hi, i'm jenn

When I signed up for the NYC half a long time ago, I was only excited about it. I figured that it would be no problem to keep up the running after the Ottawa half since, you know, it’s summer. And that I’d be all geared up and ready to go by the time the race neared.

But, life happens. I traveled to Vegas and Chile. I marched in a wedding. I worked a few 50+ hour weeks. And running has been taking a back seat to these things. (Learning that I must fit in running/working-out to keep sane, but that’s a whole different issue).
Now here I am, with the race 3 weeks and one day away. Am I going to go? Heck yeah, the ticket is booked (well, not for the right day, but that’s a whole other story) and I haven’t been to NYC in more than 6 months.

Am I going to run? Well, I figure that I can do 21.1km on August 16th if I run 13km today (done), 15km next weekend and 17km the following weekend — no time to taper! I won’t race the event, but I will complete it. It’s not worth me getting hurt to get a new PB. There will be plenty of other races to do that where I’m properly trained.

I am going to run because it’s fun, not because I’m going to beat a personal record. Running a half marathon – even slowly – isn’t something to shake a stick at!! Besides, I’ll have the different scenery of NYC to keep things interesting!
So in 22 days, if everything goes according to plan, I’ll have finished my third half marathon and be enjoying brunch somewhere in the city. Or maybe I’ll be shopping. Or napping. But I’ll be in NYC, and definitely happy to be done!

I know I said I’d do a series of posts about traveling in Chile, but it’s been two weeks and I haven’t had a chance to write anything at all. So instead I’ll do a post jenn style — all aboard my train of thought (let’s hope you can follow):

• Background: I went to Chile with my girlfriend Ruthie for 10 days. We both are experienced travelers (Ruth has been EVERYWHERE) and had 10 days with which to explore. For us the time was the major constraint, so we decided to hit three different places/areas: San Pedro de Atacama (SPDA the desert in the North), Pucon (lake district) and Santiago. We were both super swamped, so things only came together the last two weeks before the trip. Good thing it was low season.
• Book: We traveled with the Lonely Planet and Fodors. We used the LP more (I had a bigger purse so it was on me most of the time) and because it’s more young person friendly. I spent time looking through all the different books before ordering one — the LP had a publish date of February 2009 so was the most current by far of the different books (normally I lean towards Let’s Go). I didn’t have many problems with it — I found it hard to find information about flights (see next bullet) and also
• Flights: Chile is long and skinny. You can get around the country by bus, but we were short on time so avoided 10+ hour bus rides followed by crankiness by shelling out some moolah and hopping on internal flights. We thought this would be a piece of cake to organize but were pretty shocked when we searched for flights on the LAN website from Santiago to Calama (near SPDA) and they started coming up at more than the cost of our flight from Toronto to Chile!
  We found Sky Airlines, but were not able to book on the website (you need a Chilean credit card). We emailed about booking and the poor english made me nervous. In the end we found a travel agent in Chile who booked the flights for us.
  If you have more time and flexibility then you might wait until you’re in Chile. Apparently LAN has domestic rates from inside Chile that are cheap (I suppose it’s the North American site that’s marked up?) and you can go to either of their counters to book.
  So in the end we found a travel agent in Chile who booked our flights for us. We did have to pay an agent fee, but our flights were affordable and were what we were willing to pay (both flights came to ~$620 USD).
  FYI: To get to Pucon you can fly to Temuco (1.5 hours away), though there are direct flights to Pucon in the summer. To get to SPDA you fly to Calama (1 hour away).
• Weather: We were in Chile in the winter — but before ski season started. For Pucon, that meant that a lot of things were “under renovation” including three of the places the book recommended staying at, and one of the restaurants we walked into. It also meant there was too much snow on the volcano to summit it. But while we were in Pucon we barely saw any clouds – sunny and bright blue skies. Chilly at night (and at the Volcano) but totally fine otherwise.
  SPDA is the desert — warm during the day, and cool at night. No rain. Ever. When we went on excursions early in the morning it was FREEZING. Like, wear all of your clothes in your suitcase freezing. But you were seeing cool things so it was worth it.
  Santiago was rainy most of the days we were there. Not cold, but cool. And when we were wet that wasn’t very much fun. I wish I brought my pink rainboots (which would have given me blisters for sure, and then I would have wished I didn’t bring them).
  Yes, I want to go back in the summer. Especially Pucon.
• SPDA: We ended up organizing ourselves through Cactus Tours. We did the three day Magic Cactus tour which took care of our hotel and the three common tours you do there. It was great — we loved the guide and driver that we had for two of the days. Like, they were the coolest. Recommend them.
  We also did a star tour — AMAZING. It is so much fun and you see such cool things. We even saw Saturn with its rings. And got to take a picture of the moon. So good. Everyone must do it.
  The town is cute and really really laid back. All the restaurants have outdoor seating with big fireplaces. We smelled like smoke pretty much permanently. We had so much fun going to dinner and drinking Pisco sours and wine and talking to people (both locals and travelers). Keep in mind you’re at a high altitude, so the drinks will hit a lot harder (I speak from experience).

Okay, so that is enough to get started. More to come.

Yesterday I:

1. got something working at the office that had been driving me nuts
2. got my Runner’s World subscription changed to $21 for 2 years (I had renewed on friday for $29 for 1 year)
3. got my flickr pro status fixed
4. got taken to a surprise summerlicious dinner (Celestin is yummy)

Today, not as great:

1. Wallet and sunglasses fell out of my purse while going through the revolving doors. Had to exit the office to go and get them.
2. Sat down at my desk and spilled my Nalgene everywhere.

So not too awful — yet. Here’s hoping things start looking up. Oh, hump days.

