Sean Gillies (Posts about retrospective)

May 21, 2017: Festa Trail

Sean Gillies — Sat, 23 May 2026 02:46:34 GMT

Nine years ago, I ran a 18 km race in the hills north of Montpellier, France, part of a big three-day festival of races called Festa Trail. I have good memories of the event. The weather was great, it was more runnable than Trail Quillan, and one of the race organizers emailed me the day after I posted to express interest in my blog post.

I had some leg cramps at Festa Trail. Cramping is the subject of my next blog post, and scanning my previous posts for mention of cramps is what reminded me of my run around Pic St-Loup.

My first trail race was in Colorado, but running in France really got me hooked. The runners were super enthusiastic, the villages we ran through provided food, drink, and music, the courses were crazy steep and technical or very sloppy. Adventures, but safe ones, because the pompiers (firefighters and first responders) were always on the scene. The events were big! Hundreds or thousands of runners at some of them. In the years since, I've heard French people say that trail running has become too big, and I get it now, but nine years ago the scale and intensity of French trail impressed me.

August 22, 2018: Paris in a Day

Sean Gillies — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 23:16:47 GMT

Six years ago my family and I spent some time in France, passing through Lyon and Paris on the way back to Colorado. While Ruth stayed behind at a conference in Montpellier, Arabelle, Bea, and I did Paris in a day. We saw many bones, ate much gelato, hiked many stairs, rode many trains and buses, and enjoyed being together, seeing new places, and using our second language in one of the world's capitals. I cherish my memories of this day. I felt like I was killing the fun Francophile dad role and thoroughly enjoyed the company of my kids. I had a memorable time. We confirmed in June that Arabelle and Bea have strong, positive memories, as well.

I went to Instagram for the first time in years to dig up a photo taken on that day that I haven't published on my blog before.

A child in a blue top making a peace sign in front of the Eiffel Tower and waxing moon.

We didn't go back to the Trocadero in June, assuming that it was closed for Olympics construction, but we did go back to Montmartre and Sacre Coeur. Both Arabelle and Bea have been cultivating Spanish as a third language since 2018 and had a chance to use it on our recent visit. We encountered a Spanish kid of Bea's age who had been separated from her parents and kept her company until we could reach her mom on the phone. She had no phone of her own, but had memorized key numbers.

February 24, 2018: In Bengaluru

Sean Gillies — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 01:10:11 GMT

I haven't left Colorado in over a year. It seems like a dream that three years ago I was hopping between continents on planes and in Bengaluru.

Since then my connections to the city have weakened, and grown, and weakened again. Mapbox closed its office there six months after my visit. Some folks, like my friend Pratik, moved to San Francisco or Washington, D.C. and I got to see them more often. Ruth's department hired a new assistant professor who grew up in Bangalore and became a mentor to me on the subject of Indian cooking, and pickles in particular. But since the COVID pandemic hit I haven't seen Vamsi at all, and I've only seen Pratik on Google hangouts. Multiple times a week, though, and memories of Bangalore remain a touchstone.

In my older blog post I mentioned the importance of street trees in Bengaluru and in looking for recent writing on the subject I came upon this great post: https://www.thenatureofcities.com/2018/07/01/secular-sacred-domestic-living-street-trees-bangalore/.

October 19, 2016: Halloween Allée

Sean Gillies — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 01:53:09 GMT

Here are a couple pictures of frightening characters I found in an alley in Montpellier's Boutonnet neighborhood four Halloweens ago.

October 16, 2016: Trail des Calades

Sean Gillies — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 19:22:55 GMT

I'm indulging myself in a look back at my first trail race in France, the 2016 Trail des Calades in Saint-Jean-de-Cuculles, a village in the Pic Saint-Loup wine region just north of Montpellier. The town and its église de la Nativité-de-Saint-Jean-Baptiste are a nicely preserved minor medieval site. We ran out the ancient fortified gate of the town to begin the race. I never tired of the palpable history around me while I was living in France. Maybe the feeling wears after a while and you just want to replace it with some kitsch?

