We traveled abroad to 18 different countries in the time Paavo was 4 months to 3 years, and every time someone asked us our favorite place, Melbourne, Australia always made the top of the list. It ticks all the boxes for us: great kid stuff, great running, and great vegan … Continue reading
What: Lots of summertime in Europe as well as some transition time to Fall Where: Paris, UK (its own post here), Chamonix, Annecy, Grachen (Switzerland), Berlin, and Barcelona When: A few days in July (Paris), then August 22-September 20th Why: Why not? Biggest pull was to be in Chamonix for … Continue reading
What: Summertime in Colorado 2018 Where: About a week in Frisco, a week in Winter Park, about 10 days in Keystone, and a few days here and there in Broomfield. In the middle, in late June, we also headed to Wyoming for Matt and Jeff to run the Bighorn 100 … Continue reading
We liked you UK, and though you were a bit rainy, we’ll (eventually) be back for more What: We spent a month in the UK (if you didn’t guess that already) Where: We flew in and out of Manchester, spent a week in the Lake District in the small town … Continue reading
The Motivation I’ve been wanting to write on Urbyville again for some time. My main motivation is because I think it’s important to take time to reflect on what we’re doing with our lives, and blogging our story is good for that. I’ve also been wanting to write more of … Continue reading
Traveling in Japan was a completely unique experience. Not that we didn’t expect it to be unique, but we simply didn’t quite know what to expect at all. Well, we did expect to like it based on really good reviews from quite a lot of other travelers that had already … Continue reading
This post has been a long time coming and one that Matt and I think about all the time. What have we learned along the way while traveling with a baby? What would we do differently the next time around, or better yet, as we go along? I’m sure we … Continue reading
It’s a simple question, “How was your trip?” with a not-so-simple answer. It’s the post-travel question that everyone asks, and I find myself doing a quick assessment on every person that asks it, gauging how short of an answer they want, what sort of information they’d find interesting, and how … Continue reading
***I wrote this post when Paavo was 5 months old and I was feeling very overwhelmed by motherhood, a feeling that has lessened now that Paavo is 9 months old. Every day is still hard, tiring, and full to the brim without much of a break, but that feeling of … Continue reading
If you can’t run it, crew it! Crewing for the 2016 UTMB race was a great experience, yet one that I couldn’t find much information on when Matt was preparing for the race this year. I wanted to share information on how we crewed for Matt, what stations we went … Continue reading
Summary: Options: Very few. None in Les Houches and a few in Chamonix with vegan options; nothing strictly vegan Proximity: If staying in Chamonix, the few places offering vegan options are within walking distance Value: Good at Monkey. 11 Euros for a huge falafel wrap and 4 Euros for a … Continue reading
It’s an important question. Why do we run? It’s not often that we’re able to capture the emotions and feelings that truly answer that question, which is why we wanted to share a race report with you that does just that. One of Matt’s runners, Daisy, ran her first 50 … Continue reading
We left Seattle on March 23rd, spent time visiting friends and family in the Midwest in April, then started our Baby Abroad trip on May 1, flying to Mexico City. Since May 1 we’ve been to several cities in Mexico, including Mexico City, Toluca, San Miguel de Allende, Saltillo, Queretaro … Continue reading
I love a good gear review when it comes to thru-hiking, so I thought it would be worthwhile to compile a list of our gear for our travels thus far, along with why we brought it and how it fits our needs. First, How We Travel With our thru-hiking background, … Continue reading
Vibe of the city: Bustling nearly all hours, friendly, crowded, some pockets more laid back than others, where there are parks, coffee shops, vegan/vegetarian restaurants, and people strolling along down tree-lined streets. Why did we choose it: We always want to improve our Spanish, we have some connections to Mexico … Continue reading
June 7th marked Paavo’s 6 month mark and I’ve been thinking back to my first realizations of motherhood during the first few weeks of his life, and reflecting on what I now think about this whole motherhood thing. In short, it’s still really hard, I still haven’t slept much, and … Continue reading
Before deciding to go to Mexico City, we repeatedly had the thought, “What will we eat as vegans?” We assumed most street food and restaurants would be off limits and that we’d be doing most of our cooking at home. While we did in fact cook at home a lot, mainly because … Continue reading
