The Dreaded Time Off

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, July 4th to be precise, and this may be my longest break from blogging since I started in 2006.

Budapest, Hungary

Greg and I traveled to Europe during the last two weeks of July. We visited Prague for a few days, and then took a river cruise from Passau, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. We stopped in Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia along the way. The trip was incredible, and we managed to run most days. I brought 7 pairs of shorts and 7 sports bras and all of them got used!

My favorite place to run was Budapest because they had an entire road blocked off for pedestrians right by the water. It was nicely paved (as opposed to the cobblestone of Prague and Passau) and it ran right by the Parliament building.

We kept our runs short and easy for the most part. 6 miles was the longest we ran, and we frequently stopped for photos. The goal was to use running as a way to explore the cities by foot and to maintain our fitness as opposed to building fitness. I spent all of June and the first half of July consistently logging workouts and long runs, so this would be a little cutback before marathon training started upon my return.

We used public transportation to get around the cities: busses, metros, trains and even a funicular to a high point in Linz, Austria. These were typically crowded, and I knew my risk of catching some type of illness was increased by this. But we wanted to see as many things as possible and public transportation was often the quickest and cheapest way to do it.

Sure enough, the morning we flew back home I noticed that my throat felt raw. It wasn’t that bad so I assumed it was probably a cold or something. And the rest of me felt totally fine – I wasn’t abnormally tired. I tested negative for Covid upon my return. Two days after arriving home, I had trouble getting out of bed. My sore throat was gone and I had no other symptoms other than body aches and fatigue. Shortly after, Greg and I both tested positive for Covid. This was my third time getting Covid, and every time I’ve gotten it on international travel. I automatically assumed I would need two full weeks off. But that would be okay. I’d get right back into running and still be able to run Indianapolis Monumental as planned. 

I waited 15 days and I felt mostly better so I went for a very easy 2-mile run on August 13. My legs felt slightly wobbly and a bit like jello. But otherwise, my energy level was normal. Greg and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on August 14 by going out to eat. I felt perfectly fine. Because that run went well, I upped it to three miles the following day, and three miles again the day after that. But after the third day, I started feeling abnormally tired again. I realized I had tried to come back too quickly! Suddenly I was back in bed, having a hard time moving around with major body aches. My typical post-viral fatigue. Unfortunately, I have far too much experience with this!

Well, it took me an entire week of being couch/bed ridden until I finally started to feel somewhat normal. And by somewhat normal, I mean normal enough to take a slow 12-minute walk. This time, I vowed not to resume running too quickly. There would be no way I’d be ready for the Indy Monumental Marathon in time, so I started thinking about Philadelphia (two weeks after Indy) and a small marathon in Chesapeake, VA in early December. But I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself to recover in a particular time frame, so I was fully aware that I might not be able to run another marathon in 2024.

My spirits were high the entire time. Of course I didn’t enjoy post-viral fatigue, but I knew that stressing about it would only make matters worse. I tried my best to ignore it. Well-intended family members kept reaching out to ask me how I was feeling, and I appreciated their concern, but at the same time, I didn’t want to “monitor” my recovery. I wanted to simply rest, not focus on the illness and trust that I would eventually feel better. I didn’t want to analyze every body ache or every moment of dizziness. Fast forward to this week and I think I am 100%. With post viral fatigue you can never be too sure. And you need to be WAY out of the woods before you start running again. My rule of thumb is at least three 100% days in a row until I start running. I just passed three days and I might start run/walking to test the waters tomorrow. Or I might give it a few more days still. It’s not worth making the same mistake as I did in mid-August and getting set back another three weeks. 

For anyone struggling with post-viral fatigue or “post viral syndrome", my main symptoms are jelly legs, body aches, dizziness. I am not tired in the traditional sense of being sleepy. I was like that during the first two weeks of illness but that’s passed.

Here’s hoping you see another blog post from me soon talking about my comeback!

TFL Trigger Points and Iliohypogastric Neuralgia

On Friday, October 13th, I noticed that my right hip was aching while climbing stairs. Ever since then, my hip has been the bane of my existence! 

All-brick boardwalk in Miami Beach

I'm going to include the timeline of the injury mainly so I can remember it in the future and for anyone else who has a sudden hip issue arise. But it will be quite boring for anyone who isn't me or anyone not suffering from a hip injury. So feel free to skim through or breeze past it to the next section. (Even the title of this blog post is boring in order to be searchable by anyone else suffering!)

Friday, October 13:
In the morning, I ran 8 miles on the all-brick boardwalk in Miami Beach. I was in Miami getting ready to board a cruise in the afternoon. We had flown in Thursday night so we'd have a night to "chill" in Miami before heading out the the Caribbean. 

I met up with another Instagram runner, Stephanie (@stephpiruns), for an 8-mile run. Originally I had put 18 miles on the schedule as my last long run before MCM. But then I decided to back that down to 14-16 given the heat. And then when the actual forecast came out for it to be unseasonably warm and humid even for Miami (dew point of 82) I backed it down even further to just 8 miles. 

The run felt great from a hip perspective, although I was absolutely drenched by the time we were finished. 

A few hours later, we boarded the cruise ship and then ascended a few flights of stairs to our room. It was at that point I noticed a slight ache in my hip. Something that I had not felt at all during the morning run or at any point in my training. When we got to the room, I moved my hips around and felt a deep ache when I moved my hips to the right. Weird!

Saturday, October 14
The next day, I foam rolled and did some gentle stretching before starting my treadmill run. I only made it
about two miles when I realized this might not be a good idea given the state of my hip. I felt it with every step. And even though it was only a 1.5-2 on the pain scale, it was one of those "I have nothing to gain by doing this but a lot to lose" moments with the marathon just two weeks away.

October 15-October 18
The cruise was a nice distraction from the hip. I was able to keep a positive mindset and enjoy the cruise with minimal hip obsession. I was comforted by the fact that I didn't "do anything" to injure my hip during that 8-mile boardwalk run, unless the brick surface really irritated something. 

In the mornings, I would do foam rolling and gentle stretching and a lot of Googling to figure out the source of the pain. Initially I thought it was an IT band issue, but towards the end of the cruise I had settled on TFL strain. I did not run on Sunday. I did 2-mile runs on Monday and Tuesday, both of which confirmed the pain was still there. On Wednesday I rested it again and that was the day we disembarked and flew back home.

