Playing right now as we are lazing in bed and getting ready to start the day:

What an absolutely great song. Kind of a throwback to a simpler time- sort of reminds me of the part in Back to the Future when Marty McFly arrives in the 50s and walks up to that diner in his “life preserver.”

Also, a super cute video. I like when he is fishing at 1:27.

How cute is this card?

I bought it from the Scrapbook Fairy on Etsy. She’s got some amazingly adorable stuff on there (I just picked up this one as well!).

I’ve been saving this card for almost a year because it’s absolutely perfect for Earl. I call him “Lion,” for one thing. RRRrrroowrr.

We are off tomorrow for a day of trail running, hiking, the beach, and then our heralded Valentine’s tradition of copious amounts of beer and wings. Yup. Romantic, romantic, delicious beer and wings. We just decided last year to skip all the frou frou stuff and celebrate our love with things we really love: beer and chicken wings. Assuming it doesn’t rain, we’ll be exploring a hike at Bodega Head and satiating ourselves at the nearby Russian River Pub, which per all reviews and chowhounding has supposedly great wings. I’m interested to see how these West Coasters define buffalo wing greatness. It may take dozens – dozens!- to ascertain.

Because I just booked a hotel room in Big Sur with

…..

NO INTERNET ACCESS!!!!!

hahaha

Poor guy. He gets like, hives, if he is not plugged in over a 12-hour period. Must be a symptom of working in tech.

Listen to this description:

“Big Sur Lodge embraces the spirit of the original homesteaders, preserving an environment free from the big-city annoyances of phones, televisions or radios. We’ve even removed the alarm clocks. The only thing to wake you from your slumber is the sweet sounds of nature.”

SPIRIT OF THE ORIGINAL HOMESTEADERS!!! YAHOO!!

Looks like a cute place, right?

Let me just tell you. I was not trying to screw over Earl with this booking. But finding a freaking hotel room in Big Sur over marathon weekend has been a major PITA. Everything seemed to be $1200 a night, and even the Quality Inn in Monteray is $200 a night (and we stayed in Quality Inns on our roadtrip, they weren’t all that great, and certainly not worth that much!). After a long while of seeing nothing but crazy expensive after crazy expensive, I must have had Stockholm syndrome, because I seriously tried to convince Earl that the $600 a night Tickled Pink Inn was a good price- of course he put the kabash on that. Especially because we’re making it a long weekend to do some touristy stuff down there like wine tasting, eating out and going to the aquarium, I can see why that’s a tad ridiculous.

So anyways, after about two days of looking for a reasonable place to stay, I got frustrated and effectively gave up. Since then, I’ve done a lot of complaining about it and not much searching. In fact, my poor friend Lauralea got so sick of my kvetching she very sweetly went on Priceline herself and found us a nice, reasonably priced B&B to stay in, for $125/night. But of course I was lazy about booking it and that price has since expired.

Today I finally went no-holds barred searching again and was thrilled to find the err… rustic… Big Sur Lodge which had rooms and was happily in our budget. But Earl will have to sacrifice his reading of the internets. ¡Qué horror!

Ski Camp was a blast, and I landed back in SF to such a busy, whirlwind schedule, it almost feels like I’ll finally have time to stop and catch my breath at the end of March.  But, that’s a good thing, right? 

I left SF on Tuesday morning and headed up to Carson City to pick up my old college roomate, Amy.  We departed at 5:30am and set course for Alta, UT.  The drive wasn’t bad and we were making good time until this happened, somewhere in Nevada on I-80:

What is it?  These mystery objects were taking up the entire highway and we were going 20mph for about 40 miles.  AGGGH.

Amy thought they were dump-truck beds, but I really thought they were way too big. Maybe shovel scoops? They were *interesting* to be stuck behind but it got old after about 3 minutes. Thank goodness they FINALLY waved us past.

Finally, some mountains:

Around 2:00pm we pulled into Salt Lake City just in time to pick our friend Casey up at the airport. The three of us pulled into Alta around 3:30 and did the natural thing- headed straight to Goldminers Daughter (a bar up there) to meet a bunch of our other friends.

One of the poorer decisions we made regarding camp was to split a bunch of people in our hotel room. Amy and I thought it would be a good idea to save $$, since the Cliff was about $1450 for four nights, but in retrospect because we are both semi-light sleepers, it wasn’t worth the savings. I really liked everyone staying in our room, but I did NOT like getting woken up every time someone got up to use the bathroom! Next year, I wouldn’t do this again.

The first morning of camp we met everyone at 8:30am at the tram base of snowbird. We were there ridiculously early, and the place was empty!

My friend Nick began his daily ritual of scarfing a giant “Baldy’s Special” burrito.

