Kate Connolly

Marathon Goals

First week of training is here! And boy am I glad that I live in California where it never rains. Oh wait…

I know, I know, I’m lucky. It could’ve been a foot of snow.

Anyway, I’ve thought a lot of about my goal for the race and whether or not I wanted to share it here. Committing to it on the internet for everyone to see forever and ever would certainly be great motivation; however, falling short would be disappointing and, well, kind of embarrassing. The Big Sur course is very hilly (Hurricane Point, gulp) with a decent headwind so there is no telling what may happen out there.

Swag bag

Trinity College

Northern Ireland Countryside

When I ran my first marathon in 2014, I really had no concept of a reasonable time. I figured I would end up somewhere around 4:30:00 because it was my first one. I finished in 4:48:54 and was secretly kind of disappointed because deep, deep down I really wanted to be on the other side of 4:30:00.

You see, somehow I had gotten the idea of 4 hours (that’s about a 9 minute mile) being an average marathon. Part of it is due to the fact that I grew up with the Boston Marathon year in and year out, and the finishing times printed in the paper every year.

If you were to guess, what percentage of people do you think finish the Boston Marathon in under 4 hours?

In 2015, it was 71%.

Of course, that was a cold, nasty day that could have led some of the less dedicated runners to shy away from running. So there is a possibility that that number could be a little off; however, even looking at other recent years, the number is pretty high:

2014: 59%
2013: —-
2012: 40%*
2011: 68%
2010: 68%

It has the most sub-4 hour finishers of all US marathons, with NYC, Chicago, Marine Corps, Philadelphia and Twin Cities coming in behind it.

The highest percentage of sub-4 hour finishers for those marathons?

42% in Philly in 2012 and 41% in Philly last year.

And those were the only times the number crept over 40%. For all five of those marathons. From 2010-2015.

Back to Boston for a second. Notice the 40% in 2012 above has an asterisk? Yeah, it reached 90 degrees that day.

Guess a limited field chock full of elite runners will do that.

So I’m here to set the record straight (for myself and my own mental state of mind as I enter into training time).

Let’s take a look at the actual median finish times:

The median finishing time for any marathon participant is approximately 4:30:00
The median finishing time for a male marathon participant is approximately 4:02:00
The median finishing time for a female marathon participant is approximately 4:45:00

I don’t know about you, but I sure feel better. Weirdly, I also really enjoyed the math.

I’m still hesitant to put the information out there; however, class, today’s lesson makes it a little bit easier.

My goal is to finish in 4:30:00, which is approximately a 10:15 minute mile. It means more work during training (by which I mean making the miles counts instead of just doing them), but I think it’s achievable.

Now that that is out of the way, on to the more important things.

In running for Project Purple, it is my duty to spread awareness regarding pancreatic cancer and to raise funds for Project Purple. Previously, I discussed the pancreas itself and pancreatic cancer (with some pretty scary statistics).

Today, I turn to the symptoms:

Jaundice
A yellow color of the eyes and skin caused by a build-up of a substance called bilirubin that is made in the liver. At least half of all people with pancreatic cancer have jaundice.

Weight Loss
Losing weight without trying over a number of months is very common in patients with this cancer. They may also feel very tired and not feel like eating.

Pain
Pain in the abdomen/belly area or in the middle of the back is a very common sign.

Digestive Problems
If the cancer blocks the release of the pancreatic juice into the intestine, a person may not be able to digest fatty foods. Stools might appear irregular. Other problems may include nausea, vomiting, and pain that gets worse after eating.

Swollen Gallbladder
The doctor may find that the gallbladder is enlarged. The doctor can sometimes feel this and see it on imaging studies.

Fatty Tissue Changes
Another clue that there may be pancreatic cancer is an uneven texture of the fatty tissue under the skin which is caused by the release of the pancreatic enzymes that digest fat.

Blood Clots
Sometimes blood clots form in the veins of the legs, leading to swelling. These clots can sometimes travel to the lungs and cause breathing problems.

Diabetes
Because pancreatic cancer can cause problems with blood sugar, it can (but not often) cause diabetes.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, so don’t panic or go running to your doctor if you recognize any of these in yourself or a loved one. Any of these symptoms may signal something else or nothing at all. I share because I care: a large reason that pancreatic cancer is so dangerous is that the symptoms go by unnoticed (or are easily attributed to something else). As a result, the cancer is not identified until a very advanced stage, making it all the harder to treat. If you think you may be at risk (and are not generally a hypochondriac), it my be something to discuss with your favorite family physician.

