luv2hikejulie

The "You don't have anything better to do so update your blog" post

2011-02-16T08:47:00.006-07:00

Walking the kids to school.

Athena getting ready for school.

Renae cross country skiing.

Christina, Athena, Aimery, and Jeff at Quail Hollow.

Christina and Spider-man.

Renae and Athena after coming down the chutes.

Athena chilling.

Me and Aimery during a break in the action.

Me and Aimery after coming down the chutes.

Athena and the escalator.

Tarra at Bubba Gumps

Tarra and I with Bubba the Shrimp.

LOL, I was reminded by my very good friend Stacy that I haven't updated my blog in a while. So I'm am going to give a brief synopsis of my life for the month of February 2011 as I have been somewhat busy. For those of you who don't know I've taken a job in Fairbanks Alaska and actually fly out on the 24th. Initially I am only taking 4 large suitcases and one carry on suitcase to live out of until sometime in May. In my gypsy-nomad nature I've been trying to give away, sell, or trash quite a bit of my stuff as well as say good-bye to new friends, rekindled friends, and enemies. If I were an outsider I would have probably talked to my self about these suicidal behaviors, lol, but that isn't the case I'm only moving.

I recently found my long lost best friend from high school on facebook and she amazingly enough lives in Colorado. So when I was traveling around I met with her in Fairplay and we spent several hours catching up on 20 years worth of stuff, life, and life changing events. As luck would have it though I never thought to pull out my camera and snap a couple of photos. Which I now regret, but what are you going to do.

That same weekend I also met with my friend Tarra who lives in Kansas but grew up in Colorado. She was in town for her nephew's birthday so I drove into Denver from Colorado Springs (took a Conceal Carry Weapon Class, that's right world I'm packing heat). I picked her up from her brother's apartment and we headed off in search of a record store so that I could sell some of my vinyl records that I have been toting around for nearly a decade. The store was downtown and I followed my phone GPS, sorta, to get there but then gave up totally and followed my instinct on how to get there. My instinct was much more adventurous than the damn GPS. Needless to say we found a parking spot downtown and set off to find the store but I forgot the records in car, so we decided to eat at Bubba Gumps instead. See the pictures above.

After this weekend I had two weeks before it would be time to head to Ohio to visit with my family. During these two weeks we met with the realtor to determine whether the house could be placed on the market, started packing some/most of my belongings into tubs and boxes, and have been trying to decide what belongings to put into the four suitcases and one carry-on. Let's say that the new pistols are in one of the suitcases. I bought a .45lc/.410 Taurus and a .45 ACP Springfield Armory. My bedroom is a mess because I've got clothes and crap all over trying to decide whether to keep, trash, or pack.

On Thursday Feb 10th Renae and I headed to Frisco to stay the night with RJ and Cheryl prior to going to the airport on Friday morning to head to Canton. We had fun playing dominos and had a great time. We got up early and got some Starbucks and headed to the Blue Moon for breakfast. (Side Bar: I've been having fun eating at places for the last time but have gained a couple pounds because of it.) We arrived at the airport and parked in the economy lot and managed to get on the shuttle and arrive at the terminal to check our bags. The baggage checking process is becoming such a burden anymore. We stood in this line to be redirected to that line to be redirected to another line. Our flight was to go from Denver to Chicago to Canton/Akron. Our flight from Chicago was delayed several hours because apparently the pilot refused to take the flight because it was not on time. So instead of 15-30 min late we were two hours late. Once we arrived in Canton we were informed that one of our bags was still in Chicago, great. Luckily it was the one with mostly the kids clothes but also our snowboarding boots and boarding pants.

So in the plans for the weekend with the kids was tubing at Brandywine hill and cross country skiing and snow shoeing at Quail Hollow near Canton. Aimery made it clear that he also NEEDED to go to Toys-R-us because Grandma Strange got them gift cards for Valentines Day. So Saturday rolled around and after getting our bags we were headed off to Brandywine for a three hour tubing session. It took us about 45 min to get there and the kids seemed pretty jazzed to go tubing. Once we got our tubes and on the escalator at which point Athena seemed a little timid about the loading and unloading process. After taking our first ride down the chute, Renae and I, spent some time encouraging the kids to try different chutes. Which eventually we made it up to chute 7 (they had 25 chutes).

After tubing we set out to find a Wendy's and encountered the smarty pants of Stow, OH. I had to figure out how to talk and think slowly. After the 15 min it took to order 4 meals we sat down to eat and then headed back to Canton. We found the Toys-R-us that Aimery NEEDED to go to. He was so funny picking out his gift, it was cute. Athena couldn't make a decision about what she needed vs what she wanted.

On Sunday we were to head out to Quail Hollow to rent some cross country skis and take the kids out for their first snow shoe experience. The rental process was a little chaotic but soon we were off. The snow was soooooo much different than the Colorado snow, but luckily I only fell once at it was on a down hill. We all had a great time and decided to head to the secret hill near their house and run down the tubing hill a couple of times.

After tubing on Sunday we headed back home and got ready for dinner. We ate at a Mexican place called El Ricon where the waiter kept calling me "chula" which we all became curious about. At first we thought he called me lula, bella, and various other names. When we left the place and headed to Borders, Jeff looked up on his phone what "chula" meant it was something like when a guy thinks a girl is sexy. After getting up off the floor from laughing I helped the kids pick out some books and we headed home. The kids read to me before going to bed. The next morning we walked the kids to school and headed to the airport.

So that is the last week of January and February to this point. I am now pulling hair out of my head trying to get ready to head to Alaska. I'm excited and scared to bejeebers.

A Year in Review

2011-01-04T08:26:00.002-07:00

Well it is now four days into the new year and I've been thinking back about last year and everything that I accomplished and things I wished I had been able to accomplish. So this is my retrospective mumblings.

Last year I reduced my weight 27.4 lbs which is a tremendous accomplishment. I went from 216 at the beginning of last year to 188 at the end of the year. My goal weight mainly to get back into the military is 168. So 20 more lbs and I am golden. It will be the healthiest I have been since 1994.

Last year I completed four half marathons including one with my sister, the Air Force half. She actually ran the full marathon but we finished within minutes of each other which was cool. My first half was the Reno Rock n River half in which I finished in 3hr7min. This time would elude me for the next two halfs; the Steamworks half in Durango (elevation 9300 feet) and the Gold's Gym half (elevation 4300 feet). Both of these halfs seemed like such work for me and I was absolutely miserable running them so I had little hope for the Air Force half. But man I love running at lower elevation. I rocked the Air Force half coming in 17 min faster than my best half marathon time. The Air Force half took place in Dayton OH at Wright Patterson AFB with an elevation no greater than 2000 feet but more like 500 feet. I came in at 2hr50min. So my new goal for a half marathon time wise is 2hr30min.

Last year I also completed numerous 5k and 10k runs such as the Highlands Ranch 10k in April, Children of Hope 10k in June or July, Rim to Rim 5k in Oct, Galloping Goose 5k in Oct, Scream Scram 5k with Kaleb in Oct, Turkey Trot 2mile in Wichita in Nov, Turkey Trot 5k in Grand Junction in Nov, and the Jingle Bell 5k with Kaleb in Dec.

Last year I started an ambitious project of returning to college. I decided that I truly enjoy working with veterans who have disabilities such as amputee, TBI, some sort of paralyzation, so I decided to pick up a BS in Kinesiology at Mesa State. This would give me more options when I go pick up my PhD (for those of you who knew me in High School ain't that a kick in the pants) other than just social work. I took 7 credit hours in the fall of 10 and received two A's and a B. If grandpa were still around I'm sure I would have earned at least $25 dollars of pocket money for those grades.

Let's see what else, oh yeah I had to be pulled off a mountain by search and rescue. That was quite the little adventure that really shook me confidence. Since that little incident I've been rather hesitant to even go snowboarding. Speaking of snowboarding last year was my second season in the sport and I rock. I was able to go probably at least 16 times last year and have advanced my way up to running powder on blacks or slowly running moguls on blue's.

I had my first crown and next week will receive my second crown. As much as I hate dentist's I really enjoy the one I have in Grand Junction. He barters for service, no not sex, but I traded him a snowboard for some work he did on my teeth. He is a really awesome dentist.

Over the last year I've also been able to come to terms with some of my demons from the past. I have worked through the military thing enough to pick up the courage to try to return to the military. That is truly a work in progress.

My New Year's resolution is to continue my journey to a healthier lifestyle, to live my life to the fullest, to continue to realize my potentials, follow my dreams, and be a good friend and family member.

A three hour tour....until the weather started getting rough!

2010-12-12T19:01:00.003-07:00

Mary and Renae with packs on getting ready to start up the Hunter Creek trail.

All three of us before we start going.

Hunter Creek

We stopped for lunch around 1330 (Mary is eating cheetos)

About an hour later after passing the observation deck above Aspen.

So in February this year I joined the 10th Mountain Hut Organization in the hopes of doing a winter hut trip. After looking at all the options I decided on the Fabi Benedict Hut because it only holds 6 people and I couldn't stand the thought of sharing a hut with 16 strangers. So we reserved the hut for the 10-12 of December, this past weekend. All year long I looked forward to this trip. Of course Renae was in and we invited Mary Lasley, Karyn Franklin, and Cheryl. Cheryl couldn't make it because of her work schedule and Karyn broke her back 6 weeks before the trip (bummer). Mary and I had a planning meeting about a week before the trip and decided on what food to bring and other various necessities. We decided to start out from Grand Junction at 0900 on Friday morning.

Friday morning rolls around and Renae and I pack our bags and make sure we have everything we need or might need. I commented that RJ would be laughing at us because we were bringing things we probably wouldn't need. We left the house around 0830 to go pick up Mary in Palisade and hit the road for Aspen shortly after 0900. We seemed all pretty stoked about the trip and talked about all sorts of things on the way up. We found the Hunter Creek Trailhead fairly easily and Renae dropped Mary and I off with all the gear and went and parked the car. We decided not to cross country ski because it seemed there wasn't that much snow. We were all glad we made that decision because the trail gained almost 2,000 feet of elevation and it would have sucked to be on cc skis.

Once Renae got up to us we put on our packs oriented the map turned on the spot and headed up the trail. We saw quite a few people walking and made sure we were headed in the right direction and hiked on. We came to a fork in the trail where we could go towards Smuggler Mountain or continue on the Hunter Creek Trail. The map didn't show a fork in the trail so we asked a hiker that had come along and she indicated the huts were up on Smuggler Mountain. So we took the fork in the road. We soon began hiking up a couple of switchbacks in which we gained about 300 feet of elevation. We stopped around 130 to eat lunch. We had been hiking about 1 1/2 hours by the time we stopped. I estimated that we had gone about 1 3/4 mile only 4 more miles to go.

After lunch we continued on and the sun had come out. Up until this point it had been lightly snowing and cloudy. I had been leading the crew at this point and we were still going up switchbacks gaining probably another 400-500 feet to the Observation Deck above Aspen. It was about 2 1/2 miles into the trail with meant we had about another 3 1/4 to go. We had thought it somewhat steep to this point but we had no idea that it was about to get much steeper. I would say it was about 230pm by the time we hit the observation deck and I was somewhat concerned that we would make it to the cabin before the sun set but if we didn't we all had headlamps. The trail was marked with intermittent blue blazes. Which were pretty easy to follow.

We started up a steep grade that proceeded up Smuggler Mountain Road. We hiked for about another 1 1/2 hours before the terrain got really steep and I would take 25 steps and stop for 45 secs then another 25 steps and rest for 45 secs. When we started doing the above I guessed that we had another 1 to 1 1/2 miles to go and it was almost 4pm. Renae had started falling behind because she was she was wearing her hunting boots which were rubbing her heels. We stopped long enough for her to put her snow shoes on which seemed to help. We made it to the top of the mountain right at 445pm and it looked like on the map that we should be seeing the turn off for the cabin which was good because I was pretty exhausted as were the other two.

We continued looking for the blue blazes and were still seeing them however it was now almost dark and I was beat. I tossed my pack off for about 5 min and walked ahead to see if I could see the cabin which I couldn't. I dreaded putting my pack back on but did anyway. Renae then took the lead because I had been breaking snow for about an hour and I was in hiking boots and couldn't do it anymore. We all kept thinking that we would be at the hut shortly. By 530pm I was concerned and kept saying I could only make it 5 to 15 more minutes before I thought I would collapse.

Renae gave was able to push me on until about 615pm at that point I was totally exhausted and was ready just to stop. I mentioned several times we should press the SOS button on the spot but the group kept thinking we were around the corner from the cabin. Renae gave me some trail mix which I threw up about 45 min later. At this point my lucidity was fading fast and I told Renae we needed to have a plan. At 640pm we decided to turn around and head back down the way we had come in the hopes that we would see the cabin marker. By now it had been snowing hard for about 15-30. Mary took the lead and had worked way ahead of us. Renae and I stopped around 715pm because I wasn't able to go as fast I kept postholing and why I didn't put on my snowshoes I'll never know. I told Renae we need to press the SOS on the spot because we are headed for trouble if we don't. So Renae got the Spot off my pack and I pressed the SOS button.

At 728pm I got a text from my sister asking if we were alive. I didn't know we had cell service so was really surprised. I texted her back that we needed help and then Renae took my phone because I was really out of it. I held the Spot in my hand and watched the green blinks thinking it was going to transport me some place warm. There were several texts and phone calls from my sister which Renae answered. Christi was coordinating with I guess Colorado State Patrol at first until they could determine our coordinates and get connected to the correct SAR team.

I'm not sure about the time frame but at some point the Aspen Mountain Rescue SAR team contacted my phone and Renae gave them the information they needed, after all we weren't lost because we knew exactly where we were we just didn't know where the cabin/hut was. At several points I thought I was in Alaska, I didn't know why Mary was with us, the snow falling in my headlamp light was pretty, and I knew I quit shivering at 730pm. Being a Kinesiology Student and having just finished A&P I knew that was bad because shivering is the body's way of putting the body back into homeostasis. Renae said that SAR was on their way with snow mobiles.

We connected back with Mary sometime in the 7 o' clock hour and Renae told her to stay behind me because I kept asking to just sit down. We made pretty good time back down the mountain. I would estimate that it had snowed anywhere from 8-12 inches in an hour making following our tracks back down quite difficult. Renae did an awesome job of locating her snowshoe tracks from the way up.

We had to get past a downed tree that we had crawled under on the way up in order to meet the snow mobiles. Which we made it to and beyond when the SAR team reached us. Renae had been telling them over the phone my condition which apparently every one thought was I was in trouble but in my head I was warm, in Alaska, and just ready to go to sleep, geez. So when we reached the team Renae gave them report, like the excellent nurse she is, and one of the guys took my pack off my back. Once the load was off my back I immediately fell face flat into the snow and began rolling down the mountain. John, the SAR team member, was like holy crap whats wrong, and Renae in her best non-sarcastic voice said, "she's disoriented" like hello silly.

I was loaded onto the first snow mobile and they took me down to the ambulance who was waiting at the bottom of smuggler road. I fell again getting off the snow mobile I remember that. The EMT took my shoes and socks of and my feet were blotchy and he wrung about 2 cups of water out of my socks. I was hooked up to a blood pressure cuff and O2 Sat monitor and my blood pressure was 150/100 and my O2 levels were between 86-88. He then took my temp and said crap. My temp was 94.6. He kept calling me Emily and I wasn't sure if I gave him that name or he just couldn't remember Julie.

I don't remember a lot of the ride to the ER in Aspen other than he stuck me with a IV. The two nurses at the ER were great, Jill and I don't remember the other nurses name, but they got my snow gear off without cutting off any of it. They put warm blankets on me and I started shivering. I looked up at the clock on the wall and it said it was after 11pm. The doctor was cool and wanted to know about the Spot and I started getting a little more with it. He told me I had Acute Hypothermia, Hypoxia, and Frost Nip. They put two bags of warm Normal Saline into me and discharged me around 0230 on Saturday morning.

While I was getting a ride to the hospital Renae was still having to walk down the trail because they had put Mary on the other snow mobile but the one that had taken me down wasn't back up there yet. So Renae was trudging down the trail. Once the other driver got back up there they got them down and the Sheriff's Deputy drove them over to the car and they came to the ER.

The head of SAR Hugh something was having a local restaurant open their kitchen so his team could get something to eat. Renae asked if she and Mary could go with them and he said he would take them. Apparently they got served petite steaks and potatoes. The SAR team was awesome. I told them I had a COSAR card and they asked if I could get them the number so they could be reimbursed. Not only did I do that but went onto their website and made a donation to their organization. Aspenmountainrescue.org

What a crazy adventure. The SAR team indicated to Renae that the hut we were headed to was the hardest hut to find in the Aspen area and that they have missed the hut turn off at least three separate times. The were happy that the rescue turned out well because they had been bummed about not being able to find a Snowmass worker how had taken a wrong turn 14 days ago. I'm glad the adventure is over and not sure I will attempt another hut trip.

Jingle Bell 5K at Canyon View Park

2010-12-07T08:34:00.004-07:00

Well the Jingle Bell 5K was really a last minute thought considering we normally register for our events at least 5 weeks ahead of time. This one we registered 4 days before the run. We decided to have the kids run with us since Kaleb is always saying he likes to run. We kept the kids overnight on Friday and got up bright and early (seems like they get up before 7 am now instead of sleeping in until 8 or 9 like their parents). So we got all ready to go and dressed in layers since the forcast was for 40 degrees but it was overcast so a little bit chilly.

We took two separate cars as Renae wanted to go do stuff after the run and I had other stuff I needed to do. So I got to the park first and picked up our packets. The Byrds were 215, 216 and 217. I was 227 and Kaleb couldn't understand why I wasn't 214 or 218. We sat in the car and put on numbers and the jingle bells that came in the packet. About 7 min before the race start we got out and listened to the instructions for the run and then lined up. Kaleb would be running with me and Katie with Renae.

When the horn went off I talked with Kaleb about pacing ourselves and what that meant. Meanwhile Katie thought she needed to keep up with the front runners and so running was struggling to keep up with her. Luckily she is 5 and was only able to hold that pace for less than a 1/4 mile. Kaleb kept asking why Katie was running so fast and I told him not to worry because she will be walking shortly and we will pass her. No sooner did I say that then Katie turned around while running and then fell and hit her head (I am sorry but it made me giggle). We passed by Katie and Renae and Kaleb turned around as if showing off to Katie and ran backwards (again that made me giggle).

I had Kaleb run with Katie and Renae so I could get a couple of pictures of them running together. Kaleb and I then headed off and Katie and Renae kept up with us for about 1/2 mile before they really dropped back. Kaleb talked about running and school. After about a mile into the 5K we started passing a few walkers and that got Kaleb excited again. However, he was running in brand new shoes that we had just purchased the night before and so he was saying his feet were hurting. I put him on my back for about 150 yards and ran with him on my back. Once he was back down running he did alright. We passed a couple of more people so now each time Kaleb had to stop running and walk he would look behind to make sure the people we passed weren't going to pass us. If he thought they were then we would start running again.

Around 2 1/4 miles through Kaleb started saying his feet were hurting again and we had just passed another run/walker. Once we reached the top of the softball fields I bent down and he jumped on my back again. I ran another 150 yards or so with him on my back and then put him back down. I timed our next walk so that we could sprint to the finish. We finished in 40m40s. We waited and yelled for Katie and Renae and they finished about 5 min after us. Amazingly they were not last there were a couple more walkers that finished after they did.

I stayed around for the raffle. And won the very last prize a pair of XS Pearl Izumi running shorts which couldn't be exchanged at the the Bike Shop. So Merry Christmas Christina.

Turkey Trots in Kansas and Colorado

2010-11-24T18:46:00.008-07:00

The dogs trying to warm themselves after the run.

Bethany finishing the 5k.

Bethany half way through the 5k.

Renae with the dogs before the race.

Renae and mom heading for one last bathroom trip before the run.

Renae and mom at the start line.

Me and mom finishing.

All three of us and the turkey.

So I decided to travel back home to Kansas before the holidays and picked the weekend before Thanksgiving. Renae (travel and best friend) decided to go with and we noticed that Wichita's Turkey Trot was that weekend. We discussed running the 10 mile but as it came time to register and we hadn't done much running down graded to the 2 mile. Since my mom had such a funny reaction to me buying hot pink vibram running shoes at the Air Force marathon I decided to start training in them so that I could wear them during the Turkey Trot. We arrived in Wichita late Thursday night and stayed at the airport hotel and met Tarra for breakfast the next morning at the Beacon. We goofed around in Wichita with mom and Bud and then headed to El Dorado to get our feet rubbed at Heads-N-Toes. Grandma was getting her hair done at the same time so we sat and talked with her for a bit. After a grand day in El Dorado we headed to Grandma Fuller's house.

After getting up at 7am the next morning (race day) we headed to pick mom up in Augusta at 0715. The race started at 0930 and we weren't sure about parking or anything so headed in to Wichita around 0740 and got to the run start around 0800. It was pretty freak'n cold (around 25-30 degrees and by comparison to the Grand Junction Turkey Trot was a tropical heat wave) so we stayed in the car for a while and discussed our strategy. We got our race packet and discussed the awesomeness of the long sleeve shirt. We decided to start warming up around 0900. I got lots of odd looks when I was walking around in my vibrams, one guy even asked, "Are you going to run in those?"

