The Gillens.net

New Hampshire	Williamsburg	San Francisco Area
San Diego Zoo	Ohio Reunion	Westminster Abbey

Sarah and I had a very full and active 2007. Below are the highlights:

Trips:

1. 1. London - A week long trip at the start of the year
2. 2. Vegas - Sarah’s conference trip in Feb.
3. 3. Louisiana - Another conference trip for Sarah in April
4. 4. San Diego - David’s first ocean swim in April
5. 5. San Diego - We both go visit Cyndee in May
6. 6. New York - Another conference trip and short visit to WP in May
7. 7. San Francisco - Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon in June
8. 8. Ohio - Gillen Family Reunion in August
9. 9. New Hampshire - Timberman 70.3 mile triathlon in August
10. 10. Maryland - David visits Mike, Peggy, and Jack in Sept.
11. 11. San Diego - David goes on another quick trip to see Cyndee in Oct.
12. 12. New York - We both go see Clint play rugby at West Point in Nov.
13. 13. Williamsburg - our Christmas vacation in Dec.

Other notes of interest:

1. 1. Our first niece, Molly, is born.
2. 2. Sarah completes all of her 14 PT prereq’s with a 4.0!
3. 3. Sarah starts volunteering with multiple physical therapy facilities.
4. 4. Sarah gets accepted to the Doctorate program in Physical Therapy at Texas Women’s University
5. 5. David runs his first trail marathon in Feb and first ultra-marathon (50 miles) in March.
6. 6. We threw 3 successful parties: Miranda’s baby shower, and Tour De France party, and a Hawaii Ironman party.

David and I enjoyed our holiday-time vacation last year to London so much, that we wanted to plan another vacation either before or after Christmas for this holiday season. I would be done with finals and between semesters starting on December 14. But being conscientious to our need to save some extra money before starting graduate school, we decided to travel domestically. David was very gracious and at one point said, “Sweetie, since you’ve worked so hard this semester, we can go ANYWHERE you want.” There was only one place I could think about visiting this time of year…Colonial Williamsburg! I had never been there before, and I could only imagine that during the holidays, the traditions and celebrations of Christmas over the States’ and colonies’ 400-year history would be wonderful to experience. Wonderful, delightful, tearful, joyful, and beautiful only begin to describe how amazing our trip was to Williamsburg, VA.

DAY 1: Having blazed through the past several months at a break-neck pace, I was certain David and I would probably just want to check into the hotel and relax most of the first day. After landing early and checking in, our hotel room was not quite ready, so we decided to drive around and get our bearings. Little did we know that we wouldn’t make it back to the hotel until well after dark!

As soon as we headed down Duke of Gloucester Street, we were so drawn in by the perfect, quaint beauty of the town…there was no turning back! We started with a show and reading of the Declaration of Independence at the Capitol. We spent some great time in the cool, sunny weather walking the town and admiring the hand-made wreaths on all the doors of homes and kitchens. And after dinner, we joined other visitors and townsmen at the taverns for caroling. The fifes played several songs before the choir arrived to lead the singing. David and I stood near a warm fire and enjoyed our open-air Christmas caroling before deciding to call it a night and head to the hotel.

DAY 2: Yes! Sleep! I haven’t known what it is to get up after the sun has risen in a very long time. David and I finally got moving and headed for a run late in the morning. We ran down Duke of Gloucester and past the College of William and Mary. It was a cool, cloudy morning, and the run was perfect to get us excited and ready to do some more exploring. That is, after a huge breakfast buffet and post-buffet nap. Yes! More sleep!

We made it back to the museum around 1 p.m. and went on a Christmas decorations walking tour. We saw a number of decorations from the previous day, but the guide showed us some special out-of-the-way decorations that we really enjoyed. One kitchen baked a number of gingerbread horses and made 3 horse-themed wreaths for the front door and windows. It was one of our favorites. Other decorations were made from all kinds of fresh flowers, vegetables, and fruits that persons back in colonial days might have access to. Christmas trees and other decorations were not a tradition during the colonial period. After being restored, Williamsburg first Christmases were noted as rather bland without decorations, so it was decided that wreaths and greenery would be appropriate for the holidays. Everything was picture-perfect looking.

Later, we toured the Magazine and saw a show presented by slaves hoping to be freed by the Britons. Afterward, it was starting to rain, but we were able to do some more walking and shop-visiting. That night, we had tickets to a “Christmastide at Home” tour, which turned out to one of the most special events we were able to experience. We were lead through several Christmas scenes from four different time periods. Each scene presented us characters celebrating Christ’s birth with hearts of hope and joy and thanksgiving, even when faced with slavery and war. The experience was very touching, and it really sticks out as a special part of the trip for David and I.

