Having fun Getting ready for the Grand Canyon

The last two weekends have been great fun as we bump up our endurance training to handle the cool stuff we have planned for this summer.

On May 16th we did about 7 hours of biking for our annual 100 mile Reach the Beach bike ride on a tandem with Mary and James. No flats, amazing weather, almost no wind and close to 17 miles per hour average. Also a great leg workout without the pounding of running (we would do that the next weekend!!).

We once again stayed at the Craftsman Bed and Breakfast in Pacific City with Mike and Laura as our excellent hosts. If you are in Pacific City, stay at their place. An evening soaking in the hot tub with dinner at the Bistro catching up with new and old friends was how we ended a great day.

The following weekend was hills and Gorge running!

Trisha did some Dog Mountain repeats with Ronda, Micheal, Cheri on Friday to smash those quads into shape. Dog Mountain climbs straight up 2,800 feet in 3.2 miles. Up, up and more up!

On Saturday, I did about 7 hours of running in the Gorge. Herman Creek to the PCT then up to the Benson Plateau. We then hit the snow and blindly made our way across the Benson Way through the snow to the Ruckel Creek Trail. Pounded down to the Gorge 400. Across on the Gorge 400 trail and then back up on the Herman Creek trail to tackle the Nick Eaton Ridge. Then some amazing cruising down the Gorton Creek trail to finish up. Ronda gives a great account on her blog.

It was hard. It was amazing. I hit the toughest section of trail I have tackled. I was working as hard as I could and it took me 39 minutes to do 2 miles!! Try the Nick Eaton trail if you are really looking for a challenge!

Why all the training? Trisha and I are running the Grand Canyon this coming weekend. Rim to Rim to Rim. From the North Rim to the South Rim and back up the North Rim. 45 miles of fun with 11000 ft of vertical to keep you honest! We are ready and we just cannot wait!!

Tigard Youth Track Home Meet

Back on May 2nd, Cole and Leah competed in their second track meet of the year.

This was the home meet for our Tigard Youth track club at the local high school.

Both raced in the 800 racewalk and then two sprints: 100 and the 400.
I was bursting with pride with all the results and the efforts that they did out on the track.

We called it a day after these 3 events and MAN were we glad we did. Just as we were leaving the wind and rain reached close to hurricane levels and ended the meet.

We are excited to hit the last meet of the year for us on June 13th in Salem.

Cole and Leah have worked really hard this year and it is cool to see them learning how to dig deep and enjoy the personal satisfaction of giving it all they got!

Eclipse DemoCamp Galileo 2009

A public service announcement for all those Eclipse enthusaists who live close to Portland...or who need an excuse to visit our amazingly beautiful city!!

ECLIPSE DEMO CAMP GALILEO 2009 – Portland, OR

Instantiations and The Eclipse Foundation will co-host a pizza and salad buffet, including beverages. Come as a presenter and demo the cool stuff that you have been working on in Eclipse and network with your local Eclipse community!  

Here are the official details and where to sign up:

The Eclipse Foundation and Instantiations proudly present the Eclipse DemoCamp Galileo 2009/Portland

Date: June 17, 2008

Time: 7pm – 9pm (Presenters set up at 6pm)

Location: Lucky Lab Beer Hall, 1945 NW Quimby, Portland (Directions)

Cost: Complimentary; attendance is limited

Registration: To register, add your name as presenter or attendee to this wiki:

http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_DemoCamps_Galileo_2009/Portland 

If you have questions, please contact Tina Kvavle at Instantiations . Feel free to pass this along to your colleagues, and be sure to sign up on the wiki if you would like to attend or present! We look forward to seeing you there.

Reason to Run: Big Sur Marathon 2009

This morning I ran the Big Sur Marathon. And when I say morning I use that term very loosely!!

The Big Sur marathon has a start time of 6:45am. Not too bad you say. Well then throw in that you have to bus out to the start and you have to be on the bus no later than 4:15 am!! This is as crazy as my ultra running friends start times for 100 milers!! So I get out to this beautiful spot in the Big Sur park at around 5:15 in the morning. The sun is not even up yet. So nothing to do but pull up a piece of road and sleep for 30-40 minutes. I would have slept longer but my shivering in the pre-dawn cold woke me up ;-)

Now enough whining about the start. The Big Sur marathon is well organized, efficient and flows very nicely as an event. I have a new respect and perspective on this since hosting our first Reason to Run events back in April. They co-host about a million events: walks, 21 miler, marathon, 10 miler, marathon relays, 5k and more. All told 10,000 athletes take part in the weekend. It is big. This event had the best water and food support I have seen at a road marathon. Lots of lots of opportunity for both water and fuel. Gels at many locations. I also liked the Bring Your Own Bottle (BYOB) support for refills of handhelds.

I hope my pictures give you a small glimpse at why the race is so popular. The course is just that beautiful. And challenging. This was the toughest road marathon I have tackled. It actually was much closer in style to the trail ultras I run: miles of up and down that constantly challenge you mentally and physically. No mile upon mile of flat running here!

The profile:

And there was a little issue with wind giving us an extra bang for the buck today. At the aptly named Hurricane Point, when I picked up a leg at the end of a stride, the wind would blow it over to smash into the other leg!!

I had never planned to race this weekend but rather run hard and have a good time. I ran with a camera for the first time and really tried to push but not punish the body. It was hard to hold back in the first 10 miles. Similar to the Boston marathon and as you can see in the profile, the first couple of miles are a good downhill. Watch those quads! After that natural fatigue set in and we were fine ;-)

Overall, I had a great time, got in some amazing training and posted a 3:35 finishing time. The legs and body feel good, I think I fueled and hydrated well. My nemesis, my gut, did try to hijack the run a few times but running at the sub-race pace kept it under control.

I would go back but I don't know if I would ever try to really pound this one...boy that would hurt! I also tried doing a cheap hotel to keep the trip cost down and it worked out great. $40 with WiFi at the Good Nite Inn in Salinas. I booked using Travelocity.

Now it is time to head out for a recovery run with my best friend Trisha and then to bed to attempt to catch up on some much needed sleep!