There is internet on my flight! (SLC to BOS)

This thing almost became completely defunct again. Or perhaps it did become defunct. June 23rd to December 4th is a long time to go without an update. Better late than never?

June was a fairly successful month of running. I topped 200 miles on the month; an accomplishment that I have not since managed.

In July I was healthy, home and had a relatively large amount of free time but only ran about 98 miles. I had enough residual fitness from earlier in the year for second place at the Tonneson and Co 5k in Wakefield in a time of 17:34 which ran my streak of consecutive years with a sub-18 min 5k to 7 and notched my fastest 5k of the year (of 3). The less shiny side of this story is that I was registered for a marathon that weekend but didn't feel like I had the fitness so I took the DNS and ran a 5k instead.

In August I went out too fast to start the Beverly Homecoming 5k, got injured and finished the month with 35 total miles. This was not a promising sign heading into September, with another marathon on my schedule for September 12th.

The September marathon was the Marathon du Medoc so the pressure was not so much.

With our numbers at the giant inflatable wine bottle. There were free wine and cognac tastings at the expo. So best race expo ever.

There were 22 wine stops at various chateaus along the way and I made sure to get out toward the front of the race to take unimpeded advantage of the all you can drink wine buffets at chateaus such as Lafite Rothschild. I finished in drunken 3:56:50 which was good enough for 326th of 10000 starters and 7650 finishers. Mark, who was both in better running and drinking shape passed me in the last 10km to finish 300th. Sarah did her first half marathon; our smiles below were more due to the wine than how comfortable it is to run long distances on dirt paths in the rain whilst wearing fancy dress.

The theme of the race was to put on your 31s. This means to put on your best clothes which you would wear only once per month. The English translation was "dressed to the 9s" which doesn't make as much sense for the theme of the 31st installment of the race.

In addition to the finisher medals each finisher gets a boxed bottle of Bordeaux wine; generally Medoc wine as the race name would imply:

My bottle was a 2008 which was a bad year for Bordeaux wines but this bottle was still better than most of what I buy at home. I think Mark got a 2012 from another chateau.

After we got back from France I was straight back out to Salt Lake City for work where I picked up an indoor track membership to start getting back into shape. Before I move onto talking about October though, here are some more pictures from France:

Dinner cruise in Paris

Catacombs in Paris

Worries Guaranteed!!!

Back to October.

I managed 115 miles in September and 110 miles in October. Given that I ran 260 miles in March in the build-up to Boston this was not a good sign going into the NYC marathon on the first of November. I did manage to find a small enough 5k in October that I was able to notch my 12 win and first of the year. I went out hard an passed the 1 mile mark at 4:44 which I take to mean the marker was short. I jogged in the final mile at recovery pace but was never challenged. I won in 18:20 with a 2:49 lead over second place. Not great but not too bad given that I landed after midnight the night before after flying home from Salt Lake City for the weekend.

There's no glory in winning a 5k with an 18:20 but I'll take the gift certificate to cut a few bucks off of my next pair of trainers.

I missed the FOOGI 5k the next weekend to attend Sarah and Grant's wedding. It was a great time and while I didn't have the chance to defend my title from my neighborhood's annual 5k at least I didn't miss out on any real competition. The winner ran it in 20:55...3 seconds slower than when he finished second to me last year.

October eventually ended and I found myself on the start line of the NYC marathon. I was given the number 3161 which meant that I was a just a few rows of runners back from the start line in Wave 1, Corral 1 of the Green starting area. It was a bit crowded very early on and I managed to hold back as I went up the bridge but with fewer than 200 runners between me and the Green start I found a nice juicy open lane to run in coming down off of the apex of the bridge and forgot about my goal of running a 3:15. My first mile was slow, and then I clocked a 6:09 second mile and never really got it under control until I burnt out. Here's my projected finish at each mile based on my GPS splits. This is a map for one of the most painful ways to run a 3:24:28 marathon:

Hello wall.

