Asian adventures

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” – Rudyard Kipling

I’ve mentioned before that we have an exciting year ahead.

We love to travel but once we moved out and got adult jobs, it became more difficult to go on real adventure trips.

We’ve still managed to travel a lot and make amazing memories, but none have been the big, foreign adventure I crave.

That craving will be satisfied for a little while! In exactly two weeks we’re heading to Thailand and China for four weeks.

We were in Thailand eight years ago and can’t wait to go back.

That’s Kelly swimming!

It’ll be our first time visiting China, which will be a lot of fun to explore somewhere new (minus the hazardous smog)!

Great Wall of China in winter.
(Click photo for credit.)

We’re only going to two places in Thailand (Koh Samui and Bangkok) and hitting four places in China. It’ll be a whirlwind trip but so amazing.

This is where a couple of my resolutions come in to play: don’t stress about missed workouts and race for fun!

When we’re in Asia, we’ll only be running and I’ll have to be careful with all my knee issues. (Although I love to run on holidays, I want to get in all the sightseeing too!)

We’ll have a very short time to train for Ironman Coeur d’Alene when we get back. (We’ll only have 14 weeks including taper time- yikes.) I could stress about that (and I have started to panic sometimes), but I’d much rather have an adventurous trip and go into the Ironman less prepared than skip the trip and have a lot of training under my race belt.

So, exciting times coming in the next seven months with four weeks in Asia and two Ironman races. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds!

Have you been to Thailand or China? What place would you most like to travel to?

Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks so much to the lovely Kelly at My Love Affair With Running for nominating me for a Versatile Blogger award! It is so kind of her to think my little blog should get one!

In order to receive the award, I have to do a few things including tell seven random facts about yourself and nominate 15 other bloggers for the award.

Here we go…

1. I held the men’s marathon finish line tape at the 2001 IAAF World Track and Field Championships. It was an incredible finish with only ONE second separating first and second place, Abera Gezahegne (Ethiopia) and Biwott Simon (Kenya).

Photo credit: IAAF

For the rest of the games I worked the start line on the track.

2. My husband and I backpacked Australia and Thailand for four months in 2004 when we were dating. We didn’t work a day and lived the beach bum life!

 

3. I’ve been to Hawaii 10 times. No matter how many times I go, I never get bored!

4. I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor for seven years in high school and throughout university. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the simple and fun job!

5. I used to have my Monroe (where Marilyn’s mole was) pierced. And I have three tattoos.

6. I say that I could move to every place I’ve visited. I fall in love with anywhere and everywhere we travel! (At the top of my list of places to move are Denver, Scottsdale, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Orlando.)

Lake Tahoe

7. My favourite vegetables are radishes. I can’t get enough of the farmer’s market ones in summer.

Here are the 15 bloggers I nominate. Whether I’ve read their blogs for a long time or am a new reader, they inspire me in some way. I‘ve kind of categorized them from running, to triathlon, to healthy living blogs.

1. Ms Zippy
2. Live for the Run
3. Neon Blonde Runner
4. Kris Lawrence
5. iRunner
6. Runner’s Rambles
7. Fitness Fatale
8. Twenty-Six and Then Some
9. Cotter Crunch
10. Dietitian on the Run
11. The Healthy Everythingtarian
12. Daily Garnish
13. Clean Eating Chelsey
14. Nutritionella
15. Peace Love Nutrition

Tell me a random fact about yourself!