Summer has finally come to an end (though you wouldn’t know it from the weather we had today… seriously hot) and we are transitioning to Fall. Thank God. Summer is just such a horrid season for me. I hate being hot and the mountains look so bare without snow on them. Mountains always look better with God’s beautiful snowy decoration on them. The best thing is, the weather folks are saying we’re going to have a La Nina year. That means colder weather and a lot of snow. For those unfamiliar with what THAT means, it means plenty of deep, fluffy powder for yours truly to sink myself into in pure, God given bliss. I am so excited!

We’ve been dog sitting lately. The in-laws are on a long vacation and we ended up taking care of their dog. She’s an old black lab and very mellow. She’s a stinker though. Literally. She gasses us out nightly. The cats have adapted to her pretty well since she’s so calm. We love her but both agree that we’re not in a place to take care of a dog full time yet. Just too much work and we still have so much we hope to do someday. The cats work great for us.

There’s plenty more going on but I don’t want to talk about them publicly until details firm up a bit more. Once they do, I’ll try to get a post up. Some pictures too. Yay pictures!

Now I just have to learn how to do all the other stuff with water skiing. Like turning. Hopefully while inhaling less water than I did on my first, failed attempts to stand up.

A month ago I went down to Boulder to run the Bolder Boulder. It’s one of, if not the largest road race in the country. It’s crazy. Crazy fun. As I’ve stated before, I’m training for a half-marathon (12 days from now) and the Bolder Boulder fell right in line with my training schedule. So I figured running it would give me a good test to see where I was at. That’s me up there in the photo in the red circle mere seconds before crossing the finish line. One hour after I started the race.

I did pretty well in the run. Better than I’ve ever done before. Not as well as I was hoping for but pretty good. I finished in 1 hour and 7 seconds. I was hoping to finish in under an hour. So close.

I love this race. Aside from the challenge of finishing as quickly as possible, there’s tons of entertainment along the way. There are bands almost every block of the way. There were belly dancers. There were folks giving out otter pops, cookies, marshmallows, bacon… everything. Then, when you’re in the last mile, the streets are lined with people. They’re all cheering for you. Maybe not you specifically but everyone and it FEELS like they’re cheering for you. Then you get to the stadium and run up this huge hill that nearly kills you. Once you drop into the stadium, thousands more people are cheering and you run to the finish line. So much fun!

The best part was I got to do it all with my family this year. We all went through at different times but we all participated in some way. It was so much fun and it was a good way to mark my new healthier lifestyle. Next up, a half-marathon that I can’t wait to be done with.

I have a great dad. I really do. Growing up, I wasn’t always so in touch with how awesome he is but now that I’m older, I totally see it. I mean, just look at that picture… My dad was rocking the aviators and mutton chops and is very obviously happy to be hanging with me, the kid. Like I said, BEST. DAD. EVER.

Dad is the one that introduced me to skiing. That’s me in the front and him following not too far behind. He most likely didn’t realize it then, but he got me started on a sport that will be with me the rest of my life. One that I’m passionate about and absolutely love. Had it not been for him, I don’t know that I’d have ever gone skiing. Especially since we were living in Texas at the time. How many Texas dad’s take their kids skiing? Who knows, but mine did. Can’t thank him enough for that.

Again with the mutton chops! I gotta grow some in honor of him. I don’t know if Jess will let me get away with it, but come on! Here you can see Dad helping me open up a toy that he’ll be shocked to believe I have absolutely no memory of. He wont’ really be shocked, he’s told me often how spoiled I was at a young age. I didn’t see it then, cause I was obviously blinded by all the toys, but I was. My dad (and my mom) totally spoiled me as a kid. Heck, they still do. Even when they didn’t have a lot, they found other was to spoil my sister and I. I really don’t have much to complain about. My dad’s love for his two kids was apparent throughout our childhood and has remained just as strong as we’ve grown up and started lives of our own.

Would you be surprised to no that I have no memory of any of these photos? They were all so long ago. It’s not that all the stuff I did with my dad wasn’t memorable. I think it’s more that so much of it was memorable that I couldn’t possibly remember it all. I do remember running races with my dad in the front yard of our house in Houston, playing catch and throwing it as hard as I could to try to make my dad’s hand hurt, (he did a good job of faking that it hurt I threw it so hard). I remember multiple fishing trips and watching my dad drive the boat as I sat on the floor of the boat.

Most of all though, I remember never doubting that my dad loved me. I was a lucky kid. Not everyone grows up with a good father. I grew up with the best father. I may not have always shown my appreciation for how great he was, but looking back, I’m so thankful for the blessing he’s been in my life. I am the man and husband that I am because of all that he taught me over the years.

My dad rules. Happy Father’s Day!

I thought maybe I’d find an appreciation for running and it would make sense why people like my high school buddy and college roommate, Greg, enjoy it so much. To be honest, I haven’t really found that. When I’m running, for the most part it just hurts. I can settle into a rhythm for a while but around 7 miles it really starts to be a struggle. That’s not good considering my half-marathon will be 12.2 miles. That means I’ll barely be half way when it really starts to suck. Hopefully this last month will give me a little more endurance before the pain starts.