What did this feel like at this point?
For anyone experiencing a similar pain, it felt like an extreme tightness and deep soreness all around the Iliac crest (pelvis bone that juts out). Both in front of the bone and behind it. The way I felt this pain was by putting all my weight on my right foot and cocking my hip out to the side/back. Otherwise, I had no hint of any issues at all. I had zero pain at rest. Zero pain walking. Mild pain while running. And a deep pain with that one motion. 

Thursday, October 19
I was miraculously able to see both my doctor and my physical therapist on my first full day back home. Usually my doctor has a 2-3 month wait, but he recently switched practices so his patients probably don't know how to find him! He's an amazing doctor and has a reputation for being one of the best in the area for sports medicine. 

He diagnosed me with "TFL Trigger Points" which are spasms at the muscle fiber level. He treated it by performing wet needling with an ultrasound, showing me where he was releasing the muscle. He also injected cortisone to near the surrounding nerves. He told me I should be 100% by the following Monday and if not, I should go back to see him again.

Saturday, October 21
This day was when the freakout finally happened! I had been calm, patient and positive up until Saturday. But when there was seemingly ZERO improvement on a 2-mile test run, I found myself down in the dumps. I threw myself a huge pity party. The sulking lasted all day. The doctor thought I would feel much better by Saturday and yet nothing had changed. Thus, I was discouraged. Defeated! DEFLATED!

I did not run on Sunday but tried again on Monday, because Monday was supposed to be the 100% day. The first two miles were mostly pain free but after that, there was no denying that the pain was still there. 

Tuesday, October 24
I returned to the doctor and he said that while there definitely were trigger points when he had seen me the previous week, he thought there could also be a nerve issue. He identified the nerve as the Iliohypogastric nerve, which runs right over the iliac crest. It was time for more injections! This time the goal was to get cortisone around that specific nerve at the specific spot where it was most painful. The nerve he targeted last time was a different one. Using an ultrasound, he found the nerve, I told him where the pain was most intense, and he injected it. 

The doctor was confident in his diagnosis and treatment and confirmed that the bone and tendons were in

The red arrow is where the nerve hurts!

good shape. We just needed time for the cortisone to work around the nerve. 

Per his direction, I rested on Wednesday and Thursday, making sure to ice the hip on a frequent basis.

Friday, October 27
With the doctor's green light to resume running, I tried running again today. And it was not 100% pain free, but the pain had changed quite a bit. Previously while running, there was a large area of soreness and tightness all around that TFL. Now, the area of pain was a quarter-sized area, concentrated right over the bone of the iliac crest. 

Imagine you bang your hip on something, it bruises, and whenever you touch it, it feels tender. That's what running felt like. Every step I took felt like I had a bruise that was being poked-- right over the bone. 

The good news is: 

• The area of pain is smaller
• The area of pain is quite superficial (close to the skin)
• The pain didn't seem to worsen over the course of 4 miles 
• The pain was never more than 1.5 out of 10 on the pain scale
• I had no pain after the run, and I walked a full pain-free mile afterwards

The bad news is:

• I am not 100% pain free
• I am not sure what would happen if I did a long run or speed work
• Definitely no Marine Corps Marathon (although would I have run it anyway in the 70-degree heat?)

What next?
In a situation like this, the only thing I can do is take it one day at a time. The doctor did a thorough exam and an x-ray and was confident in his diagnosis, so I have to believe it's just a nerve that needs to calm down and the cortisone will start to kick in over the next few days. 

In terms of running, my rule of thumb is to never let it go above a 2 on the pain scale. If it starts to do that, I will stop immediately and walk home or call Greg. 

I am eying Richmond and Philadelphia as possible backups. If I don't end up doing either of those, then I am not sure I want to keep marathon training this season. I'll just have to see how I feel.

I ended my pity party with acceptance, so now that I have reached that stage I am mentally handling things pretty well. I have accepted that a fall marathon might not be in the cards. It's frustrating and disappointing, but it's all part of running.

5K at the Beach

Greg and I are in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week on vacation. We often come here in the summer and I have been coming here since childhood. They have a race series that's held every week so naturally I take part! 

Most recently I ran this race in 2021. (We were in Africa last summer). One of my friends was coincidentally staying less than a mile from us so I persuaded her to sign up and run it with me. Greg also ran it in 2021. 

This year my friend is not at the beach and Greg is STILL suffering from his groin injury. So I was on my own. 

I figured this would be a good "cutback" week for Marine Corps Marathon training. In my previous post, I showed how I have been steadily building for multiple weeks, so it was time for a cutback. I ran my long run on Friday last week because we left for the beach early on Saturday morning. Saturday was my rest day. 

On Sunday, I ran on a track here at the beach for my final "tune-up" workout. It was crazy warm and humid (80 degrees!) but I managed to hit all of my paces anyway. This gave me confidence that I was in good shape for the race. It was three sets of 3 x 400m, getting progressively faster with each set but extending the recovery jogs in between reps. 

Monday through Wednesday were all easy days with low mileage. Even though it's significantly warmer and more humid here than it is at home, I don't mind it because I enjoy the change of scenery. And the ocean air feels much fresher than the suffocating DC swampy air.

I wasn't consciously nervous for the race yesterday morning but my stomach indicated otherwise. I must have gone to the bathroom nearly 10 times before the race. I had a handful of almond butter pretzels at around 6:15 and then a Maurten caffeinated gel 15 minutes before the start of the race. I had been hydrating all week, drinking over 70 ounces each day with added electrolytes. 

Before the Race
As we drove to the race it was pouring rain. I did not bring a running hat with me because I didn't consider the possibility that it would rain. But thankfully the rain stopped shortly after we arrived. I picked up my bib at 7:15 for an 8:00 start time. The person who parked next to us recognized me from Instagram so we chatted for a bit.

It was 78 degrees with a dew point of 74. Not as hot as last year because it had just rained and the sky was overcast. There were a few windy parts along the course but nothing unmanageable. 

