Konquer the Konza 25K and Lenexa park run

Oh wow... looking back on the blog posts, the last entry was in July 20th. In terms of posts, this year has been the least productive, with only 6 posts in total through 2019! Lots of things happened in 2019, but neither of us had the time to keep up with the posts. :(

Quick note on a race Hannah and I did a couple of months ago. It was the Konza 25K race, and we had to do 2.5 loops around the Konza trail (total distance - 25 km). Hannah's running girlfriends - Ellen, Jess and Suzie were also racing. Jess wasn't feeling too great throughout the race because she was still recovering from her illness. So it ended up that I was alongside her most of the day, encouraging her to push through the race and pain :)

We finished the race in good time, had free beer and donut. That afternoon, we hangout at Ellen's place - the girls were "looking after" their sore muscle in the hot tub, while Ari (Ellen's husband) and I hang out with a beer :)

Couple of weeks after the race, Hannah and I drove to Kansas City for a run in the Lenexa Park. This is a beautiful park with very well maintained paths and amenities. We took a mental note that we should come back here again in the near future to explore the park more. 

Indonesia

After moving to MHK for a couple of weeks, I was getting ready to travel to Bogor, Indonesia for a NSF workshop to enhance collaboration between US and Indonesia collaboration. It was a week-long workshop consisted of presentations and a lot of small group discussions among researchers from both countries. 

The last time I was in Indonesia was before I started undergraduate school in Florida, so I was really looking forward to the trip. Unfortunately, I was not able to stay any longer, and had to be back in US immediately after the workshop, to attend Citizen Science faculty training at Bard College.

There wasn't really a lot of free time, and we were in classrooms and lecture halls from 8 am - 9 pm daily! There was an evening off, and most of the faculty members took the opportunity to visit the local market. Of course, I took as much opportunity to savor the local delicacies. One of the things I missed most in SE Asia is the availability of chili packs (not just limited to ketchup packs as in US) 😋.

Although I enjoyed the trip, I did not take delight in the amount of time spending on the plane! My flight (return trip) was from Manhattan (KS) - Chicago - Tokyo - Indonesia, and I was really relieved when I sighted to the sight of Chicago. There was a very short transfer time, and I was home in Manhattan, just in time for a beautiful sunset. 

Goodbye Chi-town, hello MHK

goodbye chicago.
I rode into Manhattan
Adventure ahead