DAY 3: We slept in even later than the day before! After running and napping, we headed to brunch. And I’m sort of embarrassed to say that we didn’t make it to the museum until after 2:00 p.m. (We love our down-time on vacation!) David and I were able to participate in a “Holiday Punch Bowl” at the Raleigh Tavern where some locals, as well as Gen. Lafayette, shared with us their stories about the Revolution. David and I then headed over the College of William and Mary to walk around and try getting some photos when the sun popped out. The campus was beautiful, and singers from the College delighted visitors at Merchants Square with carols. Also during the day, we walked through the Williamsburg Inn and took pictures in front of the tree and yule log.

For our final evening, David and I planned to go to the Bruton Parish Church for a Christmas concert. Fortunately, we walked through the church’s back yard nearly 45 minutes before the program was to start, and we saw that it was filling up. We decided to go on in, and we were so blessed! We were able to grab a couple of the last available seats on the main level. Balconies were even filling up. At 5:30, the concert began, and we were entertained by the church’s choir and orchestra performing Bach’s Wachet Auf and Rutter’s Gloria. The event was beautiful with more carols to be sung, and an oboe concerto concluding the evening.

Our trip was extremely special. It was a perfect way to end a busy time and semester for us, and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to enjoy this Colonial Christmas!

See all of our Williamsburg pictures here.

- Sarah

This was my last triathlon of the season and it was certainly an emotional roller coaster. The weekend started out great with a nice visit with my friends the Schayots. Their 9 month old twin girls are precious and I was shocked about how different they looked and how much baby fat Willa had. She was quite cute despite having a bit of a cold. After short visit at their house, I did a short brick workout at my old college, Southwestern University. It was really neat to be back on campus, but it seemed much smaller and I was shocked that I used to drive to class sometimes. It couldn’t have been more than a 5 minute walk.

After a quick lunch, my Dad and I head to packet pickup for the race. We racked my bike in transition and attended the pre-race meeting. When we got back home, my Mom told us her resting heart rate was 130, she had chest pains, and that she wanted to go the hospital! We drove to ER quick and after they ran a battery of tests they were afraid that she had a clot in her heart or lungs. After a few more tests, they finally called her cardiologist’s office and they recommend that they give her some treatment for her irregular heart rhythm and go ahead and admit her to the hospital. When we left that night, my Dad and I thought they were going to have to put her under in the morning and go down her throat with a camera to try look at the back of her heart for blood clots. If there wasn’t a clot, they’d try to “shock” her heart back into normal rhythm. If there was a clot, they’d give her blood thinners. Either way, we both were extremely nervous. It was really an emotional day. I walked around the block before going to bed just to try to gather my thoughts and pray.

I didn’t really feel like racing, but I knew my Mom would be upset if I didn’t race, and I knew she was in good hands with my Dad and the doctors. So, I got up and drove to the race at 5am on Sunday, but my mind was obviously else where. The race went relatively well, but I often found myself just going through the motions without really focusing on the task at hand. If you want to read more about my race, you can view my race report here.

Immediately after finishing, I called my Dad to see how my Mom was doing and he said that the treatment for the irregular rhythm worked really well over night and they decided that they didn’t need to check her heart for a clot! They had give her some different medicine to try to lower her heart rate and they were just waiting for that to take effect. I quickly packed up my gear and headed to the hospital. My mom was in much better spirits and within a few hours she was discharged.

There is more testing and treatment to come, but things have stabilized and my Mom is in the extremely capable hands of my Dad. I’m really glad he’s there. He really takes good care of her.

This past weekend, I flew up to Rockville, MD to hang our with my dear friends, Mike and Peggy and their 13 month old son, Jack. Peggy and Jack picked me up from DCA, and then we went to this great Thai place with Mike next to his work in Crystal City. Jack has gotten so big and cute since the last time I saw him in person. He is such a wonderful combination of Mike and Peggy.

After some eating some delicious food and throwing the rest on the ground, Jack’s favorite activity, Mike went back to work for a few hours and Peggy, Jack, and I went back to their house to play with all his cool toys. We build a small “Little Tikes” slide in their living room and Jack loved it, although he liked to walk up the slide and come down the other side. Later that evening, we picked up Mike from the Metro station and had a nice dinner at a Lebanese place.

