take me back to europe!

so i am very behind on my blogging! i feel like i say that every post, but hopefully i'll get better!

anyway, i'll start from where i left off!

europe stole my heart. really, i loved it so so much! it was such an amazing experience that i will never forget. i learned so many things from the different cultures to practical street smarts! like, always keep your purse in front of you and be suspicious of everyone! sounds harsh, but i learned that lesson fast! we were in madrid and saw a gypsy steal from a lady's backpack right in front of our eyes. i was semi-shocked and felt like i needed to see that so i would be smarter.

anyway, i feel like this europe trip came at a really good point in my life. i was so grateful for the opportunity. it made me realize the important things in life. there were some hard times where i just wanted to be in my own bed (venice bed bug night! i will talk about that one later) or wanted to eat my own food or missed my family. there were times where i was just plain amazed by everything i was seeing and doing. this was the case most of the trip. i feel very fortunate that everything went pretty smoothly and we were all able to just roll with things. 

going to europe has been a dream of mine for a long time and i couldn't believe i was actually there half the time! i could not believe i was looking at the eiffel tower, watching the sunset on le seine, watching the olympics in london, making friends with people from all around the world, hiking around one of the most beautiful places i've been too--cinque a terre, walking through ancient ruins, sleeping in hostels with random people haha. there were so many breathtaking moments where i just wanted to take a mental picture and remember forever because cameras could not even do justice to these places . 

i struggled with the decision of going to europe. i was worried about money, my job, timing, etc. with everything said and done, it was way worth it! i would go again in a heartbeat and hopefully i will go back again soon! 

because i am feeling quite lazy, i am not going to post every picture because there are a lot on facebook thanks to the lovely alejandra! you can also reference our trip blog which again, thank you ale for updating it. it's actually really ale's blog. haha http://cakeineurope.blogspot.com

here are some from each place we visited. 

dublin, ireland

our hostel

getting certified for pouring the "perfect pint"

ran into our flight attendant!

our hostel friends!

london, england

our haunted hotel.

going to the Olympics!

fulfilled ale's dream to see les miserables...we were so tired we ended up sleeping through half of it! haha

abbey road

our favorite london hostel. too bad we didn't even sleep that night!

madrid, spain

with ale's cousins/tour guides

tapas!

big spanish family dinner!

 

barcelona, spain

it was deathly hot. thank goodness for the beach!

met our favorite italian boys here!

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paris, france

first meal!

bike tour

our tour guide-carl. he was great.

we went thrifting! i actually got this dress :)

picnic at the eiffel tower

mona lisa!

venice, italy

scene of the bed bug hostel!

romper twinsies

so we discovered bed bugs in our hostel so we decided to sleep at the train station and take an early train out of there! these steps smelled like urine, there was a family of 4 sleeping there, a lady sleeping with a knife, and lots of other people just sleeping/hanging out. it was terrible. haha

kim was completely knocked out! i tried to sleep...but it really wasn't that comfy! 

breccia, italy

after the worst night ever we met up with these boys and they treated us to the best pizza of the trip and a chill lake day! it was perfect! and yes, i ate all of that pizza! nom nom nom.

we got a paddle boat

just some random ruins. so cool.

cinque a terre, italy

meet franco. super funny/creepy old man who was flirting with us.

hiking through the 5 villages! i think we can all say we have never sweated so much in our lives before. it was super hot!

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me trying to be like the little mermaid

don't judge our appearance. it was hot!

florence, italy

we had to be covered up to go some places so this is what happened!

meet dario our pub crawl leader. mario with a d.

rome, italy

the end! 

