Mud Run: 2012

Some days it feels like I just got here. Other days it seems like I've been here too long and it's time to hit a Target immediately. Days like today though, make me realize that I've been here over a year and in that time I've carved a niche out for myself.

Last year on the day of the mud run I had just moved into my castle, was Nico-less, and still knew very few people. This year's edition? Um, well my house may still look like I just moved in at times, but the Nico fur helps with that...but I knew a ton of people at the race! I even had friends and coworkers join me this time around for the 5K event.


Pre-race photoshoot

The course was tougher than last year, but with all that running Lori makes me do, our time was an improvement on last year even with the increased numbers of obstacles like climbing a wall, tires, and sandbags trying to knock us out. Note to self: don't play video games the night prior that required throwing punches because you need your arms for the belly crawl! 

The course & all its challenges

So once we were done with the race (and not too muddy) it was time to get muddy and have some fun! Or you know, running partners- and friends need some therapy after all those miles in heat and if that's not enough...wall climbs are not easy for those of us with t-rex arms!

Post race fun in the mud

Three Words

You know those pesky games played to introduce yourself in a group of strangers? Those "what CD can't you live without" or "what is your favorite holiday tradition" questions that you forget the person's answer in less time that you took to figure out some answer? Well, with the weekend being a little crazy I am forcing myself to sum it up in 3 words. Of course these words are going to be explained, but these 3 words will be my subject points.

#1: Kids
#2: Protests
#3: Pain

Got 'em?

Friday night on the way home I picked up 2 kids from my coworker to finally make our sleepover plans that have been in the making since soccer season a reality. Miss Fancypants, Mr. Poon, and I (Queen Cootie) had a fabulous night making sugar cookies, eating pizza, and being silly. In the morning (640am- painful!), we continued the fun with Uno, a picnic breakfast in the sunroom, and movies before heading off to our baseball games.

As we were minutes away from the park, we were stopped at the intersection by police directing traffic. My lack of Italian and his of English finally got me a "wait here until I tell you" or you know, maybe it was me trying to explain that I was trying to head to Carney Park? While I dialed up my assistant coach to assure him that I'd be there, with 2 of his kids, the protest parade walked right in front of us. As in an "oh crap, AFN warns me about not being involved with sort of stuff and I have two kids entrusted to my care right now" close. While they started to complain and fret about missing their games I tried to remember just what this protest is about. All I remembered was that it wasn't supposed to impact my route to the park and yes, it's going to get worse as the months go by. I think it has to do with a water treatment facility and/or plans for a landfill...

About 15 minutes passed and then we were on our way to the park so I could find the other 11 of "my" kids and coach my team to another victory. And you know what? They not only won, but 3 of them actually took what we learned at practice and applied it to get 4 outs in one inning! After the game, we stayed at the park chatting, playing soccer and volleyball before eating late lunch and then watched the NATO rugby team.

Once home, I evaluated the damage from my house guests: flour coated kitchen, a sink full of dishes, a weary Nico. Luckily once he realized it was just me walking through that door he resumed being my silly kitty and played until it was time to get to bed in preparation for the Naples 1/2 Marathon the next morning.

Everyone has a different definition of pain, but my current one would be "the only feeling your body has after running 13.1 miles on cobblestone streets taking you up and down hills when you haven't ran in 4 weeks." Ouchie! But I did it without injury, and without quitting, and although it was my slowest time at this distance...it wasn't that far off. I blame my lack of Lori running at my side but that's just because I really miss her and would rather blame her than admit it ;) Lucky for me, I found a stand in and he did a good job making me keep running when I wanted to lay down in the middle of the road and take a break. I'm pretty sure this was my last run for a while; my toes need a break and it's going to warm up to "Katie melts" temps before too long.

As we walked back into the metro station we heard the dreaded word sciopero. It's one of those words I learned early here in Italy because it means "strike." So, the public transportation folks were once again protesting but I really have no idea why on this one other than it's been a few months so they must be over due?

Hm. I did okay with that summary. Like always there are way more details and tangents to explore so if you feel like asking questions- go for it! Right now though, I need to go drink another L of water, cook some dinner, and then collapse on my couch with an icepack or two.

Shopping, Hiking, Unpacking

I can't believe I've spent another Saturday in Italy! In fact, when chatting with Joe today I realized that between the move, trips, & having so much fun I've lost track of the time. I arrived in Italy on 26 May, stayed in TLA for 90 nights, and then have been at my (freaking huge) house for 3 weeks..so how long have I been here? Eh, I've got the majority of my 3 years to still have fun with but that's only if I get this unpacking done.

After a later night of unpacking than planned, my Saturday kicked off with coffee. I then migrated to get Signore Joe before hitting up the Bacoli market. We very much went the back way/scenic route but that was good since I'm still trying to convince him he wants to be a little further south than in the areas he's been looking at. (There's got to be a closer villa that will be perfecto for the family but also close enough for me to hijack their pup for running.) We left Ravi at the same place I used before and even got to take my car keys with me this time. AND I even got the gist of what the guy was telling me.

The market had even more vendors than the previous time I hit it- amazing what the difference in weather will make. I tried my best with new acquired Italian skills but I think they still caught on that I speak english since they would reply when they could in english. The one vendor who sold me the lettuce was super nice though. He just may be my new produce guy. We left the market  with nectarines, lettuce, tomatoes, mozzarella, olives, garlic and onions. I made the mistake of acknowledging the old lady with her shopping cart of onions, garlic, and oregano and despite the "no grazie" she sold us enough garlic to last through the year. (Seriously, my kitchen smells of garlic but at least I'm safe from vampires!) Now I just need that cilantro to grow another foot or so so I can finally make the salsa I crave!

The next stop on Katie's Round About Tour was Carney Park, but heaven forbid we went straight there. No ne possible. The round-abouts from this direction still confuses me a tad so we ended up seeing Solfatara (aka the stinky sulfur volcano) but the views are amazing from that mountain so again, just taking the scenic route. (Seriously though, that was strike 2 on taking the wrong turn off so I only get one more mess up before I have to learn it/actually look at the GPS while driving.) Eh, my coworker Scott wasn't meeting us anymore so we were in no hurry to get there. Don't worry- we did finally make it. Honest!

For this round of hiking at Carney we went up the ridge where I came down last time and wrapped around away from Pozzoli Bay, towards a monastery (with monks!) with the plan to continue along the ridge so I finally could say I hiked the entire crater. Hey, it was just a plan. After trail blazing from the 500 (?) year old house to the monastery and all the effort it took to continually being able to jump when a lizard ranging from tiny to enormous ran out of our way causing a ton of noise in the dried leaves, we were too tired to follow an unmarked road that we weren't sure if it would take us to where we wanted to be. (Let me clarify- I was doing the jumping, not Joe.) Unwilling to backtrack the way we headed up, we followed the other path which was wonderfully downhill and fairly lizard free. Yep. Too good of a path and we found ourselves in the driveway of the houses you can see from inside the park. Ha. They have a great vineyard up there and it was pretty...unfortunately it meant we had picked the wrong path and it was time for an about face. On the way back we took a turn off that Joe had seen and I still swear it just looped us around. As we started to discuss if we'd been on this stretch of trail or not we compared our foot prints to others on the trail. Um yeah. We'd been there before...but not sure when. I think we did find the real trail that we ditched for our climbing over rocks and going through the brush. (My legs have seen better days.) Clearly we made it and since it was a "do whatever day" we were in no hurry but by this point the sun was hot and although we looked tanner, it really was the volcanic ash and other grime coating our arms, legs, shoes, eh, pretty much our entire bodies. (Seriously- my hair even felt grimy.)

After snacking on our market buys Joe and Signore enjoyed the cross breeze upstairs while I worked on a box of things I realized should have already been put away. By the time my room was box free and I headed back upstairs, Joe had solved my hot water heater mystery of the E10 error. Turns out the water pressure was low and although I had almost solved it on my own the night before I didn't but it just goes to show that I really could be an engineer- right? (Possibly more on that idea to come later this week...) At any rate, with a few less boxes and hot water again we headed out to try the place I live above. We were side tracked though by an event happening in the adjacent piazza. Although we're still not sure what exactly everything was, we knew it was part of the patron saint of Naples holiday occurring on Monday. We watched some little kids play soccer (why aren't they on my team?) and then headed back over to place our pizza orders. As we were walking in a pack of boys (probably around age 12) walked in. When the owner realized we weren't sure if we were staying or taking it out he went over and told all the boys to be quiet. Amazing right? Apparently a soccer match was about to begin so they were excited about that. The owner wasn't thrilled since he couldn't hear the phone, let alone take orders. He was really nice (English speaking) and the pizza was some of the better tasting ones I've had recently. Um yeah, since Joe arrived I've had my fair share (or more) of pizza. And since it was on the menu I had to order it- pizza con Nutella! It wasn't wrapped like last time, but more like Woodstock's dessert but just as yummy. To think, Joe was just asking what someone does with a 5lb container of Nutella.

