I had the wind taken out of me this morning. I awoke feeling exceedingly stiff, a sure sign that despite my efforts to keep moving after the race yesterday I clearly should have logged a few more miles to aid in recovery. But I had resolved through an early alarm clock setting to use today […]

I had assumed the “26” in the Zagreb Marathon logo referred to 26 miles… which really when I think about it is a very foolish assumption.  First, it should be “26.2” for the miles representing a marathon distance.  Second, Croatia is on the metric system so it would have to be “42.195” if they were […]

7:34 AM – T-minus 2 hours, 26 minutes until the Zagreb Marathon It’s cold this morning. Mid 40s. Same as yesterday. But by the race start time of 10 AM, it should be warming up and by noon if the sun is out it’ll be a very pleasant 60ish. Should be great running weather… if […]

I’m in a strange mood.  I have this knot in my stomach, a haunted visage in the mirror, and a general sense that something is amiss.  Part of it stems from the email notifications of the bills piling up back in the US as I traipse through Europe.  It’s all covered – auto-pay is on […]

Picking up my bib was very easy.  It was kinda tucked away in the first floor of this non-descript building with a very important sounding name – Europe House (or House Europe depending on which GPS map program you’re using).   I’m not entirely sure if my name is spelled correctly in the Zagreb system. […]

I’m waiting for the Zagreb Marathon expo to open and thus google-mapping/planning out a sightseeing trip this morning.  I also checked zagreb-marathon.com. Good news!  I knew there were English details on the website!  I just needed to click on the Union Jack!   So a few interesting things to note for this race: It starts at […]

Some stray notes from Bruges before I go… Gruut is an herb mixture that ages before hop was used to flavor beer; Question: for Guardians of the Galaxy, can we translate Groot’s phrases into “I Am Beer?” Louis of Gruuthuse commanded the army of Charles the Bold, was the personal bodyguard of Mary of Burgundy, and […]

7:44 AM: It’s a blustery day. It had been a blustery night. The wind whipped past my attic skylight window, rattling the bones of the house… and me to a certain degree. I had just watched “A Ghost Story,” a meditation on grief, loss, and the paranormal set within a house that creaked and spoke […]

The alcoves in the Koningin Astrid Park aren’t really how I imagined them. There’s strolling paths through this park but there aren’t the nooks and crannies I’d have expected as a recommended place to assassinate someone in Bruges (as discussed in In Bruges [2008]). It’s a lovely park but it’s certainly not in my top […]

Sigh. So this morning, after a pygmy “shower” I looked into my airbnb’s mirror and saw what I had suspected the past few weeks to be true. I had gotten older. There’s this new wrinkle on my face, a continuation of one that now can only be described as “Joker-ish.” It traces my mouth in […]