About two years have passed since a member of our editorial staff last visited Kansas City, MO. After a 2-day trip this week, we're happy to report that most of our content is still accurate. Here are a few highlights:
1) The Marriott Downtown Kansas City (next to the convention center) replaced much of its cardio equipment with new bikes, treads, ellipticals, etc. creating one of the best hotel gyms in the city.
We've been rather quiet this week as part of the AMT team has been conquering Europe! The good news is that London, Paris, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Rotterdam, Manchester and Brussels will soon be added to our cache of Athletic-Minded cities.
36,000 runners toed the line for Sunday's Chicago Marathon. Only 4,000 finished. 88-degree heat and high humidity lead to over 300 hospitalizations and a decision by the Race Director to cancel the Chicago Marathon event at 11:30am -- some 3:30 hours after its start. Runners were advised to stop at miles 13 through 20.
It's about time. We finally returned to the Big Easy after three years of patient waiting, watching, hoping and praying.
Many parts of the city are far from fully recovered--we saw hundreds of homes in outlying areas covered with Katrina-recovery plywood and spray paint--but travelers to the popular NOLA tourist 'hoods (French Quarter, CBD, Garden District, River Bend, Faubourg Marigny) will find it cleaner, safer and more desirable than the pre-storm New Orleans.
At the moment, I'm busy touring through Oklahoma City hotels, health clubs, pools, run routes and the like for my fellow athletic-minded travelers. But, I had to take time out to visit the Oklahoma City Memorial for the first time.
View AthleticMindedTraveler.com.
If you watch any TV, you have undoubtedly been blasted by a commercial for HeadOn--a topical headache remedy. HEAD ON APPLY DIRECTLY TO THE FOREHEAD -- repeat, repeat and repeat.
Anyway, the homeopathic medication may be just the thing for those who eschew pill popping. And since you simply apply it to your forehead, you don't need agua or any other liquid beverage--making it perfect for travel.
Three cheers for open seating!! We previously posted about how we hoped Southwest would not change their A, B, C boarding because we've perfected how to work the system.
A Numbers Game
Now, Southwest has announced that only a slight modification will be made to the notorious "cattle call". A, B, and C boarding passes will still be issued. However, passengers will now receive a number as well as a letter when printing their boarding pass--a sub-set of the letter categories, if you will.
This week, we're finally headed back to New Orleans to get the athletic-minded scoop on the Big Easy's post-Katrina progress. Hurricane Dean's ominous presence hasn't been reassuring, but its track appears safely out of NOLA's range.
In addition to being lucky enough to live in one of the best cities in the world (San Diego), I am also fortunate that a trip to visit the in-laws doesn't burden me with a 3-hour road trip into the barren desert or a 2-connection flight to a po'dunk town in the middle of nowhere. No, you will not hear me complain one bit about compelled conjugal visits to the funky and athletic-minded town of Bend, Oregon.
Some of you emailed, begging us to take bike photos while at the Tour of California. We didn't let you down. Take a gander at some of the hot bikes seen at Stage 7 in Long Beach:
Go to AthleticMindedTraveler.com's home page NOW.
Scroll over and click on the photos to enlarge them.
Levi-less Gerolsteiner was the first team we came across:
