Bend, Oregon

I'm a little behind on the updates, but better late then never.

The Monday after the marathon we flew up to Portland. It was about a 3 hour drive to Bend but it was very worth it. We passed by Mount Hood and some of the most beautiful country I have seen. Living in the desert really makes a person appreciate the green that that you see in this part of the country.

One of the highlights of the drive was our participation in a police chase. We were passing through this tiny town when we saw a highway patrol car attempting to pull a car over for speeding. The driver slowed down to the speed limit but would not pull over; this went on for 10 to 15 minutes. The highway opened to two lanes in our direction and a driver from behind us passed the cop and the pursued driver. He got himself in front of pursued driver and started to slow down. So being the good citizen that I am I also pulled past the cop and along the side of the pursued driver so that she could not pass. I was thinking that this lady would just slow down at this point but no she flips a U turn into oncoming traffic and heads the opposite direction. The cop obviously flips around and continues to chase her. I felt that we had done our part so we just continued on.

The place we stayed was called Pronghorn, just outside of Bend. I couldn't imagine a better place to recover from the marathon. They had a 36 hole golf course, pool and spa, gym, etc. I have never see a golf course that was so manicured, and some of the most diabolical holes ever conceived. Apparently the course was designed by Jack Nicklaus and he's know for this. For the most part we just hung with the family, it was great.

The other highlight of the trip was getting to see Smith Rocks. This is a very well know climbing spot in the northwest. Unfortunately no climbing to be had on this trip, I was still working on walking without a limp.

It was also on this trip that my nephew Jackson took his first few steps. His dad Travis doesn't want to count these since he wasn't there. Sorry Travis it's just one of the sacrifices of being in medical school. You missed a great vacation and your child's first step.

San Diego Rock & Roll Marathon

Four months of training, the perfect diet, custom fitted running shoes and my wife still beats me to the finish line. I love having a hardcore wife!

We arrived in San Diego Saturday afternoon just in time to meet part of the crew for lunch. In addition to Quinn and Megan (fellow runners), Baker, Jenny and Matt Jones (spectators) all met up to eat and then headed down to the expo to check in for the race. Anthony and Krista decided to go to Mexico for the afternoon; I figured he was trying to get in a cheap session of blood doping to get an edge on race day. We were just happy to find out they didn't end up in a mexican jail.

The prerace dinner was Thai food at a spot near our hotel. The highlight of dinner was Baker considering running the race with no training under his belt. Correction, he had a couple of 4 mile runs in the last month. This guy has so much heart that he probably could have finished.

The morning of the race was perfect; about 60 degrees and overcast. We started downtown and ran through Petco Park, the Gaslamp Quarter, and the San Diego Harbor. Following the downtown section, the course traveled up Highway 163, and then through the bayside communities, Sea World and ended up at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Point Loma.

My main problem was that I waited to long to light the torch, it wasn't until mile 15 that I really tried to step it up; by that time I was already fatigued. Everything else went pretty well until mile 23 that was when I started really feeling the pain. I continued to push with the goal in mind to finish under the 5 hour mark. I ended up finishing strong and was very satisfied with my first marathon.

Official race times:

Laura 4:36:44

Ben 4:51:19

Anthony 4:57:42

.

Kathleen 5:08:20

Quinn 5:10:50

Megan 5:10:51


It felt so good to be done with this race; we now get to rest for the afternoon and then off to Bend, Oregon for a week of vacation.

Memorial Weekend With the Stubbs

This weekend was pretty epic. Not so much that we did anything super hardcore but we did fit in a ton for a three day weekend.

Friday night we headed out to Lake Mead. Despite being a holiday weekend we got a great camp site on a beach. We had some of the Colonel's original recipe and talked until we ran out of firewood. Another thing that we enjoyed were devil's food cake donuts by Entenmanns. I typically don't enjoy donuts but these things were sweet ecstasy. The lake was great that morning, we got in some wake boarding and some wake surfing. Wake surfing is where you start about 6 or 7 feet of the back of the boat and then when the wake builds up you can let go of the rope and surf the wake. It was a blast!

Around 12 we cleaned up the boat and headed back to Vegas. We regrouped and packed for the second leg of the weekend.

That afternoon we took off for Zion. A quick stop for dinner in St George at Cafe Rio was delicious. We all had the pork in some form. If I remember right Anthony and I had pork burritos and the ladies had pork salads. Much like the Colonel's original recipe, Cafe Rio must have some additive that makes the pork highly addictive.

That night we camped out at a spot right outside of the park for an early start. That early start happened around 9:00 am, I think everyone was pretty tired from the day before. Anyway we got our permit for a slot canyon called Pine Creek, it's a Zion classic. I don't think the pictures do it justice but it is beautiful. When you enter the canyon it fairly narrow, there are sections that it's only wide enough for one person to walk through and the sandstone walls can be well over 100 feet tall. There are different part where you have to rappel and you're in and out of water the whole time. Laura and Krista did great despite the water being absolutely freezing; some of these pools of water never see the sun because the canyon is so deep and narrow.