Fall decor

I went back to the race website and found a photo of myself on a particularly steep part of the course. The Trail des Calades climbs (and descends) 650 meters over 16.5 kilometers, an average grade of 4%. The segment in the photo was closer to 15%.

Heading up the Combe de Mortiès

The black soil of the Combe de Mortiès is Toarcian marl containing lignite and fossils from shallow seas of the early Jurassic. Ammonites are common in this formation and images of these ancient molluscs are used in local brands.

Glass of wine poured in August 2016

Sadly, it seems that the 2020 edition of the race was cancelled. I hope that it will be back next year. Hang in there, organizers and supporters.

Quad Rock training retrospective

Sean Gillies — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 03:48:25 GMT

A year ago, I blogged about finishing my first week of training for the 2019 Quad Rock 50. I did one such post for each of the 24 weeks in my season and thoroughly enjoyed it. They're all linked at https://sgillies.net/tags/running.html if you're interested. I may do this again in 2020, but for a different race in July, so won't start the trail blogging until February.

Running at Reservoir Ridge, December 5, 2018

October 19, 2018: Golden Gate Bridge

Sean Gillies — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 05:12:39 GMT

I'm headed to San Francisco for work almost exactly a year after going on a family trip on which my kids and I made our first walk onto the Golden Gate Bridge. Among the photos we took are these by Arabelle, who was enjoying playing with depth of field out in the unique space of the bridge and bay and sky.

Bonne rentrée

Sean Gillies — Mon, 02 Sep 2019 16:53:37 GMT

Today is the first day of the 2019-2020 school year for French kids. Here's a photo from Bea's rentrée, 2016.

Prague-Colmar-Montpellier-London 2008

Sean Gillies — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 04:02:13 GMT

It's retrospective time! Ten years ago, my family, all four of us, went to Europe for the first time. Ruth had meetings in Prague and I had a meeting in London. In between, we did a little touristing in Alsace, scouted Montpellier for future sabbatical housing, and visited friends in England.

Arabelle and I at Staroměstské náměstí

I was back here 7 years later presenting on GeoJSON at IETF 93 and wished I had Arabelle along.

Representing FOSS4G 2007

I think I might actually from Alsace, because Colmar really felt like home.

This photo is one of the first that Arabelle ever took. Good ole PowerShot A520.

Our first home in the neighborhood of Montpellier was a little vacation trailer during the off season in Clapiers. On two sabbaticals we stayed in the city proper, but if we came back, maybe we'd would stay out in the country next time.

Arabelle going wild on the beach

Everybody has mixed feelings about Carnon plage, I think. There's no nature, and the development is kinda gross, but the sand and water is nice, and it's super close to the city. Ruth grew up at the beach in Southern California and felt "meh", but Arabelle and I were more like "waouh!"

Arabelle at Gare de Lyon

Good ole Gare de Lyon. We were just there two months ago. This was Arabelle's first TGV ride. We took an RER from here to Gare du Nord and then went under the channel to St. Pancras in London and then on to Swindon. Trains are the best way to travel.

Naptime in Bath, England

Bath is very touristy but also quite comfy. My people are not really from Alsace, but from Southwestern Britain, and so I felt right at home in Bath.

In Swindon

Arabelle loved England because we have friends and our friends have cats.

Swindon Stone, Avebury

Gabby is linking the ancient world data

I went to London a few times when I was working at ISAW, but this was my first trip and my favorite. We stayed in a hotel on Drury Lane, and despite not seeing the Muffin Man, had a fun time exploring Covent Garden and Neal's Yard.

July 3, 2017: Refuge Alfred Wills and Col d'Anterne

Sean Gillies — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 05:17:11 GMT

On my family's hut-to-hut trip in the Alpes a year ago we went from soggy and cold condtions – here are my kids drinking tea and eating blackberry tarts at the Refuge Alfred Wills to deal with the inclement weather on July 2 –

to bright, sunny, and warm conditions on July 3.

We even got peeks at Mont Blanc through the clouds from the Col d'Anterne.

So much fun. We'll remember this trip forever.