FOOD!

Salad Bar

Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers, onions, beet root, carrots, and corn.

Antipasto Bar

Cold cuts, cheeses, and dressings.

Grill

Meats (Chicken, Steak, Fish, Pork and Beef) Pastas, Pasta sauces, potatoes and other stuff.

Sides Bar

Cole slaws, pre made salads and sandwiches, pickles, fruit, bread and much more.

Dessert

Cakes (cheese and danish) Jello, puddings (chocolate, caramel and rice) and ice cream (varied flavors).

Stuff

Thursday Day 4 was stuff day. Leo got her race numbers, credentials and invite to the after dinner party. I even got stuff too. My credentials are below. Other than that it was training as usual for the athletes with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner mixed in there. O yeah card playing as well. Just living the dream!

Invite

Leo Bib and Credentials

My Credentials

Hotel Pics

The name of our hotel, Barcelo Punta Umbria.

Click link for more pics and info.

View from our balcony.

The Key Card controls the whole room. Without it no lights, heat/ac, and power.

The pool and spa at the hotel, little too cold for a dip.

This hotel is so flash we have a bidet.

Day 2 and More

To begin where I left off, the rest of day 2 was pretty simple. Leo and I went for a walk along the beach and then through the town. Leo then went for a second run with the rest of the New Zealand. When they returned we played some cards, which was a good time and laugh. We then headed off to dinner.

I don't know if I have mentioned how nice the food is, but it is delicious. Open buffet with all foods imaginable. Since I am not running it is hard not to dig in for seconds and thirds. I am definitely putting on some pounds being here. (I have started going for 5 mile walks out to the course and back to burn some calories)

After dinner we headed to bed.

The next morning we got up around 8AM and went for breakfast. After breakfast we chilled out a bit until we went for the training session up at the race course. Some team members had workouts, some were doing some stuff in their spikes and others just for a run. The course is really nice, well maintained and going to be tough.

The course is a 2km loop on well manicured grass surface. Along the loop there are rolling hills, man made hills and 2 sets of 3 logs jumps 8 meters apart. All made to break up rhythm and keep the runners on their toes. The course lacks flat sections to work on the rhythm and so forth. I would estimate that there is about 500 meters of broken up flat throughout the loop. This course should make for some good tactical racing.

Here is a photo of Leo doing some strides in her spikes.

After the course run everyone headed back to the hotel for showers, lunch and some down time to relax after the tough morning. The team is small so all our rooms are in the same stretch of hallway. So we alternate hanging out in each others room playing cards and just BSing. Its a good time.

The rest of day two was pretty boring, we just chilled out waiting for dinner. Some team members went for second runs, others stayed behind and played cards. Leo and I played cards. Then we headed off to dinner, where nothing exciting happened.

These blogs are pretty boring, we are not getting out and doing much. For the athletes this trip is like a business trip. All work no play. After the race some people will be down to do some sight seeing. With the race on Sunday, that only leaves us Monday, Tuesday and we fly out Wednesday to see some stuff.

I will have some blogs showing you guys the hotel, the food and some other cool stuff.

Travel to Spain

Smooth sailing from New York to Madrid, however from there is where it gets interesting. We landed at 10 AM local time and had to board our connecting flight at 11 AM. That doesn't seem too bad until you realize you have to clear customs, take a 5 minute train ride to the next terminal, find what gate your are going to and then clear security again. Needless to say we made it to the gate with a few minutes to spare, so no big deal. Then we had to sit on the plan on the run way for an hour to take off. No delays in New York, but Madrid 1 hour.

All that just meant that we arrived an hour later then we were scheduled for. We had a VIP Shuttle waiting for us in Seville to drive us the 90 minutes to Punta Umbria. Once in Punta Umbria we got our room and hurried off to take a nap.

After the nap we went for a walk around town before heading to dinner, we were out for about 2 hours, and then back to our room to chill and get to sleep by 10 PM. The first day was pretty slow going, there were no other team members here, so nothing really to type about.

Day 2 started with Leo getting up at 8AM to go for a short jog. When she got back around 9 AM I got dressed and we met some of the other team members for breakfast. After breakfast Leo got her racing uniform and warm ups. That brings me up to typing this blog.

The rest of the day we are going to head to a supermarket to pick up some things, then go for a nap, Leo will have her second run and in between all of that we will have lunch and dinner. Today is when the rest of the New Zealand team arrives and many of the other Nations.

I will try and update this everyday with the daily happenings of the trip.

Extended Memorial Weekend

While most people enjoyed a three day weekend, I was able to enjoy an extended holiday break. Let me start off with Monday. Leo and I decided that we wanted to go for a hike and enjoy the outdoors a little bit. So we headed over to the Greenbelt Trail HQ located in Blydenburg County Park. They were closed but we were able to scope out a day hike to do.

We hiked around Stump Lake, this is an easy 5 mile hike that took us 2 hours and thirty minutes but we did stop for a 45 minute lunch break on the lakes shore. It was a beautiful day, with not too many people in our way. We came across some horse and dog walkers but they were all friendly and well behaved(even the animals). The trails themselves are easy to navigate and are well maintained. They are also not very difficult to hike. Here are some of our photos from the stops.

Beach Front

@ A Stream Crossing

Same Stream Crossing Just A Different Angle

Leo Next to the Tree with a Giant Hole in it

After the hike on Monday we headed over to a friends house for some Basketball, Wiffle Ball and a BBQ. Great way to relax and end a nice day.

On Tuesday Michelle and Alyssa graduated from St. Joseph's College on LI and we went to the ceremony. Here is a brief video of how it went down.

I removed all the unnecessary speakers and other people from the ceremony. What took them 3 hours to do I cut down to 4 minutes. Congratulations again and good luck in the future!

With that Leo and I have another tripped planned this weekend. Boston for a track meet, it should be fun. I will keep you posted with how that goes. Later!!!

Boston May 15th 2010

This weekend Leonora and I traveled up to Boston for a Track event. Leo was running in the Boston Twilight Track Meet. We decided to make a trip out of it and stayed with our Friend Kevin aka Mango. He goes to Harvard and studies crazy science things. He was nice enough to take the weekend off and fit us into his busy schedule. Here are a few experts from the weekend.

Here we are on the Harvard University campus and this is a statue of John Harvard, founder of Harvard University. It is said to be good luck to rub his left foot. That is what we are doing in this photo. It is very weird because the statue is all weathered except his foot which is still a gold copper color. They say the oils from the human hand help preserve this portion of the statue.

After touring the campus a bit we went over to Harvard Square which is the center of Cambridge city. This is where all the doings were going on. They had street performers, vendors and homeless. There were shops to shop in and cafe's to eat in. All in all it was a pretty cool area.

After walking around we relaxed in apartment until it was time to head up for the race. I have attached a video of Leo's race. If you scan to 2 minutes 30 thats when the race starts.

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

or you can have the abridge version here... She runs with some women for 2 laps and then leaves them in her wake. She runs a solo 9:22, laps a few girls and breaks the meet record by 4 seconds. All in all a good race.

We will be back in Boston in 3 weeks for another one of these meets. So you will get another update then. Until next time...