2013 Year in Photos

January 2013 - Macchiato in Portland, OR

January 2013 - Barista, my favorite coffee shop in Portland, OR

January 2013 - Taking the Torpado for a spin in Fremont, CA

February 2013 - Injuries put me back on rollerskis in Mountain View, CA

February 2013 - Injuries are an opportunity to try swimming in Mountain View, CA

February 2013 - There's always time for coffee. Cafe Grumpy from New York City.

March 2013 - Start doing online marketing for the +American Trail Running Association. 

March 2013 - Road bike ride in Silicon Valley, CA.

March 2013 - Get back on the trails and try to stay healthy in Cupertino, CA.

April 2013 - +Salomon Running Team Camp in Ogden, UT.

April 2013 - +Salomon Running Team Camp in Ogden, UT.

April 2013 - Bringing mad trail running skills back to California.

May 2013 - My first race of the year. Pacific TherX 5k in Portola Valley, CA.

May 2013 - Snowshoe "run" to the summit of Mt. Bachelor, OR.

May 2013 - Kayak on the Deschutes River in Bend, OR.

May 2013 - Mountain bike the "Whoops Trail" in Bend, OR

May 2013 - Bike / trail run from Bend to Tumulo Mountain Summit and back.

May 2013 - Aborted Mt. Hamilton bike race in San Jose, CA.

June 2013 - New York City adventure.

June 2013 - New York's Citibike program is launched.

June 2013 - My first run on the High Line, New York, NY.

July 2013 - +Google Glass at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, UT.

July 2013 - First trail run with +Google Glass. 

July 2013 - 1st place at the Skyland Mountain 10k in Los Gatos, CA.

August 2013 - World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Czech Republic

August 2013 - My good friend +Nano Hobbs won her age group at World Masters.

August 2013 - Hike to the highest point in the Czech Republic.

September 2013 - Mandy Ortiz becomes a World Champion in Poland.

September 2013 - +Joseph Gray at the World Mountain Running Championships in Poland.

September 2013 - Ran a +5 Peaks Adventures trail race in Canmore, Canada.

October 2013 - More rollerskiing and a +GoPro camera test.

October 2013 - Still great weather for road bike rides.

November 2013 - At the USA 1/2 Marathon Trail Championships in Moab, UT.

November 2013 - First cross country ski at Mt. Bachelor, OR.

November 2013 - Sunset in Bend, OR.

December 2013 - Snowshoe run at Meissner SnoPark near Bend, OR

December 2013 - Cross country skiing in the rain. 

December 2013 - Run, bike, ski, snowshoe, swim, roller-ski or kayak, here's to a healthy 2014.

Summer Recap: High Sierra Trail Running

What do people in the San Francisco Bay area do for a fun, summer getaway's on the weekend?  If you said "go to the Sierra Nevada mountains", you'd be correct!  Since this was my 3rd Summer living in Silicon Valley I figured it was finally time to get up to the mountains and see what all the fuss is about.  Lucky for me a friend owns a nice ski house in Truckee so I packed the Subaru and headed East for a few days of high elevation trail running.

Day 1: late afternoon 5 mile trail run with a view of Donner Lake

Yeah, that view doesn't suck.  Mind you I have been to the Sierras before but it was a long time ago when I was still cross country ski racing.  We came up here (or rather down here from Alaska) to train and race at Tahoe-Donner and Boreal......and it poured rain for a week!  We also got turned back by chain control, bought the wrong sized chains for our rental van and generally wasted time until the highway opened.......but that is another LONG story.

Castle Peak - elevation 9104'

Day 2: trail run up nearby Castle Peak.  Equipped with +Google Glass, +GoPro and mini tripod I was fully decked out with photo & video tech........yeah, and water & gels too.  I planned to do a loop but the map only showed an out-n-back trail to the summit 3 miles away.

That's some buffed out trail!

Also on the map I could see where the Pacific Crest Trail crossed the ridge only a mile East of the summit.  Huh, how hard could it be to bush-wack from summit to PCT above the tree line??  To be continued....

Gettin rocky near the summit.

In the meantime the easy run to the summit......did I say "easy"?  I meant "slow" on account of the high elevation and me being NOT acclimated.  Yes, my "slow" 2.8 mile run to the summit took 41 minutes and climbed 1800'.

Success!  Photo from the summit #throughglass. 

