This post is a summary of my recent trip to Levi, Finland. Our friends from Minnesota had this trip planned before we told them we were moving to London, so they invited us to join them! Levi is in Lapland, which is in northern Finland, above the Arctic Circle! Friday, December 23: We flew from London to Kittila via Helsinki on Finnish Air. Our first leg on Finnish Air was great and I was Continue Reading

Last week, it was pictures of the Christmas decor in London- this week, it's pictures of the Christmas snow! Apparently, it hasn't snowed like this here in many years. I guess I brought the bad weather from Minnesota! The snow made running a little challenging this week (kinda missed my treadmill, just a little!), but I still got out there. Here's my weekly recap! Monday: Rest day from Continue Reading

Happy Sunday! It's weekly recap time. My next marathon will be Vienna, which is not until April, so this is a bit more of a base training period. Here's how this week went in fitness (and life in London as an American!) Monday: Rest from running after the 10k the day before. I completed day 9 of the Caroline Girvan Iron Strength program on YouTube after work, which was a full-body Continue Reading

Hello! I'm back with a weekly recap of training. My next marathon will be Vienna (Austria) on April 23 (same as the London marathon). The Vienna marathon is 20 weeks away- a bit too far to say I'm "marathon training" already. Instead, I'll consider this period my off-season, with running (of course) and a bit more strength training. I hope to do some shorter distance racing between now and Continue Reading

Last weekend, Dustin and I visited Budapest for 3 nights. Here is a summary of our trip! We arrived Thursday late afternoon from London. The first thing on our itinerary was a river cruise on the Danube, but it didn't start until 7 pm, so we headed out to explore a bit beforehand. We saw the Shoes on the Danube memorial (read more here), St. Stephen's Basilica, some Christmas markets, and Continue Reading

On Sunday, November 6, I ran the Porto Marathon in Porto, Portugal. This was a back-up marathon after testing positive for Covid two weeks prior, when I was meant to run the Amsterdam marathon. (Here's a recap of my return to running after Covid.) Porto was my 40th full marathon and my first since moving to London at the end of July. My first European marathon as a European resident! For a Continue Reading

If you missed it, (catch up HERE) I was unable to run the Amsterdam marathon because I tested positive for Covid two days before the race, the day of my flight from London to Amsterdam. I had trained (and recapped my training on this blog) for 15 weeks and was excited and ready to race. I was disappointed in the timing of catching Covid. I avoided it for the whole pandemic, so it was Continue Reading