Entries about exercise

We've settled for a bit in the picturesque colonial city of Granada, Nicaragua.

We arrived on Tuesday and suffered another full day of rain but the weather has progressively improved with ample sunshine today. One of the best aspects of this city is the bright and vivid colors of the exteriors of buildings in the old section.

The well-appointed Hostel Oasis is our host, and at $20/night it's a much better deal than a Costa Rican hostel with similar amenities: wifi, computer room, huge communal kitcehen, pool, movie and book library, do it yourself laundry (with a rooftop clothesline), and a hungry cat that visits the courtyard around 3 am and wakes everyone up.

We have settled into a nice routine of cooking delicious meals, ingredients bought at the sprawling outdoor market one block from our hostel, working out and doing yoga daily at the Pure Gym and strolling the main tourist street trying to avoid the children selling flowers and animals made of woven palm frond leaves.

Liz started a 20-hour intensive Spanish class this morning at the well-recommended APC school, located on the main square, in the heart of Granada. Kevin has started a campaign to rid the hostel of cats.

Tonight marks the end of the inaugural Granada International Jazz Festival, an event we have tried to take advantage. Here's proof that we still splurge every now and then on dates.

Liz is wearing a new dress, new shoes, new necklace, and new earrings. All for the low, low price of $28. Kevin is wearing a shirt for once.

Antes de nuestra salida para vivir en el extranjero, hemos de cumplir una gran meta final. Vamos a participar en la carrera Reach the Beach con el equipo de Chester College of New England...

Oh, sorry. I'm been watching too much Univision and, I suppose like all bilingual people, my brain has started once again to think, speak, write, and even dream in both languages. (And thus the phenomenon of native Spanish speakers who are fluent in English who speak with others like them in both languages, using whichever word or phrase comes to them first. "Mira chica, ayer fui al supermarket para comprar some lobsters y then mi novio me llamo y told me to olvidarlo todo..." But enough of this discussion for now; I'll return to it in another entry.)

But first, let me salivate a little bit.

Que rico!

So, right. Reach the Beach. Reach the Beach is the longest relay race in the country, comprising 36 different sections over the course of more than 200 miles, from Cannon Mountain to Hampton Beach. Hundreds of teams, consisting of usually 12 runners, compete in this physically and mentally exhausting race. This will be my third time running with the Chester College of New England team and Liz's first.

We got "called up from the minors" by Captain Byron, the veteran runner and Dean of Students at Chester, about five weeks ago. Since that day we have trained hard to prepare ourselves for the three legs of 3-9 miles each, which are separated by hours of driving, cheering on our teammates, drinking Gatorade, eating powerbars, and trying to sneak in a few minutes of fitful sleep here and there over the race's 24+ hours.

So that's how we'll be spending our last weekend in New Hampshire: driving and running the state's roads, admiring the early foliage, stinking up the Chester College van, and massaging our crampy calf muscles.

Reach the beach indeed. Can't wait til we reach the other one.

(Not pictured: the beer in my hand.)