Back in June, Ryan and I decided that we needed to plan a vacation. Neither of us had been on vacation in over 2 years. The last real vacation John and I had was to Hilton Head, SC in April of 2019. We visited my family in Texas for Thanksgiving 2019, but that wasn't what I'd call a vacation since there was absolutely nothing to do in that place. Haha. I didn't have any vacation time from April 1, 2020 until I finally earned ONE week on April 1, 2021. (The vacation time here sucks.) Anyway, after working our asses off through Covid, it was time. I was extremely burned out after working every single shift since December of 2019, except 2, when I called out sick one day in May and the Boston Marathon. I needed to get away! And I don't mean for just the weekend. Ryan has been busting his ass at the farm since before we got together without a vacation of any sort.
The biggest question, though, was, "Where do we go?" Had it been a trip for just the two of us, the answer would have been easy, but this wasn't a trip for the childless. John was going to be joining us. He needed a vacation probably more than we did, having been completely isolated from April-September of 2020. Basically stuck in the house except when I got him out on walks or boating. The kid had hardly left town since March of 2020. Ryan and I were lucky to at least be out in the world working, but the kids, man, they really suffered. I've seen it first hand in some of the kids from the Class of 2020. So John needed to get away to place where he would have fun. And we needed to go where we could run in a cool place. We thought about all-inclusive resorts, but they were expensive and like they would get old after only a day. After a lot of thought, we realized that it had to be Vegas. I bought the plane tickets right away. We'd be leaving Thanksgiving Day so I needed to get a good deal early. $900 total for non-stop flights there and back. I booked a hotel room at the Strat in July with our USAA discount. The hotel pretty much ended up being the cheapest part of the trip. Hahaha. No. Seriously! And that was even after we upgraded when we got there. Haha.
Having the vacation set gave us something to look forward to for months, and it couldn't get here fast enough. We are SO sick of this place and can't wait to leave it permanently. Since I left Georgia for good in Feb 1999 to move to Massachusetts, I spent no more than 1.5 years in a place before we moved again. Although I've been a resident of Mount Washington Valley for over 18 years now, I still only lived here for two short stints in 2003-04 and 2006-07. When Bryan got out of the military in April of 2011, we moved back to the Valley for good. I was already to leave it 6 months later. My gut feeling that this would not be the best place to settle was right. I became a blue collar slave barely getting by for 9 years. I feel like I know everyone here but I still have no close friends. It was hard to keep friends when I got divorced because I had John every single weekend. The weekend invitations dwindled and I was left to just be on my own with my son. I didn't have a problem being alone. I've spent a lot of time on my own throughout my adult life. I enjoy time by myself, but there came a point where I desperately needed social interaction, and that's when I found a way to race more out of town. I ended up closer to people from other States than here. That was until I re-met Ryan last summer.
Before Covid, I had finally decided I'd probably just stay here for the rest of my life and maybe give a local a chance. Something I had refused to do since I got divorced. I didn't want anyone holding me back here. But by 2020, I'd given up and made the decision to allow myself to date locally. I did NOT expect that to be Ryan. Haha. Not only have we been a perfect match for each other, but we also both want to move away to the same type of place. We have the same future goals. And since we had our reputations undeservedly dragged through the mud, we have even more of a desire to get out of here and away from these people. Between the elitist running snobs, the Trumptards and the tourists we are all set with this place. Even though we aren't moving yet (2024-25 probably), this vacation would give us a chance to at least be away from it for 6 days.
I'll recap the time between the last post and Vegas first, though. Haha. Like last year, I booked us a weekend in Maine for Ryan's birthday. It wouldn't be Ryan's birthday weekend without it raining almost the entire time! Haha. We still had a good time. Not as good as Mt Desert Island last year, but we made the best of it. We went up... and over to Camden. I booked us a room by the ocean just north of there in Lincolnville. The place was totally dead, which was nice. We lucked out with one sunny run in the Camden Hills when we got there on Friday. It would be the only run we'd do in them. We ran up and over Mt Megunticook and out to Maiden Cliff where I spotted a Bald Eagle in a tree nearby. That was so cool. I've seen them at Chocorua Lake and on the Saco, but it never gets old. We ran back a slightly different route that was undulating. The run was WAY tougher and more technical than we expected. It was only 8.3 miles but took us over 2.5 hours with 2,398ft of elevation gain.