By comparison, here is the same plot from my run at the Boston Marathon in 2015:

The step function between miles 15 and 16 was when I stopped to throw up. The step function right at the end was when I stopped to take off my outer layer shirt so that I could finish with my GLRR singlet showing. The rain had plastered my shirt to me and with my injuries from the face plant 2 weeks earlier it took longer to strip that shirt than I had planned. Looking back at this data, taking off that shirt could have cost me a place in the 2016 Boston Marathon.

The NYC marathon was painful but it was a fun experience and Sarah and I had a great time hanging out with Emily and Tom for the weekend and there is nothing like a bad race to trigger a good month of training. I finished October with 195 miles including some long runs, some tempo runs, some hill workouts and some track work. Another couple months of this and I might be back in racing shape.

I now have 2 races on my schedule for 2016 that will require the marathon fitness that I'm trying to get back:
Salt Lake City Marathon, Salt Lake City, UT 4/16/16
Edinburgh Marathon, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 5/29/16

Here is my YTD mileage trend comparing this year (red) to other years. After running hard for the first 6 months of the year I fell behind my 2013 pace but have started working my way back in November. 2015 is now my second highest mileage year ever and I still have a chance at topping 2013 if I can manage 215 miles in December. Through 4 days I am on pace for 225 miles this month so it will be close.

Here's to wishing everyone a good indoor track season! When I finally shake this cold that I've been battling for the past 2 weeks I'll be looking forward to joining you!

Having some feelings of déjà soju

Once upon a time I had a blog on Livejournal. I could not now begin to guess which defunct email I signed up with, what my password was or even what my username was. I suppose I could use google to find out if Livejournal still exists but researching things so that my posts would be accurate or useful for anyone would be a departure from my style with this thing. I know when I had the blog and how long it lasted. It wasn’t long. The last I posted to that blog a farewell to a pair of Brooks Ghost trainers from my hotel room at the Ramada Hotel in Dongtan, Korea in November 2010.

That trip to Korea was the most difficult trip of my professional career. Toward the end of June in 2010 I moved out of the house that I shared with Ken, Pat, Duncan and Amy in Beverly and put all of my stuff in my parents’ basement, kissed Sarah goodbye at Logan and went off Germany for work: technically homeless. It wasn’t the earliest days of Skype but neither was it like it is today. We spent as much time troubleshooting as anything else on our calls but by the time I was flying home from Germany we had found an apartment in East Arlington near Spy Pond. It was a nice, open-concept space with a fire place and we were the only tenants in the building so we could be as loud as we pleased. We moved in over the course of August with a brief pause to go on holiday in Puerto Rico for a week.

September came easy enough. I had an assignment to go to visit a customer on the south coast of France for a week. It was the kind of trip where I took a redeye out of Boston on Sunday night and was on my way home first thing the next Saturday morning. In the morning I set my alarm for eight to have some croissants and cappuccino at the hotel bar. Around nine I would get to the Fab to meet the customer to discuss the plan for the day until our 10am espresso break. After the break I worked straight on until lunch at noon which was typically two courses and then another espresso break. We would work until half past three when it was time for the afternoon espresso bream. At four we would meet to discuss what we had accomplished that day and then by about half past four it was time to go back to the hotel. By noon on Friday my job was done and the customer signed off.

I have not before or since had such an vacation-like trip for work (excluding presenting at conferences or pre-sales meetings) but when I got back to Arlington with two relatively easy trips to Europe under my belt I was confident it would always be so easy. Not long after returning to Boston I was assigned to go to Korea for three weeks to oversee the qualification of the first of our new cluster-ash tool in Asia. I landed at Incheon Airport, got some cash from the ATM and proceeded to immediately get scammed to the tune of $250 for a taxi ride to the Ramada Hotel in Dongtan. When I got to Dongtan YJ took me out for sushi, bugs and soju.

When I landed in Korea that October I had not had an alcoholic drink since leaving Puerto Rico in August. I claimed that it was because I was in training for the New York Marathon. Back then the qualification standards for New York were more forgiving and I qualifies with a 1:23:21 half marathon in Wisconsin the previous summer and I was registered for the race but my training log exposes the lie.

