Christmas Cheer

Some images of our second Christmas with Ainslie and first with Charlotte…

Hanna Anderson Ad…

Cousin Lindsey…

Burning My Wings at the Grand Ridge 50k

Since Vermont back in July, life has been consumed by job search, dissertation and other research, family, and preparations for the arrival of baby #2.  I did sneak in a great week at the Gore-Tex TransRockies Run (and I owe you all a race report), but during this time running has been fairly sporadic.  The travel and stress of the job search coupled with some late season cumulative fatigue made for consistently lackluster runs and mixed motivation.

In the last few weeks, however, things seemed to turn around a bit.  The Famous Neal Goldberg helped me figure out some issues with my lower back and hips, Hugnut shamed me into a few speed workouts that went surprisingly well, and Martin decided to start training for the Grand Ridge trail marathon.  These factors colluded with some anxiety that running life will take a back seat for a bit when the baby arrives (due date: 11/29) and motivated me to jump in the 50k event at Grand Ridge - sneak in one last race before the baby shows up.

Great plan…in theory.

Race morning arrived and all was quiet on the Maggie front so I decided to go for it.  Martin picked me up and we made the short trip to High Point.  Pin numbers, warm up, and go.  This is a relatively small local event.  If you haven’t tried on of Roger’s Evergreen Trail Runs, you should.  He and his crew do a great job and offer a wide variety of events with distances fun for all.  There were some familiar faces at the start…nice to catch up with Chase and introduce Martin to some of the local ultra-folk.  A brief course briefing and then go. 

(Photo: Glenn Tachyama)

The race consisted of two 13+ mile loops followed by a 5 mile loop.  And when i say “loop” I really mean lollipops…lollipops with LONG sticks and no so much candy.  Nice terrain, however, and all new to me as I normally run on the Tiger Mt side of I-90.  From the start I was pretty much alone and set off on a reasonably up-tempo pace.  Nothing hugely interesting to report from the race…just tried to stay steady and fight off some late race fatigue and malaise…that last 5-mile loop seemed to take FOREVER.  One nice thing about all the out and backs is that you got to see everyone multiple times.  I was able to check in on Martin…looked like he was struggling a bit on not his best day, but still moving forward which is the real key to these runs (turns out he WON the marathon!).  I do have to rant just a little bit about here trail etiquette.  The half-marathon event had over 200 starters and they took off after the long course folks such that I encountered them on the return from lap 1.  People: you gotta keep your head up on narrow out and backs and at the very make an effort to share the trail.  Some folks were completely oblivious, lost in their tunes, and I had more than enough close calls and shoulder bumps.

Overall, I didn’t feel particularly sharp, but I did enough to stay out in front and sneak in a few minutes under the previous course record. 

(Photo: Glenn Tachyama)

With the baby due in 10 days, I opted to not carry my phone and instead leave it in my drop bag at the start/finish area.  Loop 1: no messages, Lap 2: nada, Lap 3: all quiet.  Perfect.  As we walked back to the car, however, the phone chirped and the text read “Think I might be in labor…get home!”  And that’s when the real race began.  Martin did his best Mario Andretti impersonation whilst fighting off leg cramps.  We got home fast, grabbed Maggie and headed straight to the hospital.  Turns out it was a false alarm, but the fire drill was useful in that our systems weren’t really prepared for #2’s arrival.  Well, that’s changed now.  The bags are packed and we’re ready to go.  Perhaps it would have made for a good story to go straight from a race to the birth of our child, but probably not ideal…so we’ll savor the extra few days and I’ll keep the radius short from here on out.  I flew a little bit too close to the sun on this one - racing under-trained, overtired, and with a baby due - and my wings are slightly singed.  Good rush!

(Photo: Glenn Tachyama)

Gear List:

Patagonia Ridge Runner Shorts

Patagonia Capeline 1 Silkweight shirt

Patagonia F12 Merino Sales sample (BTW, this might just be the best fall/winter running shirt I have ever encountered.  Stay tuned and stock up when you can!)

Patagonia mid-weight merino gloves

Patagonia merino socks

UltrAspire Isomeric hand-held bottle

PowerBar Gel

PowerBar Endurance Drink

Nuun - Grape and Strawberry Lemonade.

Great offer from Nuun!

I’ve been sponsored by Nuun since 2007.  Love the product and the fact they are local.

They’re running a great special right now on multi-packs.  Click on the image below to get the special pricing.

Montana, Dental Floss, and Job Creation

Of the few who read this blog, perhaps you have figured it out from my obscure (READ: not funny) jokes and arcane references.  Others, perhaps, are just not paying attention.  It is time, however, to take control of the message and officially announce that I will not seek the republican party’s nomination for President of the United States of America.

Oh, wait…I’m confusing myself with someone else.

OK, so back to dental floss.  A few weeks ago I announced my decision to pursue a career as a dental floss tycoon.  Why dental floss, you ask?  Well that’s a fairly obscure reference the Frank Zappa song “Montana.”  The key line here is “Moving to Montana soon…”  Yep, that’s right.  We’re moving to Montana.  Missoula, MT.  I’ll be joining the faculty at the School of Business Administration at the University of Montana. 

After countless long years as PhD student skulking around the underbelly of UW, I’ll be turned loose as a real-life professor.  Hard to believe. 

We are very excited about this move.  It is a fantastic opportunity in a great town…a great fit both personally and professionally.  We’ll be making the transition next July and I’ll start at UM in late August.  Go Griz!

So I got a job.  A good job. A job created by a state institution.  Go figure…I thought government was the problem.

Sticking up for the 1%

One of my closest friends has been hard-hit by the recession.  He owns and operates a small business that manufactures and installs teak decking for yachts.  Although the super-rich have only gotten richer, their yacht consumption has apparently slowed.

So here is finally one example of the 1% creating jobs.  If they aren’t buying yachts, there ain’t no jobs for the people building them.  Yacht$ = Jobs, baby!