Month: February 2024

When I was growing up, I remember all of the wonderful stories my grandpa would tell me about traveling the world. He took most of these trips alone, a few with my grandma and sometimes my mom tagged along. He worked for the military his entire professional career and had the opportunity to travel the world. The majority of his travels started later in life and he spent several years in retirement traveling abroad.

Throughout my life, I heard stories from my grandpa about his adventures. He cruised the world three times with my grandma and one of these trips involved champagne for everyone onboard when my oldest cousin was born. I just imagined champagne going spraying everyone on that ship. He told me about trips to Asia, Central America and South America and loved the different cultures that he experienced.

By the time I was born, he was fluent in several languages and taught English as a second language to non-English speakers. He told me that he learned by not being a tourist but immersing himself into the culture. He made lifetime friends that he considered his extended family.

My grandpa’s adventures enthralled me. I could not wait to hear his stories and see what he brought me upon his return. It was better than the stories that I read as a child. My grandpa was an amazing person, but one of his best qualities was his ability to tell stories, make friends from every part of the world and really try to understand different cultures without passing judgment. He will always be one of my heroes.

There were a few questions I never had the chance to ask him about his travels. 1. Was he scared the first time he went to a new place? 2. How did he decide what countries he wanted to go back to? 3. How did he become part of the culture? 4. What advice would he have for me? If I am being honest, I did not think of these questions at the time. I was too busy imagining all of the fun he had on his adventures.

I imagine he would have answered my questions with great enthusiasm and colorful stories. . He would have encouraged me to explore the world, not wait until later in life (if the opportunity presents itself), learn new languages, explore new cultures and make new friends.

This brings me to my own travels. In March, I will be traveling to Costa Rica with my family. This is the first time that I am truly going out of the country (not sure that my Canada and Mexico day trips count from several decades ago). I feel a combination of excitement and trepidation.

When my first-time adventure begins in a few weeks, I will keep my grandpa’s stories close and my heart/mind open to what will no longer be “The Great Unknown”.

Last fall, my 22 year old daughter asked us what our thoughts were about setting a family goal before our trip to Costa Rica in March (more details coming soon). It was the first time she asked about a family goal as we approached the new year and we thought “why not”. She told us that she had a couple of ideas and would follow up with us soon.

A few days later, she suggested ’75 Soft’. I had heard of ’75 Hard’ and knew that would take a lot of planning. I was curious about ’75 Soft’ so we chatted about it as a family and I read a few articles about it. I thought this was a great opportunity for us to work towards a common goal and support each other along the way.

Essentially, it is 75 days with the following guidelines: 1. One workout a day of 30 minutes. We updated this to 45 minutes of working out per day. 2. Drink more water 3. Follow a mostly healthy diet 4. Read 10 pages on nonfiction per day. 5. No drinking (unless it was a special occasion). We updated this to no drinking for 75 days.

We all agreed and set out to start our family goal on January 1, 2024. There were a few bumps along the way: eating the unhealthy treat or meal, not figuring out what you want to read, figuring out the best time of day for additional water, working out on days you want to rest (barely zone 1 workout days) and saying no to alcohol during special events or meals out.

The one guideline I thought would be tougher to give up was the drinking. I do not drink much, but my husband and I have a ‘sushi and sake’ Friday date night. We have made it our tradition for several years. We just pivoted to ‘sushi’ date nights and have not felt like anything was missing. It gave us motivation to try something different to eat at the restaurant.

It’s nice to know that we could hit reset and work towards something together. It was much easier to encourage, motivate and sometimes give each other a hard time to stay on track. I believe we all better understand the value of teamwork, goal setting and overcoming obstacles.

There are 34 days left and I am looking forward to what else we will learn.

Bonus…..look at these stats!

1. I am on my 3rd non-fiction book.

2. I have drank almost 3,000 oz. of water.

3. No alcohol for 41 days.

4. I have done a total of 218.3 miles of mostly run training.

5. I have walked an additional 180 miles this year.

6. I have exceeded my 45 minute exercise goal since January 1st.

7. I have completed 2-3 days of strength training (full body) per week.

8. I have eaten a mostly healthy diet and have not drank any alcohol. 🙂

It was a cold and windy February day in Atlanta , Georgia in 2020, right before COVID took over the world. My husband and I had lived in Atlanta for two years and were members of the Atlanta Track Club. We enjoyed the opportunity to run different races throughout the city, appreciated the inclusiveness and participate in a sport that we loved.

Several months prior, we received the invite from the ATC to volunteer for the USA Olympic Marathon Trials on Saturday and the Atlanta Public Marathon on Sunday. We immediately said “YES!” and selected where we would course monitor. We picked mile marker 25. The thought was anyone that gets to this point is going to make it to the finish and some extra cheering can only help.

We both prepared like we normally would for any race (even though we were not racing).

Proper Gear-check, Cold weather attire-check, a couple of snacks & hydration-check, transportation to & from the race-check, prep meeting-check and reviewing the details of the race-check. We felt ready for the event.

When that Saturday morning arrived, we met our volunteer captain, received our gear and he walked us to our mile marker. We were struck with how joyful, happy and calm everyone was. We have a strong admiration for short, long and endurance runners. They demonstrate grit, determination and a strong sense of purpose.

The event was flawless. Our cheering section was small, but mighty. We recruited a few people to cheer with us and enjoyed telling the runners “You are almost at the end!”, “You are doing great!”, “What you are doing is amazing!” and when we knew the runner from what we read or heard on a podcast we made sure to mention their name. Who doesn’t like to hear their name?

In the four years that have passed, I still have fond memories of being a small part of history. I hope that those runners and volunteers participating in the Orlando event feel exactly the same way four years from now!