We found out that the 2 mile started at 0940 after the 10 milers started at 0930. So after the 10 milers started we worked our way from sunny spot to sunny spot until we reached the start line. So with about a minute to start I looked over and couldn't find mom and Renae said she moved to the back of the pack. Then the gun went off and I sprinted off feeling pretty good. Of course there were tons of kids in this race who thought there place to start was at the very front. So the first mile or so I spent a good deal of time avoiding kids who would stop right in front of me or would run 4 or 5 across on the sidewalk. I checked my IPOD and it said I was just at a mile and running around 8 min miles. I thought holy crap I'm fast. I was able to keep that pace for only another 1/2 mile or so and had to slow down because I was nearly out of breath. Once I was within 400 yards of the finish I kicked back up and crossed at 19.03 which I thought was awesome.

I started walking back along the course so I could get pictures of Renae and mom. Renae was only a couple of minutes behind me. I think she finished around 23 min. Mom was a couple of minutes behind her and I ran with her the rest of the way in. She finished in 26 min I think. I was really proud of her because she hadn't run in a long time and she said she ran the whole thing. She was so inspired that she said she is going to sign up for the Jingle Bell 5k, awesome job mom.

So by the end of the trip to Kansas I had developed a cold and humidity induced water retention. So slept the entire trip back to Colorado. Fast forward four days and it is time for the Grand Junction Turkey Trot benefiting the firefighters.

Renae worked the night before so I told her I would wake her up at 0830 so she could roll out of bed, get dressed, and get in the car and I would have everything else ready (or at least I hoped). Naturally it's the coldest day to date of the year a whopping 5 degrees when I wake up. What to wear what to wear. I decided on running tights with shorts over them and my really cool new running shirt that my mom got me but covered that with a sweatshirt and what Renae has now termed my "chemo hat", nursing humor I just don't know about it.

So I get the dogs stuff ready, put bottles of water in the car, start the car (after all it is only 7 degrees now), put some breakfast in the car and head to wake Renae. Although asleep manages to dress in record time so I load the dogs and we are out the door. Oh yeah did I mention this was a dog friendly run and somewhere in our screwed up head we thought it would be nice to bring them. We got parked at Albertson's and got the dogs leashed and out of the vehicle and started walking to the race start. Well the dogs needed to poop in the bank grassy area. What is the one thing Julie forgot about, that's right poop bags. I managed to find a trash bag in my car (I don't know why it was there but thankful it was) and Renae scooped up the poop and ran it over the trash can at the gas station.

By now it had warmed up to a balmy 9 degrees. My face hurt like no tomorrow. We walked to the start line managing to avoid about 60 other dogs and 900 people. We stood up on the side walk as the race started because I wasn't sure how the dogs would do. While we were waiting I managed to throw my camera on the ground, dislodge my earphone plug from my IPOD, get tangled with Kyrie's leash, and almost kick someone. I got myself all put back together and looked up and the walkers were already passing us. I told Renae that I didn't want to pass all the walkers because I PLANNED to run so we jumped into the fray and began weaving through strollers, kids, and dogs.

Now those of you who know the dogs know that Zeus is a people greeter and Kyrie, well Kyrie needs to be on heavy doses of Xanex. I wished I had horse blinders on her she yanked, pulled, and skitted every which way while we were trying to weave through the traffic of people. A stroller would go by, she was off this way, then a runner with a dog would go by and she was off that way. Maybe a 1/4 mile into the thing I told Renae I couldn't do this and started walking so Renae who had Zeus, who was running like he had been doing it for years on a leash, was right beside her. I walked maybe 100 yards and stopped on the side of the road trying to decide whether to turn around or continue. I had this little mental debate going on when alas I saw Bethany trotting towards me. The pain in my head said turn around and wait at the finish line, however, the competitor inside me said you can do this. So I sidled up to Bethany and we walked together for about a mile. During this mile Kyrie tried tripping me twice and tried ripping my shoulder out of the socket at least 1/2 dozen times. It's a good thing animal cruelty laws are more severe then child abuse because I'm sure I thought about hanging her from a tree a time or two (just kidding, but not really). I saw Renae on the trip back down the River Trail and decided to jog a little to see if I could catch up. I bid ado to Bethany and Kyrie and I were on our way.

At this point Kyrie was doing really well until we reach the turn around point. I made the turn Kyrie failed to yield the right of way and we got tangled again. I'm sure this was somewhat comical to watch and several people commented that it wasn't the dogs fault. Well of course it wasn't it was her parents fault we all know that. Anywho, I trotted along until Kyrie tripped me and then we walked again. This whole thing seemed to take forever and I wished I were done because my head hurt. Finally, finally I saw Renae and Zeus and just let go of Kyrie's leash so Renae could deal with her while I finished. I crossed the finish line handed them my running number thingy and waited for Bethany to cross the finish line.

On the way back to the car I told Renae that Kyrie couldn't come on any more group runs without being heavily drugged. I checked the temp 15 degrees. Definitely the coldest temp I've run in. We swung by Starbucks on the way home and as I was sitting in the drive through watched as my windshield finished cracking all the way down, fascinating to watch expensive to fix. Oh well.

Once we got home I was dead quite literally. I laid down for a 3 hour recovery nap. Sucks being sick.

VA Sponsored Deer Hunt and Separate Elk Trip

2010-11-09T09:04:00.004-07:00

The vets on the VA Hunt (Matt Lucas, John, Darryl, Me, and Riff)

Myself, my deer, and Ryan my guide.

Sunrise one morning on the ranch.

Renae from last weekend. Check out the hi speed hi tech shoe covers.

Sunrise up on the Mesa while hunting elk.

I was approved to go along on the RecreationTherapy and Butch Lowery Disabled Veteran Hunt the last weekend of October. I was super stoked because I've not been hunting since I left Liberal, KS oh so many years ago. I was also a little nervous because there were supposed to be a bunch of people there and I only knew Matt Lucas. I quickly calmed my fears with the help of Glenn White who helped me sight in my brand new 1 year old 30-06. It only took about 12 rounds to get me sighted in at 100 yards. So Friday the 29th of October I headed to the Stop-N-Save in Clifton which is where we were meeting everyone since no weapons can be brought onto VA property. I was transporting Darryl's weapon as he was riding with Matt in the government vehicle.

We got up to the ranch which is 10 miles north of Rifle and waited while D came down to unlock the gate. Then we parked the cars and some of the guys rode up in vehicles while Matt, Vance, and I walked the 1 1/2 miles up to the camp. Nothing like getting the heart pumping. Once we got there we (Matt, Vance, and I) began setting up camp. Matt didn't want any of the other vets to help for fear of getting hurt (lots of paperwork). Matt then headed back down to Junction because he had a funeral to attend and the guides took the vets out around 1530 hours. My guide was Ryan. We walked to our blind which was set up over looking a ravine and two ridges. We sat and talked for several hours before getting restless. We snuck out of the blind (which I didn't realize was that difficult but they are noisy) and walked further up onto one of the ridges so we could see better down in the ravine.

After walking for about 5 minutes Ryan stopped and lifted his binoculars then handed them to me. He pointed to a group of trees where a doe was laying down. I saw the doe and then looked over to the right and there was a 3x3 buck just standing there looking at me. Ryan told me I needed to take the shot even though it was downhill and about 175 yards away and I was unsupported. He handed me this monopod which I put my rifle on. I'm sure someone looking at this spectacle would have thought I was drunk the way my rifle was waving around on that monopod. Thank gosh when I chambered a round into the rifle it didn't load because I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to hit the broad side of a barn using that dang thing. So when I pulled the trigger it just went click. So I reloaded and told Ryan I didn't think I could take the shot from here. All the while my buck just stood there watching this whole thing play out. Ryan and I maneuvered around so that I would have a better vantage point while sitting on a bucket. Needless to say the buck was still there when I got settled. This time I was sitting and unsupported from about 160 yards with the sun setting fast. I locked in the buck in my sights right behind the shoulder and pulled the trigger. I immediately chambered another round but lost the buck in my sights. Ryan said he jumped up and initially thought I hit him so we waited then went to investigate. By the time we got down to where the buck had been standing it was dark and Ryan and D looked around a bit but didn't see a blood trail.

I was disappointed but one of the other veterans got a buck so I went with the guys to learn how to field dress. We picked up the buck and took it out to clean it and brought it back and hung it so it could cool down over night. We then ate and I headed to bed as I was exhausted.

The next morning I got up and Ryan and I headed out to our blind. All morning long we watched three does dance around the area but never saw my buck. However, as the morning progressed we watched a gaggle of magpie's scavenge at something over in the oakbrush about 50 yards away from where I shot at the buck. Soon a coyote joined them and I noted that it was odd that a coyote would come out in the middle of the morning to eat on something. I got a sinking feeling in my gut and we decided to go over and investigate. Sure enough there was the buck which I shot. I started crying but quickly sucked it up because all of this was very anti climatic. It wasn't until D came down and told me it was a hell of a shot to make and that we could save some of the meat that I felt better about the whole situation. So I helped field dress my animal and we took it up to camp to hang. The rest of the day was pretty much just hanging out. The next morning the other two veterans went out. Around 0730 we heard a couple of shots but apparently everyone who went out forgot to take radio's. So at 0930 we went to pick up Darryl and Vance (Darryl is blind) and Darryl was sitting there by himself. He had shot a deer at 0730 and Vance was out tracking it. So we called for reinforcements and D, Matt, and Vance went to track it and they were soon joined by Randy. Thankfully within a couple of hours they located the animal and were able to bring it down from the mountain it decided to climb. Darryl was pretty happy as this was the first time that he had been hunting since he lost his sight 5 years ago.

I got back and picked up Renae and we headed to Old World Meats to get my deer processed. I turned in 55 lbs and have gotten back hamburger and steaks. Still waiting for my sausage and sticks.

Renae got pretty stoked and asked if I wanted to go elk hunting with her during the next weekend. I was pretty game for it so we went to the DOW and pulled some left over tags for the Collbran side of the Mesa. I looked on-line to see where the migration trends were for that area and we decided to hunt near Atkinson lake were we have previously camped. We headed up on Nov 6th after the Veterans Parade and got there around 5pm and so sat underneath a clump of trees where there were lots of tracks. We never saw anything. The next morning we got up and headed to a place that was down from that first evening and sat and watched. Renae went off down the road to see if she could scare anything up but never did. She got back and said she found fresh poop and lots of tracks. We decided that we would sit there that evening to see if we saw anything. So we picked our firing positions and went back to the motel.

We returned later that afternoon and heard lots of things moving around us but never saw anything. We came back the next morning to watch a more open field and never saw anything. I was a little disappointed but since I didn't know how to hunt elk felt pretty successful in just being out in the snow and not getting frostbite.

We went out the next weekend as well and saw a herd of elk down on private property but never saw any up in the elevation in which we were hunting. But I took some nice pictures of the sunrise.

Rantings from a Maniacal Wanna-be Athlete

2010-10-18T08:37:00.002-06:00

Well ever since the Air Force Half Marathon on Sept 18th my running has taken a downword spiral to say the least. For most people they might say, "oh well you need to recover from the half" I say maybe. But I think I've ran a total of maybe 20 miles since the half marathon which was now a month ago. With the longest of that 20 miles being a little over 4 miles on hills. I can't really seem to click back into it. My breathing gets weird and it feels like my lungs are coming out of my chest or I feel sluggish like I haven't been nutritionally sound (which in reality I haven't been as good).

Needless to say the last couple of weeks have been especially frustrating because my mind is ready to get back into running it just seems my body isn't. Maybe it's because I need the thrill of the crowd or the competitiveness of running next to someone who is maybe going a little bit faster. I went for a run yesterday on the River Trail and I even pushed myself up the Broadway hill on the first section of my run. Wanted to do between 6 and 7 miles so I set my ipod for a 10k. Well the first 5K was really no problem but then I felt really sluggish like I needed fuel but I'd only been running 40 min. By the time I hit 6K I had to walk and that was frustrating. So I checked my knees, fine, ankles, fine, feet, a little sore but fine, what then what the frick.

Maybe it's what I'm fueling my body with before my run; to many simple sugars. Well I did eat Cap't Crunch for breakfast that morning. Plus my post run recovery has slipped some so maybe I go back to the drawing board and eat my banana and bagel with peanut butter before my runs and after my runs go back to drinking my recoverite.

I've been doing circuit training at the gym on Tues and Thurs to help build muscle strength and endurance. Plus then going for a stationary bike ride for 30 min to work some of my other leg muscles. Next semester I am taking Biomechanics and Physiology of Exercise at Mesa so hopefully that will give more insight as well.

Perhaps it is my up bringing and being told I wasn't as good as so and so or I wasn't smart enough. While I've overcome this in other parts of my life maybe it hasn't hit home yet in physical activity. Maybe I've lost my inner drill Sergeant as my friend Bethany calls her inner voice. But I shouldn't have to dig deep to run 6 miles for crying out loud I ran a PR in the half.
We haven't covered the brain yet in A&P so I can't tell which part of my brain helps with motivation and "digging deep" but I sure has hell can tell you which muscles are activated when I run and how to make fast twitch muscle fibers respond more like slow twitch muscle fibers.

Bowha ha ha ha ha (I am Maniacal which is my word of the day).

The Royal Gorge "Rim to Rim" 10k ummm I mean 5K

2010-10-05T09:50:00.004-06:00

Several weeks ago Renae and I signed up for the "Rim to Rim" Royal Gorge 10k outside of Canon City. We thought it would be a nice follow-up to the Air Force 1/2 marathon and I'd never been to the Royal Gorge (another Canyon). So we headed out Friday late afternoon and meandered down 50 to Montrose then Gunnison. Then we headed to Salida and ate at my most favoritest Mexican eatery. First thing I ordered were fire roasted jalapeno's. After setting my mouth on fire we finished eating and headed out to Canon City. It was dark now and supposedly deer were everywhere even though I didn't see any. However, the corners were tight and the traffic was intermittent with their dang bright lights on. We got in around 830 pm and got situated before going to sleep. We got up the next morning and decided to leave around 7am since we were n't sure of the parking and how long it would take us to pick up our packets. We drove into the park and watched the deer along side the road eating breakfast it was very surreal. We picked up our race packets and I was pretty jazzed because the t-shirt (cotton) was a burnt orange color. Happy because orange is my favorite color and because most race t-shirts I've gotten lately have been dark colors like black or navy blue. We then parked and slowly took our time getting ready as it was only 725 and the race didn't start until 0830. I sat in the back of my car and watched people which is something I am really good at until about 0750. We then headed over to the start line to do the prerace things like go to the bathroom and stretch. We talked to a couple of different runners from Colorado Springs who talked about the running clubs there. Renae and tried to decide which way we would be running to start the race. Since we were standing on an incline for the start I hoped it was downhill but we were wrong and it started up the incline. Dang....I'm really starting to take my sister's philosophy on hills. As the race director explained the route there were three different loops for the 10k all of which required up hill running before returning down hill on the way back, then up hill, down hill, up hill then way way down hill and across the Royal Gorge bridge to the finish. Then the race director stated that if we switched from the 10k to the 5k to let them know at the finish line which set the tone in my head of opting for a out. So we were off Renae and I both running together, Renae lasted longer running up the hill than I did but not by much. We both ran about a 1/4 of a mile before I was huffing so hard I could see the air racing into my lungs as I swallowed all of the oxygen that surrounded me. We walked the next 1/4 mile and started running again. I was a little bit ahead of Renae because she hadn't yet been able to relax into a stride. Shortly I found myself at the 5k turn around and decided that my lungs nor my legs could take a lot more up hill running. So turned at the 5k turnaround and saw Renae was right behind me she too turned around at the 5k and caught up with me in a couple of minutes on the down hill. This was on one of the camp ground loops and we soon hit the pavement headed back down to the bridge. Now I hadn't noticed it when we drove in but this road was a pretty good incline, I would say 8 or 9%, enough that I had to drop down into a lower gear when driving in. So that said it sucked running up and was awesome running down. Renae and I were running together at this point. Renae with her long strides and me with my littler strides at one point we stopped to walk for about 45 sec and then started running again. These are my favorite routes because I can just release my body and let it fall forward. The second half of the 5k my average pace was probably between 9-10 min miles which is about 2-3 min faster than I normally run. As we got to the bridge Renae needed to walk again but alas I was already on the bridge. With my fear of heights I was only able to turn around and take a picture of her, I had been carrying my camera the entire way as I had no pockets, and turn back around and run like some wild man was chasing me. Now it was probably only 400 meters across the bridge but it was my fastest 400 meters I've ever run. Renae finished about 1 min behind me. It was my fastest 5k despite all the walking it seemed I did...I came in at 36'52, which was 15 out of 24 in my age group.

For lunch we tried a brewpub in Canon City called McClellans which served the most disgusting nastiest tasting draft beer on the face of the solar system. I watched several people sample the beers and then laughed as they nearly threw it up and Renae who I've never seen not finish a beer ordered a stout and took three drinks and that was all. I ordered a homemade root beer and it tasted like anis straight from an anus. Lol sorry that made me laugh. After drinking and then eating at the pub we had to stop by the candy store and get some real food. The candy store made Jalapeno Fudge which was really good but I ended up getting my old standby Amaretto Fudge.

That evening I had booked reservations on the Royal Gorge train for a murder mystery dinner. Lets just say it was only slightly better than the melodrama in Durango. But the food was to die for. Overall it was a great weekend. Will post pictures soon. I promise.

"Ay I'm Walk'n Here" in Boston

2010-09-29T15:14:00.003-06:00

Well as luck would have it I was recently selected to be on the Disabled Veterans Working Group at work and just in the nick of time. On the first conference call I was on they discussed having a Working Group Meeting in New Hampshire. That excited me because I had never been to New Hampshire, but then it changed to Boston. Yeah, it had been 17 years since I last visited Boston, during the Army AIT training. My luck continued as they week that was booked was the week after the Air Force Marathon, this was lucky only until I found out the protocol of Government travel from point to point destination. So after much negotiation with our employee travel person at the VA I bought a ticket from Dayton, OH to Boston, MA with the understanding that I would be at least partially reimbursed for the ticket. Renae was also excited because she had never been to Boston and decided to come visit Thursday and then I would stay two additional days and we would fly home on Sunday. As I got there the Sunday after the Air Force Half Marathon I was ready to crash, but I walked around the hotel a bit to get my bearings. Ate at PF Changs and watched some football on TV. The next day, Monday, was our travel day and as I was already there decided to go get my Hard Rock Cafe pin. But before I headed off downtown I asked the front desk at the hotel if there was a running route that she could point me to. Wow, they actually had a 4 mile and 6 mile route that she gave me. I ate breakfast and headed off for a 4 mile run. Truly Boston is a running and cycling city. Most of my run was along sidewalks and I met no less than 100 people out running too. As I really didn't know where I was going and was reading the directions as I ran, not to mention jumping around people exiting buildings I walked some and ran some. I nearly managed to end up in the Charles River while reading my directions. But I found my way around the loop and made it back to the hotel. I showered and headed off for adventure. I managed to get my mass transit ticket with a little help from the transit guy and was on my way. The hotel, Sheraton Boston Hotel, gave me general directions to HRC. So I got to Gov't Center, Quincy Market, and Fanueil Hall and was overwhelmed by the number of people on a Monday wandering around. Needless to say while the HRC was in the general area I had some difficulties finding it but was not afraid to ask directions. I was only a block off and was soon siting down to Hawaiian Chicken and picking out my guitar pins.
I got back to the hotel and started looking for things to do once Renae got into town on Thursday. She said she had wanted to go to a comedy show so I found a show at the Comedy Vault off of Boylston across from Boston Common. I pretty much rested the rest of Monday so that I would be with it on Tuesday for our meeting.

Tuesday morning I was at the appointed place at the appointed time and met the rest of my group. It was great meeting these people as it felt like the group was alive which is more than I can say for several meetings I've gone to. Several of them wanted to go to a Red Sox game that evening and initially I declined, I mean really I don't know these people. But then I was like, "What the hell, they are veterans too and they seem fun." So I took off with them walking to Fenway Park after our work day had ended. They were funny guys I bought my ticket off a authorized scalper (not sure what that meant, but Fenway actually had a spot for those who were approved to resell their tickets) for a standing room only nonseat. We ate at one of the street vendors in which I managed to get mustard all over Harvey's hotdog, that will probably be the last time he asks me to help him, lol. We headed off to find our seats and I was going to hang with the guys until the game started then head off to find my seat. We were right above the Orioles pitching dugout and I ended up just sitting in an empty seat with the guys. Funny thing is they paid 38 dollars for their tickets and I paid 20 dollars. I didn't much pay attention to the guy except when Bill kept yelling "He is going to hit the ball right to us" then Ed would say "Every man and woman for themselves". So obviously I got ready to knock the old man down to catch a ball, but a ball was never hit to us. That was a fun night but really late, Ed then started a joke that I ate all the time because every time he looked over at me I was eating something plus everyone piled their trash in front of my feet. So the next couple of days we worked on what we wanted the group to accomplish. Then it was Thursday and Renae was scheduled to get into town at 415pm. We had tickets to the Comedy Vault at 8 so when she got in we headed downtown to walk around a bit. I was now a pro at hoping on and off the subway knowing which direction I was going. We ate at Remingtons on Boylston as the Comedy Vault was in the basement. That was the first bad sign, not good enough to be on the main floor. Renae enjoyed her clam chowda' and we walked around the area waiting until we could be seated. The Comedy Vault probably seated 40 people maximum and as we had reservations and were the first ones there they asked if we wanted to sit alone or with a group, alone, hello. So the guy at the door pointed us in a general direction and we sat down, he then got in trouble for not "front loading" the seating area as we sat two tables back from the stage, red flag number two. Red flag number 3 is there was only one local patron of the club that night and 22 out of staters. So the show got started and the Emcee announced the main guy who came out and every other word was "Fu**". I nearly stroked out watching a girl from Connecticut and a girl from Georgia, that was funny. The guy not so much, well really not at all. They had like 5 people do stand up and only one of them was funny. I tried to escape to the bathroom but as I was walking back up the hall they opened the curtain and ushered me back in, blasted. So it got done around 930pm and we made it back to the hotel by about 1030p.

