Washington was great!

First of all the weather was absolutely brilliant - too hot and sunny for jackets even - and secondly Washington is a really great place. I mean, I'm not sure I'd want to live there but it was so refreshing to be in a city which possesses some expansive outdoor space ... some clear grass, some wide streets, some low buildings. Not manic, not noisy (apart from the 'no blood for oil' activists), not busy. Nice.

We stayed in a rather funky hotel called the Hotel Rouge, which was a bit kooky in a slightly kitsch 70s way - lots of red and animal print, cold pizza and bloody Marys in the lobby for breakfast - that sort of thing. It was good though - and certainly won't be confused with the corporate hotels Roj spends much of his time in.

Saturday we did the real tourist thing. We wandered via a diner breakfast down to the Lincoln Memorial and up the Mall to the Washington Monument. At that time the top quarter was covered in fog, so we acquired tickets for later and went to the Freer Gallery and Hirshorn Gallery instead. The Freer was a bit dull - a lovely space around a central courtyard but rather too many oriental ceramics for my liking. Enjoyed a few Chinese screens and scrolls though, and one or two of the Whistler's were good to see in real life. The Hirshorn by contrast was absolutely brilliant. Built in a circle - but not a descending one like the NY Guggenheim - around a water spout fountain, it is filled with very beautiful modern and contemporary sculpture and paintings. Wonderful Moore, Giacometti & Rodin permanent collections, with a fascinating Ron Meuck exhibition (oversized and over-lifelike polyester people), and many pieces that pushed the boat out way too far for my liking. It had just enough works not to overload, and plenty of recongisable pieces that were fab to see for the first time in real life. I totally loved it.

After the Hirshorn we wandered down to the Air and Space museum which is reputedly one of the best museums in the country. It was fabulous actually, in its detail and level of interactivity. Overcrowded with kids of course, but all having a great time, so who could blame them (and not too crowded that we couldn't sneak in and have a go on the 'test your reaction time' and 'see the air patterns an aerofoil makes' exhibits). Great stuff.

At this point it was getting to mid-afternoon, so we made use of our Washington Monument tickets (thank goodness we waited since the surrounding area was baking in sunshine at 3.45 when we made it to the top, enabling us to see the 360° view for 40 miles), and then past the classic view of the White House back to our hotel. We showered and changed and went out for the most indulgent dinner we've had for a long time - Fois Gras, Shrimp, Tarte aux Pommes. Gorgeous.

On Sunday, despite accumulating an hour in extra sleeptime as the clocks went back, we slept in late and woke lazily for a passable brunch before heading off into Georgetown, which is the old 'historic' part of Washington DC - very pretty and quaint - reminiscent of a stone Nantucket or some old English market town (only not that old!) We spent a relaxing afternoon sitting in the sun and chatting, and really had no agenda other than to wind down completely after a couple of relatively hectic weeks. Perfect.

Great weekend. Very relaxing, very enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Had a reasonable weekend in the end, even though we were disappointed not to jet off to Montauk (good job actually - it rained on the end of Long Island all day Saturday!) Instead we had a reasonably relaxing day - did a run in the morning and I cleared the house up a bit while Roj worked. Then later went up to Broadway and 207th for the belated celebration of Yi Shun's birthday. We went via a previously recommended Indian restaurant on 75th & Columbus called Mughlai, and it turned out to be one of the worst curries either of us have ever eaten - we both had chicken with different varieties of unidentified green stuff and about a barrel of salt. Won't be going there again. We stayed at Yi Shun's gathering just long enough to wash the bad Indian down with a slab of chocolate cake and meet some of her mad friends, and than made the trek back down to 60th. Both ways we got the opportunity - for the first time - to ride in the very front coach of the subway train & watch the rats running around in the headlights. Felt like a kid! Photo on the way.

Sunday we went over to the Giants stadium with Bern, Don & Deon to watch the New York Jets thrash the Minnesota Vikings and tick off the American football experience. Having enjoyed a couple of baseball games we were expecting something much more spectacular, but play was stopped more than it was going, and we were so high up (2 rows from the top of the stadium), that we could hardly see the ball. Very dull sad game, but nice hotdogs and baking sunshine, so not altogether a wasted day!

Having been a hideous insommniac for the last few days I then tried to go to bed at 8.30 (the things I admit to on this blog!), and had a nice hour-long nap before waking up and only managing to sleep for another 2 hours or so later on. Dunno exactly which cogs are going mental in my head, but it's becoming more than slightly annoying when I can hardly prop my eyelids open in the afternoons. I'm hoping that a couple of runs and visits to the gym will knock me out by mid-week so I can finally catch up. Chance would be a fine thing!