And finally, a quick reminder of just what Project Purple does:
• Scholarship Program providing grants for children and grandchildren who have lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer in order to continue their education.
• Patient Financial Aid Program that helps families pay the daily bills that have become otherwise difficult to pay as a result of the financial hardship that stems from treatment.
• Project Purple Research Program, provides funding to some of the best medical centers and hospitals in the field of pancreatic cancer research.

To donate to Project Purple and to be part of their initiatives, click here.

All running facts, figures and statistics are brought to you by the 2014 and 2015 RunningUSA Annual Report.

2017: Big Sur, here I come!

Christmas has come and gone. It’s amazing how fast the season goes by, isn’t it? It seems like Thanksgiving and tree lightings and the start of (generally accepted) 24/7 Christmas music were just yesterday.

I don’t know about you but Christmas was lovely. I started the day with a quick 2 mile run and then hunkered down on the couch with a mug of hot cocoa and watched Love Actually, The Holiday, and the Christmas episodes of Parks and Rec. Sometimes you just want a little Leslie Knope especially bedecked in Christmas spirit.

(Aaaand that’s me whenever something involves puppies. Or penguins.)

And actually I don’t think I watched A Christmas Story the whole way through once. I caught snippets here and there of course and I could probably replay the whole movie in head anyway, but I didn’t actually sit down to watch it. Of course I lived it so who needs to watch it. Well except for the snow and the BB gun and the C+. Okay it was just the Christmas feast of Chinese food but that’s close enough for me. And it was really, really good.

Anyway, with the holiday season safely behind us, my focus is turning to running. Training doesn’t officially start until January 10th so I am still preparing myself. Turns out it takes a long time to prepare.

I have been doing some leisurely runs a couple of times a week. (I mean I went for a run on Christmas morning when I could have just stayed in bed. That should count for something.)

I studied up on training plans. I have to do some improvising when it comes to scheduling my run days. The majority of plans out there stick to a schedule of running on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with a long run on Saturday. Well, that is just not going to work for me; Saturday is the only day that John and I have off together, so ain’t nobody got time for running that day. Normally I just throw on RunKeeper and mindlessly follow along, letting that keep me in line; however, that also follows a Monday Wednesday Friday Saturday schedule, so I am going old fashioned.

This is going to be my new best friend for the next four months. Okay, maybe not that exact one. I want to get a smaller weekly planner. And that planner’s primary purpose will be to keep me accountable. If it’s in the book, I have to run it. Apparently it comes with the added benefit of making you feel like a total rock star when it’s the day before the big day and you’re freaking out because you have to run 26.2 miles the next morning and you can’t imagine that you ever thought this was a good idea because how can you possibly run that far?!

But then you look back over your runner’s journal and see all of the miles that you have logged and you realize that you’ve got this.

At least that’s what the running the blogs say and I know this because I’ve become a runner nerd who wants to PR at her next marathon who, therefore, reads running blogs. But more on that later.

My final part of preparation comes as something of a surprise and that is getting acquainted with my other new best friend.

(I promise I won’t do this all the time. “This” being both taking pictures of my FitBit after a run and using the Christmas tree as a backdrop.)

I didn’t intend on buying a FitBit because I never thought I really needed one. I could track my steps on my phone. I could map my runs with RunKeeper.

But my new company gets really into the Christmas spirit and provided a list of goodies that we could pick from for an end of the year gift. Nothing else on the list really appealed to me so I opted for the FitBit…in plum!

So my Fitbit and I have been spending the last week or so getting acquainted and I am happy to welcome him to the training team.

During the training for my other two marathons, I just ran. I didn’t worry about speed or hill work outs or intervals. I was just focused on getting the mileage in. This time around I am hoping to push the speed a little bit, to purposely tackle hills (multiple times even!) so the heart monitor on this baby will come in handy.

But also, I can control my music on it. And that sure beats fishing the phone out of my bra pocket every time a song lets me down. People tend to look at me funny when I do that.

So here I am. A week out and I’m ready to go. But enough about me and on to the more important things.