Friday morning we decided to go for a run on the 4 mile loop that I had found. But because of the condition of the path we were using Renae wasn't able to relax so we decided to walk. When we got back to the hotel it was near lunch time so I took Renae over to McGreevey's an awesome Irish Sports Bar. Once finished with lunch we headed to the Wharf area where we thought we might get some seafood. We walked past the old YMCA where as a young soldier we would stay when visiting Boston. That was on the way to where the Cassin Young and "Old Iron Sides" is moored. We toured around there and decided instead of walking back we would take a water taxi to the Aquarium which was back down by Fanueil Hall. While waiting for the evening to progress so we could eat supper we found a fruit/veg market and got some fruits. Earlier in the day we had also booked a performance at the Boston Center for Arts called the "Real Inspector Hound". We ate supper at the Charter House and I was able to eat crab and Renae had another cup of Chowda'. It was then 10 till 7pm and our performance started at 8pm. Luckily we decided to head back to the hotel before going to the show because it wasn't where I thought the Center was located. It was instead a 15-20 min walk from the hotel not close to any subway station. So with it being 720pm we walked with a purpose to the Center. This show must have been aimed at those brainy types because I didn't get most of the humor and dialogue of the play. But it was awesome watching the audience. We then walked back to the hotel and it was 10pm. We passed a spooky looking church and made up some stories.....awesome way to pass time at 10pm when it dark out.

Saturday we decided to hit the pool and hot tub first before venturing out into the city. It was nice to soak the feet and legs after two days of walking around. We decided to hit some of the parks and Little Italy today so headed off seeking adventure and boy did we find some. We watched people sunbath in a park, played in a fountain, and found the most wonderful Italian eating place called L'Conte which I would recommend 100 times over. I believe it is on Salem street. We then partook in some Gelato I got Snicker and Renae got German Chocolate Cake. We wondered around and found some churches to look at and then started walking to the subway station to go to the Public Gardens. Outside Little Italy was a bicycle rickshaw and we asked how much it would cost for a ride to the Garden and decided to do it. What fun that was he was weaving in and out of traffic like we owned the road, a couple of times I thought we might have to get out and push, but he made it fine. We walked into the Gardens and literally saw 9 weddings or wedding parties going on, it was funny. Renae and I tried to get into as many wedding photo's as possible, lol. We turned in early on this date we were full and exhausted. We got back to the hotel around 7pm. Our flight was to leave at 3pm on Sunday.

We didn't do to much on Sunday another dip in the hot tub and then Brunch at McGreevey's. Renae was disappointed they weren't serving lunch because she wanted to try their Bangers and Mash but now she will have to wait till Ireland next year. It was an awesome trip and I will get pictures posted later.

Air Force Half Marathon Sept 18th, 2010

2010-09-19T16:55:00.005-06:00

All of us after the run, nice compression socks, I want some.

Renae near the end of the half marathon.

Last Wednesday Renae and I flew to Canton, OH in prep for the Air Force Half Marathon in which my sister and brother in law would be running the full marathon. I got to spend some much needed time with my niece and nephew. Thursday after they got out of school Renae and I took them to Build-a-Bear, then Cold Stone for some ice cream, Borders (got some books), and then Chuck'E Cheese. What a fun night.

We headed to Dayton after walking the kids to school, mom came with us to Dayton. We got to eat at Cracker Barrel and I stopped by my house in Grove City outside of Columbus. We got checked into the hotel and then headed to Wright Pat to get our race packets and Renae was running the 5K. I know, crazy, huh the day before running a half marathon. I bought some Vibram fivefingers at the expo, mom didn't like the color of them but they go with my running gear.

We watched the Air Force Drill Team perform and the posting of colors. There were 1800 registered runners for the 5K, yet they still had to make announcements that kids needed to move to the rear of the pack. With that being said when the base commander said racers to the ready, a 70 something year old lady lined up in the front line in a racing position with her fingers on her watch just like everyone else in the front line, however, when the commander said go the old lady don't drilled, smashed, and crushed. I almost laughed if it weren't sad that a 70 year old lady thought she should be up front with the 5 min per mile runners. Anyway I predicted that Renae would be in around 40 min or later so mom and I lined up at the finish line and watched people finish the race. The first runner came in at 16'37' crazy I tell you. Not to long after that mom said, "I see Renae". I looked up and saw the time was 35 min and I said no way, but then here came Renae running towards the finish line. She crossed at like 36,45". She said she would have been sooner except a lady collapsed in front of her and she had to help her down to the ground. When I asked how long she was with the lady she said about 3 minutes. Yeah Renae.

So we met up with Jeff after they got into town and decided that we would leave for the base at 0530 in the morning. We followed the directions given to us at the race expo which was given to 8000 other people. We made it to Hartman Road just fine but then ran into the a line of traffic within a mile and sat there until about 0635. Jeff and Christi rightfully got anzy and decided to bail. They started walking to the base and called and told us what was going on. We got onto the base and got parked about 0700 hours. We made it up close to the start line and heard the gun go off signalling the start of the marathon. We hoped that Christi and Jeff made it to the start before the marathon started. We waited in line for the bathrooms about 40 minutes.

Renae and I then made our way over to our start line and found our pacing team leader Kristen from Columbus, OH. She said she had run 26 marathons. We were in the 2h30min pace group. We started way back in the pack and didn't cross the start line for 5 min or so after the gun went off. It's been a long time since I've run in a pack that had no real formation, matter of fact I don't remember the last time I felt like a gazelle running in a herd. But quite literally for the first 3 miles we were grouped so tightly that it was hard to not get stepped on I hopped and slide and did a tango with 250 other people. It would have been much easier had we been running in formation to a cadence. Our pace group in the first three miles was averaging between 10 and 11 min miles. I managed to stay with the pace group until about mile 4.8 when I was exhausted. I walked and ate/drank a gel and then started running again. I finished 5 miles under 55 min so knew that I was on pace to finish under 3 hours if I could keep forcing myself to run when I wanted to walk. I was able to reach mile 9 by 1h50m so had 70 min to finish 4 miles. Mile 9 I'm not sure where we were in relation to the base but it seemed like we were running on a highway right in side the gate (which gate I'm not sure but it had a beat the gate sign). This hill was incredible and I walked the entire way up but then was able to run down it. At mile 9 they had orange halves and that kinda revived me. By the time I hit mile 10 I was seeing some of the people from my pace group so was feeling a little bit better. There was another hill shortly after mile 10 and I just put my head down and powered/willed myself running up it. We then ran back onto base around mile 11 and I knew I was almost there. I started looking for Christi as she was scheduled to finish right around the same time I would if I kept up my pace. When I was at mile 11 I was like 2h20min into my run. I had aspirations to finish at 2h45m at this time but wasn't sure if I could keep running as fast as I had been. As we rounded into the runway area around mile 12 was getting more and more energy even bending over a couple of times to pick up whole gel packs that people had dropped. I saw mom and the kids at mile 12.25 and ran over to give them hugs. I then started running harder because I knew I was almost done.

The last 3/4 of a mile was killer for me because we were on the tarmac and it was hot and falsely marked. As I hit the sign that said mile 13 I started running harder but realized that the sign was wrong because I ran another 4/10 of a mile after that sign. There were thousands of people cheering on the runners as we got to the finish line. I crossed at 2h50m15s and a full bird colonel placed my medal around my neck and then suddenly I saw my sister. She asked if I had seen Jeff, but I pretty much ran with my head down for the last 2 miles at least. I went and got some water and then stood with Christi waiting for Renae and Jeff. It seemed like it was forever that we were waiting but in reality Renae came in 13 min after I did. I needed to go use the bathroom so Renae and I sat down on the grass near the porta janes and waited for Jeff to come in. Jeff finished about 30 min after Renae.

Next was the process of hooking back up with mom and the kids and walking the 1.2 miles from the finish to where the car was parked, YIKES. I send Jeff and Christi off to catch up with mom as they needed to check out of the hotel. Renae and I walked/shuffled/zombied to the car and eventually found our way to the car and made it off the base. Yeah.

The San Rafael Swell in Utah

2010-08-31T09:29:00.005-06:00

Renae at Temple Mountain Mine Town

Renae in Bell Canyon

Renae rock climbing in Bell Canyon

Renae playing in the trees.

Again playing in trees.

Coming out to the trailhead

Me working my way up a ledge in Bell Canyon.

In the canyon

Hopefully it doesn't start raining.

Which way do we go.

A couple weeks ago we decided, weather permitting, that we would go hike around in Utah. Last week we decided we would head towards Green River and hike in the San Rafael Swell. We watched the weather closely and decided we could go based on the weather report. Since the Swell is pretty much slot canyons you don't want to get caught in a flash flood. So we headed out early Sunday morning and got to Goblin Valley around 10 am and of course it was overcast and hasn't really stopped raining. The person working the BLM office suggested we not hike there because it hadn't stopped raining and is forcasted to rain all day. We kind of hemhawed around a little and headed to the trailhead to just check it out. There was a man and his daughter that just came out and indicated it was really dry. So we decided to a check it out walk for about 30 and then come back out. What a blast, really looking forward to returning here to hike. We got back to the car around noon and decided to drive around a little bit. We found some really awesome camping and hiking places further up the swell on BLM land.

The Gold's Gym 1/2 Marathon and a week worth of illness and poor diet

2010-08-22T10:27:00.002-06:00

Renae finishing her 1/2 marathon

Me a little over half way through the half.

Renae and Bethany before the start of the races. Bethany ran the 5K.

Well last weekend which seems so incrediblly long ago Renae and I ran the 1st Annual Gold's Gym Half Marathon. I had been running in the gym for the most part since it got really hot in June so this aside from the Durango half was my first run outside. I am attempting a new tactic which I had hoped would make me faster. That is running 9 min and walking a minute. But since I hadn't ran outside for a while I had a hard time pacing myself. So my first mile was like an 11 min mile and my second mile was like 10.39. So needless to say I wore myself out pretty fast because I was planning for between 12-13 min miles. So by the time I was 3 miles in I was really out of whack and was walking more. I couldn't find any sort of rythem so I'd walk really fast when I was walking and run hard when I was running. After passing the second aid station I was able to run longer stretches. Till I hit the hills. I was at mile 5 before I met the person in first place which meant that they were only 2.5 miles ahead of me. The nice thing about hills is eventually they go down. The turn around point was connected lakes in the Redlands and it was a downhill trail to the turn around. I was flat out flying down the hill with these big bounding strides which helped me make up some time. I kinda skipped/hopped back up the trail on the return and then ran down the hills that I had walked up. By the time I hit mile 8.5 I had a delusion in my head that I could if I pushed myself come in under 3 hours. This pushed out of my head a mile later with my feet hurting ( don't know what the foot issue is but one would think that my feet would be toughened up by now). So now I started this walk 2min run 3 min strategy which got me to mile 11 by 2 hours and 40 mins in. Then I started thinking I could do this I can do this and started pushing myself a little harder. But on the way back they rerouted the course to add some distance and it kind of took the wind out of my sails. I let the pain in my feet control me. The last 3/4 mile was pure agonizing pain but I made it and Bethany was there at the last turn and ran with me to the finish line. I averaged a 14.47 mile but I know I can do much better. I decided I will start running outside at least twice a week to get my groove back. I waited for Renae and she came in about 20 min after I did (maybe not that long). I ran with her to the finish. This was the first run that I got salt (sweat) in places that hurt so bad it stung and I couldn't sit down. That was mucho mucho painful, when I got home immediately took a shower and then another one. By the end of the day I had 3 showers all with attempts to remove salt. Later that afternoon we had an hour long massage that was a gift from Taysha for doing so much for the wedding.

Kristen and Kaily came into town later that day, and unbeknownst to us, carried the death bug from hell. I got sick Monday morning with it hitting out of the blue like a ton of bricks. Because Kristen, Kaily, Roby, RJ, and Cheryl were all staying at the house Monday night I got a hotel room so I could be sick with no interuptions, lol. Cheryl brought by some soup because I was weak and hadn't had anything to eat all day. I was able to drink the broth but that was about it. Around 7pm there was a knock at the door and it was Renae who was now also sick. Needless to say everyone got sick including Katie and Kaleb who was only exposed for a couple of hours.

Even though that first day I wasn't able to eat hardly anything the second and third day of sickness I just wanted comfort food and ate like I hadn't eaten in weeks. This kinda put a kabosh on my weight loss. Luckily it only affected me for a lb. But I wasn't able to work out either until Thursday and I was able to do one round of circuit training.

Renae was really industrious on Friday night and cooked like three different meals for the week, so there shouldn't be any need to eat out this week which is sweet.

Today I made it to the gym even though I had hoped to run outside. Pretty much ran a warm-up to get ready to get back into the groove of things ran 2.5 miles and then did a little bit of circuit training. Will also get the dogs out to the desert for a walk, so figure that is pretty good.

I'm really hoping to do the Air Force Marathon in the time between 2:30 and 2:45. There were only 34 people who ran this last 1/2 so as far as being motivated by the event it didn't happen. However there are 5-7,000 people running the half for the Air Force, coolio.

4th of July Weekend in Crested Butte

2010-07-06T11:11:00.004-06:00

River on Blue Mesa Cut-off Road.

I believe this is the East Elk river that ran through the valley where we were running.

Bird Man of Gothic wearing, yes, Skunk Cabbage and nothing else.

Pretty flowers along our run route.

Crazy dog, Kyrie.

Elevation we came down to before running down to town of Crested Butte.

Flag attached to cool looking wood.

Me catching up to Renae.

A couple of weeks ago Renae signed us up for this run in a little village outside of Mt. Crested Butte called Gothic, the run was RMBL Gothic to Crested Butte Run, Walk, or Crawl 1/3 Marathon. It was advertised as an all down hill run, I wasn't sure I would want to do it having done 3 runs in a row on the weekends. But eventually I agreed because I thought it might be pretty. We decided to drive the jeep with the two dogs so needless to say space was at a premium and we packed three days worth of clothes for both of us in one small suitcase that could fit in the spare space in the jeep. We headed out on the 3rd of July over the Mesa to Cedaredge then to Crawford along the back side of the Black Canyon down to Blue Mesa and then into Gunnison. We were staying in Gunnison for the weekend but drove on to Crested Butte to pick up our race packets, approximately, 23 miles away.

I went into the Visitor's Center to pick up the packets and change Renae's registration to early walker instead of runner due to infection in her toe that had surgery. This was actually the first race in which we got consecutive numbers until I changed her status. Side note, we generally register at same time in one swoop but we always get numbers that are up to 60 numbers apart this time we were 16 and 17 until she got number 539. Then we decided to head up to Gothic to check out the "down hill course". The paved road ends outside of Mt. Crested Butte and turns into a gravel/dirt road that runs basically the back side of the Maroon Bells. We hit Gothic within 3 miles and we were in awe of the wildflowers that were in bloom. We decided to drive on past Gothic and were amazed at how many people were out hiking and camping in the area. We drove about another 9 miles until snow pack blocked the road.

We headed back to Gunnison, checked into the Rodeway Inn and ate at a little Mexican eatery that was in front of the hotel. The service sucked except the bus people the food was alright. The didn't have their liquor license so no margarita's, :(. And they had a door that when swung open sounded like a donkey. At first I thought it was Zeus out in the jeep howling, but then Renae said it was the door, but I looked every time I heard it. Earlier we had timed how long it would take us to drive to Gothic as I would be dropping Renae off with the dogs as dogs would not be allowed on the buses that would transport us from Crested Butte to Gothic. Then I would drive back to Crested Butte and get on the bus. So knowing that it would take 58 min to get from Gunnison to Gothic we decided we would need to leave no later than 0550 in the morning.

I set my alarm for 0520 but had a hard time motivating. We left the hotel around that time but realized in order to get me on the bus we would have to do a little speeding. So picture this open jeep, mountain driving, 35 degrees or so, wearing running attire. Needless to say going 60-65 miles an hour it didn't take me long to reach a hypothermic state in which I no longer shivered and I couldn't bend my fingers. I got Renae to Gothic around 0640 and she took the dogs and she would start at 0700 am. I turned around and headed back to Crested Butte. I found a parking space next to the Visitor Center and used the bathroom and loaded the last bus. We headed up to the start of the race. When we got there they only had two porta-janes so people were going out into the weeds and just dropping trousers and peeing right there. Needless to say I stood in line for about 15 min waiting to use the facilities. I was still standing there as the race started and nearly got run over. I was able to stand my ground and used the bathroom and then started off.

The first mile had a few rollers in it but I caught up and passed most of the walkers that started at 0800. The first water station was at mile 1. As I started towards Mile 2 the up sections were increasingly difficult so I would walk during these sections. I knew that at Mile 3 we would hit pavement and it would start going downhill. I was following a lady who was run/walking and her husband was driving a golf cart with their elderly Irish Setter was in the back. I kept the dog in sight because it helped motivate me. Once we hit the blacktop there was another water station and then downhill. People were walking back from their morning coffee breaks and sitting out on their balconies and they were awesome cheering people on. I hit Mile 4 and the degree of downhill increased to the point that I was easily running a 9 min mile until Mile 5 where the next water station was. When I hit Mile 5 I could see Renae with the dogs about 3/4 of a mile ahead of me. I texted her that I could see her, I know I'm amazing that I can text and run at the same time, at least until they make it against the law. It took me about 7 min of running to catch up to her. Both the dogs ran to great me and I stopped to walk for a minute or two and checked on how Renae was doing. She said her toe was a little bothersome but she really had to pee. Unfortunately there was only one porta-jane's along the route but it was at Mile 7 1/2, which neither of us knew about.

I started off running again and got about 2 min from Renae and I heard her whistling so I looked back and both the dogs were bounding down to me. I caught them and gave them a good rubbing and got them headed back to Renae. I was still following the lady in Red with the golf cart husband. We reached Mile 7 and were actually in the town of Crested Butte. We started heading to the downtown area and as I rounded the corner for the last 3/4 mile and apparently it was a farmer's market and then ended up on the parade route for the 4th of July Parade. This was a bit bothersome as either people didn't realize there was a run going on or just didn't care. People would walk right in front of me or stop their bicycles and talk so it was frustrating. I caught up and passed the lady in red right at the finish line.

I finished my 8.56 mile in 2hr4min29sec. Not bad for some up hill and at 9500 feet of elevation. I was hoping to do it about 20 min faster than that but it is what it is. I got something to drink and turned around and headed back to meet Renae. She was rounding the last corner when I reached her and she ran the last 1/4 mile with the dogs.

After she crossed the finish line and got something to drink we headed back to the jeep. When we got there all the parade entries were lined up behind the jeep so we were stuck. We sat down on the ground to watch the parade. As the last entry passed we backed out and followed them. People were clapping and cheering as we passed. It was funny.

We headed home Monday morning and decided to take a few detours. We found some really pretty country that was really bumpy. I had to pee 4 times during a 2 hour period. We also stalled the jeep twice coming down a one lane road near Lake City. We made it home around 2pm.

Goings On in Durango Colorado June 19th and 20th 2010

2010-06-30T21:21:00.003-06:00

Renae climbing in Mesa Verde!

Me saying you want me to climb this, how old is it?

Renae ascending the carved steps out of the Balcony House.

Renae finishing her first half marathon!

Renae looking more chipper before the start of the half, lol.

Acting foolish on the Durango Silverton train.

Train taking on water, it is a steam engine you know.

Renae getting ready to set off from Durango.

Reflective Lake outside of Durango.

