tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87596332012-01-08T03:38:28.504-06:00Some notes about ultrarunning, social networks and anything else that crosses my mindBuddy Teasternoreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-17792992240363402352011-10-18T21:20:00.006-05:002011-10-18T22:03:33.472-05:00

You know it’s either a great race or a very low spot when you start composing your letter to the RD and race report...in the middle of the race.For me at the Grindstone 100 in Swoope VA, it was definitely a low spot. A four-hour, rock-kicking, I-will-never-run-another-100 miler, this-RD-should-be-tarred-and-feathered low spot. the race report in the middle of the race. First, the numbers,

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-7449829005297784642010-08-19T21:57:00.008-05:002010-08-19T22:29:52.090-05:00

For me, this was the ultra that almost wasn’t. I signed up for the Vermont 100 in July but had to cancel because of business demands. I wanted to run the inaugural Grand Mesa 100 in Colorado but that didn’t work out. So with a lot of support from Becca, I wound up at the Headlands 100 in Marin, just north of San Francisco. With all the heat training in the great plains of north Texas, I

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-77622371066459080612009-10-07T13:36:00.005-05:002009-10-07T13:59:50.191-05:00

I am always amazed and impressed by those runners who quickly get out race reports with lots of details about pace, what happened between aid stations and how they felt minute-by-minute for 24+ hours. So if that’s what you like to see in a race report, you shouldn’t spend much time with this one. But if you like headlines, here’s mine The Bear 100: Long, Hard and Worth The Effort. This report

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-15509234910606809582009-03-20T21:51:00.001-05:002009-03-20T21:51:57.313-05:00

Headed to Grasslands trail marathon tomorrow then volunteer at one ofhte 50mile aid stations. Should be a great day.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-36604011588388371972009-03-20T12:12:00.001-05:002009-03-20T12:12:59.446-05:00

8 Excellent Tools to Extract Insights from Twitter Streams http://ping.fm/yLlun

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-50818802402528613982009-03-09T07:17:00.001-05:002009-03-09T07:17:31.916-05:00

Headed to miami for our annual meeting. Usually an intense week w people from more than 50 countries.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-64645815931882912272009-02-22T12:19:00.001-06:002009-02-22T12:19:18.676-06:00

dont agree with all of them but many a serious thing is said in jest http://ping.fm/0TAKx

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-76940654913466127932009-02-17T08:47:00.001-06:002009-02-17T08:47:22.358-06:00

mobile might change even more than we think...like our brains http://ping.fm/27p6m

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-59073734917694971632009-02-16T10:10:00.001-06:002009-02-16T10:10:44.306-06:00

The Sightings newsletter from the Martin Marty Center is really first rate if you care about the role of religion in civic life. http://ping.fm/57sCo

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-24345347647610494622009-02-15T15:58:00.001-06:002009-02-15T15:58:21.952-06:00

Sunday tip: dont read email before going to church. hard enough to clear my mind. wont make that mistake again.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-28302479004279167462009-02-11T21:12:00.001-06:002009-02-11T21:12:17.628-06:00

quirky article about turning something most of us loathe but have to do into a great opportunity. http://ping.fm/6r1hc

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-82621746005700373032009-01-05T07:56:00.004-06:002009-01-05T08:02:29.631-06:00

Santa brought two pups this year. An Airedale Terrier named Artemis and a Golden Retreiver Taylor named Athena. Lots to do, lots to learn but they are terrific dogs so far!

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-82199638919510069002008-05-10T06:01:00.004-05:002008-05-10T06:22:51.221-05:00

As many of you have read, we have really loved living so close to El Parque del Buen Retiro, or El Retiro. It's a huge blessing to have such easy access to a beautiful and well-used park practically next door.Here two quick pictures that illustrate our links. In the past few months, Laura Macie has learned to ride a bike in the park. We don't have room to store a bike so we have rented one for

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-20822964822076813612008-05-08T05:34:00.012-05:002008-05-10T06:11:00.338-05:00

Two weeks ago today, I had a nearly perfect day. I was on the 6am train to Cercedilla for a run. The weather looked terrific so I was very excited. I worked on the 90 min train ride, mostly in the dark, but the sun was up when I got off the train at the station. A few minutes of repacking and changing clothes and I was off.After about five minutes of warm up, this was the view! What a total

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-13736406066265514212008-04-30T04:51:00.001-05:002008-04-30T04:51:04.074-05:00

