Recently, I've been keeping quite busy...On November 14th I ran the Nice Maritimes Marathon in (Nice) France. I hadn't run for three out of the last six weeks before the race due to tendonitis in my foot. I went in to the race hoping to finish it. My competitive side really wanted to beat my best time (3:45), but given the circumstances, I was satisfied with my 3:48 finish.
It was a hectic start...We went to the train station at 6:15 in Juan Les Pins. The train, as is typical of French trains, was 25 minutes late. When it arrived, it was full....not room for a single person. Three of the five runners in our group, including myself did not get on the train. Thankfully a second eventually came, but it arrived in Nice 20 minutes before the race! By the time we trekked to the start, it was 7:50, ten minutes before race start. I never got to warm up because I was waiting in the bathroom line for 25 minutes. (They moved the start to 8:15.) When I was entering the bathroom, they announced that there was less than one minute before race start. Maybe the lackof warm up has something to do with my quads sinching up at km 25!! Or how about the fact that I couldn't go down stairs without a hand rail for two days and even worse, not being able to get up off the toilet seat for four days! I kept my ski poles in the bathroom to help with that process.
Tiffany (not running), Todd, me, Ian, Krysten and Mike...pre-race, waiting for the train
Mike and Todd got on the train. The rest of us were not so lucky...
Hustling through Nice heading the race start...despite the train troubles, we kept smiling.
Franatically de-clothing and vaseline-ing
Old Town Nice
Krysten, me and Todd, post race at the bus stop heading to the airport. Congrats to Todd who ran the race in 3:13
Krysten and me at the Nice airport
Medals for our finish
BARCELONA
I had a long weekend in November meaning one Friday with no school. I flew out to Barcelona on Friday morning, the weekend after the marathon and stayed there through Sunday. Spain is great. One of my favorite countries. This was my second time in Barcelona and it solidified the fact that it is my favorite city in Spain.
of course, La Segrada Familia at the heart of BarcelonaSaw some Gaudi architecture. Here, the outside of one of the apartment buildings that he designed. His work continues to amaze me.
The rooftop balcony on the apartment. This was one of the chimneys
A look from the outside, street-side
Gaudi even made furniture. This was one of my favorites.
On the street
Out for Tapas
La Boqueria (market) on Saturday morning
Yes, those are real animals and real eyes
Again, real pig, real eyes, yes, in the frig wearing a red hat on display for everyone
Walking along on Las Ramblas
View of Barcelona from the high park
In the Gaudi Park
Finally, I'm able to make a post! The internet at the school (so also in my apartment) hasn't been allowing anyone to upload photos for about a month and a half. It's been a busy fall at LAS. From some serious cycling (three consecutive century ride weekend rides), to my brief trip to the states in October to my fall cultural in Germany and Austria.
Morgins Ride
The Morgins Ride starts in Leysin, descends into Aigle followed by a flat cycle across the valley to Monthey where the climb begins...the 20km switchbacking climb up to Morgins which eventually drops you into France with rolling hills into Evian and a nice cycle along Lake Geneva and back to Aigle. It's always nice to stop for a dip in Lake Geneva before finishing. On this day, we had a rather large crew that took on the 125km ride. It was a gorgeous day.
Paceline action
Lake Geneva in the back
Me, Erin and Pezz
Verbier
A few more pictures from the Verbier bike race on September 12th
Paris
I went to Paris one weekend in September to see a Mumford & Sons concert. Turns out, this was right around the time of the strikes in France so our train out of Geneva was delayed an hour on Friday afternoon. We only ended up seeing about 5 songs. However, Paris was still fun.
View from inside a cafe
Arc de Triumph
Looking down Champs Elysses
Where's Quasimodo?
Me and Erin at the Eiffel Tower
Faculty Family Weekend
Yes, I do work too. One of the weekends in September is devoted to faculty family. So me, my faculty husband, Hugh, and our ten kids had a BBQ on my porch, made brunch one morning, went to Lausanne and saw a movie and also rented scooters to ride down our mountain with.
Here's Hugh in my apartment with some of our children from Mexico, Kazakstan and Ghana
These scooters were the real deal. Too bad it was cloudy in Leysin that day.
Vermont, USA
I arrived in Burlington, VT on a Wednesday, was waiting outside the airport and in less than 5 minutes already bumped into someone I knew who was just as baffled to see me in the country. In the next four days I managed to visit with friends, have breakfast with Dad at Penny Cluse, go to a wedding in Warren and run a half marathon. On Monday morning, I was headed back out to Switzerland. Can you say whirlwind trip??
The house we rented in the Sugarbush area for the wedding
View of sugarbush...where I used to ski
Mimosas with breakfast
Pictures from the wedding:
Me and Heather, Mason Hall roommates
Me and Keith...one of my roommates from Mansfield Ave
The foliage in Vermont is the most beautiful thing in the world
Me and Tara, post race in Waterbury, Vermont.
The last night supper at Woodlawn Ave in Burlington with the Sharkey's and Morgan
Me and Morgan eating the steak!!
Outward Bound - Germany & Austria
I spent one week at Outward Bound in October with a group of 11 sophomores from LAS. Among the various activities: a ropes course, a zip line, a stream hike...my favorite part of the trip was our three day, two night hut trip into the Austrian Alps. The kids were in charge of planning everything...they planned all the meals, packed all the equipment and even guided us with a compass and map to the hut. 
Even amidst the dumping snow, our kids kept good spirits. These two shots are from the first day of our hike. We had to wear snowshoes and avalanche gear. It snowed over a foot (30cm) that day. 
On the first day (after spending one night in the hut), we trekked out into the mountains for a day hike. Here are some views from the day.
And there's our hut
A self timer-ed group shot at our lunch break
Back at the hut by nightfall with a warm fire, hot tea and good food. It was a clear, bitter cold night and the moon was nearly full. This picture does not do the view justice.
Outside, looking in...Erin is enjoying the warmth of the hut. Did I mention that the outhouse was about 100meters from the hut? Oh, and there was no running water. Water had to be drawn from a well about 300-400 meters away from the house and carried in...we let the kids do that. 
Group shot on the last morning before leaving the hut
And finally at the end of our trek...
