Recap of London trip - two weeks to Boston

Hi, I am back from my trip to London. I went to attend the first-ever Global Procurement conference for our company. It was a great experience to meet people in my function who all work in different parts of the world. From Europe, Asia, Africa, China, Australia, India... you name it, the region was represented. It was a fantastic week.

Monday 3/26

I got up at 5AM with great ambition to get in the 18-mile long run I put off due to the Shamrock Shuffle. I also knew there would be little if any running due to my travel schedule. Guess what? I knocked out 18 like it was my job. With a stop at Starbucks, I was at my office before 9AM. I was amazed I pulled this off, and I wasn't even that sore. My pace was fairly easy at around an avg of 8:00 for the 18.

Tue-Thurs

I took the redeye from O'Hare to Heathrow on Monday night, with a little bit of shuteye. I spent Tuesday at the hotel with others on my team and catching up on work. No running before dinner. In fact, there was no time for running at all between Tuesday and Thursday. If it weren't for my jetlag, I may have been able to sneak in 30 minutes, but it didn't happen. That's OK, the conference was great. I was there to network, not to run.

For Wednesday's dinner, our entire team was treated to dine in an amazing setting in English history. We had the great fortune of dining at a hall within Hampton Court Palace, which was one of the royal palaces of King Henry VIII. King Henry was infamous for killing four of his six wives, since the Catholic Church would not allow him to divorce. He eventually was ex-communcated by the Pope of the Catholic Church, which prompted him to launch a religious revolution with the Church of England. That's my history lesson for the week.

Friday 3/30

I stayed over an extra day in London to see the city a little bit. I worked from our office in central London on Friday. After work, I finally laced them up and headed from my hotel toward Hyde Park. I ran all around the perimeter of the park and ventured into it in certain parts. One of the highlights was stopping off to stroll around the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. This was a really simple but beautiful landmark. I did a 5-miler at around 7:47 pace.

Saturday 3/31 -- Flew home from London.

Sunday 4/1 - Final 20-miler before Boston

Since I was on my own for the planned 20-miler, Jen came out to the Morton Aboretum with me to provide moral support. She ran/walked on her own and did a lot of reading while I did the 20. Today's run was a great one. I pasted in my Garmin splits below. Note my final five miles were 7:25'ish for the average. I was ripping up and down the hills. Taper begins... on to Boston!

Mileage recap for the week

Only three runs -- 43 total miles