I ran this race in August. It was so cold at the start...

I landed in Korea with 885.82 miles in my log. It is true that at that time it was the most miles I had ever run by October but it was also my first year with a training log so that isn’t much of a statement . Also, I had finished June with 774.56 miles in the log. It doesn’t take a professional running coach to tell you that an average of 37 miles per month for the last three months before race is not a recipe for a marathon PR. The abstinence from the sauce had been purely aspirational. I was always sure that I would get things together the next morning and kick my training into gear for real.

The soju hit me hard that first night and I don’t recall getting back to the hotel that night but it was the jetlag that finally kicked me into gear and helped me start logging miles again. I ran 65.48 miles in my first two weeks in Korea and was sure that things would be okay for the NYC Marathon. Then my trip got extended by two weeks and I wasn’t going to get home until after the race. There is a five day gap in my running log following that call. My next run was on Halloween (Sunday 10/31/10). I’ll still complain at times (like right now?) about having to miss that race for work but in reality the difficulty of that race had nothing to do with skipping a marathon (NYC that year was my 4th of 5 consecutive marathons that I didn’t finish…it was my 3rd of 4 that I did not even take the start line). The trip was so hard because of the time difference, the hours and being away from Sarah for so long. When I was awake Sarah was asleep. Alone in Korea I used that old Livejournal to shout into the void in hopes of hearing my own echo.

In 2011 and in 2012 I did not travel to Korea. In 2013 I visited Suwon for a week to make a presentation to a customer but stayed in Suwon and only made it to Dongtan for some pre and post meetings at our Field office. In 2014 I spent another three weeks in Suwon to start the year but by the time I was making my monthly trips to Dongtan starting in August there was a new hotel called the Shilla Stay which became a home away from home. I never returned to that Dongtan Ramada where it all started (by "it all" I just mean where I first blogged about running and where I first stayed in Korea). This trip though is like the old days all over. I am signed up for the NYC Marathon.

I had better make it to the start line this time around!

My last month (May) was remarkably low on mileage: though I will land in Korea with 1052.87 miles in my log which is the most I’ve ever had by the end of June it is not due to recent diligence with my running: I ran only 75.73 of those miles in May. Like 2011 I found out on Father’s Day weekend that I needed to travel somewhat suddenly. When I went to book my flight to Korea the connection out of Boston to SFO was canceled for Tuesday morning so I needed to take the same routing through Tokyo that I took back in 2010. Complementary beer and wine has even returned to the United International Economy flights! Now I’m on my way back to the Dongtan Ramada. Like 2010, I’ll the only one from the Factory staying in Dongtan.

I usually have some company over here.

It is almost poetic symmetry. I just hope that this is marking a return to the kinds of trips I used to take to Dresden and Rousset rather than the start of another cycle of the crazy travel of 2010, 2011, 2014 and the first half 2015. It leaves me to wonder if this blog will soon be defunct like the first one or if I’ll finally get back to writing to it like I did back in 2013. Back when I started this thing I would post weeklies of my workouts. Now I have my running log, RunningAhead, Garmin Connect, Athlinks and Strava. Writing another list of what slow laps of Pine Banks Park I ran seems worse than superfluous. That said, this is at its core a running blog so I should say something about my running of late.

Late in May, Sarah and I went out to California to meet Kristjan and hike Kings Canyon, Sequoia and Yosemite. It was an awesome time and it was great to hang out with Kristjan again but coming down from the lower falls in Yosemite on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend I felt something go in my right knee. It was a little painful to put weight on it but the feeling was more “squishy” than it was painful.

I just have my iphone; Sarah has the good camera so my pictures from the parks don't do them justice.

I took a couple days off when we got home and got back into running on the following Thursday with a Melrose Running Club track workout in Stoneham. It was 12x400 at 80-74sec. This should not have been so tough (Mike had me doing 10x800 at 2:38-2:32 back at the height of my Maine Coast Marathon training) but I was out of shape and my form suffered. My knee was tight for the next couple days but I decided to sign up for the Newburyport River Run Half Marathon the following Sunday.

After a long wait for the porta-john and a short warm-up I thought my knee felt fine and the race went out exceptionally slowly so I took the lead about half a mile into the course. The field was not competitive so I was able to hold the lead unchallenged at a workout pace (around 6:15ish) through the first three miles. Then my knee went around three and a half. I went suddenly and I came off the course and stretched it out then tried some shuffling steps. There was a cash prize and the chase pack hadn’t caught up yet so I thought I’d give it a try at winning it on one wheel. By mile four three runners passed me. By mile five I wasn’t even in contention for an age group anymore. At mile eight I stopped my Garmin and just settled for walking it in just because I didn’t know how to get back to Sarah or the car without following the course. With 1:40 and change showing on the clock I stepped off the course a few feet before the finish for the DNF and went home with Sarah to shower off and ice my knee. My race was a disappointment but Sarah had run a PR at the 5k by almost 5 minutes!

As I always do when I have a big failure at a race, I wanted redemption and I had only two races on my radar for June. I had the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 3.5 Mile race on 6/11 and the 26x1 Relay on 6/27. The JP Morgan Corporate Challenge is my least favorite race ever. I cannot stand the overcrowded start without any legitimate attempts to seed the race. I always dehydrate as the sun bakes the 10,000 or so of us packed for too long at the start line while there are a bunch of announcements to which I don’t pay any attention. I hate the race but once I have the number pinned to my chest and they announce the start it becomes a race. I was 6 seconds slower than last year (20:07) and 5 seconds slower than 2013 but perhaps due to a coincidence with the USATF-NE 5K up in Hollis, NH I had my best placement at 56th. I was not feeling the race at all and would have been slower but Mike was at the start and as usual I just tried to hang on as close as I could. It wasn’t that close; he was somewhere between 20-30 seconds faster than me.

This might be the first year that I was happy with the Axcelis team singlets. It helped that I didn't need to look at the back though.

The 26x1 Cup Relay at Tufts is one of my favorite races ever. As you can guess from the race date of this Saturday and me recent arrival in Korea I’m going to miss this one again. Maybe I’ll pick up a race around the 4th of July or maybe I’ll make it to Reading in time for the FORR 5k next month but if not my next test will be the Around the Lake Marathon.

Last year, on the night of the Around the Lake Marathon I was sitting on the porch drinking a Harpoon UFO when Sarah got home and asked me if I was actually going to run the marathon. “I guess” I replied so Sarah finished my beer and we went over to the start. I ran two laps alternating taking the lead and following the leader but the race makes 8 laps of the lake and Sarah and I had an agreement that we would go grab a beer when I was done running so I called it a night after that second lap. This year I’ll make the agreement to have that beer when I’ve finished the race. I only have a 3:04:09 for Boston 2016 which I don’t expect to hold up so I’ll need to better that time either in Wakefield next month or France in September.

You all go enjoy that 26x1 Relay for me. I wish I was sharpening my spikes today to get ready to be there with you instead of having another dish of kimchi. Shout out to Kevin for his finish at Mt. Washington last weekend; see you at the Wakefield marathon!

Graduation Goggles?

Seoul

It would be premature to say that my days in South Korea are over. I remain here through the thirteenth of May and it is unlikely that I will not return here a few more times this year but with the local office coming up to speed, our Product Support team growing it seems like the need for me to be on site is decreasing. It has been 19 weeks in Korea since August, 23 weeks since the start of 2014 and now 29 weeks in Korea total. I have now spent more or my life in Korea than anywhere else in the world with the exception of Massachusetts and New York. I've even spent more time in Korea than in Wisconsin where I was born. Korea in general, and Dongtan in particular, has become like a second home. So with my time here dwindling I figured that I would do a look back at my travel here over the years (with a few interjections about things that happened between trips to Korea)

I first came to Dongtan in 2010. As a 27 year old kid traveling to Asia without my family for the first time everything seemed new, foreign and exciting.

