First One in the Books

I know I promised you pictures and I swear I've taken some with my phone. The problem is that apparently my iCloud is not sharing photos like a good iCloud is supposed to. So you will have to wait until I get home. Sorry. 

Okay okay...I know I have been remiss about blogging. What can I say? I was out having fun!  

I still can't add pictures here so I will do that back in the states. I am currently sitting in the Dublin airport and really want to just get home. I don't typically say that at the end of an international trip but I have felt like complete garbage for three days and really just want to sleep. Aside from that, the trip was great fun. 

Race day was picture perfect for running. Weather was in the low 60s, not too windy and generally ideal racing weather. The course, however, was brutal!!  I never knew how hilly Brussels really is. Good heavens. There were moments I honestly thought about giving up. But I didn't. My brother ran with me the whole race which was cool. And, in typical runner fashion, there were runners in costumes and other crazy attire. A couple guys dressed as a lady bug and bumblebee. One guy in one of those body suits that also covers the face (it was pink), a guy running with his two dogs (which we determined was kind of cheating because they could pull him along) and other such craziness. And if you haven't seen the Facebook post, we were on the Brussels TV. After we crossed the finish line, I thought my brother was right behind me going through the line to get water and food. Apparently, though, he got stopped by the camera guy who saw his shirt and wanted to know about it. So Rob came to get me and we got interviewed. They obviously cut out a lot of the interview like explaining what the shirt was about. I guess MasterCard doesn't air the same commercials in Belgium as they do the US because he had no idea what it was about. 

Anyway, then we went to Ghent and Bruges each for two days. Very different cities but each cool in some way. Ghent is very medieval and definitely a younger crowd (they have a large university there). Bruges was absolutely gorgeous as we had been told it was. And we actually had the best waffle of the whole trip in Bruges. It was right off the iron and was amazing!!!  

....(a few minutes later)

Well, you are in Iuck!! I just checked my ipad photos are there are some on here!!!  

The starting line before the race...

The front of our shirts...

We were at the very back of the pack which was fine with me!  

Dude with his dogs 

Yeah, the finish was still 1/2 of a mile away at least!!! 

Post race STELLA!!!!!

Post race waffle!

Gravensteen Castle in Ghent

That's all that apparently transferred so you have to wait until I'm back in the US of A!!

Waffles, Waffles Everywhere

I bought a new camera the other day because mine died. It's supposed to have wi-fi so I can email myself pictures or post them on Facebook. However, I haven't had time to figure that out. And of course, that's where all my pictures from today are. So that's to helpful at all. Needless to say, you won't be seeing pictures on here for a while. 

There is this wonderful thing here in Belgium called the Belgian waffle. Have you heard of it? You may think  you have and you may even think you have eaten one. But, oh how wrong you would be. I may never have a US waffle again. Not only are there waffles sweeter here, they put delectable toppings on them. This morning I had a waffle with fresh strawberries and melted white chocolate. It was divine!!  Then for dessert tonight, I had a waffle with chocolate chip ice cream and melted milk chocolate. Exquisite!!  I think I gained 20 pounds today. 

Tomorrow is the chocolate tour day. 3 hours of chocolate shops and 45 minutes of learning how to make chocolate. Color me thrilled!!  

I will try to take some photos with my phone so I can post them here. 

Nighty night.  

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Oh wait...I'm already on the jet plane!  I'm not sure if the wi-fi will last long enough for me to publish this before we land but I am going to try. 

We finally made it to the day of the trip. Clearly, since I'm blogging on the plane. 

Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't have had that rum and diet less than an hour after taking two pain pills. My legs feel heavy. 

So the beautiful thing about purchasing our airline tickets last March is that we got to pick our seats before most and we ended up in the exit row on this flight. Not only is it an exit row it it's the exit row in the middle of the plane so it's like the bulkhead area as well. We have so much room it's wonderful. I was the ever giving sister and offered to sit next to the window because there was not as much leg room because of the exit door. So my dear brother thought he was getting the better ended that deal. Until he realized I could put my feet up on the door and really stretch out. But again, I am an amazing sister and switches places halfway through the flight. I'm so thoughtful! 

My legs really do feel heavy. Hmmmmm....