Tecnocasa is a real estate/rental company here. I was listening to the radio recently and heard some very familiar notes coming through my headphones. Which was unusual given it was lynrd sknryd. not exactly typical Madrid fare. Turns out it was an advert, sweet home tecnocasa. Muy estrano! I hope that some good ol boys in muscle shoals are getting paid and having a little laugh.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-59620565060661810162008-04-23T08:03:00.001-05:002008-04-23T08:17:49.437-05:00

Jet lag has been tough this time. Going to bed late and this AM was up at 545. So when the PM arrived, all I wanted was a nap. Instead, I went for a walk in El Retiro. What a sheer pleasure. These two photos are part of it but I could have taken a dozen more of peacocks, flowers, lovers, runners, slackers and just people on their lunch break grabbing a few winks and some fresh air. I love this

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-2547713283716322082008-04-05T00:26:00.002-05:002008-04-06T03:07:55.697-05:00

I travel a fair bit and have seen many interesting things over the years. Boom boxes the size of refrigerators, refrigerators, car parts, unrecognizable parcels shrouded in paper and then shrink-wrapped are all on the list. But at the Dubai airport this week, I had to take a picture. Any international airport can feel like the bar in the first Star Wars movie. But this guy with four car tires,

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-9574963347865081712008-03-30T08:51:00.000-05:002008-03-30T08:52:43.632-05:00

Madrid is, without doubt, one of the safest cities we've been in. The one exception is pick pocketing. Hands down the most common criminal act here. We've been here 10 months and it finally happened to us. Curt and Helen had just arrived and we were at lunch in the la Latina area and her purse was swiped. At a restaurant where we've eaten many times. Scene of the crime is in the photo. No cash,

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-21542954832962468072008-03-30T04:13:00.000-05:002008-03-30T04:15:10.437-05:00

My brother, Curt, and his family are the first family members to visit is in Madrid. They arrived Thursday morning and we've spent a few days seeing the city. Today Curt and I took all four kids to the park while Helen and Becca did a little shopping. Here's a picture of all the kids at the playground.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-30574482381872859672008-03-18T08:09:00.001-05:002008-03-18T08:56:20.933-05:00

We had a quick trip to Sevilla where we had the chance to see the first Easter processions. It's a tradition going back to the 1700s.

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-26137898078425361582008-02-05T03:08:00.000-06:002008-02-05T03:46:20.739-06:00

We recently had the good fortune to have one of Becca's friends, Marcy Floyd, visit us here. Rather than describe it, I'll use her words and just add a few pictures.Madrid is amazing. I am not quite sure how to describe it. This is a very big city of approximately 4 million people and yet there is such an appreciation for the culture and city. It is like nothing I have ever seen before. The city

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-70249521004226035492008-01-05T11:22:00.001-06:002008-01-05T11:22:43.381-06:00

Best regardsBuddy TeasterSpain Mobile: +34 695 235 517US Mobile: +1 214 707 3085Sent wirelessly via BlackBerry from T-Mobile so please forgive any misspellings or grammatical errors.Mobile post sent by bteaster using Utterz.  Replies.  mp3

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-90476380021996325122007-12-31T07:34:00.000-06:002007-12-31T07:54:01.968-06:00

This is something I wrote to the North Texas Trail Runners list. John Morelock is a member of NTTR who lives in the Pacific Northwest but stays connected to the Texas crowd. http://www.nttr.org/.......Though I've been living with my family in Madrid since last May, I’ve continued to follow the invitations to meet for runs, race results, etc. I even made it back for the Cactus Rose 100, which was

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-28717016144900900562007-11-24T15:07:00.000-06:002007-11-24T15:12:38.377-06:00

Needless to say, Thanksgiving is not a Spanish holiday. Assumption Day, Ascension Day, dozens of saints days and the entire month of August are holidays but we were surrounded by about 4,000,000 people who had no idea why we took the girls out of school! (As an aside, you can buy a turkey here though it’s not something the Spanish eat. And the price matched…about US$4.50/pound!)Taylor was totally

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-5476275328505737722007-11-24T15:02:00.000-06:002007-11-24T15:06:27.915-06:00

I have been traveling a lot for YPO work, and some with the family, since mid-October. There was even a three week period or so where Becca and I saw each other for less than 24 hours…that was nuts. But when I came back from the latest trip to Cartagena de Indies, Colombia it really hit me how much el otono had settled in. For a week or so earlier in NOvebmer, while I was gone and the girls didn’