It snowed every single day at camp, mostly during the day, so we didn’t have any bluebird. Visibility infact sucked when we were skiing, but it did give the coaches a great chance to drill us on technique. When you can’t see, being in the athletic stance- having your hands up, leaning forward, being engaged, etc- is all the more essential.
You can see how poor visibility is in my self-portrait here:

Another mistake I made at camp was not taking more action shots of us skiing. I got home and realized I had more pictures of everyone drinking and hanging out than actually skiing! Hey- what is this camp about, anyways?! You know, honestly, I was sucking wind big-time from the altitude change (this year it seemed to really affect me), so I think most of the time I was concerning myself with keeping up with the group and not heaving than trying to pull out my camera for some shots.
After skiing all day we would have avy training and then video analysis of our skiing in the suite at the Cliff. The video analysis is one of my favorite parts of camp- when else do you get to see yourself ski and get cheered and jeered by 20 of your closest friends?
Here’s coach Brant Moles pointing out how someone can “stop sucking”:

On the third day of camp we actually had a break in the snow for about 20 minutes during the first run of the day. I quickly grabbed the camera for some photos at the summit.
Here’s our roomate Jacquelyne- a former tele rep for K2, who not only was incredibly nice and fun to ski with, but wore an awesome outfit which was easy to follow when it was really dumping.

Shot of the group. Gordy is in the front kneeling (Nick is laying down). This is really only half of us, because the other half of LAZIES missed the first morning tram. We took about 3 runs down the back of Mineral Basin before those guys even showed up!

Here is the wonderful lovely who volunteered to take our group shot. Nice outfit, guy!

The third day I got separated from my group. They were heading over a traverse of death and I just wasn’t feeling it so I split my own way and met up with them at lunch. You know where I had the best runs of all camp? Under the Gad2 chair. I had so much fun doing laps of this area- both under the lift and off into the side woods- shown here.

Self-portrait on Gad2 chair:

The final night of camp there was no video analysis but rather a group meetup at the Peruvian Bar. Now, I hadn’t been drinking the ENTIRE time of camp because I was trying to adjust to the altitude (and knew that would inhibit me). So this final night… haha… I really imbibed. It was a really fun time, and Amy drove us home from the bar with five of us drunken fools packed into my Jeep.

We even after-partied at the HORRIBLE mexican resturarant in the Cliff Lodge. Seriously, this place is so bad. It’s like… worse than a Chilis or a Chevys (disclosure: I actually really like Chevys). But this place, is really bad. Because I was hammered, I ordered Queso dip. As my MEAL. lol. I felt *that* the next day.

It DUMPED that final night. Enough that Jax decided to get up at 3:30am and drive home before the closed the road. Amy and I had planned on skiing that day, but realized we better hit the road that morning as well. We were lucky we got out- the road was already closed to all cars without chains when we left 10:30.
Here is my car, which I faced the hungover prospect of digging out ALL BY MYSELF while Amy waited with our luggage in the Cliff loading area.

Maybe it was because I was hungover, or getting soaked in snow or sweat, and missing a powder day, and I kept getting texts from Amy saying “where are you?” while I was digging it out, but I was getting really annoyed

Documenting my pain:

Before we left, we trudged over to the Tram Base to say goodbye to our friends who were skiing that day. According to Nick’s text later, the skiing was INSANE that day.

When we pulled out of snowbird, the road to Alta was already closed:

The drive down canyon was pretty hairy. It’s been a while since I’ve done snow driving, so I was out of practice.

Even through Salt Lake City and the salt flats it was snowing/slushing/raining and viability sucked. Look how you can barely see the Tree of Utah:

It snowed/rained all the way through Nevada. We had it in 4wd the ENTIRE ride back. Compare these (same) rock formations to how clear it was on our way out!

The one part of the drive that was REALLY scary to me was somewhere in the high-passes of Nevada where the WIND was crazy strong. So strong that tumbleweeds were going across the road, and you could barely see anything because of blowing snow. No tractor trailers were even driving at this point, because of the winds. The highway is split here, so each side will send you down a canyon. We inched along, battling winds, at about 10mph. We got sent over into the other lane by wind about twice. Certainly white-knuckling. Here you can see all the tractor trailers parked on the side of the highway:

Amy shows off her bruise from cliff-hucking

Made it to Reno safe and sound!

We actually changed plans and I drove I-80 all the way home that night. I was worn out and willing to drive all night if I had to if that’s what it meant to curl up with Earl. He was so nice- even though I rolled in at 11pm (after leaving at 10:30am!), he had a delicious hot pasta dinner (and beers) ready for me upon arrival!

It was great coming home and I can’t wait for camp next year. There are a couple rumors going around that this year might be the last camp, but all of us are hoping Gordy decides to extend that at least one more year!

