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The Very Best of Beantown
Maybe you’re in town for the fun run from Hopkinton to downtown Boston. Or maybe you’re a sports fan and want to make your way to Fenway. Whatever the reason, let us help you plan your trip with the very best of Beantown. First up…where you should eat The Union Oyster House Do you know how many times we visit the Union Oyster House when we’re in Boston? EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. It’s THAT good. You can choose to eat family style in the dining room but we usually choose to pull a couple seats up to their cozy bar and talk “running” with all the athletes nearby. They have a…
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The London Marathon – The Last of the World Majors
It’s been over nine weeks since I completed the London Marathon, becoming the first kidney donor to earn the coveted Six Star Finisher medal for completing all of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. We finally had a little down time for me to get around to writing a recap of the historic race. Before we get into all that, I’ll provide a little background info on what happened leading up to the race. So grab a cold one, kick back, and relax. Here is the recap of the London Marathon – the last of the World Majors! The Pre-Race Injury As many of you already know I injured my back four…
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Checking Out The Hidden Bars of London
The Boston Marathon was behind us and we hopped the pond to jolly old England. Though the main purpose of our trip was to have Stephen run the London Marathon and earn the Abbot Six Star Medal, we had one other important mission in our minds – checking out the hidden bars of London! The Inspiration Since we’d been to London before, we wanted to find some new things to experience. We looked into some museums and shopping areas. And since we were near Whitechapel, I even looked into some “Ripper-themed” excursions. But then I found it, an article on The 15 Best Speakeasy Bars in London*. With this itinerary…
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How to Celebrate Surviving a Marathon while Concussed
Our journey through Japan is coming to a close and in case you missed it, last week we shared about the “Great Cookie Toss at the Tokyo Marathon”. This unfortunate incident was caused by a significantly small room and one wrong move. But this week we want to share with you how to celebrate surviving a marathon while concussed. Hopefully you’ll never need to apply this to your life, but just in case, be sure to book mark this page. The Victor Returns Cold, concussed and triumphant, Stephen made it back to the crevice after completing the Tokyo Marathon in 3 hours and 20 minutes. After he unpacked the story…
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The Great Cookie Toss at the Tokyo Marathon
If you’ve been traveling with us on our journey through Japan, you know that each day has been leading us closer to the reason we were there. We visited grand toriis; drank sake in a roof top igloo. We played with snow monkeys and rode on fast trains. It’s been an amazing ride but now we need to unpack the great cookie toss at the Tokyo Marathon. First, remember the Collision at the Crevice In case you missed it, let me recap. Our hotel room in Tokyo was small. How small was it? If it were any smaller, the bidet could have doubled as a shower. It was so small…
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Visiting Godzilla on the Way to the Tokyo Marathon
It was race day – 1 in Tokyo and time to ACTUALLY take it easy. But never fear, we still have a few fun things in store for you. Walk with us this week as we go visiting with Godzilla on the way to the Tokyo Marathon. Breakfast and a Covid Test As usual, our morning started at the Italian restaurant attached to our hotel (aka The Crevice.) And we had our typical Japanese breakfast of salad, rice with curry gravy and coffee. Frankly, I was REALLY into it by this time. What WAS new this day…taking a Covid test. Stephen had to upload two negative tests in order to…
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A Rainy Walk in the Kimono and Bamboo Forests
Kyoto, Miyajima and Hiroshima were some of THE MOST picturesque places we’d ever seen. But the universe was like, “Hold my beer”. Wait until you see the day we went on a rainy walk in the Kimono and Bamboo Forests. Oh and these two places weren’t even the best part. We spent the afternoon with probably a thousand stone mini-monks. Grab a cup of cozy and join us for the last leg of our Kyoto adventure. The Glorious Beginning Like every morning, the breakfast provided by our hotel, the Sotetsu Fresa Inn, was OUTSTANDING. I didn’t know how I would feel about salad and fish for the first meal of…
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Adventure to the Ueno Zoo
After a good night’s sleep, we were once again up at an unreasonable hour. I think we were awake by 3am and by 7am, we were STARVING. The weather took a breezy turn, making the high for the day barely above 40 degrees. Our original plan included a trip to teamLab Planets, a walk through art installation, that includes ankle deep water and walking bare foot. Not feeling this was still the best plan, we opted for plan B. Here is the story of our second day in Japan – the adventure to the Ueno Zoo. The Fun Before Getting There The Breakfast Buffet As soon as the buffet opened…
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The Road to the Tokyo Marathon
After our 14+ hour flight via Delta One, we arrived in Japan. One of us was well rested. The other was just too excited to sleep. After all, we had weeks of temples, shrines, pagodas, pandas and snow monkeys ahead of us. After our driver took a wrong turn, taking us a half hour out of our way and getting a ticket. We finally unpacked our bags to begin our adventure on the road to the Tokyo Marathon. Day 1 – The EARLY Morning We arrived at the Sotetsu Fresa Inn around 10pm local time and were glad to drop our bags in our little room. At first, it felt…
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To Japan Via Delta One
As many of you may know, 2023 is the year Stephen will finish all of the Abbot World Marathon Majors. Because of Covid, the London Marathon was differed to April. And then the race gods decided the he should do Tokyo in March.* Since Stephen will be the first person to accomplish this as a living organ donor, I decided to reach out to Delta Airlines to let them know about it. You never know, right? (Like maybe they’d let him see the cockpit or comp us a few drinks.) Instead, we were given the treat of a lifetime. Here is what it was like to fly to Japan via…