Since we knew it would be raining on Saturday, we planned ahead and signed up for local 5K in Belfast. The Ghostly Gallop 5K. Turned out to be one of those very local races which seemed cool, until we all got sent off course. Haha. I was actually leading the race the whole way until I all of a sudden found myself somewhere in town with no signs or people. I had no idea where I was. I had had this young (maybe 18 years old) girl on my heels in 2nd for the first 2 miles and had finally dropped her. But when I got to nowhere, I had to stop and wait for her to catch up. We ended up just running together the rest of the way while she led us back. We had stopped racing at that point and just ran it in together at a slower pace. Just before the finish line, I told her to go ahead and take the win so she did. I thought she would enjoy winning 1st overall more than I would. We'd end up going over the 5K distance. My official time would be 21:01. It was still a really good workout despite that snafu. We found out after the race that two sets of volunteers sent us the wrong way. Haha. Oh well. Ryan would end up finishing 4th overall. He had literally just started running again so that was a good race for him. It only took him a month to get back some speed. I can't even keep up with him now. He would end up winning the men's 40-49 and I won the women's 50-59. Haha. They had my age wrong, but it didn't matter. They were same awards. Fun to experience a race in a new place.
We spent the rest of the day sightseeing and wine tasting. The wind and rain got insane, but we decided to walk out on the Breakwater jetty to the lighthouse anyway. I happened to have full rain gear in the car. Ryan only had regular pants and his Burgeon jacket, which is only windproof, not waterproof. He got soaked! Still cool. We also took a short walk in Rockport to see the Lime Kilns. We did a wine tasting at the Cellardoor Winery. It was a beautiful spot, but the winery itself was SO NOT us. Way too fancy and posh. Just looking at the other people there, we knew we didn't belong there. Haha. For dinner, we went into Belfast and stopped at a brewery that advertised food, but when we got there, they said they weren't serving food so we ended up in this sketchy restaurant nearby. It ended up being ok, but some of the conversations around us were interesting. Haha.
Overnight, it poured rain. We woke up to clear skies so we got excited to do one more run in the hills. The plan was to do a loop near the Camden Snow Bowl then stop in their ski shop to buy Camden Snow Bowl shirts, but we literally couldn't get there. The storm overnight had flooded the roads. It was insane. We tried 3 different ways and on our last try we were a quarter mile away only to run into another impassable road. There were bridges completely washed away. We couldn't even leave town the way we came in so we had to go sound on Rt 1 to get back. We searched for trails along the way and finally found a cool one in Phippsburg on our 3rd try. It was completely flooded. So finally on our 4th try we ran the dirt roads in the sketchy part of Phippsburg. Pick-up trucks driving in circles. I was glad Ryan wasn't wearing tights. Haha. So the trip didn't really go as planned, but we made do and still had a good time.
Sums up Phippsburg. Haha.
For Ryan's actual birthday, I made a cake and John lit the candles with his new Zippo. The weekend before, we stopped in to see Ryan's dad and girlfriend. They surprised him with a cake.