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-87023706257228005902007-11-24T10:37:00.000-06:002007-11-24T14:58:18.347-06:00

Well. I am making no apologies for being so far behind. Travel and work have taken over for the last six weeks and I may not be able to catch up. I do apologize, however, for those of you who have come to visit and found nothing but old news. Still, here’s to a fresh start!One of the recent family trips was to Granada in October. We had the chance to visit with some new friends there, Cliff,

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-69789772715189799962007-10-04T05:24:00.001-05:002007-10-04T06:25:42.490-05:00

I wrote this back in August but I had some PDA problems and was just able to recover it today, 45 days later! Madrid is very different now in early October the beautiful chestnut trees (las castanas) in El Retiro dropping their frutos secos (nuts) and beginning to change colors...though I think they're just going to go through shades of brown, no fireworks of colors. This is not my photo but a

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-31049218028483735472007-09-20T03:05:00.000-05:002007-09-20T10:07:17.937-05:00

Most everyone has heard of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, made famous by Hemingway, but it turns out lots of cities in Spain have their own bull running festivals! We didnt know that but some friends here in Madrid seem to have the secret code to what's going on in Madrid and told us about "el encierro" (running of the bulls but literally "the enclosure") about a 30 minutes from here in

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-60311605915630262922007-09-02T14:00:00.000-05:002007-09-02T14:09:35.694-05:00

This has nothing to do with Spain. But they're bringing him back from retirement and I think that's a great compliment and responsibility. If you're not familiar with this disaster, please click on Crandall Canyon accident to learn more.News ReleaseU.S. Department of Labor For Immediate ReleaseOffice of Public Affairs August 30, 2007Washington, D.C. Contact: Dirk Fillpot/David JamesLabor

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-45067178488666405472007-08-30T14:27:00.000-05:002007-08-31T05:14:16.019-05:00

Taylor and I had a great experience doing this thing called canyoning. Basically, we hiked up to the top of a canyon on the Swiss/French border (our guide said “swiss mountain, french water) and slid, hiked, rappelled (abseiling) and jumped our way back to the bottom. Of course, the water is right from a glacier so wetsuits, with booties and hoods, are required!Two cool things to mention, other

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-73637959292143619662007-08-06T02:54:00.000-05:002007-08-06T03:33:36.816-05:00

Things are going to be out of chronological order for a while as I try to catch up. But I'll start with the most recent trip and then fill in later.I had planned to participate in a 50-mile run this past weekend in Austria, the Karwendel Challenge, but the race had some permit issues that weren't able to be resolved in time. We had planned to meet some friends from Dallas (Shelby and Benjamin

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-55845309691820034712007-07-11T06:58:00.000-05:002007-07-11T16:12:13.267-05:00

We've been in our new apartment for about three weeks now and it's starting to feel like our own. We rented it furnished and that has been mostly a blessing but has sometimes proved to be a limitation as well. For example, we can't put any holes in the wall, so no nails and no pictures, etc. Fortunately, the woman who owns the apartment has great taste so it's been very livable.The neighborhood

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-54860727305090372042007-07-06T07:02:00.000-05:002007-07-06T07:11:31.480-05:00

If you're going to get a haircut you should meet at least one of two conditions:Speak the language the of the person who is actually wielding the scissorsYou are comfortable with the fact that it's only hair and will grow backThe first haircut wasn't expensive, of course it wasn't that good of a haircut. The second one was but it made looking in the mirror not scary.Fortunately, I meet the second

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-76573375176366372612007-07-04T05:14:00.001-05:002007-07-04T05:49:11.465-05:00

I've got a lot of catching up to do but thought I would just put some miscellaneous thoughts down to let you know that my silence hasn't been because we've not been busy:You have to put a euro in most all carts (grocery, etc) and then you get it back when you bring the cart back and lock it up. Most carts are impossible to steer. And it's not uncommon for a homeless person to be hanging around

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-14146059278023572192007-06-20T01:17:00.000-05:002007-06-20T02:01:33.685-05:00

The last 10 days have been about as frustrating as anything I have experienced on the personal front. It has practically nothing to do with being in Spain and everything to do with the so-called "global financial network." Ha. More like the "global marketing blah blah but it's really a country by country system and it would be faster if you wrote a check and sent it by freighter and donkey