The pig head shop was new to me.

It wasn't just pig of course. You can get almost anything at the market in Suwon.

Before there was the Human Centipede movie there was the Human Centipede statue.

Of course not everything was that foreign.

There were western style beer bars like this Blues Brothers Bar. This bar is 6567.54 miles from Chicago according to the Measure Route app on RunningAhead.

But other things were unlike anything else I had seen before or since:

It was a suitably grey day when I visited the demilitarized zone. As we approached the border the map went blank to the north.

I did not think it appropriate to smile in a picture with the walled off no-man's land of the DMZ behind me.

The fog prevented me from seeing all the way to the North Korean side but occasionally the deathly silence would be broken by the calls from the loud-speakers on the north side over which the soldiers called for the South Korean boarder guards to defect and cross over to the North.

Some of the saddest sights were the chain-link gates across the streets. When the treaty established the Demilitarized Zone and Korea was split in two you were stuck on whichever side of the line you were on at that moment. Husbands, wives and brothers and sisters found themselves separated for decades by these fences. Now the gates are festooned with prayers for a chance to see loved ones again some day. Many of these prayers have never been answered.

That first trip to South Korea was intended to be a three week trip which would have given me one week to get back on Boston time before going to New York to run the New York City Marathon but the trip got extended to 5 weeks and I missed the race. When I returned from South Korea, I expected to be back somewhat regularly but my work schedule turned out to be quite different.

After returning from Korea in November I was sent first to Dresden, Germany.

The path along the Elbe is one of my favorite places in the world to run and the Old City is beautiful any time of year; especially so in winter when the Christmas Market fills the air with sounds of merrymaking and smells of roasting nuts and meats. There's nothing quite like wandering the marker with a mug of mulled wine to keep away the chill.

I actually took this one in the summer before going to Korea so it's a bit out of order but the recently rebuilt Frauenkirche in Altstadt is not to be missed. I just didn't take any pictures of it in December because I had taken so many over the summer.

From Dresden it was straight off to Hsinchu, Taiwan in January 2011 where not only do they not use police details to direct traffic. They don't even use flag-men. They use robots. Somehow I think that the movie RoboFlagMan isn't going to catch on quite like RoboCop,

It was about as hard to walk down the street in Hsinchu without seeing a Betel Nut shop as it is to walk down the street in Boston without seeing a Dunkin' Donuts.

For all the grime, industry and construction in Hsinchu there was some cool archetecture.

Things got cooler though when I took a weekend trip up to the north coast near Taipei.

Up in the north the towns were still packed but they were less industrial and more walk-able.

After returning home from Taiwan it was not long before I was back off to Dresden after a brief stop in Las Vegas for Bryan's bachelor party. I've already put enough pictures of Dresden in this post and everyone knows what Las Vegas looks like so I'll skip ahead to returning from Dresden and getting on the longest flight of my life to go to Singapore for a few weeks.

There are monkeys on the trails up to the Bukit Tamah Summit: the highest peak in Singapore at 163.6 meters.

I hadn't seen Evan since college so it was cool to catch up.

We visited a temple with really cool, intricate design.

Then we visited another temple. This guy didn't want to let us in so I beat him up. Then we went to an out-door Indian restaurant to watch India beat Sri Lanka to win the Cricket World Cup.

After Singapore I was off to Austin, Texas for a couple weeks. I only managed to run 3 miles in my two weeks there. I'll claim that it was either too hot or I was working too much or that I was still recovering from a knee injury that I picked up running in Taiwan but there was actually a strong laziness component to that mileage total.

I wasn't home long from Austin before it was finally time for Sarah and I to get some vacation time together! We went to Sarah's cousin's wedding in Oregon and then took a road trip down to LA.

We hiked in the Redwoods.

We consider "Steep" and "Strenuous" signs to be a welcome mat so of course we took this trail. It was all switchbacks that took us down about a thousand feet in elevation to the ocean.