Saturday I went for a nice 6 mile jog on an incredible wooded and paved trail right next to their house. Afterwards, we took Jack to a birthday party at a really neat indoor playground area that had a sand pit, firetruck, ambulance, legos, and all kinds of other toys. After that, we spent the rest of the day biting our nails watching the too-close-for-comfort UT game. In the end, with Jack’s support (see picture above), the Horns pulled out a win!

Peggy was very thoughtful and found a really nice half marathon to run on Sunday that started right by their house! I had searched the web for a race to do this weekend, but obviously not hard enough b/c this race was perfect. After 2 miles on big road, the route ducked in the Rock Creek Park trail system that is really quite scenic as it winds through the forests surrounding Rock Creek. The 2 miles on the road and a wave start prevented the trails from becoming too crowded. This race was well thought out. The weather was perfect with temps in the 50s and I ran hard.

It was great to see Mike, Peggy, and Jack cheering me on at the finish where they helped to push me to a new PR by 30 seconds with a time of 1:37:11 (7:25 min/mile). This race had some serious competition as they were actually paying $25-50 for the top 3 finishers in EACH age group! I’ve never seen this done before! I came in 33/107 in my AG, and the top 13% overall. Not too bad for a spur of the moment race.

Overall, I had great time catching up with Mike and Peggy and playing around with Jack. A perfect weekend!

More pictures here.

This past weekend, Sarah and I embarked on our 2nd triathlon adventure/destination race of the year, Timberman 70.3 in Lake Winnepausakee, NH. Our first destination race/vacation was the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon in San Francisco where it was cloudy and cold. The 70/50 weather for this trip however was an awesome break from the 105 degree heat in Dallas.

On our way up to NH from BOS, we drove most of the 56 mile bike course and I got my first glance at the steep and semi-long hills that I’d be stuggling up in a few days. A little intimidating, but I was glad to have seen them before race day. Later this day, we went on scenic hike up to the summit of Mt Major in Alton Bay. The description of this hike said it was only moderately difficult 1.8 mile trip to the summit, but we soon found out otherwise. It had some really steep sections with large boulders to climb. However, the effort was well reward at the summit with incredible 360 degree views of of the lake and surrounding mountains.

On Friday morning, I went for short swim to get used to my wetsuit again and Sarah went for jog. After cleaning up, we boarded the famous M/S Mount Washington cruise for a 2.5 hour trip around the lake. After getting over my anger for forgetting my camera, we really enjoyed ourselves. The cruise offered an unique perspective of the lake and its 272 habitable islands! We also met an interesting local who told us all about how they’d ice fish on this lake in a few months when it’d be completely frozen over. After the cruise, we drove to the other side of the lake to visit the Castle in the Clouds. On the road up to the house, we stopped by this wonderful waterfall and snapped a picture. Once at the “castle”, we were treated to brief, but informative history of the house and then permitted to tour its unique interior. The views from the garden outside however were the real draw. You could see much of Lake Winnepausakee and many of its gorgeous islands, and the skies were clear and the temperature perfect.

On Saturday, Sarah went for another jog while I assembled my bike and went for short ride and run. Afterwards, I went to the triathlon festival at the Gunstock Ski Resort to pick up my race packet, check in my bike, attend the pre-race meeting and listen to a Q&A session with some professional triathletes. This was fun for me as I’ve never seen a ski resort in the summer, but Sarah opted to stay at the condo and study for her upcoming GRE. After the festival, Sarah and I went to a wonderful dinner in the Shaker Village about 30 minutes away.

Sunday was race day. It was pretty cold at the start and Sarah went for a run to warm up while I waited for my wave to start. Once I got going, I had blast the whole day. The lake was crystal clear and swimming in it was a completely wonderful and different experience from the murky lakes here in Dallas. The bike was challenging with some steep and long hills, but the cooler temps made a for a very enjoyable ride. The run was the toughest part as it too was hilly, but I pushed through and finished 27 minutes faster than my previous best for this distance. If you want to know more details about my race, you can read my race report. I later found out that if I would have stayed for the “slot allocation” procedure that I would have qualified for a slot to the World Championships for the 70.3 mile distance triathlon! I’m not too upset as I probably wouldn’t have paid the $295 fee to enter it because I’ve already done 2 destination races this year and I’m doing another 70.3 race in Austin in October.

Overall, Sarah and I had great vacation. She was wonderful the whole trip and really makes these adventures so much easier and enjoyable for me. I think she genuinely had a good time and enjoyed this wonderful area of New England. I have to agree with Triathlete Magazine that Timberman is the #1 “must-do triathlon adventure”. The event itself was really organized and a blast to compete in, but the true highlight of the trip was the area itself. This lake region was really spectacular.

More pictures here.