As the Vegas vacation approached, I hit a snafu with getting the dogs up-to-date on their distemper and bordetella vaccinations so that they could be boarded. I waited too long to call their vet in Fryeburg only to discover we had been put on their inactive list and would not take the dogs back as new clients. Yikes. I missed the Tractor Supply clinic in Ossipee then tried two more Vet clinics. One wanted to charge me an arm and a leg for a full exam and tests. The next one had no appointments available until December. It was getting down to the wire, but I booked them appointments at the PetCo in Portsmouth for November 13th. Ryan and I headed that way that morning. Just as we were about to cross the Ossipee/Wakefield line, I got a text confirming the dogs appointments. I mis-read the text and thought I was supposed to reply with a "4" to confirm. Instead I cancelled their appointments!! I was in a panic so we pulled over at the Fish Farm so that I could call to try and fix it. As soon as I stopped my Sorento just shut off. It had been running fine on the way down. But now, it just died. It wouldn't start. Ryan called his friend, Jeff, in Wakefield to see if he could come up and jump us to see if it was just the battery. I called USAA Roadside Assistance for a tow truck. Jeff showed up and they ruled out the battery quickly because when trying to start it, the engine squealed metal on metal. Not good! In passing Jeff mentioned that he bought a brand new Kia Optima in 2013 and that the engine seized up on it at only 4 months. Turned out to be a recall and the engine was replaced by Kia. My Kia is a 2012 so I had a little hope and looked it up. Sure as shit, there was a recall on mine for it! The tow truck never showed up so the decision was made to tow the Kia with the Remick farm truck and trailer to the Kia in Tilton. Jeff drove us to the farm to pick up the stuff then we went back to the car. Getting the car on the trailer took awhile since it was all manual. I was so thankful to have Ryan there since he knows how to do this stuff. Jeff was also a big help. Ryan and I drove the car to Tilton with the dogs squished in the middle. It was a long drive but closer than Berlin. We dropped the car off then hit Five Guys because we had eaten nothing all day and it was 2pm by this point. Then we headed home. It was a long and stressful day. When we got back, we went home to get my Kia Soul so we could take the truck back to the farm. We brought our running clothes to finally get our run in in the dark. It was a really nice loop mostly on Tamworth snowmobile trails with a finish up to the fire tower where we had a wonderful moment of peace and quiet together in the dark. It was very refreshing after our stressful day.
So the outcome for all of this? Well, out of desperation, I asked a veterinarian friend if she could help us out through the clinic where she works. She was super cool and agreed to do an exam and the vaccinations at since she just happened to be in Conway. Ryan took them, then the rest of it I took care of over the phone with the clinic. Saved us a drive. And now, inadvertently we have the dogs established at a new vet clinic. Yay. So the vaccinations were done!
The car situation was more complicated and left me really stressed out. Diagnosis was that it needs a new engine. Luckily, I have a great contact in their service department who put in for the recall with Kia and kept pressing the issue until he heard back 4 weeks later!! Kia is replacing my engine for free!!! I can't believe it. I had been stressing over having to buy a new car for weeks. I finally caught a break. The only downside is that it could take months to get the engine from Korea. It's been ordered, but he said the last one of these recalls he did took 5 months!! But I don't care. I'll have my car back eventually. Yay. In the meantime, I'll just drive the Soul. Still trying to get John to learn how to drive the stick shift so he can drive it, but he's been reluctant lately.
We were finally ready to go to Vegas! I worked my regular 24 on Monday and half of my 24 on Wednesday the day before Thanksgiving then we left in the middle of the night to get to Boston for our flight. Everything went smoothly. I was proud to get my suitcase at 49.5lbs just under the extra charge. Haha. I was sad to leave the dogs, but they ended up being fine, although I think Phoenix was cold the whole time.
DAY 1
The flight was extremely uncomfortable, but we got lucky and arrived almost an hour early. Ryan and I spent the last hour of the flight looking out of the window at all of the potential places for us to move to. It was exciting. I can't believe I hadn't been out west since our road trip in 2012 when we got Phoenix.
I was nervous when we got there on how it would go with all three of us sharing a small hotel room and about making sure everyone had fun. It turned out to be the perfect choice for our vacation. All the 3 of us had a really great time from start to finish.
When we arrived, we met up with Jackie, whose car we'd be using. I went with a new company called Turo
instead of a regular rental car. It's like the Airbnb of car rentals. We had a really nice Camry that only cost us $217 for 6 days. It was awesome. It was Jackie's personal vehicle that he rents out to people using Turo. We had a great experience with this so I highly recommend it. He met us personally to give us the keys then we headed for the Vegas strip. While stopped at a light on the strip, I heard sirens to my left. I could see it about 3 blocks away and laughed, "What in the shit show is that private ambulance?" Sure enough, it was an AMR rig. Funny how we can spot a private ambulance (vs municipal) almost a mile away. Haha.
