well to catch you up on the last two years....
Just kidding. I will highlight the highlights though.
Antigua last winter was great. Ben and I had a sweet little cottage and day jobs. It was surreal! After 5 months of "real life" we headed off in separate directions, me to Valencia, Spain, and him back to England. I had a mate job on Crackerjack, an 82' swan that did week charters in Croatia and Montenegro. EVERYONE SHOULD GO THERE. and soon, its going to become one of those places in 10 years. Youll have to check out my facebook albums.
After only a few months out there I got fired, (the theme of the year) and headed to
Cowes for Cowes week. Cowes week is the biggest event in sailing and it is massive! I sailed in a big one design fleet called X-one designs that are fantastic little wooden boats that are very high performance and finely tuned. We raced in a fleet of 88 and ended up 25th, not bad for some first timers! The best part of the week was being Temporary Members for the Royal Yacht Squadron. If races were delayed we'd go have some tea with the ladies who lunch on the lawn. If we finished well we'd sip some champagne with some very proper English gents. It was a hoot. We had 8 full days of racing and I was exhausted by the end but it was fantastic to be sailing in a fleet again with some really solid sailors.
The beer tents were plentiful and may have had something to do with me losing my voice mid week. Trying to communicate tactics by gesturing with two hands that are locked on the sheet is a very interesting task.
Cowes week finished with some awesome fireworks in a very hazy sky. It rained all day! All Id heard about were how good the fireworks were at the end of the week and they were rumors of them canceling! they didnt and we all had a blast! (get it, blast, fireworks, ha.)
All to quickly the racing finished and I was stuck in Europe for a month. "What should I do?" I thought. And answered "buy a tent, rent a car and run road races while exploring England." and I did. I started with training in cowes for the 1/2 marathon that coming sunday. Cowes is and island and like most islands every road goes up hill. (or downhill depending on if youre a runner (pessimist) or driver (optimist). The race itself was described as Undulating. Never a good sign. So on sunday morning I woke up nice and early and it was raining. No surprises there. I grabbed a 20 pound note and headed out the door. I didnt bring anything with me because the race instructions indicated there wasnt any place to leave valuables and I envisioned a tent in the middle of a field and my phone getting soaked.
I hopped on the bus and headed into the center of the island. Got to newport and changed busses to head out to the coast. Even though it was early I was awake enough to notice that my bus fare from cowes to shanklin was more expensive than I anticipated and with the race fee owed when I got there, I might not have enough to get home. "No problem" I told myself, "Im sure someone is heading back this way in a car and I can hitch a ride." I arrived and it was now pouring rain. Lucky us the race head quarters was inside the local Boules club. Because it's england and they have local Boules clubs. So there was actually plenty of dry space to keep valuables. This is important later in the story. I registered and got my number and took a seat to look at the course map. As I sat down I noticed a tall, Meredith tall, girl come in. She was hauling a small suitcase on wheels and I could tell that she didnt have anyone with her. -races, by yourself, can feel very lonely. Everyone has their wife or kid to hold their warm up clothes or help them pin their number on straight. When youre by yourself you stick out like a sore
thumb. And I know something about sore thumbs. But that was before now.
Anyways. Tall girl, whose name was Laura! sat down next to me and we chit chatted about the race. She is a personal trainer to the stars! Or someone rich enough to have a private personal trainer that travels with them to Morocco and the like. And she was on her way north to see the family. We warmed up together and started together and then her long, personal trainer legs, took off.
The race was great. Undulating for sure but relaxed, beautiful, and I got to chat with lots of nice people from london and the lot. I was thought to be from South Africa and Australia, noone ever guesses American. And I finished under my goal time of 2 hours. Laura was at the finish and we said "Good race, nice to meet you, and goodbye." I then began my hunt for a ride home. Funny enough, though they came out to run 12 miles, most people drove from very short distances away and I couldnt seem to find anyone heading all the way back to Cowes. "No problem" I told myself. "Ill get the train to Ryde (thats a ticket to ryde, shes got a ticket to Ryde and she dont care, la la la la) and grab a taxi from there, I can pay them when we get home." So I hopped the train, got to Ryde, saw on the map that at most it was 8 miles home and started walking in order to hail a cab. Forgetting that this was NOT NYC, it was england, and people dont hail a cab, they go to a cab stand. 12 miles and a wrong turn later I turned up at home with sore toes and a very thirsty me! Great race, long walk, nice day.
