My Durango

Growing up my parents would send us to Durango every summer to spend it with my grandparents in San Juan and I'm glad they did because I developed a love for this state and not only that, It's where my family comes from I have two homes Phx and Durango.  For the past 30 years Ive been coming to this wonderful state of Mexico but never really took the time to explore the city.  This year with the company of my partner in crime my niece Leslie God daughter/almost my daughter  we decided to tour the city of Durango and visit it's many museums.  The city is full of history art and colonial architecture.

our tour guide

on the bus to our first stop

Our first stop was at a new museum dedicated to Jose Doroteo Arango Arabula or best know has Francisco "Pancho" Villa.  He was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary general and was the commander of the Division del Norte (Division of the North).  He fought alongside Emiliano Zapata during the Mexico revolution. He retired in 1920 but later on decided to re-involved him self in Mexican politics and as a result was assassinated, most likely on the orders of Obregon Mexico's then President.  This museum is in dedication to Pancho Villa and the states 450 year anniversary

A little history about Durango.  Durango is the fourth largest state in Mexico. The name Durango is Basque in origin and means "Fertile lowland bathed by rivers surrounded by elevations or mountains." The state of Durango was first colonized in 1562 by Francisco de Ibarra. Early European Settlers met strong resistance from the native population, but the wealth of mineral resources and grazing lands continue to attract colonist. The region which is made up of modern-day Durango and the state of Chihuahua was know as Nueva Viscaya, with the city of Durango acting as the capital for this colonial province."   

 

 

The museum used to be a government building and its cover with fresco murals, with images of the revolution ans the states riches. I enjoy learning about Mexico history and art and culture.  If I could get a masters degree in Mexican History I would. I just have a passion for Mexico and just want to experience and visit has many places as I can.

On our two day tour of the city we visited five different museums 

Museo de las Culturas Populares

Museo de Arqueologia

Museo de Arte Contemporaneo 

Museo de Arte Moderno

Casa de la Cultura Banamex

I didn't realize that Durango was so rich of history and art.  I feel I know my state a little better. We saw many pieces of art my favorite mediums are printmaking and painting.  This summer I was determined to start working on my art.  I haven't worked on my art for many months for the most part because I am always training for something.  I will make a very big effort to dedicate more time on my creativity.  The following are paintings that i most enjoyed.

 

Going from museum to museum is my thing, Art is not only my career but my passion. This past two days where awesome specially cause I got to spend them with one of my favorite little girls in the world my niece Leslie.

My days in Durango

My days in my beloved Durango passed by way too fast, but I enjoyed my days to the fullest! On our stay in San Juan we celebrated many June birthdays My grandmas, uncle and my nephew Oscar's 6th birthday.  My mom and I decided to give him a small birthday party, our town is very small and the kids don't get to go to many birthday parties, so we invited all the kids for a pinata, cake and candy bags.  You could see it in the kids faces they had a blast! 

                  

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The birthday boy

Our towns name is San Juan Ojo de Agua (Saint John the Baptist) and every June 24th we celebrate his nativity. My mom says that in the old days the celebrations where very big and many people would come from other towns to celebrate.  It is tradition to walk from the church to el manantial (which is a spring—also known as a rising or resurgence—is a component of the hydrosphere. Specifically, it is any natural situation where water flows to the surface of the earth from underground. Thus, a spring is a site where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface.) signing the mananitas (traditional birthday song) and praying.

After that we walk back to the church and sign some more and have matachines dance traditional ritual dances outside the church door to honor San Juan Bautista. During the day they have 3 masses and food for the whole town.  It is also tradition to get each other wet, the kids go around with buckets of water and chase each other and try to get others wet.

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I was enjoying my time so much that it started to get hard to train, but I did manage to go running and swimming almost every other day.  I would run to see my dad at the cemetery and that was about a 4.5 mile run and swimming at our spring but because it was vacation time we would get a lot of out of town people and it made it hard for me to go swimming.  I feel that my swims helped me with my fear of open water swims because I was swimming with out my safety blanket my wet suite.  I would cross the spring many times and the water was very clear I saw tones of fishes, turtles thank god I didn't see any water snakes cause that would of freak me out and I don't think I would of crossed it again.  I know theirs water snakes because we would see them all the time when we went swimming back in the day.  