CAKE

this time next week i will be on my way to europe!!! i am SO excited!!! we are going to ireland, england, spain, italy and france. i am going with Ale, Kim, and Erin. ale put our first initials together and found that our initials spells CAKE. so we are going to have a blog while we are there to keep family and friends up to date on our travels: http://cakeineurope.blogspot.com/

so excited to see this

anyway, this is my first time leaving the country and am semi-freaking out that i'm going to forget a billion things and be totally unprepared, but regardless i know i'm going to have a blast and its going to be an adventure. there are just so many amazing places in the world i feel very very grateful to go see some of them. i can't wait to meet new people, try new food, and just be amazed by everything around me.

here's some pics of the girls of CAKE at various get togethers.

we love america!

so patriotic and random. don't look too closely at my nails--i was in a hurry and am in general never that great at painting my own nails.

getting ready for the color run. erin wanted shorts so kim cut her some! teamwork.

before

after

this is pretty much how i see us in europe. 

 did i mention i'm soooo excited to go to europe?! so excited.

BOSTON MARATHON

soooo, on april 16th i ran the boson marathon!! it's only taken me 3 months to blog about it! oops. anyway, i know you've all been waiting for this post so get excited!

here's some history. in october 2009, i ran my first 1/2 marathon. i ran with my fast running friend ann who really pushed me to run faster. after i finished i was on an endorphin/adrenaline rush and said that i wanted to qualify for boston someday! so i kept running and a year and a half later i ran the CIM (sacramento marathon). i was still in school/doing an internship/working part time, so it was hard to find time to train and i was semi-freaking out because i only got up to 18 miles in training. i had never ran farther in my whole life! i had to get 3 hours and 40 minutes to qualify for boston. a long story short, it was really stressful the night before and morning of. due to all the circumstances i was determined to qualify! i thought i would die but i made it in about 3 hours and 37 minutes.

anyway, i signed up for boston later that year and crossed my fingers i would get in. even if you qualify, it isn't a guarantee. anyway, a week later they notified me that i got in! so excited! i'd never been to boston and thought i'd make the long overdue trip to my twinsie in new york while i was at it. so i planned my trip.

i started training as soon as 1/2 marathon training was finished in october. my good friend elizabeth ran with me most of my long runs which was really nice.

thats her on my right. she's an AMAZING runner. this was at out big sur 1/2 marathon.

 i was also cross training with my good friend kareem at 5freakingAM! craziness, but it was motivation to get up! even though, kareem can account for this, i was most always late! my 8 alarms don't always wake me!

at the latest tri.

but it was great. somewhere along this time i injured my foot. to this day i have no idea what happened. i thought a sprained ankle...then i thought a stress fracture...then maybe something with a tendon...i don't know! i ended up not running 8 weeks before the marathon so make sure it was rested as there are no deferments for boston. anyway, to put it simply i was terrified. :) LUCKILY, my parents decided to come! saved me from having to stay with random strangers! ;-) i felt a lot better with them there.

on the plane!

we flew out there saturday and explored the city a bit and went to the expo. on saturday the race committee sent an email out about extreme weather conditions for monday. as if i wasn't nervous/terrified enough to run this race!

it was going to get to 88-90 degrees the day of the race. it being april most people have not trained in the heat yet. the organizers opened up a deferment and warned that only experience marathoners in top fit condition should run. not knowing exactly what that meant and knowing that this was only my 2nd marathon and that i hadn't run in 8 weeks made me really nervous. i had my foot x-rayed and it was fine, but i was still scared it would act up. since i was already there i didn't want to defer. i figured i can walk if it gets that bad.

the course!

all in

the jacket i wear everyday. so expensive and so worth it.

in front of the expo

subway

we ate lunch in the park. see the poop behind the horse? that officer had to go back and scoop it up! sucky job!

eating at my dad's favorite restaurant near the hotel. i think this was the whole reason he wanted to come.  just kidding, it was like 75% why.

per tradition, laying out my outfit.

on monday we woke up at 4:30 am to get ready and get to the train on time. they recommended we take a bus from the finish to the start (athlete's village). so we got there at 7:30ish and i waited in line to get on the bus chatting with experienced marathoners and feeling more and more inadequate and intimidated! for example, this 60 year old man told me he's cutting down and only doing 9 marathons this year. what?! this is my second...ever!! i tried not to bring up my lack of marathon running experience. 

on the subway

waiting to board the bus

this guy is the one who runs 9 marathons a year!

so many people.

anyway, the bus ride was a looooong one. everyone was about to pee their pants because we were all drinking gallons upon gallons of water trying to hydrate. it was already so hot! they dropped us off at the athletes village and people were literally jumping off the bus into the shrubbery/foresty are to the side of us to go pee. at first i just saw guys doing it, then a lot of woman too. i seriously thought about it. but, it seemed to difficult to manuever. guys are so lucky.

anyway, up at ahlete's village we just had to wait there for our group to start. i tried to find some shade to make sure i didn't lose too much water. it was already so hot. already thirsty and sweating. so nervous. anyway, the time came to go to the start and so i moved with the huge crowd to the start. there were so many people! it was like walking in a herd of cows.

the first 10 miles went fairy fast because i was so distracted by all the people there to cheer us on and watch. in neighborhoods people had there houses out spraying water on us, giving us more water, ice, etc. it was really great. it was really great because i don't know if i would have done as well without them! i eventually found myself soaking wet down to my shoes. i no longer cared about getting my phone or headphones wet. it was just SO HOT. they had little sprayers that we can run through which was cool. anyway, by mile 15-16 i knew my parents would be there to see me. that's about the same time i started to really feel miserable. i wanted to die! haha...i finally saw them and smiled and waved and they took pictures. they said something like this when they saw me "wow, she doesn't even look like she's sweat!" i definitely had.

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meanwhile, i'm gritting my teeth trying to smile..i thought about going over to hug them, but knew i would break down crying! as soon as i ran past them i almost started to cry. my parents told me that they saw a few runners run to the side and give up. they were done. so crazy. there were people dropping left and right.  i was also having a rough time! but i wanted to finish. i ended up feeling very nauseous and light headed. i definitely didn't want to pass out or get heat exhaustion or heat stroke so i decided to walk everytime there was a water station and then run up again.

i was so shocked to see so many walkers at the boston marathon. i've never walked in a race before, but i felt okay about this when i saw so many others walking. i felt even better when i saw people who weren't being careful and pushed to hard and passed out or needed medical help. anyway, i was just trying to fight the feeling of wanting to throw up and trying to get my legs to not feel like 1000 pounds every time i lifted them to run!

i eventually go closer to the finish and couldn't have been more excited! the last 1/2 mile was the hardest because the course widened and there were no more water stations or people throwing water on you. i ran through the finish line and seriously almost turned myself into the medics! i felt terrible. i wanted to pass out/throw up/collapse! i walked to where people were giving out water and probably guzzled down way too much at first. we had to go pick up our stuff from the buses so i kept walking (felt like the longest walk ever! still in the hot, hot sun.) finally got my stuff and walked to a shady area and called my parents to come find me because i was not coming to them! i was huddled in some doorway to a building sitting with my head between my knees trying not to throw up.

by the time they found me i was feeling a little better and we walked over to the park and sat down. there were people everywhere passing out. ambulances coming from every direction to help people. it was crazy. anyway, when i felt a little better, we made our way to the subway system and had to get on an overcrowded train to the car. those people are lucky i didn't throw up all over them! haha, but really. we finally made it to the car and to the hotel and i showered and we headed out to olive garden! for some reason that was the only thing i could think of that sounded good. at home whenever jimmy suggests to go there i shoot it down. sorry jim!

so happy

tan line from my KT tape!

we went hot tubbing later that night. if you didn't notice, i had the WORST sunburn so i couldn't even get in all the way.

the next day we packed up and headed downtown so my parents could drop me off at the bus stop so i can go to new york.

our hotel.

no idea what i was thinking, but we walked up like 300 steps to get to the top of the bunker hill monument. if you have run a marathon, you know that walking downstairs is the most difficult thing to do a few days after. going to the bathroom is pretty difficult too. you never realize how much muscle is required to sit down!

bunker hill

at the top

going down was the hardest. i had to walk sideways.

at the bus stop!

all in all it was a great experience. i definitely want to try and run boston again, maybe in a few years. hopefully i won't get injured, i'll be better trained, and it won't be record breaking hot!