Life

Must say that life is good! A little scary at times my munchkin is turning fifteen "YIKES". I thought turning forty was making me feel old, having the kid gain years really drives it home.

Snow Shoe The Bear

Last month I ran a 10k snow shoe race in Big Bear. Yup, snow shoeing in Southern California. It was a blast! I had called the race director earlier in the week to find out about the course. He said that the run started in town and cruised up for a "bit" leveled off and back down to town. Cool, sounds like a breeze.
The race directors did a great job of getting the course ready. They had a back hoe and volunteers covering the streets with snow. We were able to start and finish in down town Big Bear. It was sweet. I wanted to start out slow, I tend to go like hell when the race starts. I decided it would be in my best interest to book ahead so as not to get poked with hiking poles. It took a bit but all of the sudden I was in third place. Woo hoo. Well I hunkered down and decided I was going to do everything possible to hang on to third. Low and behold I got to stand on the podium. First time ever! I even went home with more shwag than the cost of the race. I actually came out ahead. I liked that feeling.
Hats off to Kahtoola and Equada Outfitters

Chair

I found this and wanted to add it to my badass post but Blogger would not let me. Dude is fast!

Running with a Badass!

I had the pleasure of running with a real badass today. Next time your bitching about a sore knee, hammy or whatever ails you, be grateful you can run. I spent two plus hours running with a guy that is in a racing chair. He was pushing harder on the hills than I ever have in a race. Not a peep out of this guy, just kept pluggin away. I did get some much needed speed work trying to catch him on the down hills. His chair is fast!

40 miles

This is me after 40 miles of running. The last 8 with no aid, no shade and all uphill!

Being outside

Man I love being outside!

Multi tool

One more thing from Saturdays hike. Some a$$hole left a six pack on the trail. So as not to get any beer cooties on me. I used my trusty ice axe again! I'm not afraid of beer just don't like the smell anymore.

Lunch!

A few weeks back I went up the mountain to try out my new snow shoes. I had a blast tromping around. It took me just around three hours to get a way past halfway camp. On a dry day I can do it in around forty five minutes. That might give an idea of how much more energy it takes to break trail. It started to get a little windy so I stopped and donned my goretex, mm.....cozy. I could have stayed out for hours but decided to turn back. I stopped in a nice sunny spot for a bit of lunch. I LOVE my jet boil. Lightweight, fast, and compact. I also picked the spot to practice some self arrest skills. The slope was perfect but the snow wasn't. I climbed up some fifty feet and proceeded to sit and SINK. No sliding today. All the better, my wife doesn't like it when I do stuff like that when I'm alone. I did some glissading on 3/1/08. Man you can get going fast! Oh, you learn how to stop with the ice axe when you are speeding down the snow feet first.

Traction

This is some lightweight traction............
Woo hoo they kick ass

Snow!

Went for a little snow run on saturday. Me and the pooch had a blast. The snow was mostly packed enough to support my weight which was a nice change from snow shoes, they turn out to be a butt load of work. Look at the little bugger have fun.