31 December 09: A Running New Year's Eve Celebration!

Posted on 31. Dec, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | No Comments

After less than two days at home, the GCM and I hit the road Monday night for one last trip for awhile–thank goodness! This time were were driving to Ojai, California for a special New Year’s Eve celebration. When I think about it, driving 10 hours each way to go for a 10-hour run is a little odd, but discovering beautiful new trails with like-minded individuals seems worth it.

 
The pre-event briefing required a bowling-pizza party….I earned an award for the lowest score! It was great to meet more ultra peeps and to form little running groups for today . . . Mine will probably have me in way over my head, but I will let you know tomorrow! This was our bowling team. To my left is the man… Read More

29 December 09: GCM's Birthday Swim

Posted on 29. Dec, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 4 Comments

The GCM has come a long way in the past nine months. Yesterday when I told him that a birthday swim was on tap, he was visibly excited. This from a guy who I used to see walking into the pool in Australia with an obvious lack of enthusiasm–some might even describe it as dread–on his face. Maiki’s always been a worker bee when it comes to training, but previously this passion extended only to two of our three sports.

Now we have a GCM who would not have even considered not celebrating his big day with a birthday swim. Christmas is also the GCM’s birthday, so after arriving back in Tucson late Sunday night, I decided the pool celebration should take place on Monday.

And since… Read More

27 December 09: Family Holiday Extravaganza

Posted on 28. Dec, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 2 Comments

 

The GCM bought me a new Christmas Eve dress . . .

Maiki and I have just returned home from a four-day family Christmas extravaganza. This tends to be the way my family celebrates holidays: large numbers of us set up camp (figuratively speaking, in the case of our family) somewhere and spend four days of quality time together. This time always includes long family dinners, lots of photos, baked treats, laughs, Veuve Clicquot, and red cups.

Yes, the Veuve did travel in red cups last night so that no one would be left dry for the 10-minute walk to the restaurant for dinner. Another highlight in recent years is that our holiday family reunions have started to include some family training sessions–this week had both family swims… Read More

25 December 09: Navy SEAL's DC Running Tour

Posted on 26. Dec, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 6 Comments

Yesterday the GCM and I had an unforgettable tour of Washington, D.C., thanks to our fearless leader, my cousin Greg. Greg is a former U.S. Navy SEAL and has always been my hero; I’ve been trying to keep up with him since I can remember, and yesterday was no different! We did a 90-minute run, during which we were treated to views of nearly all of D.C.’s landmarks.

During his time in the military, Greg also worked at the State Department here in D.C., so besides giving us a good workout in the process, he shared lots of local knowledge with us on our running tour.

The White House . . .

and the other side!

Across the street were the street were the presidential tree… Read More

23 December 09: East Coast Tour

Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by hillarybiscay in Blog | 3 Comments

Once again, I don’t have enough brain cells left to write much of an update. It is late here in Washington, D.C., and we have lots of family training planned for tomorrow!! Even pregnant people are getting involved–love it! And Happy Snapper will be bringing his camera for our running tour of the city’s landmarks, so we should have more fun pics to share tomorrow.

The last two days were a whirlwind trip to snowy New York City, with a night in Connecticut thrown in there as well. On Monday night I had a lovely visit to the new Trek Store in Fairfield; they have done an awesome job of creating a real community of athletes around this store and adjoining training center. I had so much fun visiting with… Read More