KYIV half marathon 2015 - first experience

Automatic pic. that was taken by the sponsors about 2 min. after the start.

OK, finally this has happened!! After about 10 month of preparation I have ran my first even half marathon. It was not only my first official half marathon, but also first time ever in my life when I have run such a distance (21 km)... I have meant to try running at least 18-20 km in my training, but for various reasons it has never happened. The longest run I have had was - 15 km. So, needless to say that to run a 21+ km was quite hard.

Everything went pretty well for me up untill about 16th kilometer. That's when I REALLY started feeling my legs and even had to start walking time aftre time (especially on steep hills) in order to restore some of my strengh. Now, as I think of it I also probably needed to tie my running shoes less, because especially my right foot felt quite stiff on the second part of the run. Conclusion? Pay attention even to how you tie your shoes when running on long distances... :-)

ART Improve conference again this year... YES!!

ART Improve 2013 promo poster

We are glad to let you know that by God's grace we have the opportunity to be involved in planning and organizing the ART Improve conference in Kyiv in 2013. Last year we've seen a HUGE interest from people in being at this conference and this year we want to do it on a whole other level.

The team of volunteers that is involved in organizing the conference this year has grown from 4 people to almost 10, plus we plan to pull more volunteers for the event - about 30 people.

Things have started "rolling" already. We've launched our new web site - www.artimprove.org - stared PROMO and opened the registration one week ago. Now we just need Lord's grace and mercy to finish WELL!!

All details you can also follow at ART Improve Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Art.Improve

UPDATE:

Well, the conference went really well and alltogether we had more then 300 people in attendance (together with guests and musicians). It was really tough to prepare and carry out this "operationally",

Finally settled in Kyiv

OK, well, finally, I've got to write in our blog about how we've settled in Kyiv. This is actually the very first weekend (eversince we've moved our stuff to Kyiv from L'viv on Nov. 19th and moved ourselves) that we had at least some free time, which was not consumed in unpacking bozes and visiting with parents/relatives/friends.

How we've moved?
Actually, today it has been exactly ONE MONTH after we've moved to Kyiv!! Amazing, how time really flies! But on a more informative side I wanted to let all of our good friends (and readers of this blog, I hope) know that we are doing really well and grateful to the Lord that He has provided everything needed to "transport" us to this beautiful city (of course, L'viv is beautiful as well:-)!!

The move itself went really smooth and we were able to use a really large truck - big enough to transport BOTH of Katya's piano's!!:-) So, now, we just need to figure out what to do with them both. Our Kyiv friends and my brother Slavik, came to help us unload the truck. We arrived around 20:30pm and by around 22:00pm all our stuff were upstairs and truck unloaded. Thank you, thank you again to everyone who has helped us in L'viv and Kyiv with this move!

Where we live?
We are renting a 2 room appartment on the 21st flooor (yes, no kidding) of a relatively new appartment building near Zhytomyrskaya metro station. Here's the picture of me on the street right near our building, which was taken by Katya from our balcony...


Can't see me? I'm that little gray spot right near the black car...:-)

Anyhow, you probably can tell that we sort of live "on the top of the world"!! However, our windows do not face downtown Kyiv, so we rather see the Zhytomyr highway and nice forests, which are on the suburbs of Kyiv.

Переїзд до Києва: потрібна допомога

Привіт друзі, так, ми переїздимо до Києва і я пишу цей пост, щоб детальніше розповісти про нашу потребу в допомозі при завантаженні/розвантаженні машини. Речей накопилося досить багато і нам потрібна допомога, щоб все це успішно і швидко перевезти. Отож:

Хто може допомогти у Львові:
Потрібна допомога в завантаженні машини (4-5 моцних хлопців:-), бо машина буде порівняно пізно (біля 9:30-10:00 ранку) і нам потрібно її за 1-1,5 годинки завантажити, щоб ще встигути доїхати в Київ і там розвантажитися до кінця дня.  Тому, якщо ви можете допомогти, підходьте будь-ласка до нашої квартири (вул. Вол. Великого 73, кв. 45, під'їзд 3-й) біля 9:45 в суботу 19 листопада.

Хто може допомогти у Києві:
Потрібна допомога в розвантаженні машини (5-6 моцних хлопців:-), бо машина буде порівняно пізно (біля 20:00-21:00 вечора) і нам потрібно її як можна швидше розвантажити. Тому, якщо ви можете допомогти, підходьте будь-ласка до нашої орендованої квартири (вул. Феодори Пушиної 19, зразу на виході з метро Житомирська) біля 21:00 в суботу 19 листопада.

Productive day in KYIV: US VISA, new boss, appartment to live in



Well, yesterday was a very LONG but one of the most productive days in my life for past couple of months. May be I should rather say the day when many things, that have been happening on the background (preparations, thoughts, prayers) just fell into place and I have seen the physical results of those. To summarize all that 18 hours long day I have got my VISA to US, received approval for my Christmas/New Year vacation from my new boss (which means we can come to Passion 2012 and spend Christmas with our friends in US!!:-) and, I think, I have found an apartment to live in when we move to Kyiv. So, now so many questions that we had in our heads cleared up and we can continue on with our move to Kyiv and plans for next 4-6 months of our life.

I have got my US VISA , received approval for Christmas/New Year vacation and found good apartment to live in.

Funny story from that morning... I came to US consulate around 7:45 (as was written at the web site) and there was already a huge line there. Maybe around  25-30 people in front of me to get their visas! I was last in that line... ok, I thought to myself I will wait.How surprised I was when one of the guards asked "Is Mr. Shekhovtsov here?"... I said "Yes, its me". "Please follow me and stand here" - he said to me pointing