Actual epic adventures!

May 22, 2017

Actual epic adventures!

I describe my recent USA holiday as ‘epic’ but as we know, that word is thrown around waaaay too much. It was amazingly fun, and action-packed, but epic? Probably not. I don’t think the tale of my month in the States will be handed down from generation to generation, somehow!

I do want to do something proper epic though, one day. The idea of running from one city to another has definitely entered my mind (Melbourne to Adelaide maybe? Mount Gambier to Adelaide?) and with the right support, could happen! (Actually with a good group of people it could be a lot of fun!)

One race that I would LOVE to be able to do, but which is WAY beyond me at the moment (never say never, but I can’t see it happening anytime soon!) is Coast2Kosci – about 240km from the coast at Eden to the summit of Mt Kosciuszko, the highest point in Australia. I’m not particularly interested in mega long races (although I do want to tick off a 100 miler one day) but this one appeals to me greatly.

Maybe not so much ‘epic’ but something that would take a lot of work, would be the ‘Not The Adelaide Cup’ human races (as opposed to horse races) – pretty much all the fun of a day at the races but with humans racing instead of horses. That WILL happen one day!

I don’t have to look far to see actual epic adventures. I just have to go down my Facebook news feed and I thought this week I might highlight a few friends who have done (or are in the process of doing) freaking amazing stuff!

First cab off the rank, being freshest in the mind, was David Turnbull’s record-breaking run which ended last Wednesday night – the entire Heysen Trail, just under 1200km of it, from north to south in 13 days 16 hours and 16 minutes – breaking the previous record by a massive 16 hours!

I first met DT after The North Face 100 (now Ultra-Trail Australia 100) 2 years ago. He did brilliantly that day and made a good first impression on me by buying a bottle of wine for fellow ultra running legend Andrew, Andrew’s wife and crew Lara, and myself!

We’ve shared the track a few times since then – I got to watch him smash out 130+ km in the Adelaide 12 hour event in 2015 while I was running around in circles for 6 hours, and we were both winners in the 100km state track championships earlier this year (although he was long gone by the time I eventually finished!).

I was fortunate enough, along with fellow trail runners Tina and Ryley, to be able to join DT for a very short section of the trail (around 4km!) last Monday, and was amazed at how well he was travelling, despite the fact that he was approaching 900km at that stage! On a few occasions he would start running up a hill, and I’d be thinking, “Are you kidding? I’m not going to be able to keep up with a guy who’s run almost 1000km?” but then after a few steps he’d be walking again and Tina and I would be able to catch up!

DT in the middle, with Ryley on the left and Tina on the right, during our short run on Monday!

DT was posting his location on his Facebook page every hour or so, which allowed people to find him and run with him for a bit – if they could keep up! It was a privilege to be able to share a small part of what turned out to be a FKT (Fastest Known Time) and a real eye-opener to see what goes into these audacious (and in this case ultimately successful) attempts! I believe there will be some kind of book about this and I really look forward to reading it!

Great to see the story getting some mainstream media coverage!

During the epic run, DT was raising funds for DEBRA Australia, supporting people with Epidermolysis Bullosa. Which leads me neatly into the next epic adventure!

Still in progress is another massive undertaking, The Million Dollar Run. This is a 3000km run from Adelaide to Brisbane to raise $1m for DEBRA Australia. I first met Andrew in December 2015 at a birthday run for fellow runner Barry, 6 hours around the 2.2km Uni Loop, sounds like fun, right? Well I only did 5 laps that day (my excuses being that it was a stinking hot day and plus I had to go to work!) but Andrew completed his first marathon and as I recall in not too shabby a time! The Million Dollar Run was already on the cards then, but it’s taken a while for it to actually happen! At the time of writing he’s pretty close to Melbourne! Amazing stuff!

Finally for this week we have School of the Road – last year, fellow runner Travis, Fiona and their son Patch, who has autism, embarked on a truly epic adventure, cycling from Washington State to Washington DC, around 5000km, an absolutely amazing and inspiring journey, showing, as they said, that ‘anything is possible’!

So there you have it, 3 inspirational people doing amazing things for very worthy causes! Hopefully I will be able to come even remotely close to such epicness one day!

May 15, 2017

Things I will and will not miss!

Back to work tomorrow – I knew this day would come eventually!
There’s just enough time for one last holiday blog post before reality sets in properly! (Mostly words, this one!)

Since getting back home at arse o’clock on Friday, I’ve had 4 days to settle back into ‘normal life’, and 4 days to reminisce about some of the things I will and will not miss about the USA.

THINGS I WILL MISS

The freedom. Being able to get up every day (except the days I had planes or buses to catch) and do whatever the hell I wanted. Or nothing (although that never seemed to tickle my fancy…)
The experiences. Playing in the snow, seeing awesome shows, exploring new cities… and that’s just the beginning!
Cheap Clif bars. And so many more flavours! Like, $1 each – I really should have stocked up!
(Mostly) not having to set an alarm to go running!
Boston. I don’t think any other marathon will compare to Boston – but I’m willing to be proven wrong! I have an ever-growing bucket list of USA marathons – and I don’t even particularly enjoy marathons!
Probably most of all, the people I met along the way. Everywhere I went, whether it was fellow hostel guests or people I happened to be sitting next to in the theatre, the people were so friendly. I love meeting new people and although in my job I do get to meet a lot of people, it’s not quite the same. I think maybe it was my Australian accent that encouraged many people to be so friendly – or maybe it was just my amazing personality ??? I find that solo travel leads to meeting a lot more people – when travelling as a group or a couple you don’t really need to make that effort and can end up getting stuck in your comfort zone. I met a lot of solo travellers on my trip. And you don’t necessarily need to be single to do it! I think everyone should do it at least once. You won’t regret it!

THINGS I WILL NOT MISS

THIS.

Living out of a suitcase. And having to repack it every few days for the next flight!
Having to make attempts to keep things tidy when staying in hostel dorms. As much as I like the idea of being tidy in theory, when I’m in my own place I tend to fill up all the available space!
Tipping. I do get why it exists, and I did get the hang of it, but I was quite relieved to get back to a place where it’s not a thing.
Sales tax. Why oh why can’t they just factor it into the shelf price, rather than add it on at the checkout? I don’t want to do math on holidays!
Airport security. Again, I did get it down to a fine art but the amount of time wasted in airports when I could have been doing more interesting things…
Large swarms of tourists. I tended to try to stay away from them wherever possible! Not staying in Midtown in NYC certainly helped!
Sleeping in bunks! Top bunk is a pain in the arse getting in and out! Bottom bunk I kept hitting my head! I like my bed!
Having to Google to find good coffee in most places. I must say that other than in Vegas it was surprisingly easy to find good coffee, despite what many Aussies will tell you. You just need to know where to look! (And I’m proud to say I never stepped foot into a Starbucks!)
The exchange rate! The first time I went to the States I think we were on parity!

All of that being said, it’s just a matter of time (and a small matter of money) before I start planning the next trip…

May 15, 2017

Race report – TRSA Sturt Gorge

Last year, I volunteered at this event with Karen, it being 1 week after we’d done the Ultra-Trail Australia 100km. We’d both decided to wear Snow White costumes. Why, I hear you ask? To which I reply, have you met us?

Flashback to 12 months ago – Karen insisted on a pic with Kym, which she somewhat unkindly captioned ‘2 Snow Whites and the one dwarf’!

This year, given that I’m not doing UTA, I entered the race. So what if it was only 2 days after I arrived back in Australia? And so what if, aside from running in a forest in Portland a week and a half ago, I had not run a trail in well over 2 months?

There was a 6k, 12k and 20k. I entered the 12k, so I at least had some sense in me! After the trail run in Portland last week I realised I was going to be very underdone and would have dropped down to the 6k if there wasn’t a fee attached to the change!

I went into this race with zero expectations. Which meant I couldn’t really be disappointed, whatever happened!

Kit-wise I went with a new black lulu skirt (one of my overseas purchases) and my new pink argyle calf sleeves bought at the Boston expo, which I absolutely did not need but which were pretty and only $10!

Given that I was running the 12k, I figured my small race vest would be enough – 500ml of Gatorade should see me through, and there were a few drink stations along the way where I could refill them with water if needed.

I arrived at the start, at Blackwood Football Club, early enough to see the start of the 20k, which started at 8.

The 20k starters and a few of the awesome volunteers!

It was chilly at the start but it was sunny and it was likely to be warmish out there. So I needed to factor in both arm warmers and sunscreen.

I had originally chosen black and white arm warmers, then remembered I had pink and grey, so I threw both pairs in.

I asked Chantal which ones I should wear. Pink and grey was the winner. What was I thinking? Of course I should wear the pink!

I hadn’t studied the course. I rarely do. And as a ‘non-competitor’ in this race, I could comfortably rely on following the people in front.

Pretty soon we were away – starting with a nice comfortable downhill.

“IT’S A TRAP!” I thought to myself. As all trail runners know, “What goes down must come up!” (I certainly learned that at Boston!)

Near the start – I’m near the right in the pink hat. Photo courtesy of the Trail Running SA Facebook page.

It wasn’t long before we hit the first hill. And then I quickly remembered how not good at hills I am. (I remember, late in the race, someone behind me telling someone else “I’m great on downhills but I suck at uphills”. I was almost going to turn around and say “Me too! Except the bit about being great at downhills!”)

The course was quite technical. Which was actually good. There were multiple water crossings, and a bit of rock climbing in amongst the uphill slogs and the downhills! I found it easier than just running up hill – the variety was a good distraction, and it was kind of fun! (I didn’t see anyone fall into the water – I very much hoped I wouldn’t!)

Climbing over boulders is relatively easy for me, being blessed with long legs! Getting under low branches (along with finding a height-appropriate man!) is not so easy – thankfully I can only recall one ‘limbo’ that I had to do!

There was a guy behind me who had run the practice run last weekend and mentioned a few times that he’d got very lost! I had told him to let me know if he wanted to pass me, but after hearing that, jokingly told him I didn’t want him taking the lead! (In his defence, there were no course markings last week, and the trail at times was difficult to pick out!)

On the course marking, I have to say, this course was IMPECCABLY marked. As one who is, shall we say, ‘navigationally challenged’, I never felt like I was in danger of getting lost – thanks so much to the awesome volunteers who marked the course!

After around 6k I said “OK that’s enough for me!” – again cursing myself for not entering the 6k in the first place!

But of course we all know that’s not how it works. I entered the 12k, and I would run 12k (or thereabouts – the other thing we all know is that trail distances are approximate at best!)

From about 10k to 11k it was a hard slog – and the elevation profile backs that up! There was a lot of walking in that kilometre but I knew it was ‘nearly’ over. (Fellow parkrunner Alex had passed me at around the 7k mark, telling me there was ‘only a parkrun to go’ – which is a lot more encouraging with 5k to go in a marathon than it is with 5k to go in a 12k!)

The elevation profile makes interesting viewing!

There was a nice little bit of downhill towards the end. Even though there was a bit of up as well, I managed to keep running, albeit a slow plod, because I knew the end was (metaphorically) in sight.

My normal rule when it comes to hills, is “Never run up a hill if you can’t see the end of it!” Meaning, I will run up a short steep hill (in fact, it’s usually easier to run it than walk it) but a long steady climb I will usually walk (and probably faster than I could run!)

Thanks to Chantal for this photo near the finish line!

Eventually I was at the finish line and ran under the arch – stopping the clock (figuratively) in a touch over 1 hr 25.

Although I had no expectations leading into the race, there were a lot of pleasing signs:

Under 90 minutes ✔ (not that I had a time goal, but I really did)
Didn’t fall over ✔
Didn’t die! ✔

One thing I will hopefully remember for next time is to wear my cycling gloves – that would have been handy (no pun intended) for climbing over boulders. Plus if I did fall over, I could save myself with my hands!

I then proceeded to chat with a lot of the fellow runners, who all wanted to know about Boston and my holiday (which I don’t think I will ever get sick of talking about) in between eating my body weight in vegan brownies (thanks again Maurice!)

For once I didn’t win any prizes in the random prize draw but I guess it’s only fair to give some other people a go!

This was yet another fantastic event from the wonderful people at Trail Running SA. Great course, perfectly marked, brilliant weather – what more could you ask! Congrats to all the runners, and of course once again the amazing volunteers need to be thanked for making it all possible!

I could not think of a better way to ease back into ‘normal life’ – out on the beautiful Adelaide trails with great friends!

Next event for me is the Barossa half marathon (2 hour pacer). And I have my outfit organised – getting pretty excited! (Now I have 2 weeks to make sure I can actually run 21.1 in 2 hours!)

May 11, 2017

It’s good to know where your journey ends…

And that is a song lyric blatantly stolen from Peter Allen, ‘I Still Call Australia Home’. Appropriate, because as I write this I am sitting in an airport lounge in Hong Kong waiting for my flight home!

The last week or so of my holiday has been quite eventful!

I arrived into Vegas around 6:30pm on a Friday which was also Cinco De Mayo. Probably not the best plan, in hindsight. Any Friday night, as the lady who checked me in to the Luxor, is always busy what with the Americans getting away for the weekend. Cinco is probably even worse!

So I didn’t actually get into my room until after 8:30 and went for a wander around 9ish. Given my arrival time I hadn’t planned anything for Friday – just a walk down the Strip to stretch my legs. I’d forgotten how long the Strip is! And how hard it is to get around, with all the overpasses etc!