First off, what the heck is a baby box? If you want to know the full story, read this, but the short story is that these boxes date back to the 1930’s when Finland’s government gave expectant mothers a cardboard box as a baby starter kit, and the baby could … Continue reading
May 1st marked an important milestone for our family– Paavo received his first passport stamp when we arrived in Mexico City, where we’ll be staying for the next two months. For at least the rest of 2016, we will be calling the world our home, as we have left Seattle … Continue reading
In packing for an upcoming trip in which we’re trying to take as little as possible for ourselves and for Paavo, I’ve been thinking about what items helped us survive Paavo’s first 3 months of life, and what I’ve come to call my “newborn survival kit.” Before Paavo was born … Continue reading
I owe an apology to all my mom friends out there. Ok, apologies to dads too, but this one’s especially for the mothers. Not only did I not realize how exhausting it is to raise another human being, I also did not realize how badly I was silently judging moms … Continue reading
I’m just over 4 weeks into this world of motherhood and I’ve not only run the gamut of emotions, from extreme joy to extreme sadness, with tears accompanying both, but I’ve also had some stark realizations that I was completely unprepared for. Even with people telling me their own stories, … Continue reading
Being pregnant these last several (+) months has been a unique, exciting experience that I’m in no hurry to end. From the beginning, I’ve had it easy. No morning sickness, no strange sense of smell, no cravings, no heartburn…such few symptoms that one of the only signs reminding me that … Continue reading
Why LA? From the moment I stepped outside on November 30th, 2014, into a brisk, 27 degree morning in Seattle, awaiting the start of the Seattle Marathon, I thought to myself, “Damn, I need to find a warmer marathon.” I had signed up for the marathon back in October, when … Continue reading
I may not be the most outdoorsy hiker out there, but I know that I’m definitely a hiker who can live outdoors. The two qualities are entirely distinct and I never quite knew the difference until two weeks ago when Matt and I went backpacking with a newbie. Two friends … Continue reading
This past Sunday marked the end of a journey that we began last summer on May 25th, the journey from Mexico to Canada along the Continental Divide Trail. Only this journey, unlike our other two thru-hikes of the AT and PCT, was much less linear and a little more complicated. … Continue reading
My racing season so far this year can be characterized by one word: sluggish. I haven’t exactly filled up the calendar, but out of the few races I’ve run, including the Chuckanut 50k and the Gorge 100k, I barely managed to keep my pride during one race and DNF’d in … Continue reading
I recently read a Runner’s World article by Lauren Fleshman titled, “How to Injure Yourself Like a Pro,” where she comically spelled out all the bad training and racing habits that led her to injuries, burnout, and unsuccessful racing. I thought about the article today as I tried to sift … Continue reading
As part of my training for the upcoming Tahoe 200 in September, I’m letting all my failures and weaknesses materialize in race settings before Tahoe so that I can continually improve and hopefully arrive at the 200 as a strong, mentally tough, well-prepared runner. I would say that mission was accomplished … Continue reading
Sunday, March 16: Off, recovery day Ran the Chuckanut 50k yesterday and taking today off. Not very sore at all, so that’s a good sign. A little pain around my ankles and lower legs because of all the technical terrain, but otherwise, I should be able to run tomorrow. Saturday, … Continue reading
I am excited to announce that I’ve been selected as a 2014 Gossamer Gear Trail Ambassador! Only a handful of people are picked for this role on a yearly basis and I’m proud to be in such a talented, enthusiastic group of people that all have a passion for the … Continue reading
Friday, February 28: Easy, 50 minutes Again, shocked myself by waking up at 5 to hop on the treadmill at 5:10am. Felt way better than yesterday and was entertained by a movie on the TV. Best treadmill run ever with distractions! Thursday, February 27: Easy, 50 minutes Easy on the … Continue reading
There’s a new kid on the block, a new race in town, and that is the Tahoe 200. Yep, 200 miles around Lake Tahoe, all in one go, with a 100 hour cutoff time, and we’re running it. This epic event will take place September 5-9 (wow, never written down … Continue reading