Well, after a snowy, white-knuckled drive, I am home safe and sound from ski camp.  It was a fantastic time, and I’ll have photos and a trip report up tonight. It snowed every single night we were at Snowbird, and the skiing got better every single day.  Yesterday it DUMPED and was coming down 3″ an hour.  Incredible.

So nice to see Earl and Linus, who let out a heartfelt “Ahh-Roooo, rooo, roooo” (linus, not earl- heh) to announce my homecoming

I am happy to report that Earl indeed was able to keep Linus alive.  He even was kind enough to take photos and send them to me while they bopped around town doing important errands, such as the two shown below:

How kind of him.  Now the laundry won’t float away.

How pigheaded of me- I can’t believe I almost waltzed off to ski camp tomorrow without posting about the most important thing!!

GOOD LUCK to my friend Steve who is running his first 100 miler this weekend in Texas.

GO STEVE!!!

He’s running 100 freaking miles!! Can you believe it?

You will be even more impressed when I tell you that Steve, like myself, has had many ups and downs in weight battles over the past few years and is an unabashed food enthusiast such myself. I forget Steve’s highest weight, and as he is in NY it is far too late at night for me to call him up and ask (darn West Coast time change), but I believe it was over 400lbs. He set out to change his life, and although it hasn’t been easy (I recall a few setbacks around the 300# mark), he’s down to 280ish and out doing ultras now on a regular basis. Not only has Steve made incredible gains (losses? ha) on the weight front- and is still shedding- but has most importantly acquired incredible experiences, confidence, and friends through ultrarunning.

Steve, I’m so proud of and inspired by your journey and I am so, SO excited to hear how it goes this weekend. I’ll be thinking of you plodding along on those 100 miles this weekend while I’m skiing and getting yelled at by Gordy.  Please join me in wishing Steve good luck here.

Just for fun, here is a photo montage of some Steve pics.   I’ll start off with my favorite one of him EVER, from him pond-jumping at Killington.  I crack up every time I see this:

When friends dragged us to a horrible bar in TIMES SQUARE (ugh)
L-R: Don, Tracey, Scott, Matt, Steve, Nils, myself

a little dark and too many peeps to name, but here we are at Ullrfest, the annual burning ski woods party in VT.  Steve is on top left and I am in center middle next to Nils.

at a sad event: the memorial for our close friend Nils, who sadly passed away that fall from melanoma
L-R: Terri, Steve, Tracey, myself, Mike

Finally, with his lovely family, wife Alex and son Joey, who I met at the top of Bear Mountain. I rode there on my bike from NYC and Steve ran up it. We had a picnic lunch at the top!

Tomorrow morning I’m heading off in the Jeep to Lake Tahoe, from where my old college roomate, Amy and I will be heading to Utah for Straightline Ski Camp at Alta and Snowbird.  We’re bookending the camp with a few days skiing on each side, so I’ll be gone a week.

The schedule for camp is pretty grueling, but it is a blast.  The last time I attended, I went all prepared to party, but it turned out most days we were so exhausted afterwards we would have 1 beer and pass out!  The schedule looks like this:

8:30-4:00 ski
4:00-6:30 avalanche/beacon training
7:00-9:00 video analysis with coaches of skiing

Psyched for camp although I have to admit a little sad to be leaving Earl and Linus for a whole week!  I wonder if they will both survive?!?  Earl told how when he and Linus are sad and missing me they will get some of my shirts out of the closet and cuddle with them to remember my smell.  Aww.

I hired our hippy dogwalker who will be coming every day to mid-day walk the pooch.  She came over to get the keys this afternoon and Linus was really excited to see her.  Must have been all the bong hits she gave him last time   She will be taking him for a two-hour walk every afternoon (holy cow).

Camp should be a great time.  A few other of my friends are attending, such as Nick, who I met at camp two years ago, and who has since cheered me on at the Ironman in Louisville and to came meet us down in New Orleans during our roadtrip trip this fall.

Here’s a photo from Straightline camp two years ago.  We’re hiking to Baldy from the top of Snowbird.  I’m in the green:

See you next Thursday!

This summer I drafted up my 100 Goals (some have since been accomplished and now need to be updated) and now also have planned my 2009 Race Schedule.   In the meantime, I was ruminating on a list of races & events that are on my radar and I hopefully will get the chance to participate in over the next 5-10 years.  Thought I would share them below.