We couldn't check in yet, but we drove to the Strat to park the car then walk down the strip to get food. I had forgotten that the Strat is on the sketchy part of the strip, and we were immediately aware of this situation when we started walking haha. I used to visit Vegas frequently when I worked as a flight attendant, and while I remembered so much so clearly 20 years later since I'd been there, I had forgotten this part. It also made sense as to why the Strat was the least expensive casino hotel. Haha. Definitely the trashy hotel, but it was where we belonged. Amazing people watching there. It was crazy.
We walked over a mile down the strip with Ryan and John getting hangry and finally settling on Thanksgiving dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It was great. We sat outside under fake trees with real birds that shit on the table next to us. Haha. It was actually a really nice place with good food, and where we were introduced to the high prices of Vegas. 😳 We would end up spending so much more money on this trip than planned, but it was so worth it, and I'm making up for it already by picking up extra shifts at all 3 jobs.
We were all stuffed and walked back to the hotel. Saw a full moon on the way! 😉 It felt amazing to be walking in the warm sun. We'd be treated with 70 degree sunny days and upper 50s at night every day. Perfect!!
We went back to the Strat to check in. The front desk guy offered us an upgrade to a newer room for only $15 more a night. I was so glad we agreed because we were put on the top floor with the best view!! After dark, Ryan and I went in search of some water and ended up walking through some scary neighborhoods. There were people hanging out all over street. Most just sitting there in a heap of their things. Tons of people in front of the 7-11. People most likely homeless and drunk or on drugs. Someone started following us. We were definitely in the wrong place and could have easily been robbed. We never walked that way again, and it was literally right behind the Strat. It takes a lot for me to get nervous having grown up in a city with a lot of crime at the time, so if I was getting worried, I knew we needed to get the hell out of there.
I was the only one who didn't sleep on the plane so I was exhausted and crashed hard, sleeping for almost 12 hours; I had had zero sleep on Monday night, too, because we were on a Boston transfer all night. I woke up just before sunrise and realized we'd have a view of it. We had this every single morning. It was awesome. Too bad the window streaks make the photo bad.
Day 2
John did his usual like at home and slept in every morning. Ryan and I went downstairs to Starbucks for $7 coffees every morning. Haha. Because we stayed mostly on Eastern time, we were always up early for the sunrise, had time to sip coffee then still be out for our runs early. There are SO many awesome places to run around Vegas that it was hard to choose. We settled on the Grand Circle Loop in Red Rock Canyon for our first run. It would give us a good view of the whole place with a run through Calico Hills. The place was gorgeous. The running was SO nice. No fucking roots or rocks, just all runnable trail, minus a very short section in sand. It was 11.6 miles basically following the same route as the scenic drive. I struggled a little bit on the climbs and at the end of the run, but I thought that it was because I had just taken 2 weeks off from running. I would end up struggling on every run during and after our trip thinking I was just out of shape or that Ryan had gotten way faster. I still enjoyed every minute of every run, but I had crazy shortness of breath on the uphills and had to go slowly on the climbs.
We went back to the hotel to shower and then take John out on the town. We drove over to New York-New York to ride the roller coaster, parking at the MGM parking garage. While trying to find our way down to the street, we somehow ended up in the this crazy underground creepy walkway that just brought us back to stairs that went back up to where we started. We were like WTF. Haha.
BTW, shoe prints on walls and parking deck ceilings is a thing in Las Vegas. Haha. We made it over to New York-New York where I got in line to buy roller coaster tickets. Ryan and John were psyched to find it right next to an arcade. I stood in line for a long time until I realized the coaster was sold out for the night and we were all standing there like idiots. Found the boys in the arcade. When they finished their games, it was time to introduce the 2 of them to the fun part of the strip. John was loving it! He'd never seen any place like this. He loved seeing all the people and the craziness. We got drinks which you could just carry in an open container on the street. We saw the Bellagio light show then I played black jack on a machine there winning $60. We spent nearly all of it paying two showgirls for a photo with John. He was SO loving it. We just walked around until John was tired then went back to the hotel. I changed into casino clothes then Ryan and I went back down to the casino so I could play blackjack at a real table. It was really fun, and I kept winning. And the free drinks came out! Modelo never tasted so good. Haha. I played $20 from the start and ended up with $120 in winnings. I stopped there since I knew it would pay for all of our food the next day. That was the only day I would have any gambling luck, though. We just didn't have the money to take the risk after I lost $10 at the Luxor in less than 2 minutes. Haha.