I was going to go into the Irish pub at NYNY which is kind of a Vegas tradition, but there was a $10 cover so I decided against it! Last time I went there I bought the CD of the house band, so I can hear them for free any time I want!

The other thing making Vegas particularly busy was the fact that there was a big fight on Saturday night which I found out at check-in – I made a mental note to stay away from wherever the fight was!

Pretty much every venue had a Cinco fiesta – this was NYNY.

So Friday night was pretty quiet – just a wander, reacquainting myself with the area, and also checking out a few of the shops!

Saturday was all about shopping – I had put aside the day to go to the Premium Outlet Mall – I only had time to do one, and chose the northern one as that one had lululemon. I must say the whole outlet experience was not as good as previous times – I didn’t get much stuff (lulu was a bit of a disappointment!) and there were definitely not as many bargains. Maybe the advent of sales tax had something to do with it!

I did find this awesome gelato place, Amorino, which had heaps of vegan sorbets! I had chocolate, pistachio, and the most amazing blood orange and ginger! It was a pretty hot day too, so it was a welcome relief!

Amorino – where have you been all my life?

Saturday night I had a show to go to, but before that I grabbed an early dinner at Slice of Vegas Pizza in the Mandalay Bay Shoppes, right next to the Luxor. I went there specifically because they have a vegan menu – I had a feeling vegan food was not going to be quite so easy to come by in Vegas than in Portland!

Yummy sandwich and the awesomest sweet potato fries!

After picking up my ticket for Human Nature I went for a look around the Venetian shops – such an amazing setup they have there! The Venetian was where I stayed on my very first trip to Vegas and nowhere else has come close!

If you haven’t been to the Venetian, this is all indoors!

Human Nature were fabulous. I’d only seen them once before – at Carols by Candlelight in Adelaide in 1996, back when they were a boy band! And I was delighted to see them do an homage to boy bands as part of their show, including some of their own stuff! These guys are the total package – all-singing, all-dancing, funny, a brilliant show!

They weren’t afraid to take the piss out of themselves!

After the show, I thought about going back to the Irish pub but thought better of it – the fight wasn’t far from there, so I decided not to even bother going! Besides, I was going to have to be up early in the morning for my flight to San Francisco, so I decided instead to go to the piano bar at the House of Blues – not too crowded, really fun, and I managed to get a seat at the bar!

I managed to squeeze all my stuff into my one suitcase, meaning that I wasn’t going to have to pay for a second bag on the flight! Anticipating a big haul at the outlets, I had fully expected to have to get the second bag out for the flight to San Fran. Once I got to San Fran there was no issue because on the flight home I could check 2 bags free of charge.

I was up and away early the next morning – my shuttle pickup was at 8.

Well, I was up, but I wasn’t away!

Because when I got to the airport and went to check in for my flight, I found out that it was cancelled!

I went to the check in desk and was told that I couldn’t get a flight to San Fran until the following day. They weren’t going to pay for a night’s accommodation, because the cancellation was known more than 24 hours ago, but they weren’t able to contact me to rebook me. She gave me a voucher for a discount on one of the airport hotels.

I contacted the travel agent’s 24 hour emergency number – the girl I spoke to looked into alternative flights but she wasn’t able to find anything with any airline. So I went back to the lady at the check in desk and she booked me on the first flight out the next day. (I didn’t think that one through – it was a 7am flight which ended up meaning a 4am shuttle pickup! Still, I wanted to get the most time possible in San Fran!)

Airport hotel? I’m in Vegas for another day, as if I’m going to stay at an airport hotel! No thanks, I’ll be staying on the Strip! I went on Hotels.com and found a room at the Excalibur (not the most fancy hotel but good enough and in a good location) for $29, (plus the resort fee of $30 something) – I thought that would be fine, and in case the travel insurance company weren’t prepared to pay for it, I didn’t want to risk spending hundreds on a fancy hotel room, especially considering I would hardly be spending any time there!)

I contacted my hostel in San Fran and explained what had happened – in the end they didn’t charge me for the missed night, which they were quite within their rights to do, because I gave them less than 24 hours notice.

I also went on Vegas.com to see about a cheap show for that night – might as well make the most of the ‘bonus’ night! I had a discount code from when I bought the Human Nature ticket, and ended up booking to see Blue Man Group – I’d heard good things, they were performing close to where I was staying, and it was an early show, given that I’d be getting up at 3 I was going to need an earlyish night!

Fortunately I was able to check into Excalibur early, dropped my bags off and headed straight out to get some more cash and then headed downtown on the bus. There was a vegan restaurant near Fremont St, VegeNation, that I wanted to try out.

Stupid Google Maps had me getting off the bus at the wrong stop but it did result in me walking down the street where all the wedding chapels were, which was kind of cool – including the one where Jon Bon Jovi got married!

I ended up getting a burger from VegeNation and it was really good, I got it ‘to go’ as they were really busy and I didn’t want to waste time waiting for a table! I ended up having to sit at a bus stop to eat it though – there are literally NO places to sit on Fremont St!

I’d been to Fremont St before (aka ‘Downtown’ or ‘The Old Strip’) – I’d forgotten how tacky it was, almost as tacky as The Strip! Heaps of cheap and nasty souvenir shops but less people walking around with yard glasses of margaritas!

I headed back to the Strip, I had read on the Interwebz about Cirque de Soleil having free open rehearsals for their Beatles show on Sundays, so I’d hoped to go to that, but found out when I got there that they don’t do it on Sundays anymore… so instead, I went shopping at the Fashion Show Mall!

I made my way back to the hotel to get ready for the show. Blue Man Group was not like anything I’d seen before – hard to describe! Their own website describes the show as ‘comedy, theater, rock concert and dance party all rolled into one’ which is probably a good description! I was glad to be seated near the back, away from the ‘poncho section’! I really enjoyed the show and would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something different! It was a perfect ‘last show’ for the trip – I’ve seen a huge variety of shows during the past 4 weeks!

Yeah… not really sure what the point of the headbands was!

Then it was back to the hotel to pack and set my alarm for arse o’clock!

Take 2! This time I actually did make it to San Francisco! And I had a window seat on the plane so I got to see Vegas from above!

I took the BART to the hostel – I stayed at USA Hostels where I’d stayed on my 2 previous trips to San Fran. My travel agent had warned me to stay away from the Tenderloin area. On the walk (all UPHILL!) from the train station to the hostel I noticed the flags advertising the neighbourhood as, you guessed it, Tenderloin! Luckily it was daytime, I certainly wouldn’t be wandering through here at night – lots of homeless people and, it appeared, drug addicts!

I wasn’t able to check in right away, but I left my bags, quickly got changed and went to do my one ‘must-do’ for San Fran – a run across the Golden Gate Bridge! Given that I had lost a whole day, arriving on Monday instead of Sunday, and that I was leaving on Tuesday night, I had no time to waste!

As I was dropping my bags off, someone behind me said “Hi Jane!” I looked around and it was Sean, an Aussie guy I’d met at the hostel in Portland, I knew he’d been coming to San Fran but we hadn’t discussed what hostel we were staying at – turned out we were at the same one! He was checking out as I was arriving! Small world! (San Fran has a lot of hostels so it is actually quite a big coincidence when you think about it!)

It was a beautiful day, and as per a lot of the runs I’ve done while I’ve been in the States, I had to stop frequently to take photos! Stupid sexy San Fran!

The run across the bridge itself was very ‘stop-start’ because there is just a narrow footpath which has to accommodate 2 directions of travel for both cyclists and pedestrians. Probably not a good choice of run if you wanted to run fast!

From the other side of the bridge at Vista Point, I ran down to Sausalito from where I got a ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf. The last part of the run I was able to get a bit of pace up, especially at the start where it was downhill!

It was a bit cold and windy on the boat but the views were worth staying outside for!

Then I walked back to the hostel via Union Square where I wanted to check out a few shops. lululemon was first – no good bargains to be had there! I also went to have a look at Macy’s, and a discount shop called Ross where I bought this amazingly comfy shoes (which have since given me blisters, but I have walked a LOT in them) – I had no qualms about buying shoes now, since I had the second bag! Plus they were only $20 AND machine washable!

I eventually got back to the hostel to check in around 5ish, had a shower and grabbed a quick bite to eat. One of the really good things about this particular hostel is that they have heaps of activities, at least one every day. It’s a great way to meet people! Unfortunately I would miss out on the pub crawl on Tuesday night, as that started at around the same time as my shuttle was due to take me to the airport!

I did however make it to wine and cheese night – naturally I didn’t partake in the cheese but I was pretty keen to sample some of the local Napa Valley wine! (I had considered booking a Napa or Sonoma tour for Tuesday, but given that I’d lost a day, and had been up since 3am, I thought maybe a full day tour might not be the best option! I did get my wine though, as it turned out!)

Free wine on a Monday night – very civilised!

I got chatting to a guy called Leonard from Toronto and and an Aussie guy called Glenn (originally from Melbourne, had lived in Adelaide for a time but now travelling the globe) – pretty soon the free wine had all gone but Glenn and I got a bottle of Argentinean wine from across the road and ended up playing pool until the early hours of the morning with another Aussie called Jai (I’m hopeless with names – the only reason I remember his name is because he was from Mackay so I kept referring to him as ‘Jai from Mackay’!) and a girl whose name eludes me – after having been up since 3am I eventually hit the wall and went to bed in the early hours of the morning!
Tuesday, my final day, I didn’t set an alarm, but ended up being up in time to go on a free walking tour. It was really interesting, I went to places I didn’t remember having been to on previous trips, and learned a lot from our guide Mina!

Union Square – the Tony Bennett heart- was where the tour started!

Cool frog sculptures near the Transamerica Pyramid, where the tour ended!

After the walking tour I walked down to the Ferry Building to get a good coffee (my friend Emma had recommended Blue Bottle Coffee which was excellent!) and also check out another recommendation from Emma, Humphry Slocombe, an ice cream place with unusual flavours (they only had one vegan flavour, Pink Lemonade, which didn’t really appeal to me so I didn’t end up getting anything) and then walked down to The Plant for lunch – a curry ‘bowl’ (actually a box – I got it ‘to go’ because I wanted to go and sit down by the water to eat it!). I was joined for lunch by one of America’s giant seagulls!

Next on the agenda was to go check out the Palace of Fine Arts – how I’d never been there before I don’t know, but Glenn had recommended going there, and I’d already been to all the big ‘touristy’ places, plus this was free, and it was another beautiful day, so I thought why not? I was going to take a bus there but after sitting waiting for buses that never came, I ended up walking there!

I would definitely rate this as a ‘must-do’ – you don’t really need heaps of time there although if you wanted to you could spend a good few hours wandering around! And you could sit on the grass and eat lunch with the ducks and watching the turtles!

Lots of these little guys swimming about!

Time was getting away from me so I didn’t make it to the other place I’d hoped to go to – the Botanical Gardens, which happened to be free admission that day! (Free is always a good thing when you’re getting towards the end of a trip!) Leonard had told me about that, but I quickly realised that I wasn’t going to be able to do everything! My next priority was getting a bottle of vegan Baileys to take home! I couldn’t be sure if it was available in the duty free store (as it turned out, it wasn’t!) but it didn’t need to be duty free, I just wanted to bring a bottle home, since it’s not (yet) available in Australia! So I went to BevMo (I guess similar to our Dan Murphy’s or First Choice) and got a bottle which I carefully wrapped and packed in my checked baggage.

Then I went to a free yoga class at a nearby community centre (another activity recommended by the hostel) – probably the best thing I could have done before getting on the plane for 14 hours!

And then, just like that, it was all over – my shuttle driver arrived to take me to the airport!

The flight itself was OK – once again I was lucky enough to be on an aisle with no-one sitting next to me, so I was able to doze off without anyone needing to disturb me. I don’t think I slept a great deal but at the time of writing (4:30pm Thursday) I haven’t had to take a nap so it must have been enough! Saw a pretty good movie too – ‘The Founder’ about McDonald’s – and 5 episodes of ‘Portlandia’ which I hadn’t seen before but was interested to watch after having been to Portland, where it is set!

I landed in Hong Kong around 6am on Thursday and wasn’t due to fly out until 7pm, so I left the airport and took the train into the city. I’d never been to Hong Kong before and didn’t fancy spending 13 hours in the airport!

It was warm and humid – probably high 20s or early 30s. I went for a walk up to Hong Kong Park and the Botanic Gardens which was lovely – an oasis amid the hustle and bustle of the city! Plus it was only about 7:30 when I got to town and the shops didn’t open until 10!

Love the contrast of the skyscrapers and the gardens!

I also went for a walk down to the harbour and to some public viewing areas – one of the cool things I found about Hong Kong is that there are public spaces, often outdoor patios within restaurants or cafes, where people can just wander in and out! And many of them happen to have pretty good views of the harbour!

Eventually 10am came so I went to the nearby shopping centre where, you guessed it, there was a lulu store. It didn’t take me long to realise that it was WAY expensive. Like, even more expensive than Australia! (I had to use my calculator because I couldn’t do the currency conversion in my head, but I quickly realised that I was not going to buy ANYTHING here!) The shops were all pretty high-end, and I was starting to get blisters on my feet by now, so I didn’t really fancy wandering aimlessly around the shops!

There was one other shopping centre I wanted to check out, and I discovered another cool thing about Hong Kong, that a lot of the buildings are interlinked, so I was able to get almost to the other shopping centre without going outside!