FUTURE RACES HITLIST:

• A holdover from last year:  The Grand Cayman Pirates Week 5k Sea Swim- Earl and I had planned on doing this past fall with Brent, Jenny and Wendy, however we ended up traipsing around the American countryside for a month instead.
• A heavyweight:  The Comrades Marathon – a 55 mile South African ultramarathon race.  It is mostly on pavement, held on a grueling course boasting the “Big Five” hills, all with a 12 hour limit.  Qualifying times for this look pretty speedy.  The course runs in opposite directions on opposite years- “uphill” on odd years and “downhill” on even years.  In order for full bragging rights, must be run uphill.
• Leadville Trail 100- 100 mile race with 15,600 feet gain/loss, run as an out-and-back on trails outside of Leadville, Colorado.  I’d say the biggest barrier to me doing this race would be elevation training.  Perhaps some running weekends up in Tahoe could help with this.
• My old hometown race- the NYC Marathon.  The past five years when I lived in NYC everyone would ask me when I was going to run the NYC marathon.  It was never on my radar.  Why race around a town that I already schlepped around all day every day?  I’d rather travel to races and do marathons in different cities- have an excuse to explore new places.  Now that I’m in SF, it would be fun to go back to NYC in a couple years and do the marathon.  I believe if you enter the lottery and get denied three years in a row, you are guaranteed entry for your fourth year.
• Ice Age Trail 50 – 50 mile race through the glacial planes of Wisconsin.  Perhaps its affiliations with the Ice Age are leading me to romanticize this (cold? wet? boring?) race, but in my head it just sounds so neat.  The route goes through the Kettle Moraine Forest, where glaciers passed through 13,000 years ago.  It just sounds so cool to be running over the same trails that woolly mammoths used to lumber along.  Perhaps this appeals because I get a kick out of likening myself to a wooly mammoth (more accurately- a snuffleupagus).  Also would be convenient to do because it is relatively close to Earl’s family, so could coincide with a visit to the farm.
• Dipsea, Double Dipsea, or Quad Dipsea.  7.4, 13.7, and 28.4 miles, respectively.  All held on the Dipsea Trail which runs from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach.  Has almost 700 steps in it, which would give me an excuse to go train some more on the Vulcan Stairs.  Did you know the Dipsea is the oldest trail race in America?  It was first held in 1905!  This race is intriguing and close to home, so it makes the hitlist.
• Costa Rica Coastal Challenge – Rick advocated this one to me.  He has a few friends running it this year and raved about it.  It’s a 6-day race covering approximately 250k, at about 18-60k per day.  You sleep in tents over the course of the race.   Per their website, “the course is set along Costa Rica’s tropical Pacific coastline but weaves at times into the Talamancas, a coastal mountain range in the Southwest corner of the country. You’ll finish near the border of Panama in a serene fishing village that until recently was only accessible by boat.”  The terrain is a mix of “jungle and rainforest trails, mountain trail and single track across ridgelines, highlands and coastal ranges; beaches, rocky outcroppings and reefs, river and estuary crossings, and ends in Corcovado National Park, one of the premier rainforest experiences in the world as well as a Unesco World Heritage site.”  Would be great to coincide this trip with some crazy surfing vacation.
• A New Years Eve race of any kind
• A Polar Plunge of any kind
• A few more Alleycat races.  Will need to pick up a commuting fixed gear for this, as Sara and I were almost laughed out of NYC when we showed up to Cranksgiving with the NYBMA on our tri bikes two years ago!! But we had a BLAST going around the city picking up food to donate at various grocery stores.  Would love to do something like this again- although will have to do a few things first: get non-tri bike, find alleycats in SF, and learn the city better (the key do doing well at those alleycat things is to learn your way around and knowing traffic patterns).
• Badwater- IMO- “one race to rule them all.”  Maybe I got star-struck when Earl and I watched Running on the Sun, but this 135-mile course through Death Valley, CA seems like the ultimate challenge.  Unfortunately it seems as though zillions of others also see this as the ultimate goal, so it appears there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get into this race.  A few things I have heard you can do to increase your chances: – got to a Lisa Smith Batchen ultrarunning camp, volunteering or crewing at Badwater, running qualifying races.  If all else fails, you can run Badwater “solo” ie- not during the race itself.  Apparently there was a guy, Marshal Ulrich, who did this on his own with NO CREW while pushing a buggy filled with 35 gallons of water.  Oh my.  Badwater is on my radar in about the 5 year mark.
• Bike Across America- not a race, but more of an “event”-  I am being harassed to partake in this silliness with my old college friend Brad.  It’s somewhat amusing because the only athletic things I’ve ever seen him do are drink beer and vigorously cheer on the “J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS.”  But, Brad and I go back to our freshman year (he was my college boyfriend’s “Big Brother” in their fraternity).  So, if he’s seriously doing this, which he claims to be, then alas, I shall be signing up along with him!
• Along the same lines, I have another oddball friend dragging me into something I would never expect him to do- my friend Arnoldo, who was the stock boy in a shoestore I used to work at, is apparently biking around South America sometime in the not-too-distant future.  So if he ends up doing that I promised him I would come along for a few legs of that journey.
• Finally, my friend Terri and I have plans to do the Appalachian Trail one of these upcoming summers.

So… lots of adventure on the horizon!    Seems like enough to keep me busy for a few years.