Highlights of this week? Hopefully Rowan is dropping by for an evening of good girlie chat on Wednesday on her way from Boston to Philadelphia. Might even be able to take a couple of hours off work and make the most of it. And Washington DC on Friday evening for a good weekend of being tourists for a change. The police seem to be hot on the trail of the sniper at last, so I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to forgo the bullet-proof vests. Hope so, anyway, since we don't have any.

Ah well. No trip to Long Island this weekend. Roj has to work. We may be able to postpone until our next free weekend, but it's already on the edge of being freezing cold, so early November is unlikely to be feasible. Next year then. Actually it gives me a chance to catch up on several projects I have on the go at the moment - including some reading - so I'm not complaining too much.

Went to see Igby Goes Down last night, instead of White Oleander, which Yi Shun and I both decided we want to read first. Igby is a great film - a black comedy that is very heavy on the black. Stunning performances from Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum and Kieran Culkin. Great for a cynical afternoon's viewing. Had a good chat with Yi Shun afterwards about sibling rivalry and fountain pens. Nice to catch up. Resolve to do so more.

Also watched Run, Lola, Run the other night at last, and enjoyed it enormously. Great soundtrack. Tried to find out whether it predates Sliding Doors (clearly totally different except in concept) and it turns out they were both made in 1998. Whatever that means.

In trying to adopt one very good habit it seems that I have acquired a very bad one. At new year I made a resolution to buy only one lunch per week from a deli, this being the major source of my weekly expenditure (other than my obsession with shiny new gear, which is altogether more justifiable!). Now (10 months later!), as I tone-down the training a little, I have resolved to buy a bag full of groceries every Monday that will last me throughout the week. So far it's working very well - I'm eating much better and more frequently. The down side? I don't seem to have seen daylight for a couple of weeks! I spend 15 minutes pottering around making lunch, sit down to eat it and browse the web a little, and suddenly my lunchtime has vanished and it's hardly worth going outside. Net result is that I'm tired and bored by mid-afternoon and am taking no photos dammit! Of course it hasn't helped that we've had some of the worst weather I've ever seen here in the last couple of weeks but I really need to sort myself out. Living on air-con is not my idea of a healthy lifestyle, never mind the grapes and honey sandwiches!

I must say that a little cheery patch in my otherwise rather listless day has been finding the link on Jon's website to the new Wallace and Grommit short hosted on the BBC site. I can't wait to see the rest.

I can't decide whether I'm nervous or not about going to Washington next weekend. This sniper malarkey is obviously rather unpleasant, and although he seems to be restricting his murderous activities to the weekdays, and is skirting the centre of DC, it still doesn't inspire me with confidence. I'm putting all my hopes in the US police for a demonstration of unusual ingenuity by catching the bastard before next week is out. It's not too much to ask, surely?

I've been very boring the last few days - hence the lack of posting. It's been refreshing, actually, to have time off mindlessly training for some silly event. But in constant fear of becoming a big fat bloater, I'm going back to training this week, just at a more reasonable level than in August/September.

We spent this weekend on the threshold of being bored, but didn't quite get there, fortunately. Our original plan of doing the Triad as a last race of the year was scuppered for several reasons including Roj's very painful knee and three days of constant rain (we're not usually fair-weather racers, but the Triad was strictly a 'have-a-bit-of-fun' event, and when we were at risk of having to camp in a deluge on Saturday night, neither of us were particularly keen). Instead we did a prolonged trip to Bloomingdale's on Saturday during which I spent $21, and Roj spent significantly more (I like it when that happens!). I'm ashamed to say that we then did the inimitable bad cinema trip to see The Transporter, which was apallingly bad but definitely worth it for the AMC popcorn (and amusement factor)!

Sunday was equally leisurely. We went to the gym in the morning and then did some house stuff - laundry (while watching several bad films - never in their entirety) and buying house stuff. I even went to the effort of making a proper meal in the evening which is completely unprecedented as we usually end up eating out of a tin or microwave package. One of my long-term-ish aims is to improve my meagre cooking skills which are bad not because I can't do it, but because for the last ten years or so, food has been a way to take on fuel rather than something to savour, so I'm just simply out of the habit. Anyway - for wild mushroom risotto it turned out OK, so I'm almost inspired to do more!