I got there and it was another high-end centre so I didn’t bother looking in any of the shops, instead deciding to head back to the airport, making my way back to the train station via a very pleasant walk down to and along the harbour.

And then I decided to be a proper tourist and go on the observation wheel, because there was no queue, and it was only about $HK100 (equivalent to about $A16-17) – and was fortunate enough to get a whole car to myself!

Then I headed back to the airport, through security and immigration and to the lounge which was nowhere near as good as the one I went to at Heathrow on my last overseas adventure! The only free alcohol was canned beer, and NOTHING in the drinks fridge was cold – I so wanted a Coke but there’s nothing worse than a warm Coke, so I ended up just going with water, which was probably for the best! Plus 3 cups of coffee to keep me awake until it was time to get on the plane!

I had been looking forward to a shower but the lounge charged the equivalent of about $40 for a shower so I decided I didn’t want a shower THAT badly, and just got changed in the restroom (which was probably the smallest restroom EVER!) but still it was nice to have a fresh set of clothes for the last leg of the journey!

Plus, I did get a free lunch – see, there is such a thing!

So I think that is probably about it for my travel blog – hope you’ve been enjoying reading it! Back to normal programming next week – I have stupidly entered a trail race on Sunday so that could make for an entertaining race report!

See you back in RAdelaide in about 12 hours!

May 8, 2017

I knew I loved you before I met you…

I never thought I’d be quoting 90s Australian band Savage Garden in my blog but there’s a first time for everything!

I have been looking forward to visiting Portland for a very long time. Although I didn’t really know much about what there is to do in Portland (often abbreviated to ‘PDX’ after the airport code), I thought it was a very ‘me’ kind of place.

One of the most vegan-friendly cities in the US (and the world!)
Eco-friendly
A great running city
Good coffee
Legal weed (OK that wasn’t really one of the selling points for me but it does give you an idea of the laidback nature of the place!)

First thing I noticed after touching down at PDX was how quiet the airport was – a stark contrast to the hectic O’Hare in Chicago! There was even a guy playing saxophone in the terminal – I liked the place already!

It was raining when I arrived but the walk from the MAX light rail to my hostel wasn’t too bad. It was all uphill in the rain but it’s really easy to find your way around in the NW part of Portland. The East-West streets are named alphabetically (my hostel was between Flanders and Glisan, so I knew when I got to Couch that I was about blocks away) and the North-South streets are numbered, like in many of the cities over here.

I was staying at the HI Portland Northwest Hostel. I didn’t get in until around 9ish, so was pleased to find when I got to my room that I had a bottom bunk! I was in a mixed dorm of 6, with an ensuite. Not surprisingly, being after 9pm on a Saturday night, all my roommates were out!

I booked in to a free walking tour at the hostel on Sunday morning.

But first things first, coffee! I Googled to find the best places (because life’s too short for bad coffee!) and wouldn’t you know it, one of the best JUST HAPPENED to be across the street! World Cup Coffee became a pretty regular coffee stop for me during my time in PDX!

First coffee – conveniently just across the street! And one of the best in town!

The walking tour was excellent – it was a great way to start my time here, meet some other hostel guests, and figure out other places I needed to visit!

Pretty painted houses just near the hostel.

One of Portland’s many pieces of public art!

Mill Ends Park – in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest park!

Blatantly stolen from Austin TX but Portland can legitimately use this slogan!

Most cities I’ve been to in the US have a bike hire scheme. Cycling-mad Portland is no exception! The bikes here are sponsored by Nike. One of the many things I didn’t know about Portland was that it is the home of Nike!

Charge your electric car while you work! That’s so Portland!

The Portland Building and ‘Portlandia’ – the second largest copper statue in the US. I’ll leave you to guess what the largest is!

Love this – check out the distance to Tipperary!

After the tour was over, a few of us went with our guide Matt for lunch and a drink at Fat Head Brewing. I did manage to get lunch there – their vegan options were limited but the hummus was excellent!

Then I went to the Saturday Market (yes I know it was Sunday – that’s just how they roll here!)

Bought a T-shirt from here and got to put Adelaide on the map!

The famous Portland sign – looks better at night but I wouldn’t want to be around here at night – bit sketchy!

And then I found the ‘Animals in Fountains’…

I felt like something healthy for dinner so I browsed a folder full of menus at the hostel and found this gem of a place – Prasad which is a mostly vegan place attached to a yoga studio. It was almost closing time when I arrived so my Urban Bowl came in a box – not quite so photogenic as a bowl but equally delicious!

Excellent Urban Bowl (in box form) from Prasad!

You can’t come to Portland without visiting Powell’s Books, the world’s largest independent bookstore. And I’m pretty sure you can’t leave Powell’s without buying something! I certainly couldn’t (and that was why I only went there once – as a traveller who is pushing the luggage weight limit, books are the last thing I should be buying!)

They’re open until 11, so after dinner I thought I’d head down there and check it out!

How can you not love a bookstore that needs a map?

This was the section just on RUNNING BOOKS (and that doesn’t even include the separate section on Marathon)

Gonna have to have words! Jogging – grrr!

Monday’s weather was not looking great, so I decided to do more indoorsy stuff. A trip to Hawthorne Blvd, with its quirky shops and myriad of eating places, was just the ticket! It is walkable but I didn’t fancy it in light drizzle, plus, it is far. And public transport is excellent and CHEAP!

First of all though I had to see the Bart Simpson cartoon!

Providence Park – home of the highly successful Portland Timbers MLS team! And the Thorns – the women’s team!

Portland is also the home of Simpsons creator Matt Groening! This Bart sketch was done by MG himself just outside his high school. Many Simpsons characters are named after Portland streets. To name a few – Flanders, Lovejoy and Quimby! Many times the NE FLANDERS ST signs have been vandalised!

Once I got on the bus, my first port of call was Herbivore Clothing – a vegan clothing store I’d found out about from the vegan shoe store in NYC!

Love a colourful mural! On the way to Herbivore!

I knew there was a vegan mini mall in PDX, but I didn’t realise Herbivore was part of it! So excited when I realised!

The vegan mini mall! I could have spent a LOT of money here…

First stop Herbivore Clothing – they ship internationally!

I bought a top and some cool stickers, and the sales assistant was super helpful, giving me a list of recommendations from food places to bars to ‘things to do’!

Then coffee was needed and a light morning snack! Sweetpea Baking had both of those!

Sweetpea Baking for vegan noms and good coffee!

And then I went to the vegan grocer, Food Fight, primarily to try their vegan soft serve.

The pet section of ‘Food Fight’ vegan grocer!

The Food Fight merch! I did totes buy the ‘VEGAN MEANS I’M TRYING TO SUCK LESS’ tote bag!

And topped it all off with a vegan soft serve! Check out their opening hours! Man I love this place!

One Portland institution is Voodoo Doughnut. I’d walked past their downtown store several times and the queue was out the door. But they have a second store on the Eastside, conveniently quite close to where I was. So I decided, why not? They have quite a good vegan selection – it was hard to choose just one! I thought I did choose just one but when I got back to the hostel and opened the box, I’d got 3! Presumably the salesperson misunderstood me when I mentioned a few I liked the look of, and took it to mean I wanted to buy them all! Maybe it was just a completely foreign concept to her, the idea of buying just one donut! I’m sure I paid for 3 – clearly I wasn’t paying attention! Oh well – it would be enough to last me the rest of my time in Portland!

When in Rome… I thought I’d try Voodoo Doughnut when there wasn’t a 30 minute queue!

These boxes are as common in PDX as Krispy Kreme boxes used to be among people coming to Adelaide from the eastern states!

Yeah – pretty good, although I couldn’t eat a whole one in one hit!

I’m always one to stop and appreciate a good mural – especially a brightly coloured one!

Hawthorne Blvd was cool – lots of vintage and other quirky stuff! I didn’t buy much other than coffee and I did get one CD for $1. It was a good way to spend an inclement sort of day!

On my last coffee stop, I checked the map and realised I was very close to Mt Tabor, a place I had intended to go to, but not on this particular day. Apparently the climb wasn’t too hard and the views were pretty good! So despite me wearing my Birks and carrying 2 bags, I decided I might as well go!

Stairway to heaven? Well, stairway to a pretty good view anyway!

I presume this is Portland’s version of Colonel Light?

On returning to the hostel, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen this signpost earlier!

Another signpost – this one outside the hostel AND bizarrely, with Adelaide on it!

Dinner was a pizza from Hotlips Pizza, walking distance from the hostel. They do have vegan cheese but I opted for cheeseless. So good! And enormous!

Custom vegan creation from Hotlips Pizza. This did me 2 sizeable meals. Could quite easily have done 3!

Later that night I went out to a local dive bar with a couple of guys from the hostel – an American guy who I saw ALL THE TIME who was super friendly and chatty but I actually don’t think I ever got his name, and an Irish guy called Mark who was heading to Vancouver to find work (I did meet a lot of people who were road tripping up or down the West Coast – seemed like the thing to do!).

Tuesday was another dreary day so I again decided to hit a few shops, first walking downtown (I needed to return a cable to the Apple store and also was looking for some black ballet flats which I finally found!)

I also found more Animals In Fountains!

More ‘Animals in Fountains’! Insert beaver joke here…

Then I made my way up to NW 23rd Street, not far from the hostel, for some more funky shops (more high-end) and more animals!

Let’s just overlook the fact this one is promoting a leathergoods shop, shall we?

So after that came the best part of the day! I had been wondering if I could get to run on the Nike track, at Nike headquarters out at Beaverton. I was Googling and hey guess what? Nike Run Club was on that night! I tried to register online with no success, but decided to just go there and hope I’d be able to join! And as I’m a Nike Run Club member back home, I was pretty confident they’d let me in!

So I got dressed to run (complete with rain jacket as it was still raining) – unfortunately I had absolutely no Nike gear on me! I then made the long trek out to Beaverton via 2 buses. When I got off the bus I saw a girl all in Nike gear so I asked her if she was there for the run, which naturally she was! We got to talking as she led the way to the track (not sure if I would have found it otherwise!). Her name was Kaori and she was from Japan, here studying English.

The Nike campus is amazing! Huge, and beautiful!

Firstly I checked in with no problems (although according to Nike I am 41 which I wasn’t too happy about, I’ve only just got used to 40!), dropped my bag at the bag tent and went to get my pace band.

This group is SO well organised – they have pacers – I think from memory there were 6 pace groups. The guy handing out the bands asked me my 5k pace which I told him (in minutes per km of course – I can’t do miles) but he suggested the purple group. He said if it was too slow I could always move up a group. I suspected that would not be an issue – tonight was really all about the experience for me, it wasn’t training as such.

The other groups were blue, red, green, black, and yellow. Except, being Nike, yellow wasn’t yellow. It was Volt!

Before we started running the coach did a bit of a speech. The session was all about promoting the ambitious ‘Breaking 2‘ attempt – aiming to break the 2 hour barrier in the marathon which is quite unbelievable! 2 Nike athletes (professional soccer player Allie Long and former Oregon Ducks and NFL quarterback Dennis Dixon) were interviewed and the group got to ask questions.

The run itself was pretty short – we did intervals of 100m/200/300/400/500/600 and then back down to 100m. Our pacer led out each time so there was no thinking required! And with 6 groups of varying paces, it was so well organised so we never got in each other’s way! And everyone was so supportive, cheering on the other groups while waiting for their next interval!

Stretching after our warmup run through the stunning Nike complex!

The photographer got more of a workout than most of us runners!

And afterwards we all got a free towel and T-shirt, and they put on food for us too! What better way to spend a rainy Tuesday night?

Rocking my new T-shirt and posing with Michael Johnson!

And to top it all off I had the rest of that pizza waiting for me at the end of the long trip back to the hostel!

Wednesday’s weather was MUCH better. I had factored this in when I chose that day to do a full day waterfalls and Mt Hood bus tour. And what a great day it was!

I thought I’d allowed plenty of time to get to the pickup point but only just made it! The tour company was Wildwood Tours and our guide was the awesome Bryan! We were a small group of 9 and I sat up front so got to chat a bit more to Bryan and pick his brain!

Bryan also had snacks (sodas, water, local apples and local hazelnuts) which he offered us at every stop!

He was super enthusiastic and particularly excited because it was such a beautiful day, so we got better views than most groups would get!

First stop was the Vista House, a house that was essentially built as a restroom. Which also happens to have pretty amazing views!

Our first stop – the Vista House – great views of the Columbia River!

Then we stopped at the first of 4 waterfalls for the day – Latourell Falls.

The first of 4 waterfalls – Latourell Falls!

The second waterfall was Shepperd’s Dell.

Another waterfall which we didn’t get to see (because it was under the road we were driving on) had a pretty cool story. It’s called Bridal Veil Falls, and it is in the tiny town of Bridal Veil. Bridal Veil is famous for having the busiest post office in the country (and the third smallest!). Because EVERY bride in the region (and many from all over the world) want that postmark on her wedding invitations!

The third, highest and most famous of all the waterfalls was Multnomah Falls. It is actually the most visited place in all of Oregon – I hadn’t even heard of it before this tour! It is the second highest year-round falls in the USA. I forget what the highest was (not Niagara, which was my guess!). We were lucky we got there early because, being the first really nice day of the spring, it would get REALLY busy later in the day!

The last waterfall stop was Horsetail Falls – nowhere near as impressive as the others but the one we could get closest to – Bryan said we could drink out of it, which of course I did (he said side effects may include beard growth and penchant for fixed-gear bicycles – yes, he was a hipster!)