Last week, I talked briefly about the pancreas. Today I am going to talk about what is pancreatic cancer. It seems like such an easy answer, right? A malignant neoplasm that arises in the pancreas. Okay, maybe not so easy. But in fact, it is not just the ~~clinicalism?~~ ~~clinicality?~~ clinical nature of the terms that makes it so hard to understand and to treat. In fact, as many as twenty different tumors have been lumped under the umbrella term of pancreatic cancer. It strikes 9 out of 100,000 people in the US every year (for a total of about 50,000 people in 2015) and about 80% of those patients will die within the year. Only 4% will make it to five years, giving it the lowest survival rate of all of the major cancers. It is the currently ranked as the 4th deadliest cancer with the expectation of climbing to the number 2 spot in the next 5-14 years. With figures like those, it’s not hard to see why.

As you know by now, I am running for Project Purple to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer and funds for Project Purple. So what do they do with those funds?

1.) They offer a Scholarship Program providing grants for children and grandchildren who have lost a loved one to pancreatic cancer in order to continue their education.

2.) They have a Patient Financial Aid Program that helps families pay the daily bills that have become otherwise difficult to pay as a result of the financial hardship that stems from treatment.

3.) Their largest program, Project Purple Research Program, provides funding to some of the best medical centers and hospitals in the field of pancreatic cancer research.

A.) In 2015, Project Purple provided a $250,000 grant to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York University School of Medicine to study immunosuppression in pancreatic cancer.

B.) In 2016, Project Purple provided a grant of $150,000 to Dr. Eugene J. Koay, MD, PhD at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to work toward better quantitative image analysis for early detection of pancreatic cancer.

To be a part of these great initiatives, you can make a donation to Project Purple by clicking here.

Training starts next week, so I will be back with my goal for the marathon! (As well as signs and symptoms for pancreatic cancer.)

Pre-Training and Purple

I went for a run last week in shorts and a tank top.

And I wasn’t cold.

I wasn’t even cold before I started running.

I’m sure I should be happy about that, especially considering if I were back in Boston lart weekend I would’ve been bundled up from head to toe.

But low 60s? That’s not what I asked for for Christmas. I want sweaters and snow and hot chocolate which I’m told is in possible in the Bay Area. My coworker told me about when he was a kid in the 70s and they had snow. He sent me an article about it and, even though it was a paltry display of snow, I would gladly take it. So if we could make that happen in the next three days, that would be great!

You see once Christmas has passed, I really don’t care anymore. In fact, I’ll rather enjoy going out for runs in February in just a pair of a shorts and a tee shirt. I have a lot of runs ahead of me and knowing that the weather will be nice will give me the extra motivation I need to get out there.

Technically training hasn’t started yet, thank goodness because I wouldn’t be off to a very good start. Lately my runs have been more sporadic and pretty short on distance; however, I am hoping that taking it easy now will leave me feeling refreshed when training starts in couple of weeks. That’s what I am telling myself at least.

So for now I am still in the pre-training phase. And I’ll tell you, it’s a pretty great place to be because:

1.) You know that you are about to do something amazing, and
2.) You don’t have to deal with any of the responsibility and work yet.

For instance, I received my Project Purple t-shirt the other day and, well, the tree was already on, sooo…

I only have so many days left until Christmas so I am using the tree as a back-drop as much as possible

And that’s what happens when I drop my phone while taking a picture. It’s like abstract Christmas.

As you may recall, I am running the Big Sur Marathon for Project Purple. Their mission is to raise awareness and funds towards a cure for pancreatic cancer so I will be including a fact or stat or two in these posts as I go along.

First up, what is the pancreas anyway? The pancreas is the organ located behind the stomach that helps the body digest and controls blood sugar levels.

I’ll be back with more runs, pictures, and facts after the holidays, but in the meantime, click here to learn more and to make a donation.

Just a wee bit further

I had every intention of writing this post on October 27th (the actual 2 year anniversary of the picture). It was even a Thursday so it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, I only had it half written and in the weeks that followed Thursday would come…and go…and I still hadn’t gotten any further. So here we are. A quasi-TBT…on a Monday.

Ok I’m cheesing a whole lot in this picture. Why am I so happy?

