adventures of the delinquent blogger

I guess I'm not that delinquent, but for those of you that care, here is the news.

The Las Vegas Half Marathon - I signed up primarily as an excuse to see my friend Michael who lives in Las Vegas and maybe my friend Jon, who also ran. I did the former, which was great. Got to see him ride both of his horses. He has a big hunter, Corsaire and a very sweet stallion who does the jumpers, Jeremiah. I also conveniently timed my visit to overlap with Michael and Noor's holiday party. They throw a fabulous party and, in general, I was totally spoiled all weekend. Yummy food, Noor's homemade toffee, my personal bottle of http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=504770, a suite at the Wynn Encore for my post-race shower followed by dinner at http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/Restaurants/FineDining/Bartolotta. Need to check into other opportunties to head to Vegas. I managed to miss Jon, but he had a great race. The half was a bit odd, mostly because the start time was 4:30 pm. Those of you who run know that most races are in the morning, often very early in the morning. I have my morning pre-race routine down pretty well, with slight adjustments for early, very early, and ridiculously early starts. This was odd. Get up, hang out at the barn, have brunch, help a little with the post-party clean up and then head down to the start. With his insiders knowledge, Michael dropped me very close without running into any traffic, really impressive. Hang around at the start getting cold. Chat with some folks, move into the corrals, chat a bit more, get a bit colder and wish the wind would stop, count down the starts of the many corrals in front of me, finally start out into a massive headwind with lots of dust. The first mile was a bit rough. Then we turned around and miles 2-8 were super, down the strip, lots to look at but not *too* crowded. Miles 8-11 a little odd, running around the back streets of the not all that nice part of downtown and then straight back into the headwind, which did let up for the last couple of miles. Through the finish line, slightly annoyed to have to walk almost an additional half mile and then head back to get to the Wynn Encore. Very impressed by my room to shower in, sort of wished I was staying longer than 10 minutes. Fabulous dinner, then up an out early Monday to head home.

Work frantically on grant Monday through Wednesday, turn it in (in draft form)and head off to the USEA convention in Colorado Springs. Fantasize about a yearly vacation at the Broadmoor, which is stunning. http://www.broadmoor.com/. Really enjoy the meeting, the excitement that David O'Connor has brought, the amazingly moving speeches at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, seeing friends, meeting eventers, a run in the Colorado mountains, work on the grant and a couple other things, mountains, flowers, snow, meeting Mary King and hearing her talk about her career as an eventer and how she manages her horses, great travel and training grants to great people, Densey Juvonen PRO owner of the year and Emma Ford, groom of the year, then heading to the airport Sunday morning with Sharon White in the snow. All good, except the flight out of Colorado Springs being late, leading me to miss my connection and have to take the train home for IAD (which wasn't the end of the world).

Get back, work frantically on grant until end of the day yesterday. It is now in the hands of our Office of Sponsored Programs. Hopefully, they will get it successfully through the submission process. Today, plans for the next grants and work on several papers.

Wait, where is the riding. Well, that's where I'm heading now and I did enter the Training Horse Division for Rocking Horse I in January and just sent in my entry for the Area 3 Adult Rider Clinic the prior weekend. Ready for another chapter in the Keegan adventures. Watch this space