I warmed up for 1.7 miles. My legs and body felt good but I felt slightly nauseous. It felt a lot like pre-race jitters but I honestly was not nervous about such a low-key beach race. I guess my mind was anticipating the pain cave I was about to enter!

Goals and Strategy
My only goal was to beat my 2021 time. I am in about the same spot I was in my training back then so I figured that was a realistic goal. I wouldn't have my friend Meredith to push me at the end, but I told myself I would try to channel that energy anyway. My 2021 time was 21:12 with splits of 6:57, 7:03, 6:47. This morning, I decided I would try and run it at a pace of 6:50 for the first two miles and try to hang on at the end as best as possible.

Mile 1: 6:51
I thought I started out fast off the line but yet about half the runners blew by me. There were 58 runners total but it was a competitive field. Still, I knew I would be passing many of them because it was unlikely that so many people could maintain a sub 6:40 pace. I glanced down at my Garmin and saw I was running a 6:45 (target was 6:50) so I held back even more and told myself to be patient. 

I was running directly behind a woman for most of the first mile but then passed her as we approached the 1 mile mark. I was pretty sure there were only two more women ahead of me, but they were WAY ahead so I knew I wouldn't catch them. 

Mile 2: 7:00
This was my slowest mile in 2021 and I knew there would be a few small hills. Plus, mile 2 is always really difficult mentally in a 5K. I passed a few guys during this mile but I didn't feel all that strong. The humidity was zapping my energy even though I had only been running for 10 minutes. I ran this mile 10 seconds slower than my 6:50 target but I knew I could speed up at the end and make that time back.

Mile 3: 6:54
I really didn't think I would be able to hold on. It was hard to motivate myself to push because I was on vacation and this was a beach race! I had to convince myself that I actually cared and that I seriously wanted to beat my time from two years ago. I passed a guy toward the end of the mile which really perked me up. I remembered back to literally racing my friend Meredith and tried to draw motivation from that.

Last 0.7: Unknown
I stopped my Garmin as I crossed the finish line but then realized a little later that it didn't actually stop. So I have no idea how fast my final kick was. But it was pretty fast. I saw the clock ticking closer and closer to the dreaded 21:12 and I did everything in my power to get under it.

After the Race
I ended up coming in 3rd place out of the women and 8th overall. There were a bunch of speedy women not far behind me either. Lots of women ran under 22:00 minutes, which is impressive given there were only 58 total participants. My official time was 21:09, which is 3 seconds faster than my time from two years ago! 

And if there was any doubt, this race is also a Strava segment and Strava agreed that I had, in fact, set a PR on that segment. I know it's super small, but when you work so hard for every second, the seconds matter!

Of course my inner skeptic is telling me that it was slightly cooler this year with more cloud cover. So I should be faster just based on race conditions. But in actuality it was still humid as f*ck. 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I am happy with my performance but I'm not analyzing this one too much. I didn't have a ton of motivation since I am in "beach mode" and I didn't feel all that great at the start line. If I really want to test my fitness I will have to wait until the dew point is much lower. 

It feels great to have placed third and to have run faster than I did in 2021. This was a good, hard tempo that will add to my marathon training bank. I had fun racing and meeting new people and Greg was amazing with his camera work. 

My next race is a 5K in September and I may be more excited about this next 5K than any 5K I have ever run in my lifetime. Why?! You will just have to wait and see, but are welcome to guess in the comments.

Chobe Game Lodge: An Elephant Paradise

For those of you who follow me more for the "Racing" and less for the "Stripes," the racing posts will resume once I am done documenting my stripey journey in Africa. It's important that I write about it while it's fresh in my head so I can remember as much as possible about this trip of a lifetime. 

When our light aircraft landed back at Kasane airport in Botswana, it was time to collect the luggage that we checked. Greg couldn't immediately find the checked baggage slips and I was wondering how they would find our luggage. But as soon as we entered the airport, our luggage was right there, waiting for us! Everything was so well organized; they knew exactly when we would be coming back to the airport. 

We were greeted by staff from Chobe Game lodge, and driven about 40 minutes to the lodge. This is the only lodge inside of Chobe National Park; all of the the surrounding lodges are outside of the park. 

Chobe Game Lodge was more like a traditional hotel than a small lodge like Leroo La Tau. I think they have about 40 rooms, so it's significantly larger. It's managed by the same company - Desert & Delta Safaris. Several of the people we met at Leroo La Tau had already been to Chobe Game Lodge.

Chobe Game Lodge is staffed primarily by women. All of the safari guides are women, and I was told that was intentional. Our guide, Maggie, was phenomenal. We even had a personal restaurant server who knew our name and made sure we were taken care of at each meal. 

The first thing we did at this lodge, even before eating lunch, was to use the treadmills at the gym! After not having run in three days, it felt so good to get the legs moving. We only ran for 30 minutes, but it was enough to get our heart rates up and to get back into the groove of running. 

After we ate lunch, it was time for a sunset river safari. The lodge sits on the river, so it's super easy to hop on board a boat and see the wildlife gathering around the water. By the way, I should mention that both Leroo La Tau and Chobe Game Lodge are all-inclusive. All of the food and activities are included in the price of the stay. Daily laundry service is also included, which we definitely took advantage of. Light snacks and beverages are served and all river cruises and game drives. 

Elephant Selfie from the boat!

So many elephants!

Elephants walking down to the river

I found the river cruise to be much more relaxing than the game drives. It was smoother (the drives are pretty bumpy) and I always love being out on the water. 

After the cruise it was time for dinner and then we headed to sleep!

The next morning, we took advantage of the treadmills to run some speed work. We realized that the treadmills were on an incline, and there was no way to flatten them out. They were set up on a slant, which made it extra hard. Also, Chobe Game Lodge sits at around 3,500 feet of elevation, which is enough to make a difference for sea-level runners like Greg and me! So what started as a tempo run turned into tempo intervals. And then those turned into 5K effort intervals because it was so hard with the incline and the elevation. I was happy to get some harder work in; that's really all I cared about it. It was my only speed work for the entire two weeks.

We spent some time exploring the grounds of the lodge, went on another river cruise, and then had lunch. And then in the afternoon it was time for our first game drive in Chobe National Park. I was told that zebras did exist in the park, but they were not very common. Instead we saw loads of elephants, some giraffes and a group of lions!