Lunch was at a small town called Hood River – I’d brought a bagel with me from the hostel (the hostel provides a free bagel and coffee each morning, and on the days I knew I’d be out all day, I’d take it ‘to go’) so I got to spend the whole hour wandering around checking out the shops.

Bryan recommended a place called ‘Artifacts – Good Books Bad Art’ which I spent quite a bit of time at, and COULD have spent a lot of money! In the end I spent $1 and got a hardcover running book! Yes, more books!

After lunch it was time to head up to Mt Hood, Oregon’s highest peak and home to the only year-round snowfield in the USA! Yes, you can ski and board in summer here!

We stopped a couple of times for photos on the way up, and on the second stop we got to go into the snow! It was pretty soft in places – one of my legs went in all the way up to my knee!

Clouds are sort of obscuring it but there’s Mt Hood!

Last stop of the day was Timberline Lodge where we got to have a play in the snow and check out the views! And no, I wasn’t cold in the slightest! Before we went up the mountain the temperature was in the 80s which is high 20s in Celsius. At Timberline it was a very pleasant 17 degrees Celsius!

If you don’t move quickly enough you’ll sink!

The journey home was a bit slow due to traffic heading into the city (everyone was probably out enjoying the sunshine!) but this sign amused me greatly!

I would recommend this tour to anyone visiting Portland who wants to get out and see more than just the city. Try to pick a day with good weather for an even better experience!

Due to the traffic, we got back later than scheduled and as a result I was unable to make it to the running group I had planned to go to, which had been organised by my Adelaide running friend Kay, formerly of PDX!

I did, however, make it to my other planned activity for the night, a gig at Dante’s (the ‘Keep Portland Weird’ place). I had wanted to go there for ‘Karaoke From Hell’ on Monday – karaoke with a live band – but couldn’t find any takers at the hostel and didn’t fancy going on my own!

Before Dante’s I went to Veggie Grill for a healthy meal, after 2 nights of pizza and donuts!

Then it was off to Dante’s where there were 3 bands on the bill.

First up was Portland’s ‘Latter Day Skanks’. Rather than try to describe them, here’s their bio:

The Latter Day Skanks started out as humble Mormons who felt different. The cross-dressing & hard rocking Latter-Day Skanks guarantee to blow your mind and rock your ass. Bring your naughty self to a show and leave your morals, inhibitions and virginity at the door.

Great way to kick off a night of weirdness and music!

Next up was ‘Beatallica’ from Milwaukee. It’s exactly what it sounds like. A mash-up of Beatles and Metallica. And I read that Metallica actually quite enjoy what they do!

The headline act was ‘Okilly Dokilly’ – a metalcore band from Phoenix who dress up as Ned Flanders and all their songs are Flanders-themed! I really enjoyed the show but it wasn’t really my kind of music and if I just heard the music without the visuals I don’t think it would have been quite so enjoyable! Still, a great end to a very entertaining night!

The donut was later thrown around the crowd like a beach ball!

The closer – after a wardrobe change, the appropriately named ‘Nothing At All’!

I took an Uber home and finished the last of my Voodoo Doughnuts!

Thursday was another warm day, so I decided to get outdoors again.

Firstly I walked to Washington Park (up a lot of steps – that was hard work! Going up hills and stairs is HARD!) and went to check out the Rose Garden. Unfortunately, due to construction, it was hard to get around and the only blooms I saw were on my tights!

One of Portland’s nicknames is ‘Rose City’.

Then I walked up the MAC (Multnomah Athletic Club) trail to the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park. Wildwood is 30 miles long – I planned to run about 10k on the trail but a landslide meant the trail was closed about 4km in, forcing me to detour. As luck would have it, my detour took me to a great viewpoint at Pittock Mansion!

It was great to run on a trail that was close to the city but at times felt miles away (until I heard the construction equipment or had to cross a busy road!)

Surrounded by giant sequoias. The Wildwood Trail is well marked and easy to follow!

After my run I went to 23rd St, to try out a few recommended places! First there was Salt & Straw, a Portland ice cream place known for unusual flavours (such as pear and blue cheese!). I had one of their seasonal flavours (floral themed for May) – iris liqueur with edible flowers!

Then I got a takeaway donut from Blue Star Donuts – I went with the orange and olive oil. I saved it for later in the day – so good – best donut of the trip so far!

The evening activity was an art walk through the Pearl District. The Pearl District houses many art galleries, and on the first Thursday of every month many of them launch new exhibitions, and have live entertainment and sometimes even wine!

It was a really good night, we went to heaps of galleries and in many cases the artists were present (so it was a good thing I kept my opinions on some of the pieces to myself, like “WTF is that meant to be?” or “Who would pay 10 grand for THAT?”

But I didn’t say that about any of these. These ones I liked!

Afterwards a few of us went to a bar near the hostel for a drink and bar snacks, and I finally tried a local pinot noir (which was excellent!)

One of the girls on the tour mentioned that she was vegan, so I asked for a recommendation for Friday’s lunch (being my last meal in Portland!)
I had an in-depth conversation with our guide, Robert, about topics including Trump, drug companies and horoscopes/star signs (we had to agree to disagree on that last one!)

On Friday it rained (which seems to be par for the course on the day I leave a city!) but I still needed to try a coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, probably the best known proper coffee place in town. (Obviously Starbucks does not count as proper coffee!) so I walked downtown.

Watching the rain and drinking good coffee!

Next was another one of those Blue Star Donuts but when I got there they were out of the orange ones!

Then it was time to do my final packing, check out and take a bus downtown to Loving Hut, an all vegan restaurant that had been recommended. I had a fried rice and green tea, and I also got a complimentary soup which was delicious too! Perfect ‘last meal in PDX’!

I got to the airport in plenty of time, checked my bag (made the weight limit by the skin of my teeth!) and was excited to find a Blue Star at the airport! With my orange donut! AND, amazingly, the guy who served me gave it to me on the house! You could say, everything was coming up Milhouse!

Even the airport security staff were friendly! The friendliest in the world!

I went to the airport Stumptown outlet for a last PDX coffee but was tempted by their cold brew with coconut milk – like a vegan Farmers Union Iced Coffee (but better!)

Alaska Airlines are great – their overhead bins are nice and spacious, and they have charging points at each seat!

Portland is definitely one of my favourite places ever! Can’t wait to come back again!

May 1, 2017

Hard to say I’m sorry…

In case you were wondering, that was a Chicago reference.

Because this week’s blog post is all about the 5 days I just spent in Chicago!

I’d never been to Chicago before (of the 9 cities/towns on my itinerary on this trip, I’d only visited 3 before. And that’s not even including Hong Kong!). Not only is it an incredibly interesting city, but it is also home to Emma, one of my oldest friends (not in age but in amount of time we’ve known each other – we started school together in 1982!) so it would be great to not only have a place to stay where I wouldn’t have to share a bunk bed, but also someone who knew the place well and could show me all the cool places to go (within the restrictions of only having 5 days, of course!)

Unfortunately we hit a bit of a snag when Emma was sent to San Francisco for work on Monday, the day I arrived. However she was able to leave keys for me at the front desk of her apartment building so I could still stay at her place as planned. And she was due back Wednesday night.

While in Philly last week I had discovered that Game 6 of 7 (if required) of the first round of the NBA playoffs between the Chicago Bulls and the Boston Celtics was scheduled for the Friday I would be in Boston. At that stage the Bulls were 2-0 up so there was no guarantee that it would even get to Game 6, but I messaged Emma to see if she’d be keen to go, which she was! The Celtics had done the right thing by winning the next 2 games, effectively guaranteeing Game 6 would happen, so while on the train from O’Hare Airport to the city centre, I bought 2 nosebleed tickets on StubHub. It would be my first NBA game – on previous USA trips I been to football (NFL in San Diego and NCAA in LA), NHL hockey in Vancouver, MLB baseball in San Diego (plus Boston on this trip) and MLS soccer in Seattle. I hadn’t thought NBA was on the cards on this trip, being playoff time, but everything fell into place!

On Monday I got a message from Emma to ask if I’d like to go to a Yo-Yo Ma concert that night with her friends. Now I have to admit I had to Google to find out who he was – I had heard of him but didn’t know what he did! I quickly accepted the offer – Emma had bought the ticket some time ago and didn’t want it to go to waste. Plus it would be a good way to meet some people given that I was staying in an apartment by myself (as opposed to a hostel, where you naturally meet fellow travellers!).

After ‘checking in’ to my lovely and very conveniently located digs for the next 5 days, I went for a walk to Trader Joe’s to grab a few things and was immediately blown away by the architecture and the skyline!

I decided to leave a bit early to walk to the Symphony, to do a bit more exploring. I found the very impressive Millennium Park and the waterless Buckingham Fountain. (I later found out that it is emptied during the winter due to the water’s inconsiderate tendency to freeze!) Now, I love me a good fountain but I gotta say they’re a lot more aesthetically pleasing when they are actually ‘founting’!

Climbing wall in Maggie Daley Park (adjacent to Millennium Park) which also features an ice skating ribbon and tennis courts, among other things!

I met Emma’s friends Lyde and Cheena at the Symphony and we proceeded to climb 6 flights of stairs to the nosebleed section (I counted over 100 stairs!) but we still had a pretty good view!

The concert was excellent – I wasn’t familiar with any of the music (it was all Bach) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. As well as Yo-Yo Ma on cello, we had Edgar Meyer on bass and Chris Thile on mandolin – both excellent musicians in their own right. Annoyingly, I very inconveniently had a coughing fit during the second half and eventually decided to stand right in the back by the door so I could quickly duck out should I need to!

Tuesday happened to be 25 April, known in Australia as ANZAC Day. I’d found a service in Chicago through some Googling, and walked down there. It was a short ceremony, with readings from Australian and New Zealand representatives, and the many local runners who went past us must have wondered what was going on!

The service was followed by breakfast at the rooftop bar at the Wit hotel – great spot! I hadn’t RSVPed to the breakfast (given that I’d literally only found out about it the previous day) but Lyde, who had also been at the service, told me to come anyway – as it turned out the only vegan option there was coffee! I met a few other Aussies, one of whom, Cate, had lived in Chicago for many years, happened to work in the building next door, and knowing I had some time to kill before my next activity for the day, invited me to come to her building to see the observation deck – cracking view!

The Jewelers’ Building – one of my favourites!

(One weird thing about ANZAC Day in another country is that it isn’t a public holiday here of course, so most people are dressed in business attire and have to dash off to work!)
One of the big ‘things to do’ in Chicago is an architecture cruise. There are many companies that operate cruises on the Chicago River, I opted for Shoreline as that was the one Lyde had mentioned. Tuesday was probably the best day weather-wise of my stay in Chicago so I wanted to make the most of it.

The architecture cruise was fantastic and something I’d recommend to all visitors to Chicago (and locals, if they haven’t done one yet!) I believe the Architecture Society runs one that is longer, more detailed and consequently more expensive. Maybe architects would be best to do that one, but for the rest of us, the Shoreline one gave me everything I needed!

After lunch at Native Foods (a vegan chain!) and a quick trip to Ross (a shop that sells designer gear at reduced prices – a very dangerous place for me!) to buy a new handbag to replace the one I’d been carrying around for the past 2 weeks with one broken strap, I headed to the Skydeck at Willis Tower (known for many years, and still known to many locals, as Sears Tower) – once the tallest building in the world. I bought the Day/Night pass which got me 2 entries in one day – one during the day and one at night.

The big attraction up there (other than the incredible views over the city and Lake Michigan) was The Ledge, a glass platform you can stand on and look straight down over the buildings. Not for everyone, but appealed greatly to me. And many others too – evident from the long queues at each of the 4 glass platforms along the western side of the observation deck. As I got closer to the front I was increasingly bemused by the plethora of those horrible things called ‘selfie sticks’ and annoyed by the people (OK I’ll say it – almost exclusively female) who took AGES to get the perfect shot – pretending to be supermodels or whatever, and when they didn’t look perfect, made their personal photographer take it again! Consequently I spent a great deal of my time up there, waiting in line to get onto The Ledge!

I did take quite a few pics up there (see pictures above and below) but in fairness that was in 4 separate visits to The Ledge. And you can see I’m in different outfits, as there were 2 separate visits to the observation deck.
In between said visits I stopped off at the apartment to get changed and go for a run (my goal for this trip is to run in every city at least once – Vegas is the only place I might struggle to find a good route to run!) – I opted for the Lakefront Trail along Lake Michigan – a popular spot and from the photos you can see why! It was a bit convoluted and involved crossing a bridge/going up and down stairs, but I managed to get in a good 12k, the longest I’d run since Boston.

I then had a quick shower and headed back to the observation deck as I wanted to not only see the city at night, but also watch the sunset from above. Between my visits I also came up with a few new ideas for poses and managed to get up on the ledge as the sun was setting as well as after dark.

Chicago tourist tip #1 – if you’ve got time, you can save money by going up at around 5:30pm (during Daylight Saving) and staying until it gets dark – thereby getting day and night in one visit. Might want to bring a book though – the sun takes a while to go down!

Wednesday’s weather did not look like being anywhere near as good as Tuesday’s, so I thought it was a good day for indoor activities! Being a little bit of a science nerd (in that I find it fascinating, not that I am in any way an expert!) the Museum of Science and Industry was the logical choice. It is located in Hyde Park which was a short bus ride away and is the location of the University of Chicago and also home to the Obamas!