Well I had some outreach to do in Durango a couple of weeks ago and then needed to head on down to Chinle, AZ for some outreach. So I asked Renae if she wanted to come and then found a 1/2 marathon to run in Durango between the two outreach events. Man was it ever a packed 6 days. So we drove over Lizard Head Pass to Delores and Cortez and did a little bit of outreach on the way to Durango. We got into Durango around 6pm and felt like eating Italian so went to Mama Boys', I can say I wouldn't recommend it, it was overpriced and not very tasty at all. (As a side side note this was the day that RJ had told Renae and I that if we hadn't heard from him, as he was backpacking in Denali, that we should contact the Ranger Station) During our meal we started calling RJ and Cheryl to see how they liked backpacking in Denali, but we were unable to get a hold of them. So we called and talked with Aunt Ethel Faye and Frank, they were fishing. Both said they hadn't heard from them, I could tell that this bothered Renae, but I said it was RJ so we would wait another hour or two. We headed back to the hotel and began the two hour process of trying to figure out how to report a hiker that hadn't checked in to the Denali National Park Rangers. One might think that this should be an easy process, however, after hours all you keep getting is the message, "If this is an emergency please hang up and dial 911". Well it wasn't an emergency in Durango it was an emergency in Alaska. We must have called 30 different telephone numbers until we located a telephone number for search and rescue outside of Denali who connected us with search and rescue inside Denali and that was around 1030 pm Colorado time frame. They said they would initiate a search starting in the morning. So now both our imaginations started going about Cheryl being dehydrated and shriveling into a small bean and RJ fighting off carnivorous animals with a .45 that he's never shot, etc etc. RJ texted us at 0130 in the morning, probably because we left like 30 messages on both their phones, that they were fine and had been out of the National Park for like 5 or 6 hours. Damn it. So Renae had him call the search and rescue and call off his search. So the point of this little side jaunt into our reality of this weekend is if you tell someone that if they don't hear from you by a certain time to call for help trust that the person will and if you get out and don't have a phone to call that said person find one. So after finding out that all the little peeps were safely tucked away I fell asleep, again.

The next day was outreach to Cortez and Mancos for me and Farmington for Renae, but not for outreach. During my outreach I found a cool little food place tucked away that sold awesome fry bread. If you've never had the opportunity to eat fry bread it is deadly and addictive. So Renae meet me and we returned to this little gem and ate lunch before heading to Mesa Verde. We were running a little behind schedule so didn't get to look around much on the 30 mile drive through Mesa Verde but it seemed much like the rest of Colorado. Our ranger for the guided tour of Balcony House was prior service Marine Corp so we struck up a conversation while hiking down treacherous steps. I think we both enjoyed our little tour but were in a hurry to get back to Durango to pick up our race packets at the brewery for the 1/2 marathon the next day.

We got back into Durango with 10 min to spare before they stopped giving out the registration packets. The bag was like a miniature recycled bag with our timing chip and t-shirt and a bunch of paper crap that just got thrown in the trash. We then walked down the street and had an overpriced but very tasty dinner. I believe Renae had a Buffalo Rib Eye and I had some sort of Red fish. We then drove to where the race was to start so at 6 am there was no mistake. Off to an early bed we went.

The next morning when we woke up we got geared out in our race clothes grabbed what little they had out for the breakfast buffet at the hotel and headed off to the races. When we got there it appeared to be mass confusion but we knew we were to load the slow bus, not the short bus, but the slow bus because we would be 3 hours or slower for this run. I was hoping, hopes that were quickly dashed at the start of the race, that I would shave at least 20 min off my previous 1/2 time. Our bus came and we sat and sat and sat then eventually got started off for the start line. They had three porta-janes for 40 people at the start line and we had 5 min to get to the starting line 1/4 of a mile away. So let me break this down for you, slow people would start 45 min before all the rabbit runners, load a bus drive to the "start line", get dropped off not at the start line but 1/4 mile from it, have 5 min to get to the start line, 3 porta-janes 40 people 5 min. Needless to say when Renae and I reached the actual starting line my head had already deflated me. And were off, Rabbit Renae pulls out with a fast crowd and Turtle Julie tells herself not to start out to quickly. Within 1/2 mile I catch up to Renae and finally pass her at 1 mile, only because she stopped to walk just had toe nail removed week before. I'm thinking to myself this won't be bad....I can do this. Mile 2 whew glad there is an aide station here...........that isn't staffed and has no flipp'n water.....WTF. Mile 2 1/2 camera person smile for the camera. Mile 3 realization that they hadn't stopped traffic down this two lane county highway and that I have been running on a slant. Mile 3 1/4 defeat.....shit(not literally). So at this point I start run walking. For some reason they have orange traffic cones set out along the side of the road we are running along. So I walk for one section then rabbit for one section until like Mile 6. That is when the first real runners pass me. The third person past me is a female and I cheer her on while she runs like a 5 minute pace. By the time I hit Mile 7 I'm pretty deflated and my feet hurt so I start texting Renae she is like 1 1/2 miles behind me as far as I can tell. At this point we start hitting the bigger rollers. I try to keep my run walk up as when I hit Mile 8 I was like a little over two hours so I delusionally thought that I might still be able to come in under 3 hours not realizing that that was 5 miles in one hour, lol. I hit Mile 9 and started walking more than running as my feet really hurt at this point running on a slant while dodging not only traffice but trying not to get in the fast runners way was taking it's toll on me. By this point I think Renae was within a mile of me, she was awesome. Some where between Mile 10 and 12 my soul departed from my body and watched this poor wretched person attempt to be an athlete. At Mile 12 I was snapped back into reality because I faced a straight uphill run that was 3/4 of a mile long. I reached the top and there was a group of women saying you are almost there it is to the end of the block and just around the corner. So I managed some sort of run shuffle thing after asking if she was lying to me. I some how ran (I use that term loosely at this point) to the finish line, lifted my leg for the poor lady to remove my timing bad (but felt bad because I could only imagine the smells I emitted), receive my medal and pilsner glass, headed to the car to put said items in it and back out the other side of the parking lot to find and run with Renae. Thank GOD that she was already on the straight away for the finish line. She had made up a 1/2 mile on me. I had to run to keep up with her walk. I took pictures as she finished her first 1/2 marathon. Then I wanted to puke and collapse. But I went and got Renae's flip flops and then collapsed at the side of the pool, making sure first to remove my shoes and socks, landing so that my feet and lower legs were soaking in the cold water. They were serving hamburgers and beer but I couldn't move. Renae was awesome and stood in line. I must have been really dehydrated because I couldn't keep my head upright without feeling like vomitting. I laid in the shade beside Renae as she moved her way up the line. After getting some water and food I felt a little better, but we were ready to go. Renae got back in line to get one more beer and me a root beer it was yummy. We then headed back to the hotel. We did manage to walk to the car later in the afternoon to go get Sonic ice cream, but pretty much rested the rest of the day.

The next morning we awoke and wasn't to stiff or sore, but could tell we had done some physical exercise the day before. Off to the train station we went to ride the Silverton Durango train. It was pretty cool. It was like a 3 hour 20 min ride to Silverton. We saw where they dropped off for the Needles Crestone hike and decided we would try that sometime. We got to Silverton and disembarked from the train and looked for the Brewery so Renae could watch some of the world cup. I walked around town a bit and then we prepared for the ride back to Durango. Tourists crack me up, on the way back, we rode with a different group, they were a church group. Apparently they don't have prairie dogs or cliffs or rivers for that matter in Arkansas. On the way back we were flipping through one of the Durango magazines and saw a Melodrama Dinner Act and decided to go that evening. I called as soon as I got into cell range and ordered two tickets, but it was to late to add the Dinner on it so we just walked in and ate at the place. More tourists inquiring as to why someone (the bus boy) would put holes in his ears or put studs in his lip. I laughed all through dinner. The Melodrama was well there is no good way to describe what it was.....we ended up leaving right as it was over and I do mean right as it was over.

Overall it was a wild and fun trip to the four corners area. Off to Chinle I went and Renae returned to Grand Junction to work.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

2010-06-01T12:36:00.006-06:00

Picture from after the ceremony. Everyone looked so good.

Wedding cake that Taysha had picked out.

Mike (air force) being a play'r with the bridesmaids.

Cheryl being goofy at the rehearsal lunch.

Brian showing off his mad basketball skills, lol.

Well last weekend was the big weekend in which Brian and Taysha got married and I was to officiate my very first wedding. I left work early on Friday the 28th so I could get to the Bachelorete party which was to start at 6pm. The drive over was somewhat uneventful although the wind was gusting up to 60 mph in places so both hands on the wheel. I listened to the audio book "The Lovely Bones" most of the way over I'm on the forth disc now. I got into Denver around 4pm and checked into the hotel as I learned that I would be transporting not only Renae and Kaily to the party but Taysha and Brenda (should have a bigger car). So we got to the condo in which the party was to be held. The girls weren't quite ready to start but I was starving so went up and got some food and talked to Cheryl. Norah wasn't feeling well (side story Kristen wasn't feeling well the weekend before up until about Wednesday, Renae thinks that then Kaily had it Thursday and Friday, Norah had it Friday, Renae had it Friday and Saturday, Taysha had it Saturday, I got it Sunday and Monday, now Roby, Kaleb, and Clayton have it) so she went to lay down for a while. Needless to say the bridal shower got started and Renae and I took Kaily back to the hotel. She did awesome and we had lots of fun with her. We got up on Saturday morning and went to eat with Kaily at Rosie's. She walked all the way from the hotel across the parking lot to Rosie's.

Anywho we were on-time in getting to the rehearsal as was Brian and half the grooms man despite our intention of getting there early. Apparently there was some apprehension that there would be friction with the entire family being there but everything went well and introductions were made to new parts of the family and renewal's of family that hadn't been seen for a while. Since we were on a time schedule I herded everyone into the back to get started with the proceedings. We got to run through the ceremony twice making some adjustments and then we walked through the venue. I have to say I wasn't impressed with the Miramonte Lodge, but I was not well on Sunday and all that matters is that Taysha and Brian are married. We then went to C.B. Potts for the rehearsal lunch which was fun. It looked like everyone had a good time. Herb got a bunch of drink tickets but because of parties the night before there wasn't a lot of drinking going on. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then checked into the new hotel near the venue. I laid down for a nap and then we went and ran some last minute errands. By the time we were done both of us were beat and ready to hit the rack. I got up the next morning at 0630 and Renae hadn't been feeling well still so continued to rest while I went for a run....5.5 miles and my knee was good. When I got back I got ready to head to breakfast and Sams. Still last minute stuff that hadn't gotten done on Friday. Breakfast was at IHOP and Sams only had one bouquet of white roses. Huh who would have thought that there wouldn't be white roses available on Memorial Day Weekend. So on the hunt we went. We stopped at 5 or 6 different places looking for white roses which of course where essential to tie together things for the wedding. We put out an APB to family to gather whatever white roses could be found. Renae and I dropped some appetizers off at the venue with what white roses we could find and then went to try to nap before going to the venue at 130. No such luck the phone rang like every 15 min so we just got up and I ironed my robe. It was at this time that I noticed I wasn't feeling very good that my stomach was starting to churn. I kinda chalked it up to nerves but knew that wasn't it and I was getting what everyone else had. We were off to the venue and got there around 130. I started doing some of the last minute things and the longer I was on my feet the worse I began to feel. At some point I went out to sit in the car because everyone was try to make decisions that they really had no control over and it was driving me nuts. I watched Roby and Kaleb outside throwing a football and really enjoyed watching, they were being funny. I came back inside around 330 and just kinda watched the chaos that ensued. At 4pm I put on my robe as the ceremony was to start in 30 min at some point I started sweating and knew I had a fever and I kept taking deep breaths trying not to crap my pants or vomit. About 15 min till start time Herb (Brian's dad) apparently thought I looked like death warmed over and asked if I wanted to be moved in front of the fan, thank God someone was looking out for the High Priestess. Sitting in front of the fan helped and then quite a few people came and asked if I were all right because it looked like I was actually praying. 430 came and went and Herb said it would be about 15 more minutes then he came and got me. I walked down the aisle and we started. Everyone looked so pretty and all grown-up in their suits and gowns. Katie and Kaleb did awesome and looked really good, Kaleb with his goofy smile and Katie all of a sudden realized everyone was looking at her and became shy. The Taysha and Randy. Thankfully the had chosen just a ceremony without a candle or rose ceremony and no extra stuff in it. I made it through the ceremony without vomiting or shitting on myself. Brian gave Taysha a really big mussy kiss, yeah Brian, and I pronounced them Mr and Mrs. Wishing everyone would hurry back down the aisle so I could go inside. At some point I went in and laid down on the couch in the girls dressing room. Then proceeded to get sick multiple times to the point that my ribs hurt beyond belief. I got the damn marriage license signed by everyone and left (damn because it was a process in which no one apparently cared about but if it didn't get signed then all this was for not). I headed straight back to the hotel and was miserable in pain and vomit for about 6 or 7 hours. Renae got back in around 1230 in the morning and left again at 3 am to take Brian, Taysha, and Mike to the airport. I was sleeping off and on but more off and was ready to get in the car to drive home to sleep in my own bed by 0630. We left Broomfield around 0845 and headed home. I had to stop about every 1 1/2 hours to allow the virus to pass through me from one end or the other. So it took a little bit longer to get home. I wish I had felt better but twas not the case nor did I want to stay and infect people with what had gotten passed to me. Had no regrets about my contributions to the wedding and would have done it all over again (maybe a little differently but in the same capacity). By the way second time in a 30 day period in which I have worn a dress and no one has taken a picture, sorry you lose.

Trying out New Long Boards

2010-05-23T15:16:00.004-06:00

I'm going to fall......

Speed Racer

Well I'm not exactly sure how it happened maybe Venus was in alignment with Mars, but Renae and I ended up buying Never Summer Long Boards from Board and Buckle in Junction. We actually went to that shopping center to go to Nature's Way but walked over "to just look" as we have never been in the store. It was bad news though once we found out they had Never Summer as we both like their snowboards. I talked with the 18 year old who was selling them and he was funny. After we got them we did some other stuff and then went to a parking lot to try them out. It was like learning to snowboard all over again. Here is some video.

Renae long boarding.

Me long boarding.

Reno Nevada, Half Marathon, and various other topics of the last week.

2010-05-06T15:41:00.003-06:00

Renae getting ready to run her 10K

Getting my medal after finishing the 1/2 marathon.

Posing at water station with 1 mile left.

Getting ready to cross the start line.

Sitting in the grown up chair before the race.

Ahhhh. Where to begin. I think we packed 4 weeks worth of stuff into just 5 days. It all begins last Friday when I got off work to head to Reno for the Half Marathon and RCS National Conference. Renae and I finished packing said goodbye to all the animals and headed to the airoporto. Unbeknownst to us we had locked Salem (kitty) downstairs, thankfully we had someone watching the animals. So we checked in and listened to all the commotion going on about how the plane was over booked and was over weight and these women had to be on the plane. For some reason I so enjoy sitting at the airport watching people they fascinate me. We took off for Denver and I nearly lost my lunch as we were landing due to excessive side to side motion and up and down motion of the very tiny airplane. I had to sit with my head between my legs for some time before deboarding or disembarking. The flight to Reno seemed pretty unremarkable. We picked up our rental car and I listened to the direction to get to the EL DORADO pronounced the Spanish version not the Kansas version. We had a slight disagreement in the authenticity of the directions and took a small detour seeing what was on the other side of town. For those of you who enjoy the Vegas/Reno nightlife/lifestyle I am terribly sorry for what I'm about to say.....but it would be alright with me if a big assed flood came along and took out casino's, their drunk assed patrons, and the sleazy people that hang around outside like pedophile stalkers. With that said....the lights were pretty. Forgot to mention that the rental car place upgraded Renae to a SUV......ha more like a luxury liner.....they gave us an 8 passenger Ford Expedition. I thought I was driving my 77 Monte Carlo. Not to mention that like most places the casino makes the parking garage maximize space to the 10th multiple making it quite difficult if your are driving the Space Shuttle. I was quite tired when we got in but we decided to walk around and check things out. I took a 5 dollar bill with me in case I felt the need to stick it in a slot machine. I'm glad I did because I won 82 dollars and that was my playing money the entire time I was in Reno. Saturday we got up and ate breakfast at Trevlo or something like that and decided to wait around until registration began so we could pick up our race packets. We walked around a bit and found the Salon/Spa. I had mentioned that I wanted to get my haircut and we discovered they did facials. We thought it would be fun to have a little pampering and so each signed up for one. For my first facial it was absolutely fabulous. I was just sorry that I hadn't yet showered because we had only just come down to eat breakfast. Then I had my haircut and they brought me a mimosa (didn't like it but now I know what it is). By the time we had finished it was nearly noon and so we went to pick up the race packets. The race tee was just blah but we got to try on some vibrams which was way coolio.
We got something to eat from somewhere and then showered, ate lunch, and headed outside the casino to walk around and look at stuff. We were connected via skywalk with the Silver Legacy and the Circus circus. Don't exactly remember what we did the rest of Saturday afternoon and evening but we ate at a pub for dinner and turned in early. I made Renae get up at like 5:15 in the morning on Sunday I don't think she was very appreciative, lol. But the marathon started at 0630 and the half started at 0700 and 10K at 0730. Renae had decided to run the 10K since her doctor put her on Antibiotics and Steriods three days earlier and told her not to run, what is it about health care professionals. Anywho, I showered and we headed down to a coffee shop to get some yogurt and Renae got a coffee. I'm not sure how she can drink coffee before running I would be stopping at every single port-a-jane they had. We got to the starting area right around 0630 and watched the marathon runners take off. It is super exciting feeling right before a race everyone is all jazzed. Me I had butterflies floating around because this was my first half marathon and I really hoped I finished. I wanted to start close to the end because I didn't want to get run over but I kinda got bunched in the middle and still got run over. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt that I could toss off as it got warmer (a tip from Kristen).
And we were off..........they didn't have chip timers so I used my stop watch and my Nike Plus on my I pod to monitor my time. For the first mile I was just having fun watching all the people and trying not to start out to fast. After we passed through downtown we started following the river. It was amazing the number of people that were lining the streets cheering people on and the police were awesome blocking traffic and friendly. Between mile 1 and 2 I was listening in on peoples conversations. I had fallen in between the slow runners and the run/walkers. As we were passing through a park near mile 2 I was passing an older lady and I slowed to have a conversation. She was a teacher at one of the schools and her school had joined the pound for pound Biggest Loser Challenge and this was also her first 1/2 marathon (she ended up beating me by like 5 min she was run/walking). As we neared mile 3 I had to go pee and luckily there was a park bathroom so I ran inside and there were three other runners using the facilities which had no doors. I did my business and continued running. I was feeling good and having fun. As I approached the water station at Mile 3 I thought I heard one of the volunteers yell out "Warm Banana's" so then I started joking about warm banana's with her. As we passed mile 3 we ran along a bike path that went under the HWY and along the river to a sub division. We headed into the sub division and along lovely tree lined streets up a hill (advertised as a flat fast course, not so, not so). We turned back onto a major street for a mile or so. I started using my gel packs around mile 4 as I was at 52 min in. I was able to use a gel pack about every 30 min or so and felt really good. After passing Mile 4 we headed down into another park area along the river. I texted Renae that I had just passed 5.5 miles or so and took a picture of me running with my phone. Unfortunately I happened to have the sun behind me so it didn't turn out to well. But I looked good in my new contacts and sport sunglasses. I was starting to tire a little and had stopped passing people but wasn't getting passed either. We went up and down these little rollers for a while until Mile 6. I decided to take a small walk break and was going to empty my shoe from the rock I obtained after mile 4 but never stopped to do that. I walked for about 5 min and the walk/runners started to pass me so that motivated me to start running again. For the next 1.5 miles I was in a continuous battle with about 5 different run/walkers. They'd run and pass me as I was running then just stop right in front of me so I would pass them and so on. After I started running again after Mile 6 I made a decision to run for 20 min and walk for 5 because I wanted to finish this race. So I ran battling the run/walkers till we hit the water station at 7.5 miles and I walked for 2-3 min and started running. I caught up with a runner that was doing an airborne shuffle type of run and stayed with her for a long time. But she would catch sight of me and kick it up a notch so I would to, then she'd slow down, so I would, then fast, slow, fast, slow until she decided she wasn't going to loose me and we ran side by side till about Mile 9. It was then that I knew I could make the next 4 miles. I walked for 2-3 min and my little buddy was a bit ahead of me so I ran my pace and caught back up with her and we restarted the whole speed up slow down routine until around Mile 10.5. I walked again and some run/walkers passed me and started to pass her and she kicked it into gear and sped up. We all started laughing. this whole time I had been texting Renae where I was in my run. She had just finished her run when I hit Mile 9. She said she was headed back onto the course to meet me and run with me. We connected around Mile 11 as we were headed back into the first park we had come through. I was glad to see her because my energy was draining and my feet were starting to hurt. She ran with me real well considering she had just run 6.2 miles. I walked another 2 min or so and then ran the last mile in. As we rounded the last 3 blocks or so onto S. Virginia St Renae left and started running along the sidewalk catching photos of me. I kicked it up a notch and ran the last little bit super dooper fast. I was so happy to cross the finish line. They gave me a medal but I have yet to really look at it. We walked around a bit so I could cool down and then we signed up for massages but they said it would be about 30 min so we walked to the hotel and showered. Renae went back out for her massage and I slumped down in a couch at the reception desk at the hotel with all of our luggage, taking a much needed 20 min power nap.

We then headed over to the Nugget Casino and hotel to get the room for the conference. We walked in and there were like 50 people in line to get their rooms. Ugggg. I think we took a short nap and then went to the pool and stopped by the Spa to see if they did massages. Luckily they had a foot pampering massage and we both signed up for the next day to get one. We soaked in an awesome hot tub and then got ice to put our feet in to reduce swelling. The next few days were somewhat of a blur with conference stuff. A couple of firsts on this trip; facial, 1/2 marathon, staying in Reno, and winning 82 dollars, wearing a dress for first time since graduating AIT in 1993 (sorry no pictures of that).

Almost bought a long board but wasn't sure how to get it back to Junction and how much I'd get to ride it with all the running we have planned. Ate at Grimaldi's Pizza and wasn't worth the calories, money, or energy. But have video.

Boarding at Breckenridge

2010-04-14T19:52:00.005-06:00

Me being cheesy before the 10K.

Renae crossing the finish line.

Boarding at Breck.

Renae after getting off the lift.

Cheryl posing ready to pounce.

Last weekend Renae and I headed over to Denver to run a 10K, doing some wedding shopping, and to board with Cheryl and RJ. We got into Denver at 7pm and met Taysha and Brian at the movie theather in Greenwood Village next to the Elephant Bar. We watched Date Night.....hilarious.....then we went to the Elephant Bar...naturally. We didn't get till bed until a little after 10pm and got up around 0545. We weren't sure where exactly the race was so we left in plenty of time to get there. We found the high school and there were lacrosse games and soccer practice as well so the joint was pretty crowed. We got our registration bags, timing chip, and t-shirts then headed back to the car to put them all up. It was freak'n cold out 33 degrees and I was dressed some what inappropriate for that temp....fearful I would have to run in my sweatshirt...but thankfully the sun came out a little and I tossed the sweatshirt before the race started. We got off right on time and headed up Hell's Hill as the locals call it. I started off running but became so out of breath that I walked all the way to the top of the hill as did Renae. She kept saying I can't relax. Once we hit the top I started running and ran through what looked like what I sometimes run in Junction. After about 2 1/2 miles we came to the road and started running on the road UP the HILL. I ran about 1/2 up the hill and passed another runner but then needed to walk but made sure to walk faster than the runner was running. Once I topped the hill I was able to start running again. Thankfully I was listening to my Ipod and a running cadence came on.....I immediately relaxed my gate and started calling cadence. At mile 5 we took a turn off the trail to add more distance and I was like crap really. I walk/ran the next 1/2 mile until the runner I passed was starting to get close. I started running again and when I came back to the turn off I started running hard and came in just under 90 min. I waited for Renae at the finish line and she came in about 4 min behind me. She did awesome for being tight and her back bothering her.

The next day we headed to Breck to board with RJ and Cheryl. It was some unusual snow that soft powder it was like boarding in mashed potatoes. Here are some movies from the day.

Board Dancing with RJ and Cheryl.

My first attempt at a big air jump.

Winter Sports Clinic Snowmass, CO 2010

2010-04-04T09:27:00.007-06:00

Me walking to the lift from the condo on Friday April 2nd.

Instructor Bobby Palm and a veteran.

Bode Miller at the staging area.

A snowboard rig.

Two vets climbing the wall under different methods.

Outside the convention center at the climbing wall, Monday 28th.

Craziness at the scuba pool on Monday the 28th.

Picture of Renae at lunch outside of Aspen on Monday March 28th.

My Regional office wanted me to head up to Winter Sports Clinic this year to outreach and introduce the Vet Center to any veteran who hadn't heard of the services that Vet Centers offer. There were two other Vet Center employees from my region but I never once saw or met them as this was truly a huge event. Renae wanted to do some volunteer work so she headed up with me on Saturday March 27th. Because of a mix up in accommodations we stayed in Carbondale Saturday night and did some outreach in the area since Grand Junction covers all of the Western Slope. We got to Snowmass around 9am on Sunday morning and of course couldn't check in to the condo until 2 or 3pm. So we headed over to the Convention Center and talked to a few of the staff from Grand Junction VAMC purchased our Taste of Snowmass and some lift tickets. We then headed out to where they were loading the vets into their mono, bi, and regular skis. We went up the lift and took a couple of runs. Here are some pictures of Sunday.

Renae sitting on one of the blue runs at the top of Snowmass.
Me with the Roaring Fork Valley below.

Renae on Powder day Friday the 2nd of April on a black diamond.

Taste of Snowmass was Sunday in the early evening. It is where most of the food places at the mall showcase their food and you can use tickets to sample a couple of different entrees and a dessert. Renae and I saw Al the director of the Fresno VAMC he was our director at the Marlin Medical Shelter, we talked with him for a bit. The days seemed to run together because I was constantly walking up and down stairs and talking to people. Monday evening they held (not sure who held) a get together for the Women veterans. That was fun. I met some vets from all over the country. Several active duty and one that was IR and had just been recalled to go to Afghanistan.

Tuesday Renae and I boarded in the morning and then she left to return to Grand Junction to go to work. On Wednesday the Olympians where in town and I stood in line for nearly two hours to get some autographs. I also went to a couple of workshops on adaptive equipment, pain and the military and something else that I now can't recall. On Wednesday Pat White introduced me to Bobby Palm, a Level 3 Certification Instructor/Evaluator, who taught Renae and the kids to board. I asked if I could board with him on Thursday morning. So Thursday morning I did some blocking for a 20 something year old veteran who was learning to snowboard. Then Bobby and I took a run in knee deep fresh powder that had been dumping all morning long. Renae returned to Snowmass Thursday afternoon and we headed to Butch's for dinner. Friday morning we got up and headed to the lifts and did some Powder runs before Taste of Snowmass. We ate lunch with three active duty Air Force members who where there driving for all the veterans. Friday was race and medal day. We got in a couple of black mogul powder runs. I didn't realize how weak my right knee was until finishing the first run. Friday night was closing ceremony which was pretty neat. I also met Tammy Duckworth from Central Office, she's one or two under the Secretary of Veteran's Affairs. Overall it was an awesome week. There were 354 veteran participants and 636 volunteers on the mountain.

Day 2 of Monarch

2010-03-18T07:53:00.006-06:00

Well after a crazy day one at the mountain we were kinda skeptical about day 2 because the weather forecast was about the same as it was the day before. However this time when we walked out the door it wasn't snowing. We got all the stuff packed up and loaded in the car and headed to breakfast at the Patio Pancake House. Very good and cheap breakfast. Then off we zoomed toward Monarch. Again saw all of the state of Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas on the way to the mountain.

On the Colorado ski website it noted that Monarch had only gotten 2 inches of snow but they actually had gotten anywhere between 8-18 inches depending on the wind blown areas. Renae and my's first run was to take advantage of the fresh snow on the Black Diamonds. Let me tell you making first tracks in 18 inches of new snow was awesome and hard work.

Above is Renae coming down one of the diamonds. Here they had about 6-8 inches of fresh powder on top of some nice packed powder. We played around in the diamonds for about an hour. On the last run down I got stuck, literally, in about 3 feet of fresh snow and wasn't sure how to dig out. But after about 20 min, which seemed like eternity, I finally got myself and my board unlodged. This wore me out and we took a break and had some nachos.

Me on a black diamond run.

Renae on a diamond run.

After our break we headed up to come down the run we had taken the day before that had gotten so disorienting. It was actually a pretty easy blue that we made it down in like 3 min. The day before it had taken about 25 min. We headed back up to go down the left side of the divide and did a pretty nice blue that made you ready for anything going from packed powder to fresh powder. The out-of-staters where everywhere. Lined all across the runs like bowling pins waiting to be knocked over. Our last run of the day was down Little Mo' and there were way to many people who didn't understand skiing on the run. Overall was an awesome day.

Monarch Mountain and Salida

2010-03-14T18:47:00.004-06:00

Just tried a bit burning my lips.

Fire moving down my esophogas.

Tears

I can do it I can do it.

We got the chance to stay in Salida, CO and ski Monarch Mountain today and tomorrow. Yesterday as we were driving from Gunnison to Salida it was nice and sunny out. And because it was Daylight Savings time we got kinda a late start this morning. When we walked out the door it was snowing. By the time we got up to the mountain (around 11am) it was snowing hard and the wind was blowing big time.

It took us a while to get dressed because the wind was blowing the snow from every direction possible. We got our complimentary passes and contemplated getting season passes to Monarch as they offer free passes to many different places and costs 75 dollars cheaper than Powderhorn season passes. We hoped on the Advanced lift and headed up to the top of the mountain. I fell getting off the lift, it was a crazy exit, we headed down a blue called Little Mo' and could hardly see a thing. Then we headed up Pioneer lift and the wind started blowing so hard it was swinging the chair, little bit of some nail biting. We headed down the KC cutoff to Sleepy Hollow to the Panorama lift. We headed up Panorama lift to the top of the Continental Divide. We started down the Great Divide (blue run) and it started snowing and blowing so hard that I became disoriented and fell a couple times I thought I was headed down the run and apparently I was parallel to the run stopped. Talk about being blind. There were four of us trying to make our way down the run. Literally couldn't see inches in front of us at times. I lost sight of Renae a couple of times and she was only 5 feet in front of me. Needless to say I was glad to have experienced it but thought I was going to die. Totally a Donner Party snow storm. We eventually made it down and decided to head down to Salida. Thankfully we did so in time before they closed Monarch Pass.

We came down and did a little bit of shopping at some of the T-Shirt/ski rental places. Buying time to become hungry so we can eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant. The first thing we order were drinks but then fried jalapenos (ummm yummy burn your face off hot). Their salsa is pretty good and their food in general is pretty good. They only have one server (generally) so they are slow but the food is definitely worth it. It's called Los Girasoles on 50 HWY in Poncha Springs. Here are some pictures (apparently blogger wanted to put them at the top of the post)of me eating the Jalapeno's. Renae had the wherewith all to have her camera and take pictures.

Winter Park 2010

2010-02-08T13:33:00.004-07:00

Tarra with her fancy new pink glasses.

Renae coming off the rail.

Aunt Debbie, me and Uncle Kirk.

Aunt Debbie, me, Renae, and Uncle Kirk.

Renae showing her skills on skis.

Well Renae and I wondered on over to Winter Park last Thursday in a snow storm to meet the Ridley's and the Clinefelter/Polenz families. We didn't get in until about 715 and I was starving for Uncle Kirk's promised German food. We set out walking for the place only to find out that they had closed down. So we headed a bit further to an Italian place which had switched hands (unbeknownst to Uncle Kirk). We ran into frustration when they wouldn't split the check and because we were a party of 6 they included 18% gratuity which the server did not deserve, but that is another story. After dinner we were extremely tired and excited to get on the slopes the next day. We met at 0815 and headed over to the shuttle stop with our gear. We hit the slopes around 0900 and headed up the Zephyr lift. The goal was to head over to High Lonesome lift however all roads to the lift were roads and I took a steeper green thinking I would link back into the run that everyone else was on, but I was wrong. I zipped through some trees (yeah for me) onto another run which lead down to the Olympia Express Lift, luckily I had my phone and called Renae and told her where I was. She made it over to me and we road over to High Lonesome after riding up the Olympia. We finally reached the top and took a couple of runs looking for everyone. Finally I started calling people. I didn't know it but Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie had left their phones in the hotel and I got ahold of Tarra who told me that she was waiting for Ski Patrol as Traci had fallen and hurt herself. I was able to send Ski Patrol to their location and found Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk at the same time. We talked Uncle Kirk into trying some of the runs that I had found that run into the Olympia Express lift....they have a little more slant to them so he could practice opening the door or as I like to say the gay hitchhiker (cuz it has some flare). We headed down to Snowasis for lunch around 1130 taking Uncle Kirk down a steep blue (Cramer) and he survived and did fine. After lunch we headed up Prospector lift and were the only ones on the run until we hit Olympia Express lift. That was nice because there was a little bit of fresh powder on the side that Renae and I were playing around in. Renae by the way was on skiis this day to help show Uncle Kirk some moves (no not dance moves). We did some more runs until about 2 pm and I knew my legs were spent suggested we head to the bottom. Renae and I took the quickest way down which was Cramer to LaSal run to the bottom and Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie took Village Way down. Tarra and Traci were hanging in the Derailer. And we sorta made our way back to the shuttles to get to the hotel. Man I was spent and ready for a hot tub. But before that Renae and I had made some spicy cider and Tarra come over to try some of Renae's salsa, lol. I think I heard her crying because her mouth was on fire. Luckily we had some cheese for her to put the fire out, lol. We headed to the hot tub and Tarra and Traci soon joined us. We dropped off some spicy cider and cheese for Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie before our soak. We all hooked up for dinner at Deno's and Tarra's brother Troy came up to stay and play. I think I fell asleep at 7 pm that day and got up for breakfast at 640 the next morning. Uncle Kirk was there and we had breakfast together. Troy and Tarra drove to the resort, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Kirk, Renae and I rode the shuttle and Traci stayed a little bit at the hotel then drove to the resort. We decided to ride with Tarra and Troy until 1030 then meet Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie and try to convince Uncle Kirk to hit another blue run. We met Troy and Tarra at the top of the mountain and headed down Edelweiss which was a nice flat blue run that Renae and I were sure that Uncle Kirk would be able to do. When we got to the bottom of the run we got on the lift that headed up to the bowl. Renae as we were heading up said "I want to go over there to head down" ok that doesn't look to bad but instead she picked an advanced blue with huge assed moguls in it. I was a little ticked at first but then once I got on the run I did ok because there was huge powder in the moguls. We made it down and I think Tarra was amazed about how much I had improved since she last was with me at Winter Park.

Uncle Kirk, Aunt Debbie, and Renae coming down the flats.

Riding the rails for the first time.

Renae and Tarra coming down Edelweiss.

We finally made it down from the bowl and left Tarra and Troy to go get Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk. Uncle Kirk did really well down Edelweiss he even sped ahead of us while we were taking pictures. I ran through some more trees and was getting ready to merge back onto the trail and caught some really big air from a jump that I didn't see until last minute. Luckily I've been trained in a Airborne tuck and roll because I wasn't sure how to land the jump so I just tucked and rolled. While all this was going on I forgot to tell Uncle Kirk that when he came to the trail junction of Edelweiss and Blue Bell to take Blue Bell because Edelweiss is starting to form moguls right there. Ooops. So when I caught up to Uncle Kirk he was sitting in a mini mogul field with people zooming past him. I'm sure he was cussing me out. We finished the run and headed back to the top so we could get to Snowasis for lunch. We had lost Tarra and Troy because all of Colorado had found it's way into that back section. We relaxed and ate some lunch. The day before I had noticed a beginner terrain park and told Renae that I wanted to do some practicing. So after lunch Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk sat out on the deck while Renae and I along with 10 five year olds went to go practice the features. I made Renae go first, lol, so I could see how it was done. Of course I was trying to film video and take pictures at the same time so neither of them really caught her falling of the feature. Then it was my turn, I was a little bit more sceptical about doing this after watching these little kids catch big air (5 to 10 inches or so) as they got on the ramp. I strapped in and started off and made it all the way across the ramp but then fell because I didn't have a lot of speed to make the second feature. So that was the terrain park on this trip. Tarra had called and said that Troy had left already and that she thought she was done for the day. We thought we'd make one more run down, but as I was standing in the lift line I told Renae I didn't think I could make it down one more run as my legs were burning. So when we got to the top we decided just to get down. Of course the fastest way down from where we were was down an advanced blue and we didn't think we could do that. Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie headed down Village Way and we decided to hit Cramer. Now the interesting thing was is that we were hitting Cramer in a different spot than the last couple of times and we came to the top of the run and it was basically a jump off a cliff into a mogul field the size of the flipping moon. Renae says to me go ahead and I'll follow, lol. So I jump off into this massive thing and fall so she goes further down and starts out, so much for following. After my fourth or fifth trip to the ground on my butt I see that it is flatter over past Renae and try to make my way to the left. We finally get to the Cramer part that we have been boarding down the last two days and make it to the junction of Village Way where I stop to let my feet uncramp. Low and behold Uncle Kirk and Aunt Debbie ski up. I can make it I keep telling myself. I shot along Village Way to hit a blue called LaSal and take it down to the base.

I had a lot of fun and worked my legs and my skills pretty good. I wish we'd had more time so I could spend some time with Tarra, but it will be a good reason to talk her into coming back to Colorado. I can say one thing for sure is that I've never gone to bed earlier than I did these three days. I was beat.

Tailgating and Snowboarding....these are a few of my favorite things

2010-01-05T19:05:00.004-07:00

Well, I found myself in Denver this past weekend helping shop for wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, and color schemes. So made it a long weekend and went to the Denver/KC game and snowboarding at Copper. Here are some movies and pics.

Crested Butte

2009-12-19T18:04:00.007-07:00

Renae throwing snow on me.

Lindsey coming in for a landing.

Andrew coming down the run.

Me coming down a green.

Me again.

We headed up to Crested Butte around 1pm on Wednesday it was a nice day for a drive. Andrew got to see some deer. We checked in and then went down to the town of Crested Butte. Miles (Bocaza) recommended Secret Stash, not sure the last time he had been there but......anywho when we left I was starving. We stopped by the grocery store and got some things that we forgot and headed back to the condo. I was up bright and early the next morning ready to get on the slopes at 0900 but we didn't make it until 10am which was good because it had warmed up a touch. Andrew and Lindsey got settled in their lessons while Renae and I headed up Red Lady Express so I could see if I still had boarding legs. We went down a green run with a nice long catwalk which I managed to get off the lift and down the run without falling so that was a plus. We headed back up Red Lady Express and down a different green run.....kudos again I seemed to pick up a little bit better than where I left off last year. Then we headed up the Silver Queen lift and hit some blues over in Paradise Bowl. We got in 6 or 7 runs in 2 hours and then headed back down to meet Lindsey and Andrew. They said they never got out of the learning center to do a run so their instructor was going to take them down Houston at 1pm. We ate lunch at the Avalanche and they headed back out to meet up with their instructor. Renae and I were going to meet them on Houston (didn't realize it had a major catwalk). So we headed up about 30 minutes after them. I took a major tumble getting off the lift (my first) and tweeked my knee pretty good. We strapped in and went to find them which was about a quarter of the way down the hill. I took another good tumble and jammed my neck on the catwalk and called it good for the day after we finished that run. For Lindsey's first time on Colorado snow she did really good and it had been a while since Andrew had been on skis. Renae and I sat in the hot tub when we got back to the condo's and zonked. I didn't wake up till 7am. We had to check out so everyone was up a little bit earlier that morning (Friday). We got the car all loaded up and headed back to the mountain. We all headed up Red Lady Express and came down Peanut. Lindsey did awesome. She took a break the next run and Andrew, Renae and I went down a run. Then we came down Peanut with Lindsey....you could tell she was gaining confidence because she was going a little faster each time. Then she sat out one and we went up and came down Lower Twister and that's when a skier cut me off and I flipped over my board.....man I cussed and cussed until I got down to Renae and Andrew. I rejammed my neck...I'm pretty sore from it today. We headed down and ate lunch around 1pm. Then all headed back up to Peanut. Even more awesomeness from Lindsey way to go. It was around 1:45 and my neck was sore so I sat out and went to talk with Christy Sports. Lindsey sat out too and Andrew and Renae went to the top of Silver Queen to take a run. Lindsey and I were beat so sent Andrew and Renae back to the top one more time. Then we headed home. There were lots of deer on the way home as it was dusk. We ate at the Red Barn in Montrose and flew like the wind home.

When a country girl from Kansas lies about the weather

2009-12-16T08:25:00.004-07:00

So for the last 4 months or so I have been talking to my cousin Andrew about coming out to Grand Junction in Dec and doing some landscaping for us. The obvious question posed by a flatlander to someone asking them to come to Colorado in December to work on the yard is, "isn't to cold and snowy." Heck no I say it will be 40 degrees outside and no snow at least down here in Grand Junction (I say in my best Kansan accent)." Much to my surprise just 5 short days before Andrew and Lindsey were set to arrive it dumped 10 inches of snow in Grand Junction.

Not only that but then it didn't get above oh say 12 degrees the rest of the week. It was a whopping 38 degrees when they flew into Junction. Needless to say we needed to find other things for Andrew to work on since the yard looked like the dark side of the moon. Poor Andrew....but he has been a good sport and hung some pictures, shoveled some snow, and put together some DVD albums. Yesterday Renae and I took Lindsey and Andrew up onto the National Monument...where the air is even thinner. I think they had fun. I'll add some pictures when we get back from Crested Butte.

Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon and 25K

2009-10-29T09:11:00.004-06:00

Here are the posted results: they took off 10 years of my life that was nice of them.