I have entered the contest on Chic Runner’s website to win a shopping spree at Zensah! And they ship to Canada so it’s a contest whose prize I can actually win! Yippee!

And now for a 12km run… Grumble. Though I think it would be way more fun in one of these skirts…

i kinda went dark for 10 days there, eh? Not if you follow me on twitter, though.:)

Chile is an incredible place. Played on snow covered volcanoes, ran down gigantic sand dunes, and tasted some of the best wine I’ve ever had. And that’s barely scratching the surface.
Over the next few days I’ll be uploading photos (hopefully flickr will figure things out and give me my pro account back so you can see them all). I also plan to write a few posts about the specifics our adventures in Chile — especially since I didn’t find it all that easy to find information for planning the trip online.

Also, I am marching in one of my best friend’s weddings this weekend. Hope my dress still fits (let’s just say that lomo a la pobre is delicious).

Hello from chile. I have been at the Santiago airport for 7 hours now and our flight isn’t until 7. Hurray for travel days. An iPod touch and free wifi have made the wait more tolerable and ruthie and I have plenty to talk about.
I find Spanish very confusing – like French in a dream. I know jamon is ham so I don’t order that.
We had to pay 132 for an entry visa. Americans are charged 131. I wonder why the difference? Oh well.
There were a lot of dogs at baggage claim I would think to check our bags for drugs. In reality they were chasing each other around and sniffing each others bums. Awesome.
We are heading to pucon tonight and hopefully climbing the nearby volcano tomorrow. So a lot more active than pacing the airport terminal!! Can’t wait.

I was my own flash mob on the 4th ring.

Also, think twice before you search for “White hot” on YouTube. Especially at work.

Edit: I can’t get the video to embed correctly, so here’s the link

A few months ago, my friend Elaine sent an email out with an invite she had received to the White Hot Gala for the National Ballet. As young folks in the city, we were offered tickets for about $30 to the event. We were also told that there would be the opportunity to do our own [secret] performance… And you know how I love to perform.

There were  [apparently] 2 classes in May to learn the dance. We managed to miss them both. But yesterday the reminder email had a link to a video of the dance — so I practiced in front of my 12″ powerbook until I thought I knew the number passibly well. I had butterflies in the cab on the way to the performing arts centre (I would have taken the subway but that extra run through meant I was running late – kept getting stuck the “hard part”).

Arriving at the Performance Centre was a little intimidating — I was surrounded by women in dresses (both cocktail and full-length gowns) and men in tuxes. When they said it was a Gala, they weren’t kidding! Whoops. I was seriously under dressed (but not in jeans. phew). There was a drumming crew outside welcoming us in, and then we climbed up to the tippy top (Ring 5 baby!) to take our seats.

The performance was wonderful – six different numbers (5  pas de deux, one solo) that were all quite different and beautiful. I think back to my days sitting through dance competitions — there was nothing more painful than watching bad ballet. But this was just a pleasure. And at just about an hour, it was great for my Thursday evening shortened attention span. Not to mention, even from the very top you can see how defined the ballerinas’ bodies are. Amazing.

Then the real fun began – there was food and drink to be enjoyed by all. Yes, an open bar – with Grey Goose Vodka martinis! So I was loosened up just in time to hear “History Repeating” — our cue that our dance was coming up next. Elaine provided great moral support while I danced my heart out (since no one was dancing around me). Since we were near the top (Ring 4) at that point, we could see people below us dancing as well which was useful when I forgot that the “shopping cart” was the next step. And then it was over. I was relieved and happy.

We spent the next few hours enjoying the food and drink. I might have behaved like a starving college kid when I thought they were taking away the food and double fisted on the Spring Rolls, but I blame the post performance high for making me ravenous (yes, that is just a scape goat).

We ran into friends of Elaine’s, and the four of us danced until the DJ announced that it was the last song. And then we cheered for “one more song”, which we didn’t get. Sigh.

I can’t wait for the chance to dance at the Ballet again!

I’ve been sending a lot of emails to book various things in Chile. I’ve noticed some weirdness. The first time I sent out emials, it was to four different places in the same city (Pucon). I sent all of the emails at about 10:30PM (FYI Chile is in the same timezone). I heard back from three of them between 11:59AM and 12:10PM the next day.

And the pattern has continued — I’ll get 4 email replies from 4 different people/places in Chile within 10-15 minutes. One day I received 3, and my travel partner also received 1 in the same 5 minute window. So strange.
So I’ve come to the conclusion that the internet in Chile is funky. Either all outgoing mail is delivered once a day at the same time, or maybe there’s one guy/gal who replies to all the emails him/herself.

I’ll let you know what I discover.

Genki is a Japanese word that doesn’t really have an English equivalent. Loosely translated it means energetic or enthusiastic. When I lived in Japan people would always tell me that I was genki. So while I thought I should give my Garmin a Vegas based name since that’s where I adopted it from (okay, it really came from Amazon, but I ordered it *to* Vegas) once Genki got in my head, it stuck. After all, it’s Genki’s job to help keep me energetic when I run, right??

Now, I don’t intend to blog every run, but I thought I’d give some non-runners a look at what Genki can do — here’s my run from this AM. And if I would have gotten lost, there’s a button that says “take me to the start” so that I don’t need to call someone to pick me up at the side of the road anymore (besides when you’re lost, it’s tough to tell someone where to pick you up).

I did not want to run today since my legs have been uber sore since my ultimate game on Thursday night. I know it’s a different kind of running than my legs are used to, but you’d think by Sunday my lateral quads wouldn’t be burning so much. Go figure.

And now I have 2 bridal showers. I’m a bridesmaid for both of the weddings, and they’re at the same time. I definitely have earned at least one cupcake.