Trains, Trams, Planes, Airports, Cabs and Motorcycles!

Today, Taylor and I leave for a 2-week trip to Indonesia and Australia! There will be MANY, MANY hours/modes of transportation before we reach our final destination just as you are waking up on Saturday, but it will be worth it in the end!

Here's a brief itinerary for our trip!

We leave JFK airport tonight at 10:40pm and fly through Vancouver, Hong Kong, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia before arriving in Surabaya Indonesia Saturday night.

Saturday - Wednesday we will be in Indonesia, spending most (if not all) of our time in the village that Taylor lived in when he was on the Fulbright. The school he worked at actually scheduled their graduation ceremony around our travel schedule, which just shows what a big deal it is that we are going to visit. Taylor is a celebrity there :) The photo at the top of this blog is of me drinking the world's most delicious coffee in Taylor's village. That's one stop I will DEFINITELY be making while we're there!

After a few days spend relaxing, eating DELICIOUS but terrible-for-you food, and visiting with Indonesians, we will head back to Kuala Lumpur to catch a flight to Melbourne, Australia. Our good friends Kim and Will live there and we will be spending 9 days in Australia with them.

We arrive in Melbourne Thursday morning and on Friday morning we leave to go to Sydney for the weekend. We don't have any firm plans in Sydney but will definitely be hitting up some popular stops. On Sunday, we're going to an Australian Rules Football Game, which I'm really excited about because I have no idea what that is!

When we get back to Melbourne on Monday, June 7, Taylor and I have rented a car and are going to drive the Great Ocean Road for an entire day. I'll be honest, I don't even know what exactly the Great Ocean Road is, but it sounds promising.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Kim and Will are taking the day off of work and we are all driving to a place called Mornington Peninsula. We will be staying at a quaint little cottage at Somerset View. Mornington Peninsula is a wine region so we will hopefully be drinking lots of wine and having a grand time :)

We don't have any real plans for Thursday and Friday, but will probably just tour around Melbourne before catching our flight back to New York at 11pm Friday night.

We arrive back in New York Saturday afternoon so that gives us a day to recover from our jet lag!

Sampai Nanti Semua! (See you later everyone)!

A personal best in the Brooklyn Half Marathon!

Yesterday was the Brooklyn Half Marathon, part of the Half Marathon Grand Prix that takes place every year in New York. They have one half marathon in each borough. The first one was in January in Manhattan and Taylor and I ran it together. We didn't really train much, so it was actually my slowest half marathon at 2:07:20 (9:43/mile).

Well, the Brooklyn Half was very different! Unfortunately, the race was very popular this year and actually sold out before I registered so I had to buy an entry from another girl who had registered but was unable to run the race. Taylor has a minor injury in his knee so since he would have had to buy a bootleg entry too, he decided not to do the race and instead to be my cheerleader extraordinaire.

The race started at 7am in Prospect Park Brooklyn. We left our apartment at 5:15 in order to make it in time. Boy was it EARLY! We made it just in time, too, since the subways are always screwed up on the weekends and it took quite a while to get there.

When we got there, I had to use the bathroom and there were really long lines, so I had Taylor take my bag to the bag check for me. Unfortunately, I forgot to take out the PowerGels that I usually take about halfway through the race. A slight kink in my plan for this to be my Personal Best half marathon! Of course, I didn't realize this until the race started.

The first 7 miles of the race took place in Prospect Park. We ran 2 loops of the park before heading south through Brooklyn to Coney Island. Taylor planned to see me at miles 1 and 3 on the first loop and then to catch the subway down to meet me at mile 10 and run the last 3 miles with me.

Since I had bought someone else's number, I was placed in a corral based on her pace, which was a little slower than mine. As a result, my first mile was spent basically getting out of the pack of slower runners. I felt good, but a little bit weak as the race started. This is pretty normal for long races, it's kind of like having jitters. Typically they work out by about mile 3, which was the case for me. When I saw Taylor at Mile 1, I asked him to see if he could find a PowerGel for me by asking the medical tent or something. Miles 2 and 3 had me feeling better with each step, so that was nice. When I saw Taylor at Mile 3, he let me know that he hadn't been able to find a PowerGel and gave me a granola bar in case I really needed some sugar. I compensated for the lack of the Gel by drinking the Gatorade Endurance Formula that they had at each water stop, which I typically don't do so I was breaking one of the cardinal rules of endurance races: NOTHING NEW ON RACE DAY. Oh well.