A few days later I grabbed the morning ferry to Southampton and rented a car. Only noticing as I checked in that my American license had expired in may, I had renewed it like a good kid should, and only had the expired version with me. The lady was nice enough (or foreign and didnt feel like translating the situation) to add a year onto my existing license and let me get the car. Ready to go with my Tom Tom and cell phone I headed north to visit Craig, former Necker chef, instructor of fire poi and good friend from the islands. We toured Oxford, had a scavenger hunt for dark rum, and caught up in his local pub. We parted the next day and I was off to run a 5k in Windsor. I arrived nice and early, walked up to the tent and found out that this was in fact a triathalon and I must have red the directions wrong. bummed but not disc
ouraged I went for my own little run and pitched my tent
in the
big field where noone would notice me. After a good night sleep I woke up, headed into Windsor proper to see the castle, saw the 5k running signs from the night before and realized I was just a few miles away from a good 5k the day before. O well.
I drove west from there, choosing the "avoid main roads" option on Tom Tom. This lead me on some great adventures. Dear Tom Tom, I think you should know that not all roads are paved, wide enough for even the compact car I was driving, or passable by anyone but sheep.
Again I ran some really great races. Trail runs are all the rage in England. So is running very seriously. And not getting tshirts after races.
My second to last race was a 5 miler trail run. I showed up early and found out that this was the first year theyd run the race and it was going to be pretty small. We had almost 30 people run, but 20 of them were kids in the fun run ahead of time! The trail was marked with colored yarn and was pretty confusing to follow. So confusing that, though we were running together, most of us got lost and finished 5 minutes before the decided winners! We missed a lap and about a mile and a half! We all got ribbons anyways and had a great time.
I had found a great campground in close proximity to all the places I wanted to go with hot showers and well that was really all I cared about. Each night after running I'd head back, grab a shower and curl up in my tent to listen to the rain fall. Id fall asleep and dream about getting soaked but my 10 pound tent held it's own and I stayed dry as long as I didnt touch the edges! From my comfortable little camp in the middle of nowhere I headed into the big city of Bath.
Bath, so Jane Austen Iknow, was great. A big town with ancient ruins of Roman Baths and lots of English pubs. I spent the day wandering around the streets before heading just out of town to the horse races!! Id heard it was a very english thing to do and if Eliza D0olittle can do it, so can I. I didnt buy a hat but dressed up and even bought a bet! It was exciting to be in the stands with everyone cheering! Horse racing, like American football however, has a lot of down time and downtime plus downpour = bored laurel. I headed out of town early to head back to my campsite. I had to get up early to drive the 2 hours back towards London for my last race, another 1/2 marathon. Since all the races I'd participated in so far had been pretty small, local affairs I was ready for the same when I pulled into the race site and they directed me 2 miles away to park!! I parked ina field with lots of other cars and began the walk back to the site. This was NOT your local weekend run. Big start line banners and tents set up with over 2000 people running! I had met a woman a couple days before who was a former olympic marathoner. She was in her 50s now and still running. I saw her before the race and wished her luck on her goal time of 95 minutes. (I run it in 2 hours and am estatic!). there are some very serious runners in england. This race was 2 laps through a wooded area, paved trail. quite a bit easier than the last one, and no mud like the rest of the week! I was tired from the previous races and mile 10 started to take its toll. WHen I looked up and saw a woman in front of me wearing a 65+ sticker on her number tag i had a minor break down. I beat her, barely, in the last mile!!
All in all it was a great week. A great way to see England and fun to go camping in the rain!!
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