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-57308605442656579762007-06-10T16:05:00.000-05:002007-06-11T12:04:47.046-05:00

Becca was committed to doing something this past Friday night with the girls that was more than just dinner and walking around, as lovely as those two things are. Her idea was, to me, the dreaded flamenco dancing show. A necessary stop on the Madrid culture tour but one to be endured more than enjoyed.The evening started out quite nicely and set the tone for the entire night. The girls dressed up

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-84817846829310187222007-06-07T13:00:00.001-05:002007-06-10T16:05:05.435-05:00

While Laura Macie and I toughed it out at home yesterday, Becca and Taylor took a tour of (relatively) nearby Avila. This trip, led by a fantastically Madrid/Spain-savvy woman named Ann Pinder, was to three artesinal cheese and honey makers. They learned fascinating things about bees, goats and rural life in Spain. The cheese makers live in a village of about 300 people, maybe 100 families, 20%

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-85653284069225863902007-06-04T02:29:00.001-05:002007-06-04T13:03:20.266-05:00

Through some connections Becca has made, we have had the chance the last two weekends to meet several people who are corporate expats here in Madrid. What a different world! We met one lovely Australian woman who has been married 29 years and moved 23 times!!! She considers Connecticut home and kids have gone to university all over the world.As a group, the expats all speak multiple languages

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-42711933547224203732007-05-31T16:07:00.001-05:002007-05-31T16:40:08.631-05:00

This morning on my run, I wanted to go the track at Estadio Vallerhmosa, which is about 4km from our apartment. I found it but it was closed; which was strange as there were a lot of people out running around the stadium as well! So I decided to take a different way back, based on my cursory glance at the map the night before. For those of you in Dallas, I basically wound up trying to figure out

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-35389841770379222072007-05-28T13:58:00.000-05:002007-05-30T10:59:37.303-05:00

What a great day! After a little stress getting out the door we made it uneventfully to the Atocha train station and were quickly on our way to the mountains we can see from Madrid and the little town of Cercedilla. The ride is about 1.5 hours; the train was clean and ran right on time so that was a breeze. When we got to the station in Cercedilla, we knew right away this was different. The air

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-18511155395538415942007-05-27T02:42:00.001-05:002007-05-27T02:58:07.803-05:00

Friday started off a little rough as Becca fried some of her personal care appliances and blew all the fuses in the apartment, not the best way to begin her day. She's replaced them but lesson learned: for some things, it probably makes sense to buy local so that compatability is not an issue.That evening, while she was out with girls shopping to replace the electronics, I met them for dinner in

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-63357497651563726082007-05-24T07:29:00.000-05:002007-05-24T07:58:32.148-05:00

We're only living for the first month here on Plaza de la Paja with the goal of finding the place to live for the rest of our stay in Madrid. Becca and the girls spent Wednesday looking at nine different places, some of which were apparently just nightmares, but they found two that we looked at again this morning. One point to note is that Madrid gets 300+ days of sunshine a year. But today was

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-13697281566735732742007-05-24T06:48:00.000-05:002007-05-24T07:29:27.660-05:00

I left early Tuesday morning for a meeting with Maria Sipka in Barcelona to work on YPO Networks. Definitely found out that flying in Spain is a lot like flying anywhere else: grumpy people in long lines being herded like cows...we are the world :-) It was a good experience to be mostly clueless as to why everyone was so grouchy (turned out to be a cancelled 7am flight) as all I could really do

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-54360113880239990272007-05-21T03:51:00.000-05:002007-05-21T04:05:40.571-05:00

I was worried about where I would run in Madrid but I needn't have been. From where we're staying now, it's about a 10 min warmup to El Parque del Retiro and then about about a 4k loop around the outside with many lovely interior paths. I see many runners and walkers at every time of the day. On Saturday, I did my first real run in Casa de Campo. When Becca and I visited in October, I ran here

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759633.post-18171261276548546762007-05-20T15:59:00.000-05:002007-05-20T17:03:16.294-05:00

We arrived on Monday 14 May and we have already started falling in love with this city. We decided not to fight the time difference and have allowed Taylor and Laura Macie to go to bed late and sleep late as well. It's the Spanish way and, because they're not in school, has made the first week that much more fun and different for them.We are living in La Latina and loving the little plaza outside

Buddy Teasternoreply@blogger.com