An abundance of elephants, captured by Greg

Greg got this amazing giraffe shot

Our guide received a phone call that lions were seen near us, so she drove us to the location where we found them sleeping. I could not believe how close we got to these lions. Apparently they do not recognize humans as prey as long as we are still and blend in with our surroundings. Maybe this was one of the times it was good to be wearing neutral colors! Anyway, I was about 10 feet away from these lions. As a zebra lover, I didn't expect myself to be so enamored with the lions. But I was. They were absolutely adorable and we had the pleasure of seeing them wake up and play with each other. 

So cute.

Adorable, even though you probably ate a zebra.

It was definitely an action-packed game drive. When we arrived back at the lodge it was time for yet another gourmet dinner. They did amazing job at making the dinners feel intimate and romantic.

On our way to dinner

Such a beautiful view!

We stayed at Chobe for a total of three nights. It was an experience of a lifetime and I highly recommend it. We went on a few more game drives and river cruises. We encountered warthogs while walking around the lodge. 

The only zebras I saw were very far away when we were out on the boat. Everyone on the boat was focused on the hippos, which were in close view, but I was focused on the zebras that could only be viewed with binoculars! I knew I would be seeing more zebras at our next location, so I wasn't too bummed out that Chobe wasn't abundant with zebras. 

From Chobe Game Lodge, we were driven to Kasane airport. We had a full day of travel ahead of us, which we weren't particularly looking forward to, but it would be worth it for our next and final destination.  Here are a few more photos from Chobe:

Hippos on the water

Africa: Victoria Falls

Our first of four destinations was Victoria Falls. Similar to how Niagara Falls have a United States and a Canada side, Victoria Falls can be viewed from Zambia or Zimbabwe. We stayed on the Zambia side and did not cross over to Zimbabwe. This would have required purchasing an extra visa, and we were only there for a very short amount of time.

We picked this location not because of the falls, but because our hotel had zebras roaming freely around the grounds. I had been following Avani Victoria Falls on Instagram for a few years and I told our tour operator that I wanted to include it in our itinerary. I found this hotel by following #zebras and seeing that zebras walked around the swimming pool very casually!

We only stayed at Avani for two nights, and we left at 7:00am after the second night. So we didn't even have a full 48 hours there. 

Upon arrival, we were taken to our room and I immediately got changed to go to the pool. I had the perfect bathing suit: rainbows and zebras! Victoria Falls also has a rainbow and zebras!

Before even leaving room, I looked outside the balcony and there we saw her: our first zebra of the trip! Right outside of our room. And then another one followed! I was so excited. We rushed out of the room so we could get closer. We were told we shouldn't get too close, because the zebras didn't like that. I made sure to stay a good six feet away, which I had practiced during covid.

The zebras had their own security guards. The guards were there to make sure that guests didn't get too close to the zebras. Although we did see a two-year-old child running towards a zebra and the zebra not being happy about it. But thankfully the child was quickly rescued by a parent!

The great thing about Avani is that it's a five minute walk to the falls. So after hanging out at the pool, we went for a quick exploration, with the intent of spending more time there the following day. The falls were beautiful and there were many different view points from which to observe them. 

We then went back to the hotel for dinner, at which point we had to walk through a few giraffes. Giraffes also roam freely around the hotel, although they do not get as close to the pool as the zebras. 

The next morning, we decided to run outside. There was a nice path around the hotel grounds that also went by the neighboring hotel. It also went out onto the main road, so we ran on that a little bit too. It felt great to be running after three days off. This hotel also had a small gym with treadmills, but we much preferred running outdoors. And I think we did need to stop once and wait for some giraffes to pass.

Then we had breakfast and their buffet was huge. I made sure to have something with fat at every breakfast to help with the absorption of the Malaria pills. Those pills made me a little dizzy and gave me strange dreams for the first few days, but then I got used to them. 

We sent more time exploring the falls and they were truly magnificent. 

You can see the mist in front of our faces

When we returned to the resort we were greeted by EIGHT zebras! The previous day we had seen only three, and we didn't realize there were more. I just loved admiring their stripes and watching them graze. The other guests loved them too as they were the focal point of the hotel. 

Eight Zebras outside the hotel rooms

That evening, we went on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river. We saw some elephants and hippos and enjoyed the beautiful sunset. 

The next morning, we were picked up by our transfer at 7:00am so there was no time to run. It was definitely a short stay and I would have loved more time with those zebras. But I knew there were more zebras ahead.

Our next destination was Botswana. We were driven about one hour to the Zambia/Botswana border and we actually drove through a place where Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia all met up with each other. We had to sanitize our shoes to prevent Foot In Mouth disease from spreading between countries. At the immigration center, we were handed off to another driver who drove us about 25 minutes to Kasane airport. 

From Kasane, we flew to our next destination: Makgadikgadi Pans. (I still cannot pronounce it). We traveled on a light aircraft and Greg and I were the only two passengers! Just us and the pilot.

But before getting on the light aircraft, we had to leave our large luggage at the airport. We were allowed to take the backpack, the duffel bag and the small luggage. We knew this in advance, so we repacked everything accordingly. I was a little nervous about leaving my luggage at an airport, but all of the important things were packed in the smaller bags. 

Thank goodness for Dramamine because the first 20 minutes were very, very bumpy. the seats were small and cramped and it was too loud to be able to talk to Greg. In other words, the novelty of it wore off pretty quickly. The flight lasted one hour and 20 minutes and I was happy when we finally landed. More to come in my next post!

African Safari Adventure

My number 1 goal for this year was to go to Africa and return home safely. And that goal has been accomplished. Greg and I were in Africa from August 7 to August 19. We visited South Africa, Zambia and Botswana. In this blog post, I am going to summarize some general topics that might be helpful for those seeking to go an African safari, as well as the pre-safari preparations. I will write a separate post about each of the places we stayed.

Booking the Safari
We booked this trip in 2019, a year in advance of our originally planned August 2020 vacation. This was meant to be a 10-year anniversary trip, but ended up being a 12-year anniversary trip. We were married on August 14, 2010. I researched various tour operators and settled on Giltedge to book the trip. 