DAY 3
Oh just another beautiful sunrise and sunny day. Today's run took us to Calico Basin where we could park for free instead paying to go in through the gate at Red Rock. We had finally settled on the Kraft Mountain Loop that would take us through cool canyons on the way up. It was only supposed to be 5 miles, but just like most people we ended up missing the turn on the official, but unmarked, trail and made our own route back. We thought we were on the right trail until it was time to run down. Luckily this isn't a place were you actually need a trail. A lot of it is make your own way so that's what we did. If we hadn't, we would have missed some of the cool red/white rock formations on the backside of the Calico Hills. It was such a beautiful morning that we hung out in the parking lot drinking beers from Able Baker Brewing and just talking for about an hour after we were done.
Then it was back to the hotel to shower then head back over to New York-New York earlier this time so we could get roller coaster tickets. I used my first responder discount for these tickets which saved us $15. Any little bit we could save was great. We had to wait in line for awhile. I joked around that maybe the roller coaster would fix my pinched nerve in my neck that had been excruciating the last few days. Well, it actually fixed it! The ride was SO MUCH FUN. I hadn't been on a roller coaster like that in a really long time. I would have ridden it over and over if I could have. When I walked out of there the neck pain was completely gone. Haha.
We had reserved tickets to a show at Excalibur later so we asked John what he wanted to do. He said he wanted to walk the strip so we did that then checked out the Luxor where I completely embarrassed him by pointing in the window at their gaming station. How could I do such a thing?! It was pretty funny. I didn't know if he had seen it. It was computer gaming like he does at home. "Omg, John. Look! It's computer gaming." "Mom, just stop! Quit pointing in there. I see it. Let's just keep walking!" Hahaha! He then told me I was being embarrassing. Haha.
I learned tonight that when you win money gambling, you blow it on stupid shit. Let me introduce you to the $68 frozen drink!
It was originally a $48 drink, and the guy upsold Ryan another $20 to add 6 more shots I think. And we had to finish it before we went to the dinner show! We managed to get all of it down but just a very small amount. I was proud of our effort. Haha. We tried to bring the cup back with us on the airplane, but it was just too big.
We got to Excalibur early for the show so John and Ryan played more video games. Then it was time for the Tournament of Kings show! The show was awesome. It includes dinner that you have to eat with your hands. The place gets rowdy and John really got into it. He was yelling the loudest of all of us. In all the times I'd been to Vegas, I never once saw a show. This one was really well done and just fun. It was $$$$, but also worth it. I wish we could have afforded more shows because so many look great.
Speaking of masks, every indoor venue in Vegas requires them unless you're eating. I felt like we were in masks ALL THE TIME. It was annoying, but we got used to it. And now, after getting used to it, I'm back wearing one in every business here all the time.
DAY 4
We decided to change things up a bit and head up towards Mt Charleston to run at some higher elevation around 9000ft. I hadn't been up that high in a really long time that I struggled hard on the run up the Bristlecone Loop. The drive up from Vegas was only 45 minutes, and we quickly went from 2000ft to over 8000ft really fast. It was cool being up in the trees and seeing some snow and ice. Cool to have this so close to the city. There were very few people up there which was great. The loop was ony 6.2 miles and just under 1000ft of gain, but we wanted to do something shorter today anyway, especially at that elevation. I really struggled on the climb, but down hill was over 3 miles of speed running. It was so fun. I couldn't keep up with Ryan. He beat me by about 45 seconds. I had really struggled on this run with bad shortness of breath, but I chalked it up to the higher elevation.
We hung around after to eat some snacks then drove back into Vegas, stopping for a few things at the best grocery store ever, Smith's Food and Drug. It had bar in it! I was like... WHAT?! People around here want a Market Basket. MB doesn't even compare to this place.