I'd never been to the Redwoods before. It was awesome.

At the bottom of the Damnation Creak Trail we were greeted by this bridge and then a short hike to the beach.

Back in the car we came upon Paul Bunyan and his big blue ox balls.

Of course, what trip through California is complete without at least a couple winery stops?

 My next assignment after our getaway in California was to take the technical lead at the install, start-up, qualification and process development for a fleet of our equipment at a new Fab in Capital District New York so I was off to live in Malta, New York for basically 6 months. The good news is that it was a close enough drive that I could come home most weekends.

Most Fabs don't let you take cameras, cell phones or computers into the clean-room. This Fab did not have similar security measures. I could bring in my laptop and they even gave me a wifi login password. In the background you can see TEL and LAM etch tools. The Axcelis plasma-ash tools that I was supporting were just to my right but didn't make it into this picture.

I came hope from Malta for Christmas and got engaged to Sarah! But could not stay home long. I was back out to Malta right after the New Year and stayed there until we took a holiday to Italy with Sarah and Harold Currier.

We went first to Rome and caught a Centurion off guard.

We went to the Spanish Steps where a guy gave Sarah a flower and came to me to get paid. He wanted 20 Euro but we finally settled on 5. He still made his margins.

Then we went to Florence to see naked people.

And this guy in the Duomo.

There was a sign forbidding cloudy days but we had one anyway.

After Florence it was time for Positano.

That town's gone to the dogs.

We tried to climb Mt. Vesuvius but the mountain was closed due to some rumbling so we went to Pompeii figuring that it was a safe distance away if there was an eruption. After-all, we had our alarm clocks set for Volcano Day and this wasn't it.

Since we didn't get to climb Mt. Vesuvius we decided to climb Montepertuso when we got back to Positano.

There was quite the view of the Mediterranean from the top.

The next day we went up to Napoli so that I could run the marathon.

In Napoli, Harold got an ice cream which apparently comes with a cone by default so if you order it with a cone you get one bonus.

I wasn't fast but it was the first marathon I finished outside the United States (it was my second try at running a marathon in Europe).

After the marathon we decided not to stay in Napoli as planned and went back up to Rome to explore the Vatican and have dinner again at Il Gabriello: our favorite restaurant in the world up to that point. I have yet to find one I like more.

After Rome it was back to Malta for another month or two. On one of the trips to Malta I found out that I was going to change departments from Plasma-Ash to High Energy Ion Implant. This meant that my days in Malta were numbered. I did not get the "graduation goggles" about leaving Malta the same way I'm getting them now about leaving South Korea. When my work in Malta was all done I had one more trip to support the plasma-ash tools before making the transition to Ion Implant. That trip was to Fishkill, New York which was not so picture-worthy.

That summer I did not travel for work except to go to Valladolid, Spain to present a paper at a conference. In July we went back out to California to attend Sarah's other cousin's wedding. August was all about planning for our own wedding. In September we married.

We got married, barefoot, on the sand by a lake in Plymouth, MA then went up to Neburyport for a few days of relaxing before going back to work.

We relaxed, played mini-golf and I made Sarah jealous by dancing with this girl.

Our honeymoon was to South America (Ecuador and Peru) so we delayed it to November to get later into their spring for better weather.

We paid some guy $3 to use these chairs and tarp for the day. I don't think he worked for the beach.

We found a bar in Canoa Beach and tried to order margaritas but apparently it is illegal to serve liquor before 6pm in Ecuador so we settled for beers.

The breakfast area at our hotel in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador.

This was our hotel room while in Bahia.

In Cusco, Peru we visited Paddy's Pub: the highest elevation fully Irish-owned pub in the world and had a couple Guinness.

And Sarah made some friends.

Walking about in Cusco all day was a challenge due to the elevation so we stopped for a rest at the top of some stairs near our hostel for a rest and to watch the sun set behind the mountains.

