Start of London/Ireland Trip

I will need to combine yesterday's and today's posts since I had no connection to post last night.

July 9th

The day is finally here. My wife and I are at the airport waiting to board our flight to London. It seems that we have been waiting for this trip forever. We are visiting London and a good part of Ireland on a two week trip celebrating our 40th anniversary. It will be the longest flight I have ever been on. It is the one part of the trip I have had some anxiety about. My body tends to ache when staying still for any length of time and this will be a seven hour plus flight. 

One of the things I really want to do is be able to get in some runs during the trip. I really want to say I've done some fell running. But how it will affect my training for Howl I don't know. Thankfully, my Tunnel Hill 100 cycle really doesn't start till we get back. Although I have gotten in some solid weeks, I seem to be dragging a little bit, particularly, mentally. Once I'm out on a run and warmed up, I am okay, but the first part just doesn't always feel right. So, maybe not actually training the next two weeks will be a good thing to recharge my mental batteries for the fall racing season.

July 10th

No running today. The first day I've missed in 498 days. My longest streak ever (power walking or running). Did get some walking in, but not really pushing.

As far as the day went, it kind of sucked for most of the day. After a long, uneventful flight, it took us two hours plus to get through the passport gate. Absolutely ridiculous. Then after getting our baggage, we find out the guy from the transportation company wasn't there to take us to the hotel. We called the company and they told us they only stay 90 minutes from when the plane docks at the terminal. You have got to be kidding. The person on the other end of the phone call basically said there probably wouldn't be much of a chance to help, but told MaryLou they would try. After 20 minutes on hold, we just hung up and grabbed a taxi. Surprise!!! $116 cab ride. Get to the hotel, room is not ready and it would be at least an hour wait. We just came in on an almost eight hour flight with just a little in an out sleep over a couple hours. Not happy.

Finally, a couple of hours later we meet with the tour group for a bus tour of London. It was okay, but traffic was horrendous. I would say we maybe average about two miles an hour for two and a half hour trip. It made the bus tour quite tedious. If someone gave me the route, I could have gotten a run in and did it in less than half the time.

Alas, I suppose it can only go up from here. We meet for a dinner with the group in 15 minutes. We'll see how it goes.