I worked from Florida for a week. One day of that wasn't exactly my work, but rather Amy's, as we had to go to the field and count mangrove seedlings. Mostly I sat in the canoe readingThe Cartel, which I guess was exciting, but wasn't that good. I don't think I read enough to read entertaining stuff that isn't good literature. Or maybe it's just that the trash I prefer reading is travel narratives instead of crime novels. Yes, that's probably it.
Daytrip to the field
Gatorade should sponsor Amy's research
Lots of weird flavorings, like the PB+J Amber. Not exactly my favorite. But they've improved the seating and space since last time.
We did some tubing down the Santa Fe river, stopped at a small state park on the way home, and saw four baby armadillos.
We also saw Jason Bourne, which was somewhere between average and terrible. Spy movies should focus on one specific spy threat, not the larger issue of whether spying is generally good for the world or not, because if you try to cover an issue that large, the dialogue will inevitably become completely hamfisted, with winners like "This is America!" and "We're keeping America safe." Obviously that's a real and important question worth debating, but I think you can't do it well in such a stupid medium. Or at least not while also choreographing multiple fight scenes and car chases. Another example--I know everybody liked Skyfall,but no one walked out of it thinking "Wow, that was a really insightful treatment of the value of signals intelligence vs. human intelligence."
Back in CA, I rode my bike to Napa to do some wine tasting with the Ex-Mo's. I don't recommend it. The biking, not the wine tasting. The route from the East Bay is basically only pretty once you get there, so you should put your bike on the bus or carpool there, and then ride around the valley instead. EDP won a raffle so we went to a spendy place (Darioush) for free, and a much more chill place (Laird Family Estate) on our own dime.
Rode over Carquinas Straight (I-80) bridge for the first time.
Me at the Border I spent the weekend at the ADZPCTKO with Nitro , Tatu Joe, Ducky (the Wise) , Tomato, BearCan't , Mattress, Love Barge, Nano, Sly, Disco , WeatherCarrot, Too Obtuse, Nacho, Tall Paul, Mags , and Wildflower (AKA Icognito Cheeto Bandito). I got a ride down with Firefly. I'm tempted to just end my post there, as it would seem like complete gibberish to many of you. But I won't. The ADZPCTKO is the Annual Day Zero Pacific Crest Trail Kickoff, held the last weekend in April (also known as NFL Draft weekend, where, miracle of miracles, the Redskins, despite Dan Snyder's best attempts to screw it up, actually managed to avoid throwing away multiple draft picks on Chad Johnson and instead traded for more picks. Hallelujah!) at Lake Morena campground, 20 miles north by trail from the Mexican border near Campo, CA. Conventional wisdom says that the weather window on the PCT is such that there's not much point to starting earlier thanks to snow in the S...
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...
That's it, the title is the post. No, of course that's not the post, but I am wondering. My schedule has filled in a bit for the year. I'm now signed up for: Orcas 100 (Feb), Paiute Meadows 50K (May), Scout Mountain 100 (June), TRT 100 (July), and hope to run the fun runs Lupine Loopfest (Feb), Desolate Peaks (August), and Euchre Bar Massacre (October). But the big news is that I got selected in the UTMB lottery. I have until the 29th of January to confirm my registration. For the non-runners: UTMB is a 106-mile loop around Mont Blanc through France, Switzerland, and Italy, starting and ending in Chamonix. By all accounts it is spectacularly beautiful and very difficult, with about 33,000 feet of climbing. For most of my running life I haven't really cared about European races or followed European runners, but I got swept up in the spectacle of it last year. It was the race's 20th year, an American man finally won (Jim), and also finished second (Zack), and Courtney...
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