New year, new month, new racing season. It’s time to keep track of my runs more consistently, so this is my attempt. Friday, January 31: Off Flew to Texas for the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler. Had intentions of getting to the race course by 4 for the race briefing, but … Continue reading
Matt and I spent the better part of yesterday in 40 degree temps, intermittent rain, and gusty winds, and had a blast (nearly) the entire time. Ourselves and 700 other runners toed the starting line for a trail race about twenty miles outside of Seattle in Issaquah, Washington, the Grand … Continue reading
Who doesn’t love a good gear review? Here are my thoughts on most of our big categories of gear after the gauntlet known as the CDT. I haven’t included every little item but rather the stuff people might be interested in getting for themselves, or the stuff that I think … Continue reading
Just to wrap up our CDT hike and feel some closure to it, here are my final thoughts about it. -The CDT is hard. Bottom line, I think it’s the hardest of all the trails I’ve done because of the route-finding, the remoteness, the high elevations across the board, and the … Continue reading
Things rarely turn out how we envision them to be, and that was the case with Part 3 of our CDT hike, the section from Copper Mountain to Steamboat Springs, which I originally skipped the first time through. We could have never guessed the curve ball that Mother Nature would … Continue reading
During Part 2 of our CDT hike, from Cumbres Pass to Spring Creek Pass, a total distance of 188 miles, we managed to fit in a little ultra training while getting in a large amount of miles in a short amount of time. Here’s how it all went down… -On … Continue reading
It’s been nearly 6 weeks since I stepped back on the trail after a week off where I quit the trail for good (sort of). In that time, we’ve covered over 1,200 miles from Steamboat Springs, CO to Helena, MT. We’ve crouched down near the top of a mountain during … Continue reading
Weighing in at almost 1,000 miles of the 3,018 total trail miles, Montana is one big state. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the state of Montana and after spending three weeks here, we still have almost two weeks left. Lucky for us, hundreds of miles of new tread have been … Continue reading
It’s that time again, when we go comparing trails. Now that we’ve at least walked in all the states along the CDT, I would say it’s fair for us to give a little insight to the uniqueness of this trail by comparing it to others. I will probably miss some … Continue reading
We have been severely lacking in posts lately and it’s part laziness, part technology. For the entire state of Wyoming, we had a cell signal 3 times and went from the southern border to the northern one without any real town stops. In the middle of that cell tower-less stretch, … Continue reading
I’ve heard the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Ehem, I think I may fit that definition. This may sound crazy, and it possibly is, but I’m getting back on the trail at Steamboat Springs. Yes, I’ve missed the last … Continue reading
This is a story of victory. It is a sad story yet has a happy ending. This is the story of my last day on the CDT and my reasons for quitting the trail. I have struggled with thru-hikes in the past, wavering in motivation to stay on the trail, … Continue reading
If you have been following our adventures for even a short time, you know by now that we get a lot of help from friends, family, and strangers. That was the case when we entered the town of Chama, NM on Day 30 and discovered that we weren’t leaving town … Continue reading
After nearly 640 miles, we saw our first flowing water source on the trail and it was even in New Mexico. About 9 miles out from Cuba, we almost couldn’t believe our eyes or our ears as we saw the rushing water. It was beautiful. We also found ourselves gaining … Continue reading
After 24 days on the trail, I have had enough wildlife experiences to last the entire trail. It’s not that I don’t like wildlife, but I have a huge fear of anything or anyone I cannot accurately communicate with. I can’t say to the mama bear, “Don’t worry mama bear, … Continue reading
The morning into Quemado started at 3:30am. We had 13 miles to walk, 8 to hitch to town, and a 10:30am post office closing time. After getting to the road to town at 8am, we stuck out our thumbs and watched at least 20 cars pass. A hitch didn’t look … Continue reading
We knew going into the hike that one of our most difficult hitches would be to the town of Winston, NM. It was a 24 mile trip into a tiny town and the trail did not cross a well traveled road. What we didn’t know was just how interesting the … Continue reading