We knew of two properties we wanted to visit (I had been following them on Instagram for years) and we left the rest up to them. We told them that zebras were a priority. After a few phone conversations and some back-and-forth emails, we settled on an itinerary that Greg and I were excited about. They took care of everything for us except for our flights from the USA to Africa. They booked all of the transfers, all of the flights within Africa, and all of the accommodations. 

Packing for the Trip
This was a big deal. I started packing about six weeks prior with the world's most extensive and organized Excel spreadsheet packing list. We packed every possible medication we might need from Pepto Bismol to Benadryl to NyQuil to Dramamine. We knew we wouldn't be able to go to the local CVS and buy whatever was needed. We packed sunscreen, bug spray, swim suits, safari clothing, running clothing, anti-malaria pills, binoculars, sunglasses, power convertors, camera equipment, books, and more. But we managed to fit it all into one large suitcase, one small suit case, a carry-on duffle bag and a backpack.

Packing cubes were a lifesaver. We had never used them before, but I learned about them on a travel website. They keep everything organized while maximizing the space you have in your suitcase. We were especially grateful we used them because both pieces of checked luggage ended up with sand in them during transit. I am not sure how or why, but we had to shake sand off of the packing cubes when we opened our bags.

We even had enough room in our luggage to Pack for a Purpose. The website had a list of items that were most needed in the communities we were visiting. We packed a large supply of pencils, colored pencils, and toothbrushes to give to the community. These items are so inexpensive on Amazon but make a huge difference in the communities that need them.

Vaccines
We went to a Passport Health travel clinic to get guidance on what types of shots were needed. I had actually researched everything myself online and knew what was needed, but none of my doctors would prescribe anti-malaria pills. We received:

• Hepatitis A/B vaccine (two doses. . . a final dose to be taken in six months)
• Typhoid vaccine - I got the shot and Greg preferred to take the pills
• Tetanus shot - my last one had been in 2013
• Anti-Malaria pills - not a vaccine, but pills you take while you are in Africa and for a week after

Safari clothing
All of the websites advised neutral color clothing to blend in with the surroundings. To avoid white
because of all the dust. To avoid black because it attracts bugs. To spray the clothing with Permethrin to repel bugs. But having been there, I don't think any of this mattered. What mattered was to have comfortable clothing for sitting in a safari vehicle.

But of course, I found it necessary to buy an entire safari wardrobe, so I bought 3 pairs of safari shorts from Eddie Bauer, safari pants, and neutral colored tops from Athleta. The safari hat was an absolute must because the sun was bright and I wanted to keep it off my face. I had also bought prescription sunglasses before the original 2020 trip. I had never worn them until now because I never have issues with my contact lenses. They were helpful because sand/dust gets in your eyes and having contacts in can be annoying.

Two of the four lodges we stayed at had a daily laundry service included, so we didn't need to pack two weeks' worth of clothing. This is how we were able to have just one large piece of luggage with the two smaller ones.

Weather
The climate was extremely dry, resulting in my skin feeling itchy/burning towards the end of the trip. My face was particularly dry, but thankfully Emirates had provided facial moisturizer in their overnight bag they gave us. The temperature was in the high 40s in the morning and it rose to the mid 80s in the afternoon. The heat never felt uncomfortable because it was a dry heat. I absolutely loved this weather, although my skin did not. It did not rain at all because it's their dry season. The weather was one of the best things about this trip.

Running
Two out of the four places we stayed had treadmills. The other 2 lodges were completely un-runable, particularly since running would trigger the predators to chase you. And you didn't want that! One of the places with treadmills also had an outdoor path, so we ran on that instead of the treadmills. I ran a total of 5 times on this trip, which is about what I had expected. The runs were short - no more than an hour long. Just enough to keep my body used to running. 

Food, Drink and Water

3 out of the 4 places we stayed included all meals. I was worried that with my dietary restrictions there would be times when I wouldn't be able to eat what was served. So I brought a nice stash of UCAN bars, Lara Bars, and protein waffles. It turns out I rarely dug into my stash because the food options were plentiful. 

The quality of the food was excellent. Greg said he had the best beef he's ever tasted in Botswana. I don't eat beef or pork, and all of the lodges knew that in advance. But apparently I had to say that I also don't eat lamb, ostrich, or a slew of other non-beef meats that are popular in Africa. 

I was a huge fan of the ginger ale (even though I am not a huge ginger ale drinker) because it actually tasted like ginger. Like a drinkable gingerbread cookie!

The tap water was drinkable at only 1 of the places we stayed. Otherwise, we had bottled water. 

Hospitality

All of the lodge staff and the transfer drivers went out of their way to make us comfortable. It was obvious that it was not just "a job" for them- they were personally invested in making sure that we were taken care of. The guides were extremely knowledgeable and we had no needs that ever went unmet. I have not encountered such genuine service in the USA or Europe. The staff took the time to learn our names and always called us by our names. Also, our tour operator had informed the lodges that it was our anniversary so they each had something special planned for us!

Internet
All of the places we stayed had internet access, although it was often spotty. This was important to me because I enjoy sharing my experiences as they happen. I was able to post photos to Facebook everyday as well as Instagram. There was no internet access while out on safari, which was nice. 

Covid
We were required to show our vaccination cards whenever transitioning countries. I think a negative PCR test would have worked too, but I am so thankful that we didn't have to worry about that. Masks were not required anywhere except when going through immigration. Supposedly they were required on all flights, but only about half of the passengers were wearing them, and this was not enforced by the flight attendants. In fact, there was a sign at the airport check in that said "please wear your mask" but the person behind the counter, next to the sign, was not wearing a mask.

I brought some heavy duty immune system vitamins with me, and I had been taking them regularly for the two weeks leading up to the trip. In the two weeks leading up to the trip, Greg and I did our own self-imposed quarantine. We did not want to risk getting sick beforehand. We didn't go out to eat and we made large grocery trips when the store was not crowded. 

Thankfully, we did not get Covid on this trip, although I was quite sniffly. Possibly allergies or a mild cold. 

