Photo Update

Hey All! Here are a few pics from the race. All photos were taken by Tammy, Rich and I forgot to bring cameras! You can click the link to the right to see more.

The unfortunate glitch is that you will now have to sign in to view pics. Yahoo has discontinued their photos where I have been keeping all my pics stored for easy album viewing. They bought Flickr and are having everyone move all their photos to there or elsewhere. I didnt like the format of Flickr and since we have an account already with Kodak we decided to go there. If you cannot view them, or I accidently missed adding you to the friends list, please email me or Rich so we can fix it. We love sharing our photos with you, it gives our friends and family a chance to visually see what we are up to, hopefully, this will work out OK.

Love ya!

Karen & Rich

The Fast, The Slow and The Ugly

We did it!! What an AWESOME experience and fun fun time! First, I have to commend and thank our team, and particularly the four of our team that we shared a van with; Tammy, Ian, Denise and Jennifer. What a great, laid back, fun, and supportive group of people! The Vanagon rocked as our team vehicle - we were riding in comfort instead of being crammed into an SUV or something, it was great! She had a little bit of trouble getting up the steep hills all loaded down, but she hung in there like a trooper! :-) So, we finished excellently as well: 73 out of 296 overall, and 25/132 in our class, that is really good. Our finish time was 26 hours, 10 minutes. The day began with some difficulty with the van... we were intending on filling the propane tank and using the stove and refrigerator, however, when we filled it at the gas station, we discovered a leak in the valve, this meant that we then had to wait while the whole thing emptied itself out before we could drive (otherwise, it would catch fire)... that gave us two hours to hang out around the gas station when we would have preferred to be relaxing and slowly getting ready to go! So, after a few other mishaps on our way to the start, we got there - ready to begin. The six in our other van would be finishing up their first legs as we arrived, and then we start. It was HOT!!!!! Upper 90s. The pavement was so hot it burned your feet through the soles of your shoes! I was the first to go, it was 4:00, the hottest part of the day! After a mile I was frying!! Thanks goodness for my awesome teammates - they kept stopping every mile and giving me cold, cold water to dump over myself. We did this for each other throughout the first set of runs. Then, came the night legs! Wheeee! These were really fun - we all loved them. The sound of your feet on the pavement, the stars, gazillions of them, in the sky and the crickets chirping, was amazing. There were times when you were the only soul out there, and then there were times when the cars (team vans) would drive by, distracting you from the night. We finally got to the end of our night runs at about 4 a.m. and parked. This then allowed us about 2 hours of sleep (very very good sleep!) before heading to the next section to begin our last set of legs. These were difficult on tired legs, but we all still had really good times ( we all finished all of our legs under our projected times!). Tammy and Rich had the killer legs of the race and they were these last ones to boot. Ridiculously steep and long runs up the side of the mountain, in the heat! They were animals and very very impressive! We ended the race in Park City, all crossing the finish line together - it was perfect. Definately a great time, and I'd definately do it again!! I'll post some pics as soon as Tammy sends me some (we didnt bring a camera!).

Gettin' Ready to Rumble...

Tomorrow starts the Wasatch Back Relay and preparation begins. The WBR is a 175 mile running relay with teams of twelve. (some do it in teams of 6 or even 2!!) Each team member will run 3 legs of varying distance and degree of difficulty. Each team has two vans with six people in each. The idea is to cover the distance in 24 hours! Good friends Ian and Tammy and Jennifer are on our team, sharing our van. The unfortunate turn of events it that it is going to be in the mid to upper 90s for the race! This means, my first leg, which is at 4:00 will be scorching. Rich and Tammy have to run up a HUGE hill, well, actually, it's the side of a mountain, in the heat of the day on Saturday as well. Wish us luck! Here are some really good links to learn more about it:
http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php

http://www.backcountry.com/store/newsletter/s100000012/a27/The-Wasatch-Back-Relay.html

And a really good video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wUE2n56Xqv0

Will post an update when we're through!

Back in the Saddle Again

Or: Why I love Mountain Biking. Today was my first ride of the year! It's been a long time, too long. Due to the procedures and the coumadin I wasnt allowed to ride til now. We rode in Park City, the Lost Prospector Trail and Round Valley. Two great trails for fresh legs! 17 miles of bliss later and I feel renewed. Why do I love Mountain Biking? Here, read this, it tells all:

SINGLETRACK AND THE SOUL

The sun rises,

on a beautiful and serene weekend morning.

The wind whispers gently,

as I stretch,

and poor my morning motivation,

one thought on my mind

Singletrack

Sweet, sweet singletrack

Pulling into the trailhead parking lot

my mind drifts to places only my soul can see

Where only my bike can take me

I hit the dirt, my spirit set free

gliding effortlessly

sailing sweetly

through trees, and meadows, and all that is good

Mud, blood, and miles later

I am transformed

my mind clear, my body strong, my heart soaring

to another place

where joy, pure, unadulterated joy, becomes

a way of life

Singletrack

Sweet, sweet singletrack.

