Touched by an angel

Life is certainly full of ups and downs. It is often said not to give up as what you're looking for could just be around the corner, or just closer than you think so you've got to keep trying. And I so agree. When you least expect it, good things happen. And that's happened to me. I've been touched by an angel and boy, does she bring a smile to my face everyday! Thank you Eva!!!!!

More London!

These are the official photos from the race. Love the fact that I finished, that I PR'd (although the time is far from being decent) and that I'm willing to do it again next year and the following and so on :p

My sort of breakdown as to call it appears to be an insuline peak and I'm still extremely tired and not 100% but I'm doing ok. I managed 500m swimming yesterday and I felt really good!

Hoping to resume some running and biking as I will be doing my very first SPRINT tri on Sunday, Oct. 9th. I better get going!

I am starting to teach a class this afternoon with 8 first graders, wish me luck, eek! And then as of Monday, the regular classes at midday, Mon-Thurs. 16 hours a week altogther, plus one or two more could be added. Plus my 12 classes at university... eek! Plus being a mom and of course... TRAINING!!!! I really need to make a nice schedule to fit it all in!

Nike Run to the Beat London Half Marathon!

Well... lots have gone on since my last post on September 4th. I run the Marxa de la Diada here in Girona on Sept. 11th, well... I mostly walked it :p I then had horrible soreness and thought I had injured myself really badly but my great doctor solved it :D So the following Sunday, Sept. 18th I run the Cursa de la Mercè in Barcelona a 10K in 1:09 something. Quite ok.

On Saturday, last Saturday, Sept. 24th, my brother and I flew to London. We were running the Nike Run to the Beat London Half Marathon. The flight was 40 minutes delayed but it was ok. Got there, trains weren't working, argh! So we got a bus into London, took the underground to the race area (the O2) and picked our race packages with the race shirt, with bib number printed on it, a tag for the bag dropoff and a cheer me on sticker, plus the timing chip, of course! We could now see it coming... it was going to be huge!

We then took the underground again and headed for the hotel. Checked in, went down to but some water and to our surprise, the London Eye was peeking behind a building... it was within a 5 minute walk from the hotel! And of course, across the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of the Parliament!!! We took photos, walked along and went back to the hotel to meet Lisa and Grant! It was great! Hadn't seen Lisa in 18 years so it was very very exciting! We took the underground again, went to Covent Garden and had some dinner. On the way back to the underground, I saw the London Eye peeking again. We were just on the other side of the river, so we walked back to the hotel. The temperature was great, lots of people about, a little food market on the banks of the river... awesome!

Woke up Sunday am, showered and got ready! Had breakfast at Costa's, which was delicious and headed over to the O2... lots of purple in the underground... how exciting! At the O2 they just opened all doors due to the amount of people! Out of the underground and onto the bag dropoff. Great organization, lovely volunteers :D Porta-potty visit and into our pens. Dani was in the 1:40-2:00 hr and I was in the following 2:00-2:30. He had his number in Spearmint. Mine was yellow!

Off we went... I crossed the start line with the clock at 10:12 already! Everything was going great. Passed the 3 mile mark at 32 minutes which is really fast for me. Kept going, all was good. I had about only 2 miles to go when I had to slow down. I started feeling bad: indigestion? Have no idea. Saw a girl on the ground who had fainted or something and right there and then I started feeling dizzy, so I played it safe and walked the rest of the way to a wonderful 2:36:27 finish, a PR by 7 minutes :D

Got my medal, hugged my brother who finished in a whooping 1:49:05, congrats bro! and headed to pick our bags up. We got changed, stretched and off to the airport to come back home.

A lovely experience, a great weekend that I hope to repeat in the future!

I would like to thank my angel Eva for all her help and support. I don't think I could have done it without her. Love you Eva!

Next on the list? My very first SPRINT triathlon in Vilanova on Oct. 9th... hoping to finish alive ;)

A 10K and a tri!

Ok, so it's September already and haven't updated in a while...

On Sunday August 28th I run the Cursa de la Festa Major de Ripollet. A 10K. It's a challenging course with quite a few hills. I didn't know if I could run it as I had pain on my knee but managed to run it without any problems. I was slow but did it. I finished in 1:12:14, slower than last year but anyway, done!

And today... today I did the II Triatló de la Dona de Barcelona and loved it... I took it easy. I hadn't trained properly so I was going to finish. And I sure did and, surprisingly enough, over 4 minutes faster than last year! Yay! I felt great during the swim and the bike and then stiff during the run where I didn't get to pass anyone but lots passed me... oh well... I finished and felt like wanting more, so I think it's all good! Eva was there too and Cristina made her debut. They did great! I also saw Cristina who did Salitja with me and finished with a huge smile... so happy for her!

Went to Banyoles yesterday as Eva was doing the Olympic triathlon. It was great to see her excel. What a great job she did! Yay Eva! We chatted for a while after and so did our husbands who felt had known each other forever :D The kids were really good!

So, what's next? Marxa de la Diada next Sunday... 12ks... lots of training to be done this week!