In 2007, we had a fantastic trip to Peru. This is Geoff’s story about the trip. Make sure you see Kim’s as well.

Kim’s funny story about our trip to Peru in 2007. Make sure you also see Geoff’s Story and the photo albums.

Kim and I are going on a trip to Peru in November, and part of it will be an extended hike. We’re both a bit out of shape, so we’re in training mode. We went hiking last weekend, in the amazing Desolation Wilderness area, near Lake Tahoe, CA. This amazing location is only about an hour and a half from our house, and is a huge wilderness area. We got a late start saturday, picked up our permit, and started hiking. It was a steep climb for the first few …

My girlfriend, Kim, and I did another marathon last week. Her writeup was funny, so I’m sharing it here instead of writing my own. Lazy, yeah…
Anyway, this was my first road marathon, I’ve done a bunch others, all on trails. I discovered that although LA was unique and fun, but I think I prefer trails still. 23,000 people running is hard to wrap your brain around untill you’ve discovered it. Also, I discovered that although I’ve done mostly really tough trail runs, those big hills have a natural moderating effect …

5:30 in the morning. I’ve set three alarms to make sure I’m up in time, and they’re all going off right now. It’s cold in my house and I pull on bunches of fleece. A Bagel for breakfast, and Kim (my girlfriend) and I pile into my truck. It’s about an hour drive to the start of the race (near Lake Elsinore, CA). By the time we get there, the day is showing itself to be a bright sunny, but cool …

It’s Saturday morning, last night I had a long drive to Paso Robles, California, met up with Kim and looked for a way to avoid paying $35 a night for camping. I had a fitful night of sleep, I was nervous, knowing that once again I was ill prepared for a race. When I decided to do it, I had ever intention of training, but somehow, between moving, a new job, travelling, and all the fabulous whitewater near my new home, training kept slipping away. I did some, a bit …

There were certain things I expected to a problem during this marathon.  My IT band has been sore.  I haven’t run much the last couple weeks.   Etc., Etc.  There were other things I never expected to be problematic.
a) Rain  -> Death Valley gets 2″ a year
b) Snow -> It’s Death Valley, it’s H_O_T there.
c) Mud ->  See “a”
d) Altitude -> Death Valley is the lowest point in the western hemisphere, at 282
ft below sea level.
Turns out I was right about d.  Plenty of air. No problems breathing.  a-c turned out …

Wow. What a run! While my last two big runs have been woeful epics, this one was so great, it almost seems that writing a report on it won’t be interesting at all! If you don’t feel like reading the whole report, here are the highlights. Yesterday I might have been the happiest last place finisher ever. I took a full hour off my Catalina Marathon time, which seemed like a pretty huge improvement to me, and it certainly wasn’t because the course was easy! This also allowed me to …

Just over a year ago, I got it in my head that I wanted to run a marathon. Why? Good question. I’m not sure I know the answer, but nonetheless, I decided to do it. My friend Michelle and I talked about doing a marathon, and eventually decided to run the one on Catalina Island. Catalina Island is about an hours boat ride off the coast of California, and is the …