This summer vacations where a little more special that other years not only I planned a trip to Mexico City but my mom and aunts planned a little family reunion. My grandma hadn't been to Durango in about two years but it had been over 10 years that all four brothers had been together. I can't imagine not seeing my sisters for that long! but things change one of my aunts is a nun and lives in Leon Guanajuato, my Tio Juan lives in San Juan my Tia Baselisa lives in Houston, Texas and my grandma in Phoenix. It was such a great experience to see them all together you could see and feel all the love they have for each other. I enjoy listening to their childhood stories and learn a little more about my great grandma Patro which I was one of the luck ones that she prepared me for my first holy communion.

Tia Margarita, Tio Juan, Abuelita Julianita and Tia Bacelisa

Spending my summers in Durango are super fun the weather is great! raining season starts around the second week in June and that means it usually rains in the evenings and the start of the state fair! I love going to the state fair this year I got to go twice and see two great female singers Julieta Venegas and Carla Morrison both of this ladies are awesome song writers and have a very unique voice.  Besides going to their concerts I got to spend time with my cousins and god daugthers spending time with family is always fun and exciting.

Oscar, Leslie, Running Frida and Luis Mi aka Luixton

Julieta Venegas Concert

Leslie and Nina

Valentina and Madrina Corazon

so far my vacations are going great... stay tune for more... next post My Durango Leslie and I decide to tour the city of Durango and its many museums!!

Today was Mole Day

Happy 85th Birthday to my abuelita Julianita! When we where kids my parents would send us in the summer to spend it with her.  We would come and spend weeks with her and not only me and my sisters would come but others cousins from Phoenix and Durango. She would cook, clean and wash clothes for all of us and let me tell you back in the day their was no TV to keep us entertain in the house we would go swimming 2 times a day! she had a lot of work with us spending the summer with her. To celebrate her birthday her choice of meal was mole! my favorite!

All my tias are great cooks they take it from my grandma, my Tia Chuya (the one with the red tshirt) made the mole.  Ive always wanted to learn how to make it, so here is the recipe of traditional Mexican Mole, Durango version cause theirs a lot of different styles of Mole

Ingredients:

Chicken, Red Chilly (dry), Raisins, Peanuts, Chocolate Abuelita, Ajonjoli, Clavos, Garlic, Almonds, Sugar, Salt and whole cinnamon 

Step 1: Boil chicken with onion and garlic, after the chicken it boil deshebrar (to unpick) the chicken

Step 2: Clean the chilly by taking out all the seeds from the inside and save half of the seeds for later, then remojar (soak) red chilly in hot water for about 20 minutes

  

Step 3: blend chilly, raisins, peanuts (we didn’t have peanuts we substituted it with peanut butter) chocolate abuelita, anjojoli, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, almonds, sugar and salt

Their is a different option for this step.  My aunt said it tastes better but its a little bit more greasy.  you can fry the peanuts, almonds, anjojoli and raisins, then blend with the remaining ingredients.

Step 4: strain chilly and heat until it boils

Step 5 add chicken and let it sit and boil for about 5 minutes

for a side we usually make rice the combination is perfect. Sweet mole is one of my favorite dishes my mom always makes it for my birthday I will eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner for a couple of days and I don't get tired of it!!! this was my 3rd plate of mole and rice for dinner. Maybe before I go back home I will attempt in making some mole.

training is going great, I just been swimming and running. I haven't attempted using my mountain bike to go on a ride. I'm used to my rode bike that is light weight and this bike feels so heavy I'm afraid of taking it out, but i need to go on a couple of rides Mountain Man Olympic triathlon is August I need to be ready. 

 

the view on my walk home from my swim, some of you might not know but im a fanatic of astronomy I wanted to be an astronaut :) on June 23 theirs going to be a supermoon check it out!

Hello from Durango!

Hola from Durango, Mexico!! Running Frida is on vacations! every fathers day I come to Durango to visit my dad’s resting place and my parents home town Ojo de agua San Juan its a small town about 40 minutes from the city.  When my dad passed away 3 years ago he wanted to be buried next to his parents and brother and we granted his wish.  I decided I would come every fathers day and visit him. I don’t have much time during the year to come to San Juan its a 24 hour bus ride from phoenix and with all the training and work its hard to take time during the school year but I have plenty of time during the summer so every fathers day I will come and visit my father and family. This town has a very special place in my life. I grew up coming to this small town every summer, the most happy moments of my childhood are from my summers I spent in San Juan with my sisters and cousins. I LOVE coming to Durango the weather is perfect, raining season starts the second week of June and the evenings are perfect for going on a runs, swims and bike rides.

