Tahoe Rim Trail 50 mile

Here we are sitting in our hotel room in Carson City, Nevada. I wish Miki would just shower already.
Gonna head to the spaghetti dinner in a few minutes. It's outside, and it's 948 degrees.
Oh and i won't let Miki use the air conditioning in the room. Probably not helping the shower thing at all. Life is good.

The parents are in the room next door. I originally arranged for them to be in another building but during check in they insisted on being closer.

I'm bib number 314, but there is no race tracking. The "safety runner" rules are ridiculous. Miki is supposed to stay 5 seconds behind me. Really? So we will be yelling to each other for 25 miles. This should be fun. Oh yeah, during packet pickup I noticed there is no race tshirt. But there is a piece of paper that tells me if I want one I can pay an extra $15 to own one of my very own. Sweet. I don't want one just on principle.

Ok, now we're gonna carb load (pig out) with what is hopefully not shitty American spaghetti.

Later....

It's about 9:30. Spaghetti was not bad. We walked way too much, down to a CVS to get junk food for after run festivities/pigout in the room - and then hung out in the downtown area where there's a live band playing on the street. Only had one beer. Miki (my chaperone) had banned me from drinking so I ditched her.

Ok... not really. But while she was showering (finally) is when Marian, KC & I went to see the band.

I'm so excited to finally be here. Seems like I signed up for this forever-ago. Weather should be in the 80's for a high, and 50's for the low. Beautiful scenery is in store for us!


---- after the race-----

Race start was 6am. Nice single track the first few miles to beautiful Marlette Lake. Dusty too, I blew black boogers the next couple days. Felt fine for the most part until the death loop. A 6.3 mile loop starting at the Tunnel Creek aid station... definitely the "Hell" part of the race they mention in the motto "a glimpse of heaven, a taste of hell." So true.
After this loop I never felt right. Food was not going down easy. Every time I ate I felt like it was just sitting in my stomach, pretty common in everyone who lived at sea level, it seemed. Altitude. I'm glad I got some high altitude training in the month before. Every little bit helped.

Got to the Mt. Rose aid station, mile 26.3. Miki & my parents (my crew) waiting for me. It was great to see them. They got my water refilled, had my resupply bag with them, and just good motivation. Still, I was feeling pretty bad. I had to walk the first couple miles out of the aid station. Apparantly, a quarter of a sandwich that consisted of turkey & cheese, a bite of payday, and a quarter of a potato was way too much food.

Felt ok on & off after the food sat in my stomach for awhile. So when I felt good I ran. After the best aid station ever, Hobart Aid station (mile 35?) that was more like an Irish Pub that had shots of whiskey, a keg of beer, and kids making smoothies, I started feeling much better since I'd decided to quit eating solid food.

From the last aid station (Snow Valley Peak) which was also the highest point on the trail at about 9000', the last 7 miles were downhill, and I felt good. At a blistering pace (hahaha--10 min miles) I finished with my awesome pacer on my heels.

I'm writing this a couple days after the race. My finish results were 14 hrs, 28 minutes. I'm happy considering how bad I felt most of the race. Most of the time I could only think I must be insane for signing up for the Bear 100. There's no way I should be doing that race. But I felt so good at the end of the run that all I could think was, maybe......

Hows that saying go? Some of the biggest accomplishments start with the decision to try. It's always a journey anyway.

Trip to Orange County

Tara & I drove down to Huntington Beach for the weekend, and we're here at Miki's.





first stop we made on the way was a fireworks stand






fighting with fireworks









Vic's band played at the Nadine Irish Mist in Sunset Beach Friday night. The real Nadine was there with her boyfriend who plays for the Jets.
I have pics, not much else needs to be said. Drunk people dancing to the live band, body parts were being flashed, hands and dresses were flying, people started looking like chickens. Being that this was her first experience in a bar, I'm pretty sure Tara willl never go to another bar again.

video: cover junkies rock the house with the boys of summer, unexpectedly

So before we took off to the club, Miki's neighbor came over and told her about this great block party he was going to have. And that the water slide that he got was going to block our driveway & garage, so we won't be able to get the cars out, starting around 7am. Then he left without inviting her. We plan on leaving around noon, and making him move the waterslide out of our way, unless Janeen (Miki's roommate) gets there first, in which case she'll just run the slide over with the kids in it.

HOOTENANNY!


Wow, what a great place, people, music, everything! We had a blast. Good Man Down was the first band we saw. They were great.


Supersuckers was next, and they just rocked!



After watching the pit for a few minutes & saw how nice everyone was (picking each other up as soon as they got knocked down) we jumped in. First Miki gave me a piggy back ride and we spun & danced thru there for a few rounds. I couldn't believe she was holding me up for so long.

Then arm in arm, Tara & I jumped in there. It was her first pit.







The rest of the bands were fantastic too. We danced with alot of fun people thru the next few bands. Also a few weirdos. All fun tho.

















































The Oak Canyon Ranch was a perfect place for this. In the hills, away from just about everything. It looked like it was going to be hot, but there was plenty of shade & trees to hang out and it was never too crowded.






It wouldn't be a 4th of July without fireworks either... and a little bit of danger.




Happy Birthday Tara!

July 5th:
Death Cab was great. The Hollywood Bowl is an incredible venue. They let us in with a cooler of wine & snacks. I'll have some pics later.