I was especially proud of my cute little wife for being so brave there are a couple of rappels that could be pretty scary even if you had done it before. The last rappel in particular was the biggest challenge for her. I will admit that while it's 100% safe it can be mentally tough. This last rappel you have to hook onto the rope and then swing out over the edge. By the way it's a 200 foot drop and there's nothing but air under you. This may have been a bit much for her first time ever rappelling. I love her for being so hardcore.

That little dot at the top of the rope is my scared wife. She was frozen there for a bit but she made it down.

That night we made it back to Vegas and slept like zombies. It was obvious that I haven't had a weekend like that in a while because I was beat. Monday we made it to 2 different barbecues which was the perfect end to the Memorial Weekend.

Moments of Doubt

Last weekend was both fun and painful. Quinn invited me to a buddy's cabin down in Arizona to play paintball. This was the perfect spot to play, 10 acres of tall juniper trees and rolling hills. We has 3 games of 4 on 4, it was a blast. That crazy sucker that's wearing a short sleeve shirt in the picture actually wore it during the game. I think he was trying to prove that he was man enough to take a shot, but welts that he had after the game sure weren't worth it. This was the fun part of the weekend.

(I'm on the bottom right, Quinn Brown top second from the left)

The painful part of the weekend was the long run that Laura and I did. Lucky for me she was having an off day so I was able to keep up. We did 18 miles and I suffered the entire time. I bought Laura a GPS watch that gives her the pace, distance and her heart rate. I would desperately listen for the chime that would go off to mark every mile. You know it's going to be a bad run when you are looking forward to the first mile alarm. It's after a run like this, that I doubt that I will have a strong finish at the marathon. As we finished I thought, "If I had to run another 8 miles could I do it?" My answer was that maybe if my life depended on it. I think I'll be fine, it was just a rough day.

My Wife the Champ

Not that a ton of people read our blog but just wanted all the dedicated friends to know that we're still kicking.

Laura and I did our long run this weekend together; 15 miles. For those of you that know about our difficultly training together that is a huge surprise. For those of you that don't know I'll try and explain:

The main problem is that Laura is very competitive (and so am I). The other problem is that she is faster than me (for right now). My sweet wife is very subtle about this, but she like to display her abilities when we run together. To be completely honest I get a little insecure when she slowly pulls away and picks up the pace. I hung with her for the most part this weekend but she still finished before me. I am so proud of her for training hard it just sucks that she's stronger than me (for right now). If I'm going to keep up with her at the marathon I have a lot of work to do. Only a little over a month away until the San Diego Marathon!

My advise for the week is to find something to train for, it's great motivation to get yourself in shape.

Cool & the Gang

Last Friday Laura and I went to see the legendary band " Cool & the Gang". OK maybe not legendary but they had some great hits:

Get Down on It

Celebration

Fresh

Too Hot

Jungle Boogie

Ladies Night

The show was at a fairly small local club, I was surprised that they would play at such a small venue; sounds like times have been better for the band. Anyway it was a good time and the jams were funky.

President's Day Weekend

I know that I'm back tracking, but I have to make up for the past. This was a fun weekend, and I have to post it even though it was a month ago.

We headed up to Salt Lake on Friday after work. For some reason I really like this drive; it's about 6 hours but feels like 3. We got to Laura's sisters house around 11:00 and stayed up talking until 12:30. The next morning I woke up early and met up with my buddy Matt Gover. We did some ice climbing down in Santaquin Canyon; I hadn't done this for a while and it was a blast (OK, it scared me but I hadn't done it for 4 to 5 years).

This is a 2 pitch climb that we did called Squashhead. It's a classic in Santaquin Canyon.

Saturday afternoon I jammed up to Ogden to see my little sister's basketball game. They beat Sacramento; it was good to see my little sis, mom, and Eric.

The next day I went with Matt down to the San Rafel Swell. This is a awesome place basically in the middle of nowhere. This is home to some of the best desert crack climbing in the west. The whole place is a maze of slot canyons, and sweet desert scenery.

These are few photos of Matt climbing at the first
spot.











There was only one guy from our group that attempted this climb, it looked pretty burly.




The rest of the weekend was spent with Laura's family. She has 3 nephews, 2 of which we played with in the snow. Man they have a lot of energy. The drive back from Salt Lake was pretty hairy. It was a blizzard all the way from SLC past Cedar City. Finally halfway between Cedar and St. George it cleared up. We must had counted 10 cars that had slid off the highway.

Being in Salt Lake made me realize how much I missed it. There is such good access to tons of outdoor sports that I love. But as with many things there are seasons in a person's life and right now Las Vegas is the place I need to be. I did make a promise to Matt to get up to Utah a little more this year and I look forward to it.