Monday, December 31, 2012

And the year winds down

As always, I wonder where it went. And, as always, I start thinking about my hopes for the coming year. I have goals and dreams and wishes. I have more blessings than I could possibily count, though I try to remember them. So what am I hoping for in 2013? Those plans and goals, promises to myself and hopes for outcomes look something like this:

RIDING - Keegan is entered (knock on wood and thank goodness for my excellent farrier) at training level for Rocking Horse I, my birthday (50th) weekend. We will do a Leslie Law Clinic the weekend before that and see where we are one year later. We will do a couple of other events down in Florida, but I will also do my TD continuing education clinic one of the weekends and am hoping to get some TD gigs this year, so far, I have a couple of SJ judging jobs, but no actual TDing. I am generally hoping for a good season at training level with Keegan. I'm also looking forward to watching Rachel with Solo (they will also be in Florida to do some jumpers at HITS and a little eventing), Caitlin with Remi (I'm not even mentioning their plans, although Caitlin will be bringing the horses down to the developing riders' training sessions in Ocala at the end of January), Keebler with his new girl (more on that to follow as it happens), and Gizmo with Debbie. I also really hope to sell Finn, Tucker and several more dressage saddles.

RUNNING - I have a busy year scheduled. I'm planning to add at least 9 more states to the list (Louisiana, Kansas, Delaware, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Missouri and Maryland). Right now the plan is:
1) Full marathon in Florida February 3
2) Full marathon in New Orleans February 24
3) Half trail marathon in Florida March 9
4) 50 mile flat trail run in Kansas March 24
5) Half marathon in Delaware in May

unmade plans in June - August other than drinking mimosas while watching Rob Colenso run http://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=18750

6) Full Marathon in Montana in September
7) Half marathon in Rhode Island in September
8) Full marathon in North Carolina in October
9) Full marathon in Missouri in October
10) Half marathon in Georgia in November
11) Another "run" at the JFK 50 miler in November

WORK - I submitted a PCORI grant in December, am submitting an AHA grant in January and an NINDS grant in February. Hopefully, one will get funded, but I hope to get at least 6 grants submitted by September, along with 12-15 manuscripts. We also have at least 8 open positions including research assistants, associates and investigators (at the BS, MS and PhD levels), plus analysts and operations folks. There will be even more positions if grants get funded and there may well be some grants administration, project management and writing jobs going forward as well, so please pass on the word if you or those you know would be interested in real world health services and outcomes research in a great setting.

OTHERWISE - I need to figure out if I am going to put any more furniture in the family room and finish up the work in my room. I'm hoping to get at least one good consuting gig so I can buy one of these http://mseries.keiser.com/m3.html for our home gym. Henry splurged on this http://www.precor.com/en-us/commercial/products/cardio/precor-products/amt/amt-885-with-open-stride-adaptive-motion-trainer so we have a commercial elliptical trainer that I hope to use when I am too much of a weather weenie to run outdoors. I'm also hoping to continue and expand Barre training, indoor cycling and yoga workouts through the year. I have gotten much less fit over the last 2-3 years and am determined to reverse that trend

THE BEST - through riding, running, the house and work, I will get to spend time with Henry, friends, family, horses, dogs, and colleagues. I hope all of them reach their goals and fulfill their dreams in the year to come

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

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