So I got an email late yesterday afternoon at work. One of the jobs I applied for a few weeks so decided they wanted to interview me. But they were doing interviews this week. I replied that I appreciated the opportunity but could I do it when I return to the states. Then I talked to one of my mentors and she suggested I offer to do it from Belgium because it would make me look more dedicated. So I offered thinking they wouldn't bother me with that on vacation. Yep. I was wrong. So at 9pm Belgian time tomorrow/today, I have to do an interview. And of course all my notes are in Iron Mountain. This should be interesting. After my interview though, I will be enjoying a large quantity of Stella. 

Well, I think that's enough for now. I may try again to sleep. I haven't been successful thus far but maybe now I can. 

Au revoir. 

One Half Down...

Well, if you haven't seen the Facebook, Instagram or Twitter posts in the past 48 hours...well then you are way behind and clearly not a techie.  I completed the 2nd Annual Iron Mountain Road and Trail Half Marathon this past Saturday.  And, I'm pleased to report, that despite my lack of training/readiness/conditioning, I finished just 9 minutes off my PR.  That's something I'm pretty darn proud of.  Here's a breakdown of how the run (I'm not calling it a race because it was just a "training" run for me. Yep.  That's what it was) went:

It was a beautiful, crisp fall morning in da UP.  Temp was about 40 degrees but the sun was out, no clouds and no precipitation.  The makings of a perfect run, weather wise.  And I felt good, which is really the most important thing.  But again, this was just a training run for me.  I had no illusions of running the entire route or placing in my age group (unless they had the over 35 but joints of a 70 year old category, which, sadly they didn't).  So the gun went off and away we went.  I knew I would be near the back of the pack which was totally fine with me. 

My strategy in this run came courtesy of my BRF (and kind of life coach) who suggested running staggered time intervals.  So I started with run 10 walk 1, then run 9 walk 1, run 8 walk 1 and so on.  I had tried this is one previous training run and didn't do so hot with that but I was optimistic.  Oh wait...I'm failing to mention a key point here.  Genius here (read: MK) decided two nights before the half marathon to do a weights workout.  Now normally that wouldn't be an issue except I had been spending all of my time focusing on running and hadn't done a weights workout in weeks.  So needless to say, Friday morning I could barely move my arms or legs.  Yep...I'm a genius. 

Back to the half - my goal initially was to do the staggered intervals for the first 4 miles.  That would be the longest I had run since the Princess Half in February.  I made it through the first 4 miles and actually felt really good.  After about 4 miles, the course went into Fumee Lake.  That's  wooded area surrounding two non-wake lakes.  I've run there several times and it's absolutely beautiful.  Anyway, as I started to enter Fumee, there were runners who were exiting as I was entering.  Boy did that make me feel slooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  But again, I was not racing, right? 

I did well on the trails at Fumee until about mile 6.25.  That's when I felt a pain in my right hip.  That would be the hip I had surgery on in 2012 in Memphis.  Hmm....this isn't good.  It wasn't the same kind of pain as previously felt so I knew it wasn't cartilage.  Regardless, I decided I needed to walk a little more because, again, this was just a training run and I wanted to be healthy for Belgium.  Well, as healthy as I can possibly be with two bum hips.  So I walked for about a mile or so and then ran/walked the rest of the route in Fumee and up the obnoxious hill that comes out of Fumee.  Those of you that live here know what hill I'm referring to.  Those of you who don't, I will show you the next time you visit.  It's seriously obnoxious.  I started running again about mile 8.75 or so.  That's when my muscles (that I had aggravated by said weights workout on Thursday) decided to cramp up.  So the last 4.1 miles of the route I was in complete agony and had to stop and stretch every half mile or so.  Now, I will say this.  The agony of those cramping muscles was nothing compared to the hip pain last February.  So it was a good tradeoff as far as I'm concerned.  That doesn't mean it was enjoyable by any stretch of the imagination.  So I did a lot of walking and some running.  Running might be a stretch.  More like jogging. 

And, of course, the last 1/4 mile was uphill which was brutal.  But I made it to the finish line and got my shiny medal.  I'm going to fess up and say that those medals are kind of why I run these races.  :)  Not that I'm competitive or like shiny things in any way. 

Now, if you recall from my last post, the whole purpose in running this half marathon was to determine how to run the Brussels Half in three weeks.  And I did figure that much out.  Here's what I figured out...

1. I need to have training runs longer than 3 miles between now and October 6
2. My BRF's suggestion of staggered time intervals really works well unless the pain starts and then all hope is lost and I just have to push on
3. I really do love running the half marathon distance if for no other reason than to prove to myself how tough I really am!