I was in Ireland
I had just run my very first marathon
I managed to not look like a sweaty mess in the “after” picture, a feat at any distance really. (At this point you might expect that I would thank the Irish climate for that, with its ample cloud cover and cool, breezy days. Well, even two years later I remember that it was 68 degrees and sunny that day which is decidedly not Irish weather.)
I was in Ireland (yes, that merits a second mention)
I had 0 miles left between me and pint of Guinness

That’s right, I had run a marathon. Which is nothing short of shocking for anyone who knew me as a kid, as a high schooler, even as a college student. To this day, I can’t remember when the idea struck me that I should run a marathon. I bring this all up now not just to relive my glory days (but seriously even my arms look kind of fit, go me!) but because I am lacing up my sneakers again. Come April 30th, I will be running the Big Sur Marathon. It’s going to be my first marathon on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, although strangely enough I’ll be staring at the Pacific the whole time. Whoa, I wonder if I’ll ever run a marathon on the other side of the Pacific. Or is Europe the other side of the Pacific? Hmm..

In addition to the marathon taking place here in the good ol’ US of A, there is one other thing that makes this different from Dublin above: fundraising. Big Sur is one of many marathons that offers the option to fundraise for a charity of your choice and after perusing the page full of options, I decided on Project Purple. I signed up, received my welcome package, and set up my fundraising page which thus far looks really, really sad. But for the next four months, in addition to training, I will also be sharing facts and stats, and training-related pictures (and hopefully minimal training-related complaints though I can’t make any promises).

At this point, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure which aspect of this whole thing is making me more nervous.

On the one hand, this is my first venture into fundraising and I have a hard enough time simply asking people for directions, never mind money (even if it is for a good cause).

On the other hand, I am currently writing this post while eating a handful of Christmas sugar cookies topped with leftover chocolate frosting. I’m clearly miles away from running a marathon (get it? miles away).

Fortunately, real training doesn’t start until after the holidays so I still have plenty time to actually train for the race, and post lots of (hopefully funny and motivational) training-related posts, and get the hang of fundraising.

After eating lots and lots of cookies of course.

In which our heroine becomes employed

In my “welcome back to my life” post I mentioned that I got a job. What follows is a brief accounting of that using lessons I’ve learned after 2 months on the job…

This agreement (the “Agreement”) is between the mysterious, confusing, terrible, and wonderful thing that keeps everything in order, or in disarray, or in some variation thereof (“Life”) and the incredibly charming and dazzling person behind this blog (“Kate”) in connection with the transition from hopeful job seeker to Closing Coordinator. (Kate may be referred to as “Dreamer”, “Job Seeker”, or “Heroine” herein.)

Whereas, the Dreamer moved across the country carrying only a suitcase and a backpack;

Whereas the Dreamer someday aspires to own enough stuff to fill more than one suitcase and one backpack;

Whereas the weary Dreamer completed countless job applications, nearly all from the living room/dining room table of a purple apartment in Spain;

Whereas the Dreamer received countless rejections, some in the form of thank-you-but-no-thank-you emails, most in the form of agonizing silence;

Whereas the Dreamer obtained an apartment…in the Bay Area;

Whereas the Bay Area is one of the most expensive areas in the US to rent;

Whereas the hopeful Job Seeker finally went for an interview, not once but twice;

Whereas the impatient Job Seeker waited;

And waited;

And waited, (while receiving another automated rejection letter);

Whereas the Job Seeker finally heard those three wonderful words: we want you!

Whereas the relieved and excited Dreamer did a mix of soccer mom shimmies and Elaine kicks (the “Happy Dance”);

Now therefore, the Heroine hereby acknowledges and agrees to the following:
1. The Heroine is happily gainfully employed.
2. The Heroine shall join the masses on BART, hopped up on coffee, and a book in hand
3. The Heroine shall perform such actions, including but not limited to, drafting legal agreements, reviewing title reports, and writing escrow instructions
4. The Heroine shall bill for her time, because she is worth it. (In connection with billing, the Heroine shall also do a Happy Dance, because the Happy Dance is worth it.)
5. The Heroine shall again have money for important things like travel, food and coffee

In the event that the Heroine becomes discontent in the Agreement, Heroine must take it up with Life and return to the tedious process of submitting job applications that will never be read.

In witness whereof, Kate and Life have executed the Agreement as of the date of first employment.

Kate

Life

Yeah, it went something like that. Now if you’ll excuse me, this post was all about work so I really must go bill for it. Cue the Happy Dance.

I’m back!

The other day my mom told me that “other people” have been asking about my blog. I know what that means. That means “I miss your blog but I am going to say that other people miss it too because then you might actually write it again.” I know how you operate. But here I am writing again, so, touché.

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written but, you see, nothing has really happened.

Well, that’s a lie.