Getting There
We flew on Emirates because my best friend travels to Africa regularly and told me it was the best airline. This meant a connection in Dubai. I didn't really think about it at the time, but flying through Dubai is not the most direct way to get to Johannesburg. So we probably could have had some shorter flights, but at least we were very comfortable. 

We flew business class which was a real treat. I had never flown business class before. It's extremely pricey, but we couldn't imagine flying for over 20 hours in normal airplane seats. As a bonus with business class, Emirates has a high-end car service included. So we were picked up in a luxury vehicle from our house on Saturday morning, August 6. Not having to pay for Ubers helped offset some of the cost!

It was a 13 hour flight to Dubai. We stayed awake the whole time and planned to sleep on the second flight. Our connection was 90 minutes, but that proved to be very tight. We did not anticipate having to switch terminals via bus and go through security again. By the time we reached our gate, it was already last call for boarding. But, at least I can say I was technically in Asia! Getting outside of the airport and getting on the bus counts in my book!

Then we had a 9-hour flight to Johannesburg and I was able to sleep for about half of this flight. We arrived at around 4:00pm local time. We spent the night at the airport hotel (inside the airport) because our first destination was Victoria Falls, which required yet another flight. 

The airport hotel was pretty standard. It felt really good to get a solid night's sleep. And then the next morning we were off to Livingstone in Zambia. The flight was quick, but we needed to get a Visa when we reached immigration which took an annoyingly long amount of time. After that, our driver met us and drove us to Victoria Falls. Thankfully, that was a quick 20 minute drive.

More to come in the next blog post!

2022: A Shaky Start

This is my 500th blog post! And it's the first blog post of 2022.

The year is off to a shaky start. On New Year's Eve, I had some major digestive issues that left me feeling

January 5 snowy run

quite fatigued and unsettled. So when it came time for my annual New Year's Day race, I made the decision to run it as tempo run, not a full-out race.

New Year's Day 5K
I didn't write a blog post about this race because it wasn't really a "race" for me. Greg and I were planning to leave for our vacation in Mexico on January 7, and I didn't want to get sick beforehand because I raced a 5K when feeling worn out.

Backing up slightly. . . I received the J&J booster shot on December 19, which meant I would be fully boosted by the time I departed for Mexico on January 7. Greg and I also decided to do a self-imposed quarantine after Christmas. . . aside from the 5K race. This meant no going out to eat, curbside pickup groceries, and no going into the office. No socializing with family or friends. 

So with the vaccine booster, the self-imposed quarantine, and the decision to not race the 5K full out, I thought I was being pretty smart. The goal was to make it to vacation and back while staying healthy.

Back to the race. It was 57 degrees with light rain. I decided against my carbon fiber plate shoes because those have no traction, and I am not convinced they make me any faster in the 5K distance. So I stuck with my adidas Adios 4. 

Greg and I warmed up for about 2 miles beforehand. I had a Maurten caffeinated gel, which I hoped would sit will with my still recovering stomach. I felt decent during the warm up but definitely not good enough to want to race at 5K effort.

The first mile was downhill. I went out conservatively and was passed by about 4-5 women. By the end of the mile however, I had passed all but two of them. (6:49 split) 

I decided to increase the effort slightly in mile 2, however it ended up being my slowest mile. I passed one of the two women who were ahead of me, but then there was a slippery path we had to run on followed by another slippery wooden surface. At this point, I was passing 10K runners on a narrow path so even though I had increased my effort for the first part of the mile, I slowed down quite a bit on the slippery surface while passing other runners. (7:10 split)

The last mile was up hill and I had just one woman to catch, but I didn't have the motivation to go any faster than my strong tempo effort. (7:01 split).

I ended up with a time of 21:18 and second place. The course was short and the first place woman was 19 seconds faster than me. I am confident I would have won the race if I had given 100% effort, but there will be other races to win in the future. It wasn't my day to push hard and I was happy with my decision.

Vacation in Mexico
After the race, there was just six days left until our Mexico departure. Flights were being canceled all over the place due to Omicron and the weather. So each day I monitored the flights from Dulles to Cancun and all but one of them were on time. 

Greg and I hadn't flown since the California International Marathon in 2019. We had driven to all of our races and vacations because we wanted to avoid sitting next to strangers in close proximity. I've always viewed airline travel as having a high potential of making me sick. 

Our flight was on time, our plane was only 1/3 full. We had the entire row to ourselves and nobody sat in the row behind us either. The airport wasn't crowded. We had just recently secured Global Entry/TSA Pre and we breezed through an empty security line. 

When we arrived in Mexico, the customs line was ridiculous. It took nearly an hour to get through it and people were packed in there like sardines. Some people were coughing. Sure, everyone was wearing masks, but I don't think the cloth masks do much to stop a virus. I'd personally be more comfortable with people truly staying six feet apart.

We finally made it out of customs, got our transfer to the resort and we were there! We arrived healthy and on time, after two years of wanting to visit our favorite vacation spot: Excellence Playa Mujeres. This was our 5th stay at this Cancun resort. We love it so much that we don't want to go elsewhere. 

I asked my coach to leave my schedule blank and I would "play it by ear". I decided beforehand that I wasn't going to run all that much because the only option is the treadmill, and I didn't want to spend a ton of vacation time on a treadmill. It's not safe to leave the resort and there's really no place to run around the resort. I ran Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, with workouts on Saturday and Tuesday. 

The treadmill was in kilometers so I did a 7K progressive tempo on Saturday and then 4 x 2K on Tuesday. Given that the gym was hot and I was on a treadmill, I was pleasantly surprised at how strong I felt running around 7:00-7:20 for these workouts. 

My favorite workout was on Sunday, when I swam in the resort pool. It was nearly twice the length of a traditional lap pool so it was a nice challenge to have to swim more before turning at the wall. Normally I swim the lazy river pool, which winds around the resort and you don't have to ever stop! But that water was way too cold. The water in the long pool was warmer and I had no issues swimming in it. I did 7 out-and-backs, which I am guessing is around 500m. 

I swam 14 lengths of this!

The goal of our Cancun vacation is always relaxation so we spent our days lounging at the beach and/or pool, and we didn't do any excursions. Unless you count going to the spa for a couples massage an excursion! The staff hands you drinks, the food is amazing, everything is all-inclusive and it's just the best place to go!  