So I leave for Brussels in just over two weeks.  I can't believe it's almost here!  I have a busy schedule until then.  I'm doing a 5K Run or Dye race in Green Bay this Saturday with one of my friends from Madison.  It's like a Color Run but it's a different organization.  I'm excited about that one though I'm not sure how much running we will actually do!  But it ends at Lambeau Field which is pretty cool in itself. 

Then I'm off to Chicago for a few days for work then back to the UP for about 4 days then back to Chicago for work and then off to Brussels!  Holy cow! 

So I will do my best to blog over the next two weeks before I leave for Brussels, especially after the Run or Dye.  I should have some great photos from that run too.  And I will have my iPad in Brussels so I will definitely be blogging there. 

Until next time, I will leave you with this quote:

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves.  It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go.  It helps us to find out what we are made of.  This is what we do.  This is what it's all about."

                                                                                             -----Pattisue Plumer

I Really Am Half Crazy!

I've been having this conversation with myself for the past few weeks (are you really surprised I talk to myself?)  What kind of run am I going to have in Belgium?  For those of you who are runners, you get it.  For those of you who are not...well...there's not really a good way for me to describe it so you will understand.  Let's just say that every runner, regardless of their ability, plans out their race in terms of pace, fluid intake, supplements (gels, blocks), etc in order to have the best race possible.  Throw in coming off an injury/surgery and it gets a bit more complicated. 

Here's my conundrum (gosh I love that word!).  I know I'm not going to be physically able to run the entire race.  Even if I was healthy, I haven't been training to run the whole race and haven't had enough time to do so.  That option is off the table.  So then the question becomes: what kind of interval am I going to run?  Am I going to run time intervals or distance intervals?  My running, to date, has been time intervals and that's been because that's what I was allowed (read: only way I was going to get to run) to do by my surgeon and PT.  Not that I'm complaining.  It's been a great way to ease back into the sport.  My intervals, however, have only gotten up to Run 6 Walk 1.  That's going to drive me crazy if I do that for 13.1 miles!  And we all know I don't need any help in the crazy department.  So my other option is to run distance intervals ie: run a mile walk a half mile, etc.  The question is do I have the lung capacity back to do that?  I don't have to run that mile fast but I'm certainly going to push myself. 

The decision I've reached is running distance intervals but how do I practice this?  I mean, sure.  I could do it during a training run.  But really?  Am I really going to do that?  Well, I probably would if I really took the time.  However! There is another option.  Yep...I registered today for the Iron Mountain Half Marathon.  This will allow me to test out my running distance intervals theory and see if I really can do it while still allowing myself a few weeks to recover before Belgium.  The catch in all of this??  Oh yeah...the Iron Mountain Half Marathon is NEXT SATURDAY.  As in 8 days from today.  And the most mileage I've run since being back is 2.5 miles.  Umm...last time I checked 2 1/2 miles is not anywhere close to 13.1.  Boy oh boy this will be interesting.

My War with Delta, Part Two

Well, I guess it's actually Part 1 since it was my experience with Delta on the way to Key West. In fact, it started way before I ever got on a plane. Back in June, on a visit to San Fran to see my folks (a trip by the way that was on Delta and delayed due to mechanical problems and got me to SF about 9 hours after I was supposed to) I got an email from Travelocity. That is who I had used to book my airfare and hotel for Key West. Said email informed me that "There had been a change in my itinerary and I needed to call them right away." So I called and got the run around and placed on hold for 15 minutes so I finally hung up.

Okay...before i type anymore i want to go on record saying i did start this earlier this week but time got away from me. What with all of the TV watching, hair appointment, running, TV watching.  so i will finish now (since im sitting in Chilis at the Minneapolis airport). 

Fast forward to mid-July/ late August.  I received another email from Travelocity about the flight change and needing to call them right away, etc etc etc. so I finally do. And they tell me that the flight from Green Bay to Atlanta was changed by, seriously, 10 minutes and now I was not going to make the connection in Atlanta. Fine, I say. When is the next flight from Atlanta to Key West? Well, it leaves Atlanta at 3:30 and gets to Key West at 5:30. Yeah, sorry dude. That's not going to work for me. My traveling companion is meeting me in Atlanta and we are on the same flight. Is there an earlier flight to Atlanta from Green Bay? I swear I was being nice to him. Ok, maybe not super nice but I wasn't yelling yet. Well you can leave GB at 5:45 am through Detroit and get to Atlanta at 12:30 pm. Are you franking kidding me dude??  You are missing the point. The flight to Key West leaves at 9:41 am so why the hell would I want a flight that gets to ATL THREE hours after my flight to Key West?? At that point, I was done being nice. So long story short, I get him to let me talk to Delta and we decide to book me on a flight from GB to ATL the night before so I will make the flight the next morning to KW. Lucky for me, I have a gazillion hotel points and I got a room for free in ATL.  