25k Overall Race
Place Bib # First Name Last Name Gender Age HR:MIN:SEC HR:MIN
1 126 Lance Risi M ? 1:46:54 0:50
2 56 Brandon Wolsey M 40 1:55:32 0:51
3 31 Rob Bryant M 35 1:59:50 0:52
4 112 Anne Perry F 36 2:04:57 0:58
5 148 Eugene Allwine M 54 2:14:48 0:57
6 21 Laurie Guevara-Stone F 44 2:18:06 unav
7 95 Daniel Richardson F 56 2:18:40 1:03
8 171 Alison Seppi F 46 2:20:00 1:06
9 58 Robin Schiller M 57 2:23:32 unav
10 144 Jennifer Sparks F 42 2:24:56 unav
11 137 Jason Taylor M 36 2:26:50 1:10
12 98 Rodney Hurst M 31 2:28:41 1:09
13 53 Carrie Marx F 44 2:33:03 unav
14 92 Kris Johnson M 38 2:33:43 1:06
15 127 Roth Nancy F 24 2:35:10 1:13
16 51 Amy Newman F 33 2:36:19 1:07
17 113 Tracy Allred F 42 2:36:46 1:11
18 138 Maggie Smith F 31 2:37:09 1:13
19 134 Jamie Kulju F 29 2:37:16 1:32
20 140 Aimee Maxwell F 30 2:38:08 1:12
21 24 Sarah Lein F 0 2:41:22 1:11
22 105 Tamara Forest F 38 2:41:30 unav
23 78 Dorrell Henderson M 61 2:43:04 unav
24 94 Joani Richardson F 57 2:43:27 1:16
25 122 Sasha Hamel F 25 2:46:26 unav
26 102 Charles Allen M 59 2:47:03 1:20
27 12 Jessica Ieremia F 39 2:52:37 1:24
28 75 Rick Schaefer M 54 2:52:46 1:18
29 164 Debra Scott F 55 2:53:45 1:24
30 109 Dawn Aoki F 53 2:55:01 unav
31 10 Mark Winters M 29 2:57:08 1:14
32 159 Heather Hunt Wood F 30 3:01:37 1:23
33 108 Klea Gallegos F 50 3:01:59 1:19
34 82 Susie Durr F 58 3:02:01 unav
35 79 Mary Henderson F 59 3:02:44 1:20
36 110 Paula Aoki F 54 3:02:51 1:23
37 131 Lucy Eppley F 64 3:05:13 1:20
38 27 Jenny Aldrich F 47 3:13:54 1:27
39 64 Larry Nordell M 60 3:18:23 unav
40 157 Dee Ivie M 52 3:24:44 1:25
41 74 Sandy Nelson F 63 3:26:35 1:32
42 15 Susan Goettlicher F 59 3:26:41 unav
43 71 Alan McMurtrey M 56 3:29:46 1:29
44 67 John Blaylock M 67 3:32:37 1:33
45 66 Ginny Blaylock F 62 3:33:49 1:34
46 72 Phillip Berghauser M 45 3:37:44 1:33
47 142 Scott Tiber M 47 3:48:06 1:50
48 114 Michele Straube F 55 3:55:33 1:49
49 61 Renae Byrd F 48 4:15:18 1:46
50 60 Julie Fuller F 28 4:15:19 1:46
51 117 Eric Goeller M 37 5:56:19 1:13

Renae and I participated in the Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon on 10/24/09. This was our first long race since the Bataan Death March in March 2009. The ultra was 31 miles and we did the 16 mile race.

Of course I started out with a race plan and hoped to run 10 of the 16 miles, but I don't think I've built up my base miles enough and there is something to be said for flat courses. I walked my first mile to get limbered up as it was 43 degrees when we started and it was such a long race I didn't want to injure myself. Renae started out faster than I but was w/i 3/4 of a mile when I started running. Throughout the whole race we were always within eye sight of each other. It didn't take me long to catch up with her and she started running (a sub 11 min mile pace mind you) until we hit the first aide station. I had just hit my groove, but needed to stop to pull off my long sleeve shirt and put it in the drop bag. this was just under 4 miles in so I had run almost 3 miles. I started running again once we left the aide station but needed to pee so pulled off and pee'd. I walked again until I hit mile 5 then started running at this point people were already coming back from the turn around and I was 1 hour 15 min in. I ran until I hit mile 6 which was well into a long up hill jaunt. At this point I walked the up hills and ran the down hills and caught back up with Renae about 1/4 mile from the turn around point at mile 8'ish. At this point we were still under 2 hours (I think 1 hour 56 min) and I felt pretty good. We got to the aide station and I emptied my shoes from little rocky things. I could feel I was working a blister on the bottom of my foot. Renae left the aide station before I did but caught up with her in 1/2 mile and we ran together for about 1 1/2 miles. She had pulled her groin muscle coming down the hill and my foot was really starting to bother me. We walked a little and she moved on ahead. I started running at an Airborne Shuffle pace singing Proud Mary by Tina Turner out loud over and over again because it motivated me and was just the right pace for me to run to. I ran another 3/4 of a mile or so to the last aide station. And started walking. Walked most of the next 2 miles with some half dead zombie run in between as my feet were really hurting (the dreaded mile 12-13). Renae then began walking backwards until I caught up with her because she was afraid that I was just going to pull over and play dead. We walked the last two miles together and I started singing out loud because it was the only thing that would keep my mind off the pain. We arrived at the parking lot in which we started from and they directed us down into the Goblin Valley by following stupid little orange plastic pumpkins which I now hate. I mainly slide down the hill into the valley as it was nearly as steep as Mt. Garfield. Renae kept saying take my picture or that is neat blah blah blah. I was cussing the event coordinator for putting this at the end the big dummies then we had to run (ha ha ha I walked) up a ravine to the other side of the parking lot. About 100 yards from the finish I told Renae to start running and we ran across the finish line together and I nearly collapsed to get off my feet. I feel bad now because I know Renae could have come in at probably 3 hours 45 min and I could have pushed myself a little harder on the asphalt road and came in under 4 hours. But I guess a finish is better than no finish like I did in Bataan. And the time was 2 hours better than the 15 mile Bataan March and an mile longer.

I'll put some pictures in tonight.

Visit to Steamboat Springs with Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk

2009-09-28T12:29:00.003-06:00

Up at Fish Creek Falls

Downtown Steamboat

Renae goofing off

On the Rotary Club's raised walkway

The Yampa River

Howdy Howdy
Aunt Debbie and Uncle Kirk happened to be in Colorado for 10 days or so and we decided to meet in Steamboat Springs as they were staying in Estes Park and I had outreach I needed to do in Steamboat. So we drove up there on Friday afternoon and did a little outreach before meeting them at the hotel. By the way the road through Rocky Mountain National Park closes after the first snowfall (which means if you are trying to get west from Estes you need to go down to Denver or up to Wyoming). Needless to say it took them quite a bit longer to reach Steamboat than they thought it would.

For dinner we headed to the Ore House (would highly recommend this eating establishment and ask for Emmert to be your waiter). Their sweet rolls are to die for. Very fun and social atmosphere. We decided to walk into town the next morning and conduct my outreach business.

We met at breakfast around 730 and headed out around 0800. It was mighty chilly. We stopped off at the Rotary Park raised walkway to look at the views and then marched on until I had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately there were no public bathrooms in sight but luckily it was a wooded area and near the railroad so did my thing. The Botanical Garden was on the walk so we stopped in and looked around. The flowers were still in bloom and very pretty. I liked the Autumn Crocus best. We then stopped at the Car Wash and ate an ice cream cone and rested. (3 miles in). By this time Uncle Kirk was on a mission to find all the places I needed to hit for outreach and by golly he found all of them. The library was the furthest out (6 miles in) and headed to the Smokehouse for lunch.

We then worked our way back towards the hotel. Across from the Hot Springs we stopped at the river and soaked our feet in the warm water as it was flowing into the Yampa River. It was a nice little diversion. Soon we were off again and several started wondering if the car could come get us or maybe Sherpa boy would show up. But if you talk while you walk you don't realize how bad your feet hurt. We made it back to the hotel (12 miles later) and Renae and I went to the pool and hot tub to stretch our weary legs. He went to Mazzoles for supper (it was ok, very high priced for food).

Somehow Renae and I talked Uncle Kirk into going for a run with us Sunday morning. So we met each other in the lobby. Renae and I in fleece, shorts, running shoes, etc. poor Uncle Kirk in jeans, Reebok's, and a rain jacket. We started walking for 5 min and then began our run. Uncle Kirk was so funny he was breathing hard and kept asking if I was or was sweating. I asked if he needed water and he said no just air. He did good and ran the whole 30 min with me at a 11:12 per mile pace. He kept saying there wasn't enough air up here for running. We all walked back to the hotel and met with Aunt Debbie. (Trying to talk him into a Tri in Colorado next year) We then headed to Christy Sports and the Fish Creek Trail. Hiked around a little then had breakfast/lunch at Freshies on Lincoln and Trafalger (very good food, not so fast service).

Then we all headed our separate ways. It was a great time. The colors were very pretty and we got lots of exercise.

(I'll load pics tonight)

Quarry Trail Run Marble, Colorado Sept 20, 2009

2009-09-21T17:21:00.005-06:00

Cheryl receiving her 2nd place finish for age category award.

Kristen receiving her 1st place finish age category award.

Roby receiving his 2nd place age category award.

RJ receiving his 1st place age category award.

Me hauling during the first 1/2 mile of the race.

Kristen and Renae at the half way point.

Roby cruising down the hill around mile 5 1/2.

Cheryl thankful that she was now going downhill.

RJ almost at the turn around point.

Me being cheesy before the race.

Well race day was quite dramatic with weather conditions, start time changes, 6 people trying to get organized to run, and packing all at the same time. Renae wanted to start early so that she and I could run with the kids (adult) a little during the run. I told her I would if we got official times. The race organizer said that he would keep official time for us and that we would be eligible for awards if we earned them, so I agreed to start early. We started at 9:09am 21 min before the race started. The first mile went through the town of Marble and through a Marble pit for lack of a better description. Then we started heading up hill 1200 feet in 3 miles. We ran the first 200 feet and then started walking but kept a 15 min pace at walking. I judged that the race group would start catching up with us around 0945. But it wasn't until about 3 1/2 miles and 0953 that the first runner passed us. Kristen caught up with us right around the 4 mile mark and Renae who was a little ahead of me ran with her at the turn around point for about 15 seconds. RJ was the next to reach us he was probably 2 min behind Kristen and Renae and I were already headed back down. Cheryl was next about 2 min behind RJ and then Roby was probably 5 min behind Cheryl. It was nice getting pictures of everyone. Cheryl caught up with me on the downhill section and took some pictures of me running. Downhill was definitely better, I probably was down 8:30 min miles on the downhill section. Although it took me a while to catch up with Renae. I caught her about mile 6 and we ran together until she had to empty her shoe. I cruised on down to mile 7 then decided to walk for 30 seconds, bad idea. My legs were all wobbly and I thought I was going to fall over. Renae caught back up with me and we ran the rest of the way to the finish line together and crossed at the same time. They had our official time as 1:31:33 but since we started 21 min earlier it was actually 1:52:??. Not bad considering 1/3 of the race was going up hill. Renae and I each won places in our age category. Side note there were only 2 people in my age category, 3 in Renae's, 2 in Kristen and Cheryl's, 3 in RJ and Roby's. But still something to be proud of.

8 1 M20 Rj Byrd, 26 1:13:16.14
4 1 W20 Kristen Denney, 24*, Grand Junction, CO 1:13:42.95
10 2 W20 Cheryl Catlett, 25*, Grand Junction, CO 1:18:52.29
12 2 M20 Roby Byrd, 22, Grand Junction, CO 1:22:43.212
24 12W40 Renae Byrd, 48* 1:52:01.225
25 2 W30 Julie Fuller, 38* 1:55:33.0

The above are the offical times however, Renae and I crossed the finish line at the same time so both of our times are 1:52:01.225. The numbers in front of all the names are the place of finish within the Mens or Women's category and then the place within the age category. So RJ was the 8th man across the finish line and he was 1st in his age category.

Mary's Loop 8 mile Race

2009-09-05T15:51:00.004-06:00

Renae coming across the finish line.

Here comes Renae, Yeah.

Self-portrait at mile 6.5.

Renae at the start of the race. The blonde in front of her fell and broke her wrist at mile 2..75 - 3.25.

Roby and Renae before the race.

We got started yesterday morning a little bit latter that what I would have liked but it all turned out good. We carpooled with Roby so headed over to his house at 0650 in the morning. We all got to the Trailhead around 0735 and the race started at 0800. I only got to go to the bathroom twice instead of my standard 5 times, lol. There were probably 75-100 people there. The start and finish of the race was in the parking lot by the restrooms. We all lined up and we were off. Of course Renae and I were at the end and right in front of me were my three targets to beat this race: a 70 something man with a lot of wrinkles and a leg brace and two women who said they were injured. I know that's preying on the old and injured but hey. When we started Renae had quite a bit of difficulty with her technical shirt which she shed and her iPod. But we plugged along and actually until the incident stayed together pretty much. I passed my first target within 1.5 miles or so. Soon we came upon the first aide station this is where I caught back up with Renae, as she got water. My next sight was on the two women who we were closing in on. We soon passed the spot where we turned around for our pre-run and all of a sudden I see one of the two women running back towards us and the other one is sitting on the ground holding her wrist. The first lady said she was running back about 1.5 miles to the first aide station to get help (in the back of my mind I knew the people at that aide station would have left to go back down the hill). We got to the second lady sitting on the ground and she had tripped, fallen and broke her wrist (Renae said it looked like my wrist when I broke it snowboarding). Renae immediately splinted her arm with her running pack which was still full of ice/water. I stopped long enough to make sure Renae had her and told her I would run ahead to the next aide station which conceivably should be within 1 or 2 miles, which it probably was. I started off running not jogging mind you but running, because I knew the search and rescue people from the 1st aide station wouldn't be there (Oh by the way did I mention this was a charity event for Mesa County Search and Rescue so they were the ones staffing the aide stations). I burned up any reserves I had getting to the next aide station as the trail was probably the toughest section of the run between the two aide stations. I got to the aide station in about 15-20 min trying to wave them down before having to run up on hell of an incline, but never got there attention. So I got there out of breath. I told them about the accident and indeed was the only one to reach help, they called in a jeep. Renae said she was there about 30 min before they got the lady loaded into the jeep and on her way out of the trail. I probably stayed at that aide station 7-10 min trying to catch my breath. Man it was hard to get started back jogging at my pace because I was bonked. I had another 4 miles or so to go. But I started plugging away walking more than I would have liked to but needed to because my muscles were cramping. Along the way I wondered if Renae were going to continue along the race or head out with the injured person (apparently she knew her and had coached her daughter in soccer). I ran all the flat or downhill parts and fast walked up the hills. I came to the next aide station and asked if they got the injured out. They said yes. As soon as I knew out safe I was secretly glad I had beaten the three people I set out to for this race (two by default but beggars can't be choosers). The next little section was mostly up hill back up the the backside of the trail and road leading back down to the parking lot. Mostly I was delirious for this next 2-2.5 mile section. For some reason I was thinking the end was a lot closer than it was. I actually got my hopes that I would make my 1hour 46min goal for finish. Each time I rounded a corner or up over a hill I would think the parking lot would be there so I would speed up a bit and it wasn't there. I started thinking that I had to pee ever since we started but now I was running a road that was quite near I-70 with no cover. Then I was thinking my gel bottle was really heavy and I needed to toss it to the side of the road and come get it later. It's interesting what the mind thinks about when it is exhausted. I had already used my gel around 1 1/2 hours in...didn't have another I thought because I didn't plan to be sidelined doing evacuation for 20 min, but I actually had another gel pack in my pack. Soon a couple of the 16 mile racers passed me and I speeded up again thinking they were running fast because they knew the finish was just RIGHT THERE, but it wasn't. So then I'd run 3 or 4 min and then walk a minute. I also found out how seriously off my Nike + was and will need to be recalibrated. Soon I crested a hill and could see the parking lot. This sparked life back into my feet and legs. I kept looking behind me because I could feel Renae was coming. She actually said she saw me on the road when she was running down it. I sped up the last 400 yards and crossed the finish line in 2'12"40. Just 7 min slower than my 10K several weeks ago and this one was almost 2 miles longer. Renae came in less than 4 min behind me. She was booking to make up the time. And Roby finished at 1'32" so quite abit earlier than we did. Overall we were pretty happy with our times knowing that we could have easily come in under two hours. And today I feel so much better than after I did on the Powderhorn race. I was able to ice my legs and feet and take some recovery stuff, plus we ate at Judy's within 1 hour after the race. I don't know about Renae but I was able to run/jog about 6 miles of the run. Next stop Marble Colorado (roughly 9,000 feet of elevation) for the Lead King Loop 12.5 mile run on Sept 20th. Then Oct 24th is the Goblin Valley Run in Green River Utah a 15 mile race (by then I should be able to run at least 10 miles). Today recalibrating my Nike +.

Kaleb's First Soccer Game

2009-08-22T15:55:00.002-06:00

Pre-Running the Mary's Loop 8 Miler

2009-08-22T15:38:00.003-06:00

The relatively flat, gravel, rock. dirt trail.

The overlook of the Colorado River.

Views from along the trail.

This was the hillest part of the trail. It is the first 1/8th mile up the Mary's Loop Trail.

Renae and I went out and hiked part of the 8 mile Mary's Loop near Loma, CO. Our race is Sept 5th, so we wanted to check it out and make sure it wasn't a Powderhorn repeat. We got out there around 745 am and it was already 75 degrees. We parked in the parking lot below not knowing we could take the road up over the burm. We started our hike from the parking lot and headed up the road, down a 13 % decline (hopefully they won't make us run up this) to Mary's loop. The start of Mary's loop is about a 8% incline for 1/8th of a mile I'd reckon. It was the hardest part as it was loose rock and lime/sandstone. Much like Pollock Bench trail. After we got up that first section it was all runnable from there. We hiked 3 miles of the 8 mile loop and then turned around and came back as we had to go to some soccer games at 11am. But I'm pleased to say that it is a flat course compared to Powderhorn. Our goals is to finish it in the same times or under that we did Powderhorn. I'd like to finish in 1 hour and 46 min.

We finished the Thigunawat 10K!!!

2009-08-16T17:17:00.005-06:00

Self portrait around 4 1/2 miles

Renae running down a hill at the beginning of the run

Renae and Roby stretching before the race

All the participants

Me finishing the last hill of the 10K

Renae finishing the last part of the 10K

Me around mile 2

Roby pre-race

Me stretching before the race

Here is the link for the race results:

http://www.sarevents.org/thigunawat10km/2009results.htm

It's sad when a 70+ year old man beats 98% of the participants and looks like he is 30 something.

Anywho the story actually starts out the day before when we headed up to Powderhorn. I got a condo for Saturday night at Goldenwood Condo because I thought Tarra would be joining us. Instead of giving up the reservation we went on up. The sweet thing about the condo was it had a full kitchen and jacuzzi tub, luckily Renae and I brought our swimsuits. I fell asleep around 930 and woke up around 1030 hearing straining noises like someone was having a hard poop. Well I got up to investigate I walked towards the back bedroom and the noise got louder then Renae popped out of the bathroom and we scared each other. I asked her if she was ok she said yes. I said what's that noise then? She said it was one of the neighbors "doing it" and that they woke her up twice. So I tried to go back to bed, but all I heard was "oh yeah yeah do it oh yeah oh oh oh". She's (unknown receipent of awesome feelings) is lucky she didn't scream out his name because that would be in here too! So around midnight or slightly after I was able to fall back asleep. Needless to say my pre-race sleep consisted of about 5 hours.

Renae and I got up about 6 am and ate some breakfast and got ready. We checked out at 0815 and headed to the check in for the race. Renae got her favorite number #5, I got 17 not sure how that worked out since I registered us all at the same time. Roby showed up shortly after and we were all checked in.

The started the race promptly at 0930 and we were off in the wrong direction. What is this. Renae and I had practiced the route twice and either they switched the route (more likely scenerio) or we practiced the wrong route. Instead of down the road to the hiking path we freakin went up to disc golf hole number 1 and came down to hole number 4 across the road to the hiking path. Shit my butt is already dragging. Once we hit the hiking path I started running. I ran for about 3 miles before we started the creek crossings on the moon loop. At this point I could still see Renae and here comes Roby finishing the Moon Loop. I tried to get a picture of him but damn my camera and it's complicated operations I missed and took a picture of the ground. I walked 3/4 of the 1.3 mile moon loop and then started running again, probably ran 1/2 mile before coming back up on the aide station. Side note: How can you run a race with aide stations and not have gatoraide? Side Side note: They only had water at the 2 aide stations. Then I started the laborous climb back up to the resort through the forrest. By that time the 60 something year old lady that I was following started running up and I ate her dust. I was bonking big time. So I pulled out my gel and took a big ole swig of it. I felt a bit better but each time I would trip over a tree root my energy level would drop. I even pulled the sole of my shoe away from it's main part on one tree root. I finally made it up the first 700 feet elevation ascent and to the last aide station where I actually drank some water. I started running again but it probably looked more like a delirious swagger. I reached the road and WHAT!!! the changed the course again! Instead of going up disc golf hole #4 like we practiced the had us turn right and go to the Westend lifts. I almost started crying.

Anywho when I got to the lift there was a lady with a cow bell jingling it for me she said 3/4 of a mile to go WHAT!!!. At this point I started talking to myself and decided I probably should have a shot of haldol. This route took us to disc golf hole number 5 through 12 (I think) and I was walking again because we were gaining in elevation (roughly 500 feet). Each time I would see the orange trail sign I thought it was a sign from God to head back down to the finish line. But God was a sense of humor and it was actually the sign for the next disc golf hole. For 5 different orange signs I got my hopes up and they crashed. I finally saw the way down and on a trail that I have boarded 50 times or so. I started running again down the 500 feet of elevation I just gained. Renae and Roby met me at the bottom of the hill before turning up the last bit to the finish line. I was the last person to cross the finish line but I don't really care...I finished. And even won a give away prize yeah lucky number 17.

