hours, 30 minutes and two seconds. A personal best for me, I finished this marathon around eleven minutes faster than I finished the Walt Disney World Marathon in 2004. This PB is safe as I have no plans to ever do it again.

I started training for the marathon at the end of January. Bryan signed up to raise money for the YMCA but came to the realization that the nagging ache in his leg was a stress fracture and wasn't going to go away. I had been running a few times a week, four miles at a time, not really training for any races. He had already managed to raise half of his commitment and I did not want to disappoint those who had donated. So we contacted the YMCA and off I went.

Bryan put together a training plan for me building from a measly six miles all the way to a twenty mile run. In addition to a weekly Saturday morning long run, I fit in runs during my lunch time, before work, and even ran to work once a week. My running routes took me through Hyde Park, St James Park, Green Park, past Big Ben and Westminster, all the way to the Millenium Bridge. Even with our busy travel schedule, I still managed to run when we visited Venice (imagine running across all those bridges) and Barcelona.

After finishing my twenty mile run two weeks before, marathon morning dawned overcast and cool. I caught the tube to Charing Cross where I then caught a train to Greenwich. Along with a few thousand other runners, I walked up the hill in Greenwich Park and waited for an hour before getting into our corrals. Even with such a crowd, I was amazed at how patient and respectful everyone was. When we finally moved to the corrals, I was in the first corral based upon Bryan's predicted finish time of three hours (way too fast for me!).

When the race started, I got across the start line in less than a minute and took off fast. My first mile was a nine minute mile followed by another 9:30. I managed to keep the pace up and figured if I felt okay to keep on going. My pace gradually got slower after mile eight but I had banked so much time, my spirits didn't dampen. The entire route was packed both with runners and spectators. I think my second most favorite part was crossing Tower Bridge which was packed with people and is an amazing bridge. My favorite part was kissing my boys at mile 23.5. Okay, so that and crossing the finish line! Lon-DONE!

Barcelona Cathedral

Veneto

Travels to Veneto

So we are waiting in the airport, waiting for our plane back to
London. Per our usual, Bryan and I are exhausted. Not from seeing
every single square foot of Venice. No--it is because we have chased
two young boys over what felt like every single square foot.
We stayed in Venice for four days and three nights. When we arrived
in Venice we took the reasonably priced Allilaguna line from the
airport to San Marco. Its a 'bus' boat that traverses the lagoon to
the island of Venice and a few nearby places like Murano. After an
hour and a half ride, we disembarked at San Marco and then navigated
the tiny alleyways to get to our hotel.
For this trip we stayed in a one bedroom apartment near San Marco,
Corte Grimani. It was an excellent place to stay with a family sine we
prefer a fridge and a kettle and not a concierge or hotel restaurant.
Its front door was right next to a canal where you could watch the
gondoliers float by.
As far as sightseeing, we had absolutely no agenda. Our approach for
this trip as well as our other trips is to treat each trip as a chance
to see a place and scope it out for future travels. For Venice, we
spent most of the time wandering. Venice really is what you see in
pictures with labyrinth like alleyways, bridges over canals and
occasional campos or squares usually next to a church. Speaking of
churches, there seems to be more churches than Venetians. When we
weren't hunting for a mask shop or Venetian glass shop, we were
peaking in to see many of the cathedrals.
I also ran all three of the mornings we were in Venice. My routes had
to stick to mostly along the lagoon and I had to run over quite a few
steps. That kind of makes Venice like New Orleans since both are flat
and you have to consider overpasses for hillwork! The Accademia
Bridge across the Grand Canal will now be considered as part of my
London training.
As far as Venice being kid-friendly, I would have to say the people
are kid friendly but the locale is not. The stairs make a stroller
difficult (we brought the baby backpack) and the sights are not meant
for kids (though I bet going up in the various bell towers would be
fun). Kid friendly activities would be taking a vaporetto ride up the
Grand Canal, going up in the different bell towers, and eating gelato
or pizza in the neighborhood campos. All Christian could think of wad
riding in a gondola or getting a Ferrari. Jake just wanted out of the
backpack so he could stare at the window displays of Murano glass.
As far as being an American visiting Venice, I was overwhelmed by the
amount of history. Venice was established in 600-700 AD and was a
veritable marine super power. San Marco basilica had its start in the
11th century and San Giorgio in the 16th century. My goodness, my
ancestors were still back in Scotland or England at that time.
Language wise, I tried to speak Italian but most know English very
well. I felt the usual guilt of not knowing their language and tried
to make up for it by saying grazie and bonjourno. Venetians are very
patient with American tourists!
After four days of visiting Venice, its time to go home to London.
From the back of our €130 water taxi, we watched Venice disappear
into the watery horizon. It truly is a beautiful and magical place
with lots of history and charm to discover.