I definitely did not have enough time here – I assumed it closed at 5 when it actually closed at 4 – a rookie mistake and one I won’t make again anytime soon!

Highlights were:

The ‘Brick By Brick’ exhibit (playing with Lego among other things – what’s not to like?) – an extra cost on top of admission but well worth it.
The model train that had to be seen to be believed – illustrating the journey of products (eg apples and timber) as well as passengers from Seattle to Chicago, including very detailed miniature models of both cities! Literally I could have just watched that for hours (that was the first thing I saw) but I was pretty sure there was more to see!
The shell of a real United Airlines plane (insert topical joke here) attached to the balcony on the upper level – and a video explaining how it got there!
The maze of mirrors in which I genuinely got lost!

The lowlight was the extremely loud school kids (I don’t think you can avoid them, regardless of when or where you go) who made it impossible for me to hear some videos I was interested in, about genetics and specifically the Human Genome Project.
But overall I thought it was excellent and well worth a visit – maybe bring your iPod!

Chicago tourist tip #2 – check the opening hours of museums and galleries before you go – because invariably you won’t have time to see everything and you don’t want to miss out on anything important!

I heard from Emma that she wasn’t going to be back now until late Friday night. I now needed to find something to do for the next 2 days (not an issue in itself but the weather was not ideal so that was a bit of a limiting factor). Plus ideally I needed to find someone to use Emma’s basketball ticket on Friday – luckily Lyde was keen to go and suggested dinner beforehand at a local vegetarian place!

Speaking of vegetarian, I was pretty hungry by the time I left the museum at 4, so I used my trusty Happy Cow phone app to find nearby food – conveniently there was a place very close by called B’Gabs – funny name but excellent food! All vegan and mostly raw – I went with a raw burger – a first for me! A bit tricky to eat but delicious!

I then had a browse in the nearby secondhand bookstore (Powell’s) – something often found in university areas! Due to books being relatively heavy and unsquishable, I have so far resisted (I’d bought 2 so far) but couldn’t pass up Stephen Hawking’s ‘The Grand Design’ for only $4.95 + tax! A little light reading for the plane trips! Trust me, if imminent plane travel wasn’t a factor I could have bought up big there!
After returning to the city centre I made an unnecessary trip to TJ Maxx, a shop similar to Ross. I ostensibly went in there for a pair of black ballet flats which I’ve been searching for this whole trip but walked out sans ballet flats but with a pair of running tights which I most definitely did not need (but which in my defence were amazing) and a Chicago Bulls T-shirt which I did kind of need for the game on Friday.

Then it was time for my ‘When in Rome’ moment. Like the cheese steak in Philly, I was determined to try a Chicago staple, a deep dish pizza. After Googling it seemed that Lou Malnati’s, also one of the most famous places for deep dish pizza, was my best option for vegan deep dish. It was a bit of a hike from the shops and then back to Emma’s but I was determined to try it!

When I got there and asked about a vegan version, the first girl effectively said ‘No, we don’t do that’. I then stepped outside to try to find another nearby place that might be more amenable. An Instagram search of #vegandeepdish kept coming back to Lou Malnati’s as the best option, so I went back in and asked (with a straight face) for a ‘Deep dish cheese pizza without cheese’. The guy who served me that time was somewhat dubious and even had to go out the back to ask if it could be done! Which of course it could! I added mushrooms and just got a small. It took a while but eventually I had the pizza in my hand and took it back to Emma’s place where I finally got to eat it. And you know what? It was really good, and lacked nothing in taste by not having cheese! I actually only ate half, which was great because that would take care of Thursday night’s dinner as well!

After Emma told me she was stuck in San Fran until Friday, I had a bit of a think about what to do. I had a crazy idea to catch a bus to Milwaukee and visit the Harley-Davidson museum. The bus was only about 1.5 hours and $10 each way. I decided to sleep on it and if I decided in the morning that I was keen, I’d walk to the bus station and see if I could get on.
So on Thursday morning I woke up just in time to eat breakfast before wandering down to the Greyhound terminal to try to get on the 10:00 to Milwaukee. As it turned out, the 10:00 was full as was the following bus, so that made my decision easy! It was for the best anyway, as it was colder than I’d anticipated and I’d neglected to bring a jacket, and also I’d forgotten to throw a Clif bar in my bag for the road.

So I made my way to Hero Coffee, my favourite coffee shop in Chicago (funnily enough, when I did eventually catch up with Emma, she said she was going to tell me to go there!) to have a coffee, use the wifi to look at booking a trip to Milwaukee on Friday, and read the Redeye, one of the local street mags.

I opted for the 12oz instead (96oz is about 2.8 litres!)

Milwaukee was a no-go because the bus times, and my early dinner plans, meant I’d only have a couple of hours in Milwaukee, so I decided it wasn’t worth it.
In the street press I read about a fitness class happening on Friday morning, featuring kettlebells and, more importantly, 80s hair metal music! So naturally that was a no-brainer!

I also Googled museums – after considering the Field museum (natural history) I settled on Chicago’s No. 1 tourist attraction (according to TripAdvisor), the Art Institute. There was Thursday taken care of – it was open until 8pm Thursdays! I was definitely going to get my money’s worth out of this one!

The Art Institute was, quite simply, amazing. You would need a MINIMUM of 4 hours to even get close to doing this place justice. I spent over 7 hours there!

Highlights for me were:

The Impressionists – they’ve always really appealed to me
Only some of the modern art – most of it I didn’t really like but I did like some of the Picasso and Dali Surrealist stuff!
Some of the Ancient Greek sculpture
Chagall’s American Windows
The special Hélio Oiticica exhibition – lots of interactive and multimedia stuff
The medieval religious art (again, has always appealed to me, weirdly enough for a heathen!)
My last stop for the day – the miniature rooms down in the basement! Mindblowing!

Georges Seurat – ‘A Sunday on La Grande Jatte’

Salvador Dali – ‘Venus de Milo with drawers’

Part of the Hélio Oiticica exhibit – so fun!

Sitting on a mattress, watching images of cocaine while listening to the Stones – all part of the Hélio Oiticica experience!

Just one of the miniature rooms, each one from a specific period and specific region – amazing!

Unlike many attractions I’ve visited so far, they actually let you leave and come back! So I took the opportunity to walk over to Millennium Park to eat my lunch, where I was questioned by a couple of design students about my views on ‘The Bean’ (officially ‘Cloud Gate’) – they initially thought I was a local but were still interested to hear my views!

View from the bridge on the way to Millennium Park – those pipes hold speakers, they go over a big lawn and concerts are held there in summer. Apparently the sound is fantastic!

When I did eventually manage to drag myself away from the Art Institute, I decided on a whim to walk down what is known as the Magnificent Mile (lots of high end shops which I managed to resist going into) to the John Hancock building to go up to yet another observation deck. This one was different though – this one had the Tilt. You may have heard of the Tilt. If not – check it out here!
I had to pay for entry to the observation deck, plus I decided to fork out the extra $5 for a rooftop cocktail, then the $7 for Tilt, which was over pretty quickly but an amazing experience (you’re in a glass booth which tilts outwards over the city – the view is incredible and it’s not really that scary!)

The photos were a massive ripoff though – they were going to charge me $25 for one photo which was taken from behind so didn’t even really show me tilting! No thanks!

The view was pretty good although I didn’t feel the need to stay long after I’d seen it all from Sears Tower a few days earlier!

First order of business on Friday was to take the train to Through The Body for my ‘Hellz Bellez’ class! Such a fun concept – the music was so good, finishing up with a little Leppard and Poison, and even with the 2.5lb kettlebell I definitely felt the effects the next day! Thanks Stephanie for an awesome class!

So my plan after a shower and one last load of washing, was to hit up the vintage storesof Wicker Park. I did eventually get there but was caught out by the confusing Chicago train network which brings me to my 3rd and final tip for Chicago:

Chicago tourist tip #3 – the train network is confusing! If there are stations on 2 different lines with the same name, don’t assume it’s the same station! As an example, the Blue Line has 2 different stations called Harlem!

Instead of Wicker Park I found myself in Pilsen, the Mexican neighbourhood (which is HUGE, FYI!) It is a vibrant area and there is a mural district which I didn’t find, but I did eventually work out where I did need to be! Next time I’m in Chicago (and there will be a next time!) I’ll make sure I get a whole day in the Wicker Park neighbourhood!

From there I went to Green Zebra to meet Lyde for dinner – I ended up having 3 courses and a cocktail, all vegan, all delicious!

From there we headed to United Center for the Bulls v Celtics game.

We were in the nosebleed section but could still see everything that was going on. And there was ALWAYS something going on. Dunk contests, acrobats, a Chinese woman on a unicycle flipping bowls off her foot onto her head, T-shirts being shot out of cannons, T-shirts in parachutes – never a dull moment! Pity the game was a non-event and the Bulls lost the series that night and consequently are now out of the playoffs! Nevertheless, it was awesome to experience an NBA game live despite the one-sidedness of the contest!

Fun fact – the Blackhawks (NHL) play here too. The court is literally laid on top of the ice!

And the night finished with another first – my first ever Uber ride! Public transport wasn’t really an option to get home given the dodginess of the area, so I decided to download the app and give this Uber thing a try! Uber is not really big in Australia but is pretty huge over here. I was lucky enough to have a very good experience with an excellent driver, Andrew – seems like a pretty good system!
On Saturday, my final day in Chicago (fortunately I was on a 4:55pm flight so I had most of the day) I finally saw Emma, who’d got in around 2am! We went for brunch and way too much coffee (they kept topping us up!) then for a cup of tea at Intelligentsia and finally a donut (I can’t remember the name of the place but they had literally one vegan donut which was more like a muffin but still good!) before heading back to Emma’s place to get my stuff and head to the train! It rained pretty much all day so we tended to stick with indoor activities!

Thanks Emma for the hospitality! Great to see you albeit briefly!

One of the things I’ve noticed everywhere in the States but which seems to be most obtrusive in Chicago out of all the places I’ve been to, is the homeless people. They’re on pretty much every corner but it’s not just that. In Chicago I saw one guy walk through traffic and ask people in cars for money – I’d never seen that before, only the Good Friday appeal in Melbourne which is different, that’s charity collectors, and it’s all-pervasive (but only for one day). On Saturday alone we had one guy in the foyer of the donut place (which was really awkward because it was kind of hard to say you had no spare money when you obviously just bought donuts) and finally a guy who walked past us 3 times at the train station asking for money (after we’d only said no, like 30 seconds ago)
So, that’s Chicago for you! I will be back! I have a feeling next time the Chicago Marathon may be on the cards!

Next stop Portland, Oregon!

April 25, 2017

The Washington Ultra!

It’s not what you’re thinking!

Although, I was tempted to enter a 50k trail ultra in Oregon next weekend…

I had 2 full days in Washington DC – arriving late Friday afternoon and leaving early Monday morning. And having never been before, naturally I wanted to see everything!

I took a Greyhound from Philly, arriving at Union Station, and from there it was a short walk to the bus that took me pretty much to the hostel door.

I can’t speak highly enough of the hostel – HighRoad DC – probably the best hostel I’ve stayed in. You name it, they’ve got it.

Friendly and helpful staff
Fantastic location in Adams Morgan neighbourhood
Free wifi (seems to be pretty much the norm over here, except at JFK airport!)
Power points EVERYWHERE, including on each bed (yes, even the top bunks – I was ‘lucky’ enough to get a top bunk once again)
Reading lights on each bed
Free hire of locks for the lockers in the dorms
Plenty of space in the dorms for luggage
Clean!
Fully equipped kitchen
Free coffee!
Pancakes on Sunday mornings
Activities and recommendations for things to do each day
One of the guys even baked choc chip cookies on Sunday evening – they smelled amazing! (I didn’t bother to ask if they were vegan – just enjoyed the smell!)

I checked in to my room and quickly found a vegan-friendly place across the road thanks to my trusty Happy Cow app – Amsterdam Falafel Shop! Perfect! Highly recommend!

And then I met my bunk mate, Reece. I could detect an Australian accent so when he asked where I was from I just said Adelaide. He said “Me too!” SO Adelaide! (I forgot to do the ‘one degree of separation’ thing – I’m sure we have at least one friend or acquaintance in common!)

I found out at check-in that there was a big science march taking place on Saturday, and a lot of the hostel guests were visiting DC for the march. I hadn’t heard about it, therefore naturally I hadn’t planned on going, but thought it would be worth checking out! Plus, the march was starting at the Washington Monument, which I wanted to see anyway!

Friday night I went for a wander to the nearby second hand bookstore which was open until 10! Nearly bought a few books too but had to think of the weight and the room it would take up in my suitcase! My plan is to hold off getting my second bag out, until I get to Vegas!

I was surprised at the number of people who were up early for breakfast on Saturday, until I remembered the march – the reason many of the hostel guests were in Washington. I met a few of them including Julia who was handing out hand knitted ‘pussy hats’ for people to wear at the march (beanies that looked like cat ears!) and I gratefully took one!

No. 1 on my list for Saturday was Roosevelt Island parkrun.

parkrun is not big in the USA yet but is growing. On Saturday, the 9th USA parkrun was launched, in Minnesota. Of the 9 parkruns in the States, 3 are in the DC area! Roosevelt Island was the closest to where I was staying. It was going to take me about an hour to get there by public transport (including a walk at the end, as there are no vehicles on the island) so I thought I may as well run the 5.2km – a good warmup!