Let’s see. I’ve moved…twice (I packed my bags and lugged them on a plane twice so I think that counts as twice), started a new job, learned a new language (Legalese 101: whereas is your best friend), adjusted to a new time zone (Sure I had a little stopover in between but in the course of three weeks I had a swing of 9 hours, going from Spain to California. That’s kind of amazing when you think about it. And honestly being three hours behind most people is kind of worse than being six hours ahead), and learned some valuable life lessons about myself (despite my lofty ambitions, flowers just don’t stand a chance in my presence).

I’m going to keep this post brief because that is the only way I will actually make it through. The first post back is always the hardest.

As I said before, there has been a pretty size able gap between my last post and this one which, of course, I did on purpose. Did you buy that? No? Okay, fair enough. But actually it works out fairly well because now I give you….

Running Free 2.0

In reality, nothing about the site itself is going to change, mainly because I don’t know how. The content will likely be different though. That makes sense, right? I mean life is different now. I can’t hang out with the king in the middle of the day or jet off to Ireland for the weekend anymore, so naturally this blog will be a little bit different now. I live in a new place so there will still be adventures just maybe not as frequent, not as grandiose, not as international.

A lot of the posts will be rooted in the so-called real world. The 9-5 world, or in my case the 9:30-6 world (I’m still not used to that). Because of that, the posts might be a little more open or personal (key word: might. We’ll see how it goes) which might be a good step forward because people, ahem mom, seemed to like them.

I was going to use Heminway as my inspiration for those posts; the whole “write drunk, edit sober” mantra. Then I discovered that he apparently never said that which is a shame because that really would have made it so much easier to write those personal ones.

In the posts to come, I’ll touch on the aforementioned job and life lessons, but I’ll also spice it up with road trips and scenic vistas and seaside towns. And wine and cheese. Remember how tired you got of beer and pretzels?

Well I’ve fixed that in 2.0. Now it’ll be wine and cheese. What? Local is a big thing here in California so I am just keeping it local.

Cheers!

Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens

I definitely looked up the lyrics to “My Favorite Things” before writing this post. I went with the better known Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens, but I think my favorite is probably Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes. Snowflakes will probably always be my favorite. Good luck to me in Cali, huh?

Anyway, you might have guessed already since I hinted at it in a previous post, but, you see, this post is about my favorite places in Madrid.

5. Side streets

That’s totally cheating right? To pick all of the side streets? Well I was going to limit it to Malasaña but when I was picking out pictures a lot of them were from different parts of Madrid, so I decided to broaden it to “side streets”. It’s the side streets in every part of the city that have that Spanish charm.

So pretty, right? But the best part of the side streets is the plazas and terrazas!

For the record, that cheesecake tasted just as good as it looked.

4. Palacio Real & Catedral de la Almudena

These two go together because they are so close to each other and thinking of one always seems to make me think of the other. So here they are, the two of them together.

I really liked hanging out outside the Royal Palace. And it wasn’t even because I want to be royalty; although let’s be honest, who doesn’t? I should clarify though, I would want to be princess but I don’t think I’d ever want to rise to the rank of Queen. I don’t want the responsibility.

In all my time spent standing outside of the palace, I haven’t actually been inside. I probably did go inside when I studied abroad six (seven?) years ago, but I haven’t gone inside this time around. And you know why? Because when you’ve been inside one you’ve kind of seen them all, you know? They’re always filled with that old-fashioned (read: stuffy) regal decor. There’s incredibly intricate wallpaper. There’s heavy red velvet everywhere. Hmm, I think finally understand why George wanted to drape himself in velvet. And if there’s not velvet, then there are cherubs painted on ceilings. All of the kinds of things that make you think ‘Wow, this is stunning. But how about a little eggshell? Maybe a nice, pale blue perhaps?’

Anyway I’ve found that I can get my fill from the outside. It’s a pretty amazing building and even though there are guards stationed outside of the entrances you could go right up and touch it. Though that might be weird. And if you can’t take it all in while you’re up close to it (it is a pretty big building) you can get a great view from the gardens or…or the Catedral de la Almudena next door. They have a museum and look-out point that you can access for 6€. The view alone is well worth it.

While you’re at it, you might as well take in the city and the mountains.

Not to mention the Cathedral itself…

Moving on, as I said, the views from the gardens are pretty nice. Heck, the gardens are pretty nice.

