Finally, I’m a Disneyland insider! The day after I turned 42, we took the kids to Disney Paris. I’d never been and figured we should do it as a family at least once. Leading up to it, only my 8-year old daughter seemed somewhat excited. My husband and my son were a bit apprehensive because they recently visited Disneyland Tokyo, which had been a nightmare. It was so busy I’m not sure they managed to do a single ride. It had also been freezing cold. So why is our family doing

The Banjul Marathon is a little mysterious. Even though it's the only organized running event in The Gambia and it's organized by Gambia's largest company Africell, there's not much about it online or on social media. But you don't have to be a genius to figure out it's a small event with sub-optimal running conditions. Basically, I expected the worst. Leading up the event, I was getting pretty excited about racing though. A lot of my friends were participating, and my kids a

Instagram recap reel of only the good moments, not the towing, freezing at night, or being extorted by traffic police 🤣 At the beginning of every foreign vacation I wonder if I will live up to my own plans and travel resolutions. Mostly standard stuff, like discovering all the stuff that’s new and different over there. And: sticking to a reasonable travel budget. For this trip, I also wondered if we’d camp in our tent, as I hoped we would, or if we’d get lazy and book hotel

Swimming seems to have a bad reputation among endurance athletes. When I ask other runners if they're interested in doing a triathlon, most answer the same way: "Nope, because I hate swimming." Adding that they're also really bad at it, which I always doubt. Why is everyone saying their technique sucks? Who told them that? I mean, generally when I see people swim, they clearly know how to get from point A to point B, fairly gracefully, and without any panic or risk of drownin

The Gambia is a small country. You can drive around the whole thing in a day if you want to. But there’s no point in doing that, because all you would see would be the road, some trees, and houses. Driving through the towns takes approximately five seconds. So when the time came to explore the countryside, we wanted to take it a bit slower than that. And bring a tour guide who could answer any history, agriculture or other type of question our 7-headed group would throw his w

Learning by doing, that’s usually what it comes down to with me. For my first ultra race I didn’t prepare particularly well. I basically prepared as if I was going to run another regular marathon. Sure, I got the mandatory race kit. But I didn’t decide on the (110K) distance until three days before the event, or specifically prepare for running up hills or on rough terrain. I hoped my heat training in The Gambia, plus one recent trail marathon, would be enough. I justify my l

When it comes to my current job in the Foreign Service, I'm enjoying more freedom than I have in years. I still work full-time, but I don't have to commute to anywhere but my downstairs office, and I don't start at 8 AM. Because I'm working on a DETO and I'm in a different time zone from DC, my supervisor prefers I start at 10 AM so our hours have some overlap. The beauty of this, I soon realized, is that I have a nice chunk of time in the morning to work out. As it happens,

One of the least fun things about being me is my dental history. I've had just about every dental procedure imaginable, multiple times over. On the bright side, I've had the good fortune to be posted in several countries where dental care is not only affordable but also unexpectedly high quality. In fact, countries like Armenia and India are 'dental tourism' destinations! But The Gambia is a little different. Nobody comes here for the dental care, or any kind of medical care

Traveling to Rwanda may not be everybody's dream, but it was certainly mine! It's located in the heart of Sub-Saharan Africa, so it's not overrun by tourists. It has a warm climate, friendly people, fabulous nauture, and it’s safer than almost anywhere in the world. My kind of place. Unfortunately, flying from The Gambia to Rwanda isn't as straightforward as you might expect. There are direct flights to Kigali from Europe and other places, but everyone who has been to Sub-Sah