Now...I would like to tell you that was the end of the horrible experience with Delta but c'mon now. I may overreact but to overreact at that would be a bit much, even for me. 

So Aug 22nd arrives. The day I am to fly from GB through MSP to ATL. I was in lower Michigan that week for work so on the 22nd, I drive 7 hours from lower MI to the UP, drop one bag at home, pick up the other and drive 2 hours to GB. The flight from GB was delayed just a few minutes, which is fine. But that means that I have to hurry to my gate in MSP. For the record, MSP is not laid out well and you have to walk a mile between some concourses. So fine.  I rush to my gate in MSP. We board. Things are looking good. Oh wait...I spoke too soon. 

Planes completely boarded. Boarding door is closed. We are sitting. 

"Uh, folks this is your captain speaking." --- NEVER A GOOD SIGN

"So it appears as though there was a maintenance issue earlier with this plane and the maintenance department deferred it which is normal. However, the deferral only lasts until midnight and we are scheduled to arrive after midnight. So we are waiting to hear from the higher ups as to what we are going to do. I apologize folks. This is a case of  mis-management and I wish I cold tell you that rarely happens with this company. But it happens all the time". 

Okay, seriously?? Did he just diss his own employer to a crowded plane? That does to bode well for us. 

So we sit on the plane for God knows how long while they wait to hear from management. Now, as someone in a management/leadership position, I am never quick to bash those in same positions. But you need to call those m-fers and wake their asses up and tell them to figure this shit out. Because, oh by the way, the option right now if we don't leave is to leave in the morning. After all I went through to get to ATL in time for the 9:41 flight, there is no other option but to get there tonight. I'm not lying or joking or pulling your leg or any thing like that. 

After about an hour or so, they let us get off the plane while they figure this out. After who knows how much longer, they tell us we are leaving but on a different plane so we have to go to a different gate. Fine. No problem. So we FINALLY leave. We arrive on ATL at approximately 2:30 am Eastern time. By the time I get to the hotel (that's an entirely different story because the cab driver was a moron), and get to my room, it's about 3:15 am. I have to wake up at 7:00 am to get back o the airport. Remember when I said I used points to get the room? Yeah, thank heaven I did because if I had paid $100 for 3 to 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I would have been livid. Okay...more livid. Livider??? Is that a word?? 

So I get up and am getting ready and I get a text from Bill.  His plane taxied away from the gate and then they discovered..........YOU GUESSED IT!! A MAINTENANCE PROBLEM! 

At that point, I decided that after my trip to Memphis (this weekend) I was finished with Delta. 

But we remain optimistic and hope that they fix it in time to get the flight to ATL in time for the 9:41 flight that, again, I worked so freaking hard to be on. So I get to the airport and we are texting and I'm at the gate waiting with fingers crossed. They start boarding and I'm still hoping. And then this guy that is NOT Bill sits in Bill's seat. Hmmm....this doesn't look good. 

Billy's plane landed literally 2 minutes after they closed the boarding door. So he didn't get to Key West until 5:30 pm. I was not a happy camper. 

Now I'm not gonna lie. Once I got on the beach with a cocktail in hand, it lessened the pain a little bit. But not enough to make me hate Delta less. And then the return trip happened (see previous post). 

So there you go.  That's my war with Delta. I tweeted my previous post and put in on Facebook. I'm pretty sure someone at Delta read it because I used their twitter handle in my tweet. Of course, I'm also sure nothing will come of it. 

I refuse to say anything about my current flight because I'm not to my destination yet. Stay tuned for updates. 

In the mean time, here's some shots from Key West. 