The only thing I do like is how well it’s helped me keep in shape. I’m in the best shape of my life. I’m thin. I’ve got good cardio fitness and my muscle tone is pretty dang good. I’ll keep running after the halfathon (my name for this crazy challenge) but I think the right distance for me is a 10K. It’s just long enough to be a challenge but still short enough for me to enjoy it.

The week before my halfathon is a local road race here in Hamilton. It’s a 5K or a 10K. I thought I’d do the 5K originally, but since is the last distance run before the big one, I’m kind of thinking I should just do the 10k. I’ll have a full week to recover and the distance will be good for keeping myself in shape. So I may just do it. Besides, it’s only an hour of running right?

I shouldn’t complain. I mean, I’ve got a job, which is a really fortunate thing in this economy. Especially in the newspaper field. And don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the job and the paycheck. It’s just that after six months, a change in the routine from time to time would be nice.

Last Friday I totally wanted to just sit on the couch all day and be vegetative. For the first half of the day, that’s pretty much what I did. Since I’m training for this half-marathon though, I couldn’t just sit there all day. So I got up in the afternoon, got my hair cut and went for an 8.5 mile run. Not exactly fun but it got me moving and helped my body improve for the challenge that is to come.

At any rate, I’m really looking forward to getting out of town for a few days. I’ve still got a lot of work to do between now and the end of the week to get the guys set up for while I’m gone at the paper, but I can do that. I just can’t wait to do something different!

So far I’ve got my 10k time down under an hour. I’m really hoping to finish the Bolder Boulder in under an hour this time. It will be a bit harder since I’ll be gaining a couple thousand feet right before the race. If I keep on my current training regiment I think I can do it.

The funny side-effect of all of this is that I’m learning a lot about running gear. Apparently you can shop for running shoes just like you shop for ski boots. You go to a specialty store, they check out your foot, watch you run on a treadmill and then find the right shoe for your foot shape and gait. Who knew? And did you know you’re supposed to replace running shoes after like 200 miles? I didn’t either. At my current pace, I should be ready for new shoes in another month. Of course I can’t afford to go to a fancy running shoe store to get new running shoes so I’ll just find the best reviewed shoes for people that have feet like me and go from there.

Anyway, I’ve never considered myself a runner and still don’t find a lot of enjoyment in it. I like that I’m in way better shape than I’ve been in a long time and that I can see/feel the improvement as I keep running. I’ll also like being able to say I’ve run a half marathon. After that, I’ll have to decide whether to spend the next year working toward a full marathon or find some other challenge to work toward.

Saturday was my mother-in-law’s senior recital. She’s been in school for what seems like forever now working on her music performance/composition degree. (Double major) So Saturday night we headed into Missoula to see her final recital. It was over an hour of all original music that she’d composed.

Let me tell you… it was very impressive. The lady’s got some serious talent. It wasn’t just piano music. It was a full orchestra, it was ensembles, it was a percussion ensemble… And yes, there were a couple piano only pieces.

As you can see here, one of her pieces even included a choir. How she manages to come up with all the music required for the piano, the orchestra AND a choir I’ll never know. It was pretty cool though.

Afterwards we had cake. Yum. Next up is her graduation in a couple weeks. Then she’ll be done with school finally. Just as I’m about to go back into it. Good for her though. She’s worked super hard and it shows. I  have a very talented mother-in-law.

This weekend we decided to get outside a little. It’s still fairly cool and most of the hiking trails are still buried in snow so we made what seems to be an annual trip up to Lake Como. It’s not far and it’s pretty. The best part is that this time of year, there’s nobody there. Once it gets warm, the place is always crowded. As you can see from the photo above, it was a beautiful day.

Well, except for the wind. Jess isn’t a fan of wind and she wasn’t liking it at all. This is the only time she smiled pretty much the whole time we were walking around. (All of about 10 minutes) Jess loves the outdoors but she hates the wind. The wind this day was going pretty good.

So we didn’t stay at Como very long. It worked out though because it gave us time to fix dinner before heading off to church. We’ll try getting out again next weekend. Hopefully it’ll be warmer and a little less windy then.

Isn’t it nice to have photos again? I love the new camera.

I also decided to make a quick trip back to Colorado to run the Bolder Boulder over Memorial Day. It fits in pretty well with my training and should be a fun way to reward myself for all the hard work. I’m hoping I can get my time down enough in the next month that, even with the altitude difference, I’ll be able to finish in under an hour. That would be a pretty big accomplishment for me.

I’m not a natural runner. I used to never run. But I need something to keep myself motivated to keep working out. So far it’s working, but it’s definitely tough. I’ve gotten advice from some friends that run a lot more than me and it’s been great. Now it’s down to me just sticking with the training and running a lot more miles.

I feel like Forrest Gump.