 So far on my vacations Ive gone on three runs one with my awesome niece (she’s a runner too) we ran to my dad’s grave which is two towns away from San Juan its around 4.66 mile run. Our first run was on the morning of fathers day, It was a slow run, it was hilly and muddy. It rain the night before so their was a lot of puddles that we had to go around.

 

 

After our run we came home and got ready to go visit my dad a second time, but this time my mom, nephews and cousins came with us.  In the afternoon we celebrated fathers day and my Tio Juan 84th birthday (my grandma younger brother) Spending time with the family is very important to me I like catching up with everyone and talking about our childhood memories and other anecdotes.

My Abuelita Julianita and Tio Juan saying hi, after 2 years of not seeing each other.  We are planing a family reunion for this coming Sunday their two younger sisters are coming to San Juan my Tia Margarita from Leon Guanajuato and my Tia Bacelisa from Houston Texas that should be fun.

Frida Kahlo is my favorite artist and I take on the name running Frida after her. I decided if I plan on keeping this nickname I need to take on this name with seriously so I plan on doing something creative each day I'm here. It could be a entry on my blog, painting, collage on my smash book, drawing, cooking, story telling anything with a creative outlet.

Its only been 5 days Im here and it feels Ive done a lot, the days pass by really fast when you are having fun! hope everyone is having a great summer like me!! 

13 half marathons in 2013 challenge

Back in January I ran the Rock and Roll Half Marathon for the 4th time in a row and my crazy running cousin ran the full marathon (second year in a row).  After the race we where hanging out and he came up with this crazy idea of him running a full marathon each month of the year and I would run a half marathon each month of 2013.  Well Ive never been the type of not accepting a challenge so I said yes not only to running 12 half marathons but 13 half marathons in 2013. My sister OCD is getting to me

Our February run was only two weeks after Rock and Roll. It was the Desert Classic Marathon/ Half put on my Phoenix Road Racers it was a small race but it had great course support. My time was 2:24 a little slower than my Rock and Roll half where I made a new personal record of 2:13.  My crazy running cousin's time was of 3:21 which was 10 min faster than his Rock and Roll Marathon of 3:31. Over all I was content with my time and finishing my second half marathon of the year.

My crazy running cousin Rigo

For our March run we couldn't fine a local race so we drove to Huntington Beach in California the race was The Shamrock Shuffle Marathon and Half Marathon. The run was the same weekend as the LA Marathon, our run was very small and did not have an expo, to make our run feel more official we decide to crash the LA Marathon expo.  The expo was like every other expo I been too, with the exception we found a different type of rolling stick. I got rolled by the inventor of addaday ultra roller it felt great, I asked him to roll my IT band cause it been bothering me during my long runs.  After the expo we headed to our hotel and found an italian restaurant and had a great dinner with my cousin the food was delicious their where no leftovers.  The following morning we woke up early had a small breakfast with the usual whole wheat beagle with peanut butter and bananas,  then we walked to the race start which was about half a mile from our hotel.  The run was awesome the weather was perfect and we ran along side the ocean great view for the whole run.  The course was a loop which wasn't bad they also had plenty of goodies at the aid stations which is always a plus on a long run. My time was 2:14 one minute shy of breaking my January PR and my crazy running cousin time was 3:50, he hadn't been running much after our February run and he still had a great finishing time.

