I went to Kenya again and Zambia for the first time. It was a quick trip for work. I did four days of research transparency presentations (IPA, APHRC/CARTA, and MCA Zambia) and then went to Livingstone and Victoria Falls for fun.
George's cousins
Evening runs after the Kenya workshop featured zebras, wildebeest, and gazelles
It sucks to be so close to where the coffee beans are grown and yet have to drink crap imported instant the entire trip. (And it's a real economic problem, since sub-Saharan Africa does little value-added processing of its natural resource exports.)
A tad better than a skunky Tusker I had earlier in the trip
Incredible
Big
Africa can do thunderclouds
Met up with my friend Francis, who CDT folks may remember.
I also took a 15-minute flight over the falls in a microlight, which is basically a lawnmower with wings. I saw elephants and hippos above the falls. I didn't pay the extra $20 for the video though, and you're not allowed to bring a camera for safety reasons, so just watch this other person's video and say "Wow, that looks cool." Because it was.
It's Tuesday, I'm back in Berkeley, and I just ran my first Hardrock last Friday/Saturday in 34:42. I wanted to record thoughts immediately after the experience, because it was hard , and now that it's been a few days, I'm already forgetting the pain. [I don't want kids, so you'll have to insert your own reference to childbearing here if you so desire.] Start The race started at 6AM. I slept reasonably well the night before in my truck just behind the school gym where the race starts--Silverton is very low key, so it's easy to dirtbag inside the city limits. I did, however, have a bit of GI non-normality, but it didn't seem like a big deal. I started in shorts, T-shirt, and a windshirt. As expected, the windshirt soon became too warm, likely because of the clouds that were obviously going to bring rain sooner rather than later. First Climb I started maybe 30-40 deep in the field, going faster than I'd ever climbed in training, but not feel...
Just a little bit hotter and a little bit worse! I finished my second Hardrock last week. It was a fun experience. I ran 1 hour 47 minutes slower than my 2017 time (in the same counter-clockwise direction) but it was a million degrees hotter, the course is two miles longer, and I took an additional 1.6-mile wrong turn. I placed essentially the same: 35th this time, 36th last time. I feel like I normally finish as the median runner, but when the going gets very tough, I do relatively better. I think the easiest explanation might just be that elevation wrecks some really good runners and I barely notice it up to 13,000 feet. Thanks, genetics. Or, when a race is high enough and steep enough that almost everyone is hiking, I'm a relatively fast hiker with better endurance. Regardless, it worked out reasonably well for me again. Training I've been telling myself since last October that I should hire a coach to write a training plan for me, or at least write a plan myself. ...
"The Enchanted Gorge is where intimidation and challenge meet head on. This is not a place for the faint-hearted, the poorly conditioned, or the unadventuresome. Here is the proving ground for the Ultimate Sierra backpacker." --Phil Arnot, blowing smoke out his rear-end in his High Sierra: John Muir's Range of Light "The only thing "enchanted" about Enchanted Gorge is its name." --R.J. Secor, telling it like it is, is his must-own The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails I spent Labor Day Weekend doing an off-trail backpacking trip in Sierra National Forest and Kings Canyon National Park. ( Skip the words and look at the pictures .) I read about the Enchanted Gorge in Steve Roper's Sierra High Route guidebook (he calls it "one of the wildest canyons in the range") and I immediately wanted to do it. I started Friday at Florence Lake and hiked maintained trail following the South San Joaquin up Goddard Canyon to Martha Lake. I camped on ...
the victoria falls airplane ride does look really cool. jealous, babe. and i like that flower photo, obvi.
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