It feels like ages since I last spent time in this space and I’ve really missed sharing here! Since I last posted, it’s been both a winter wonderland here in Bremen and flowers and trees already began blooming in early February. The pace of life since returning to Germany after the holidays (photos and tales from Seattle are still to come) has been completely unrelenting, but in very good ways…

I’m all set to travel next week to Kyrgyzstan’s capital of Bishkek for work and am very much looking forward to discovering a new (to me) part of the world. Any tips you might have would be more than welcome! Even though I’m only spending a few days there, I will definitely be sharing more about my trip with you after I return. (If you can’t wait, I’ll be posting photos throughout my travels on Instagram.)

Also, I’ve hinted at it here before, but haven’t made an official announcement: I’m training for the Hamburg Marathon taking place in mid-April. Yes, that’s a big deal! The last time I attempted to train for a marathon was for NYC  in 2004, which unfortunately resulted in me having to drop out midway through training due to IT-band syndrome. I have to admit that that experience pretty much scared me off from marathons for quite awhile, but thank goodness it didn’t turn me off from running completely! Rather, I happily devoted myself to the half marathon and 10K distances.

But after cheering a friend on at the Berlin Marathon last fall, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I wanted to give the full marathon distance one more try. Even though I’m older, I think I’m a smarter and fitter runner than I was 12 years ago. So I quietly began training for Hamburg shortly before Christmas, a little reluctant to make a big deal out of it “just in case”. But with 10 weeks of successful training behind me, and only 8 more weeks to go, I’ve gotten a bit more optimistic since I’ve started hitting brand new personal distance records every week. My body seems to be responding well so far to the mileage and it is very likely that you will hear more from me on that front.

Thanks for your patience while this space remained silent and I can’t wait to start spending more time with you here!

What have you been up to in January and February? Has winter been especially strange where you are too?