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This is the blog of a one Ben Wilson, a Louisville, Kentucky native who enjoys baseball, beer, music, bikes, things that fly and good food. By day he pushes pixels and makes the Internet happen for a local advertising agency. His wife, Kelly is an Ironman, and his baby Amelia is the cutest thing ever. |
Kelly and I just ran the Anthem 5k! Amelia ran as a “bandit”, though Kelly did make her a little number. Kelly finished in 38:07 – a minute shy of her first ever 5k all those years ago. I bested my Anthem personal record AND my 5k record by running it in 23:58! Woot!
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(20 minutes, 60 megs, so be patient!)
Shot on location during Kelly’s Ironman Louisville 2008 race!
Big thanks to Hunter, Jamie, Matt, Sara, Chris, Mom, Katy, Ron, Erica, Scotty, Jen, Kelly’s sister Cherie, Kelly’s dad Jerry, Tony, Megan, Tony, Keith, Beth, Team Hatton and everyone I forgot to mention who came down to IronMan Louisville on August 31st to cheer Kelly on. It was an amazing end to a year-long odyssey.
(Also much love to Doug for the HD camera, which I took great pains not to break during the day)
Make sure to hit the Kelly’s IronMan Race page for all the latest updates.
Kelly’s been using BeginnerTriathlete.com to help her train for her 2008 Louisville IronMan triathlon. Being the statistic-loving guy I am I went and pulled Kelly’s mileage totals for all of the training she’s logged since mid-April:
2008 totals
Bike: 1814.42 miles in 122h 30m 46s Run: 332.94 miles in 59h 24m 16s Swim: 77.50 mi1es (124,865.7 meters) in 43h 16m 45s Strength: 15h 55m Canoeing: 2h 00m Step: 45m Walking: 1h 40m
Man, that is far when you put it all together. Far!
Our last morning on the Ramblas
Kelly and I are back home now after about a week and a half of vacation. Fantastic city, Barçelona – an experience I’ll never forget. We got in late last night to SDF where our wonderful friends (and cat-sitters) Matt and Sara picked up we weary travelers. The fountain coke and hot dog(s) at the airport were welcome indeed. We had a wedding to attend this AM, and surprisingly the jetlag wasn’t bad at all. Still a little tired today, but getting better. Watched the premier of The Office this morning.
More new photos in the 2007.09 Barcelona gallery! I’ll be working on the full, annotated travelogue in the coming days.
Yes, we were that close!
Update: more photos posted in the Barcelona gallery! Boqueria market, L’Aquarium, silly tshirt messages and Camp Nou!
That… was… awesome!!! We made it to the game and back and it was totally awesome. An amazing experience, the whole thing. 70,000 raving mad fans totally into every minute of the game – unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Our seats were much better than I thought they’d be! We were 3 rows behind the right hand side of the goal box. FC Barçelona rolled over Zaragosa 4-1 and it was great fun. The train ride back was interesting – so packed with people, and then we had just missed the Red Line train that would have connected us back near our hotel, so we had to hoof it 10 blocks or so. A nice walk, though – moonlit night with dinner patrons rollling home.
Photos are slowly upping now. Went to L’Aquarium Barçelona this AM – a fantastic “shark tunnel” with a slow moving sidewalk. Kinda like Newport – but with more and bigger sharks. Also a good penguin exhibit and a ray tank. Good stuff! Rays are fun.
Tomorrow: we’ll finish up our gift shopping and generally roam around the city, getting our last sights, sounds and flavors before heading home on Friday. Did I mention we’ve been keeping copious notes on our comings and goings, and will be publishing them online after we get back? Yeah, I’ll be doing that. There are a lot of things I would have liked to have known before I got here – my gift will be unto the Internets. Enjoy!
This just in! We scored FC Barcelona tickets for tomorrow night versus Zaragosa from a couple of old gents scalping outside of Camp Nou. A lot of finger pointing, gestures and calculators… Checking the FCB website, I think we did pretty well. Excited to see our second-ever football match and our first-ever European one. Spent most of the day today at the National Art Museum (we did the full run of it today) – the bike tour was a wash, only one other couple was there, so we decided to skip it. Aquarium tomorrow before the 10PM game. YAAAAY.
A little more on the National Art Museum – spent a lot of time today in the Romanic collection of early Christian art. A fantastic collection of 11th, 12th, 13th century art from early churches. Many partial walls restored to their original positions (“in situ” as it’s known) to give you an idea of the size and scale of the places that housed them. A wonderful way to step into the shoes of someone 1000 years ago…
Dinner at a vegetarian falafel joint called Maoz. Great, cheap stuff right on the Ramblas. Excellent pitas with a “buffet lliure” (open buffet) with delicious things like beets, pickled carrots, olives, tabbouleh, sauces, etc. A crazy local stuck his head in the bar and started hawking “MARIJUANA!!”. Hilarious. Dub music played, backpackers strolled by, etc.
Busy day again today – the Barcelona modern art museum (MACBA) and the National Art Museum (MNAC) as well as the nearby Olympic Stadium. The National Art Museum is up on Montjuic, a mountain to the south of town with an amazing view of the city – but again, LOTS of stairs and hills! Kelly and I are just about beat. Tomorrow – breakfast at the market and a bike tour! We didn’t make it to Camp Nou today, but tomorrow!
Taverna Basca Irati for dinner – a great tapas bar in the Barrio Gotic where you eat your tapas and save your toothpicks. Each piece is the same price and the bill is tallied by counting the toothpicks! Easy and delicious.
More photos have been posted in the Barcelona Gallery!
Kelly and I ran the Cursa de la Merce this morning – a great race. Real big! Lots of fun. Then, despite our being totally wasted by the race, we decided to go up to Parc Güell, the Gaudi-designed park northwest of town. My god, it was so hilly! Insane, but wonderfully wild and beautiful. Delicious dinner tonight at Ciutat Comtal, topped off with some xocolat at Valor!
More photos on the way. Tomorrow – I don’t know! Coffee and the Boqueria again, I’m sure. I’d also like to go out to FC Barcelona’s stadium, Camp Nou! Maybe get tickets for Wednesday’s match?!
Update: Parc Güell photos and more up in the Barcelona gallery!
Correfoc team giving one last big blast at their end of the street!
Update 6:44PM EST – Correfoc (fire run) photos uploaded in the Barcelona gallery! I also took a bunch of video I’ll have to edit later. That was totally insane! Team after team of fire-hurling devils and drum corps just going nuts! Dancing, fire, drumming… wow. Kelly and I have our run in the AM so we’re turning in!
Hola! Kelly and I have had a long couple of days here in Barcelona – jet lag an issue upon arrival, but that’s all behind us now. We’ve embarked on a couple of rambling, unguided walking tours in the last few days that have left us very tired but filled with the sights and sounds (and tastes!) of Barcelona.
We’ve visited the Sagrada Familia, strolled Las Ramblas on numerous occassions, bought our breakfast at La Boqueria market, dipped our feet in the Mediterranean and wound our way through the narrow streets of Barcelona’s old town.
The “fire run” I spoke of (el correfoc) is tonight and our run (La Cursa de la Merce) is tomorrow morning! More info on the correfoc and the Festival de la Merce here: Barcelona La Merce Festival @ Barcelona Tourist Guide.
The first batch of photos (from today) are up in the Barcelona Gallery!