Our Bali Vacation, part 1

We arrived in Bali in the late-morning of August 31. Navigating the airport was fairly easy; even going through customs was easier than expected. To travel to Indonesia, you need to register ahead of time, so we had a QR code ready to go indicating we'd paid the fee and had the correct travel documents. Customs scanned our code and waved us through.

We took a Grab to Ubud, which was a two hour drive. We'd rented a "chalet" through AirBnB that had outstanding reviews, and the moment we stepped onto the property, we understood why. The cabin was a spacious one-bedroom with a beautiful view of the jungle, a private pool, and multiple outdoor seating areas. The entire bathroom opened up to the garden. I had never stayed anywhere like it, and it was truly magical.

This year's running goal: done

This past month I've done a whole lot of nothing. I guess I could be generous and say October was a month of recovery. It was all the weeks I didn't have a chance to fully recover before jumping back into training during this year's mission to run a half each season. It was my body and mind telling me they needed a real break and meaningful time off.

When I set a goal to run four half marathons this year, I hadn't taken into consideration what that would mean for training. I didn't go back and look at past years' races to see when I last ran this many long distances races in a single year, or if I ever had. 

I also never doubted I'd be able to pull it off.

Kraken 5k 2026

Leading up to this 5k, I wasn't feeling very confident. I took a week off after the Orca Half, and the two 3-milers I ran the week after were both very difficult and slow. I went back to the gym after five weeks off and had some major DOMS, especially in my inner thighs. Damn squats.

But this would be my second year running the Kraken 5k and I didn't want to skip it. After all, I'd been organizing it at work among our run club—I had to show up!