But the real treat about hanging out outside the palace is that you are sometimes able to stumble upon some really cool things. There was the time that I got to see the King…twice!

By which I mean the King’s hand. I got to see the King’s hand! Twice!

Then there was the time that I stumbled upon the tail end of a concert with a somewhat curious choice of pieces.

It is with great sadness that I regret to inform you that I just missed the opportunity to hear the Royal Band play Star Wars. I heard it from afar and rushed as fast I could, it’s not my fault!

3. Plaza de España / Templo de Debod

These two go together too because I can’t visit one without visiting the other. Plaza de España is an open plaza with a couple of fountains, a reflecting pool and Don Quijote and Sancho Panza. I visited them regularly throughout my time here and had to officially bid them farewell on my last day.

The Templo de Debod is practically right around the corner. I think I wrote about the history of it before, but if not here it is in a nutshell:

The Temple was originally built in southern Egypt in the second century BC as a dedication to the god, Isis. Almost two thousand years later, Spain was awesome and provided assistance in the relocation of some of the Abu Simbel temples during the construction of the Aswan Dam in 1968. As a show of gratitude, the Templo de Debod was donated to Spain and placed in Parque Oeste in Madrid in 1972.

My favorite time to go was always during the morning before it got filled up with people; however, sunset is beautiful too. It doesn’t hurt that the park has a pretty awesome view too.

I may have done a small photo shoot on my last day there..

My last weekend in town was a holiday in Madrid for their patron saint, San Isidro. As part of the festivities, there was a classical violin concert next to the Templo. Don’t mind if I do.

2. Dehesa de la Villa

I spent a lot of mornings or afternoons or sometimes evenings running in the park. Running is very relaxing, it clears my head and I rock out to music. Lately I discovered the joy of running to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack. Is that weird? It’s surprisingly motivational. I can picture Jack Sparrow (Captain, Captain Jack Sparrow) stepping off his sinking boat or sword fighting or just drinking rum and suddenly I am ready to crush that hill. Yeah, that’s probably weird but it works for me. It also helped that when I was running this was the scenery that surrounded me.

1. La Mina

I suppose it will not come to a surprise to my family at all that a bar would be my favorite place in Madrid, but it is what it is. Maybe it’s the Boston girl in me. Maybe it’s the Irish that I try to claim (anyone who is Irish in and around Madrid has the accent to back it up!) But I’m a pub girl. Give me a corner bar and I’ll make it my home. I promise you that they also serve coffee so half of my visits were to have coffee. Okay, maybe only a third. Okay, fine, a quarter. What do you want from me? The Spanish start drinking at 9:00AM.

But I like to become a regular. It makes me really feel like I’ve made myself at home. In Boston it was Thinking Cup. First Tremont Street, then Hanover Street, then Newbury Street. It’s like they kept opening up a new one to suit my ever-changing needs. Maybe they’ll open one in Oakland next! It just felt nice to have them wave and start my order when I walked in the door. I didn’t always order the same thing when I went to La Mina so they couldn’t be the same even if they wanted to, but it still felt like home.

Even the kids get involved! Just kidding he was only going for ice but it’s still odd to see

I had every intention of posting this my last night but the internet had other plans. And then I figured I would do it in the airport but again the internet had other plans. So I wrote it then and added the pictures later. And boy is that time-consuming. But hopefully it pays off because there is a lot to see in this post and only a small part of it is words!

This may be the end of Spain (for now at least) but I plan on sticking around. Maybe there will be a post or two snuck in about Boston. If not, then the next stop is California!

A Walk in the Woods: Cercedilla and the Guadarramas

Yesterday I promised you all pictures and pictures you shall have!

I mentioned that it has been rainy here, right? And that it looked like it was going to continue to be rainy for the foreseeable future, right? Okay. Well I had been waiting to go for a hike in the Sierra de Guadarramas outside of Madrid for ages now. With my time here coming to an end soon, I couldn’t very well be picky. So I picked the first day that didn’t have rain and took the bus out to Cercedilla.

The sights along the way were rather lovely. Even though the skies were full of clouds, there were moments that suggested that it might not be terrible day after all.

From the bus station to the start of the trails is about a 2 kilometer walk. At least you’re all warmed up and ready to go by the time that you get there. You can also practice taking pictures of the cows which is important because once you’re on the trails, you’ll come across cows that are not contained by a fence. Having just been to a bullfight just a few of days earlier, this unnerved me just a little bit. But we’ll see them later. This, remember, is just the beginning. Just the beginning at 1200 meters. Ay madre mía.