Leaving Mexico
In order to enter the United States, anyone traveling by air must have a negative Covid 19 test taken

within 1 day of traveling. This does not apply if you are traveling by sea or land--only by air. So on Thursday, Greg and I were tested at the resort. (The resort offers free on-site testing the day before you leave.) This was actually my first-ever Covid test! I never had a reason to be tested before. 

Greg and I were slightly nervous because we had heard that Covid was going around the resort and 30-50 people were in quarantine after positive tests. Also, I started to feel a sore throat on the day of the test so I was worried I actually had Covid. Thankfully we both tested negative so we would be allowed back into the United States. If we tested positive, they would have quarantined us in a guest room for free, and allowed us to order room service from any restaurant. This would not have been so bad, but it wouldn't have been ideal. If only one of us had tested positive, we would both be allowed to stay, but one of us would be in quarantine while the other continued to enjoy a free vacation. 

We flew home on Friday and everything went smoothly. When we checked in for our flight, they did ask us to show proof of vaccination, even though it's not a requirement. Thankfully we both had photos of our cards on our phones and that was acceptable. They really should not have asked for that because all you need is a negative test, but since we had the vaccination proof, we didn't question it too much.

My Blog was Down
On Saturday, I realized that my blog was completely offline. It wasn't Blogger (my blogging platform) but the service I used to register my domain. They had an outage which resulted in all of their domains being completely down for 3 full days! I wasn't too irked by this because I wasn't trying to write a blog over the weekend, but it was unsettling to type my URL and have nothing come up. Also, it can impact search engine rankings if you are down for too long. There was nothing I could do but wait, and I'm thankful I was able to figure out the source of the problem relatively quickly. Not knowing why it was down would have driven me insane. (I never received any kind of notification, I went into my Google console and figured it out for myself. Some communication would have been appreciated!)

Post-Vacation Illness
My sore throat got worse and worse and on Saturday I found myself physically fatigued, which hadn't been an issue previously. One of my friends happened to have an extra at-home Covid test so Greg went to her house to retrieve it. (She left it on the front doorstep for a non-contact exchange). I tested negative on Saturday night.

Having had two negative Covid tests, I was pretty sure I didn't have Covid, but I definitely was ill. My main symptoms on Saturday were sore throat, loss of voice, dry cough, body aches, weakness. I didn't have a fever.

Given my history with mono, I was worried that this could turn into mono. Mono is not a virus, but a syndrome that is caused by a virus. So any virus could bring about mono. This has been my main Covid concern from the beginning: if I got Covid, would it turn into mono, taking me months to recover? Perhaps my body doesn't recover from viruses normally - it takes WAY more time. 

Not much changed on Sunday. I still couldn't talk and I still felt totally wasted. Greg, meanwhile, felt completely normal. And he was taking great care of me. I couldn't eat solid foods because my throat was so sore, so he made me soup and oatmeal. 

On Monday, I decided to take the second test from the BinaxNOW kit that my friend had given me. And this time it was positive. Yikes. Well, I guess if I was going to be this sick it might as well be Covid to give me some natural immunity in the future. So much for the J&J booster! Greg got the Moderna booster, and that is supposed to be more effective. 

Now it's Tuesday and I have made progress. My throat is less sore, although it's still tender and swallowing hard foods makes me cough. I still woke up coughing multiple times in the middle of the night last night. I can talk again, although it's a strain to talk at my normal volume level. To summarize:

Main Symptoms:

• Severe sore throat
• Pain with swallowing
• Dry cough - coughing fits lasting 5 minutes at a time
• Inability to eat solid foods and loss of voice
• Body aches
• Fatigue/weakness (although not tiredness)
• Bumps on the skin of my back and butt

No Sign of:

• Headache
• Fever
• Nasal conjestion
• Runny nose/sneezing
• Dizziness
• Loss of taste or smell

I am making progress and I feel like I will either be running again by Monday or it will be another 4-6 weeks. I am optimistic because I don't have the typical dizziness that comes with my mono and I feel like I am starting to regain strength. But time will tell! My spirits have been high and I am in a good place mentally. 

We had a bed on the beach!

A few people asked Greg and me before Mexico if we were sure we still wanted to go with Omicron surging? Our answer was yes because something is always surging. It's almost like the boy who cried wolf. When you live in a constant state of fear, and there's always a new variant to worry about, then you become de-sensitized to it. You realize there will never be a "good" time to go, so you just do it. 

I also have no regrets. I enjoyed my vacation and I probably would have gotten Covid at some point in my life anyway, so why not now? 

Running Plans
I am registered for the Shamrock half marathon, which was supposed to be a PR attempt. Now that is looking less likely so it might be a Covid Comeback race instead of a PR. I am also planning to run Boston, but I kind of don't care that my training for that has been interrupted. I know I can run a solid marathon on as little as 8 weeks of training and with Boston I don't care about how fast my time is.

For blog #500, that was pretty eventful!

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The Outer Banks Lighthouse 5K

I did it again. . . I ran a real, live race in the midst of the COVID-19 cancellation era! (My first race back was a 1-mile race in Winchester). But this race wasn't something that I searched far and wide for, it just happened to be occurring during Greg and my vacation

to the Outer Banks. The Lighthouse 5K is a series that is held every Wednesday in the summer in Corolla,  North Carolina. Even though we've been to the Outer Banks many times before, we've always gone before or after "busy season" so the race wasn't going on. This year, we went during the height of the season to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary.

The original plan was to go to Africa to celebrate our anniversary. We had a trip planned that started in Victoria Falls, then onto two safari locations in Botwana, and then to Zebras Crossing Lodge in South Africa. All four properties we booked were prime zebra viewing locations. In one of them, it's not uncommon to see 100+ zebras outside of your window. But alas, we had to postpone our trip to August 2021. I seriously hope we can go then, and that the places we are staying haven't gone out of business.

Because Africa was postponed, we decided to head down to the Outer Banks to celebrate our anniversary. We arrived on Saturday to a beachfront condo. On Sunday morning, we did a "sharpening" workout of 8 x 400m on the track with 200m recovery jogs. Luckily, there was a track in close proximity to our condo which we had run on during previous trips. It was 78 degrees with high humidity, so we were thankful that the prescribed pace was 10K effort increasing to 5K effort by the end: 1:39, 1:40, 1:39, 1:38, 1:39, 1:37, 1:37, 1:37.