Roby is trying to talk me into running the Mary's Loop 8 mile. It is a charity race for the Mesa County Search and Rescue on Sept 5th. We'll see.

Pre-Running the Thigunawat 10K

2009-08-03T06:43:00.005-06:00

Yesterday Renae and I decided to go walk/run Powderhorn's 10K trail to see what it is like. Man am I glad we did. Because there are a lot of things on race day that I will do differently than what I did today. According to the Powderhorn website there will be one aide station at the beginning/end of Moon Loop. We took 1 liter of water each and I packed my GU Strawberry/Banana Gel and my Hammergel Rasberry to try them out having never used gels before.

The trail race starts at the back of the Sunset Grill. You head beneath the lift between the ski patrol building and several other out buildings down a gravel/dirt road. You'll pass hole number 4 for disc golf (this will be important for the trip back) and on the right hand side is the sign for Powderhorn Hiking Trails. Hook a right down a weedeated trail. This part of the trail isn't to bad. Shortly before 3/4 of a mile you'll come to your first three stream crossings. The first two have rotted tree bases to cross see above picture, they are very giving and probably won't last if there are more than 25 people on race day. The third crossing is more of a hop over make sure you have solid footing on landing.

We meandered through various open fields with wild flowers. During this part of the trail there were various iron ore rocks, lava looking rocks and just plain rocks, not to mention little oak brush roots that would trip you up. On race day I've decided to tape my shoe laces because they kept getting caught on roots. Soon you come to a switchback in which you start descending through an aspen grove. I made a mental note about how much elevation we lost because on the way back we'd have to gain it again. After about two miles we came to the Rock Garden loop which we don't take and headed just a few 100 yards for the Moon Loop. This is where I am guessing the aide station will be. There are a total of I believe 6 creek/stream crossings on this loop which you either plow right through the water or hop across on the loose rocks. I was wearing my nike plus monitor and wasn't sure how waterproof it was so didn't plow right through as I normally might have. During this loop after an hour of hiking I tried my GU gel. It tasted pretty good but took lots of water to accompany it, water I didn't necessarily have (which I actually ran out of around mile 4). Anyway I wasn't sure if I was supposed to feel some surge of energy, but I really didn't feel much.

Once we finished the loop we hooked an immediate right onto the Beaver Creek trail. And after a short bit we saw the beaver damn, it was pretty cool. I decided that I wished I had gators because I kept getting the little grass stickers in my socks and had to pull them out. Around 3.84 miles my ass started dragging, this was about the same time I ran out of water, and also about the same time we started regaining all the elevation we lost. Renae ran out of water around mile 4.3 because I helped her I think. On the beaver creek trail there are 3 or 4 water crossings but there are solid bridges (like VOC bridges) for crossing. It was around 4.8 miles or so that we came back to the gravel/dirt road that brought us down to the trail. For the race the return is not on the gravel/dirt road but up to hole 4 and reversing from 4 to 1 and down to the Sunset Grill. But seeing as I thought I was going to die and we were out of water we headed back to the jeep in the parking lot.

I had both the GPS and my Nike Plus. The GPS indicated we did 5.35 miles with a moving time of 2hours24min and a stopped time of 13min48seconds, max elevation was 9326 and total ascent was 770 feet. My Nike plus indicated we did 5.12 miles in 2hours39min. I tend to rely more on the GPS on this type of terrain. We didn't run any of the trail because we wanted to get a sense of what it was like. I've been on a lot of trails, and am in ok physical shape and this is one of the harder trails just for the fact that there are things that can trip you up pretty much the whole entire trail. We are going back out next Sunday to rerun the trail, perhaps even running some of it, in the early morning (we started our hike at nearly 1pm and it was almost 80 degrees (which I believe is why we ran out of water). We will definitely have more water with us next time.

Roby's New Girlfriend from New Mexico

2009-07-03T16:50:00.003-06:00

We brought back Roby a girlfriend from New Mexico these are the pictures.

Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado

2009-06-30T10:31:00.004-06:00

We as we were headed out of Taos New Mexico, Renae says, "Oh I didn't know we would end up that close to the Sand Dunes." I said oh really. She mentioned she hadn't been there since she was a kid and the slid from the sand into the water. "Oh by the way did you know you could board the dunes?" What the freak are we sitting around for then I said, will they rent boards there, should be have brought ours? So we decided to go see the Sand Dunes. I'd never been and it was only a 30 minute divert from our original travel plans. We got there and it was 360 degree of mountain views, how awesome. But they didn't rent boards there so we made plans to come back with our old snowboards some time in the next 2 years. We spent about 40 min running up and down the Dunes (ok maybe not the entire time running, but we spent 40 min on the Dunes).

Roswell (What the Hell) New Mexico

2009-06-29T07:51:00.004-06:00

I was super excited to finally get to see Roswell after all the hype from RJ and the kids. We got there, parked right in front of the International Space Alien Museum and I payed the $5 per adult entrance fee for me and Renae (cuz I was the one that wanted to go). What a tremendously stupendously disappointment for me. I'm not sure what I was expecting but what I got wasn't that, I wanted my 10 dollars back. Newspaper clippings and paper mache didn't hit it. So I spent 30 dollars in the gift store buying alien lolly pops for the kids and a bunch of crap I really didn't need.

So then we walked up and down the street looking for possible space aliens and a good place to eat. Nope either of those appeared. So we walked back to the car and ate at Applebee's. Another disappointment. There water tasted like it was from Mars. The waitress took our order while smacking gum and I had to go to the bartender (yes just like Beaujo's) to get different drinks. We left a .70 cent tip and ran (literally) from Applebee's fearing that the waitress would chase us down and throw the tip on the car like Idaho Springs. We were laughing the entire way to the gas station. At least it wasn't 110 degrees like it was in Texas, it was only 92.

I did get to see a tarantula crossing the road. We turned a U'y and tried to get back to take pictures but it had already gone. On the trip from Texas to Sante Fe (where we stayed the night) we saw: antelope, hawks, deer, tarantula, two suicidal birds that nearly hit the windshield, ground squirels, 2 Penske trucks (Renae's traveling good luck charm, a snake, and a couple of other animals that I can't recall now.

Things we didn't see: Area 51, alien life forms, space ships, good service, good water, and open stores.

Swimming in San Angelo

2009-06-26T15:12:00.002-06:00

Swimming at the Rodeway Inn in the middle of the afternoon while it's 102.

New Jeep

2009-06-23T17:11:00.002-06:00

This last weekend Renae and I went and picked up my jeep that I just bought. The guy I bought it from is a big Avalanche fan, hence the stickers and plates, I think I'll keep it a while. I bought it for backpacking and hunting so it won't get used very often. For you car buffs out there it's a 86 CJ7 straight 6 285 with 31 inch tires, a tow package, a 2 1/2 inch lift kit and winch.

Open Track Meet

2009-06-14T07:00:00.003-06:00

We put Katie and Kaleb in the first open track meet. Here are some pictures.

Camping on the Grand Mesa

2009-06-09T07:07:00.007-06:00

View from Atkinson Lake the morning of the 7th.

Me and Zeus "fishing" on Atkinson Lake on the 6th. In my defense it was 50 degrees and the wind was blowing 30 miles per hour.

Renae checking out her balance on a downed tree.

Picture of our campsite on the Grand Mesa.

This past weekend we decided to head up to the Grand Mesa and do a little hiking and camping. It was quite the little adventure with falling snow, blowing wind, and ATV's, but no fish. We were going to head up on Friday but after a stressful day and wind advisories we decided to head up first thing Saturday morning. What a beautiful morning. We got up there around 10 and started figuring where we wanted to camp. This trip we went up the Colbran side of the Mesa, lot less people. We found a good camp spot, although after hiking around, found many many more campsites should we come back. We set up camp and took off for a hike up the road, across an open field of stink weed, and saw lots of wonderful things. Some of the early flowers are in bloom and it was very pretty. We stopped for lunch after 3 miles of hiking and I cooked spaghetti and meatballs. Then we headed back to camp which was two miles back. We took a short nap, although I'm sure Renae would say differently cause I kept waking her up (I was so exhausted I couldn't sleep, so I kept moving around the tent). So we got up and walked over to the lake and went "fishing". I don't think any of the lakes on the Mesa have fish in them this year because this is the third time I've gone and not even one nibble. I was freezing my butt off and Renae kept saying it's not that cold. We went back to camp and tried to start a fire in the fire pit, but it just smoldered with an occasional flame. I cooked on the ole Coleman camp stove and we went to the tent at 630pm. This is the second time we've used the new car camping tent. It is about 1/2 mesh, so on a cold evening with blowing wind it was quite cold. We had the dogs covered up, and all of our clothes on just to keep warm. We both woke up around 1am and had to go to the bathroom and it was like 30 degrees warmer outside than it was when we went to bed. How crazy. We went back to the tent and slept till morning. We tried the fishing thing again but to no avail, although the water was much calmer at 7am. We got back to the tent and packed up and headed into Colbran. Ate some breakfast and had a good time listening to the locals. It's a pretty nice town.

Black Canyon May 16, 2009

2009-05-17T18:18:00.004-06:00

Delicate Arch Moab May 2009

2009-05-02T12:58:00.003-06:00

Renae in the window overlooking the Delicate Arch.

Me in the window overlooking Delicate Arch

My invisible friend in the window overlooking Delicate Arch.

"Eddie" the Raven begging for food in front of the Delicate Arch.

Renae at the bottom of the Arch.

Well we played tourists this last weekend. Renae had won a free night at the Red Cliff Lodge outside of Moab so we headed over to Utah on Thursday night. It was quite the experience for both of us. After we got checked in, we strode around the property and talked about either going rafting or horse back riding on Saturday morning. We had dinner reservations at 7pm at the Lodge. We showed up for dinner and was seated between multiple tourists from I'm sure California. Renae and I cracked up pretty much throughout dinner listening to various idiotic conversations; such as "Have you seen a reindeer yet?" and "This is the best ranch I've ever been to." Hello, it's a lodge not a ranch, ranch implies "W..O..R..K..I..N..G" and reindeer, geez. Not to mention 30 billion dollars of camera equipment being pulled out during dinner to take pictures of the cows grazing. Grandma we could have made a fortune selling a vacation at the farm to Californian's to take pictures of the livestock. So after the dinner experience we decided we couldn't handle the, "stupid question people" during a rafting or horse back riding trip so cancelled our horse back trip. We sat out on the deck of our room and watched the bats fly after whatever it is they eat at dusk. It was the first time I have seen a bat fly up close other than at the zoo, and no I didn't take any pictures.

The next morning we got up and headed to the 9.99 breakfast buffet at 9am in the hopes to avoid more tourist stimulating conversation, but to no avail. We checked out at 11am and filled up our hydration packs with ice and headed into Moab. I really can't tell you what we did to waste 4 or 5 hours other than to pick up supplies at the City Market, but we wasted time. We had decided to head out to Arches National Park to see the sunset at the Delicate Arch. This meant we would car camp Friday night. We set up the tent early before heading into Moab at the Oak Grove Campground (7 sites for tents only). We got to the trailhead for the Delicate Arch around 4pm. The lot was full full and we hoped that most people would be headed down. It only took us 38 min to hike the 1.28 mile hike to the arch. We sat around and watched the people come and go. Of course we hadn't intended on getting there 3 hours before sunset, but we did. We played cards (yes Kristen the same cards we carried on the Bataan Death March, and we still have 2 pairs of gloves in the packs), ate some of the bread, cheese, and meat we carried up, and people watched. Around 6 o'clock I thought the place had pretty much emptied, the cheese and meat had gotten to me and I started farting. Well apparently we weren't as isolated as I thought, because I heard snickering from above. I poked my head up (we were down below a ledge) and there were probably 25 people there at this point (professional and amateur photogs) waiting for the sun to set. I started cracking up. I made friends with Eddie the local Raven. He would come within about 3 feet of me to see what was going on and if I had any good crumbs. He cleaned up after me and my bread feast.

Finally the sun started to set and by that time there were literally about 75 people there to take photos. Of course there was also the tourist type there who actually walked out to the arch as the sun was setting and sat down and ate an apple. Finally one of the photographers asked him to move because everyone that was there wanted to take pictures and he didn't fit well in the scene. About a dozen people cheered including myself. After the sun set, Renae and I headed back down to the car. Going down was much faster than heading up. I think the 438 feet of elevation gain is a little underestimated. As the trail gains and looses several times before actually getting to the arch.

We headed back to the camp ground and fell right to sleep listening to the crickets and Colorado River. The next day we went into Moab and ate breakfast at the Pancake Haus and meandered home.

One Last Powder Day at Aspen Highlands

2009-04-19T06:52:00.007-06:00

Here is the trail map for Aspen Highlands. We stayed higher because it was a little slushy at lower mountain. The purple is the lifts we took up and the pink are the runs we took down. We did 5 or 6 runs over the course of about 3 hours.

Me boarding at Aspen Highlands

It's a powder day 12 new inches in 24 hours.

Renae showing off her groovy turns.

Renae and the tree at Rifle Falls

Waterfall at Rifle Falls

Renae in front of the three falls.

Me climbing down the falls.

Check out my skills on a board.

Well snow storms had been hitting Colorado big time but all the resorts around us in Grand Junction have already closed. I'd been in a bit of a funk because I didn't want to end the season with April 3rd. I had outreach planned in the Carbondale area on Saturday. Renae had planned to go with me as we were going to go hiking. But alas a big ole snow storm hit and every where we planned to hike was covered with snow. I suggested maybe we go snowboarding. Renae said she would be up to it. Aspen Highlands was the only resort (aside from Silverton) who would be open on the weekend (sweet they were getting the crap blasted out of them by snow). We decided to head up to Aspen after finishing my outreach in Carbondale. On the way up to Carbondale Friday night we stopped at Rifle Falls as I had never been there before. It was really cool and I got really wet climbing around the larger falls. They also have caves that you can go climbing around in, but I have these fears of axe murderers and big snakes and bears in caves so I get really freaked out. I posed at the entrance of one of the caves long enough for Renae to snap a photo.

We got to Aspen and parked in the Buttermilk parking lot around 1115 or so and got on our gear and hopped on the RFTA bus that was taking people to the resort. Everyone kept talking about spring skiing and what not....I had no clue what they were talking about because I hadn't skied or boarded this late in the season. We got there and got our $19 dollar lift ticket....that's right I said $19 dollars because we were season pass holders at another resort. We walked up to the lift that goes to mid mountain and hopped on. I have to say that I rode off every lift on this boarding day, I was so proud of myself and on my new board. We boarding down a short distance to get on the lift that takes you to what they consider the top mountain but then there is another lift that takes people up to the bowls, we just stayed at top mountain. We ran a run and came down to mid mountain to eat lunch, then headed back up. It was sweet....lots of fresh powder deeper than the powder at Sunlight. We had one sweet sweet powder run, never boarded in that much powder it was great. I felt a lot more comfortable on my new board.

I only had one major crash.....and it was on a catwalk of sorts. I got really disoriented and couldn't tell how the slope ran and dug in the tip of my board. I flipped all sorts of crazy directions, landed on my head, then healed broken wrist, and wrist into ribs. Needless to say I just sat there for a bit trying to get my wits about me. I knew my wrist brace popped a blood vessel in my hand, my neck was on fire, and I knew I bruised a rib or two. I finally got up and boarded to where Renae was...as she was looking for me and just sat down for a couple of minutes to stretch my neck. We took one more run and then came down to the bottom.

Once we got below mid mountain I then understood what spring conditions meant. It was like freak'n water skiing. Brown slush everywhere. The last 10 min or so was trying to get to the bottom in the slush. It was a totally new experience. So now I've boarded in all sorts of conditions, icy, groomed, big powder, and slush. It was a good way to end the snow boarding season.

Denver and Copper Mountain April 2009

2009-04-06T06:52:00.010-06:00

Kristen, Roby, RJ, and Kaleb at Copper Mountain.

RJ checking out Brian's ski form.

Taysha and Brian.

Hey I'm undercover.

Kristen and Clayton + Taysha and Brian.

Taysha and Brian.

The Byrd family (little baby Kaily was sleeping, Cheryl was in Hawaii, I was taking the picture).

Roby and RJ tossing Kaleb over the fence.

Roby, Taysha, Kristen, and RJ.

Yeah, Uh Clayton I think there are supposed to be front legs on the chair.

Uncle RJ and Katie.

Renae, Kaily, Katie, and Kaleb.

Katie holding Kaily

Me taking a break at Copper (on my new board)

Renae at Copper.

Brian and Taysha skiing.

White Sands Post and Bataan Death March

2009-03-31T10:19:00.007-06:00

Renae and I walking along the trail at the Death March.

Kristen, Renae, and I half way through the march.

Kristen, me, and Renae getting ready to start.

After Kristen and Renae crossed the finish line.

Me heading to the aide station.

Those aren't cactus, they're short palm trees.

Kaily checking out the Flora and Fauna of White Sands.

Hey what's this Air Force missile doing on a Army post?

Kaily and me checking out the Army missile's at White Sands.

Kaily and Renae checking out a "Scud Buster" at White Sands Missile Range.

Well we headed to White Sands for some fun and excitement and 15.2 miles in the dessert in honor of those that were forced to march from Bataan in WWII. It seems that Renae and I can't go anywhere with a bit of drama attached to it. We loaded up the vehicle and headed out from Grand Junction at around 0740 in the am. Renae and I had been watching the weather but didn't think we'd hit the snow storm until New Mexico well it proved us wrong, not long after leaving Montrose we hit this wall of snow. It was crazy people trying to drive 55 while others were driving 25mph. We made it to Ridgeway maybe 45-60min after leaving Montrose and it was snowing in feet per hour not inches. We stopped at the Shell Station and they said they probably had a foot of snow drop in the last hour and the road crews hadn't even made it out yet. They also informed us that chains were required over both Lizard Head and Red Mountain, which of course we didn't have chains and no one in town sold them because after all it is 4 days before April 1st. So we turned around and headed back to Montrose. We wasted some time to allow the road crews to get out and the weather to ease up and purchased snow chains. Then we turned around and headed back to Ridgeway. Once we got there it looked like we could get over Red Mountain according to the CDOT sign. So we headed to Ouray. The snow had let up some but it had dumped all morning. We creeped up Red Mountain, then up Molas and stopped in Silverton to go to the bathroom. Once everyone was ready we headed up Coalbank pass, which was the best (road wise) of the three passes. On the way up Molas we passed a van from Cali-forn-ia who had apparently gotten one of his tires off the side of the road which then pulled his vehicle off the road, luckily there was a 6 foot snow bank because his car had tipped at a 55 degree angle and the snow bank stopped it from rolling on over. It must have just happened because the road plow driver stopped to check on the driver. We made it up and over Coalbank in record time and sped into Durango so I could meet with my 330 appointment. I was scheduled to do outreach in Durango but the weather had other ideas. We pulled into the hotel at 315pm after 7 1/2 hours of being on the road.

Renae and I watched the weather and the next day decided to go around some weather that was closing down I-25. We headed down through Farmington, veering off at the last second at a Fry Bread sighting yummy, then headed to Gallup. What a desolate road between Farmington and Gallup, depressing indeed. We arrived in Gallup and found a Cracker Barrel which Kristen and Clayton had never eaten at. Then we were off again headed to Las Cruces, we left Gallup around 230pm and arrived in Las Cruces around 8pm, so two long days of driving.

The next day we needed to drive over to White Sands Missile Range to register for the march. So we packed up the van and headed over. I guess I didn't realize that White Sands was at elevation I thought it was at sea level but it was at greater elevation than Grand Junction. It felt good to be on an Army Post again, made me all nostalgic for the military. I think it did the opposite for everyone else though. We followed the signs for the check in and stood in line, got our numbers, our timing, chip, checked the timing chip, got our certificate for participating and a t-shirt. Renae and I had our certificate and dog tag framed and got a few other memorabilia. We were told to be at the post no later than 0430 am for breakfast and to park. So we decided to get up at 0315 AM (I know, geez it was early) and head to the Post.

We followed a long line of cars (we saw Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, California, Kansas ((Sedgwick County)), Indiana, New Mexico (of course), New York, Idaho, Georgia, Mexico, and a lot of others. We parked where they told us (at 415 in the morning none of us were really paying much attention as to where we actually were) and started looking for our free breakfast. We arrived at the tents and found fruit and pastries. I think we were all disappointed for waking up so early and not getting a hot breakfast, but oh well. We got to talk with a daughter of a POW Bataan march survivor. She said her father wanted to come to the event this year so the daughter drove down to bring him and the POW passed away the night before the event at 6pm and his family came in honor of him. It made tears come to our eyes. They were truly celebrating his life. We made the time pass by standing in line for the porta potties, watching space aliens in tin foil walk/run past, and watching various military units. I think I even saw one of the ladies I was stationed at Ft. Meade with. We lined up in our appropriate staging area to await the start. The brass gave their speeches, the Air Force flew over in their new jets, and they told us not to start until directed to. Then the cannon sounded and amazingly our group was the first to start which was completely opposite of the way it was supposed to happen. We didn't cross the start line until about 30 min after then cannon sounded. Along the way before the start line they had the Bataan survivors and we got to shake their hands, totally awesome experience.