.

In General....

Well, here are some photos of John & Marty's visit, finally. Unfortunately, we dont have any from inside Timpanogos Cave. Pics are from the ride on the train, and of the drive through the canyons around Timpanogos. Got word from Kathy - she is doing great! She made it to Laramie, about 400 miles, with no problems and feeling very good. She was really nervous when she took off yesterday morning but is feeling strong and comfortable now. She stayed with a friend in Laramie and will make her way across the country to MI from there. It's a laid back weekend for us - hot. 100 degrees today and the air quality is bad, so we will run early and put off mountain biking until tomorrow when it is cooler (85). We are going to the theatre tonight to see Salt Lake Acting Company's, "Saturday Voyeur". SV is a great musical play that we go to most every year. It is a spoof on Utah politics and culture and is usually really funny, focusing on events, or one big event, that has been in the news a lot. This one is "The Rocky Show", making the mayor its focus as this is his last year in office. Fun!! http://www.saltlakeactingcompany.org/

Motorcycle Mama!

Check out the picture of Kathy the studette!! She is planning on riding across the country to visit friends and family on her new motorcycle, pretty sweet, ay? Hopefully she can keep me posted on some of her travels and I can post here. We had a great weekend. Saturday was just a productive day with lots of yard work, painting the back fence and running. Sunday we hiked to Lake Blanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon and it was soooo beautiful. 2580 feet elevation gain in 2.8 miles (one way). Steep but so worth it. The lake is situated in an amazing bowl of mountains with some of the most beautiful rock around - lots of places to lay around and enjoy the scene and the company. Sunday night, Kathy and I went to Red Butte Gardens for the first of the concert series to see Susan Tedeschi - a perfect way to relax and recover from a great weekend!

90/50

Can you believe - yesterday it was 90 degrees, today, 50 degrees! Crazy, aint it? Alta got 14, yes, FOURTEEN inches of snow in the last 24 hours. Like the picture? This guy was spotted up at Alta a few days ago! Now I have to worry about bears while I hike, too? Geez, what is this, wilderness or something??!! There aren't supposed to be any bears around here, not so close, anyway!! :-)

John and Marty Visit

Rich's folks, John and Marty flew out on Wednesday, the day after Scott flew home! We've been having an excellent week. Saturday we went out to Heber to ride the historic Heber railroad, it was lots of fun and a nice way to spend the day. http://www.hebervalleyrr.org/ That evening we went to Tiburon Restaurant for a late birthday celebration - our favorite restaurant in the valley. Food is incredible and service excellent. I had the lamb, Rich, the elk and John & Marty the halibut. SOOOOOOOOO good! On Sunday, we took a hike up to Timpanogos Cave. It's a mile and a half, and 1100 feet gain in elevation! Not an easy hike, but well work it, the caves are really really cool! http://www.utah.com/nationalsites/timp_cave.htm Tonight I'm off for a meeting regarding our team race - the Wasatch Back, which is coming up really soon. Back to work tomorrow!

Dark Canyon, Part Two

My dear long time friend, Scott, came out to visit which was the inspirtion for the trip down to Dark Canyon. Scott told me he needed to get away from civilization and relax, so, we took him about as far into the middle of nowhere as you can get! I think he enjoyed the journey! We headed down on Saturday, after a leisurely start to the day getting packed up and grocery shopping. Naturally, we took the Vanagon, which Scott totally got a kick out of! We headed south, Kathy, too, of course. It took us about 6 hours to get to our destination, which Rich described well below. We decided to just camp at the trailhead that night and start down in the morning - more relaxing and cooler (or so we thought). We cooked up a killer dinner and drank some wine in a most beautiful spot overlooking the canyon. The next morning we headed down, after a hearty oatmeal breakfast. We ended up on that scree slope between 11:00 and 12:30, roughly, with the temps at 90 or so. Hot! The picture you see of us here - look at the scree slope behind Rich's shoulder - that is what we had to hike down. Rich called it, we didnt believe him! "No way!" Yup, WAY. Anyway, the first order of business was to get some more water and then to find a cool spot to swim! We had a great camp spot and just explored from there. An awesome day/night! Up EARLY the next morning to beat the sun up the scree slope, and on to more adventuring and exploring in Natural Bridges and Moab, as Scott has been to neither and we decided to see more stuff instead of stay in one place. It was an awesome trip! Next time, Dark Canyon in the fall and for more days! For lots more pictures and to get a better feel for the trip, click the link to the right!!! Good times!