After a few scenic diversions I eventually found the sign that showed me I was in the right spot.

I introduced myself to the Run Director, Darrell, who I later found out is also the boss of parkrun USA!

I also met a few Aussies who are on a posting from Canberra – Scott, Jaycob and Kate, who invited me to come for coffee afterwards – because post-parkrun coffee is not really a ‘thing’ here. Yet.

The run itself was lovely – a few little hills, and mostly on fire track and boardwalk! It’s a hidden secret (which explains in part why it was so hard for me to find) and it’s hard to believe you’re in a big city! I managed to sneak in under 25 minutes which was pleasing given that Boston was less than 5 days earlier!

The kind of scenery I got to see! Ah, the serenity!

Some of the crowd gathered at the start.

I think maybe we need to steal this idea!

Roosevelt Island parkrun gets the thumbs up!

After the run I went with my new Aussie friends to a coffee shop called Grace Street Coffee. You can rely on Aussies, and runners, to find good coffee wherever you go! I got some great recommendations for things to do, and they very kindly gave me a lift back to my hostel which was great – I’d planned to run back, but it was raining, and also it would give me more time for exploring!

After lunch at the ever-reliable Sweetgreen, first stop was the White House. I didn’t stop here long – just long enough for a quick photo op!

Then I made my way to the Science March – first a rally at the Washington Monument which had been going since the morning, and then eventually a march to the Capitol (which I didn’t join).

Trump, naturally, was a common theme among the many very clever and funny signs!

These guys were standing posing for photos for AGES!

After all the marchers had passed by I finally made my way to the Washington Monument!

Photobombed on the way to the Washington Monument!

From there I walked past the War Memorial to the imposing Lincoln Memorial.

Lincoln Memorial – also impressive! Great spot for stair reps too!

And then more walking, all the way back PAST the Washington Monument, to the Capitol!

The view from Lincoln back to the Washington Monument.

I’m not sure what this was about but naturally I had to get a selfie with it!

A lot of the signs from the march had been left behind outside the Capitol.

Some of the signs left outside the Capitol.

One of my favourites! Perfectly positioned too!

After I eventually got back to the hostel, I was on my way to Trader Joe’s to grab a few things when I saw Busboys and Poets, a restaurant/bookstore recommended by Aussie Kate and decided to have dinner there. It looked busy but I asked if I could get a seat at the bar – instead they showed me to a group of lounges around a central table and I happily took a seat there!

Dinner! Vegan burger and sweet potato fries!

After dinner I had a look in the bookstore. I was tempted to buy a few books but again held myself back!

Sunday’s adventure began early. I had originally planned to run to Arlington but then I would have had to go back to the hostel for a shower before doing anything else. So I decided instead to walk, leaving the hostel at about 7:10am. I made a slight detour via the Australian Embassy! Not a particularly attractive building compared to many of the impressive and imposing structures around the city!

Saying ‘G’day’ to the Australian Embassy en route to Arlington!

My next plan was to visit the Einstein Memorial, recommended by Julia, but couldn’t find it, so decided to do that at the end of the day, after the museums were closed.

Then I made my way across the Arlington Memorial Bridge to the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. This route was popular with runners! And Sunday was a much better day weather-wise compared to rainy Saturday!

The Arlington Memorial Bridge – looking over towards Arlington National Cemetery.

John F Kennedy’s gravesite, with the Memorial Amphitheater in the distance.

From Arlington Cemetery I took the train to the Pentagon, ostensibly to visit the Memorial, but I was also keen to see The Pentagon itself (even though photographing the building is not allowed!)

Some of the memorial benches, with The Pentagon in the background.

Another sneaky shot of The Pentagon, with the pentagon-shaped ‘window’ in the fence!

From the Pentagon I took a train back across to DC. Leaving the station, I met up with a guy called Josh who was visiting from Jersey and was trying to find the National Mall. I was looking for Pennsylvania Av which wasn’t far from there, so we walked together and chatted. After a while we realised we were a bit lost. Then it got to the point where it would have been awkward for me to reveal that I had Google Maps on my phone! Eventually we got where we needed to be! My first stop was Newseum. Now a lot of the museums (all the Smithsonian ones) in DC are free. Newseum is not, but there was an exhibition there that I really wanted to see – Louder Than Words – Rock, Power and Politics. So I paid my money and went in!

This was a joint venture between Newseum and the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.

First stop was the FBI exhibition – they had pieces from various different crimes including the Boston bombing (naturally of particular interest to me) and 9/11.

Some of the reporting around the Boston bombings.

Then it was up to the top floor, first to the balcony with this awesome view up Pennsylvania!

And then the exhibition I came for. I took many photos – I won’t bore you with all of them – I’ve just picked out a few of my favourites – but I’ve decided that on my next US trip I need to visit the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland!

The guitar with which Jimi Hendrix played ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock.

This was a bit about censorship from the ’80s and this is the jacket and shirt Dee Snider wore at the hearing.

I could have spent a whole day here, easily, but I really wanted to go to the Air and Space Museum so I went to the 9/11 exhibition before heading off.

There was a big focus here on the reporters and photographers – there was a short film about some of the reporters and cameramen who were involved in reporting the news. And one photographer who was killed when the tower went down. Powerful stuff!

Part of the antenna from the World Trade Center. In the background – how newspapers around the world reported the news.

From there I made the dash to the Air and Space Museum. Being free, I wasn’t so concerned about getting my money’s worth! I did buy a ticket to see ‘The Dark Universe’ (narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson – that was the sealer!) in the planetarium. Spectacular and well worth the extra money!

Not to mention a good chance to sit down for half an hour and just chill!

Steve Fossett’s ride from his round the world balloon trip which started and finished in Australia!

This was cool – a simulation of a plane taking off and landing at Reagan Airport (where I was going to be the next day!)

I would definitely recommend a trip to the Air and Space Museum but give yourself half a day if you can! (And of course there are SO many other amazing museums that are also free!)

Then I found Einstein!

By the time I eventually got back to the hostel (around 7:45pm) I’d done close to 40000 steps for the second day in a row – 28km!

60km in 2 days – that’s an ultra in my book!

As I finish writing this I’m in Chicago. I did see the Pentagon from above on the flight here (spewing I couldn’t get a pic as I was in an aisle seat!). I could easily have spent a week in DC and not got bored! If you’re wondering whether or not a stop in DC is worthwhile on your next US trip, wonder no more! (2 full days is barely enough!)

Oh and there’s a pretty awesome marathon that I now want to do – the Marine Corps Marathon – one of the biggest in the world! Just add that to the list…

April 20, 2017

Race report – Boston Marathon 2017

I’m going to assume you’ve read my previous posts or have an idea about what the Boston Marathon is and what it means to run it – otherwise I could very well fill the equivalent of one whole blog post just with the background!

So, following on from my last post. I had my traditional pre-marathon dinner of pizza (I Googled and found a pizza joint with a vegan menu, you guessed it, within walking distance from where I was staying!) from the All Star Pizza Bar – delicious pizza! I could only eat half! Well I probably COULD have eaten more than that…

Just a few doors down was a liquor store and after umming and ahhing over the choices I eventually settled on a local craft cider.

The tradition continues! Marathon #6, every one preceded by pizza and cider the night before!

Then it was time to work out what time I needed to set my alarm (a very civilised 6:30 – I also set one for 6:35 and 6:40!) and get my gear ready. Because the bib is quite ‘long’ I decided to pin it to my top instead of wearing it attached to my belt as I normally do.

With security being (understandably) very tight, there are strict rules about what you can and can’t take to the start line and have in your finish line bag. I had planned to bring an Australian flag to the finish but that was on the banned list (not that they have anything particularly against Australians, just large flags in general are banned!) So we were all given a small start line bag (mainly just for nutrition and drinks) and a larger finish line bag (I put my long sleeved finisher shirt, a T-shirt in case it was warm, long pants and thongs in there). All of that was packed and ready to go, my gear was all laid out and my breakfast, except the stuff that needs refrigerating, was also in the bag. Because my start time was 10:50, and I would be getting on the bus to the start at Hopkinton between 8 and 8:40, and I would be on a train from Cambridge at around 7:30, it would be too early for me to eat breakfast before leaving the house. I had brought a disposable container with a lid and a disposable plastic spoon (which may or may not have been courtesy of Cathay Pacific) so I could eat breakfast just before getting on the shuttle bus!

I had decided to change one thing on race day – instead of the (slightly stretched and therefore more for aesthetic than practical value) aqua calf sleeves I’d planned to wear, I opted for the BRAND NEW, NEVER BEFORE TRIED 2XU ones I’d bought from the expo. “What happened to not trying anything new on race day?” I hear you ask. But when you consider that I’m in Boston, and my top has a yellow trim on it, how could I not wear these babies?

Now I just needed to make sure I put them on the correct legs…

I did tape my feet – despite my new favourite Steigen socks being pretty much guaranteed blister-proof, I wasn’t taking any chances – a blister can totally ruin your day!

I set 3 alarms – not leaving anything to chance!

I actually woke up before the first one – another guest at the house where I’m staying, Alissa, was also running the marathon but she was in an earlier wave, so she needed to be up and gone earlier. So I took my time getting ready. I decided to leave the beanie at home – it was going to be a warm day and I kind of liked the beanie so I didn’t want to have to ditch it! I did wear the track pants, even though they weren’t really needed, because I needed to make room in my suitcase for all my new purchases!

I headed to the train and while on the train I decided to put my gloves in my finish line bag – no way would they be needed! In fact the arm warmers were probably superfluous too but they look cool so they stayed!

At Boston Common I dropped off my finish bag and headed to the bus loading area. With strict rules on what could and could not be taken on the bus, I ate my breakfast before getting in the bus queue.

The girl next to me on the bus was a veteran of 7 Bostons, being a local. She has never done any other marathon! She told me it is not a fast course (which I knew, but then, she doesn’t have anything to compare it to!) and at that point I decided not to get too hung up on the sub-4. Que sera, sera! As long as I had that sweet medal hanging around my neck at the end, time was irrelevant!

We arrived at the Athletes Village at Hopkinton. They had everything! Fruit, bagels, gels, mini Clif bars (I did have one of those) and even coffee! I can’t do coffee before a race!

Papped on the way in (hence the reason why I’m not smiling!)

I requested the photographer get my ‘best side’ because I had to get a shot of those AWESOME calf sleeves!

Everything was supremely well organised, the whole day! The portaloos at the village were plentiful but (well the one I used) pretty nasty! I wonder if as many spectators would high five runners if they knew what the portaloos were like! The MC kept making announcements about which wave and corral needed to go where and when. There was really no excuse for not knowing where to go! (He kept calling our wave the ‘Smurf’ wave on account of our bibs being blue!)

Pretty soon our wave (Wave 3) was called and it was time to make our way into our corrals and to the start. It all happened pretty quickly. All along the way there were opportunities to discard clothing which would all then go to charity (much of it was probably purchased from charity stores in the first place – I know mine was!)

Being a warm day (they described it as ‘hot’ and it did feel that way at times while running but it was actually mid 70s which is around 24 degrees Celsius) I put sunscreen on while walking to the start.

And pretty soon we were away!

It’s going to be pretty hard for me to describe this race in any great detail – although I did try to take in as much of it as I could, given that I was on unfamiliar turf, I probably can’t do it justice.

I’m going to try to keep it in some kind of chronological order but I’ll also be jumping all over the place – bear with me!

I did buy this book, at the Harvard Book Store, on Tuesday, which I hoped may help!

As I had been told by all of the many friends I have who have previously run Boston, “It’s downhill at the beginning, don’t get carried away, save your legs!” Easier said than done!

The crowd, right from the start, was phenomenal and got right behind me. My name was emblazoned across the front of my top in big bright yellow letters so it could be seen from a distance. That was an idea I got from friend Tory who ran Boston 2 years ago. It meant the crowd could cheer for you by name. Unlike all the other marathons I’ve done, the Boston bibs don’t have names on them.

I went in with no plan and no pacing strategy. I’d set my ‘slow alert’ on my watch to 7 minutes per km. That was more to alert me if my GPS dropped out (which has happened several times recently) rather than to tell me if I was running too slow. I didn’t expect that I would actually be running that slow, but as it turned out, at times I was! I was still HOPING for sub 4. I was fully expecting a ‘Personal Worst’ and absolutely fine with that!

The sports drink on the course was lemon-lime Gatorade which for once was what I was used to! From previous experience at City-Bay in Adelaide (up to 40 000 people) and City2Surf in Sydney (around 70 000) I expected that the drink stations might be hard to get to. So despite being familiar and comfortable with the sports drink, I still carried a handheld bottle of Gatorade so I could drink whenever I needed to. The drink stations were very frequent (almost too frequent!), being every mile from mile 2 onwards. I had been told that there was first one on the right, and soon after, one on the left. So if you happened to be on the ‘wrong’ side of the road it didn’t matter, you didn’t need to fight your way through the crowd to get a drink!

Paper cups were good too. Much easier to drink out of than plastic. You could fold it into a spout and drink without wearing half of it! (Although, it was warm, and many people were pouring water on themselves intentionally. As long as that didn’t happen with the Gatorade!)

Speaking of pouring water, there were a few spots along the course where fire hydrants were made into makeshift sprinklers – I can tell you they were VERY much appreciated! I did make the mistake the first time of getting too close to the water source and consequently getting DRENCHED – I soon learned to stay a bit away from the hydrant and just get a LIGHT shower!

