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Friday, February 17, 2012

Wintermission

Chicago has a way of sucking in the winter, though this winter has been quite mild and, dare I say, lovely?  Regardless, we felt the need to take our Serious Case of the Runs for a vacation, and border-hopped for six days.  We were in serious need of some sun exposure and all natural vitamin D.  Our feet were also in need of sandals and, of course, sand between the toes.  So that's exactly what we did.  And we packed just as much in the way of regular clothes/swimwear as we did running clothes :)

The resort we stayed at, just north of Playa del Carmen, is part of an eco park.  It's huge, like something over 350 acres of pristine and protected land hugging the Caribbean Sea.  Lush mangrove forests, 150+ species of birds, flowers, fresh water rivers flowing through the resort, and cool underwater caves that you could dive into.  So it was totally up our alley.  Anywho, we did one run on the treadmill because it was getting late that day and we were feeling vacation lazy.  It was a great workout.  I mixed in some decent climbing and worked my legs pretty good.  One thing the 'mill is good for, climbing :)

The rest of the time, we ran through the eco park and discovered all the cenotes (the underwater caves) sprinkled about the park, peaked in the plant nursery, and dodged iguanas (those things are like squirrels down there).  The runs were short, but it still felt good to get out and get the paper white legs moving, especially in such gorgeous weather (sunny, 80s, breezy!).  After almost a week of no kale, too much sugar, and our fair share of Dirty Monkeys and Coronas, it was GREAT to get home and crawl back up on the wagon.  And eat kale.  I missed kale :)  And tap water for that matter.

Anywho, here's a little vacation in pictures for your winter wearied eyes.

We headed to Tulum to check out the Mayan ruins on Monday.  It was super pretty, and picture perfect...



It's Geof the Mayan!
Our tour guide dude was hilarious.  He had the funniest accent.  He claimed to be Mayan, but he sounded like a mix between an American "accent", Scottish, Irish and a touch Kiwi.  It was like he couldn't decide what he wanted to be :)

Other than heading to Tulum, strolling 5th Avenido in Playa del Carmen, kayaking the rivers, running, and attempting to eat our way to a spare tire, we did a whole lotta this:


Under this:


And then got all pretty on Valentine's Day:


It was a great wintermission. 

And now it's time to buckle down and get jiggy with this Zane Grey 50 training. 

Paige, out.

3 comments:

HappyTrails said...

Wintermission - that gets added to the dictionary, as that is a fantastic idea during the gray of winter!! Glad you had fun!

Scott McMurtrey said...

Now that just makes me jealous (as I look out my office window to gray, snowy skies...).

My girlfriend was in Chicago this weekend to visit a friend and she said the weather wasn't as bad as she was expecting. I'll make my first visit the weekend of Oct 7th. :)

Paige said...

Looks like HappyTrails got some serious snow recently? I hope you guys are having fun with it over there in CO!

@Scott, it really hasn't been much of a winter here, for sure, but it was soooooo good to get somewhere crazy warm :)

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