My night ended when I came home from taking Joe back, had Signore in my arms only to hear fireworks starting and seeing flashes of light practically coming from my living room. I'm not sure why I wasn't thinking "oh event in the piazza, of course there will be fireworks...this is Italy after all", but I wasn't. Signore wasn't either based on his flying out of my arms and hiding until they were over. When I was on my balcony the fireworks were practically over my house- it was amazing. Way better than the 4th of July celebration ones and probably a longer show too. I recorded some of them because I just love them. I guess it goes back to all of those foggy 4th of Julys growing up in Monterey. At any rate I'm looking into where I can purchase some of these beautiful things and just how often rules are enforced. I'm thinking not all that much as pretty much every night I either hear or see some.

4th of July in Italy

This wasn't my first 4th of July outside the home of the free and the brave, but it was the first over seas 4th that felt like I was in the states. I guess that's what happens when you spend it with a ton of Americans, at a military recreation site while in Italy. In fact, the only thing that reminded me that I was in Italy was the Italian being spoken around me by the Italian guests also celebrating with us.

Sure it wasn't a the picnic at Colton Hall, being a pyro with 10 sparklers in my hand, or even watching the volunteer fire department put out a fire on the ball field in the middle of Utah but it's definitely one for the history books...no colored fog!

Although the Carney Park event apparently wasn't as busy as previous years, it was still plenty busy with food and craft vendors, a stage with the most annoying MC ever, pie eating contests, bands, rides, and yes, fireworks.

At first I was thinking no big deal on fireworks since every day I've been here I've seen and/or heard fireworks (we'll have a "Let's Talk....Fireworks" posting later) but these were real fireworks. As they were being shot off in an extinct volcano the noise echoing from the crater mutiplied and I couldn't help but think of it as "payback" for those 1am firework shows most of us have been subject to at this point.

Nothing screams 4th of July like Katy Perry- right? Oh well. Being surrounded by fellow Americans- those who have given so much to protect our freedom really put the holiday in perceptive. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Stay-cation: Day 2

Naturally after all that fabulous food the night before (and lack of gym trip on my part) this morning was a perfect day to set out to Carney Park to hike along the ridge. Carney Park is the military recreational facility located in an extinct volcano, Campiglione. (The one with yurts!)

With the sun shinning and a great breeze, Cynthia and I met with with another Laurie and her pup. They had warned me yesterday that there were steep sections and since I'd seen the big old crater, I had some idea what to expect. Then again, I've hiked Garrapata enough times so when I hear "steep" I kind of panic. I had also been told to expect lots of chances to "take in the view." Translation- we're going to by dying after 10 steps so we'll be stopping. I'm thinking fabulous because it's warm here and my body still doesn't quite know how to react.

Well all I've got to say is THANK YOU! to whoever was the first person who drug me out to Garrapata for that hike I love to hate. There were some a vertical climbs on today's hike that resembled the valley segment but over all it wasn't that bad! My SF Giants hat and I kicked butt and even now, several hours later Stanley is cool with it all. Then again, I guess after all my falls on the way down from Garrapata on that last night hike anything would make Stanley happy?

It was a great time walking through the forest like area. The trees provided a great canopy to protect us from the sun, while berries, grass, and other thorny plants provided excellent obstacles across the path. I'm really hoping that I'm not allergic to any of the plants I tromped through and got scratched by, since I'm really only used to looking for poison oak! We did 1/2 of the loop but already have plans for the other side next time around. I've also scoped out a few flat trails for running so I'm excited that this parks is kindda on my way "home", again, once I find a place out that way to live.

We did have to laugh about how the rustling in the bushes due to those pesky lizards made them sound much larger than they actually were. At one point I saw a whole branch move  and being the bio nerd I am, had to stop to look. Well, that grasshopper looking thing was so large that it's what caused the movement. No, not Kenya bug status for those who saw that one, but it was a good 3 inches? And check out those colors!

What else? Oh! The views! Amazing. I guess the wind blew out a lot of the haze/humidity so we were left with clear skies. So yeah, definitely another stop on our tour of Naples for those of you who hang out for a while. Don't you love all these previews of your trip to visit me? And yes, that is the neon green top I scared the desk clerk with earlier this week.