After stopping at the visitor center, map in hand, I headed out on the trails, following the blue trail, to the orange trail, to the yellow trail.

From here on out, I don’t think narration is really required during a hike so for the most part I’ll let the pictures do the talking. When I feel the need to inject some sass, I’ll sprinkle some in. Just a dash!

I would come to regret those sunglasses because I never needed them. Sigh. Anyway, time for my first photo shoot.

Then it was time for a decision:

Two roads diverged in a wood and I…I took the steeper one. Because my mind wants to be a badass. Though my body says ✋?No.

But back to climbing.

Wait where am I going?

Oh, I’m good now.

Hey look! There’s snow in the mountains!

One of the highlights of the orange trail is the Miradores, the scenic vistas. Would you look at that view?!

Maybe I couldn’t see the view, but I could see the watch! Of course there was no sun, so it did me absolutely no good.

Even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to see anything, I decided to venture up a little further. I knew I wouldn’t have the chance again anytime soon so why not?

Here are my cow friends. This is the closest that I dared to get because they have horns.

There was another lookout point along the way up.

I mean, you have to laugh about it. I tried, I really did.

At least I can console myself by saying that this is probably what Hemingway dealt with when he was in the Guadarramas.

I can only assume.

So the hike didn’t end with a glorious vits of the valley below, but it didn’t make it any less worth the journey. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere.

Seven Days

“I’m not really a sharer.”

If I had to pick a personal mantra, that would probably be it and most of the people in my life could attest to that. And I don’t mean it in the “sharing is caring” sense; I’m actually pretty good at that, especially for an only child. No, it’s more in reference to the thoughts going on in my head. I’m the kind of person who has to think before I speak or act. And I think a lot. And I have a hard time translating those thoughts into audible words that actually make sense. As a result, I get easily flustered when I’m expected to share my innermost thoughts and feelings, especially when I’m not prepared to do so. I can fire back a witty zinger very effectively but when it comes to something real, well, I need to think on that.

That’s where the blog comes in. It probably comes as a big surprise for someone who describes themselves as “not a sharer” to have (and to actually use!) a blog. But I’ve always been a better communicator through writing. It gives me a way to organize my thoughts, feelings and reactions.

For the most part, the posts on this blog have been about the beautiful places that I’ve visited and the different, interesting or downright strange things that I’ve done in the last six months. There have probably only been two posts that really got personal: that would be Valentine’s Day (how stereotypical of me) and surgery (also stereotypical. But hey, sue me). Well this is going to be another one of those posts. And it’s probably going to be a long one. I’ll try to throw in pictures here and there but they may be ones that I’ve already shared. If you make it all the way through, you’ll be rewarded with a post full of pictures tomorrow. If not, you’ll still have the post full of pictures tomorrow. So, the warning is out there and the choice is yours. Either way come back to take a walk in the woods with me tomorrow!

Now on with the post.

About six months ago, I boarded a plane with a one way ticket. In about seven days, I’ll board a plane with another one way ticket.

If you jumped back to the post about my surgery, you may remember that I felt a little stuck. I felt like I wasn’t doing anything so I decided to bite the bullet and just take the leap. Well, okay, it all came to a front after the surgery but that wasn’t the first time that I felt that way. It had been quite some time that I felt that my life was at a standstill in Boston, feeling like I was just waiting for the next part of my life. Whatever that was going to be. So in August (or maybe it September, I don’t know) I bought my one way flight to Spain thinking that would be it, that would be the change, the next chapter. I would create a life here. I would get a job here that I enjoyed. (Back then I would add “…even if it was just teaching” to that statement, but now I know that I don’t actually enjoy teaching. Guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t end up going to school for that like I had thought when I was first looking at colleges.) I would fill up my social calendar here. I would become a regular at coffee shop. Or a bar. Or both! (Heck, I could become a regular at a coffee shop and a bar and have it be at the same place!) I would enjoy my time so much that the one year that I originally planned on would stretch into another. And then maybe another.

That was the thought…but that’s not how it went.

The next part of my life actually started before I came to Spain. I just didn’t know it at the time.

It wasn’t until a few months in that that thought finally hit me. The next part of my life isn’t here in Madrid; it’s back in the states. (For the reason, see Valentine’s Day.) Spending more time here is just putting that on hold. Again. I’ve been there before, just waiting for it to start. Why would I keep doing that?