Travels to Veneto

So we are waiting in the airport, waiting for our plane back to
London. Per our usual, Bryan and I are exhausted. Not from seeing
every single square foot of Venice. No--it is because we have chased
two young boys over what felt like every single square foot.
We stayed in Venice for four days and three nights. When we arrived
in Venice we took the reasonably priced Allilaguna line from the
airport to San Marco. Its a 'bus' boat that traverses the lagoon to
the island of Venice and a few nearby places like Murano. After an
hour and a half ride, we disembarked at San Marco and then navigated
the tiny alleyways to get to our hotel.
For this trip we stayed in a one bedroom apartment near San Marco,
Corte Grimani. It was an excellent place to stay with a family sine we
prefer a fridge and a kettle and not a concierge or hotel restaurant.
Its front door was right next to a canal where you could watch the
gondoliers float by.
As far as sightseeing, we had absolutely no agenda. Our approach for
this trip as well as our other trips is to treat each trip as a chance
to see a place and scope it out for future travels. For Venice, we
spent most of the time wandering. Venice really is what you see in
pictures with labyrinth like alleyways, bridges over canals and
occasional campos or squares usually next to a church. Speaking of
churches, there seems to be more churches than Venetians. When we
weren't hunting for a mask shop or Venetian glass shop, we were
peaking in to see many of the cathedrals.
I also ran all three of the mornings we were in Venice. My routes had
to stick to mostly along the lagoon and I had to run over quite a few
steps. That kind of makes Venice like New Orleans since both are flat
and you have to consider overpasses for hillwork! The Accademia
Bridge across the Grand Canal will now be considered as part of my
London training.
As far as Venice being kid-friendly, I would have to say the people
are kid friendly but the locale is not. The stairs make a stroller
difficult (we brought the baby backpack) and the sights are not meant
for kids (though I bet going up in the various bell towers would be
fun). Kid friendly activities would be taking a vaporetto ride up the
Grand Canal, going up in the different bell towers, and eating gelato
or pizza in the neighborhood campos. All Christian could think of wad
riding in a gondola or getting a Ferrari. Jake just wanted out of the
backpack so he could stare at the window displays of Murano glass.
As far as being an American visiting Venice, I was overwhelmed by the
amount of history. Venice was established in 600-700 AD and was a
veritable marine super power. San Marco basilica had its start in the
11th century and San Giorgio in the 16th century. My goodness, my
ancestors were still back in Scotland or England at that time.
Language wise, I tried to speak Italian but most know English very
well. I felt the usual guilt of not knowing their language and tried
to make up for it by saying grazie and bonjourno. Venetians are very
patient with American tourists!
After four days of visiting Venice, its time to go home to London.
From the back of our €130 water taxi, we watched Venice disappear
into the watery horizon. It truly is a beautiful and magical place
with lots of history and charm to discover.

You had to expect one of my blog entries to be about the Tube,
officially known as the London Underground. It is pretty reliable but
provides lots of comic material.

First background on the tube. Its part of metropolitan London's
transportation, a lot like New York's subway or Chicago's L. I take
it every day to and from work. To travel roughly four miles, it takes
20 minutes. I have an iphone that I listen to every day during my
commute while either reading Kindle books or playing solitaire. I have
tried other games but I tend to do better at those when I can sit down.

Second, the rules. They are pretty simple but still some people refuse
to comply. First, when you are ready to board the train, let the
people getting off get off. When boarding "mind the gap". When you
finally make it on, there are a few more rules. Most importantly, you
must avoid eye contact. Second, to look like a true Londoner, you need
to bring along reading material. Only tourists actually look around
the car. The last rule is the most important--you should NEVER ever
talk to someone else. Unless you have kids and then its okay. The
strictness of the rules does vary depending upon day and time with
rush hour on weekdays being the strictest.

Finally the stories. Today I got on the Bakerloo line as normal.
However as we approached Oxford Circus where I switch to the Central
line, the driver announced that the Central line was shut down. Keep
in mind in the past ten months I have had to deal with similar things.
So thinking on my feet, i decided to go to Baker Street and switch to
the Circle line and head home. Problems arised when I hopped on the
wrong train at Baker Street and got on the Hammersmith and City line.
I did not realize my mistake until I heard the announcement as the
doors were closing. No problem, I thought I'd just switch at the next
station which looked possible from the map. I got off at Paddington
and learned that while I could switch, I had to walk about a half mile
across Paddington Train Station.

Thinking about it, most of my stories have to do with getting on and
off the train. One time I missed my stop (had to hop off at the next
stop and catch a train back the other way). Thankfully nobody
noticed. Another time I got off at the wrong stop completely engrossed
in my game of solitaire. Fortunately I realized it and got back on the
same train. Unfortunately somebody else noticed. He broke rule #3
above and laughed at me. One time I was coming down the stairs as a
train was getting ready to leave. I decided to hop on even though the
doors were closing. Ouch those doors hurt!

I do have to say that nine out of ten trips are completely uneventful.
I can even laugh after riding in one of those cars that people are
riding like sardines and we can all smell each others' deodorant. I
just try and remember that I will not be riding the tube to work
forever and will look back on my memories with fondness. And I will
always remember "Mind the Gap".