For our April, May and June run we didn't get to run together but I did run with great company.  In April I ran the Nike Women Half Marathon in Washington DC with my younger sister Julie. In this race instead of getting a traditional finishers medal you get a tiffany and co. necklace with one of a kind design! Thats the only reason my sister runs with me This run was hard for me.  We woke up very early cause we had to take the subway to the race start line, when I got out of bed my legs where sore! They where sore cause of all the walking we did saturday and I was wearing sandals, not a good combination if your gonna do a lot of walking and running a half marathon the next day. In this race I wanted to beat my previous personal record because of my March half I was 1 minute shy of breaking it.  But this race was packed I would had to weave around people to try and break my PR, so after mile two I decided to just run the race with my sister and help her make a new PR and she did! her finish time was 2:27 which was 14 min faster than her previous half in October.  I am very proud of her she has come a long way since her first half marathon! I recently convince her to run a full marathon with me :)

My May half I ran with my friend kardenas we train together for the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon. It wasn't an official race, but we ran the distance of 13.1 and it was our last long run before our Marathon.  It was on Memorial weekend so we decided to named our run The 1st annual Memorial Weekend Half Marathon. We started very early because here in Phoenix the weather is getting very hot! It was a good run my friend made a new Personal Record which is always a plus our time was 2:39 a little slower than my previous half's but the weekend before we had our longest run for the full which was 20.5 miles.  Hopefully we can make this weekend run a tradition and run a half marathon distance every memorial weekend, anyone want to join us next year?

For the June half I ran it this past weekend with my new friend Kim (follow her blog at http://teamsprinklesandglitter.blogspot.com) only one week after my full marathon and Ms. Sprinkles and glitter thats her blog nickname half Ironman triathlon.  With that said it was a hard run, we started a little after 5:30am and it was already 80 degrees! the whole run I felt thirsty and hot, and maybe wearing a black running shirt didn't help either, it was a sloooooow run! I was really trying to push it but my body just wouldn't respond like I wanted it! but we manage to finish. Who in their right mind is willing to run a half marathon only one week after a big race like a Full Marathon and Half Ironman only this two future Ironman's ladies! on a cool note about my friend Kim, she is currently training for Ironman AZ in November I'm very excited for her!

For July I have plans in running my half marathon in Durango, MX in my parents home town.

My First Marathon

The first time I decided to train for a full marathon was October of 2011after one of the toughest half marathon I’ve ever ran the Nike Women Marathon in San Francisco. Two weeks into my training I was doing a 15 mile run and at around mile 10 my knee started to hurt.  It was a pain I never felt before I had to stop. I knew something was not right, but the voice inside my head did not let me stop. I kept running, I wanted to finish what I started. after a month of rest and not being able to run I seek professional help. I had irritated my IT band and needed physical therapy. I wasn't able to run the full marathon.  My first marathon has been long over due.

I train for 3 months put in many ours on the road and after waiting for 2 years the day finally came. I've been so nervous that it been affecting my sleeping and saturday night was no different. I never felt this way before any race not even Leadman triathlon (1.5m swim, 60m ride and 8m run). My friends pick me up from my hotel and dropped us off at the start line. I was lucky enough to been able to train with my friend Vanessa it was her first marathon also. The weather was perfect for a long run and my nerves when away as soon has I crossed the start line. 

It was the perfect race! I put in the hard work and it paid off. the course was challenging but I enjoyed the course, a business on the course had some Vicente Fernandez music (my dads favorite artist), saw funny customs, mariachi music in old town. I started strong I average 9:30 min miles for the first 12 miles then I decided to slow down a little with the fear that I would hit a wall, but that wall never came. Starting this race I had one goal to finish under 5 hours but deep in my heart I was hopping for a better time of 4:30. I didn't want to let myself down if it didn't happen. I was surprise to how good I was feeling and how fast I was going so I pushed it I knew I had it in me to finish close to 4:30. Not only did I finish in 4:27 but i made a new personal record for my half marathon time 2:07. With each race I learn a little more about me and what I want in life. I also see how much more stronger I am that what i think i am and how much more I can push myself during training. With a marathon under my belt I feel a little step closer to Ironman! thank you to my family for coming down to San Diego and experience this with me, honestly i couldn't of done it with out you guys, specially my mom for babying me with my special food request. To all my friends for your support and cheering on. I am no longer a runner I am Marathoner. 

up coming races
July 7th Gatorade 2nd Annual 15K Mexico City 
August 11 Mountain Man olympic
September 21 Lifetime Tempe Triathlon Olympic 
October 20 SOMA half Ironman
November 3 Women’s Running Series Half marathon (team Running Frida’s) 
November 16 Undy 5000 (team Botas de Charro)
November 17 Volunteer Ironman
December 8 Divas half marathon
January 19 Rock and Roll AZ full marathon

Stay tune for The Running Frida’s running group.........