Once we had a chance to get over our altitude sickness (and my food poisoning) it was time for us to make the hike to Machu Picchu with our awesome team of porters, cook at our guide Roger, all from Llama Path. We were a bit on the shoulder of the season so the trail was mostly empty of tourists and we had the team of 4 porters, one cook and a guide to ourselves.

Even your "outhouse" is worth a picture on the Inca Trail.

Roger led the way and Sarah and I followed. Our porters were always far ahead of us.

That little tent that you can see in the valley by the lake is where our porters had stopped to setup a camp for us to have lunch and take a rest. These guys have some serious fitness. I was coming off of what was then my marathon PR (3:17:30 at Manchester City) less than a month before this hike and I was pretty beat by the time we made it to lunch on the first day.

We went over the highest point in the hike not long after lunch. We were taking an alternate route which hit a highest point of 13800 ft: well above the famous Dead Woman's Pass which peaks out at 12300 feet. A few hours of hiking down from our pass we stopped at camp for the night and saw a spectacular sunset.

From there it was straight on to Machu Picchu. I'm sure you've seen a million pictures of this place so I'll only post this one.

After Machu Picchu it was time for me to finally make my return to Korea. In December 2012 I was nursing a calf injury but decided it was time to ramp my mileage and add a lot of quality to finally qualify for my first Boston Marathon. January was a mileage PR (204.81 miles) and then in February I made my return to Suwon. It turned out to be a 4 day trip (plus the 3 days round trip flights). And then 2013 was the best year I've had in a long time. I did not travel again for work.

In May Sarah and I stopped at an open house on our way to Maine for me to compete at the Maine Coast Marathon. We made and offer from the car and a few days later I had my BQ and our offer was accepted.

This was one of the last houses we looked at before we found the one we ended up buying. I liked it but Sarah said no to getting a house with a "open-concept quarter bath" in the bedroom. I like this picture so I always like to share it for shits and giggles.

We eventually settled on the final price after our inspection while we were down in Virginia visiting Kristjan.

After buying our house there wasn't much running for a while but there was a lot of barbecue. Dear Lord there was a lot of barbecue. 

In August it was time again for us to go on holiday. This time it was to Ireland. Sarah was still sort of a vegetarian at the time. This picture of her with her french toast and surprise bacon makes me happy.

We had been to Oregon for Jamie and Yasmina's wedding and then to California for Chris and Yvette's wedding together but this was my first real vacation with the whole Holzgraf family. 

Sarah and I did occasionally sneak away for a beer by ourselves though.

We were good tourists and always obeyed the signs. Our method of angering the vehicles was to be normal Bostonians and jaywalk everywhere.

Sarah took her risks with the cliffs.

And I took my risks with the cows.

In Belfast a Dr. Who fan sent us a message that the trip was almost over. We did get in a visit to Giant's Causeway before returning to Dublin to fly home though.

For the rest of the fall I did not travel. Sarah and I had a chance to set up and settle into our home. Late in January we were happy to help celebrate the wedding of Eric and Steph Gagnon.

At the reception the wheels started turning for an epic trip to Europe with Sarah, Harold, Kristjan, Jenn, Sarah and George. The idea was somewhere in between just going to Athens and flying into Prague to take a trip by rail through Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Zagreb, Sarajevo and then down to Athens.

As it turns out, planning such an epic vacation is hard work so we took a break from it to go to Palma de Mallorca, Sóller and Barcelona. 

Cities like Barcelona are great but we cannot go on holiday with the Curriers and not climb a mountain so we hiked up here at Montserrat.

Of course, you cannot forget about Barcelona. The food might not be as good as Italy but the city is certainly beautiful and alive.

It was now 2014 which meant that it was the start of the year where Korea really became like a second home. We were not home from Spain for 48 hours before I was on a flight to Korea. This was the last time I stayed in Suwon and the last time that Korea felt foreign.

Apparently, you are supposed to have your picture taken with the statue from your zodiac symbol at this park in Seoul. I'm a pig so here I am with my statue.

I was in Korea for three weeks then returned for about a month which gave me just enough time to adopt Freddie with Sarah and to run the Boston Marathon. It was quite painful and I was slow but Sarah was at the finish so I was happy.