I was amazed throughout the race, at how many people were there (there always seemed to be a sea of people ahead) and yet I never felt like it was congested. Whereas, when I did City2Surf, I actually couldn’t get close to a drink station!

Around the 2 mile mark, in Ashland, near the first drink station, the ‘Rocky’ thrme tune was blasting – great motivation! (I read in the book that this is a tradition – Rocky theme on a continuous loop – so nice and motivating for the runners who are just passing through, but must be VERY tedious for the spectators!

I wasn’t aware of it at the time but within Ashland, at around 4 miles, is where Kathrine Switzer famously was almost dragged off the course in 1967, for being a woman back in the Dark Ages when it was a ‘men-only’ event.

Back to the crowd support. I was expecting great things and boy did they deliver! There were quiet patches, sure (and at times I actually needed a bit of ‘quiet time’ to focus and drop the pace and effort down a notch) but for most of the 42.2km (or as they say here, 26.2 miles – doesn’t sound quite so bad, does it?) there was amazing support. As I said earlier, having my name on my top made ALL the difference. I didn’t know a single person out there but it seemed like everyone knew me! And a LOT of fellow runners commented on it, too! There was one point where someone called out “GO JANE!” and a few moments later, “GO RUNNER NEXT TO JANE!” Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it!

It seemed appropriate that in the home of the TV show ‘Cheers’ that it really did feel like everybody knew my name!

There were MANY high fives. Hundreds, I’m sure! Many were from kids but there were a few from very enthusiastic gentlemen, many with a beer in the other hand, and a few stung a bit! (I made a mental note, after one particularly ‘stingy’ one, to only high five kids from then on! That lasted about 2 minutes!)

The spectators were also handing out stuff left right and centre. Oranges were popular, along with water (in between the official drink stations), ice, ice blocks, licorice, and even beer! The only thing I took was 2 bottles of water throughout the course of the race. Having a water bottle as well as my handheld Gatorade made high fiving a bit more challenging but I was determined to make it work – the Gatorade bottle could slide up over my wrist, freeing up my hand. It did mean, though, that I could just take the centre line through the drink stations and avoid getting caught up in the congestion (which, truth be tokd, wasn’t actually that bad).

After Ashland we arrived in Framingham. A few things I can remember here (with the help of my trusty book) was the massive party atmosphere and the sports scoreboard! The party atmosphere, as it had done for a lot of the early part of the race, had got me really pumped up (especially with the crowd yelling out my name) and caused me to run a fair bit faster than I probably should have at that point. So while I found the crowd support incredibly motivating, and there was much air punching and fist pumping as well as high fiving, it may have caused me to spend a bit too much energy early! The sports scoreboards is another tradition – the Red Sox always play at Fenway Park on Marathon Monday so there was someone along the side of the road posting score updates from the game (which the Sox did end up winning) on a blackboard.

Somewhere in Framingham we passed the 10k mark. I wasn’t looking at my watch – and when I did look at it, it was just to look at the distance – not time or pace. However Strava reliably informs me that at the 10k mark I was sitting on 5:12 pace with a time of 52:24. Somewhat way too fast for what was expected to be around a 4 hour marathon!

Around the 12km mark we entered Natick which according to my trusty book, is a local Native American name meaning ‘place of hills’. Not sure if that’s ACTUALLY true but never let the truth get in the way of a good story! Here the Fire Department was kind enough to give us a cooling spray station which was much appreciated!

Then came Wellesley and the famous/infamous ‘Scream Tunnel’ which is around the 20k mark. This is where hundreds of girls from Wellesley College line the course and create a level of noise that can be heard from (seemingly) miles away. This is where, if you’re that way inclined, if you can’t get a kiss, there’s something seriously wrong! This tradition dates back to the earliest days of the Boston Marathon, remembering that back then, women weren’t allowed to compete. These days, a few guys join in the fun – I guess they would like their chances, given that the field now would be close to 50% women!

I did see a few guys with signs asking for kisses but decided not to take them up on the offer – I settled for a whole bunch of high fives!

There were LOTS of great signs along the way. One of the most memorable was a girl holding up a signs saying ‘Nipple Vaseline Station’ (or words to that effect!) I ran past her saying “I’m good!” and laughing! And someone had my personal favourite sign (the one I held up at the 2014 Adelaide Marathon) – “Run like someone just called you a jogger!”

Then there was this guy. I saw him but it didn’t register at the time what it was.

This of course was the score in the 3rd quarter of the Super Bowl, which the Patriots ended up winning! Great motivator for Patriot fans, I’m sure fans of the Falcons wouldn’t have appreciated it quite so much!

I saw a few participants in wheelchairs – not the elites though, they start before the runners as they go CRAZY fast. I remember seeing Aussie legend Kurt Fearnley during the Gold Coast Marathon last year, coming back the other way – unbelievably fast! But as Boston is one way rather than out-and-back, we weren’t going to see any of those speedsters! (Fearnley ended up finishing 4th at Boston this year)

There was one guy in a wheelchair who was going backwards (with a few supporters helping)! I did ask if he was going backwards the whole way but I couldn’t understand what they said.

Turned out he was – and has done so many times before!

I saw a few walking with crutches, several amputees with prostheses (proper running prostheses, like that guy whose name I don’t want to mention here) and a few moon boots. I also saw one girl just in her socks and carrying her shoes – presumably blisters? (Bet she was wishing she’d taped!)

I wondered about the crutches and moon boot but then I thought, if I’d qualified and then the unthinkable had happened there’s no way I would have missed this. So if it meant walking it, with crutches, in a moon boot – so be it!

There were also a lot of visually impaired runners with sighted guides. I noticed 2 spots along the course where there were changeovers of guides. And at one point there was a guy calling out that there was a visually impaired runner and guide coming down the middle of the road so we could keep out of their way.

Still within the town of Wellesley we reached the halfway mark (well, in distance anyway!) According to Strava I reached halfway in 1:52:48 which is 5:21 minutes per km. I didn’t know that at the time (again, not looking at my watch!) but based on the time clocks that were at every mile marker, and knowing that we had started 50 minutes after the official start of the race, I thought I was on just under 2 hours. And with some hills coming up in the second half, I was pretty sure a negative split was not on the cards – so I held out little to no hope of a sub-4!

I heard music… and it was Bon Jovi, but not the song I expected to hear when I was ‘halfway there’ – instead it was ‘It’s My Life’ (still good!) I had to settle for singing the chorus of ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ in my head!

Not long after this came the 4 Newton Hills between 26 and around 34km, the last one being the infamous Heartbreak Hill. Now, I am in no way a mountain goat, but the hills didn’t scare me. I figured, if I had to walk up some of them, so be it. As it turned out, I managed to run the whole way although I did slow down to a plod at several stages (that was when my watch started notifying me that I was going slower than 7 minutes per km). I didn’t find any of the hills too terrible – if anything I found the heat more of a problem than the hills. I didn’t notice anything particularly menacing about Heartbreak Hill, nor did I get complacent after having ‘summited’, knowing that there was still a long, long way to go! My Strava time for the Newton Hills segment was 48:44 (6:13 minutes per km) with an overall elevation of 62m which doesn’t sound so bad, does it? The Heartbreak Hill segment itself (800 metres) I completed in 5:53 (6:47 minutes per km) and the elevation was 29m. 29m over 800m is quite a lot. Not that you should compare apples and oranges but if you put that elevation over 100km you’re looking at 3600m elevation. So yeah, it is steep but it is short.

Around here we passed Boston College. This was when spectators had paper cups of drinks which I quickly realised were beer! (I didn’t take any drinks from cups during the race – only bottles of water!)

This was also where I was looking out for Adelaide friend Maree’s daughter Emily, who was to be holding a yellow inflatable kangaroo. Unfortunately I had never met Emily so I didn’t know what she looked like! In preparation I took out the small Australian flag that I had in my pocket, and I did see a kangaroo, only it was a guy holding it! I held up my flag and cheered, and later found out that Emily WAS there and called out to me, only with all the other people cheering for me, I didn’t hear her! Turned out she’d given the kangaroo to the guy to hold as he was taller and would be more easily seen by the runners!

I can’t remember exactly where it was, but I saw a marquee to the left that had ‘Run Jane Run’ on the side of it! I pointed out my name to the supporters hanging out there (presumably supporting someone else called Jane, not me, but I like to think they’d heard I was coming) and got an extra enthusiastic high five from each of them! (I did hear quite a lot of people throughout the race calling out “Run Jane Run” and “See Jane Run” which was pretty cool!)

At around 22 miles we reached Brookline, and Beacon St which seemed to go forever – not so many welcome distractions here! The ‘T’ train was still running, parallel to the course, and some of the passengers waved to us!

Coolidge Corner was a welcome relief from the relative monotony, with a large cheering crowd – including one girl who went out of her way to track me down and send me this photo!

Coolidge Corner in Brookline – around the 24 mile mark. Photo thanks to Katie Collins who tracked me down via my bib number to send me the photo – thanks Katie!

Next came the iconic CITGO sign with just one mile to go. It’s pretty big though so you can see it WELL before you hit the last mile! But, once you see it, you know you’re nearly there! And I could hear the cheering of the crowd at the Sox game at Fenway Park!

With about 1 mile to go, I snuck a look at my watch. I roughly calculated that if I did just under a 9 minute mile I might get the sub-4. (If I’d known for sure at this point that the sub-4 was definitely off the table, I planned to back right off and just enjoy the ride. But it was still a vague possibility so, while I still continued to enjoy it (and high five), I gave it my best shot.)

1 mile has never seemed quite so far! But the crowd was once again incredible. One girl was handing out stars that had ‘BOSTON STRONG’ written on them so I grabbed one of those.

You can sort of see it in my hand (the red thing) along with my Aussie flag.

One guy called me ‘a savage’ – I’m not quite sure exactly what to make of that but I have to assume it was a compliment – spectators heckling runners during a marathon is not really a thing, certainly not in Boston!

Those last 2 turns. ‘Right on Hereford, left on Boylston’.

On Hereford – not long before the last turn!

I didn’t stop here during the race, of course, but couldn’t resist a photo op the next day – possibly one of THE most iconic intersections!

And there it was – the finish line!

Tiny Australian flag aloft, I sprinted (well it felt like a sprint, I’m sure it didn’t look like it!) to the finish line and I was done!

I JUST FINISHED THE BOSTON FREAKING MARATHON!

Watch stopped. Time (officially) was 4:00:19 – oh so close! But, I had done it! (I later found out that my finish time of around 2:50pm was exactly the time the first bomb had gone off 4 years ago – eerie!)

As we started the long walk out of the finish area I got chatting to a girl called Millie who wanted to get a selfie with me!

Millie said she was right behind me a lot of the way and could hear the crowd cheering for me!

Then came the best bit – that glorious bling!

I could LEGITIMATELY wear this shirt now!

As had been the case for the rest of the day (and the weekend as a whole), the finish area was really well organised. Everyone was given a shiny blanket (like a space blanket – to keep warm) and even a sticker to hold it closed so we didn’t have to hold it on! And we were also given Clif bars, fruit, water and a goodie bag with more food!
After leaving the finish area I went to try to find my Adelaide running buddy Maree, but I somehow missed her (easy enough to do with 30 000 runners out there!) While waiting I met a girl who had a brother who had lived in Australia for a while – I asked her where and she said ‘Adelaide’ – I said ‘No way, that’s where I’m from!’ Normally when I tell Americans that I’m from Australia, they’ve never even heard of Adelaide! I got to meet him briefly – my one Adelaide connection for the day!

I then made my way back to Cambridge (my only issue for the day was getting out – the marathon was still going, so I couldn’t cross Boylston St – so after going round in circles for a while I eventually got out!)

One of the coolest things was the number of people I met during the walk to the bus, who congratulated me – complete strangers! (Of course, for those who were also marathon finishers, the sentiments were reciprocated!) It was pretty obvious in my case as I was still proudly wearing my medal, my race kit and my ‘shiny blanket’!

You can sort of see the shiny blanket here – kind of looks like a cape!

(Side note – one of the many things I love about Boston is how the people here can actually understand me when I speak, unlike many other places in the USA! It’s because they don’t pronounce the letter ‘R’ unless its followed by a vowel. Just like us! So they pronounce ‘Harvard’ like ‘Hahvuhd’ whereas other Americans would say ‘Harrvarrd’.)
First order of business when I got back home was the rest of last night’s pizza!

Then a shower, compression tights on, and off to Fenway Park for the after party!

I didn’t stay long as I didn’t know anyone there but I did get to walk on the field (not on the grass but on the dirt around the edge) and sit in the dugouts which was really cool!

After that I walked (further than I thought I’d be walking) to Ben and Jerry’s for a non-dairy dessert (PB and Cookies, my favourite!) On the way there was a motorcycle cop leading a bunch of runners who got cheers from passers-by. I asked a girl waiting at the lights what it was all about, she told me it was the marathon race director running the course (this was around 9pm) as he does every year! So that was a really cool thing to have seen!

One of many examples of Boston getting behind the marathon and all its participants!

After Ben and Jerry’s I headed back home to Cambridge and to bed after a long, amazing, huge and very satisfying day!

It was everything I thought it would be and more! Thanks to the city of Boston, the BAA and the 9500 wicked awesome volunteers as well as the 30 000 runners – what a freaking amazing event!