This week will be more of the same. There are a couple of interesting things going on, but I'll talk more about those as I know more. In the meantime I'm planning a film trip on Thursday to see White Oleander with Yi Shun. Unfortunately I haven't read the book yet (although I bought it on Saturday), and by all accounts the film doesn't even begin to do it justice, but it has to be seen nevertheless.

Went running for the first time this morning since the Efix. To be honest, we've been setting the alarm to go for the last three days, but it's totally dark and cold at 5.45am and we haven't really had the motivation to do anything other than sleep. I've finally started to wake up though now, and this morning I was very glad to have gone running. I stuck to an easy route - went on the inner track that goes round the reservoir in Central Park - the one with the fence that's on all the movies. It's just under 45minutes but it's easy as pie cos there are only 3 hills in it. It was totally gorgeous this morning - possibly the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen, so the reservoir was on fire. Just wish I'd had my camera with me (I resolve to take it with me next week, although it'll obviously never be quite so good again).

This week is dragging on like crazy. We're not even halfway through and it already feels like it should be Friday. We've both got that classic feeling of anti-climax that comes after finishing a race we've been focusing on for a while. Now we haven't got anything specific to aim at (we're discounting this Sunday's race as we're only really in it for an end-of-season laugh), we're lacking motivation to do anything and haven't set our sights on any new goals yet. Tedious really, but it'll pass. It doesn't help that work - for both of us - is a bit dull at the moment. Roj hasn't really got enough stuff to keep him busy, and I'm in the most boring phase of a very lengthy project.

Will have to start looking at a goal for early next year before we get to be really lazy gits!

Woohoo. The results are out on the eFix. Only 6 teams finished the Pro course ranked, then there was us in 7th position, and the two single guys who'd dropped their other team member (who weren't awarded a position since the whole team has to finish to do so). I was the second female out of two to finish the Pro course (the other was in the winning team). On top of that, only 14 more teams finished the Sport course (the shortened course that missed off the river section and some of the following CPs). Of those 14, only 2 finished with an official time (the rest came in after the 40-hour cut-off). Around 5 of the finishing Sport teams were coed. In total then, 28 teams out of the 51 that started DNFed (did not finish).

So all in all, it looks like Team Taylor did rather well at a rather tough eFix, and looking at the results sheet now, we're getting all proud again! Fab news.

This week's been rather boring in comparison to last! I've spent most of it in recovery - sleeping as much as possible and trying not to eat too much even though my appetite's been enormous! Work's been the same old thing - had a rather difficult meeting on Thursday night but it was over great fillet steak so it had it's bonuses! Haven't been training at all - my toes are still suffering a bit of nerve damage from last weekend so I'm waiting for full feeling to return. This weekend we're just going to indulge ourselves - off to the local diner for breakfast and we'll probably go and see Red Dragon a bit later. Might go running tomorrow morning, but nothing massive - just enough to remind us what it's like before next Sunday's Triad, although at 5 hours-ish, it will feel like a sprint race!

It's weird to relax. You spend the whole season training and wishing you could just have one weekend where you didn't have to, and then as soon as you get a quiet weekend, you're wondering what to do. I suppose we should be off doing something cultural in NYC, but neither of us feel like that either. Can't win!

Phew. It's over. I'm back, and although most of me is very sore and very tired, I am in one piece.

It was a hard hard race, but we did what we set out to do - we completed the pro course. Unfortunately we missed the finish-line cutoff by 1hr 10min so we finish unranked, but in the sport of Adventure Racing, and in this particular race (all will be revealed when I complete my full review), finishing the race was a fantastic achievement and one of which we are very proud. The official results have not been posted on the Odyssey site yet, but word is that 8 teams finished the pro course ranked, and around 15 finished it unranked. As a national-championship qualifier, and with 51 teams competing, that might give you an idea of the level of difficulty. I'm very much looking forward to reading how many women are in either of those categories.

To quote a couple of annoying statistics and give you some idea of the specifics - I used over 10,500 calories and slept for 10 minutes in the space of the 41.11hours it took to complete the race. I am usually pleased if I manage to train for 10 hours each week, so that's 4 weeks worth of training in under two days. Our accumulated altitude gain was approximately 15,500ft or 4,720metres. Throughout the race we carried packs weighing between 15 and 25lbs (depending on water quantity). We now share approximately 20 foot blisters and need zimmer frames to walk to the bathroom. But it was well, well worth it!

More here!