I know what you’re thinking: ‘because you’re living the life in Spain!’ I’ll admit, that is the sort of image that this blog has shown, highlighting the Christmas lights, the vacations, the Papa Noel run. And it’s true, all of those have been amazing experiences that I will always be grateful to have had. But it hasn’t always been sparkly lights and sunny days. I love Madrid and I will be recounting some of my favorite places here (so keep your eyes open!) but by the end I found myself to be kind of gloomy about it all. But, hey maybe it’s because the past five days have rained and it’s supposed to continue being rainy until Friday. (Seriously, whatever happened to “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”?)

Once I came to the conclusion that I didn’t really want to make a life here, I was kind of…sad. Or maybe bored is the better word, I don’t know. I just felt like I was wandering around trying to find ways to fill my days and the days became really hard to fill. As I mentioned before, I discovered that I didn’t really like teaching so I didn’t bother to fill my schedule with classes that I would dread. But if not that, then what? I jammed in as many vacations as I could but I’m no Rockefeller! When I found myself feeling that same sense of ennui (thank you Gilmore Girls!), that’s when I knew that this experiment, shall we say, was over. I’m spinning my wheels here and I’m tired of it. I also really, really miss working. Who would have thought? I miss waking up and going for morning coffee on my way to the office. I miss answering emails. I miss doing research. I miss color-coding things. Heck, I miss Excel spreadsheets! (I’m totally going to include this in my cover letters: I believe that I am a excellent fit for your company because I just admitted to the world that I actively miss Excel spreadsheets.) But really what it is is that I miss being productive, feeling that I’ve actually accomplished something with my day.

And so, on that note, I look ahead to one week from today. I will wake up bright and early at 5AM (or maybe I’ll just be Spanish and stay out until 5AM. On second thought, maybe not). I’ll board a plane eventually bound for Boston. After about two weeks, I’ll board another plane with another one-way ticket in hand.

A ticket to Oakland*. Hello west coast! And hopefully some sunshine, for real this time!

*Disclaimer for my Mom: this is like that time when I moved to Charlestown. I will be surrounded by yuppies again, don’t worry.

Hanging Out at the Hanging Houses

Lets go ahead and talk about those hanging houses before they fall into the river. Just kidding. Even though they hang precariously over the edge of the gorge, they don’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. That’s what 14th Century construction gets you: gorgeous houses, built into a cliff that remain intact over 600 years later. How did they do it?

The hanging houses, or “Casas Colgadas”, are located in Cuenca, along the Huécar River which actually carved out much of the area surrounding the houses. I’m not sure if it reached all the way up to the houses themselves but you’ll see a picture of the river later on in this post. And the fact that it ever carved out anything is pretty impressive.

Cuenca is a small city located in the Castilla-La Mancha region. It was occupied by the Moors from 714 until 1177 during which time it established itself as a leading producer in the textile and agriculture industries. After the Moors were conquered, the area experienced great prosperity as a result of these industries; however, it now depends more on cultural tourism. It became a World Heritage site in 1996 and, well, those houses are pretty dang cool.

I know, I know there are tons of pictures and they all look kind of the same. But that’s the problem when you go somewhere really impressive looking (and on multiple days at multiple times, that’s why the lighting is different.) Everytime you turn around, it’s photo-worthy and you’re not quite sure if you’ve already captured it. Or if you’ve adequately captured it. I’m still not sure these pictures do it justice. It’s just so big and grand that it makes you feel small (but in a good way) and I’m not sure you can really tell from the pictures. But I can’t take the houses with me so pictures will have to suffice.

Remember I said that a river did this and that when you see it, you probably won’t believe it? Well let’s see if I was right…

That big thing is very obviously the road. The river is behind it.

Though she be but little, she is fierce, am I right?

Anyway, in the background you can see some nature-ish trails so we went for a brief walk along those and made it all the way out to castle. This must be the only place where a castle is an afterthought. I don’t even remember what the castle looked like except that it had teeny, tiny, little windows with bars on them. It was the view that stole the show.

So there are houses hanging on a cliff. There’s a castle. There’s an old monastery, that is now a fancy hotel. (That would be the building in the middle of the picture above). There’s also a little town, full of colorful houses, a bearth full church, and some pretty steep walks.

For a small town, it had some big time wonder. By day and by night.