Month: November 2017

The Via De La Plata – Revisited

Introduction:

I was recently asked to present my 2016 Via de la Plata trek in Spain, and I thought I would share my speech and slides in this post. I was one of seven presenters speaking on routes other than the most commonly walked, Camino Francés. My friend Laurie Ferris over at thecaminoprovides.com was one of the organizers of the event and had this to say about the event when she posted the slideshows on her website:

“Our NorCal chapter of American Pilgrims on the Camino had its annual Welcome Home celebration event on November 11th, 2017 in Oakland. This year we had presentations on Camino routes “beyond the Francés.” It was a fun way to learn about less popular routes that are off the beaten path. It also gave the opportunity for first-time pilgrims and veterans to share some highlights at a gathering. We did the presentations in 10×10 format, which is ten slides in ten minutes. We had seven routes represented, and I presented on the Camino Inglés. It was challenging for all of us to select photos to include, and to speak for only ten minutes, because we are all very passionate about our experiences!”

This was a very fun experience for me and it brought back many of my wonderful experiences while making that fabulous journey, last fall. Hope you enjoy! (more…)

Crunch Time

My last big week of training for the upcoming Marathon Des Sables (MDS) Peru is in the bag. Running over one hundred miles and consuming thousands of extra calories to keep me going during the week has been a challenge. But now it’s taper time—and crunch time.

With the months-long training schedule and those last big miles complete, I get to back the mileage down and let my body heal and rest up before toeing the start line in the Ica desert of Peru later this month.

To round out the last couple of weeks and all this running, one of our grandkids’ football teams made it to their championship series, and we are fortunate to live close enough to go to the games. And they WON, they took it ALL!

Also, I’ve had a couple of really fun speaking engagements, attended two really fun dinner parties, and had to get new tires on my car. You know…life.

My MDS Peru run is an End Polio Now campaign with Rotary International. (more…)