On Monday morning, we ran short and easy: just 40 minutes. Thank goodness for that because once again we were faced with 78 degree weather and high humidity. Of course we had all day to recover and I was really good about drinking plenty of water + UCAN Hydrate every day. Not only did we sweat off pounds of water during our runs, but laying on the beach in the sun is also dehydrating.

On Tuesday, we did a short set of 3 x 200m strides just to get the legs moving, plus warm up and cool down. And then we were ready for race day!

Before the Race
We woke up at 5:40 and I had my standard English muffin with peanut butter. We packed the car with a cooler of ice, water, and towels for afterwards. Greg unfortunately forgot his Garmin, which we realized about 3 minutes into the drive. We could have possibly turned around for it, but then we would have been cutting it very close. He decided to run without it.

When we got to the race, I picked up our bibs and searched for my Instagram friend Heidi. We met nearly two years ago on Instagram and we just happened to both be in the Outer Banks on vacation. It was really

Heidi and me pre-race

cool to see a friendly face and get to know her and her family a little bit. I took a gel about 20 minutes prior to race start and did a very short warm up of only 0.6 mile, which included strides. My coach had advised to keep the warm up short (although he probably meant more like 1 mile) because it was hot. 

Officially it was 79 degrees with a "real feel" of 90 due to the humidity. And sunny! One of the hottest races I have ever run. I can only think of one that was hotter, and that one was not as humid. I totally did not care. I was just happy to be racing. I didn't have a time goal - I was going to try and win an award of some kind. There were no age group awards but there was a Master's award and then the top 3 men and women.

The race had about 150 runners. I had looked at the results from past weeks and it was competitive for a vacation race. It seemed as if families came out with their cross-country high schoolers and college students. If I recall correctly, nearly all of the races had been won in 19:xx for the women. I knew that sub 20 would not be possible in these conditions, so I was going for the Master's win or maybe third place.

The race was delayed by 8 minutes so that runners could finish packet pickup. They started the runners in waves containing about 30 people each. I lined up in the first wave because the awards would be based on gun time, not chip time. Greg was in the second wave.

Mile 1: 6:56
The race started on grass but we quickly transitioned to pavement. Most of the race was on a concrete sidewalk. This wasn't ideal, but whatever- I will take what I can get! The race was mostly flat with a few inclines/declines. Interestingly, there was another small race series in a different part of the Outer Banks (Nags Head) that was canceled due to COVID. This shows that there are not hard-and-fast rules about racing in these times. Some race directors and/or town officials are canceling races while some are holding races with safety modifications. It really just depends on who is in charge.

Anyway, I ran this mile based on effort and I slotted into 3rd place pretty early on. I hoped to maintain that position for the entirety of the race but I knew Heidi was behind me, and she was fast. Greg blew by me and I knew he'd end up having a really strong race.

Average heart rate for mile 1: 160

Mile 2: 7:00
I was not using the Garmin to pace myself-- I glanced at it a few times to know how far I had gone because the race was starting to hurt pretty badly. The sun was beating down on me and I had to exert so much effort just to run at a pace that is slower than my half marathon pace from March! At the turnaround point, the female leader cheered me on and I did the same for her. I also realized that the 4th and 5th place females were tailing me pretty closely. Darn it- this meant I had to work hard to maintain my position!

Average heart rate for mile 2: 178

I'm dying here at the end.

Mile 3: 7:04
This mile was all about hanging on and not backing down. There was no way I could give anymore (see heart rate below). I told myself to hold steady and maintain my position no matter what. The 2nd place female was visible but there would be no catching her. Finally we reached the grassy area and I sprint toward the finish line. (6:24 pace for the last bit). I was actually surprised at how fast that was for being on the grass. I never run on grass.

Average heart rate for mile 3: 189.

Average heart rate the final 0.1: 197!!!!!!!

Official time: 21:31

My max heart rate was 200. I actually didn't think that my max heart rate was that high. I think the highest I have ever seen it in a race is 193, and that was at the July 4th 5K from last summer. So even though my paces were slower than my half marathon pace, it was clear that I was redlining based on my heart rate data.

After the Race
As the 3rd female, I wasn't sure if that would be my prize or if I'd win the Master's award. They ended up giving me the award for 3rd female and Heidi won the Master's award. It really doesn't matter anyway because all of the awards were the same: a medal. That was fine with me. I didn't need a prize, I just wanted the glory of winning an award of some kind.

I was totally gassed at the end and thank God for the icy cold face towels they gave us at the finish. That towel felt AMAZING on my blazing hot face.

The female winner introduced herself to me as someone who was reading my book, Boston Bound! Wow!

Cooling down with speedy Jenny.

What a small world. In fact, she had the book at her beach house! We instantly bonded and ran our cool down together. It was a longer cool down than warm up, which wasn't hard to do given the warm up was only 0.6 of a mile! We chatted about all things running and it's amazing how much two strangers can connect when they are both runners. Her daughter was the 2nd female finisher, and was happy to race given the cancelation of cross country.

This is what I love about racing. It's not just about the competition and the time on the clock. It's about the community, sharing experiences and making connections. 

Greg ran a blazing fast 19:27 which won him the Master's award for the men (he was the 4th male overall). Once the temperature starts to drop below 60 and we can find a 5K, I can see him breaking 19:00. So exciting!

After the awards ceremony we said goodbye to Heidi and Jenny and made our way to Duck Donuts for a celebratory treat!

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
Greg and I were happy to get our race "fix" in during vacation. It was a really relaxed experience as all the runners were pretty much on vacation. The energy was positive and many people hadn't been able to race since February. This was my first 5K since January, and I typically run about six 5Ks per year. 

I'm pleased with my effort level and based on my heart rate there is no question that I gave it my all. Given that I typically run 21:xx when it's in the low 70s, it was encouraging that I was able to do that in the high 70s with a real feel of 90!

Greg and I officially celebrate 10 years of marriage today! It's been a wonderful vacation with great weather, great running, and great food. I'm looking forward to the next 10.