Just a footnote – the following day I happened to be at adidas Runbase on Boylston Street to exchange a hoodie. Talk about being in the right place at the right time – as I walked out of the store, Kathrine Switzer just happened to be involved in a ceremony to retire her famous #261 bib, the one she controversially wore 50 years ago and again this year. It was so fitting to be able to see someone who was essentially a pioneer for women’s marathoners, still doing marathons and being an ambassador for female athletes 50 years later! I’m currently reading her book so this was such a cool way to end my marathon experience!

April 17, 2017

The journey begins!

As I post this, it is marathon eve! All the training leading up to last year’s qualifier and the training that started just after Christmas, has led me to this point! All that is left to do is run the thing – which of course will be a subject for another post!

But before that, wouldn’t you like to hear about my first week in the States? Of course you would!

It started with an epic 34 hour journey – a 3am alarm, a 4am taxi and a flight that ended up leaving around 7am from Adelaide. I was lucky enough to get one of the ‘extra legroom’ seats at no extra cost!

That was the short flight, only around 9 hours. Then came the big one, 16 hours from Hong Kong to JFK (with only a few hours stopover in Hong Kong). No extra legroom this time but I was on the aisle in the middle set of 3 seats, with no-one in the middle seat. So while I couldn’t stretch out, I could both get up and move around as I pleased, AND sleep without a neighbour needing to disturb me. And I did manage to catch a few Z’s on that flight too!
Because I was using a shared shuttle, and I was the last to get dropped off, it was nearly midnight by the time I got to my hostel – the Blue Moon Hotel on the Lower East Side.

All my roommates were asleep so I had to somehow find my bed in the dark (top bunk – not my preferred choice but any bed was good at this point!)
The next morning I took the subway to Central Park for a much needed leg loosener! Unsurprisingly I wasn’t the only one that had that idea! It is an extremely popular spot for runners, and with good reason. I just had to negotiate my way around all of the tourists! (Maybe early morning would have been better, but there was no way I was setting an alarm that day!)

The Reservoir track – a popular spot for runners (although I swear I saw a sign that called it a ‘jogging’ track!)

After that I found an awesome cafe across the road from the hostel and had some amazing avocado toast and good coffee (and learning that ‘Americano’ is what they call a long black here!!)

I then spent most of the rest of the day checking out the neighbourhood which was really cool. Busy, yes – it is New York after all – but not crawling with tourists like Times Square! Lots of cool street art too!

‘The Cage’ – a famous street basketball court which always draws a crowd!

Stumbled upon a film set but couldn’t find out what it was!

I even found a restaurant with my name on it but I didn’t go in as it didn’t look very vegan-friendly!

That night I went to a comedy club – UCBT – which was within walking distance. The show was only $8 and it was a bit of fun – it is a monthly event called ‘Channel 101’ and people can submit clips of up to 5 minutes of their own comedy show, the judging panel narrows the field down to 10, and those are voted on by the audience at a live screening. The top 5 then get to be part of next month’s screening, with a new episode. It was pretty cool – in the end 4 of the 5 shows that I voted for, were in the top 5!

In the restroom at the conedy club. I HOPE this is a joke!

On Wednesday I found the vegan bakery! Erin McKenna’s Bakery, once again, JUST around the corner! Did I mention how much I like this area? I had a donut which was delicious (if a little sticky) and then made my way to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to take a bus to Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. It was quite a long trip – I didn’t arrive until 4pm and I hadn’t thought to pack a lunch! I had an apple and a granola bar in my bag and at the last minute I bought a bag of chips from a vending machine at the station. But that wasn’t exactly enough!

The reason for my trip to Mohegan Sun was not to visit one of the largest casinos in the world (impressive though it is – I do have a few nights in Vegas coming up so I should get my fair share of casinos!) but instead to see the legendary Def Leppard live. 25 years ago I wanted to see them when they came to Adelaide but my mum wouldn’t let me (and I do still remind her of this on occasions!). On one of their more recent Australian tours I happened to be inconveniently overseas. I had tickets to see them during their Vegas stint in 2013 but ended up cancelling that trip altogether. Then I heard they were doing a North American tour and thought – can I make this work? Mohegan Sun was the only date that fit with my travel plans (everything was already booked) even if it meant missing the best part of 2 days in New York. And I did have to wake up at 1:30am to book tickets as soon as they went on sale – no way was I missing this!

So anyway, on arrival at the casino I found the shuttle to my hotel, checked in, literally dumped my bag, got changed, and went back downstairs to get the shuttle back to the casino – I needed to find food, stat! I had been Googling using the free wifi on the bus, for vegan options at Mohegan Sun, but hadn’t found anything. I’m sure I could have got something at one of the restaurants but I just wanted something quick. So sweet potato fries it was! Followed by my first experience of Ben and Jerry’s vegan icecream – PB and cookies! So good! Australia NEEDS this!

I had a bit of a wander around the shops and hung out for a while at the record store which was playing a live DVD from the most recent Leppard tour – SO GOOD!

I entered the arena after the first band, Tesla, had already started. I’d heard of them but I don’t think they were very big in Australia. I am a big fan of the guy they’re named after, and electric cars are pretty cool too! I only knew one of their songs (and that was a cover!) but they sounded pretty tight.

My seat was good too – despite being in the second to back row, I had an excellent view. I genuinely believe there is not a bad seat in that arena! (Later on I was seriously wishing I was up the front – but I’m pretty sure VIP tickets were not in the budget!)

Next up was Poison – I wasn’t expecting to know many of their songs but they only played for about an hour and I actually knew all of the songs because it was exclusively old stuff! They really got the crowd going and sounded great!

Then it was time for the main event. I don’t want to go on too much about this but it really was one of the best concerts (if not THE best) I’ve ever been to. I always wonder how hard it must be for a band that’s been around for a long time, to come up with a set list – so many good songs, how do you choose? There will always be a few mandatory songs but there will always be good songs that get missed. And when the band is still recording excellent music even now, how much new stuff do you play and how much of the old favourites? Well I reckon they got it pretty spot on – not surprisingly the set was heavy on old stuff but still with a few tracks from the latest album which, while probably not as well received as the classics, sat very comfortably among them.

Apart from the fact that they make damn good music, one of the things I love about this band is how they’ve kept going after some pretty serious shit! And they are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year – coincidentally, so am I!

Not to mention, musically I love their sound – those delicious harmonies, and the way that every member of the band is equal up there and gets their share of the spotlight, unlike some bands where it’s all about the lead singer and guitarist!

Cool backdrop where you got to see all 5 of the band members simultaneously!

I hope they manage to find their way back to Australia sometime and when they do I will certainly be giving VIP seats SERIOUS consideration!

It took a while for us all to get out of the arena (it was a capacity crowd of 10 000) and even longer for me to find my way out of the casino to the shuttle bus pickup point!

Then it was back to the hotel and a night in my own room – luxury!

Breakfast in the morning was a buffet and finding vegan options was a bit of a challenge so peanut butter on toast and cereal with almond milk it was! At least that would tide me over until I got back to NYC!

Then came me almost missing my bus back to New York. It wasn’t my fault, the concierge had told me the night before that I could just call a cab in the morning and it would come pretty quickly. But when I rang I was told that there was only one cab company in town and 2 of the 3 drivers had called in sick, so I couldn’t get picked up until 1:30. Which wasn’t particularly useful given that my bus was leaving the casino at 10! Luckily it wasn’t that far, as my only option was to walk! I made it with 3 minutes to spare but as it turned out the bus was about 15 minutes late, so I made it with plenty of time in the end.

I got lunch (a ‘tuna’ salad) from the vegan grocer Orchard Grocer down the road from the hotel on Orchard St and then went next door to vegan shoe store Mooshoes – I did buy a couple of things but the main attraction for me was the cat Marlowe who hangs out on the fron counter (in a shoe box, of course!)

He didn’t look super happy to have his photo taken – I guess that comes with being a celebrity!

He’s famous too – he features in the book ‘Shop Cats of New York‘!

Next up was a very pleasant walk across the Williamsburg Bridge (the views were magnificent but the bars made it impossible to take any decent photos!) to Williamsburg in Brooklyn where I found more street art and a motorcycle/coffee shop with my name on it!

I saw this one from the bridge and somehow managed to find it!

I bought one of their mugs – it cost $25 but worth it!

Then I grabbed some DELICIOUS vegan sushi from Hana on Rivington St and headed off to see an off-Broadway show – Avenue Q. Highly recommended! (Tip – todaytix.com is a good website to find cheap tix on the day or a few days beforehand!)

You have been warned! Think, ‘Team America’!

Friday morning I went for my last run before the marathon, across the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. It was not a particularly cohesive run what with all the photo stops!

After that I took the train to Brooklyn. I notice that the train stations in NYC are almost like art galleries – lots of awesome mosaic work! And on the Brooklyn side some cool glass panels!

These were all over the overground stations in Brooklyn!

The main reason for going to Brooklyn was to check out brand new avocado bar Avocaderia, which 2 of my Adelaide friends had alerted me to the previous night.

This was the ‘Quinoa and Friends’ salad. So good! Well worth the trip!

I then went for a walk to Sunset Park – very much a local park. Not one for the tourists but pretty amazing views across to Manhattan!

I had one more vegan spot to check out – Dun-Well Doughnuts in the East Village.

The peanut butter donut gets the thumbs up from me!

And some more cool mosaics!

These were on every street corner – very cool!

My last tourist stop for the day was Wall Street where I wanted to see the temporary ‘Fearless Girl‘ sculpture, staring down the famous bull.

It seems EVERYONE else in NYC had the same idea! I couldn’t get near her! You can just make out the bull among the crowd!

Then it was off to Broadway for another show – Noel Coward’s ‘Present Laughter’ starring Kevin Kline and also featuring Cobie Smulders (best known for playing Robin on ‘How I Met Your Mother’) – an EXCELLENT show.

I couldn’t escape Times Square altogether – it was literally on the way to my theatre!

I decided against a last minute ticket to The Book Of Mormon as I would like to eat for the next week. I could fly to Melbourne and back to see it for less than that!

So that was it for New York – Saturday morning I caught the Greyhound to Boston. First stop was my AirBNB in Cambridge (a lovely spot!) to drop off my bags before heading out for coffee and lunch at the highly recommended Veggie Galaxy!

Next up was a trip to Fenway Park to see the Red Sox play – it was a great game which the Sox won 2-1. It happened to be Jackie Robinson day – the 70th anniversary of the first African-American player in the Major League, so all players on both teams were wearing Robinson’s number, 42. Which was a tad confising for this foreigner at first until I worked it out! It was also the 4th anniversary of the Boston bombings – marked with a moment of reflection at the time the first bomb had gone off, 4 years earlier. So a very significant day all around!

The atmosphere was fantastic – the whole crowd sang along to ‘Sweet Caroline’ with the mascot egging us all on!

You mean, like, balls? What other objects could they be talking about?

Sunday was nothing but Expo Day. I got up late and went across the road to the local brewery/coffee shop (for a coffee, in case you were wondering!) before jumping on the bus to the expo.

But first, the finish line…

All marathoners obviously resting their legs!

Got to the expo and collected my race number and my finisher shirt (which I tried on for size and promptly put it back in the bag – I was surprised by how many people were wandering around the expo in their shirts! Don’t they know it’s bad luck?)

The next few hours (I think it was 3 – totally lost track of time!) I wandered through the expo and I don’t want to think about how much money I spent but it was all stuff I needed (isn’t it always?) WOW that place is overwhelming! My main dilemma was whether to get the small or medium Celebration jacket. After much deliberation and consultation I went with the latter!

I wrote my name on the wall – lucky I’m tall because the only real spaces were at the top. Extended periods of times standing on your toes are good for you the day before a marathon, right?

I didn’t expect to see a swimming pool – that you could actually try out!

I also watched about the last 6 miles of a video of the course which was on a loop! The last 6 miles was enough for me!

Aaand I finally made it out of the expo with only 2 T-shirts, the aforementioned jacket, a hoodie, 2 pairs of calf sleeves, a running light, a bunch of Clif bars, a bumper sticker and a new pair of runners (not the Boston special ones, just my regular ones which were RIDICULOUSLY cheap compared to back home!)

So now it’s time to head back to Cambridge, make sure I’m all sorted for the morning, and go get me a pizza and cider as per tradition!

April 10, 2017

No turning back!

Well, this is it!

By the time you read this, I will have left Australia, bound for New York via Hong Kong. (Side note: I had no idea that Hong Kong to NYC was a 16 hour flight!)

I had a couple of good morning runs during the week. Felt good, nice pace, got rid of the cobwebs. Plus it was nice to be running in daylight in the mornings!

I’ve done the last of the long training runs – with a mind-numbing 12 laps around the block. But importantly I got it done, and I didn’t break!

I got a sneaky last parkrun in, and broke 25 minutes which was nice. Not sure when I’ll next run that fast!

I packed all my race gear in my carry-on, tbe number 1 rule of travelling to races! I’m a bit of an old hand at that now – it’s my 7th time flying to a race, and my second overseas one! I’ve never lost my luggage but this is not the time to take chances!

My plan for the week is to try to get in 2 runs in New York (there’s a park there called Central Park which I hear is nice – might be a good spot for a run?) – probably on Tuesday and Friday.

And to make a side trip to Connecticut to see Def Leppard live on Wednesday night which I am ridiculously excited about. At this stage maybe even more so than Boston!

I’ll keep this short and sweet because at the time of writing (Sunday night) I have these alarms to look forward to…

Looking forward to sharing my adventures in New York, Boston and across the States over the next 4 and a bit weeks!

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