I took 10 minutes to shoot some video and pics from the summit before ponding the ridge traverse to the PCT.  Since there was a maze of small trails heading towards the PCT I figured I couldn't have been the only person to bridge this trail-less gap.  Onward!

Yeah, that looks passable......for now.

All was looking good until the ridge narrowed up and was bisected by a series of steep, rocky outcrops - the kind of terrain I wasn't going to attempt by myself and without protection - shit!  The good news was there did appear to be a scree slope below the West side of the ridge that I could get down to.

Yikees!  I'm not going down that!

Once down I hoped to traverse the scree and climb back up to a flatter section of ridge line only a few hundred meters distant.

Yes, this is as steep as it looks.

The scree slope was passable but it was also rough as heck and covered with abrasive rock.  Not good for my lightweight +Salomon Sense Ultra trail shoes or my dainty white collar hands. After a bit of scrambling and taking 20 minutes to cover 1/3 of a mile I finally made it onto a smooth, open & runable ridge line.

Looking back at the open and safe ridge line route from summit to PCT

In spite of the somewhat easy running after my scree slope scramble I still managed to twist my ankle on the "easy" traverse over to the PCT.  I didn't know it at the time, but that would come back to haunt me in a few hours.

The Pacific Crest Trail at Donner Summit

The rest of the run was uneventful.  4 more miles of buffed out high alpine single-track to my car, water, food and dry clothes.  Next stop?  Internet access of course - so I can upload my "move".  9 miles, 2300' of climb & descend, 137 average heart rate, 4.1 mph.

Once back to the house I worked on making a video from the footage I'd captured during the run and waited for my ankle to swell up.  In hindsight I should have stuck that thing into ice water straight away but you know how it is when you're running - no pain!  In the end there was no lasting damage, only a couple days of missed training and a wicked trail running video!

Sharp eyed viewers will notice that I shot all the sequences on the way down Castle Peak and edited it to look like I was running up the mountain.  Enjoy!

Where did the summer go? .....or how I spent my Summer vacation.

Humm, yeah - I've been negligent about posting so let's catch up starting NOW!

July: I flew back East to the old country (a.k.a. New England) to attend the 2013 +USA Track & Field Mountain Running Championships / Cranmore Hill Climb / selection race for the US Mountain Running Team / NACAC Mountain Running Championships.  4 races in 1 - woo hoo!  This was also my first time traveling with Google Glass so I took TONS of photos, videos and tweeted the heck out of the races.  As usual it was also a chance to catch up with my mountain running friends from around the country and be amazed (again) by how deep and fast the fields have become at the mountain running champs.

I didn't know that +Nano Hobbs was afraid of heights.

+Morgan Arritola rightfully skeptical of my new nerd glasses.

Mountain running power brokers & friends +Nano Hobbs, +Steve Vaitones and +Steve Taylor 

The women's race is underway!  

+Stevie Kremer and +Morgan Arritola way out in front after 1 lap.

The top 6 women after the race.

+Mario Mendoza and +Max King just moments before starting the men's race.

+Max King legging it out on the downhill.

Some runners endured serious aerobic pain on the steep, grassy uphills.

+Alex Nichols becomes the 6th and final man to qualify for the +US Mountain Running Team 

+Megan Lund-Lizotte and future mountain runner "Maven" relax after the race.

Yes kiddos, mountain running is a contact sport - contact with the trail.

The fastest trail runners in the USA show off their hard earned awards.

"Ok +Google Glass, take a picture of daddy"

+Dave Dunham - it's your fault for dragging me into this crazy mountain running sport........and Action Dave agrees with me.  

This race was also the first opportunity to test out my new +GoPro Hero 3 (thanks mom!).  Here's a little summary video of the races.

Full results from the race can be found here.  

Congratulations to all the athletes who qualified for the 2013 +US Mountain Running Team - +Joseph Gray +Max King +Glenn Randall +Alex Nichols +Ryan Hafer and +Zachary Ornelas.  On the women's side +Morgan Arritola and +Stevie Kremer finished 1st and 2nd in the race but declined their spots on the team due to schedule conflicts.  Joining the men listed above at the World Mountain Running Championships on September 8 in Krynica, Poland were +Magdalena Boulet +Megan Lund-Lizotte Megan Kimmel and +Chris Lundy.