Freddie!

Three days after the Boston Marathon, I had to go back to Singapore for a few weeks so I got to hang out with Evan again.

After that trip to Singapore it was all South Korea all the time. There were a few exceptions:

We went to New Hampshire to celebrate Emily and Tom's wedding.

We went to Portland, Maine with the Curriers and then I went to Portland, OR to give an oral presentation and present a few posters at a conference. In August the 2-3 weeks per month in Korea started for real. Interspersed into my Korea travel Sarah and I went to Bar Harbor, ME with her family (and Freddie came too).

Jordan Pond, Maine.

I also visited Kristjan in Virginia in November before meeting Sarah in North Carolina to have Thanksgiving with her grandparents.

The sub shop where Kristjan and I had lunch had a strict policy on hippies.

In the winter Sarah and I cashed in some of the miles that I'd been building up from my constant flights to and from Korea to go down to Mexico for some relaxation.

We relaxed at our hotel.

Then we visited some ruins.

And relaxed on the beach.

Then visited some more ruins.

Then it was time to go back to Korea.

After another Korea trip we took a few days to go down to Key West.

The key deer were not afraid to get close to your car.

The Angry Chickens had no fear either.

Speaking of Angry Chickens, two of them were in my in-flight magazine on the flight home.

After Key West I stayed in Boston for about three weeks. Just about enough to seriously injure myself in a fall, recover a bit, run Boston again and book a flight back to Korea.

It was cold. I was in a lot of pain and ran poorly but got the BQ and had all the DeLucas and Holzgrafs at the finish so it was a good day.

Now about Korea. At I did not like Korea. It was just a place I had to go an work all of the hours every day. Over time I got days off here and there and got to see the natural beauty of the country, feel the perfect weather in fall and spring, try all the delicious food and enjoy the convenience of the tracks, the trails and the well planned cities.

I've stayed in Seoul, Suwon, Dongtan and Cheongju but of them all Dongtan feels the most like home. If you look just north of the intersection of Rt.1 and Rt. 400 you can see an orderly city that is laid out like the spokes of half of a wheel with a large wooded park at the center. That is Dongtan. The Shilla Stay hotel where I live when here is right on that wooded park. 

If you're out running and want to cross the street you can use one of the many pedestrian bridges that are surfaced with the same vulcanized rubber that you'll find on a track.

Speaking of tracks, if you dip down off the road and into the trails by the river that parallels Rt.1 you can find miles of trail to  explore safely on your run.

If you forgot your GPS watch don't worry: the kilometers are marked out for you.

You don't need to go far outside of Dongtan to find the serenity of a temple.

Returning to Dongtan in the evening you can go out for a beer at one of the countless bars and restaurants that fill the four main squares that make up the downtown section of the city. 

The waterfall in the park around which Dongtan spreads is man-made but that does not detract from how cool the hikes are in the park.

If it's food you're looking for there is plenty of good stuff to find around here too:

Grilled intestine with root vegetables and sprout.

Beef sashimi.

Grilled eel.

I don't know. I didn't get it.

Meongge! (Think sea urchin but a little bit tougher and more slimy and you won't be far off).

There is always soju and company when there is meongge.

Sushi of course. Grilled eel on sweetened egg. Call it breakfast sushi.

Make your own spring rolls.

It isn't Korea with a traditional BBQ with soju and mecju.

This isn't traditional but this sort of flat griddle cooking is starting to catch on.

I've watched the seasons change. I've found the restaurants that I like and the coffee shops that I frequent. I have my normal running routes for tempo, long, recovery and maintenance runs. I am looking forward to getting home and spending more time with Sarah but I do regret that we were never able to make it here together during the craziness of the past year.

As I said at the top of this post: this isn't my last trip to Korea but as the frequency of my trips starts winding down I will miss many of the running routes, the hikes, the food and the painfully beautiful autumn and spring. Sarah and I will certainly need to make plans to take a vacation to Korea before too long.