Xango Echo Triathlon 2008

Nice bum shot!

Here's to you Taylor!!! This weekend he participated in the annual Xango Echo Triathlon. This is one of his favorite events of the season and one he doesn't like to miss.

This past summer has been a busy one for him--working many hours while taking a full summer load of classes including a very daunting calculus class. His evenings are filled with international calls for work during homework breaks, and a small run or bike when he can fit it in.

His training during the past month has been twice a week runs, and maybe 2 good bike training rides, but don't be fooled by his training-when the tri horn signals the start of a tri, something clicks inside him and he turns into a Tri Maniac. This year his swim was his fastest ever by four minutes. Wow! He hadn't even been in the water this whole summer. How did he do it.?.?! His answer, "Swim the entire time instead of doggy paddle." Maybe the new wetsuit helped too. And on the bike he's just a machine!

So as the horn blasted, I was a little worried considering his lack of training, but being the champ he is he pulled through to take fourth overall in the Elite division. Since they gave prize money to the top five we were pretty excited. Tay, you raced awesome and you inspire me to be a better person. Great job!!! I sure am proud of you! Way to work hard and finish strong!

Freedom Run

For the 4th of July we ran the Blacksmith Fork Canyon Freedom Run 15K. I wore Taylor's old flag shorts to show my patriotic pride, and Taylor wore his flag bandana. Originally he had wanted to wear his flag shorts, but upon trying them on the night before he came to the awful realization that they didn't fit him like they did in high school.

Jen's Goal for the race: Run 6:30's per mile and take top 5, which she successfully accomplished after recruiting the local men's high school cross-country team at mile 2 to run with her and pace her.

Taylor's Goal for the race: Run fast and not get caught by his wife, which he did, but I won't use the words 'accomplished successfully', since she raced like a champ and almost caught him...Maybe next time...

Running is...

It's such an awesome feeling to get back into shape. All you fellow runners can attest to this I'm sure. It's such a high to feel fast and free, and healthy. The key is consistency I know, and once I desire this and discipline myself I feel as though I can conquer anything. Running is being aware of myself physically and mentally. It's happiness. It's balance. It is a part of my life that makes me feel like a more complete person. I give thanks for this talent.

Wasatch Back!

This past month has been one of the more busy times in my life. At work we put on our anual Global Fitness Summit. This is large four-day meeting where we bring in over 100 customers from over 30 different countries. One of the highlights of this was when my hot-air balloon made a nice crash landing and then the balloon it self was shredded by the tail of Jack Nicholson's private jet. Needless to say, I don't see myself getting back into a hot air balloon any time soon. Crawling out of one sideways after a crash landing was thrilling enough for me.

After the last day of the Global Fitness Summit Jen and I started the Wasatch Back relay. This is a 12-person relay race from Logan to Park City. It is 181 miles long. The race starts on Friday afternoon and the teams run all through the night with head-lamps on and finish sometime on Saturday. The runner don't get a chance to really eat or sleep. Each runner runs three times with a couple of hours rest in between legs. I know, I know...are all thinking about what a fun time you missed out on and can't wait to sign up for next year~! The race is actually a lot of fun. I was fortunate, well unfortunate really, to be on a fast team. We finished the race in 17 hours and 54 minutes which was good enough for 2nd place overall. Considering that there were 2 teams I think we did well! j/k there were actually about 600 teams. Jen of course ran like a champ. She should have replaced me on my team as I was the slow poke. Her first leg was 7 miles up hill on a dirt road to go over Avon pass. She did great! Her team wasn't quite as competative as she was though and they finished somewhere around 26 hours. It was fun for all.

Next up for us is a 15k race up here in Logan. Jen should do really well and fortunatley for me it is a downhill course. My extra weight should be an advantage as gravity pulls me down!

Jen has not checked this posting for spelling or grammaritical errors, hopefully it's ok...

This is one of the areas the race passed through.

My summer experiment

I wanted to post pictures of my small potted garden. The large one in the back is a tomato plant (it's grown so well), the one on the left is a pepper plant, the one on the right is another tomato plant (it's somewhat struggling-we're working on it), the center small plant is edamame (this is one of my favorites since I started it from seeds and it's blossomed so well), and front and lower center is onions and two other herbs of which I've forgotten. I just dumped the seeds and hoped for life-not the best strategy, I know. I suppose I'm so proud because I've never done this before. It's my summer experiment. My successful summer experiment...

Here is the promised video. Don't watch till you read the bottom posting.

Summerfest, and mountains

Taylor and I spent part of our Saturday experiencing Logan's Summerfest. It's similar to Midway's Swiss Days or Bear Lake's Raspberry Days. The tabernacle perimeter was lined with all sorts of talent ranging from artwork, to photography, to music, to jewelry, to handmade toys, and landscape decor. What caught our eyes the most was the awesome artwork and photography. Being able to capture a priceless moment is breathtaking. We walked into one of the stalls and our eyes were immediately drawn to the picture posted above. This isn't the exact photograph, (the one he had taken was in black and white, and a perfect image) but it's the place, and Taylor and I both looked at each other and knew immediately that it was a photo of the Eternal Spring Shrine in Hua Lien, Taiwan. I've been to that gorge and hiked down the entire mountain, and then hiked up the "Heavenly Stairs" that lead to two other amazing temples. The photographer and his wife overheard us and thought we were the coolest people in the world for knowing the location, and offered a discount. Needless to say, we took the offer. The shrine was built as a memorial to all those workers who lost their lives during the construction of the Central Cross Island Highway in Taiwan.

We had the pleasure of hanging out with Corey, from Shanghai, China, for the past week. He is here for the Global Summit ICON puts on every year. We decided to show him some of the great things one is able to do in Logan, Utah. Taylor and I, along with Seth and Megan, took him up a known, but uncrowded place in Logan Canyon where quietness is common. Tay and Seth wanted to show him one of their favorite things to do as depicted in the video clip.

The second picture is after the video.

Camp trip

We are on top of the World!!! This completely vertical hike took us up to the top in 2 hours.

For some reason Taylor and Seth thought it would be real fun to roll not just rocks, but boulders down this super steep mountainside. The boulders would roll, gain momentum, and literally take out trees--dead or alive.

Only the strong survive.

Boys will be always be boys.

This one, obviously, did not survive.

More pictures from Tour de South.

The redrock was amazing.