long time no write.

oops. sorry I left you all in the emergency room at Jackson Hole.  I got really busy as soon as I got off the mountain.

Summiting the Grand was, well, wait for it, a Peak Experience. Sorry. But it was.  The first day was a very long hike up to our base camp and early to bed. The second started at 3 AM.  We reached the top at 8:15 AM. That morning, in the dark, I secretly harbored the hope & fear that I would quit when we reached the "no turning back alone" point indicated by Anne, our guide (the lava field).  I had a speech prepared to send my son to the top without me - how he'd have the opportunity in his lifetime to go places I'd never reach, scale heights, blah blah blah.  Anne smartly sensed my silent speech writing and didn't ask me if I was ready to keep going. She conspired with my son to get me to the top.  And we made it.

Climbing has much in common with marathoning.  How do you run a marathon, start moving your feet and don't stop. Well, the same advice goes for reaching the summit.  Just keep moving.

The low altitude conditions made me child-like in my thinking.  The early morning darkness made it impossible to see the sheer drop-offs that would have terrified me in daylight.  The view from the top - memorable. Especially since the camera I bought just for this moment FAILED!  I received that as an invitation from the mountain to return again with my younger son in a few years.

The down-climb was intense and as difficult, if not more dangerous, than climbing up. Mostly you have to do it backwards. The rappel was a kick. Especially fun was watching the guy coming down after us on his own line - which was too short - and alarmed the rangers out for a day hike. They jumped into action and helped the guy get down from where he had stranded himself. While his girl friend was looking on.  There's always someone doing some stupid sh!t on the mountain to be a lesson to us all.

The mountain was really nothing more than a very large pile of crumbling rocks.  Hugely impressive.  We had a quick lunch at the base camp and then hiked down.  Because of my injury, I didn't tie my boot securely enough on the way down. That meant I crushed my big toe.  Every footfall hurt.  But there's no way out but walking. And again, marathoning was my teacher. If you keep moving, the pain in your foot will go away, replaced by a pain somewhere else.   I lost the nail a couple weeks later.

But I still managed to complete a 100 km ride out of Amsterdam and then the Century Ride at the World Road Cycling Championships in Limburg last month.  165 Km of pure pleasure.  Now I'm settling into the winter running season. I know it's not winter yet. But it's cold and rainy. which is the definition of winter.  More soon.  Much love. C

Grand Teton - warning - gore

I am learning to climb mountains. Something I never thought I would do or enjoy. But I tried indoor climbing and was immediately hooked. Well, after I transcended the panic.

Next week I will make a bid with my son to summit Grand Teton (picutred).

The first lesson came earlier than I expected.  The adventure of a summit bid apparently begins long before you start the climb.  Earlier this week I ended up in the emergency room when a glass bottle exploded near my foot.   After some glass sliced off part of my little toe, the wound would not stop bleeding and needed to be cauterized. 

The front porch was the closest spot at which to elevate my foot to stop the bleeding.  It didn't work. After an hour, I found a more comfortable venue

 Except for direct application of the cauterizing instrument to the troublesome veins, the whole incident has been surprisingly pain-free.

Since then, I have been couch-surfing, avoiding any activity that would create a risk of saying afterwards, I wish I hadn't done that. No swimming. No cycling. No running. No hiking. My family kindly enough gave me full custody of the channel changers and power cords to keep the lap top running all day.

I.V. care of Apple

Every day the toe looks a little better. I walked around this morning, causing it to start aching. That sent me back to the hammock. 

Tomorrow starts two days of climbing classes with Exum. I will wrap my toe pretty well, and perhaps borrow a larger approach shoe for the next couple days.  The ER doc assured me that even if the toe started to bleed during the summit bid, I wouldn't bleed to death.  Confidence is running high.

Stay tuned.

30 juneathon so long and thanks for all the fishes

okay. the title is irrelevant and non-responsive. i am in the midst of grading university exam answers. so i am feeling a little silly. particularly because juneathon is jog log and blog. I don't run more than three times a week, and this week I haven't run since last sunday. rest and periodicity, I think are the principles I invoked. or dontfeellikeittoday. and then i have slacked quite a bit with the log portion. mind you i like runningfree. it's fine. but i don't count exercise calories and my garmin gives me generally speaking all the data i need. so i skipped this step most of the time as unnecessary. but blog I did.  i like to write. i like the applause I get (sometimes) (you know who you both are, and thank you).

it's been fun. january i will visit and comment more. this was beyond the beyond for me. june is the slide into the end of school and just gets enormously ridiculously busy. add on top of that busy work days and racing on weekends, and well, I was not very supportive of other juneathoners except for some favorites. I will do better in january. so come back, okay?

29 juneathon

I hope I've been able to avert certain disaster. I mixed up the delivery and billing addresses for the hat and mouse my son ordered..I've written to the seller a couple times. Maybe the problem will be solved shortly... It has been that kind of day.

And a time warp. Sixth graders end of year play. Middle aged parents. Teen son looks so much older on stage. They have a year end dance party. No parents allowed in the basement.

Meanwhile we drop in at a year end university party for faculty and students. Twenty somethings on the make. I sat with a group, realized my 13 yo was trying to reach me, and then realized the students were closer in age to my son than to me.

Juneathon. Dog walk.

28 juneathon - quietude

I stayed up too late (meaning until 12:30), and decided it was reasonable to sleep in rather than lift at 7 a.m. one of several rationalisations. My legs and abs are still sore from Tuesday, thus more recovery time is warranted. It was freakishly warm, thus no running home after work (*warm being relative. i think maybe it was 20c today). I thought I'd walk on the beach after dinner, but flopping on the couch and watching Family Guy was more fun.  My dumb calves-feet-pain combination is back. Could be the lunges and squats.

I'm not actually what this shirt means. but it seemed to fit the situation.

Juneathon today devolved to a short dog walk before dark.

I trust that major internal improvements are underway during this day of rest.

27 juneathon running long

if you like to run long like i do, you naturally plan ahead. so at the end of june, I'm thinking of october runs and wondering about another half marathon or longer trail run. it's delightful to think of fall running even before summer has started. likely it won't get hot here until i get on the plane. then I'll come home and everyone will tell me that I missed the best weather. But I know the  real best weather is running in the cool of the fall.

i met a  couple of fast runners today, both of whom invited me out for a run. maybe I can keep up and maybe they'll enjoy running with me at least once. this one speedster runs a marathon every year and she's going to take Odie out running while were away and keep him happy.  we agreed that the day just doesn't go right if we miss a run.  the other gal is looking for places to run and races. these things I know.

running gives me the gift of friendship.

a short 15 weeks brings us into the middle of october. so if i want a fall half marathon or more, it's nearly time to start plotting my success. coool.


oh, juneathon = 1 hr bike riding and dog walkies.

26 juneathon. black

there are quite a large number of black hills ahead of me in Limburgh. 

today I successfully passed another lovely juneathon day.  

I lifted with purpose and intensity at the gym after I

warmed up on the rower. 

tonight I skipped my usual run and swim 

to spend time with family. including feeding them food. 

ate only one  a few squares of milk chocolate.

 and bought some new books on saving the world. why not.