Tonight we decided to head over to Downtown Vegas to check out the Fremont Street Experience where they enclosed the street with this crazy ceiling of lights. It was really cool. There were bands playing at every block and bars lining the "street". Sidewalk entertainment. 20oz Double IPAs. Craziness. We didn't spend a lot of time there before we got hungry and headed over to Dick's Last Resort where Ryan had been wanting to go. The place was really fun. They insult you the whole time. Everyone gets a hat made up for them, too. John's was hilarious. Our waitress was really fun.
DAY 5
Sad that it was our last day to run trails so it took awhile for us to pick a place to run. We finally decided on Black Mountain which was on the original list of definites and turned out to be awesome. Just over 7 miles round trip and over 2000ft of gain. It started off easy and ended with a really steep climb to the summit which was covered in black rocks. I found myself struggling to breathe and keep up with Ryan on this run, too. I honestly figured it had to be because Ryan is so much faster than me now, but it seemed excessive. I was really starting to think something might be wrong with me.
We had made plans to hike down to the Arizona Hot Springs that afternoon, but John didn't want to walk that far so plan B had us going to the Valley of Fire and then driving back near the Colorado River where we could stop at some warm springs.
The Valley of Fire was really neat and John ended up having a blast. He was climbing the boulders and running all over the place. He actually broke a sweat. I honestly thought he was going to be bored to death, but it turned out to be the opposite. These little moments with John are precious now that he's a teenager. I was so happy to see him having fun. At the end of our hike, I finally go to see the one thing we hadn't yet. Big Horn Sheep! So neat. Just wildly grazing.
Sign at the beginning of an official hiking trail
After we left the park, we drove to Roger Warm Springs. The place was really nice but the water was only lukewarm around 80 degrees. It would have felt great if the outside temps were warmer, but the sun was setting and the temperature had dropped. We all put our feet in. John was a little disappointed not to swim, but he still liked it. We found pet store fish swimming all around the springs which was interesting. Neat place. And super quiet. The drive back to Vegas was long with hardly a soul on the road.
When we got back, John was beat and wanted to stay in for the rest of the night so Ryan and I were solo for dinner. We walked from the Strat to downtown Vegas for dinner at the Cornish Pasty Co. I'd never heard of such a thing. Ryan knew what it was from his brief stint living in England. Click on the link above for the menu. The place was in an old building with cool decor and super quiet. Seemed like only locals there which was a neat change of pace. The food was so good. Great place for a chill night. Sadly we were too tired to do anything else so we went back to the hotel where we crashed hard.
DAY 6- Last Day
Sad to wake up to our last Strat sunrise. While we were ready to be back in our own space, we were not ready to leave. I was only looking forward to seeing the dogs. If someone had told me we had to stay there in Vegas, I would have... after getting the dogs. I never thought I would enjoy Vegas so much. I spent so much time there on layovers in my mid-20s, but I never really experienced it like we did this trip. And there was so much more we could have seen and done. Amazing outdoor recreation surrounds the place. But, unfortunately, we had to return to the boring Valley.
We chose to do a run around the Strip for our last run since we didn't have time to drive anywhere to run before check-out. It was actually really cool. I used to run the Strip early in the mornings on my layovers when the streets were quiet. They weren't quiet today, but that made the run even more fun.
We came back showered and packed up. We were taking the red-eye back to Boston so we had all day to kill. We decided on the movies to see the new Ghostbusters at the Palace Station Casino. Of course Vegas does movie theaters right, too. Recliners and beverage service...and the movie was pretty good, too.
After the movie, we went back to the strip to see the last few casinos we hadn't got to. John bought himself a $14 gelato at Venice then the whole top fell on the floor! I felt so sad for him, but apparently I was being embarrassing by making a scene about it. Hahaha. It wasn't too exciting of a walk around the casinos this time. I think John was ready to go home now.
With a Turo rental car, you actually have to clean the car yourself, so found a carwash and cleaned the thing inside and out. From there it was one more stop at the gas station before the airport. John got to see one last exciting thing there when two women got into a fight right near us. And I don't mean a cat fight. They were throwing real punches and then one of them literally picked up the other and slammed her onto the ground. John was like WOW. Haha. Couldn't leave Vegas without one more exciting thing.
