Did You Run Off the Edge of the World?
Okay, I admit it. It’s been a really long time since I wrote a post. You might have thought the blog was dead. (Hopefully none of you thought I was dead.) But no, it was just on hiatus while I took care of a few things. Here are answers to some questions you may have had over the last few months…
Where are you?
After a sometimes exciting, sometimes long 10 months abroad, I am back in Austin! Unfortunately, I got here just in time for the record-breaking summer heat. Back in August, we made NPR’s All Things Considered for breaking the all-time record for days over 100 degrees F. A week or so after that, we broke our own record for hottest day ever by hitting 112. (That’s 44.4 Celsius.) Now it’s almost October, and we’re STILL breaking 100. (Darf ich zuruck nach Deutschland fahren?)
Did you do anything cool before coming back to Austin?
Why, yes! In order to ease ourselves back into the English-speaking world, Handsome J and I took about 2.5 weeks to tour around the UK. We saw Edinburgh, Inverness, Glasgow, and the Isle of Skye – home to the Clan MacLeod castle and some truly excellent microbrew – in Scotland before heading down for a full week in London.
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| The family digs, AKA Dunvegan Castle. Pardon the boarded-up windows. |
While there, we caught up with some of the extended Handsome clan, saw the quintessentially British show Billy Elliot, and paid way too much for a crap hotel room in an area of town that made locals say, “Ohhhh, you’re staying there…”
To keep things active, we also rented some Barclay’s Bikes (apparently real Londoners call them “Boris Bikes”) for a death-defying tour around central London, and I went for a few longish runs through the city.
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| Posing in front of Buckingham Palace with the Rental Bicycle of Death. |
I even managed to pull a “Running Fiesta Special” and trip over some raised sidewalk so dramatically that two pedestrians and a guy biking to work all ran over to see if I was okay. (I wasn’t, but really, what was I going to do? Ride home on his handlebars?)
Aside from changing continents, have you had any other major life-status changes?
Yes again! Handsome J and I bought a house! And we got engaged! And we both got promoted! And…AND…
and I need a nap.
No really. These last months have been amazing and life-changing and packed with about 5 years worth of excitement. But between house-hunting and wedding-venue-hunting and reestablishing our American social life and, oh yes, still training, I stagger through most of my days like a half-conscious zombie. I keep telling myself things will calm down in a little bit (After we buy the house…After we book a venue...After the marathon…), but really I think I just need to adjust to a new pace of life.
Are you still running?
For those of you who apparently skipped the last section, yes, I am still running. And I am still planning to run the Chicago Marathon in T minus 12 days (although I must admit, my fantasies of 4:30 have gone out the window). And then after Chicago there’s the San Antonio Half. And then after that there’s the 3M Half. And then after that — well, don’t worry about me running out of blog fodder. Give me a credit card and an online registration form, and I lose all self-control.
Are you back now? For real?
Yes! (At least that’s the intention.) The Running Fiesta continues! I hope you’re excited to be back.
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| Our new house (shortly before all the vegetation died of heat stroke). |
Running Fiesta 
And this is why we run – to survive the marathon that is life. Glad you are back to the blogging world, but also to the US of A so I can see your perdy face more. Bagel run thur???