Running on MT

Two completely different running experiences:

1. Yesterday evening we tried running up a trail toward Lava Lake. Not far up from the trailhead we found snow on the trail. Soon it turned into a slippery, sloppy, wet mess. We made it up to a bridge over the creek, but turned around and went back down. We finished our “run” by exploring a trail along the Gallatin River. Not sure how much of a workout we got.

2. Today we found a high school track for running mile repeats. My legs feel fine, but my lungs can’t keep up with the lowered oxygen content of this 5000-ft air. I ran about 10 seconds per mile slower than normal and suffered through 5 sets. Even my recovery lap WALKING around the track was slower than normal. Hopefully acclimation will eventually be our friend. On the bright side (literally) the sun was shining and it was over 60 degrees! Yay!

What are we doing here?

It’s the middle of June and we’re in Montana. The day before yesterday IT SNOWED. ON US. And that was actually the third time in the past week that we have been snowed on. The first time was at 8000 ft. driving up through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks:

The second time was at 7000 ft. as we were doing a long run up and around Garnet Mountain. It was a driving snowstorm, complete with thunder and lightning. This is the only photo I have of that experience, after getting back to Tug (our truck):

Two days ago it snowed at 5000 ft in Gallatin Gateway and in Bozeman. I tried to take a picture of Howie and Tug in the snow, but the camera had been in the truck overnight and pretty much rebelled at the idea of doing anything while freezing cold. I can relate.

We’re here to volunteer at the Primal Quest expedition adventure race starting June 23 and lasting to July 2. We love adventure racing and have competed a bit ourselves, but this is the first time we will be volunteering at an expedition-length race. Should be interesting! We’ll be on the water team for the first part of the race, assisting with skills testing before the race starts and then helping at the kayaking and whitewater swim legs. After that part of the race is over, John will be helping man a checkpoint or TA and I’ll be on the media team (cool!). At least that’s the current plan.

While we’re up here, we are taking the opportunity to do some training in the mountains. John will be running the Hardrock 100 next month, and we both will be doing the Grande Traversee des Alpes in France in September, so we need a lot of hill training. And any altitude training we can get. So we have been exploring the trails in the area, me toting a can of bear spray and yelling “go bear go!” every couple minutes. We haven’t seen a bear yet, but we’ve been told that they are out here.

We’re parked at the Castle Rock Inn, about 25 minutes south of Bozeman and equally north of Big Sky where the race will be based. It’s a nice spot next to the Gallatin River, complete with a café open for delicious breakfasts/coffee and hookups for Howie. And with views of snow in the trees not far above us. I like the cold much better than the heat, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.

We are the wanderers (sort of)

My husband and I spent 3 years in Grenoble, France. My company offered to send me there for work (we were living in Austin, TX at the time), and we jumped at the chance. It was an awesome three years and I still have oodles of photos to sort from our experiences there.

At the end of the assignment, I finagled a 1-year leave of absence so we could “do it right” and really see more parts of Europe. My brother Kip has posted a ton of photos we took during our 2006 Europe Tour, and I may add links to my travelogue emails within this blog page if I can figure out how to post them unobtrusively. Needless to say, we had a grand time and especially enjoyed Italy, Chamonix, and Scotland.

We returned to Austin so we both could get back to work, but the travel bug had bitten us but good. Instead of buying a house, we purchased a 19’ travel trailer that we have been living in for a year and a half. We named it Howie for “house on wheels.” It gives me great joy to think about having all (well, most) of our stuff with us and to be able to just drive off with it and live somewhere else at any time.

I stopped working full-time last year with the idea that we would take off and start a semi-permanent road trip around the US to see all the things in our own country that we still haven’t seen (and there are a lot of things!). Still, we have mostly been living in Austin for the past 18 months, with a nice little trip to Missouri last fall in Howie and other trips by plane to Vermont and Hawaii to provide more-than-ample excitement. Finally this summer, smack in the middle of escalating gas prices, we are on an extended tour in the West.

So it seems like a good time to begin writing a blog, and maybe it will help one or two people keep track of where we are. At least until they get tired of reading my unfettered writing (and you thought my race reports were long)! Good luck and have fun, y’all!

The World of Blog

How do you just sit down and start a blog from scratch? This is what I’m pondering this morning. I’ve never written a blog before. Something that’s available to anyone who cares to read it, but doesn’t clutter up inboxes nor announce to the world, “Here I am!” No particular event to report, just whatever I decide to write about. Unfettered writing! This should be interesting.

I’ve wondered in the past why anyone would take the time to write a blog. Why write a diary that anyone can read? Why would anyone read random musings of a stranger? Over time, I’ve started reading blogs from people who travel, people on long adventures, and a lady who used to write recaps for Survivor on Television Without Pity.

The turning point in my opinion about blogs came when I discovered Google Reader. I love Google! Now I can subscribe to a bunch of different blogs, link them all up in Google Reader, and check for new entries for all the blogs ALL AT ONE TIME. No more clicking various pages, waiting for various photos to load, and wasting time on pages with no updates. Genius!

So here I go, into the world of blog…