Here's a picture of me at mile 3, looking happy but a little delirious:


Mile 4 was pretty flat and was my fastest mile of the race (8:09), but as a result, Mile 5 and 6, which are mostly uphill, were pretty slow and painful. Not to mention I didn't have my cheerleader any more.

We left the park at the end of Mile 6 and began a long straightaway to the finish line in Coney Island. I felt okay for Miles 7 and 8, but around Mile 9 I started to feel pretty fatigued from the lack of Gel and my pace, which was a lot faster than I'm used to! I took a bite of the granola bar at the Mile 9 water stop and it helped a little bit. But the thought of being joined by Taylor at Mile 10 was definitely the most helpful :)

I got to Mile 10 and Taylor was waiting. He updated me that I had 29 minutes to run 3.1 miles if I wanted to beat my Personal Best time. My best before this was a few years ago and my time was 1:55:48. I had a loose goal of 1:55:00 or better for this race. News that I was on track definitely helped but I of course did the inevitable math and figured that I could run almost 10 minute miles and still make it, which is not a very good idea :)

Taylor had been kind enough to buy me a little bag of energy shots on his way to meet me at Mile 10. They were basically the consistency of gummy bears and tasted okay at first. I took them with some water at the water stop. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't until about 10 seconds later that the after taste kicked in and it was GROSS. So now I'm running my 11th mile with disgusting energy shot taste in my mouth. It's the thought that counts right? :)

Taylor was a great running coach. He told me that I was doing well and looked strong and also kept encouraging me to keep my pace up to break my best time. He'd say things like. "pay attention to your form," "stay focused you're doing great" or my personal favorite, "we're going to kick it up for the last mile." He was so chipper I wanted to smack him :)

But I was able to maintain a decent pace and speed up a little each of the last three miles, so that was good. After Taylor had run with me for 2 miles, we made a right turn to run the last mile along the Coney Island boardwalk. It was a beautiful day, there were lots of people cheering, and I felt really good for the last mile, despite my VERY tired legs. They aren't used to going so fast for 13 miles.

Our last mile was pretty fast (8:30) and we pushed it out to complete the 13.1 mile race much faster than I thought possible in 1:52:47, a full 3 minutes faster than my fastest half to date! The average pace per mile was 8:36. I'm very proud of this time and was VERY happy to be done. Here's a char of how my pace per mile changed throughout the race:

DISGUSTING SIDE NOTE: The girl right in front of me as we were crossing the finish line IMMEDIATELY started throwing up as she crossed the finish line. It was gross, but I obviously felt bad for her. I'm also impressed that she was able to hold it in until she crossed the finish line. That's dedication. But yes, distance running is gross for this and so many other reasons.

Taylor and I spent a little while stretching, changing clothes and enjoying the breeze on Coney Island before heading home. Here are some photos:

Taylor and I after the race
The Ferris Wheel and Cyclone in the background

The Boardwalk and unknown Parachute-like contraption

We got the subway home which seemed to take forever, especially when I was started to doze off and heard the distinct sound of nails being clipped and looked up to see this:
SERIOUSLY, who clips their nails on the subway?! GROSS!

All-in-all a very good day and I'm very proud. A special thanks to Kim B. for helping me get in the race and Taylor for being the best cheerleader/coach/husband/paparazzi I could ask for!

5 years ago today...

I graduated from Vanderbilt University. I have SO many fond memories of my time at Vanderbilt that I literally tear up when I think about it. I am so thankful for all the great friends I made at Vanderbilt, each and every one of which I cherish to this day, even if we don't keep in touch like I wish we did!

Sadly, facebook became the life-documenting powerhouse that it is during my last year of college and as a result I don't have very many photos from those fantastic years on facebook. Also, because of the aforementioned 5 years that have elapsed, my computer from college along with many of the photos I had is long gone.

Here are the few I was able to grab off of facebook, mostly group shots. I'll try to put them in chronological order.




RIP Thomas

MISS YOU ALL!

The Lucyk's (and one Smith) are so pretty!

Here are some shots from a family photo shoot last year that I thought I would share. Aren't we the cutest family!?