Tuesday, July 31, 2012

#SWATED

I am just going to squeeze under the July wire with this post, which is mostly going to be about something that happened in June. A few days after my last post (June 16) I flew to New York City and from there I traveled up to northern Vermont for my third running of the Green Mountain Relay.

My team, Slow White and the Eleven Dwarves, didn't field a team at last year's race. It had been two years since I took in the scenery of rural Vermont and I was very excited to return. There were familiar as well as unfamiliar faces at the van rental place on the morning of June 22. I knew over the next 48 hours I was going to make some amazing new friends.

The most notable thing that happened on the ride to St. Albans was I joined Twitter after staunchly refusing to do so for a long time. The peer pressure finally got to me and I caved in about halfway there. The title of this post refers to the hashtag for our team...and boy, did we get a LOT of use out of that hashtag over the weekend.

I had a wonderful time, ran faster than I expected, and my team won our division. These two pictures capture the experience the best:

Rocks. There were rocks everywhere. This is a big piece of schist.
Rural scenery. You can't beat that.
The weather was perfect, the company was awesome, and I can't wait to do it again next year.

On July 4 I departed the US for the first time in ten years for my vacation to...

SCOTLAND!

I saw fantastic rocks, drank a lot of beer, went hashing, ate some of the most delicious food I've ever had (including haggis), visited whisky distilleries, and...well, had one of the best times of my life.

It wouldn't be a trip to Europe without at least one ruined church (Elgin Cathedral)


...and it wouldn't be a trip for me anywhere without good beer. Brew Dog Brewery, Aberdeen. I'm enjoying a Sink the Bismarck barleywine, at 41% ABV one of the world's strongest beers.

Ullapool harbor
I haven't been writing about running, because since the Green Mountain Relay, there hasn't been much running happening. I'm not training for anything, but I still get out the door a few mornings a week. It's not enough to say anything profound about. Soon enough, I will be back on a training schedule, this time for the Detroit Half Marathon in early October. Summer is half over, time to look forward to fall (and maybe some relief from this heat).

6 comments:

C said...

Great photos! The only thing I like about Twitter is Samuel L Jackson because he is all crazy for the Olympics right now and his tweets are hilarious.

Johann said...

I was just thinking about a future trip that should include Vermont. Scotland is beautiful.

Jen Feeny said...

She lives! (In Blogland I mean, I already know you do in real life) You've had a lot of fun adventures this summer! I hope to join you next year in VT, it looks like entirely way too much fun!

B. Kramer said...

You've been a serious traveler. Do you have your own show on NatGeo. Cheers!

BrianFlash said...

'A big piece of schist.'

Hehehe. Rock people must use that joke all the time!

Great adventures!

Nitmos said...

Judging by the attire in the photos, I'd say you found some relief from the heat...in another country.

What is Twitter?