Back to the airport where we dropped off the car, and I took one last photo of Vegas. We had a row together. John took a photo of the Strat after we took off. I watched him write, "Stayed here," with an arrow pointing to the Strat and then he posted it to Snap Chat. He had a good trip there. Made me feel good knowing all 3 of us had a great vacation.
We landed in Boston around 5am and waited awhile for the Logan Express to Woburn. Being back in the cold sucked. We lucked out getting to see the sunrise just like the last 6 days, but it was a cold sunrise. We picked up the dogs. I was SO happy to see them. We got a bit of a shock with the cost of the boarding since the cost had gone up $15/day than when I booked them. Ouch. It literally cost more than our entire hotel stay. They were well taken care of, but it was quite a blow after we spent so much money already. That just meant it was back to the grind.
I can't say we've been super happy being back home. There's always some moping around after you get home from a vacation, but for us, it's been more than that. We already knew we wanted to leave this place, but now that drive to get out of here is even greater. And we're trapped for at least 2.5 more years. December is always a hard month anyway, especially if we don't get much snow. Cold and dark. So it has compounded our distaste for this place. We've all been grumpy, but we've also tried to make the best of it.
We've had some good runs together and did a fun race in Manchester this past weekend. Tito's Ugly Sweater 4-Mile Race. Ryan improved his 4-mile time from Bridgton by over 2 minutes and smoked me. I ran way slower than my Bridgton time, but I was ok with it. I've been doing so much slow stuff the last few months that I lost any speed gains I had made, which were minimal. Plenty of time to get it back. Ryan has only been back running for 2 months and has gotten really strong. He has built up so much strength in his glutes and hamstrings that he's improving insanely fast. He's running totally differently. It was about time he beat me at a race again. I look forward to him beating me at more races. Haha.
During our Mt Pierce run a few weeks ago, I was REALLY struggling. So out of breath. I couldn't keep up. Even when we'd stop I couldn't catch my breath. Something seemed definitely wrong. When we got close to the top, Ryan turned around and saw me struggling to breathe and run on this flat section. And that's when he realized this had to be more than just him getting faster or me being out of shape. He said, "Could you be anemic?" Oh my god. I looked up from staring at the ground while my hands were on my knees just trying to catch my breath. That's EXACTLY what it is. How did I not see it?! I had been having the exact same symptoms as the last time this happened in 2018. Last time, someone else mentioned it but I didn't think that was it. It took me trying to hike up Mt Major with John and having to take constant sit breaks to give an iron supplement a try. After 3 days, I literally woke up from a month and a half fog. And once again, it only took 4 days to get out of that fog once I took iron again. Crazy that I had let this go for over a month without even considering that was the problem. Unfortunately, though, it didn't help my speed at all. I still can't keep up with Ryan now. Haha.
Ryan's new Blizzard Zero Gs from Ski the Whites. The bindings are sweet!
Unfortunately, I took it upon myself to work myself into the ground this month to make up for all that we spent. I'm at least lucky to have the option. I worked at the hospital and Conway our first two days back then worked 85 hours the following week. Luckily, it only took 2 weeks for us to get our bank account back to where it was when we left for Vegas so that stress has dissipated a bit. I'm continuing to work a lot of extra hours through this week, but then it's back to a regular work week next week. It's been worth it, but it's not something I can mentally handle for a long period of time. Despite my extra hours, Ryan still works way harder than I do, but I'm just lucky to have the ability to make overtime and pick up at the other 2 jobs.
Other stuff. John and I did our annual Christmas tree hunt behind the house then Ryan decorated it. Haha.
December is the anniversary of getting Chill in 2010 and Phoenix in 2012, so baby photos are a must.
Still kicking myself for selling the Sprinter van for $800 3 years ago.
I just couldn't afford the repairs at the time.
And a few more random photos.
Northwoods Brewing has the best donuts in NH.
What's next? Well, sadly, it isn't a vacation, but we have things we're looking forward to. A few road races, some skimo races and an ultra in the spring. Ryan will be doing the Tuckerman Inferno again if it's in the same format. He's already in way better shape now than he was for the last one, and he still has over 3 months more to train. I'm looking forward to spectating that one again. So we have stuff to keep us happy, especially each other.