My War with Delta

I've said it before but this time I'm doing everything in my power to stick to it. Delta Airlines is terrible and I have absolutely no use for them. I have one more booked flight and then it will take an extreme situation for me to ever use them again. I am currently sitting in the Detroit airport at 9:30 pm. I was supposed to land in Green Bay almost an hour ago. But because Delta apparently doesn't understand the purpose of a maintenance department, I once again missed connections. For the third time in 4 flights since June 22nd, I have had flights significantly delayed because maintenance wasn't done or they found something at the last minute or there was a light that wouldn't go off or something along those lines. And I've had enough. The company's lack of care or concern for their customers time or travel/vacation plans has left me bitter, furious and robbed of quality time with family and friends. When you are so geographically distant from said family and friends, losing 5-9 hours of time with them is a BIG FREAKING DEAL!!!!  

Today's situation went something like this...flight from Key West to Atlanta was a bit delayed but that was due more to passenger issues and not maintenance. So I had to quickly get to the gate for my 2:50 pm flight to Detroit.  Fine. That happens. But then we get on the plane and push back from the gate relatively close to on time. Once we push back, and sit on the tarmac for a good 5-10 minutes, the captain comes on the overhead and says "well folks, we pushed back okay but we have a light indicator that has not gone off and we can't leave until it does. So we have a call into maintenance to determine if we can fix it without going back to the gate?" Are you freaking kidding me??? Again??? This is unbelievable. Actually, I take that back. Given Delta's track record of late, it is completely believable. 

Another 10 minutes later, we are informed that we have to go back to the gate to get it fixed. So we do and then after about 20 more minutes, we are told everyone is to deplane and wait in the gate area. Seriously?? Fine, whatever. So we deplane. At that point it was 3:55 pm when I got off the plane. The captain comes out and tells us it will be about 4:30 before we can board again. Do we believe him at this point?? So eventually we board and then we sit there ...........

Turns out that because some passengers had been sent to another flight because they were going to miss their connection, the weight of the plane had changed and so they had to re-calculate weight distribution, gas etc. ARE YOU FEAKNG KIDDING ME???  And then, apparently, the control tower re-routed them so they had to spend another 30 minutes redoing all of that. So what time did we leave, you ask? Oh about 6:00 pm.  And remember what time we were supposed to leave?? 2:50 pm. 

Needless to say, that 3 hour layover in Detroit was obliterated. We landed in Detroit 7 minutes before my flight to Green Bay was leaving. Color me absolutely freaking furious at this point. Well "luckily", if you can even call it that, there was another flight to Green Bay leaving at 10 pm. That flight (which I'm now currently sitting on the plane but not going anywhere) gets me to GB at 10:30 Central time and then I have a 2 hour drive home. Oh and I have to go to work in the morning. 

As I was sitting in the gate area, the gate agent tells us (and this is honest to God what she said) "The crew wants to get to Green Bay early so we are going to board early and go." Okay, so let me get this straight...because the CREW wants to leave early, then that's ok. But you can't hold a plane for a paying customer for a few minutes because her incoming flight was delayed by 3 hours for a maintenance issue??? Really?? Oh and it is now 10:02 pm and our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:06 pm so are we really leaving early? (Update: we are officially in the air and my clock reads 10:27pm. We pushed back at 10:15 pm which, according to my math, means we did not in fact leave early or even on time.) 

The ironic thing, well maybe not ironic just interesting to note, is that at the beginning of their "safety video" the CEO of Delta talks about how great the employees are and the "Delta Difference." If that guy really thinks so highly of his employees, he clearly has never spent time in the maintenance department. If he has, then he and whoever the head of maintenance is need to be fired. I know some great maintenance people that would be happy to take their places. 

Needless to say, I am not happy. Not happy at all.  I have another flight on Delta this Friday to go to Memphis for the weekend and so help me God if any of my flights are delayed for any reason other than weather...well they will understand the power of social media. 

So what is the point of this rant, you ask? Well, I needed to get it off my chest but mostly to hold myself accountable. While it means always having to drive to Green Bay and flying through Chicago, I will no longer be booking flights with Delta, unless it's an emergency. Since Delta is the only airline in and out of Iron Mountain, I will just have to deal with the drive to and from Green Bay to fly United or American (which will be my preferred carrier). 

I know I said in my last post that I wasn't going to rehash all my troubles with Delta last Thursday and Friday. After today's issues, though, I am going to rehash it. However, I will have to do that tomorrow because I just can't do anymore tonight. 

So if you are a co-worker and I seem grumpy, grouchy or just plain bitchy tomorrow, I apologize in advance. You can thank Delta for that.