Kristen talked about her marathon's and we just kinda watched people as we crossed mile 1 and came upon mile 2. By the time we hit mile 2 quite a few of the military units and teams had gone past us, we had even seen one guy in uniform running barefoot. Kristen pumped at mile 2 and we headed on. I helped pass the time by picking up trash that people had thrown down on the ground, looking at the candy people had dropped, and watching for wildlife. At mile 3 we started to see military people off on the side of the trail taking off their boots and putting on moleskin and band aids, I definitely don't miss that. Mile 3 and 4 went pretty quickly because we would speed up one mile and slow down one mile but 3 and 4 were quicker miles. Around mile 5 they had a fruit station were they handed out oranges and banana's. I got my second wind then and we speed our way to the halfway point at mile 8. Mile 8 is when the 26.2 milers and the 15.2 milers split. I started noticing my feet around mile 6, but it wasn't until reaching mile 8 (which was supposed to be a faster paced mile) did I hit the wall. This was mostly because they had us walk through a sand pit for about 1/2 of a mile. This kicked my ass, but we still completed the mile in 18.5 minutes. Then we had a brief up hill section just past mile 9 and another aid station with oranges and cots. I took this time to sit down and empty the 10 lbs of sand I had in my shoes. I started questioning whether I would be able to make it as my feet burned and my fingers amazingly were swollen to the size of polish sausages. We passed mile 10 and I started slowing down. I told Renae and Kristen that I wasn't trying to be rude by not talking I was just trying to find my rhythm so I could make the last 5 miles. I don't remember mile 11, but as we neared mile 12 I could see another aid station. At this point the wind had kicked up with gusts of around 25 miles an hour. I was just putting one foot in front of the other, my butt was cramping every other mile or so since mile 9, and I could no longer feel my feet. I started thinking about the insanity of doing such a crazy thing as to walk 15.2 miles just because. Then I would try to remember why I was there. As we crossed mile 12 a man stopped me and asked if I were ok. I asked how much further and he said 2.6 miles or so, I told him if he were lying I'd walk back and kick his butt, he told me Sargent Major's don't lie, so then I apologized to the Sargent Major (military bearing). I walked a little bit further then decided I needed to change my socks to hopefully help me feel my feet. Luckily there was a challenge course on the right side of the trail so I sat on a log while Kristen and Renae helped take off my shoes. At one point both of them had both of my feet off the ground. At that point I got really nauseous and told them to look out because I was going to hurl. It was funny to watch them scatter, but I never hurled. Kristen asked if I wanted the Medic people and in a incomplete haze I said yes. I wish now I hadn't because I'm sure I would have been able to finish it would have just taken me about 30 min a mile to get it done. But they took me in to the aid station at the finish line. I had finished 12.25 miles which is 4 miles over what I have ever walked or hiked since the military. So in that sense I was pretty proud of myself. We actually finished the first 8 miles in about 2.5 hours which was amazing considering the course and the amount of people that were on it. The next 4 miles took about 2 hours because we were slowing up a bit. Then Renae and Kristen finished the last three miles in about 1 hour. I watched them cross the finish line and we had our photo taken.

Renae's bib number was 1324
Kristen's bib number was 1325
My bib number was 1323
The times are already posted on http://www.arizonarunningeventsco.com/BataanHonorary2009.htm

So if you get the chance congratulate Kristen and Renae and a job well done.

We went over to get our free after march meal which was a hamburger or bratwurst and headed back to Las Cruces. Renae drove to the long A named town in New Mexico Alburqurue (or something like that, then I drove to Farmington. We got into Farmington at 11pm utterly exhausted. Then drove on in to Grand Junction on Monday. I'm not ready to get back into a vehicle again for a while.

Kristen, Clayton, and Kailynn's Visit to Colorado

2009-03-31T10:07:00.007-06:00

Kristen and Clayton in Durango.

Clayton pants go on your legs not in your hands.

Me feeding Kaily with her Browns blanket.

Nana Renae is so excited to hold Kaily again.

Here is the trail map of Sunlight and the run I took with Kristen and Clayton and with me and Renae.

Kristen, Clayton and Kailynn arrived in Grand Junction on Monday around noon. I picked them up at the airport and we met Renae at the Olive Garden for lunch. They piddled around town for the next couple of days then we headed to Sunlight outside of Glenwood for some fresh powder boarding. It was the most powder I've ever seen or boarding on. Kristen and Clayton and I headed up the mountain while Renae watched Kaily. We headed up to the top of the mountain and started down some blue runs...I think the Blue Catwalk to Joslin to Blue Tango. I think the last two runs had moguls somewhere underneath the powder. It was great fun I had a ton of powder ever where. When we got down I watched Kaily while Renae, Kristen and Clayton headed up the mountain. Then Renae and I headed up and came down the same route. I'll post the video's later tonight or tomorrow. It was crazy fun. After we were done we headed to Zumiez in the Glenwood mall because I had been eyeing this snowboard, but it came cheaper in a package, but I didn't need another pair of boots or bindings, so I got Clayton the boots and Kristen the bindings. It's a sweet ride and I can't wait to try it out on Thursday 4/2/09. Roby then met us in Rifle for supper.

The trip to New Mexico is on a different post. Likely I'll post the family trip to Denver on another post as well.

Renae boarding powder at Sunlight.

LIONNESS

2009-03-19T13:53:00.004-06:00

No this isn't a weird breed of cat. Sophie (our male Hima-Siam) cat spent the winter getting her coat all matted. So much so that we could no longer brush it out. So we took her to the groomer, which turned out to be quite traumatic for Renae and I but probably not so much for Sophie and now she looks like above. I start laughing when I see her running towards me. She is such a prissy cat.

Sunlight MTN March 15th, 2009

2009-03-15T20:07:00.008-06:00

Ah Sunlight what an interesting resort. Roby and the kids meet us over at the house around 0830 on Sunday morning. We all hopped in the car and headed to Glenwood Springs. We pulled into the parking lot around 10am. The lot wasn't very full it was about 40 degrees and sunny outside and everyone had to go to the bathroom but Kaleb, he wanted to hit the slopes. We piled out of the car and hit the restrooms. I got the kids lift tickets ($10 dollars what a steal) and we proceeded to put on all our gear at the car. This is the second time Katie has gone skiing with all of us. We got to the first lift (I guess it would be the equivelant to the EZ rider at Powderhorn only a little higher up) what insanely crazy lifts they have at Sunlight. They are still using the 1973 version of the chairlift which proved hazardous to me later in the day. Anywho. Kaleb and Roby rode together, Renae and Katie rode together, then I was the lone trail person. At 10 am there were hardly anyone on the lifts so we were yelling back and forth from the chairs to communicate. As we reached the deposit point for the lift I see fairly easy down but with a 75 degree turn to make unless I want to hit a wooden fence. Now normally no problem, except for me who has problems getting off the lift. Of course there are swarms of people seemingly dotted right in my way (that's how I saw it in my head) so I just dump and scootch over to the side. We get strapped in and head down this green run (I will load the trail map later this week).

Video from the first run.

I notice as we make our first run down that there is another lift about 1/4 of the way down from the lift we just got off. This other lift looks like it goes all the way up the mountain. After getting down from the first run we head back onto the lift. This time there were a lot more people. I rode a little bit further on my board then dumped getting off the lift, throughout the day Katie and Renae would be down on the ground in front of me as I got off the lift, because Katie would just stop then fall down when she got off the lift, causing Renae to fall down. So we rode down to this other lift and got on to ride to the top. Now is when the old chair lifts really affect my chair lift performance. This lift is only a two seater with a pole in the middle of each seat. So I'm like I'm riding by myself because this is the first time I've even laid eyes on one of these things. But noooooo some lady with skis on (look I'm already coping a boarder attitude) gets on the lift with me, I'm looking back at Renae while still in line with a paniced look and she shrugs her shoulders. So I manage to get onto the chair lift without killing myself or the ski lady. Did I mention the lifts don't have dangle bars to protect you from sliding off the chair. Because the lady had skis I wasn't able to put my free foot under my board to relieve some of the pressure on my binded foot. So by the time we reached the exit my binded foot was numb. As we approach the exit it looks like you dump off the other side of the mountain, with of course a wooden wall forcing a 75 degree turn. I actually ride the exit and half way down the turn and don't fall. Then I watch as Katie and Renae approach the exit, Renae is telling the lift operator to slow down the lift (he doesn't) Katie stops then dumps, then Renae dumps. The lift operator picks up Katie who then skis down to me and here comes Renae. Getting off the lifts was a truly exciting ordeal at Sunlight. Once we buckle in we ride down to where the trail map is to look at where we should go.

Kaleb, Roby, and Katie at the top of Sunlight.

Katie posing as we start down the green run.

Roby jumping off into a powder section.

So I am laying on the ground looking at the trail map and Renae is taking pictures when I hear behind me "RUNAWAY SLED LOOK OUT". I look up just in time to see this skier jump onto one of the ski patrol's sled that apparently fell down and started down the mountain. This guy and sled came to a stop right at my head. Had he not jumped on it to try to stop it I would probably have been hit by a very fast runaway sled. I looked up at the guy and said "nice catch thanks". And here comes ski patrol walking down to their sled like ho hum this happens every day.

So we decided to go down this green run which starts like this

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------------- (obviously blogspot won't let me illustrate, but it was steep)

So I try to make a few turns on the really steep starting section and then look ahead and see a flat section and then an up section. So I try to pick up speed and flat board the flat section. I make it about 3/4 of the way across the flat section before I stop. So I unstrap and "walk" up the up section. Five minutes later and completely out of breath I'm hunkered over trying to breath. Here is a picture at the top of the up section.

Once I catch my breath and strap back in we are on our way down the hill. Renae and Katie are leading the way. It was really nice up top as they got 24 inches of new powder this last week. So it was deep. Roby and Kaleb were in front of me and Kaleb falls throwing a ski. I stop to help Roby put Kaleb's ski back on when I look up Renae is rolling around in fresh powder (later she said she was watching Katie and fell into the deep stuff). So we head down some more, Katie grows increasingly tired as she didn't eat breakfast that morning. Needless to say we were stopped a lot on the mountain which was hard because Katie would stop on the flat sections, which are killer for boarders to get going again. I think I did more crawling to the middle of the run at sunlight just so I could catch some sort of edge. We finally made it down for lunch around 1:10pm. Renae and I had sent Roby back up to the top so he could get a good run in. I think we were all exhausted when we got down. Renae and I sat the kids down at a table while we went and got the cooler. Renae then went and got us adults a couple of adult beverages. We sat around until 2:15 or so just resting, then Renae, Kaleb and I went up a different lift. Again this lift scarred the ever living shit out of me. Kaleb and Renae loaded before I did. I rode solo and was standing waiting for the chair, when I turned around to look at the chair I realized I was standing in the middle where the bar/pole was so got hit squarely in the back with the pole falling into the chair. In doing so this caused my chair to rock back and forth back and forth with an uneasyness of a faris wheel chair. I grabbed and wrapped my arm around this middle pole and hung on for dear life trying to talk myself out of a panic attack. Until I looked up and realized my chair was being held to the line by a weld, one little weld that I'm pretty sure my grandpa didn't do, causing utter fear. Then my chair hit the first pole, CLANG, then the second pole, CLANG THUD SWING, then here comes the third pole and I'm thinking get me the F--K off of this thing CLANG, THUD SWING. The forth pole is coming but my chair had stopped swinging enough that it had missed the pole this time. 3/4 of the way up I released my grip on the middle pole. We get to the exit and I see Kaleb and Renae off to the side but I dump anyway. The lift guy is like "Uh yeah you need to lean into your board man", I'm thinking shut up youngester and go back to smoking whatever it was you were smoking.

We start down a blue run but there was a catwalk to navigate first. At one point I fell and thought I rebroke my wrist, but hopped back up and caught up with Kaleb and Renae. This blue run was steeper than the blue's I've done at Powderhorn but did fairly well at making my turns. There was only one steep section that I rode the edge of my board down which then dumped into a flat section. I did really good building up speed to make it up the two inclines before downhilling it to the lodge. Kaleb on the other hand still looks at his skis so ended up heading in the wrong direction, so I doubled back around and took his skis off. He carried them part way across the hill towards the lodge.

Picture of me after making a heel side turn on the blue run.

Roby then took Kaleb up while we took Katie back up the green runs (instructing runs). Katie did 100% better going on these runs (we think that she is competing with Kaleb in flying down the hill instead of skiing). She was able to make turns following Renae or I on our boards, she followed hand signals as well as voice commands. And after the first run wanted to go back up. It was like 3 min till 4pm so we got back in the lift line and head up the mountain. I think I am first on this run and crash somewhere near the wall, I see the lift operator praying that my head doesn't hit one of the chair lifts and here come Katie and Renae. We fly down the hill this time only stopping once I think. Here is video of me on my board.

The purple lines are the chair lifts to the runs we took. The Maroon lines are the beginner hills that we went on which include Midway and Loop. The Green line is the top run we took which began with Grizzly (green) and we cut of onto a Blue run called "Beaujolais". The bright pink line is the run where I nearly lept to my death from the chair lift. We started on the "Blue Catwalk" (blue) switched to the "White River" (blue run) which dumped into the 2.5 mile Ute Trail run (Green).

Powderhorn March 1st

2009-03-02T05:56:00.005-07:00

Kaleb taking a break and making snow angels.

Renae and Kaleb coming down to the lift.

Renae Boarding the end of "Bill's Run"

Roby boarding the end of "Bill's Run"

Me and Roby coming down the upper section of "Bill's Run".

Renae and Kaleb skiing and boarding.

It's best to start this blog with the going's on Saturday because it will make my story much better. So Saturday morning Renae and I decided to work on cleaning the house. Renae was going to focus on the garage and I was working downstairs. We wanted to get the garage done because we have had a family of mice living and playing in the garage. They wreaked havoc in the bird seed and grass seed. Luckily we have two mouser cats and we found were they were getting in. Anywho.....at some point mid morning Renae asked me to help her out in the garage....she wanted me to cut open some plastic on top of a shelve were she thought a mouse was hiding. I didn't know why I got the glorious experience of possibly having a mouse jump out at me but I cut open the plastic and there was no mouse, thankfully. However, by this point Renae and I had already vacuumed up 4 containers of seed and mouse poop....I kept saying were going to get the Hunta Virus didn't you see that movie "outbreak" with Dustin Hoffman (of course that was a monkey). So I helped her a little more and told her since I was helping her when we breaked we had to go to Sports Authority and get her a new snowboard. She has been using her board for the last 7 years or so and while a good board has seen better days. So after going to the dump and talking with the State Patrol, we headed to Sports Authority. Of course she picks out the board that I showed her at the beginning of the season that I liked, but I wasn't jealous as my board is brand new even though it is two years old. So we got her a new board and new bindings.

So Sunday morning we get up and start loading the car and making lunches. We are to meet Roby over at his house between 8-815. This was (emphasis on was) to be Katie's last lesson which was free. We get over to Roby's house and get everything loaded in the car. Katie goes out and climbs in her car seat and nearly falls asleep without even talking with Renae who she hasn't seen in over a month (in hindsight this was pretty weird). So we swing by McDonald's for breakfast and we are headed to Powderhorn. We get there at 0915 or so and change at the car (this threw Renae for a loop because we had only done this once prior to her leaving, but Roby and I had made a habit of it). Renae took Katie who slept all the way up to Powderhorn to the Children's learning Center for her last lesson, while Roby, Kaleb, and I started getting Kaleb's ski package. Probably the last time at Powderhorn and we finally get the system down of how to rent skis. Roby then goes to buy his ticket while I go to find out where Renae is because she hadn't come in yet. I found her still standing in line at the Children's Learning Center waiting to check Katie in. I went and got her ticket and then we all met and headed over to the quad lift.

Renae and Roby both brought their new boards, since it was Renae's first time with her set up I helped strap her in because the bindings were really stiff. We decided to ride up 2 and 2 instead of all 4 just because I had been having trouble getting of the quad lift and there weren't that many people. Renae did her best to boost my confidence in getting of the lift, but to no avail I wiped out hard on solid ice it felt like. Cracked my knee on the first fall, so I worked my way over to the side to strap in. We decided to go down "Bill's Run" which has a few more steeper sections than "Maverick" the run I took last time with Roby. I did pretty well with the flat sections this time only falling once in the three runs I took with them. So we headed down and Renae and I worked with Kaleb in doing more french fry skiing (ski's together) rather than snow plow skiing. The first run I took I don't think I fell once and we worked our way down the mountain. This time I did a couple of turns on the steeper section and faired pretty well. We headed back up again, this time I indicated to the lift operator to slow the lift, still dumped, this time it was because I ended up putting my foot on my binding and was trying to reposition it while getting off. Bad Idea. We strapped in and headed down "Bill's Run" again. We all worked more with Kaleb getting the french fries down instead of the snow plow. At the end of the run I told them I wanted to go over to the EZ Rider lift and work on getting off that lift since I keep dumping.

Roby, Renae, and Kaleb all went back up the quad lift while I headed over to the EZ rider. At this point let me give you an idea of the conditions. This would have been about 1120am and the temp was about 43-45 by this time, not a cloud in the ski, a 42 inch base (although I'm not sure where they were measuring that from), groomed runs, and hardly anyone at the resort. So I head up EZ rider with a young skier. As we approach the end of the lift I see there is slush and slush water awaiting me. I do fairly well getting off until I reach the slush water, never water boarded before so dumped. Oh well. I strapped in and headed down EZ because it was the longest run. I'm not sure what they did to the run, but there were deep grooves all the way down the run in the middle of the run. So I got to practice my loosey goosey legs and did baby jumps. When I finished I went over the bottom of the run they would be coming down and took pictures of them coming down. I send them back up after getting the car keys from them and take Kaleb and we go get lunch. Well once we got to the car Kaleb informed me he really needed to go pee. I asked if he could wait 5 min to get back up to the lodge, but he was already doing the pee-pee dance. Well lets just say we got the situation handled and Kaleb felt better. We took the lunch back up and waited for Renae and Roby. We all ate lunch, then Renae and I went up for a run while Roby and Kaleb took the lunch back to the car.

I actually made it most of the way off the lift this time. Yeah, I rode about 100 feet on my board, before I wiped out. Renae and I strapped in and she kept telling me flat board flat board, finally I said I have no clue what you mean when you say that. I could tell I was tired because I fell at least 3 times hard on this run. But I was working on kicking my back leg out on turns. We made it down in about 25 min or so and Roby and Kaleb were waiting. I told them to go up without me and I would bring Katie over so she could do a run with us. Well I went over to the Children's Learning Center just to find out how we get Katie's ski's so we could take her up when she was done with her lesson at 230. They told me and I left. I sat in the lunch area looking to see if I could see Katie skiing, but never did. I went back into the CLC and she said, "it didn't even register when you were in here, Katie has been passed out ever since lunch, she didn't seem like she felt good" and there she was laid out on a mat dead asleep with kids playing all around her. Her ski instructor said she thought Katie's ear was bothering her. So I went and waited for them to come back down the hill. First came Roby barrelling down the hill and got right back in line for the lift, then come Renae and Kaleb about 7 min later. So I tell Renae about Katie and we wait for Roby to come back down. We send Roby and Kaleb back up while we go put our boards up and get Katie. When we got Katie she was running a fever and was complaining that her neck hurt. Red Flag Red Flag. So when Roby and Kaleb got down we talked with Roby about taking Katie to the hospital to have her checked.

So we dropped off Roby and Kaleb at Roby's house and Renae, me and Katie proceeded to Community Hospital ER. They took a throat culture when we checked in and before we even left the triage area told us that Katie was positive for strep throat....In the back of my head I'm thinking great I have Hunta Virus and now strep throat. You could tell Katie felt miserable. They put a mask on her and got her back in an isolation room with Renae I couldn't go back because there was only one visitor per patient allowed in the back. So I got to sit in the waiting room where there were 3 people laying on the floor moaning, one guy vomiting all over the place, one yelling/screaming child, one 17 year daughter there with her mother and father bitching about waiting for 2 hours, and several other interesting characters. Brittany (Katie's mommy) showed up around 645 or so and around 715 I went and asked the nurse to go get Renae (we hadn't eaten since lunch and I couldn't sit in the waiting room with chaos any longer. Renae came out and said they just started Katie's IV. So about 15 min later we left the hospital and Katie in the hands of Brittany and headed to Applebee's to get something to eat. I don't remember much of supper other than I was dragging as was Renae. Brittany called during Applebees and told Renae they were discharging Katie with antibiotics and everyone else that has been exposed to Katie (ie all family members) should be checked for strep. When Renae and I got home I was showing her my bruises from the day. She said whats that one on your arm, so I looked and it was a perfectly round bruise with a raised center about the size of a nickel on the back side of my arm. So I'm like great now I have Hunta Virus, strep throat, and I've been bitten by a brown recluse and my skin is going to fall off around the bruise, not to mention I pushed myself really hard today and I hurt/ache.

But it was a great day of boarding. If everyone is feeling better and on their antibiotics we are planning to go to Sunlight.

Here is the trail map of Powderhorn. I did 3 runs on "Bill's Run" (pink) and one run on EZ.

Some pictures from Renae's trip to Europe!

2009-02-26T12:24:00.003-07:00